“A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.”
– Some Smart Guy
“It’s like the Marxists who are telling us that Eastern Europe wasn’t really socialism. At some point, you have to ask yourself: could it be that this principle cannot work out in practice with human beings as they exist on this planet?”
– Thomas Sowell
“One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.
“We’re stepping into I would say the most pro-growth, pro-business, pro American administration I’ve perhaps seen in my adult lifetime.”
– Hedge Fund Manager Bill Ackman speaking about the Trump Administration
The Age of Envy: We are living in what Ayn Rand called “the age of envy” when people are attacked not for their vices or flaws, but rather for their achievements.
There are those who want to divide us. This is NOT an accident or coincidence. There are foreign actors and unfortunately the enemy from within who hate what America stands for and the liberty so many enjoy.
As Thomas Jefferson said, “eternal vigilance is the price for liberty.”
Biden’s Pardons: First, it’s Hunter, not for any mistakes, but for over 10 years of corruption, fraud, and deceit that enriched the Biden family.
Now he pardons Chinese spies, child pornographers, fraudster, embezzlers, and other friends of Democrats.
This disastrous Administration can’t end soon enough. Shameful.
FBI & Elliott Ness: It looks like we need a new crew of the “Untouchables” to take on the Biden enabled illegal immigrant gangs that are a scourge on American neighborhoods nationwide.
The FBI lost its way and now has an opportunity to actually go after criminals… not school board attendees or grandmas protesting or political enemies… go get the bad guys!
The NEW “Untouchables” could help restore America’s greatness by reinstating the rule of law.
Go after the Tren de Aragua gangs, the sex traffickers, the Mexican drug cartels, the domestic terrorist ANTIFA… you need a list, just check with the Biden/Progressive/Liberal “off the books” allies that were activated for political gain… and failed!
Putin Can Make Peace Tomorrow: Russia should pull its troops out of Ukraine and stop harassing its neighbors. Coexist with sovereign countries and neighbors around you and we’ll have peace and prosperity worldwide.
Remember, Russia attacked Ukraine. Ukraine has the right to defend itself. Ukraine targets military and infrastructure objectives while Russia terrorizes Ukraine’s citizens.
Putin can end this war tomorrow. No one has attacked Russia or threatened them.
The Budapest Memorandum was signed 30 years ago last week. In exchange for Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal (the third largest in the world), Russia, the UK, and the USA committed to honoring and indeed protecting Ukraine’s national sovereignty and borders, not least against nuclear attack or threat.
ONLY Russia hasn’t lived up to their agreement…again.
Respect your borders and your neighbor’s borders, and we have peace!
Republican/Conservative Unity: This is going to be tough. The Democrats and the left have been very disciplined. They don’t all get what they want, but they realize the benefit of sticking together to pass legislation, approve judges, and confirm appointments to implement their progressive left-wing agenda.
We have parts of the conservative/Republican coalition willing to thwart all our electoral gains by NOT sticking together. This is political suicide, tying the Trump Administration’s hands behind their backs before they ever begin to govern.
Trump won a mandate that brought in a Republican House and Senate. He deserves the right and the chance to govern and hopefully do the right thing. There will be plenty of time for disagreement.
We have an opportunity to change America for the better… will we seize the day?!?
Read more below and follow me on X & GETTR – @sanuzis
–Saul Anuzis
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This Week: Michigan to consider voter ID law, poll shows preemptive Biden pardons are not popular, and Senator Bernie Sanders eyes the exit!
Trump, Not Biden, Is The True Unifier-In-Chief
The Biden administration, Democrats, and their cronies in the corporate media want you to believe that President Donald Trump is the next “Hitler” who will use his second term to turn the White House into an authoritarian weapon for evil.
This kind of defamation is incredibly ironic given each of those entities’ public participation in the destruction of the country by authoritarian means over the last four years. The claim that Trump will suddenly become a dictator, however, becomes even more ironic in the face of his recent pledge to bring “the country together.”
In an early December sitdown with the president-elect, NBC News’ Kristen Welker asked Trump what he had to say to the “Americans who didn’t support you in this campaign.”
