Category: U.S. ECONOMY

TRANSPARENT? C-SPAN DISABLES CHAT DURING PUBLIC IMPEACHMENT HEARING

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Americans now mere spectators instead of participants in their own government

11/13/2019

C-Span has blocked viewers from chatting on its YouTube livestream of the public impeachment hearings, a move which crystallizes the age-old complaint that Americans don’t have much voice in their government:

While the move was ostensibly intended to stop trolls, that’s what moderators are for, and frankly speaking something as big as the attempted removal of a US president who was duly-elected by millions of Americans should be in public discourse.

By being blocked from chatting about the ongoing impeachment process, Americans are now mere spectators of their government instead of active participants, something that would probably make Edward Bernays proud, but not the Founding Fathers who drafted the impeachment process.

Case in point, Facebook has been banning people for stating the name of the alleged “whistleblower” even though, per federal law, only the intel inspector general is required to not reveal who he is.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society,” Bernays believed. “Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country.”

“…We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.”

Matt Bracken breaks down the whistleblower Eric Ciaramella as the key to understanding the coup against Trump.
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Welcome to the Schiff Show Trials! Greatest Farce on Earth – Smoke, Mirrors and Tears

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Let the Show Trials Begin!

by Jim Hoft November 13, 2019

The Gateway Pundit will be following the Schiff public show trials this week.
Look for lots of smoke, mirrors and tears.

The New York Post wins the internet today…

Michael Goodwin in the Post: “Trickster Adam Schiff conjuring ‘guilt’ out of thin air”
Via The New York Post:

Scorned by the president as “Liddle Adam Schiff,” and “pencil neck” and “shifty Schiff,” he can taste revenge. To impeach Trump, even if it goes nowhere in the Senate, will make him a man of history and a hero to the millions of 2016 deniers.

But on what grounds will this great deed be consummated? While Schiff and his fellow travelers loudly declare Trump guilty, they’ve yet to settle on a charge that makes sense to the many millions of Americans who live outside a political hothouse.

Take the talking point that the president engaged in an improper quid pro quo by promising arms to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s $50,000-a-month cushy gig there. It has everything on its side except a clear set of facts.

Ukraine got the arms — arms Barack Obama refused to give — but Trump never got the Biden investigation or one into what role Ukraine played in 2016.

Either the master of “The Art of the Deal” got snookered or there was no deal in the first place. And if there was no deal, was the phone call with Ukraine’s president really improper? Was the temporary hold on the arms really a crime?

Indeed, the worst possible interpretation of the call still lacks the gravitas to bring down a president less than a year before an election. If you don’t hate Trump beyond all measure, watching the left’s outrage over this is like watching a TV program in a foreign language you don’t understand. You can pick up an occasional word, but ultimately, the whole thing is baffling.

The one sure thing is that deplorables and bitter clingers understand that the death penalty is not a fair sentence for jaywalking. Democrats who defended Bill Clinton’s perjury and sex in the Oval Office with an intern certainly should be able to relate.

 

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Mish: Chicago Headed For Insolvency, Get The Hell Out Now!

By Tyler Durden – 11/04/2019

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Teachers Union reached agreement on a deal sure to send Chicago over the cliff.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board blasts Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her deal with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The deal will further wreak havoc on the already insolvent school system.

Who will be hurt most?

The WSJ answers the question this way: Union Routs Students in Chicago.

Contract Details

  1. 16% raise over five years (not including raises based on longevity)
  2. Three-year freeze on health insurance premiums
  3. Lower insurance copays
  4. Caps on class sizes
  5. More than 450 new social workers and nurses.
  6. New job protections for substitute teachers who going forward may only be removed after conferring with the union about “performance deficiencies.”
  7. Chicago Public Schools will become a “sanctuary district,” meaning school officials won’t be allowed to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order.
  8. Employees will be allowed 10 unpaid days for personal immigration matters.
  9. Under the new contract, a joint union-school board committee will be convened to “mitigate or eliminate any disproportionate impacts of observations or student growth measures” on teacher evaluations.
  10. Instead of student performance, teachers will probably be rated on more subjective measures, perhaps congeniality in the lunchroom.
  11. The new union contract caps the number of charter-school seats, so no new schools will be able to open without others closing.

