Agreement is anathema in Washington except for one thing: the acceptance of government hypocrisy. Bills, policies, programs, and agencies conflict with competing and often pointless goals that cost us money and ensure our taxes go to waste. That’s before we get to the lies, misinformation, and outright disinformation that characterize business as usual in our nation’s Capitol.
We started with 20 examples of government hypocrisy to show you how shamefully Washington conducts its affairs. Thanks to Illinois adding smokers to its COVID vaccination priority list our new update brings up to 83 examples with no end in sight.
Government hypocrisy 80 ways:
#1: Both parties agree we are still recovering from one of the worst recessions in decades, our debt is soaring, and we continue to spend billions on people and countries that hate us.
#2: Government spending on the recovery didn’t fix the economy, so Democrats want to spend more.
#3: Obamacare is stalled, but Democrats insist on pushing it forward as written and Republicans want to repeal it without an alternative bill.
#4: Congress throws equality and fairness in our faces at every opportunity while its members anticipate a new Office of Personnel Management rule to give them a pass on participating in Obamacare.
#5: We are about to face a new debt ceiling crisis and the White House will ask for more spending money to fix it.
#6: Our government is supposed to be more transparent than ever (see: The Hoax Behind Our Big, Accountable Government). Transparency shows us just how wasteful and scandal-ridden Washington is.
#7: Homeland Security claims the border is safer than ever, but the focus of bipartisan support for an immigration bill is making the border safe.
#8: There is bipartisan support for nation-building in the Middle East despite all evidence that Islamic democracy and the Arab spring are Washington pipe dreams.
#9: White House policymakers and the Department of Education are wringing their hands over education costs while they empower unions and argue for raising teacher salaries that make public education costs go up.
#10: Prosperity is a good thing, but Democrats keep promising handouts and government-sponsored financial security that help make Americans lazy and dependent on the government.
#11: America’s credit was downgraded in 2011 not because of the debt, but because our two political parties couldn’t agree on how to spend lots of money and reduce the debt at the same time.
#12: We have bipartisan support for Democrats and Republicans working together. To accomplish that goal both parties indulge in finger-pointing and blame that makes bipartisanship impossible.
#13: Republicans, Democrats, and the White House publicly agreed on the importance of helping the middle class, then raised their taxes in January 2013.
#14: We ascribe characteristics to Muslims in America that we don’t see anywhere else, but we keep calling Islam a great world religion.
#15: Both parties agree that unemployment is a bad thing and the recession makes it difficult to find a job, but every time an extension of unemployment benefits comes up they find excuses to block it (see: Why Do Republicans Want to Be America’s Enemies?).
#16: Democrats and the president blame the wealthy for stealing opportunity from the middle class but most are wealthy in their own right, enjoy excessive perks at taxpayer expense, and helped craft the tax code that they are so eager to blame.
#17: Washington helped taxpayers bail out the banks. The banks are doing better. Taxpayers aren’t doing so well.
#18: The White House admits the jobs numbers could be better, so we pass policies like DACA to create more competition for jobs.
#19: Congress creates problems with no intention of fixing them because members know there is little PR juice to be had from crises that go away.
#20: Big government hypocrisy, conflict, and gridlock keep Washington running. Just think how little government we would need if politicians focused more on getting the job done and less on keeping themselves in the spotlight.
Keep reading: here is a lot more government hypocrisy to make you even angrier
UPDATE April 14, 2017: let’s make it 21
#21: The ultimate hypocrisy: demanding federal money for a problem you created and refuse to fix.
33 House members sent a letter to President Trump asking that funding be restored to programs including the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP). They claimed that:
Communities rely on these funding streams to enhance public safety, fund crime victim and witness initiatives, support drug treatment and enforcement, promote economic development and more.1
They also asked that the president not pull funding from sanctuary cities, which wouldn’t need programs like SCAAP if they didn’t harbor so many illegals.
UPDATE August 18, 2017: why stop now? #22 and counting …
After years of telling us that millionaires and billionaires are the cause of all America’s woes and slamming Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner because of his wealth, Democrats in ruined, violent Cook County chose uber-wealthy J.B. Pritzker as their man for next year’s gubernatorial election. He’s male, white, and rich, traits despised by contemporary Democratic Party values.
UPATE April 30, 2018: #23 asylum seekers take the cake
We have an immigration problem. Year after year we spend too many tax dollars trying to control the consequences, but when a large enough group comes to the border demanding entrance we take their requests for asylum seriously instead of simply telling them to go home.
Am I the only one who thinks this sets a bad precedent?
#24: women only support women with the same political beliefs
Sarah Sanders sat at the Correspondent’s Dinner last Saturday night and took it. I give her credit for that. As the smile froze on her face was she thinking about the hypocrisy of a woman stabbing another successful woman in the back and calling her a liar in a very public forum while the Me Too movement preaches unity and support?
UPDATE November 11, 2018
#25: don’t control illegals, control Americans with guns
Whose crimes are more serious?
ICE Photo
Thanks to a new Democratic House gun control will be in when Democrats take over in January 2019. Illegal immigrant control will be out. Murders committed by illegals let loose because of sanctuary policies and lax enforcement will keep happening while Congress ties itself up in knots over a fool’s errand: how do we keep guns out of the hands of U.S. citizens who have the right to own them?
I’ve never owned a gun. Never had a reason or desire to. That doesn’t mean I can’t spot hypocrisy over gun control.
Declined detainer and three more murders
Last week ICE reported three more murders committed in Missouri by an illegal immigrant released in New Jersey because local authorities refused to honor an ICE detainer. This is a completely avoidable crime. The man was in custody. We let him go. Three more people are dead.
When Democrats take over in January gun control will undoubtedly be a priority. Controlling criminal illegal immigrants will not. We should expect the opposite to be true as the left assures us that illegals don’t commit crimes.
This raises a question: are murders committed by Americans with guns a more serious offense than those committed by illegal immigrants?
UPDATE June 11, 2019
#26: Illinois’ special new Green Deal
Sometimes even Democrats realize when their tax and spend obsessions go too far. That’s what happened in Illinois when the rumored new $1,000 registration charge for green, electric vehicles suddenly dropped by $752.00.
That’s a pretty big concession for this state. If we had time to work the numbers it might even be historic.
Green-obsessed drivers can take some comfort in the nearly 50% jump in the registration fee for gas vehicles and the punishing doubling of the gas tax to $0.38/gallon. Still, if I shelled out for a fancy new electric ride because the end of the world is at hand I’d be mighty pissed off at being punished for trying to save the earth.
Don’t Democrats want us to Go Green? Yes they do, but there are limits and they are all about money. It might have been more palatable to environmentally-savvy drivers to slap an “electric responsibility tax” or something equally nonsensical on charging stations so the state gets its cut of what it’s losing on the gasoline levy. They could also take a cue from Governor Pritzker and slap a mileage tax on everyone, but that would be regressive and punish green drivers and polluters alike.
Of course, regressive also has a different meaning for Democrats in Illinois. That’s another hypocrisy this working-class and tax and fee friendly liberal state seems completely oblivious too. At least the electric vehicle hike only whacks those with incomes high enough to make saving the world affordable.
UPDATE July 6, 2019:
#27: gerrymandering is wrong but we should use illegals for redistricting
The hypocrisy behind Democratic opposition to the SCOTUS gerrymandering decision is astounding.
Bombastic Tennessee Congressman Steve Cohen set us straight on what it means for our democracy:
The Supreme Court today ruled there was nothing it could do to stop partisan gerrymandering. This practice, politicians picking their voters and drawing lines to reinforce their own power, is anti-democratic and despicable.2
At the same time Democrats vehemently oppose the inclusion of a citizenship question on the 2020 Census because it impacts representation and the flow of federal dollars.
Presidential candidate and Minnesota Rep. Amy Klobuchar took a decidedly anti-democratic position on the issue:
The census is part of our country’s constitutional obligation to count everyone and serves as a guide for critical decisions like the distribution of community resources and the apportionment of congressional districts.3
Rep. Klobuchar is exactly right about what the Census headcount accomplishes and that’s why illegals must be excluded. They can’t vote. The only reason they haven’t been deported is that there are too many and Democrats obstruct every effort to enforce our immigration laws.
Why on earth would we include individuals on the Census who could be back in their home country before the final tally is even counted? Because Democrats in states like California will benefit while taxpayers who foot the tab will lose.
UPDATE August 31, 2019:
#28: a good economy can’t be bad
What’s the biggest tragedy Democrats could face in 2020? A Republican resurgence? A no-nukes deal with North Korea? More Hillaryesque revelations about whatever lefty hack they nominate to ruin this country?
Nope. None of the above.
The biggest catastrophe for 2020 will be not having a recession. The media has been pushing. Politicians have been warning. The public is nervous. Another Great Recession is just a hair’s breath away.
Articles on how to recession-proof your portfolio are already popping up. Everyone with an opinion who is not a conservative tells us the bottom is about to fall out. If it doesn’t, the media will get behind the Democratic Party per protocol and create a recession.
Will we be dumb enough to believe it and do all the stupid things that go along with a real downturn to help seal the deal, like selling our portfolios?
Probably, or at least those of us who are also dumb enough to vote for Democrats begging for economic destruction.
UPDATE October 6, 2019:
#29: confusing impeachment and democracy
This kind of misleading nonsense from Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is what House Democrats expect the people to believe while they try to circumvent the outcome of our last presidential election:
President Trump’s actions represent the highest type of crimes that threaten the very fabric of our democracy. While the House Committees have been relentlessly conducting oversight hearings and investigations into this Administration’s corruption, it is clear that an official impeachment investigation is the only avenue we have left to hold this President accountable.4
At least the last comment is true. Impeachment is the only avenue Democrats have left. They will do anything, including lying to the people in the name of democracy, to make it happen.
Trump has not been formally accused of a crime. Even Democrats admit they are only holding an inquiry. Unfortunately for our democracy, politicians can say anything they want with absolutely no accountability knowing that those they represent will believe what they want to hear.
Democracy is about democratic processes, including an election which the Democratic Party refuses to honor. They know they aren’t going to get rid of the Electoral College and even if they do, it won’t change the fact that Trump is president.
The only option left is the most un-democratic process we have: discard the people’s decision with a trumped-up case for impeachment based on “the highest type of crimes” they are still trying to make a case for.
Our democratic system allows Democrats to do this, but don’t tell us impeachment is in the name of protecting democracy. It’s in the name of putting Democrats back in power by telling the American people their vote doesn’t count.
UPDATE October 10, 2019:
#30: Corporate profits vs. rising congressional pay
Senators and Representatives make $174,000 per year. That’s not a lot of money, but America’s median household income of $61,937 pales in comparison to what we pay these politicians.
For those who believe in free enterprise there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this. In our country being a politician is a business, too. Elected representatives have a lot of responsibility. Some have tremendous power, even freshman reps with large mouths who manage to keep themselves in the spotlight with absolutely no track record.
