Biden Admin Declares Drones "Operating Lawfully"
The 8,000 mysterious drones that have been reported in various locations around the country have generated anxiety and fear among the population. Some are demanding action be taken to neutralize the "threat." Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said "we can't shoot them down because they are operating legally and lawfully. I have been informed that China paid Hunter Biden a $5 million fee for a 90-day permit to fly these information gathering aerial devices wherever they please in our country."
"I am also disconcerted that US military bases are included in the agreement between the President's son and the Chinese People's Liberation Army, but a deal is a deal," the Secretary lamented. "Since the deal was completed within the time-frame covered by President Biden's complete and unconditional pardon of his son we can't even hold Hunter liable for aiding and abetting this Chinese espionage."
FBI Director Christopher Wray warned members of the public "not to shoot at any of these drones. As the country's chief law-enforcer it is my duty to enforce the contract executed by the President's son. Inasmuch as the contract authorizes the drone operators to defend their aircraft--including the use of deadly force against anyone who impedes or damages any of these drones--I highly recommend against interfering with them. I suggest that everyone remain calm and go on with their lives as if the drones never existed. Enjoy whatever time you have left on Earth rather than risk hastening your demise."
In related news, the bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) condemned China's forced organ harvesting and advised Americans not to seek organ transplant surgery in China. CECC Chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) explained "I know it's cheaper there than here and you think you are going to be the donee, but you can't rule out becoming an involuntary donor. China does not comply with international human rights standards. Do you really want to trust them with your life?"
Dems Fear Censorship
Former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean appeared on MSNBC's "All in" to predict that "Trump will attack free speech. America will be done for as we know it. His vicious assault on ABC's George Stephanopoulos for calling him a rapist showed the kind of complete disregard for freedom of speech one would expect from an enemy of our democracy."
Host Ari Melber asked "wasn't Stephanopoulos' claim that Trump was a convicted rapist slander? I believe the jury in the case specifically rejected the rape claim. Wasn't misstating this fact a deliberate lie? Should journalists be permitted to broadcast lies without facing consequences?"
"Well, the precedent up til now was always that you can say anything you want about a public figure without having to prove its accuracy," Dean replied. "During the campaign Trump was called a fascist, dictator, another Hitler. Being called a rapist seems a minor offense considering that Hitler was responsible for launching a war that killed 50 million people and trying to exterminate every Jew that fell into Germany's hands."
Meanwhile, over at CNN, Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter were shocked by the damages ABC agreed to pay. "We shouldn't stand for being silenced by threats of being sued for slander," Acosta fumed. "Are we now expected to start fact-checking ourselves before we say anything?"
"It's outrageous," Stelter replied. "We're the guardians of the truth. People look to us to tell them what's true and what's false. ABC caving in and settling the suit with Trump taints us all. I, for one, am not going to let myself be stifled by the risk that CNN might lose millions. A person of my talent can always get another job."
Mike Benz, deputy assistant secretary of State under President Donald Trump, challenged the notion that Trump would assail free speech, saying "it's a documented fact that the Biden Administration used the FBI to intimidate social media into censoring free speech that contradicted the Democrat Party line. Media operations like MSNBC and CNN didn't say peep about that clear violation of the First Amendment. Happily for the country a majority of voters rejected the Democrat Party line, its presidential candidate, and the media that aided and abetted these violations of a foundational principle of our free country."
"Gender Advisors" Sent to Ukraine
In an effort to quell demands for his resignation, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded voters that "it was my idea to order the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to deploy gender advisors to Ukraine. It's not enough to just win the war. If important LGBTQ values are not properly supported we have to ask ourselves 'why are we even involved?'"
The incorporation of gender advisors is part of Canada's third National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security for 2023-2029. "Embedding three full-time gender advisors in every CAF unit at the strategic and operational levels is essential for operational success," the Prime Minister explained. "Each gender advisor is a full-time position. It exists to support Commanders in the application of the type of gender-based perspectives and decisions that ensure that we are fighting for justice."