Get the Hell Out

The WSJ commented “Michelle Obama the other day complained that white people were leaving the city to escape minorities who are moving in. No, they’re fleeing Chicago’s high taxes and lousy schools—and so are minorities.”

Chicago Public School Bond Ratings

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You can kiss those positive and stable outlooks goodbye. The system is insolvent and this contract will further weaken the outlook.

Bond Rating Comparison

 

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S&P already has CPS bonds in the “highly” speculative area, five steps into its junk ratings.

Pension Spiking

A Chicago Teacher’s Pension is based on your years of service and a pension percentage (up to 75%), multiplied by your final average salary. Their union notes “There are ways to increase these factors to enhance your pension or meet eligibility requirements.”

Let’s Discuss Pensions

Wirepoints asks Chicago Teachers Strike: Why is No One Talking About Pensions?

The average retired CPS teacher already receives a pension of nearly $55,000 a year, according to a 2019 FOIA request to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund.

However, looking at the pension of an average teacher far understates the true size of CPS pensions. The “average” benefit includes teachers who only worked a few years for CPS, which brings down the average.

To get a more accurate picture of what pensions are really worth, look at career teachers. Over half of all currently retired CPS teachers worked 30 years or more. On average, they receive a $72,000 annual pension and began drawing benefits at age 61.

In comparison, the average annual Social Security payment in Chicago is just $16,000 and the maximum benefit for someone retiring at age 62 is $26,500.

C-O-L-A Cola, la la la Payola

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The average career CPS pension will grow by 3 percent, compounded annually, due to the COLA benefits teachers get. That will double a teacher’s annual benefit to over $140,000 in 25 years.

Teacher Contributions

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Those projections were based on the proposed contract. The CTU held out for even more benefits and got them.

Pension Funding Level

The Chicago Tribune notes that the end of 2018, City Hall’s pension funds had only 23% of what they should have.

By 2023, Lightfoot must find an additional $989 million a year for pensions, according to the Tribune’s Hal Dardick and Juan Perez Jr. Thank you, former mayors and aldermen, for promising more pension benefits than Chicagoans could afford.

Who Will Pay?

That one is easy.

  • The kids will suffer because charter schools are reined in, grading standards lowered, and incompetents were given further projections.
  • Taxpayers will face higher property taxes, higher gas taxes, and higher sales taxes with every penny going to pensions.

Get the Hell Out

On October 5, I commented Escape Illinois: Get The Hell Out Now, We Are

Goodbye Illinois. Hello Utah. See my reasons for Utah above.

If you can’t get out of Illinois, do the second best thing, Get the Hell Out of Chicago.

By the way, Chicago is not “headed” for insolvency, it’s already there, but it is just not recognized yet.

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Pelosi Says House To Vote Thursday On Impeachment Inquiry

See the source image

By Tyler Durden

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Monday that a vote will be held this Thursday “that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees” as part of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, according to the Washington Post.

House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-MA) said the vote would “ensure transparency and provide a clear path forward” as their investigations continue.

The resolution will authorize the disclosure of deposition transcripts as well as set forth due process rights for President Trump, according to Pelosi. It will also establish a procedure for open hearings.