Hypocrisy enters the picture when these individuals blast private industry for profit taking at the expense of working Americans. Elizabeth Warren, who like most of her colleagues is doing much, much better than most of her supporters would dare to dream, felt compelled to announce that she will reintroduce her Accountable Capitalism Act because of a disturbing thirty-year trend:
Senator Warren first introduced the Accountable Capitalism Act in August 2018 to reverse the harmful corporate trend over the last thirty years that have produced record corporate profits for American companies but stagnant wages for American workers.5
While Warren singles out “the wealthiest top 10% of Americans households”6 and her fact that “50% of American households own no stock at all,”7 senators and representatives boast an impressive jump in pay over the same period of time.
According to a Congressional Research Service Report, thirty years ago senators were making $98,400 annually and representatives $96,600 per year.8
That number has nearly doubled over the same period that Senator Warren uses to lament the plight of the American worker.
At least corporations contribute to building wealth for some Americans. Congress, at the moment, contributes absolutely nothing because Warren’s party is too obsessed with removing a sitting president to do anything else.
Meanwhile we pay her salary and those of her fellow senators. Impeachment-happy Democrats in the House get their cut of our paychecks, too.
Next year is an election year. Don’t expect any progress in 2020, either. Our highly paid senators and representatives will be too busy getting reelected.
UPDATE November 1, 2019:
#31: Democrats help unions cut our throat
Help me out with this. Democrats insist that unions are the future of the American worker even though experience warns us what unions do when they decide they want more money. We just saw a prima facie example in Chicago, where kids lost out for 11 days because the teacher’s union decided to flex its muscle for the sake of larger paychecks and a bigger headcount.
This Democratic Party – Big Labor synergy seems like the ultimate government hypocrisy, but in the end it makes perfect sense. Why? Because government doesn’t generate revenue. Taxpayers do. In the end Democratic public officials risk nothing by backing unions. They just pass the cost along and stick to their age-old leftist lies about collective bargaining and what makes the American worker so great.
UPDATE November 17, 2019:
#32: Ending voter suppression by suppressing the people’s vote
In nonsensical statements made during a November 13, 2019 press conference House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) claimed:
We didn’t come to Congress to impeach this president or any president. We came to Congress to get things done on behalf of everyday Americans.9
That remark was made as the impeachment circus became very real. Jeffries and Democratic Vice Chair Katherine Clark (D-MA) also talked about Trump’s “relentless attacks on Dreamers and sabotage of our nation’s health care.”10
Jeffries claimed that Democratic attacks were really just “our effort to defend our democracy For The People”11 and to end “the era of voter suppression once and for all.12
There is so much hypocrisy in these remarks it’s difficult to know where to begin, so let’s keep it simple:
1. The only thing on the Democratic Party’s agenda for the foreseeable future is impeaching Trump or defaming him so completely that he can’t win in 2020. Nothing else matters and this gives party members something to talk about during the campaign season other than their party’s failure to accomplish anything else.
2. Democracy is all about the people choosing their leaders. Democrats began their effort to deny Republicans their democratic right to choose even before Trump took office.
I don’t know what Rep. Jeffries sees when he envisions “The People,” but trust me. If you voted for Trump you are not included.
UPDATE December 8, 2019:
#33: Obama’s palace is Democratic Party hypocrisy at its finest
I don’t fault Barack and Michelle Obama for trying to enjoy themselves after eight years of hell. A $400,000 salary is not a lot of money for what a president goes through. The $200,000+ pension that follows isn’t a lot either, though most Americans would be overjoyed to receive a fraction of this sum when they retire.
Fortunately this isn’t usually all our ex-Commanders in Chief have to live on. A life as a public service celebrity tends to start and end well, as we saw with the announcement last week of the Obama’s purchase of a veritable palace on Martha’s Vineyard.
To put things in perspective, the average U.S. home price in September 2019 was $362,700.13
Had Donald Trump bought a house like this last week it would be part of next week’s impeachment proceedings. His persecutors would go after every scrap of paper no matter how remotely connected and irrelevant. Subpoenas for real estate records would fly. The documents would be put on display so every American can see the evil the fruits of wealth.
Barack and Michelle are liberal superstars but they are also exempt from scrutiny as they should be. They have left public service and a legacy of attacking the wealthy behind.
The Trumps don’t enjoy the same privacy. Even the president’s son Baron is fair game for liberal haters who believe a child should be ridiculed as part of the Democratic Party’s impeachment charade.
While we look forward to a new presidential campaign season during which Democrats will demand that we strip the evil wealthy of every dime possible, Jimmy Carter is living an entirely different ex-presidential life. The Library of Congress offers pictures of his very humble residence.14
Despite a less than stellar presidency President Carter chose a different path that shows what a life of service means. We may not agree with his politics or some of his remarks directed at our current president, but we can’t call him a hypocrite. By all appearances he lives his values.
UPDATE December 19, 2019:
#34: Rule of law means many things to Democrats
After admitting he’s served the House for nearly four decades Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) engaged in the same lengthy, hubris-laden remarks Democrats subjected us to for hours on end before doing what they told us they would do long before they had a reason to do it:
The votes we are about to take concern the rule of law and our democracy itself. Let us not forget the words of the philosopher John Locke, so influential to the Founders of our republic. He warned: ‘Wherever law ends, tyranny begins.15
Good for Hoyer for having the courage to try to slip the Locke reference past us to justify his impeachment vote. Bad for the American people who listened to his nonsense and were credited many times over yesterday with the reason the House achieved this historic milestone that isn’t going anywhere except the history books.
Hoyer’s party likes the idea of the rule of law but it has a very flexible, self-interested interpretation of what it means. When it suits Democrats to honor it the rule of law prevails. When it runs counter to their goals like lax immigration policies, flexible drug policies, and the growing fascination with “de-incarceration” as part of the radical left’s social justice agenda, the rule of law is set aside.
When it comes to a Republican president the rule of law is a maxim we can’t ignore:
The rule of law is what makes this country great, and today, the House of Representatives held President Trump accountable for breaking the law,” Rep. [Norma] Torres continued. “The only question now, is will the Senate follow suit, or let him get away with it?”16
When it comes to other issues like immigration and a border fence the rule of law is a very bad thing indeed. In fact, in Torres’ view it contradicts the values our country stands for:
The Trump administration’s executive actions on immigration are an attempt to appease the far right at the expense of our values, security, and economic well-being.17
That was from January 2017. Talk of removing Trump was heating up. The conversation with Ukraine that led to yesterday’s political travesty would not happen for another 18 months. The rule of law is a complex thing for Democrats, so let’s assume it took each and every one of those 18 months to figure out how it should best be used to suit their objectives.
UPDATE February 1, 2020:
#35: Looking for hypocrisy? It’s historic and you’ll find it along party lines.
Get ready. The weeping and moaning is about to begin. It’s going to be loud. It’s going to be nonstop. It’s going to continue for years, so sit back and train yourself to ignore it.
Years of buildup. Months of talk. Weeks of hearings. A few days of nonsense in the Senate. Now we’re waiting for the final, perfunctory vote to acquit.
What do they say about it not being over until the lady sings?
That’s where we’re at.
Impartial means what, precisely?
Where is the historic hypocrisy in this ridiculous liberal pageant? It’s hiding behind two words: party lines. It’s acceptable, even mandatory to remove a president because you have a partisan majority, but it’s absolutely, positively not OK to acquit him along party lines.
This won’t make any sense to you if you are a Republican. That’s a good sign. This is the kind of partisan hypocrisy that only makes sense to Democrats.
As of yesterday Nancy Pelosi is still trying to salvage a victory from the ashes of the same kind of partisan defeat she subjected House Republicans to:
The President was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He is impeached forever. There can be no acquittal without a trial. And there is no trial without witnesses, documents and evidence.18
So Trump is impeached for time immemorial but he was never impeached because Democrats lost their gambit on the same terms they used to declare a victory.
That doesn’t make any sense, either.
Steny Hoyer tossed in his two cents in an even more hypocritical statement:
Senators cannot be faithful to their oaths of impartiality if they conspire with the President to prevent the testimony of witnesses with damning information against his case.19
Damning information is the only kind that matters to Pelosi, Hoyer, and company. Being impartial was the very least of their worries long ago when they declared Trump’s overwhelming guilt for something they had a very difficult time identifying until the Ukraine call opened a door.
Now they will discover how not being impartial works when the shoe is on someone else’s foot. I suggest you go out today and purchase some earplugs. It’s going to be a very long, very loud year.
UPDATE February 19, 2020:
#36: white collar criminals vs. drugs and guns
Rod Blagojevich was released to the media last night. It was a surreal moment, as if the clocks had been turned back eight years and he was still making the rounds pleading his case to the public.
This morning Trump is being praised by some, damned by others for yesterday’s commutations and pardons. A list of the lucky offenders is on WhiteHouse.gov.20 The eleven grants of clemency were primarily for white collar crimes. Three were for drug offenses.
Cohen weighs in
It didn’t take long for long-time Trump hater Steve Cohen (D-TN) to get started:
President Trump has it completely wrong. The presidential pardon power was designed to right inequities in the justice system, as all should be equal before the law. Instead, Trump has used the pardon power to benefit the wealthy, famous and politically connected.21
Skin color is the defining factor for Cohen:
While 37.5 percent of the federal prison population is African American, Trump has offered only one commutation to a living African American, and that at the urging of Kim Kardashian.22
I don’t recall the same vitriol we’re hearing over the Trump list when Barack Obama chose hypocrisy and pardoned those whose crimes included guns.
Obama prided himself on commutations in bulk:
Underscoring his commitment to reforming our criminal justice system, the President has commuted the sentences of more individuals than the past 7 presidents combined.23
Drug crimes ranked high on Obama’s list, especially those involving cocaine and cocaine base, despite the fact that these drugs tear apart the communities Democrats pride themselves on standing behind.
Gun crimes were another popular item. “…possession of a firearm in furtherance” is a phrase that turns up routinely in a list of 64 pardons and 209 commutations announced by Obama on January 17, 2017. In fact, the list of offenses includes the word “firearm” 59 times.24
Imagine the liberal outcry if that word was on Trump’s list even once and then ask yourself which subset of criminals you would fear less if they moved into your neighborhood?
UPDATE March 4, 2020:
#37: Which is it? Democrats defend ACA they want to destroy.
Democrats still can’t make up their minds about Obamacare. Do they want to keep their hero’s greatest accomplishment or do they want to kill it?
Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is unhappy with the Supreme Court’s decision to hear Texas v. U.S., the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act. Schumer blames Republicans and the president instead of the party that created this very expensive disaster:
Make no mistake: a big reason that the fate of these vital health care protections is in the hands of the Supreme Court is because Congressional Republicans and President Trump support the lawsuit to take health care away and haven’t lifted a finger to stop it.25
Schumer called the GOP lawsuit a “healthcare sabotage.”26 Nancy Pelosi followed up by announcing that the ACA is essential during the epidemic “coronavirus crisis:”27
The Affordable Care Act is an essential pillar of health and financial security for American families, and its protections are even more critical during a dangerous epidemic.28
As much as Pelosi’s party wants to frighten Americans, we don’t have an epidemic quite yet. The virus is still a useful political tool for divisive Democrats. Still, it would be helpful for their base if the party would keep its story straight about the fate of the ACA.
Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Bill will dismantle Obama’s legacy:
Health insurance exchanges and specified federal health programs terminate upon program implementation.29
Private insurers can’t sell coverage that Medicare for All provides. That means a death blow to the health insurance industry and all the jobs it finances as an integral part of providing coverage through Obamacare.
132 Dems sign on to dump Obamacare
14 Senate and 118 House Democrats signed on as cosponsors of the House and Senate Medicare for All bills (Schumer did not cosponsor the Senate bill). It might be easier for Sanders, Warren, and other radical progressives if POTUS did say no to Obamacare. At least they’d have a better excuse why we need to replace what the party still vigorously defends with something designed to destroy it.
UPDATE March 18, 2020:
#39: do we still hate the pharmaceutical industry?
In a “Seniors Update 2019” Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders talked about:
the harm the pharmaceutical industry inflicts on our communities.30
He accuses the industry of corporate murder:
The pharmaceutical industry is killing Americans.31
Now a virus is killing Americans. We need drug companies to stop it.
Considering the House and Senate willingness to spend hundreds of billions that will likely turn into two or more trillion, the price tag for a cure first and then a vaccine for this doomsday bug should be whatever it costs.
My first guess was that we’ll be happy to pay it.
I wasn’t entirely right.
New York Congressman Max Rose and a long list of Democratic colleagues sent a letter to President Trump that disagrees:
The American taxpayer has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars into developing urgently needed Coronavirus vaccines and treatments,” Rose said. “We cannot then turn around and allow big drug manufactures to exploit this public health emergency to price gouge and rip off consumers.”32
That was from Rose’s February 21, 2020 press release announcing the letter. Perhaps his attitude has changed by now?
One thing is certain. If and when we come out of this, members of Congress will fight over taking credit even if they provide no real value.
Pharmaceutical companies will be damned even if they come up with a miracle cure tomorrow.
It’s the height of government hypocrisy, but that’s how this works.
UPDATE March 29, 2020:
#40: illegal immigrants wanted, Americans keep out or else
So what, exactly, makes a person a refugee?
Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline stood up for “some of the most hardworking and accomplished people I’ve met”33 when he backed the House American Dream and Promise Act:
Cicilline has spoken out repeatedly about the importance of standing up for the Dreamers, individuals who were brought to the United States as children, and TPS holders, who came here after leaving behind violence, natural disasters, or desperate humanitarian conditions in their native countries.34
According to FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Rep. Cicilline’s state claimed sanctuary status in 2014. A May 7, 2017 press release from six state attorney generals, including Rhode Island AG Peter Kilmartin, defended these sanctuary policies and RI’s policy on ICE detainers.35
COVID-19 appears to have changed how Rhode Island defines sanctuary. By any measure New Yorkers are caught in a desperate humanitarian condition, or at least they are if news reports are accurate. In response refugee citizens seeking a safe haven are faced with Rhode Island’s Executive Order 20-12. The document seems harmless enough at first glance and requires only a 14-day self-quarantine until you stumble across the warning that New Yorkers “may be heading for refuge.”36 To that end, NY refugees will be profiled, targeted, rooted out by law enforcement, and subject to fines and jail time.
That’s a pretty big slice of Democratic hypocrisy the liberal left should choke on when this crisis is past, but no doubt the spin will make this a Trump problem and not a failure to stand by extremist immigration values that put citizens at risk.
UPDATE April 13, 2020:
#41: letting prisoners out and keeping law-abiding citizens in
Criminal justice reform and decarceration are issues popular with the left. Rep. Ayanna Pressley introduced H.Res. 702, the People’s Justice Guarantee, to deal with her party’s mass incarceration crisis:
Ultimately, the resolution calls to substantially reduce the number of people incarcerated and transform the purpose and experience of the criminal legal system.37
That one never went anywhere. Now it doesn’t have to.
In a March 30, 2020 letter Reps. Karen Bass (D-CA) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY) appealed to Attorney General William Barr to release federal prisoners:
We call on you, in the most urgent of terms, to do the right thing and exercise this authority and immediately move to release medically-compromised, elderly, and pregnant prisoners in the custody of the BOP.
In addition, we urge that you use every tool at your disposal to release as many prisoners as possible, to protect them from COVID-19.38
The Justice Department listened. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports it has increased home confinement by “over 40%” since March and continues to screen to find acceptable candidates. State and local facilities have taken similar measures to avoid outbreaks in their prisons and jails.
Meanwhile, millions and millions of Americans are also assigned to home confinement. We didn’t break any laws. No crimes were committed. We don’t have a choice.
If we are safe confined to our homes, why aren’t prison inmates safe if they are confined to their cells?
UPDATE April 25, 2020:
#42: trusting Americans to be stupid
Are Democrats worried that cleaning product consumption might cut into their voter base?
I suspect that all you disinfectant drinkers out there are the same people who will vote for Joe Biden. My preference is usually bourbon over commercial disinfectants, but I’m a Republican. The left wing media seems fearful that its liberal viewership doesn’t have the smarts to not guzzle a bleach and seltzer cocktail before dinner.
Granted, we’ve seen no shortage of stupidity lately. Much of it comes from Capitol Hill. By way of example, Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett posts a “Trump’s Coronavirus Timeline” on his congressional website that takes allegedly damning remarks out of context, including Trump’s disinfectant comment, apparently in hopes that liberal readers are dumb enough to take them literally.
What’s so hypocritical here is that Democrats stroke the intelligence of the American people when it suits them and worse, trust their base to select one of their own for president.
Or maybe this isn’t really so contradictory after all. The party is ready to tap Joe Biden for November and plenty of Americans will vote for him just like they cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton. Maybe I’m giving the American people too much credit.
Perhaps we should require liberal shoppers to sign a waiver when they purchase cleaning products to make sure our most vulnerable are safe.
UPDATE May 1, 2020:
#43: it was never about women, stupid
We all know how House and Senate Democrats feel about sexual misconduct. Justice Brett Kavanaugh was excoriated by Congress and members of Nancy Pelosi’s House who, among other pejoratives, referred to him as a sexual predator.40 Trump was an even bigger target. Lawmakers who didn’t want to issue their own statements relied on the press for damning media articles about Trump’s alleged misconduct. They threatened to put victims of assault on display at the 2018 State of the Union. 41 This kind of behavior was never, ever to be tolerated. In fact, it was deemed best to convict first and worry about the details and evidence later.
While Democrats circle their wagons and look the other way as the Biden scandal escalates, we should give Speaker Pelosi credit for one thing. She is living up to the remarks she made in 2018:
Survivors should be supported when they come forward without the fear of threats or further trauma.42
Ms. Reade can rest assured that Pelosi & Company will make sure that won’t happen. There won’t be further trauma because we won’t hear anything from Democrats. Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about facing the same fate as Brett Kavanaugh because this is not an issue his party will risk discussing. Women are one thing, but seriously. More important than getting rid of Trump? Not on your life. Women can matter again when the election is over. For now Democrats have better things to worry about.
UPDATE May 28, 2020:
#44: Democrats have your back but one-third of Our Agenda isn’t about Americans
We can give Democrats credit for honesty in their support for illegal immigration. That much of their agenda is out front for all the world to see, especially the world being lured to the U.S. from south of our border.
In the unlikely event that there is some tiny bit of confusion remaining as to where the party stands on the issue, the House Democratic Caucus included immigration as part of Our Agenda43 which, among other things, is meant to assure us that they have the backs of working people.
So what happened to the American people?
We aren’t included in part three of What We Stand For.44 If you select “Immigration” it leads to a Know Your Rights page that explains how to evade ICE agents.
At least we know what kind of immigration matters. That’s honesty for you, even if we lose out on 33% of their efforts.
As to hypocrisy, America entitled most, if not all of these politicians far beyond what most Americans would consider an upper middle class lifestyle. At least give our nation a nod. Illegal immigration is an ugly Democratic Party truism better left in the shadows where it belongs.
UPDATE June 1, 2020:
#45: locking down law-abiding citizens and standing by while rioters loot and destroy
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was angry when city residents violated her COVID-19 lockdown order.She closed the lakefront, so city dwellers did not receive the benefit of the outdoor parks and beaches their tax payments support. She threatened churches determined to reopen. Governor Pritzker’s order had already closed businesses so at least that was off the mayor’s plate. Restaurants and bars were already locked down hard in the wake of people caught congregating on St. Patrick’s Day.
Over the weekend COVID-19 was the least of our worries, though that concern will no doubt resurface in 2-14 days thanks to hordes of protesters not wearing masks.
The city racked up 82 shootings45 while violence skyrocketed, businesses were destroyed, suburbs locked down, and we all wondered when it would end and why more wasn’t being done to stop the destruction.
If there was a way to stop the looting and violence we didn’t see it. We heard a vulgar retort from the mayor on Friday after the president’s prescient tweets about what was happening in Minneapolis. Predictably, the same thing happened in Chicago.
Now the Metra public transit system is shut down, not that it matters for people going into the city. Who would take the chance? We can forget about damaged, looted businesses reopening on the second business day of Illinois Phase 3. We’re living in fear again, though for an entirely different reason than the pandemic that has hung over our heads for months.
Like COVID-19, this is another failure of government to protect taxpaying citizens and their businesses. We can only wonder what this Monday morning would look like if protesters bent on violence were pursued with the same zeal applied to honest people who only wanted to go to church or catch a breath of fresh air.
UPDATE June 11, 2020:
#46: enforcing the Rule of Law against Trump and defunding the police
A little over a year ago Democrats were preparing their impeachment case. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) vented his worries about Donald Trump’s impact on the rule of law:
Over the last several years, President Trump has evaded accountability for his near-daily attacks on our basic legal, ethical, and constitutional rules and norms,” said Chairman Jerrold Nadler. “Investigating these threats to the rule of law is an obligation of Congress and a core function of the House Judiciary Committee.46
Holding Trump accountable to the law was a big deal for Democrats. So is being faithful to the rule of law as it applies to investigating and prosecuting crimes against Americans. Senator Kamala Harris weighed in after Ahmaud Arbery was killed in Georgia:
If justice and the rule of law are to mean anything to the American people—including black people—the Justice Department must intervene immediately. 47
Our basic rules and norms don’t include destroying cities and employers’ places of business, but that’s what happened when we discarded the rule of law and destructive protesters ran rampant. The far left seized this as an excuse to defund police departments, though most don’t seem to have the slightest idea just what that means or how it works in practice.
