“I’m a bit curious to learn if I am correct in thinking that Heaven will look a lot like Kansas. …And to see, like others who have gone before me, if I will still be able to vote in Chicago.” – Senator Bob Dole’s Farewell Letter
“We’re told our system is broken & racist. It’s imperfect, surely. But in hugely controversial recent trials, juries have (correctly imo) convicted George Floyd’s murderer, acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse, convicted Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers & convicted Jussie Smollett. Justice.”
– Guy Benson
“I never understood why it is ‘greed’ to want to keep the money you earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.” – Thomas Sowell
Jussie Smollett the Racist: What can be more racist than using your celebrity status to fake a hate crime and stir hatred amongst society? I hope he gets several years in prison to ponder his hatred and is forced to reimburse taxpayers for all the money wasted on his hoax.
Demagogues like V.P. Kamala Harris should apologize to the American people. How can we ‘overcome’ if we can’t move on?
It’s not often I agree with the Rev. Al Sharpton, however, “actor Jussie Smollett is despicable and outrageous. The guilty must face the maximum.”
Risks to Ponder: A good analysis of the political risks of 2022.
https://mehlmancastagnetti.com/wp-content/uploads/2022-Top-Risks.pdf
–Saul Anuzis
Click Here for Past Commentary from Saul
60 Plus Weekly Video Rewind
In this week’s video rewind- The new infrastructure legislation will put social justice ahead of jobs, another Biden nominee gets kicked to the curb, and President Joe shares another heart-warming story… again!
Links to the articles discussed in the video:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/bidens-infrastructure-coordinator-climate-equity-blue-collar
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1453016179577135118
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Bob Dole, Old Soldier and Stalwart of the Senate, Dies at 98
Mr. Dole, a son of the Kansas prairie who was left for dead on a World War II battlefield, became one of the longest-serving Republican leaders.
Bob Dole, the plain-spoken son of the prairie who overcame Dust Bowl deprivation in Kansas and grievous battle wounds in Italy to become the Senate majority leader and the last of the World War II generation to win his party’s nomination for president, died on Sunday. He was 98.
His death was announced by the Elizabeth Dole Foundation.
It did not say where he died. He had announced in February that he had Stage IV lung cancer and that he was beginning treatment.
A Republican, Mr. Dole was one of the most durable political figures in the last decades of the last century. He was nominated for vice president in 1976 and then for president a full 20 years later. He spent a quarter-century in the Senate, where he was his party’s longest-serving leader until Mitch McConnell of Kentucky surpassed that record in June 2018.
President Biden called Mr. Dole “an American statesman like few in our history. A war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation.” He added, “To me, he was also a friend whom I could look to for trusted guidance, or a humorous line at just the right moment to settle frayed nerves.”
The ‘Woke’ Got What They Wanted — And Then What?
The “woke” movement was giddy after January 20, 2021. The Left controlled both houses of Congress.
Joe Biden was drafted as the necessary veneer of 1980s Democratic normality to ram through an otherwise hard Left agenda.
All the major cultural, financial, economic, entertainment, and media institutions had played various roles in seeing former president Donald Trump not just defeated, but also impeached, twice. He was written off as persona non grata after the January 6 riot at the Capitol.
So, academia, corporate boardrooms, Hollywood, the media, the Pentagon, professional sports teams, Silicon Valley, and Wall Street in near hysterical fashion all boarded the woke train. All boasted of ferreting out “white rage,” and hiring legions of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” czars.
Critical race theory would be mainstreamed to excise racism and discrimination by embracing racism and discrimination.
“Crime” was to be seen now mostly as a construct created by the elite to protect their own privilege, prerogatives, and property. Shoplifting, looting, and street thuggery were just part of living in a normal city.
“Social justice warriors” could replace defunded police. Gone would be most bail, incarceration, mandatory jail time, stop-and-frisk, and broken-windows deterrent policies.
Green agendas, the Left hoped, would fundamentally transform America in putting an immediate stop to man-made “climate change.” So, lots of oil and gas leases were either canceled or their fees vastly increased. Pipelines were stopped. Gas and oil companies were warned that everything from lack of financing to new regulations would soon put them out of business. The golden age of wind and batteries was already upon us…
… So, in just 10 months the Left got what it wanted. And the people are becoming not just sick of what has followed, but disgusted. They are terrified that the Left is not just failing, but also wrecking the country and them along with it.
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a host of other liberal stars are lashed for supporting Jussie
Smollett in wake of 2019 ‘racist and homophobic attack’ he has now been convicted of faking
Jussie Smollett’s attack trial showed how one man’s lies could have been detrimental to the civil rights movement in America.
Among the first to leap to Smollett’s defense were President Joe Biden, VP Kamala Harris, who called the attack a ‘modern day lynching’, and Cory Booker.
All three, along with several other activists, used the attack as a platform to push their political agendas yet took to silence as it became clear he had lied.
Meanwhile, CNN host Don Lemon allegedly aided in the actor’s hoax by tipping him off the Chicago police were poking holes in his tale.