Andrew MacGillivray, president of Veterans for Freedom, called it "a useless overbearing policy that has infiltrated every aspect of the Canadian Armed Forces. I doubt that countries at war or in a humanitarian crisis that we are trying to help care about the gender nonsense being pushed by Canada when they are struggling to keep people alive."
Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky shrugged off the nonsense, saying "if this is what we must put up with in order to keep the weapons and cash flowing into our country, so be it. We may stave off total conquest, but if we don't, the funds I and other members of the government have deposited in Swiss accounts will make for a more comfortable life while we're in exile."
Public Schools: Inefficient & Ineffective
Results reported for Texas public schools bolster the case for privatization and universal education savings accounts to fund students directly. A study by Vance Ginn, an economist who runs the Texas-based Vance Ginn Economic Consulting firm, found that taxpayers pay over $15,000 per pupil per year for maintenance & operations and over $27,000 for debt service. Meanwhile, the average tuition for private schools is $11,000 per pupil.
State Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Graford) called the comparison "unfair to the public schools. Private schools can concentrate on education to the exclusion of other concerns. One of the big benefits that public schools have over private schools are their robust investments in athletic facilities like football stadiums and basketball arenas. These facilities are not cheap. However, the taxes levied to build and maintain them are all approved by voters. This tells me that the extra $30,000 per student per year cost at a public school is worth it."
Jorge Borrego, policy director of K-12 Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Next Generation Texas, questioned Rogers' reasoning, saying "I don't think voters are fully informed by the bond campaigns. Over the past decade, the number of students in the public schools has increased by 5%, the number of teachers by 10%, the number of principals and assistant principals by 39%, and the number of administrative staff by 95%. It seems like administrative bloat to me."
Ginn said "politicians at the state and local levels are forcing Texas taxpayers to over-fund government schools. Funding per student has increased by 42% since 2011, while student proficiency in 8th-grade math has declined by 40%. Every taxpayer is paying more, yet our children are getting less education for those taxes."
"Well, it's been my experience that students like football more than they like math," Rogers observed. "I don't see anything wrong with giving them what they really want."
Schiff Opposes J6 Pardons
News that President-Elect Donald Trump intends to pardon many who were prosecuted for trespassing in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 has Senator-Elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif) "greatly concerned. He has no mandate for this. Voters didn't elect him to pardon the MAGA fanatics who tried to overthrow the government on that day."
While the narrative created by Schiff, other Democrats and the Media has been that the disturbance at the Capitol was an insurrection, many others have come to doubt that version of events. The most obvious incongruity is that none of those accused of committing insurrection brought firearms. The only person shot that day was killed by Capitol Police Officer Michael Byrd. Second, none of those arrested for being present at the scene were prosecuted for insurrection. Further, other evidence supporting a quite different narrative is being slowly uncovered.
The claim that President Trump instigated the so-called insurrection conflicts both with the fact that he urged his supporters to peacefully make their voices heard in Congress and that he ordered the Army to provide troops to defend the Capitol on that day. In an interview with the Inspector General, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley recalled "Trump said I don't care if you use Guard, or soldiers, active-duty soldiers, do whatever you have to do. Just make sure it's safe." Milley decided not to accept the order of his Commander-in-Chief. Instead he followed the advice of an op ed in the Washington Post co-authored by former Vice-President Dick Cheney urging that troops not be deployed at the Capitol.
Dick Cheney's daughter former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy), Vice Chair of the House's January 6 Select Committee, played a key roll in the Committee's so-called investigation of the "insurrection." House Administration Oversight Subcommittee chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga) asserted that "based on the evidence obtained by the Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Rep. Cheney. These violations including withholding evidence and witness tampering should be investigated by the FBI."
Part of the insurrection narrative included the ominous construction of a gallows at the Capitol. One would think that a thorough investigation of the alleged attempt to overthrow the government would've entailed a forensic examination of the gallows to get evidence of who was involved in building it. Though the structure remained on the Capitol grounds for more than a day, neither the FBI nor any other law enforcement agency bothered collecting this evidence. Instead, Capitol Police CCTV footage confirms that Architect of the Capitol employees destroyed the structure, loaded the remains into the back of a dump truck, and carted it away.