Who will investigate crimes and arrest criminals, especially violent, gun-toting criminals, if we defund the police? The liability in Nancy Pelosi’s police accountability bill makes being a police officer a foolish career choice.
According to The Hill, Senator Kamala Harris hasn’t taken a definitive stance. In the increasingly likely event she gets a spot on Joe Biden’s ticket she’ll only be able to dodge this issue for so long. Like Pelosi, at some point she’s going to have to decide whether to appease the far-left elements of her party or stick with more level-headed, centrist voters and Republicans who understand that, as Maxine Waters (D-CA) pointed out before the George Floyd riots, the vast majority of police don’t present a problem.
UPDATE June 17, 2020:
#47: defending First Amendment rights while ignoring protesters’ violent behavior
In a June 3, 2020 letter to AG William Barr prominent Democrats Jerry Nadler (D-NY), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Adam Smith (D-WA), and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) demanded answers to a June 1, 2020 crackdown on protesters who assembled near the White House. The lawmakers issued the tiresome “threat to our democracy” warning and waved the flag:
As America grapples with police brutality, systemic oppression, and racism, we must each do our part to defend the rights guaranteed to us under the Constitution. The First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and assembly are core to what it means to be an American.48
The letter points out that this occurred 29 minutes before the start of the 7:00 p.m. Washington D.C. curfew.
Politics and hatred for our president make it easy to ignore riots, looting, burning, and murder that were taking place across the country the day before Democrats penned their letter. Congressman Jason Smith (R-MO) points out that:
Here in Missouri, rioters took innocent lives. David Dorn, a 77-year-old retired St. Louis police captain who served 38 years on the force, was checking on his friend’s shop when he was shot and killed by looters. He was found dead on the sidewalk in front of the ransacked store. Even more disturbing, his murder was streamed in real-time on Facebook Live. Tragically, his death was not an isolated incident.49
Democrats may relish the idea of Donald Trump being in harm’s way at the hands of liberal protesters, but there was every reason to suspect the gathering could turn violent without warning.
If Barack Obama was president and the protesters were ultra-right wingers, do you think Nadler and company would give them the First Amendment thumbs up if the circumstances were the same?
UPDATE July 11, 2020:
#48: being lied to is better than being shot, thanks
Oh, how the howls of anger and disbelief echoed as another victory was snatched from Trump’s tormentors and Roger Stone evaded the prison cell Democrats would happily have planted him in for the rest of his life.
White collar criminal threatens the rule of law
Trump Persecutor-in-Chief Jerry Nadler kick-started hopes for yet another investigation and opined:
“President Trump’s unprecedented decision to commute the sentence of Roger Stone, an individual that could directly implicate him in criminal misconduct, undermines the rule of law.50
Nadler continues to prove that he’s no genius, but you don’t have to be to know that once the cell door closes the time for squealing is pretty well over. Still, Democratic hopes run high that somewhere, anywhere, there is that elusive smoking gun to prove once and for all that the president is a criminal.
Drug dealers with guns deserve forgiveness
Speaking of smoking guns, it’s curious that we didn’t hear the same panic over another partisan threat to the rule of law when Barack Obama pardoned heavy weight drug dealers who use firearms. One would think that Democrats like Nadler and Maloney would be concerned about that too, considering some of the most outrageous gunplay outside of a Hollywood Western takes place inside cities controlled by members of their party.
Democrats including Steve Cohen (D-TN) applauded Obama’s pardons of these “largely non-violent”51 drug dealers who are apparently less of a threat to society than liars. Looking at one of the Obama White House pardon lists, I’d much rather have Roger Stone living next door than one of the gun-toting “largely non-violent” dealers Democrats deem worthy of forgiveness.
Looks like political hypocrisy Trumps the rule of law again.
I’ve been lied to many times. I’ve never been shot, but for now I’m hedging my bets that a lie is infinitely preferable to a bullet.
UPDATE July 26, 2020:
#49: destroying property and threatening the public to end brutality
Is it just me, or is destroying property and threatening people a bad way to spread a message about ending brutality?
Label it anti-fascist, if you wish. It doesn’t really matter whether the protest is about systemic racism or police brutality or White House fascism. The very moment a mass movement employs the threat of violence and especially when it acts on that violence the message turns into something else: coercion.
What could possibly lead the left to believe that coercing people into agreement by threatening their property and persons will lead to constructive social change? Perhaps it’s youthful naiveté, but not all of the protesters are young. It could be a few bad apples that make the rest of the mob look bad, but it seems that there are more than just a few.
Or it could be that there is no unified message, no constructive purpose, unifying principle, or worthwhile value behind what’s happening. The left is so wrapped up in loud, mindless chants and distorted symbols that it doesn’t understand that the only thing it’s protesters stand for is a threat to the law-abiding public.
Those of us who aren’t involved in this childishly naïve, albeit destructive acting out understand that sooner or later enough will be enough. When that happens the left will scream fascism and brutality. What’s so incredibly hypocritical about this pointless liberal uprising is that protesters expect the system to work for them to create meaningful change even while they reject everything about it.
That’s not naïve. It’s just stupid.
UPDATE August 18, 2020:
#50: playing our National Anthem at the start of the Democratic Convention
Yes, listening to a chorus of youthful voices singing our National Anthem last night to kick off the Democratic Party’s 2020 convention was stirring. It almost brought me to tears, but not for any reason you’ll hear from the media outlets gushing over last night’s canned performances.
If the party gets what it’s after, the future of every voice in that choir will be enslaved to Democratic policy prerogatives that will become more extreme year after year as liberal politicians struggling for power strive to top the excesses of their predecessors. The great economy we saw just before the pandemic struck will be a memory unless you are a party operative.
If Democrats scripting this sham convention had even a shred of honesty left the choir would have performed Gosudarstvennyy Gimn Rossiyskoy Federatsii. They may oppose Russian interference in our elections, but they don’t seem to have any problems with the socialist system that lies behind it.
UPDATE August 25, 2020:
#51: sixty-six to one: Democrats decide which Black Lives Really Matter
Democrats put their own unique spin on Black Lives Matter. Sometimes people who are shot have value. Sometimes they do not.
While the fires in Kenosha, Wisconsin raged after a police-involved shooting and an explosion of criminal violence, Joe Biden emerged to make a shallow statement parroting the party line about holding the police accountable.
A little to the south in Chicago the latest numbers from the weekend came in. 66 people were shot. 5 died.
This fall Democrats will demand more money for big cities they control. They will tell you that poor people need jobs, education, and opportunity. They will ignore the elephant in the room as they always have. It’s more expeditious politically to point fingers at police who are involved in solitary incidents. More often than not these police officers are white, so the race card is easy to throw. When people of color murder each other by the hundreds it runs counter to everything Democrats believe so they either ignore it, blame it on the lack of social spending, or relegate the deaths to that favorite new liberal catch-all, systemic racism.
Can you imagine an honest Democratic politician with the courage to not only call crime what it is, but to defend all black lives and not just those that benefit the party politically?
Neither can I.
UPDATE August 28, 2020:
#52: Green Deal spending won’t save Social Security or Medicare
Are Democrats stupid, did they skip out of their accounting classes, or are they so caught up in their own ridiculous rhetoric that they believe the nonsense they keep putting in print?
The bright liberal bulbs on the Task Force on Aging and Families declared:
Americans are facing both a public health crisis and an economic one due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is nothing short of cruel that President Trump has chosen this moment to plunge Social Security and Medicare into chaos, along with the millions of children and older Americans who survive on these earned benefits.52
Perhaps they forgot that an equally dim Democratic bulb, VP hopeful Senator Kamala Harris cosponsored Medicare for All and radical socialist nitwit Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal.
In Democratland tens of trillions might rescue our economy.
In accounting class spending to incur more debt is the beginning of the end.
UPDATE September 5, 2020:
#53: blaming Trump for unproven remarks about our troops
No one in the media, on Capitol Hill, or on the Biden campaign trail knows for certain what Trump did or didn’t say about our troops during that controversial 2018 trip to France. Absent an audiotape we’ll never know for sure. Given the incendiary nature of our politics, even if there was a tape the right would scream fraud and conspiracy. In the absence of proof Democrats parrot their newest evidence proving the very worst about the president.
This is how election year democracy works. There is no difference between lies and the truth.
There is still a difference between right and wrong. We have incontrovertible proof of one thing.
Democrats unleashed their unabashed hatred for law enforcement by calling federal employees storm troopers and “Trump’s Gestapo.” Even our Speaker of the House joined in the fun.53 This would be an unforgiveable affront if it came from a Republican. Since it comes from Democrats it is justified and forgiven.
We know for a fact that the souls buried in that French cemetery died fighting against the same kind of fascist totalitarianism that Democrats claim our federal law enforcement officers are a part of. If anyone deserves an apology, these are the Americans who have been unjustly condemned. Unlike the newest election year scandal we know for a fact what was said. We should hold these politicians accountable.
UPDATE September 20, 2020:
#54: legislating from the bench
Hang on to your hats. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing is about to dump a truckload of bipartisan hypocrisy on the American people.
Republicans detest legislating from the bench. During the summer battle over judicial appointments Wyoming Senator John Barrasso stated in no uncertain terms:
Let me assure people who are tuning in today: These judges will apply the law as written. They will not legislate from the bench. We’ve had enough of that.54
We heard the same thing during Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation:
Time and time again Hoosiers have told me the importance of confirming a mainstream choice for the Supreme Court — one that doesn’t legislate from the bench and understands his or her role in our Constitutional System. 55
Democrats don’t like legislating from the bench, either, especially if it means the rulings won’t go their way. During Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation they argued:
Based on a thorough review of his record, we have concluded that the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh to the highest bench would endanger historically significant legal precedents of importance to African Americans and, more broadly, the balance of inclusive justice itself.56
Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi was more specific about the problems with confirming a conservative justice who might not agree with his party’s values:
The next Justice to join the Court will be in a position to uphold or overturn key rulings preserving reproductive rights, access to affordable health care for all Americans, and legal protections preventing discrimination against our LGBTQ friends, relatives, and neighbors. In light of Judge Kavanaugh’s record on the bench and in legal scholarship, I find his nomination deeply disturbing.57
So if we don’t want to pick a justice who will violate this fundamental maxim, why are Republicans in an urge to confirm a new justice before time runs out and why are Democrats crying foul and threatening to pack the court?
Because they are hypocrites, of course. Legislating from the bench is precisely what this is all about. Nominating a justice is one of the most important powers a president has. Trump’s next move can shape SCOTUS’s decision making for years to come. Anyone who says otherwise is just unhappy they don’t have the opportunity to do the same thing from the opposite side of the aisle.