Civil rights experts have said Smollett’s lies are a ‘black mark’ for the movement and a ‘whitewash of justice’.
The cream of liberal society, including President Joe Biden himself, have been mocked over old tweets backing Jussie Smollett in the wake of his conviction.
President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and a host of other liberal celebrities face questions over their tweets, backing Smollett on the same day as the alleged January 2019 attack, which he was convicted of faking on Thursday.
Hours after the staged beating Biden, then a presidential hopeful, tweeted: ‘What happened today to @jussiesmollett must never be tolerated in this country.
Biden’s catastrophic collapse of American leadership
It turns out that going from America First to America Last has real world consequences.
President Joe Biden’s rejection of President Donald Trump’s approach to national security and foreign policy has created devastating harm to American interests abroad and our security at home.
Trump’s main goal was to prioritize our interests, thereby leveraging American power to deliver greater global stability, certainty and relative peace. Biden prioritizes multilateralism and globalism, reversing Trump-era gains and introducing increasing chaos, instability, uncertainty and conflict.
Voters Pessimistic About Economy, Biden’s Leadership, WSJ Poll Finds
First survey in The Wall Street Journal’s new polling effort shows Republicans in strong position, though Democrats have advantages in some policy areas.
Voters are heading into the midterm election year in a sour mood, pessimistic about the economy and short on confidence in the leadership of President Biden and his party on the issues that concern them most, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds.
The survey reveals a set of danger signs for the Democratic Party as it prepares to defend narrow majorities in the House and Senate. Voters by a large margin see economic and fiscal issues, including inflation, as the top priorities for Washington, and they view the GOP as better able to handle them.
A silver lining for Democrats is that the party’s initiatives in Congress—the recently enacted, bipartisan infrastructure bill and a proposed set of climate and social-spending programs—have the potential to draw additional support from voters who are undecided on their 2022 choice, the poll found. Democrats are also viewed as best able to control the Covid-19 pandemic, cut healthcare prices and improve education.
More voters say they would back a Republican than a Democrat for Congress, 44% to 41%, if the election were held today, a lead that is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. Some 41% approve of Mr. Biden’s job performance, with 57% disapproving, suggesting that the president’s power to boost support for other Democrats, as of now, is limited.
Democrats Are Losing the Election Integrity Debate
In April 2020, Georgia Republicans passed an election integrity law known as Senate Bill 202. The legislation strengthened voter ID requirements, added early voting hours on weekends, mandated increased maintenance of voter rolls, and outlawed ballot harvesting, among other improvements to Georgia’s election processes.
It should be noted that these policies are widely popular among the American people: for example, polling shows that 80% of Americans support voter ID, 87% support banning ballot harvesting, and 89% are in favor of purging outdated, inaccurate voter lists.
The left wing’s response was swift, dishonest, and predictably hyperbolic. Stacey Abrams – known for losing gubernatorial elections and penning romance novels – took to the national airwaves, bravely holding her fellow Georgians accountable for the mortal sin of asking voters to flash a driver’s license. The new law was “Jim Crow 2.0” and “voter suppression,” she claimed, as left-leaning cable hosts nodded in grave assent. Major League Baseball, eager to alienate its few remaining fans, politely withdrew its All-Star Game from Atlanta, robbing Georgia – and many local Black business owners – of an estimated $100 million in expected revenue.
Then, something interesting happened. This November, Atlanta held municipal elections six months after the “voter suppression” law’s passage. The elections ran smoothly and turnout rose by 17% compared to 2017.
If you’re trying to understand the election integrity debate, look no further than the Peach State. Republicans pass locally informed, solutions-oriented policies that strengthen the election process. Democrats baselessly cry racism, launder their lies through the CNN/MSNBC spin machine, and ultimately watch, powerless, as the world continues to turn. Florida recently passed similar legislation to Georgia’s. Reports from the Sunshine State described their recent November elections as going off “without a hitch.”
Why the Russiagate Scandal Outranks the Rest
Russiagate is the biggest scandal in American history.
Nothing comes close in size, scope or harm to the republic than the years-long effort to cripple Donald Trump’s presidency by claiming he conspired with an enemy state to steal the 2016 election and then do its bidding as commander-in-chief.
Its notorious predecessors – L’Affaire Lewinsky, Iran-Contra, Watergate, Teapot Dome, Crédit Mobilier, the XYZ Affair – involved relatively small numbers of malefactors engaged in specific acts of illegality and corruption (we still don’t know who, if anyone, planned the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol)
Russiagate, by contrast, is a vast conspiracy involving innumerable powerful forces, including the Democratic Party, NeverTrump Republicans, the Obama administration, the FBI, Department of Justice and the nation’s most prestigious news outlets.
Where previous scandals often ended with public accountability for the perpetrators – Watergate saw the imprisonment of top White House aides and President Nixon’s resignation – and public reforms, Russiagate has produced no such reckoning.
Migrants from all over world cross southern border in record numbers
Migration to the southern border of the United States from far-off countries spiked in 2021 as economic turmoil and the Biden administration’s eased immigration policies prompted droves from other continents to traverse to America.