Schiff called the emerging evidence contradicting his Party's narrative "a dishonest and evil attempt to rewrite the history we all already know. Our friends in the media will never let the public see the so-called new evidence or hear a new narrative. Our friends in the history departments of the nation's leading universities will write the books to ensure that over time, the original narrative is what every student will learn."
Pork Laden CR Fails
The attempt to pass a monster Continuing Resolution under the guise of averting a government shutdown was narrowly averted this week. The 1,500 page piece of legislation was crammed with dubious increases in spending like pay raises for every member of Congress and over-priced federal construction projects. I guess raising each others' salary and building excessively expensive useless infrastructure are two key policy issues that are truly bipartisan.
CNN reporter Manu Raju, asked backer of the CR Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill) "do you guys deserve a pay raise?"
Durbin vigorously defended the salary increase, saying "consumers weren't the only ones hurt by rising inflation. We haven't got our automatic cost-of-living salary increase since 2009. Isn't it ludicrous that the folks voting on a nearly $7 trillion annual budget aren't paid more than $174,000 a year?"
Vivek Ramaswamy, co-director of President-Elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) read the 1,500 page bill, spoke with key leaders, and concluded "it's full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways and pork barrel politics. The bill adds 65 cents of new spending for every dollar of continued discretionary spending. It will add more debt than we can afford and lead to default."
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash) condemned "Ramaswamy's undermining of the carefully negotiated bipartisan bill. His attempt to raise opposition by citing an unmanageable debt load is reprehensible. Everyone in Congress knows this debt will never be paid back. The rich folks who buy government bonds will be stiffed, but the recipients of the added spending will reap benefits without having to bear the costs. I'm ready to work through the Christmas holidays to make sure the whole thing is enacted."
On Friday night, a shorter bill was passed by Congress. Much of the added spending proposed by the original CR was taken out. Funding at already existing levels was approved, as was $100 billion for disaster aid. The bit about giving members of Congress did not make the final cut. Neither did a clause allowing Congress to quash any subpoenas requiring the disclosure of House data that the House would rather be kept secret. The measure passed 366 to 34 with all the no votes coming from Republicans opposed to current levels of spending. The Senate also approved the revised measure 85-11.
In related news, DOGE's request for citizens to submit ideas for how to reduce government waste produced some interesting suggestions.
Auction off unused land, buildings, furniture, vehicles, and equipment to the highest bidders.
Shutdown federal agencies that cannot pass a simple audit of how they spend our money.
Retrieve the hundreds of billions of dollars fraudsters stole from welfare programs, COVID relief efforts, food stamps, Medicare and more.
Sell off unpaid federal loans to private bill collectors so they can recover some of the hundreds of billions of dollars lent by taxpayers to corporations and individuals that were never repaid.
Reward federal employees who identify waste and suggest innovative ways to save money. Give them a 15% finders'-fee bonus for every dollar saved.
Repeal President Biden's executive order placing diversity directors in every government agency. Their salaries and benefits run to millions of dollars annually.
Stop all federal loan and grant programs to universities that have endowments of more than $1 billion.
Institute a 10% spending cut across the board, including defense (but exempting Social Security payments). Follow it with a zero-based budgeting that requires justification for every expenditure.
Lay down the law to debt-laden states like New York and Illinois: Tell them no federal bailouts are coming.
Defund sanctuary cities and states that are violating federal immigration laws.
Move government agencies out of Washington, DC and its surrounding suburbs. Put them where their work is most relevant. Adjust pay scales to the lower cost of living in these locations.
Fire the 30,000 new IRS agents that were hired under Biden's misnamed Inflation Reduction Act.
Cut the Department of Education budget in half and send the remaining money to low-income parents in certified failing school districts to give their children alternative learning options.
Open non-environmentally sensitive federal lands to the mining of critical minerals, bringing in billions in royalties and lease payments.