UPDATE October 2, 2020:
#55: leveraging Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis
The news is fresh so America is just beginning to weigh in, but for all those who plan to turn the president and first lady’s positive COVID-19 tests into a win for Biden, Harris, and Democrats in general just don’t do it. Public officials on both sides have been sidelined by this virus. Even vitriolic Trump critic and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is currently quarantined for a second time after his own possible exposure.
House Democrats already have a deplorable record of using Americans pandemic deaths to their advantage. In a September 22, 2020 press release they appeared to make light of this national tragedy:
This has been a very difficult year for many throughout America in a time where leadership is desperately needed. We remain in the midst of a deadly pandemic. 200,000 or so Americans dead. More than six million Americans infected by the coronavirus. Over 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed. Tens of millions of Americans remain unemployed. And yet Donald Trump and the Senate continue to do nothing about it. It’s cruel, callous and cold-hearted
But what else have we come to expect from Trump, McConnell and the boys? .58
It’s not clear who “the boys” are. Was this intended as a joke? There is nothing funny about this disease. The only thing worse than using it for laughs is using it for partisan gain.
Politicizing this pandemic is just as inevitable as blaming the person who sits in the Oval Office. In the coming days we will hear all manner of ramped-up hatred and blame vented at our president by people who will take Trump’s positive diagnosis as absolute proof that he bungled our pandemic response.
Take these remarks for what they are, consider who they come from, and think about what these anti-Americans expect to gain in return.
UPDATE October 4, 2020:
#56: demanding transparency from Trump while Biden stonewalls
Apparently the opacity of the Biden campaign doesn’t mean the Trump campaign should expect the same accommodation from Democrats. Yesterday House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) emphasized the importance of knowing more details than usual about the president’s health:
Transparency is going to be important as it relates to the president’s health and well-being and his condition moving forward. It’s in the best interests of the presidency, of our republic, of the American people that the White House provide us with a level of information that they are not accustomed to providing and that it be accurate.59
It was reassuring to hear that Democrats are concerned about Trump’s well-being, but then Jeffries drilled down to what this is really about:
Now is not the time to play political games or to try to project some level of manliness that has gotten us into the situation that we are in right now. The Trump administration is a toxic combination of arrogance and ignorance, and hopefully they can see past that dynamic in this moment of crisis right now.60
Arrogance. Ignorance. We’re back to hate as usual.
It’s ironic that Democrats who never had any use for Trump for anything but an impeachment-worthy punching bag consider his coronavirus scare a crisis. As far as the party is concerned this should be a moment of glee that could only be surpassed if the president’s condition took a turn for the worse.
What’s so hypocritical about this is the Biden campaign’s refusal to agree to a drug test that Trump agreed to take. This is a prerequisite to employment for many job-seeking Americans, but Democratic Party elites tend to hold themselves above the people so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. The question remains, though, as to why the man who wants to be entrusted with our nuclear arsenal would not agree to this simple test.
The charade over scanning the two candidates for listening devices also raised a question about the faculties and well-being of a man who could be our oldest president. This typifies the ignore- the-obvious stance Democrats have adopted on everything from protest violence to the health and constitution of the man they insist will right the wrongs of Trump. Their words and deeds seethe with hypocrisy because they know the party faithful don’t care.
UPDATE October 5, 2020:
#57: rules for wearing a mask depend on who you are
Nasty Nancy Pelosi couldn’t resist lashing out at the president while he was temporarily sidelined by the coronavirus. In a media interview she criticized Trump for inviting his illness by “going into crowds unmasked”61
The speaker also asked us to pray for the president’s health.62 Pelosi has her own set of rules, so we can only guess what she is praying for. She reassured us “that continuity of government is always in place.” 63 The implications of that remark are too horrifying to contemplate.
For now suffice it to say her beauty parlor trip still lingers in our memory just as the pictures on her congressional website show that mask wearing is something for the people around her and not for the Speaker of the House.
Among a bevy of maskless photo-ops in her slideshow is a picture titled “Remembering George Floyd” that shows Pelosi in the company of three men wearing masks. I can’t display the picture here for copyright reasons, but suffice it to say that this time she stooped to wearing a face covering that’s pulled down so only part of her mouth is covered, which is something I believe science and Dr. Fauci frown on.
In the scheme of things none of this really matters except for one thing. Pelosi & Company are promising Americans handout after handout in advance of the election. The speaker talks about “one country, one destiny.” When the voting is over, does anyone seriously think that her rules and her destiny will have anything to do with ours?
UPDATE October 17, 2020:
#58: a fair tax increase for Illinois
When he’s not blaming Donald Trump for his state’s coronavirus woes, Illinois Fat Cat Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is going all out to sell his fair tax amendment to voters. Special interests are lined up behind him. Taxpayers are threatened with the consequences of not doing what we’re told and checking “yes” to bail out the state. We are deluged with ads for this new tax and spend scam. The biggest lie of all comes from our seat of government in Springfield that dares to claim that our “fiscal health depends” on this new fair tax system.64
It’s too late for that. Illinois is terminal. To add a little perspective to how bad things are, the revenue haul from being fair will be less than 2.5% of the state’s pension debt.
There is no such thing as a fair tax that punishes people because partisan rhetoric needs an enemy. That doesn’t mean liberal billionaire Pritzker wont’ be able to sell his biggest campaign promise. Like Joe Biden’s refusal to talk about court packing, the governor is not being honest with voters about how little this perfunctory stab at a tax increase will accomplish and what it could mean for our future.
The Illinois Policy Institute points out that if the amendment passes the total tax burden could exceed 50% for state small businesses.65 Being fair also means senior citizen incomes could be tapped for the first time:66
Plans to punish taxpayers during a soaring pandemic is bad enough. Lying to us about fairness in a fundamentally unfair state with talk about restoring Illinois from the people who will put the final nail in our coffin is reprehensible. This is government hypocrisy at its very finest.
As with most things there is a hidden silver lining to Pritzker’s fair tax. If you are out of work this is a great time to start a moving company.
UPDATE October 31, 2020:
#59: public health’s flu shot messaging
I get a flu shot every year, no fail. Years ago I didn’t think it was important and then I got the flu. I don’t ever want it again.
This year I’m rethinking my flu shot. The Illinois Department of Public Health and Governor Pritzker succeeded in their efforts to make sure I am scared absolutely s***less over COVID 19. I got the public health message loud and clear: no one is immune, everyone is at risk, and anyone could be a carrier. A horrible, lonely death is lurking just around the corner if I make the slightest misstep, come near the wrong person, touch the wrong thing, or inhale the wrong air.
So if death is everywhere, why would I go to a pharmacy or doctor’s office or public health department so I can be in an indoor place sharing air with people are most likely to be ill? Why should I risk my life for a flu shot?
Online public health resources don’t offer any guidance on how to safely get vaccinated against the flu. They only offer dire warnings about the tragic consequences of selfishly refusing to do the right thing.
The new COVID-19 case count in Illinois was nearly 7,000 yesterday. That’s a new record. We’re setting a lot of records these days. Public health warns that the fall and winter will be as close to viral Armageddon as we’ll see in our lifetimes, especially when seasonal influenza is added to the equation. Hospitals could be overwhelmed. God forbid we should fall ill from the flu and need medical assistance.
Restaurants and bars in Illinois are shut down for indoor service. The pot shops are open, of course. I could go stand in line at a state-sponsored drug dealing store so I can line Springfield’s pockets, but paying exorbitant taxes to risk catching COVID seems like a risky plan. I could also stay at home in my bubble, get curbside everything like I’ve been doing since March, and interact with no one. That means I probably won’t be exposed to the flu, COVID, or any other communicable disease.
This year I’ll get my flu shot as soon as IDPH and our doomsday pronouncing governor tell me how to do it without dying. Perhaps they can figure that little conundrum out by the time flu season is over.
UPDATE November 1, 2020:
#60: not accepting responsibility for 9,711 deaths in Illinois
How many times have you heard that doing something yourself is the only way to do it right? Let’s add something to that. You should never blame others for not doing something you are also incapable of. Apparently that thought never crossed Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker’s mind, or perhaps he is too preoccupied with pushing his unfair fair tax amendment.
As of this morning 9,711 Illinoisans are dead from COVID-19. The governor wears the same teflon suit popular among Illinois Democrats, so these deaths aren’t his fault. Inexplicably, they might be President Trump’s. Pritzker has blasted the White House for the pandemic response while he sheds responsibility for what has happened to his state. The governor patted himself and his public health officials on the back for the short-lived drop in positivity we enjoyed during the summer.
Short lived it was.
Now things are worse than ever. Case counts are exploding. Someone has to take the blame and it’s not going to be our governor or anyone in Springfield. The governor has attacked President Trump and the federal response from the beginning. His stay-at-home order and new restaurant and bar indoor service shutdowns demonstrate that he has the power to do what he wants. Why hasn’t he stopped the pandemic in Illinois? If he knows what Trump is doing wrong, can’t he just do it right?
It’s insulting to my readers to point out the obvious so let’s leave it at this. No one knows what to do about COVID-19. Even our mask-wearing governor has been forced to quarantine, so blaming Trump’s recklessness for becoming infected is rather hypocritical. The worst aspects of this disease are political, not medical, because they distort the facts and drive us apart. The governor needs to take off that teflon suit and wear the same clothes he expects the president to put on every morning. Then he can explain why we have 9,711 dead Illinoisans.
UPDATE November 4, 2020:
#61: calling our government illegitimate so you can use it for your illegitimate purposes
When is a Constitutional provision illegitimate? When Democrats don’t agree with it.
I must have skipped the civics lesson where we learned that the purpose of our Federal Government is to serve the Democratic Party. Obviously Nancy Pelosi learned that lesson and never forgot it.
Now that we have a new Justice Barrett, Democrats have shifted strategy from obstruction to undermining the Supreme Court’s legitimacy. Pelosi has already labeled the confirmation process illegitimate.67 That wasn’t enough, so on Election Day she also told voters that Barrett is an illegitimate justice.68 That sets the stage for having an illegitimate president if the election winds up in the high court’s hands and the decision goes Trump’s way.
A legitimate Supreme Court is not owned by any political party, though listening to the repetition of “illegitimate” in outraged Democratic Party press releases gives exactly that impression. Democrats claim the people should have a say, but that say is only legitimate if the people agree with what they want. The party can’t have it both ways. The court was not constructed to match ideology to the whims of the prevailing political party.
Pelosi already raised the specter of the 25th Amendment to get rid of the president. That might come in handy for a President Biden too, but that’s not the point. Every aspect of our government is suspect except one. The president is incompetent. The Supreme Court confirmation process and newest justice are illegitimate. Senate Republicans are guilty of heinous crimes against our democracy for overseeing a sham process Democrats could not control.
What’s left? Pelosi’s House, a glowing tribute to American government done right in a sea of federal illegitimacy. Everything else is illegitimate until Democrats take it over.