The number of people encountered at the southern border from countries other than Mexico or the three top countries of origin in Central America was seven times greater over the past 12 months ending in September than the previous year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. One-in-5 people, or 378,000 of the 1.7 million, who were encountered at the southern border in the government’s fiscal year 2021 were from nations other than those four.
The biggest change in 2021 was the rise in arrivals from South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In 2000, 97% of the migrants Border Patrol encountered were Mexican citizens. By 2014, more people apprehended at the southern border were from the Northern Triangle — El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — than were from Mexico, data show. In 2019, nearly two-thirds of people encountered at the border were from one of the three Northern Triangle nations.
In 2021, more than 4,100 Russians were encountered compared to fewer than 500 the previous year. Apprehensions have spiked further in October, with more than 1,500 Russian citizens apprehended.
Reagan first, Biden last on America’s favorite list
Ronald Reagan is still No. 1.
In a new survey focusing on national security, the former president tops the list of most favored recent presidents, easily beating former President Barack Obama and crushing President Joe Biden by 25 percentage points.
In the Beacon Research poll, Reagan had a 69% favorable rating, including 51% among Democrats, 63% with independents, and 91% of Republicans. He also led every president since in the “very favorable” category at 42%.
By comparison, Biden had a 44% favorable rating, with just 19% at “very favorable,” a hair worse than former President Jimmy Carter.
Prosecution and Prejudice
We have prosecutors who won’t prosecute the ‘wrong’ people for their crimes and prosecutors hell-bent on prosecuting the ‘right’ people for what they symbolize.
There is a flip side to the way progressives have perverted the concept of prosecuting crime. It is, in its way, just as insidious as the now-familiar delirium that non-prosecution is the best prosecution.
The flip side is equally the fallout of politicizing state police power. It flows naturally from the conceit that the point of prosecution is to run interference for the Left’s favored groups while penalizing those who oppose progressives. It has only disdain for the quaint idea that we prosecute for the purpose of upholding the rule of law, so society as a whole can flourish.
The flip side is this: When today’s cutting-edge prosecutors do deign to prosecute, the target is ideas, not acts. The objective is not to neutralize those who prey on society, but to frame their acts as part of a morality play: the progressives cast as the guardians of “our values,” and the criminals drawing out contempt more for what motivates them — or, at least, what progressives say motivates them — than for any evil they have done.
This is exemplified by the Kyle Rittenhouse prosecution.
Team Biden, you can’t blame looting gangs on COVID and Trump — look in the mirror
It’s all Donald Trump’s fault. Or COVID. Whatever the issue, count on Team Biden to shift the blame to the pandemic — or the president’s predecessor.
That’s precisely what happened Thursday when White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki — in an incredible stretch, even for her — claimed COVID-19 was a “root cause” of the outbreak of smash-and-grab attacks plaguing the country.
“When a huge group of criminals organizes themselves, and they want to go loot a store, CVS and Nordstrom, a Home Depot, until the shelves are clean, you think that’s because of the pandemic?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.
“I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic. Yes,” replied Psaki.
Then again, Biden himself has pointed to the coronavirus as a source of rising crime, but no one seriously believes that.
“This has nothing to do with the pandemic,” a former law-enforcement official and security consultant, Pete Eliadis, says. “The pandemic is overused at this point.” We’ll say!
But Psaki didn’t stop there. She also suggested Big Bad President Donald Trump failed to allot enough federal money for local cops, while Biden, by contrast, upped the aid.
Hello? Local crime is supposed to be dealt with by local communities using local funds. The smash-and-grabs are no more Trump’s fault (or COVID’s) than is the nationwide surge in murders.
The truth? Psaki and Biden are trying to cover for disastrous policies pushed by progressives in the nation’s Democratic-run cities — and by the president himself.
U.S. Inflation Hit a 39-Year High in November
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in the month and 6.8% from a year ago.
U.S. inflation reached a nearly four-decade high in November, as strong consumer demand collided with pandemic-related supply constraints.
The Labor Department said the consumer-price index—which measures what consumers pay for goods and services—rose 6.8% in November from the same month a year ago. That was the fastest pace since 1982 and the sixth straight month in which inflation topped 5%.
The so-called core price index, which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy, climbed 4.9% in November from a year earlier. That was a sharper increase than October’s 4.6% rise, and the highest rate since 1991.
The increase in prices for new vehicles, which came in at 11.1% in November, was the largest on record, as were those for men’s apparel and living room, kitchen and dining room furniture. A 7.9% surge in fast-food restaurant prices last month marked the sharpest on record too.
The steady rise in restaurant prices during the past few months is a sign of pass-through from wages into higher prices, economists say. That dynamic is increasingly showing up in other industries. Wages tracked by the Atlanta Fed climbed 4.3% in November, up from 4.1% in October and the highest since 2007.
Some energy prices showed signs of easing—in part because of fear in the financial markets that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 could slow growth. But gasoline rose at a 6.1% monthly rate for the second straight month.