Pelosi sent the following letter to House Democrats (emphasis ours):

Dear Democratic Colleague,
For weeks, the President, his Counsel in the White House, and his allies in Congress have made the baseless claim that the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry “lacks the necessary authorization for a valid impeachment proceeding.” They argue that, because the House has not taken a vote, they may simply pretend the impeachment inquiry does not exist.
Of course, this argument has no merit. The Constitution provides that the House of Representatives “shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.” Multiple past impeachments have gone forward without any authorizing resolutions. Just last week, a federal court confirmed that the House is not required to hold a vote and that imposing such a requirement would be “an impermissible intrusion on the House’s constitutional authority.” More than 300 legal scholars have also refuted this argument, concluding that “the Constitution does not mandate the process for impeachment and there is no constitutional requirement that the House of Representatives authorize an impeachment inquiry before one begins.“
The Trump Administration has made up this argument — apparently out of whole cloth — in order to justify its unprecedented cover-up, withhold key documents from multiple federal agencies, prevent critical witnesses from cooperating, and defy duly authorized subpoenas.
This week, we will bring a resolution to the Floor that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry, including all requests for documents, subpoenas for records and testimony, and any other investigative steps previously taken or to be taken as part of this investigation.
This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel.
We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives.
Nobody is above the law.
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The announcement comes after former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman – who served as a deputy to former national security adviser John Bolton – filed a Friday lawsuit seeking guidance from a federal judge as to whether he should follow the advice of the executive branch, which has instructed him not to attend, or Congress, according to the Post.

As the judge has yet to rule on his request, Kupperman declined to appear.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), meanwhile, said that a former deputy national security adviser had “no basis in law” to skip a deposition Monday and that his failure to appear was further evidence of Trump’s efforts to obstruct Congress. –Washington Post

Kupperman was on the line when President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky held a July 25 discussion in which Trump requested investigations into Democratic rival Joe Biden, as well as allegations of Ukrainian election meddling in 2016 to benefit Hillary Clinton.

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Better ISIS than Trump? WaPo, Hollywood, Nats fans show self-defeating toxicity of US politics

American media, celebrities and coastal elites are so far gone in their obsession with President Donald Trump, they are willing to praise Islamic State terrorists so long as they don’t have to side with their president.

Much of America greeted Trump’s announcement that US forces had tracked down and killed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) “caliph” Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi with joy and pride. What country would not rejoice in the demise of a leader of terrorists, head-choppers, rapists and murderers? Apparently, not the America of the mainstream media, Hollywood celebrities, and even many Washington, DC residents – all of whom simply could not resist to bash Trump instead.

WaPo blasted with #WaPoDeathNotices memes for dubbing ISIS leader ‘austere religious scholar’ in head-scratching headline

BAGDADI

The Washington Post been rightly mocked for describing Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar” in a headline, but their other stories spinning his death as anything but a win for Trump flew largely under the radar. That doesn’t mean other mainstream outlets covered themselves with glory. Apparently hating the very idea of giving Trump credit, they looked far and wide to find something, anything, they could hold against him.

One such thing was that he did not keep senior congressional Democrats in the loop about the operation. How dare he! They’re only trampling law and precedent in trying to impeach him on fabricated charges, no big deal.

Then there was this gem from National Public Radio, which chose to lead with Trump getting impeached and focused on “dramatic and incendiary language.” Oh, and by the way, Baghdadi died.

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Objecting to Trump’s mannerisms over the substance of his actions has long been a thing with the mainstream media, but this time it led to some truly bizarre reactions. Just like the time when Democrats and the media sided with the notorious MS-13 gang, just because Trump called them “animals,” they now objected to Trump’s description of Baghdadi’s death because they read it as somehow offensive to dogs.

‘Halloween’ star Jamie Lee Curtis, for example, tweeted that “ALL living things suffer when they are blown up,” and that dogs are “brave, bold, loyal, loving and healing,” not that Trump would understand.

Trump’s “he died like a dog” may have gone right over the heads of American liberals, but it was perfectly clear in the Muslim world, for which it was intended. Islam considers dogs unclean, and describing Al-Baghdadi that way diminished any claim to religious legitimacy he made as an “austere scholar.”