The larger issue isn’t Justice Barrett, who isn’t going anywhere. It’s the damage done by the Democratic Party’s scorched earth take on the legitimacy of anything they don’t own and control. That makes their hypocritical stance on the separation of powers and the Constitution wholly illegitimate, but when you don’t care about these things it doesn’t really matter, does it?
UPDATE November 8, 2020:
#62: Harris in white is another hypocritical jab at Republicans
It was tough to watch Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take their victory lap yesterday and pretend that everything is suddenly different. Nothing has changed. Harris proved that.
During the 2020 State of the Union Democrats were typically unable to restrain their bad behavior. Nancy Pelosi ripped up the president’s speech for all the world to see. Some of her colleagues skipped the speech altogether. They were unable to act like civil adults and sit quietly for an hour and eighteen minutes.
Anti-Trump white attire was the order of the day for many women in the Democratic Party including Speaker Pelosi. They stood out like badly-behaved children who demand attention.
Joe Biden talked about unity yesterday as if everything that preceded this election is now just water under the bridge. Kamala Harris made her comments in white, which brought back memories of the divisive 2020 SOTU and her party’s Trump impeachment charade.
We should thank the vice president for reminding us that nothing has changed. We’re still at odds and will remain that way. Conservative Americans will tolerate Joe Biden’s peace offering because we have no choice, but Kamala in white reminded us that it’s just more Democratic Party hypocrisy.
UPDATE November 15, 2020:
#63: Democrats want a COVID vaccine, with conditions
I don’t know about you, but my sleeve is already rolled up. When that COVID-19 vaccine hits the shelves I’ll get in line at 2:00 a.m. if I have to. I want this over and done with now.
Not everyone feels that way. When the news got out in October that a vaccine was imminent, soon to be acting president Kamala Harris said she wouldn’t take it if President Trump was behind it. She will only roll up her sleeve if doctors and scientists say it’s OK.
Harris gave Trump a lot of undeserved credit. If he can bypass the FDA, pharmaceutical industry testing, and every physician and scientist involved in the vaccine effort and push a vaccine to Americans all by himself we need him to be our president for the next hundred years.
Trump doesn’t have that power, of course. No president does, though Joe Biden might give it a shot (no pun intended). It was a stupid, thoughtless remark from Harris because it raised doubt as to whether the vaccine is safe. When measles, mumps, influenza, and other easily preventable, highly contagious diseases spread because Americans won’t get vaccinated the last thing we need is someone they respect for god knows what reason telling them she won’t get vaccinated. The anti-Trump nuances of her remark will be lost. The lingering message is that a vaccine might not be safe.
Fellow Trump-hater Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) further muddied the water by politicizing America’s vaccine development. She insisted that not working with WHO would hinder “a global effort to develop and distribute a COVID-19 vaccine.”69
By politicizing the response to this disease, and therefore American lives and the economy, the Trump administration poses a threat to public health, prosperity, and security.70
That threat to public health means we could have our COVID shots ready by the end of this year instead of slowing the process by further globalizing the effort while scores of Americans die every day. That’s the difference between trusting our nation’s best in the world science and using it against us for partisan leverage.
Nancy Pelosi made an effort to sound reasonable, though it sounds like she could also use some schooling in FDA protocol:
So, again, we should be hopeful but we have to be careful and we have to honor the science, whether it’s about how we, how we embrace a vaccine. The vaccine will be – the more it is embraced, the more effective it will be.71
Being careful is called “emergency authorization” in FDA parlance. Perhaps Harris doesn’t know or more likely, doesn’t care about the mechanics of drug approval. She should read up before she gets involved in trashing our health care system with the Medicare for All plan she co-sponsored.
Pelosi has a vested interest in getting her shot, especially if she plans another unmasked beauty salon visit. She’ll need to look her best when she joins fellow Democrats to give credit to Joe Biden for saving America with Trump’s coronavirus vaccine. Now if they can only delay the first shots for two more months …
UPDATE November 23, 2020:
#64: terrorists and illegals invited in but Americans shut out
With Thanksgiving two days away we have a daunting list of states with pointless COVID-19 travel restrictions. Many of the states that pass them are so infested with this virus that no one who isn’t already breaking the law would want to travel there.
Consider Chicago. The city’s emergency travel order has grown to 46 states.72 This should not be necessary when you consider that Mayor Lightfoot has shut down every reason to risk the flying bullets, car jackings, expressway shootings, and other attractions of this once-great city. Unless you live in Chicago you have absolutely no reason to even consider going there even after this pandemic is over. As far as Thanksgiving is concerned, Illinois’ atrocious and growing coronavirus problem speaks for itself. Stay away.
Like many Democrat-run urban hellholes Chicago prides itself on being a welcoming city for illegal immigrants. By definition illegals already ignore the law so even in Chicago we should not expect them to comply with the same quarantine restrictions as American citizens journeying from other states.
We shouldn’t expect terrorists to comply with our laws, either.
No travel restrictions in Biden’s Oval Office
As part of his Sell Out America agenda Joe Biden has already sent out word that immigration enforcement will change on January 20, 2021. DACA will be reinstated. Trump’s travel restrictions on countries most likely to ship terrorists to the U.S. – the Democrat-titled “Muslim ban” – will be repealed. At the same time Americans could be subjected to additional federal COVID-19 restrictions in addition to what their state and local governments already impose. As The Federalist reports, these crackdowns on our liberty include new pleas from Oregon’s governor for neighbor to turn in neighbor on Thanksgiving.73
As 2020 draws to this ugly conclusion terrorists and illegals can look forward to a better 2021. We can only hope that judges in Oregon will be as lenient with those who are led away from their turkey dinners on Thursday for the offense of gathering with friends and family.
Update November 25, 2020:
#65: a pandemic budget that inflicts even more pain
Chicago’s money woes didn’t start with COVID-19. They won’t end with the pandemic, either. That doesn’t mean this isn’t a good time to screw city residents with Mayor Lightfoot’s 2021 “pandemic budget.”
The city’s press release tries to justify what Lightfoot has done with the self-indulgent assertion that the budget is a “statement on our values.”74 These values include protecting its sanctuaried illegal immigrant population75 while it socks taxpayers with a new $94 million property tax hike with automatic annual increases.
Before the budget passed the mayor boasted that she’d managed to save the 350 city jobs76 that were on the chopping block. Taxpayer heads did not receive similar pardons. Hand it to Democrats. They protect their own.
The mayor boasts an “equity-focused” budget approach.77“Regressive” does not exist in her vocabulary. Instead, according to WGN News a proposal is in the works to levy a delivery tax on residents who use Amazon and similar services.78
If this is going to pass the city better get moving before Lightfoot and Governor Pritzker’s instructions to stay at home expire. The city won’t make nearly as much money if virus numbers start to decline and people feel safe going out again.
When that happens what will Chicago do? Assess a head tax on residents who survived the pandemic to make up for the revenue shortfall for those who did not? I hesitate to put that idea in print. It might be too good for equity-obsessed Democrats to resist.
UPDATE November 27, 2020:
#66: hang on a little longer and by the way, let’s all come together and heal
How many times during this strange Thanksgiving week did you hear Democrats tell you to hang on just a little longer because help is on the way? Vaccines are ready to go. If we can hold on and stay in hiding like Joe Biden for just a few more months …
Come together? Not for four more years, at least.
It takes a lot of gall for President-elect Biden to even hint that it’s time to come together, but in a hypocritical holiday Op-Ed written for CNN he did exactly that not once, but four times.79
He even mentioned “healing together,”80 which is a ham-fisted hypocritical slap to anyone that didn’t buy into the hatred promulgated by his party for four long years. Never forgive or forget should be the mantra for every conservative voter for years to come.
At least the president-elect was circumspect enough to not take credit for the vaccine rollout just yet. Biden has no right to even use the word “vaccine,” but rest assured he will take every ounce of credit after he is safely ensconced in Trump’s Oval Office.
When that happens smirking Vice President-elect Harris has some explaining to do.
Hypocritical Harris puts black community at risk
Perhaps Joe forgot about his running mate’s advice to the nation to not trust any vaccine backed by our president. That’s a perplexing message for Harris to send to a black community severely impacted by this pandemic. She will be the first black vice president and will likely be taken seriously because of this with no regard to her endless smirks and extreme left politics. Perhaps she didn’t think about that before she warned the public away from the vaccine that could put this problem behind us. Perhaps Democrats don’t want this problem to go away. It’s a good excuse to spend and make people dependent. The party is very fond of both of these things.
Whatever Harris’ motivation I’ll put my money on she and Biden getting the vaccine while Trump is still in office. They won’t say much about it and they may lie about the timing, but I can’t imagine any scenarios where the pair won’t be first in line.
So will Harris retract her comments? Of course not. The American people are just numbers. In pandemic politics even the dead are useful to Democrats.
Is “God Bless America” offensive, too?
And by the way, Joe. When you’re president try ending this sort of thing with “God Bless the United States of America” or even “God Bless America.” It might be offensive to many Democrats, but it means a lot most Americans. Maybe Trump will teach you before you move in.
UPDATE November 29, 2020:
#67: Democrats hate Trump but they want him back anyway
After ice cream elitist Nancy Pelosi bailed on the American people by refusing to compromise on a relief bill that wasn’t weighted down with pork Democrats predictably blamed Republicans for their failure. The truth is they didn’t want to pass a bill before the election. The more the American people suffer the better for the party. After all, congressional lawmakers’ salaries are guaranteed and many are wealthy in their own right. This is all just another partisan game.
Now the election is over. In a November 22, 2020 media interview House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wallowed in the half-truths and misinformation that characterize how Democrats communicate with the American people.
After expressing his optimism that Republicans will be willing to negotiate with “genuineness and authenticity” on the next relief bill, he complained that the president is “missing in action” and “quit on the American people.”81
Did we miss something? I thought this is what Jeffries and his party’s congressional miscreants wanted. They hate Trump. They hated him before he was elected. They hated him for the three years and eleven months he delivered for the people. They hate Trump supporters. They hate Trump policies. They even hate Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine, or at least they will hate it until it’s available and Joe Biden can accept credit.
The problem is that Democrats need the president for their relief bill and they know it. They ignore the inconvenient truth that Trump was willing to deal on a bill long ago but there wasn’t enough pig fat tucked into the legislation to appeal to Pelosi:
Democrats are insisting on a massive taxpayer bailout of badly run blue states, stimulus checks for illegal aliens, and the mass release of inmates from jail. They want to release a lot of inmates, some of them for very serious reasons. They want to release them from jail. They want that part — as part of a stimulus package, can you believe it?82
Trump never quit on the American people. Democrats did for the most cynical of reasons: political power. What does the president owe hacks like Jeffries and Pelosi and Schumer who want to put the election behind them, mouth lies about unity, and pass a huge relief bill they will blame the president and Republicans for delaying?