Trump had every opportunity to take a victory lap for the race he ran, his policies, and his supporters who, for the last eight years, have been the target of Democrat, deep state, establishment, and propaganda press ire. Instead, Trump pledged to treat even those who strongly opposed his re-election “every bit as well as I have treated the greatest MAGA supporters.”
Gingrich: Trump Is America’s First “De Facto” President, A “Mythic Figure”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says that Donald Trump is America’s first “de facto” president as President Biden’s lame-duck period enters its second month:
SEAN HANNITY: Why would he be firing right after Assad is deposed, why is he firing into Syria?
NEWT GINGRICH: I think Joe Biden is probably, personally not doing any of that. Everything we’ve seen including his recent trip to Angola, he’s just cognitively incapable of having … It’s safe to assume he has some nutcase left-wing staffers that are doing dangerous things.
I just wrote that we have for the first time in American history a de facto president. We’ve never seen anything like this.
When President Trump went to Paris to see the opening of Notre Dame after its disastrous fire, he was treated by President Macron as though he were the president. He got the full experience of the French greeting you in a way which is really historic. No president who hasn’t been sworn and yet has ever had that kind of experience. He had some 82 leaders from around the world for the opening of Notre Dame.
He had a great meeting with the president of Ukraine, a great meeting with the prime minister of Italy. I think what we are seeing is somebody who is president de facto, that is in fact but not yet president de jure — in law. He won’t get to be president de jour until January 20th. But he’s already for all practical purposes the center of the governing system of the American people. And I think it’s a remarkable achievement.
Biden slammed for commuting sentence of notorious ‘Kids-for-Cash’ judge convicted of imprisoning juveniles for $2.1M kickbacks
The corrupt former Pennsylvania judge convicted of funneling juveniles to for-profit detention facilities in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks had his lengthy prison sentence commuted Thursday by President Biden.
Former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, the jurist at the center of the so-called “Kids-for-Cash” scandal, was among 1,499 commutations the 82-year-old lame-duck president granted in the largest presidential act of clemency on a single day in modern history, according to the White House.
The mother of a victim of Conahan’s disturbing crime fumed upon hearing of his commutation.
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Sandy Fonzo, whose son committed suicide after he was locked up as part of the scheme orchestrated by Conahan and former judge Mark Ciavarella, said in a statement.
“Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” she added, according to The Citizen’s Voice. “This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer.”
‘Out of Office’: GOP Senator Releases Shocking Report on Telework Abuse by Federal Employees
Nearly five years have passed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Washington bureaucrats continue to operate as if the U.S. is in the midst of an emergency, a new Senate report found.
“The headquarters of most agencies remain largely abandoned,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, in a report titled “Out of Office.”
“Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time,” the summary states. “Members of President Biden’s own cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable. Just three percent of the federal workforce teleworked daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, six percent of workers report in-person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are entirely remote. Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90 percent of those are. Some come to the office as infrequently as once a week.”
The report calls out a number of problems associated with these MIA bureaucrats, including delayed services, backlogs, unanswered calls and emails—all of which are harming taxpayers looking for assistance.
Michigan Republicans to push constitutional amendment requiring ID to vote
In 2022, Michigan passed a constitutional amendment that made it easier to vote.
Now, some Republicans want voters to take up the issue again at the ballot and require proof of citizenship to register
Proponents say that helps security; foes say it’s voter suppression
LANSING — Michigan Republicans intend to push a state constitutional amendment early next year that would require residents to provide proof of citizenship and identity in order to register to vote and cast a ballot.
The party takes control of the state House in January, and its incoming House Majority Floor Leader, Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Cannon Township, told Bridge Michigan he intends to introduce a joint resolution for the amendment in January.
“I strongly believe in making our elections accessible, but I also strongly believe in making our elections secure,” Posthumus said.
Related: Michigan voter rolls inflated by 500K. State says it’s no issue. GOP disagrees
Organizers plan to unveil the effort Wednesday, which likely will require a signature collection drive to force a ballot measure. A political action committee created in 2017, the Committee To Protect Voters Rights, is funding a website promoting the proposal, but Posthumus said he is not currently working with any other organizations on the effort.