Which brings us back around to the Post. Attempting to somehow excuse the headline, editor Kristine Kelly tweeted it “should have never read that way” – getting an epic ratio in the process from a public that just wasn’t buying it.

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That’s because the Post reportedly got it right the first time – calling Al-Baghdadi the “Islamic State’s terrorist-in-chief” – and then inexplicably changed that headline to the controversial one, for reasons unknown.

Confused celebrities, Resistance activists and political reporters all work and live in areas that overwhelmingly voted against Trump in 2016. A great example is the crowd at the Nationals Stadium in Washington, DC – which that booed Trump when he made an appearance at Sunday’s World Series game.

The rest of America – the heartland Trump voters – saw a stadium filled with coastal liberals booing their president as he was doing the victory lap after killing Al-Baghdadi, and getting their karmic comeuppance when the Nats lost to the Houston Astros.

Sure, that had more to do with their star pitcher’s injury than with Trump, but this is America, where narrative trumps facts, every time. One would think the Trump-haters would have got that message by now. Appears not.

Nebojsa Malic,

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CAMPAIGN 2020 – Foul-Mouthed Muslim Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib Endorses Bernie Sanders for President

The rabidly socialist ‘Squad’ wants this old white man in charge of America.

By Shane Trejo

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has joined her colleagues in the far-left Congressional ‘Squad’ of diverse freshmen legislators, and endorsed the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) at an event in Detroit on Sunday evening.

The event took place at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School and featured Sanders and Tlaib along with local rock star Jack White. The entire event can be seen here:

“We deserve someone who wrote the damn bill,” Tlaib said to the crowd, referring to a popularized debate quote from the Vermont socialist regarding universal healthcare. “We deserve Bernie Sanders.”

“It always seems it is impossible until it is done,” Sanders said at the rally. “Don’t believe anyone that tells you that moving towards a society of justice is impossible.”

Sanders’ social media account also released a video of Tlaib heaping massive praise upon the old, white career politician.

The ladies of the “Squad” are clearly coalescing their rising media star power behind Sanders in the hopes to be power players within his Marxist regime. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) endorsed Sanders’ campaign earlier this month:

Freshman Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will endorse Vermont Senator and Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in a campaign rally in Queens on Saturday, according to reporting Tuesday night from the Washington Post.

The formal endorsement places Ocasio-Cortez firmly in the camp of her fellow democratic socialist. AOC has become a symbol of the left wing of the Democratic Party often represented by Sanders, and it’s probably unsurprising that the rising Democrat star would align with Sanders, who she aligns closely on policy.

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the anti-Semitic and anti-white Somalian refugee turned Congresswoman, quickly followed the lead of Ocasio-Cortez and endorsed Sanders for president as well:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Somalia-born Congresswoman whose offensive remarks against America and Israel have made her a reviled figure nationally, has officially endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for President in 2020.

“Bernie is leading a working class movement to defeat Donald Trump that transcends generation, ethnicity, and geography,” Omar said in a statement released Tuesday night. “And it’s why I believe Bernie Sanders is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump in 2020.”

However, it does not appear that the endorsements of the “Squad” are having as much of an impact on the presidential race. A state-wide activist group, Michigan Conservative Coalition, staged a protest at the Sanders/Tlaib rally today and noted how dismal the attendance was for the event in an Instagram post.

“We went in repudiation of socialism, and in defense of individual liberty,” said David Dudenhoefer, one of the protest organizers who is running as a Republican to defeat Tlaib in Michigan’s 13th Congressional district next year.

“Socialists can only offer a temporary band-aid in one hand, while they hold a knife in the other. Only through liberty can every individual find the best pathway toward peace and prosperity,” he told Big League Politics.

Following his recent heart attack, Sanders can no longer even run a competitive campaign for the presidency. The hardcore socialist has not been able to recapture his 2016 magic, when he posed a legitimate shot to beat Hillary Clinton. The “Squad” has likely picked a losing candidate.

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