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Hypocrisy update December 3, 2020:
#68: saying “all of the people” when you mean “criminals”
I think it’s fair to say that when House Squad member Ayanna Pressley said this she did not mean conservative Americans:
You cannot have a government for and by the people if it is not represented by all of the people,” said Congresswoman Pressley83
.
That was a year ago. In a December 2, 2020 op-ed she threatens to make good on her claim to bring justice for all the people with “mass decarceration.”84 In case you haven’t kept up with the newest liberal labels for bad ideas, this means redefining the idea of criminals and criminal behavior.
Apparently “criminal” is just a label. If we change the label we won’t have any more criminals and no need for prisons or the police. This will save us money and create a better, happier, more equal society.
Credit Democrats who think like Pressley for trying to expand the opportunities in the criminal workforce. This won’t really be a benefit for “all of the people,” but we will all share in the results.
Hypocrisy update December 16, 2020:
#69: Pelosi’s crocodile tears over 300,000 deaths
Time is up for the House and Senate to help the American people. For Nancy Pelosi that means it’s almost time to take credit for not only helping the unemployed, but for saving lives:
Congress must come together and reach bipartisan agreement this week on coronavirus legislation to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people. We cannot go home without it.85
Saving lives is a pretty ominous responsibility, though obviously not an especially important one because the American people came dead last – pun intended – so lawmakers can run away for their holidays with whatever passes for their consciences left intact.
In all honesty we don’t really expect Pelosi to care. It’s understandable she fears looking bad while “lives and livelihoods” are lost. It would have been nice if this important bipartisan agreement had been reached in time for Americans to receive their checks before Christmas, but as long as she makes a deal in time for a quick congratulatory press release I guess she’s fulfilled what passes for an obligation.
Still, one has to wonder. If Democrats had a chance to save those 300,000 lives in exchange for keeping Trump in the White House would they have agreed?
Hypocrisy update December 29, 2020:
#70: blaming Republicans for not saving the people you destroyed
When Mitch McConnell said no to adding another $1,400 to the newest round of COVID relief payments Democrats were understandably outraged. Americans are desperate. How could he do this?
Senator Debbie Stabenow voiced her frustration:
Our families are in desperate need of help and Senate Republicans are standing in the way.86
Senator Stabenow is from Michigan. Gretchen Whitmer is governor. Her shutdowns in response to COVID-19 made national headlines, but she’s hardly the only Democrat who turned working families and business owners into desperate Americans.
Chuck Schumer wasn’t happy, either. Schumer accused McConnell of:
a blatant attempt to deprive Americans of a $2,000 survival check.87
Actually, McConnell only deprived Americans of $1,400. In any event, Schumer is from New York. It’s appalling what Governor Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio did to families and businesses in that state.
J.B. Priztker did the same thing to Illinois.
Gavin Newsom did the same thing to California.
I could go on and on but you get the idea so let’s stop wasting time and cut to the chase.
1. Democrats chewed up month after month stalling COVID relief so they could tuck as much extra spending in their final package as possible. When all was said and done families came up short.
2. Democratic governors either took advantage of the COVID situation to ruin their state economies in expectation of federal aid for completely unrelated problems like pension relief or they panicked and resorted to lockdowns and business closures. Either explanation works. They wear the blame.
3. Democrats on Capitol Hill ignore the consequences of the House doing exactly what Schumer blames McConnell for doing: making help for Americans contingent on other partisan spending.
For the record I don’t agree with McConnell. Americans deserve more and better. They aren’t going to get it from Democrats, though. Their unfathomable hypocrisy on pandemic relief proves they are at the top of their game. Too bad so many who are hurting rely on them for help.
Hypocrisy update January 1, 2021:
#71: fighting for the people
There was a shred of truth in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “End of 116th Congress” statement. She thanked House Democrats for:
fighting For the People.88
I don’t know if it was intentional, but assuming it is capitalizing “For the People” is important. It refers to a Democratic Party agenda, not actually doing anything to help Americans.
H.R. 1, the For the People Act was an ill-fated election reform bill introduced by John Sarbanes (D-MD) in 2019. It met with overwhelming approval from Democrats in the House. 236 cosponsored the bill. Not a single Republican said yes. Hilariously, Sarbanes’ bill:
also sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, protecting the security of the voter rolls, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect the security and integrity of U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.89
Not doing these things worked to the party’s advantage. Democrats should breathe a sigh of relief that this DOA legislation stayed right where it was imagined.
The House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee also used “For the People” when it talked about lowering health care and drug prices, raising pay and “rebuilding America,” and cleaning up corruption in Washington.90
None of these things happened either, but that’s not the point. The aim is taking credit “for the people” and hoping to be believed.
Pelosi was right about fighting. Fighting is a good thing for the House and Senate. It means lawmakers don’t have to do anything.
When it came to fighting for the people – without caps this time – Pelosi made sure Americans got the bare minimum by stalling House coronavirus CARES Act relief because she couldn’t get the trillions in spending she demanded including scantily disguised bailouts for Democratic states like Illinois.
In the end Pelosi won anyway. The House passed a massive spending package and linked a few dollars in minimalist COVID relief for the masses to her party’s spending priorities. It was only when Trump shamed the House and Senate and demanded more that she upped the ante to the president’s $2,000 benchmark.
There is hypocrisy aplenty here, first for alluding to an election security bill that could have trashed this election for Joe Biden. Second is the hoax implicit in “fighting for the people.” As usual, Democrats fought for themselves and won.
Hypocrisy update January 6, 2021:
#72: running for a Democratic Party that worships whiteness
The shocking news that Georgia voters handed Raphael Warnock a U.S. Senate seat is only eclipsed by the fact that he went to so much effort to get it. The candidate who is known for demanding that we repent for worshipping whiteness is joining a body seething with very powerful, very wealthy white people.
How is this possible?
Warnock must not see the hypocrisy in signing up with a party that staked its claim to convincing Americans that we are a racist nation despite the fact that Democratic representation on Capitol Hill is overwhelmingly white and by his own definition emblematic of a nation that not only worships, but elects whiteness.
The Senate is transparent about its diversity. The list of non-white Senators is pretty short and even shorter than it looks because Kamala Harris counts as both African American and Asian American.
As a freshman senator Warnock can’t expect to make any massive inroads to fix what makes America such a terrible, racist place. Like AOC in the House he can talk loud and intimidate colleagues with divisive speeches that dare them to disagree, but against the likes of his white, career politician colleagues he’s not going to make history anytime soon.
The more troubling question is why Warnock would want any part of a Democratic Party that decried racist America and then nominated Joe Biden for president, a man who is the essence of wealthy white Americana?
Why would he even consider submitting to Mitch McConnell or – god forbid – Chuck Schumer?
I’ve pondered this long and hard and can only come up with one simple answer. Judging by the wealthy career politicians that haunt the Senate halls year after year after year it must be a great gig for those lucky enough to get it. Values are one thing but a lucrative, do nothing career in Democratic Party politics is quite another.
Hypocrisy update January 8, 2021:
#73: forbidding Republicans to leverage Nazis
9:40 a.m.: Illinois’ socialist Rep. Jan Schakowsky doesn’t like it when others use Nazi references. This is the kind of off-limits rhetoric that only members of her party are allowed to indulge.
The left viciously attacked newly-elected Republican Rep. Mary’s Miller’s comment that “Hitler was right on one thing.” Schakowsky joined other Illinois Democrats who condemned the congresswoman:
We, the duly elected Members of the Illinois Delegation, condemn today’s statement by our new colleague, Mary Miller. This repugnant comment, on a repugnant day, is a black mark on this body and a black mark on our state. Mary
Miller must apologize to her constituents, to the American people and to all who memorialize the millions murdered by Hitler.91
Miller did not memorialize the millions murdered by Hitler any more than Sean Spicer minimized the Holocaust in 2017 with his remarks about Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. She did not praise the dictator either, as Schakowsky charges.92 Miller’s choice of words was very unfortunate, but all Schakowsky and her colleagues heard was “Hitler.” Then it was off to the races.
Democrats didn’t have a problem using Nazi Germany against President Trump. They proved time and against that Nazis could be leveraged for politically useful rhetoric and more than once referred to Trump’s “stormtroopers” when he tried to stop last year’s violent George Floyd protests (see hypocrisy update #53). They even stooped so low as to forgive anti-Semitism that came from their own ranks.
When you are a Democrat the rules are very, very different than they are for everyone else.
I don’t know if any Democrat understood what Miller was trying to say or if they were immediately struck blind and deaf by the word “Hitler.” Granted, she could have found a better way to make her point. It’s understandable why Democrats are so offended. The party’s totalitarian streak has been showing all year and it’s about to get much, much worse. Biden and company may have swept into office on a wave of radical left socialism, but when January 20 arrives we have good reason to fear clampdowns and crackdowns and indoctrination and attacks on the First Amendment like we’ve never seen in America. Our schools are the perfect place to start.
This is what Miller was talking about. We should all be very fearful about where this national liberal indoctrination will lead us. Democrats will do everything they can to silence anyone who objects, questions, or makes very apt albeit poorly-chosen comparisons.
5:48 p.m.: I thought we were done talking about Nazis for the week, but according to The Dallas Morning News Joe Biden brought it up again today by comparing Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) to Nazi propaganda meister Joseph Goebbels.
In pursuit of Biden’s goal of healing America it would be wonderful if Congress would pass a resolution confirming lawmakers’ refusal to compare anyone in America to a Nazi unless, of course, they really are a Nazi. Hawley and Cruz most assuredly are not. The problem is that Democrats now control Congress so the only resolution they would agree to is one forbidding Republicans to use this kind of imagery. They will always feel justified in using it themselves and we’ll likely hear it again before the fracas over the Capitol riots dies down. Biden just proved it.
Hypocrisy update January 14, 2021:
#74: Democrats refuse to blame each other for inciting America
Blowhard Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) laid his impeachment cards on the table yesterday:
The violent attack on the U.S. Capitol was an act of insurrection incited by Donald Trump.93
Jeffries insists that “the big lie that he told cannot be ignored.”94 It’s not being ignored, of course. Jeffries and his party haven’t had this much fun since they found out about the Trump-Ukraine phone call. What they ignore is the impact of their claims that the police kill black and brown people “with impunity.” This is lie. They disregard the impact of telling Americans that constitutionally-appointed Judge Amy Coney Barrett means we now have an illegitimate Supreme Court (see Hypocrisy Update #61). That’s another lie. They refuse to acknowledge that their rhetoric validates aggression towards completely innocent, uninvolved citizens and business owners targeted by left wing activists.
Every time there is a police-involved shooting or a decision on whether or not to prosecute a police officer cities go on lockdown. The National Guard was mobilized in Kenosha before the charging decision in the Jacob Blake shooting. This is not out of fear from the right. Had Donald Trump won the 2020 election we can only guess at the extent of the riots and looting on inauguration day.