Any change would be an about-face from changes to Michigan voting laws over the last six years.
Statewide ballot measures and legislation passed by Democrats along party lines have been uniformly aimed at expanding voting access.
Tren de Aragua has already set up shop in these 16 states, Homeland Security warns
The vicious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has expanded its territory to at least 16 US states — an area that includes half of America’s population, The Post has learned.
Homeland Security officials last week were warned in an internal department intelligence memo about TdA’s growing presence across the country, most recently in Washington, DC, Virginia, Montana and Wyoming.
The gang already has footholds in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, according to the memo and previous reporting by The Post.
‘It’s a very dangerous strategy’: The controversial tactic super PACs used to boost Democrats this year
Outside groups spent millions helping third-party candidates siphon votes from Republicans, a move that eased the path to victory for some Democrats.
A sudden cash infusion boosting Libertarian candidates for Congress. An independent expenditure for a far-right gadfly in Pennsylvania. A mysterious group using offensive messaging against Hispanic Republicans.
These were a few of the unusual, controversial and even desperate tactics deployed as part of a forceful embrace of a traditionally little-used strategy: super PACs helping Democrats by elevating conservative third-party candidates.
Campaigns and parties generally avoid the gambit, which can be seen as dirty or underhanded because it tries to win an election by using a third-party candidate to siphon votes from the opposition instead of competing directly against them. But it was used significantly more this year than in other recent elections, a POLITICO analysis found. Three outside groups poured in some $3.5 million to support longshot candidates in 10 races, part of a broader $5.8 million spend in more than two dozen. And new campaign finance reports shed light on their donors and ties to the Democratic Party.
One group, Voter Protection Project, dropped more than $3.8 million, much of which went to aid Libertarian or independent candidates in five House seats. Its single largest donor was House Democrats’ top outside group, House Majority PAC.
Defining ‘American’: Birthright Citizenship And The Original Understanding Of The 14th Amendment
In response to increasing frustration with illegal immigration, lawmakers and activists are hotly debating various proposals to combat incentives to enter the United States outside legal channels. Economic opportunity is the strongest attraction, of course. But another magnet, some contend, is a long-standing provision of U.S. law that confers citizenship upon persons born within our borders.[1]
There is increasing interest in repealing birthright citizenship for the children of aliens – especially undocumented persons. According to one recent poll, 49 percent of Americans believe that a child of an illegal alien should not be entitled to U.S. citizenship (41 percent disagree).[2] Legal scholars including Judge Richard Posner contend that birthright citizenship for the children of aliens may be repealed by statute.[3] Members of the current Congress have introduced legislation and held hearings,[4] following bipartisan efforts during the 1990s led by now-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and others.[5]
These proposals raise serious constitutional questions, however. Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. That birthright is protected no less for children of undocumented persons than for descendants of Mayflower passengers.
The Fourteenth Amendment begins: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Repeal proponents contend that this language does not apply to the children of aliens – whether legal or illegal (with the possible exception of lawful permanent residents) – because such persons are not “subject to [U.S.] jurisdiction.” But text, history, judicial precedent, and Executive Branch interpretation confirm that the Citizenship Clause reaches most U.S.-born children of aliens, including illegal aliens.
One might argue that the Constitution’s emphasis on place of birth is antiquated. The requirement that only natural born citizens may serve as President or Vice President has been condemned on similar grounds.[6] But a constitutional amendment is the only way to expand eligibility for the Presidency, and it is likewise the only way to restrict birthright citizenship.[7]
Average & Mediam Net Worth by Age: How Do You Measure Up?
Have you surpassed the average net worth of your peers? Get tips from financial advisers on how to grow you wealth over time.
Are you rich? The average net worth by age can help you benchmark your financial success against your peers and aid in retirement planning. But when most people hear the term net worth, their thoughts turn to the world’s richest people — billionaires like investor Warren Buffett or superstar singer and songwriter Taylor Swift. However, regular folks with 401(k)s, investment portfolios, and real estate holdings have a net worth, too. There’s a lot you can learn about your financial strength by calculating your net worth and seeing where you stack up versus others around the same age or stage of life. Think of your net worth as a scorecard.
