Whilst I absolutely deplore this heinous act…
…who among us hasn’t felt exactly the same way each and every time we submit our tax return?
All I can say is: “Put me on her jury.”
Category: Gummint
The Full Story
Sundance has a piece that everyone should read — Trump, Patel, Gabbard and Bondi most of all — concerning the whole disgusting political hit called “Crossfire Hurricane” (a.k.a. RussiaGate).
Using access to the NSA database, the U.S. Govt., specifically “FBI Contractors”, began doing political surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign. This intel was then sent to the Clinton team. Clinton would benefit from knowing the communication inside the Trump campaign. All of that intel was in the metadata captured by the NSA and searched by the FBI contractors.
All of this activity was political surveillance, using govt resources to feed the Clinton team the info.
I know; “This is such ancient history, Trump’s president now, can’t we all just move onnnn?”
No. Now more than ever, the people culpable for the whole thing need to be rooted out, exposed and prosecuted — because if they aren’t, this bullshit is going to happen again, and this time, it might work.
Sundance, as usual, has the right of it.
That “86” Thing
A whole lot has been said about former FBI Chief Thug James Comey’s X-post featuring this picture, and his coy little observation:
Needless to say, this silliness found immediate favor with the Perpetually Indignant (Rightwing Division, even John Kass), who claimed that the “86” is code for “kill” or “assassinate”.
No it isn’t.
“86” means to dump or throw in the trash — in restaurant terms, it also means “not to mention (to customers)”, and back in my executive days, we used to use “86” to mean “forget about it” — e.g. “86 that idea, dummy”.
In other words, it’s a completely innocent term. It does not mean anything sinister.
I don’t care that the .dotmil uses “86” to mean “kill”, either. The military (and government, for that matter) has a long and storied history of using the English language to cover a whole panoply of ugly shit (e.g. “Terminate With Extreme Prejudice”), and I don’t care about any of that either.
Now far be it for me to come to the defense of that treacherous lizard Comey, but seriously?
Current FBI Director Kash Patel announced that his department is in communication with the Secret Service over Comey’s social media post “directed at President Trump” on X Thursday evening.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem added in her own X post that the DHS is investigating Comey’s post as well.
Noem appeared on Fox News Thursday night, saying she believes Comey “should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.”
“The rule of law says people like him, who issue direct threats against the president of the United States, essentially issuing a call to assassinate him, must be held accountable under the law,” she said.
FFS, grow up, you assholes. Your reaction to this is actually in the dictionary, under the word “Overreaction”. Get a clue, and stop being so hyper-sensitive.
This is just as bad as those foul pricks on the Left complaining about Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs” comment. It was bullshit then, it’s bullshit now.
Yeah, I know Trump has already survived two actual assassination attempts and everyone’s hyper-sensitive about anything that might hint at another. But wait… we’re talking about jailing someone for a fucking Twatter post?
And yet we (quite justifiably) mock the BritGov when they send the rozzers over to threaten people over Fecesbook ramblings that run afoul of the dreaded “hate speech” rules?
Fuck off, all of you — and yeah, I’m including Superhero Kash and St. Kristi here — because this is absolute bullshit.
Look, the whole “86” thing may be in poor taste; but the last time I looked, “bad taste” is kinda protected by the First fucking Amendment.
I know, the Bill of Rights can be a somewhat inconvenient at times — the Second as much as the First, ask any gun-confiscator — but that’s the exact purpose of the Bill of Rights: it protects us from government.
And as much as I hate to say it, that shitbird Comey gets the same protections as the rest of us, even if he himself is a prime candidate for “eighty-sixing” — i.e. should be dumped in the trash heap of history and forgotten.
Fach.
Forests And Thickets
Spend just a few minutes browsing through the DOGE website. Pay particular attention to the very last section, which outlines the scale of regulation under which we have to live our lives. An example:
That’s over fourteen million words, spread over sixteen thousand individual regulations. (Ten guesses as to what number are devoted to the tax code. If you guessed “most”, go to the head of the class.)
How about the stupid Environmental Protection Agency?
Now look at the dozens of other departments… all the while remembering that the original federal government was predicated upon having but two departments: Treasury and War (Defense).
Then, when you have absorbed the immensity of our federal government and the burden of living under this forest of laws and thicket of regulations, please explain to me why we shouldn’t just take chainsaws to and start brush fires among the lot of them. And the same to the hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who “manage” and enforce them.
I feel an attack of Mencken coming on…
“Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.”
This is one such time.
Quote Of The Day
From some Brit:
“I saw Starmer in the White House telling Trump we’ve had [freedom of expression] in the UK for a very long time, and I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’ We can see what’s really going on.”
Read this for an explanation of the above. Then be grateful you don’t live there. (To my several Brit Readers: I’m sorry, folks.)
Another Good Example
…this time from the Hungarians on raising birth rates. A couple of eyebrow-raisers:
Mothers can stay at home for three years after giving birth, with the first six months paid at a rate higher than their previous salary – they receive their full gross salary, not just the net amount.
Mothers under 30 are exempt from personal income tax, and mothers with two or more children pay no personal income tax for the rest of their lives.
Married couples expecting or having a child can apply for an interest-free loan up to €30.000 – and if they have three children, the loan is fully forgiven.
The government offers low-interest fixed-rate housing loans for families. In the case of three or more children, families can access up to €127,000.
The government also provides non-refundable financial grants up to €37.500 for families who move to rural areas.
Gotta say that as much as I’m approving of all this assistance, I’m not sure who pays for it all. Then again, if you offset those costs against what a government might spend on illegal immigrants, then maybe the system will work.
The results so far, though, seem to be pretty good:
In 2010, Hungary ranked last among EU member states in terms of total fertility rate, but according to the latest Eurostat data from 2023, we have risen to third place. This significant progress is largely thanks to the targeted government family support policies implemented over the past fifteen years. As a result, since 2010, 200,000 more children have been born than would have been expected based on previous demographic trends. In parallel with the rise in births, the number of marriages has significantly increased, the number of divorces has decreased. Even the number of abortions has fallen significantly – all without the introduction of new restrictive legislation.
Wow. And the principles behind this initiative are sound, too:
First, increase family incomes so that people have the financial base to start and raise families.
Second, support housing, because having a home is fundamental to starting a family.
Third, ensure long-term financial security for women. A lot of women would like to have families but they are afraid that motherhood would mean an existential risk. We built a safety net to increase the income (and the living standard with it) for women.
If you want people to do something, then subsidize it — especially if that “thing” is ruinously expensive through no fault of theirs.
I’d like to see the results of this in, say, twenty years’ time when this “baby boom” starts getting into the workplace.
But in the meantime, I’m impressed.