Net worth isn’t just about tallying up assets you own, such as a retirement savings account, shares of a publicly traded stock, or the Ferrari parked in your driveway. You must plug your debt into the equation. Net worth is the difference between your assets and your liabilities. Put another way, it’s what you own minus what you owe. Both inputs give you a more complete picture of your financial situation.
For example, if you have $500,000 in your 401(k), own a home worth $500,000, and drive a BMW worth $100,000, it means you have assets totaling $1,100,000. But if you owe $400,000 on your house, $50,000 on your car, and $10,000 on your credit card, that adds up to $460,000 in total liabilities. When you do the math, you realize your net worth isn’t $1.1 million, but rather $640,000.
Consumers, Capitalism, and Klondike Bars
As the economist Ludwig von Mises explained, consumers reign supreme in a market economy. The Klondike bar exemplifies this perfectly.
The principle of free exchange—also known as the trader principle—is one of the most important aspects of a market economy, and perhaps no brand exemplifies it better than the Klondike Bar. For over a century, a chocolate covered block of ice cream has been delighting customers and, since the 1980s, the brand has been asking: “What would you do for a Klondike Bar?” By putting the emphasis on consumers, this iconic jingle is genius on several levels. However, before we dive into why Klondike is one of America’s favorite novelty brands, let’s review the requisites for empowering consumers with a choice and why it matters for societal well-being.
Consumer Choice Requires a Market Economy
For those familiar with Austrian Economics, it should be no surprise that Ludwig von Mises gives one of the best definitions for a market economy:
The market economy is the social system of the division of labor under private ownership of the means of production. Everybody acts on his own behalf; but everybody’s actions aim at the satisfaction of other people’s needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens.
In short, a market economy is based on voluntary exchange by means of leveraging one’s private property—this is what makes capitalism a beautiful thing. Under a capitalist system, individuals have the right to pursue what they can benefit from. For instance, when I go to my grocery store to buy a Klondike Bar, among other things, I profit from the exchange. Although the transaction will cost me financially, the possession of what I purchase is worth it. The grocery store also profits, although less than many may assume (at roughly 1–3%), and in order to continue making a profit it must ensure that its shelves are stocked with the bestselling and most sought-after items.
The Strange Gap Between Busy and Bored in Retirement
Knowing how to fill your schedule in retirement can keep you from going stir crazy.
There’s a broader line between busy and bored in retirement than you might expect. It hardly takes a genius to figure out that our perception of the time-space continuum can wobble madly as we age. Grasping this new worldview is difficult, but it can help pave the road to a happy retirement. So, in mid-October, as my wife Pam and I drove across the wide-open Mojave Desert toward our grandkids in Arizona, our conversation kept turning to how buffeted by obligations we’ve felt this year. It was as if 1,000 colored Post-Its had slipped into our car and were beating against our heads like a swarm of bats.
We had to remind ourselves that each of those obligations is attached to something we’ve decided we want to do, and whether the vast freedom of our later years is an eager but impatient hourglass or a helix of infinite boredom is up to us.
Most Countries Hand-Count Paper Ballots
The United States remains one of the few major democracies in the world that continue to allow computerized vote counting—not observable by the public—to determine the results of its elections [1]. Countries such as Germany [2] Norway [3], Netherlands [4], France [5, 6], Canada [7] , Denmark [8, 9], Italy [10], United Kingdom [11], Ireland [11], Spain [11], Portugal [11], Sweden [11], Finland [11], and most other countries [11], protect the integrity and trust of their elections with publicly observable hand-counting of paper ballots.
[1] According to a 2020 Gallup World Poll, only 40% of Americans say they are confident in the honesty of U.S. elections. Finland and Norway with 89% of their citizens expressing confidence in the honesty of their elections along with the citizens of 25 other countries have greater confidence in their elections than do Americans.