That inauguration won’t happen. Instead, fear is spreading of more trouble from the right as power is transferred to Joe Biden. At least we can rely on Democrats to heal the nation by resisting the temptation to provoke more pushback with remarks that exploit the violence at the Capitol for partisan advantage:
We must ensure that this is nothing more than a last gasp for Donald Trump and his Republican co-conspirators in the House and Senate.94
Congressional co-conspirators? The witch hunt is getting started:
We cannot begin to heal the soul of this country without first delivering swift justice to all its enemies – foreign and domestic.”95
As Democrats take over control of Congress the wildcard is who they will decide these domestic enemies are and whether they will resort to a national anti-conservative search and destroy movement to prevent any further attacks to protect a democracy their response will surely destroy.
Hypocrisy update January 23, 2021:
#75: hypocrisy defines Biden’s first three days
It’s only been three days, four if you count this morning. The Biden Administration is already walking back promises that put him in office.
Biden’s COVID hypocrisy is just getting started
Where to begin? The Hill observes that the vaccine rollout isn’t much different from what Donald Trump delivered. 96 What’s so much worse, though, is how Biden used 400,000 dead Americans to get elected and now admits there is nothing he can do to stop the dying:
If we fail to act, there’ll be a wave of evictions and foreclosures in the coming months as this pandemic rages on, because there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.97
That bit of expected bad news came as the president pushed the massive spending Democrats are good at to placate the nation for not saving our lives. Stopping the dying is a priority they are suddenly bad at now that they are rid of Trump.
Biden didn’t tell the truth about COVID relief, either. He plans to skim $600 from the $2,000 checks he promised in Georgia. If the state’s voters already spent the $2,000 Biden told them was on the way they learned the most important lesson about Democrats: they don’t tell the truth when they want something.
Enough COVID. Biden was just getting started.
Asylum seekers: don’t come
When his future Democratic voters started on their trek from Central America the administration told them not to come.
Our troops can sleep in the garage
Despite his campaign vow that we have a “truly sacred obligation” to care for our troops, when the National Guard came to Washington they were banished to the cold, hard floor of a parking garage for their night’s rest.
Where is the domestic terror coming from now, Joe?
Terrified Democrats fortified the Capitol and state houses around the nation as they warned us about white supremacist Trump supporters ready to launch their attack. That never happened. It sounded fishy form the start. The only ongoing insurrection is from the radical left tearing apart Portland and Seattle. Biden is off the hook on this one because domestic terror doesn’t include destroying federal property as long as it doesn’t come from the right.
Why is Fauci still hanging around?
Last, we have Biden buying into career bureaucrat Tony Fauci’s efforts to distance himself from Trump so he can hang around Washington in perpetuity. Now that he’s successfully ingratiated himself with his new boss Fauci is publicly blaming his last boss for our death toll.
Why would you keep a supposed public health expert around who advised Americans not to wear masks when your political campaign pushed for a national mask mandate?
Instead of cleaning house and replacing this guy with someone who can keep their stories straight the Biden administration opted to keep our liberal public health darling around for now. After all, truth is all in the spin.
Hypocrisy update February 3, 2021:
#76: Democrats honoring a fallen law enforcement officer
It’s shameful that Nancy Pelosi could be so utterly shameless as to honor a fallen police officer, much less serve as the congressional mouthpiece for a tribute to Officer Brian Sicknick who died after the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riot:
Through the heroism of Officer Sicknick – and all who defend our great country – God has truly ‘shed his grace’ on us, on America, from sea to – ‘brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.’ 99
I couldn’t agree more, but it offends me that Pelosi would tarnish the memory of any fallen officer with words made hypocritical by a party that accuses police officers of killing black people with impunity, that negates their efforts by supporting cities that release illegal immigrant criminals into local communities instead of holding them for ICE, and turned mute last summer when violence raged and police officers were attacked. Instead of supporting the men and women who were called on to restore order they called them “storm troopers.” When two FBI agents were killed in Florida President Biden used the opportunity to compliment the “vast majority” of law enforcement personnel who are decent.100
That’s no compliment and no way to honor the two agents who died.
Pelosi should be on her knees apologizing to the brave men and women who keep us safe and especially those who risked their lives protecting lawmakers on January 6. When not in fear for their own skins Democrats would eagerly defund their salaries and use them as examples of American racism.
Hypocrisy update February 11, 2021:
#77: illegals are welcome. Republican voters are terror suspects.
Americans like me who are suddenly white supremacists because we didn’t vote for Joe Biden keep asking a question the president and Jen “I’ll circle back to you” Psaki refuse to answer. Who will come across their open Southwest border? Since we no longer consider crimes committed by illegals to be actual crimes, this is a pretty serious question that even die-hard, head-in-the-clouds liberals should demand an answer to as well as what the plans are for screening these foreign nationals for COVID-19.
There is an even more serious question that will never be answered by Biden, Harris, or anyone else in the Democrat Party. How can any American possibly justify marginalizing over 74 million U.S. citizens as possible right wing terrorists while we turn a blind eye to whatever will swarm across our border now that the word is out that the wall is distasteful Trump legacy and no one will be turned away, much less arrested and held if they commit crimes when the get here.
Biden’s version of U.S. Customs and Border Protection has already announced that the floodgates are opening:
CBP remains fully committed to implementing President Biden’s immigration and border security-related executive actions, including the pause of construction on the Border Wall System and adjusting its operations to enforce the proclamations related to travel and entry to the United States.101
The word is also out that we won’t arrest illegals who commit crimes while Americans who voted for Republican candidates are very possibly white supremacist terrorists and a lethal threat to our democracy?
“Trump supporter” is something to condemn and investigate. “Illegal immigrant” means roll out the welcome mat. This deceitful, destructive hypocrisy is disseminated by the Democrat Party to consolidate its power and seal off all avenues of dissent. Over 74 million of us did not drink this anti-American Kool-Aid, but we don’t count any longer. In fact, we’re now a bigger risk than criminal illegal immigrants.
Hypocrisy update February 14, 2021:
#78: protecting democracy by manipulating future elections
Trump’s second impeachment circus reminded me of the movie plot where the protagonist with certain knowledge of the future tries to manipulate events to stop a coming catastrophe. For all the hot air about saving democracy this time-wasting, sham proceeding was all about preventing a Trump campaign in 2024. Democrats know they are going to overreach and make fools of themselves over the next two years, lose the House, and then have to face their worst nightmare at the end of a disastrous Biden first term.
States are the fallback to stop Trump after manipulating the 2024 election failed in the House and Senate. We’re already hearing about investigations in Georgia and New York which, thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo, now has a historic chance to demonstrate the same kind of democracy-saving political integrity Democrats used against Trump.
Democrats chanting insurrection blamed the president for a false narrative about the outcome of the 2020 election. They will not apply the same measuring stick to their own false narratives about two failed impeachments.
For example, after Catastrophic Impeachment Failure #1 Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) claimed the trial wasn’t fair:
In our democratic system, an acquittal means next to nothing if the trial wasn’t fair. And that is exactly how this process was conducted at the hands of Senate Republicans, who blocked key witnesses and documents, and rigged the process to protect the President.
The excuses after Impeachment Failure #2 aren’t much different whether it means claiming victory despite a humiliating defeat:
While he has been acquitted, again, Donald Trump was found guilty by a historic number of Senators from his own party.103
… or a ridiculous appeal to the Constitution after an unconstitutional impeachment charade:
GOP Senators chose party and loyalty over the Constitution and OUR democracy.104
… or the astounding inability for Democrats to apply their thinking to themselves:
Future generations will remember those who aided and abetted the former President and refused to stand up to his tyranny.105
How much more of this hypocrisy can the Constitution and American democracy survive? Future generations will remember two failed impeachments conducted for partisan political purposes. The weeping and moaning and appeals to democracy don’t alter the fact that they tried to stop a candidate from running from office years before the next election. This sounds like a plot to a bad movie. Sadly, it is not. It is how the Democrat Party conducts business.
Hypocrisy update February 16, 2021:
#79: McConnell brings a white flag to a gun fight
It wasn’t enough to lose a presidential election, a Senate majority, and maintain a minority in the House of Representatives. Former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did what no Democrat will ever do. He trashed a Republican president and blamed him for the Capitol riots when he could have simply acknowledged that justice was served. His actions were a cowardly betrayal that his Democrat colleagues must still be laughing about behind his back.
Is it McConnell’s long-standing relationship with President Biden that led him to decide that this is the heaven in which he wants to serve?
McConnell bought into the Democratic Party’s argument that the Capitol rioters were mindless automatons steered by Rasputinesque Donald Trump with no capacity for independent thought or judging right from wrong:
The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President.106
Even worse, he ignores the implications of his own anti-Trump rhetoric:
74 million Americans did not invade the Capitol. Several hundred rioters did.
“And 74 million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and rage that provoked it.
“One person did.107
Now these 74 million Americans will suffer thanks to a catastrophic, radical Democratic Party agenda that McConnell and his Republican colleagues failed to counter with a better plan for America while they half-heartedly supported their party’s candidate through four tumultuous years.
Trump upset business as usual in Washington. Political hacks who have hung around the Capitol for far too many years were offended that he dared to trespass on established, do-nothing party politics. Even after two impeachment acquittals McConnell wasn’t finished trashing this Republican president.
For all his faults and overheated rhetoric Donald Trump understands that the extremity of the Democratic Party’s demand for power can’t be met with conciliatory speech or empty hope that Democrats will join hands with Americans who don’t support them. They are only emboldened by his kind of flaccid gamesmanship.
At the end of an overlong anti-Trump screed published on the day of the acquittal McConnell justifies the decision not to convict on the grounds that that “constitutional duty” came first.108
The minority leader is up against a ruthless, mean-spirited opposition that takes no prisoners. When it comes to their own ranks Democrats forgive everything from Bill Clinton’s transgressions to Ilhan Omar’s anti-Semitism. No speech, no rhetoric is too inflammatory if it supports the Democratic Party’s cause.
McConnell’s words will be repeated ad nauseum by Democrats who will use it to Republicans’ detriment throughout the 2022 and 2024 election campaigns. He foolishly brought a white flag to a gun fight. Whatever his motivations the Senate GOP needs a leader, not this Democratic Party facilitator.
Hypocrisy update February 23, 2021:
#80: Democrats nominate an attorney general who values the rule of law
During yesterday’s Merrick Garland hearings Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) made this lofty statement:
We Are Confident That You Can Rebuild The Department’s Once Hallowed Halls. That You Can Restore The Faith Of The American People In The Rule Of Law. And That You Can Deliver Equal Justice For All.109
Does someone write this nonsense for him or does he make it up himself? There is so much hypocrisy in these three sentences his colleagues must have rolled in the aisles with laughter.
From the rule of law to lawlessness
Durbin must be skipping staff meetings. With Biden and the Democrat Party in charge the rule of law is dead and gone. Lawlessness took its place.
We no longer enforce immigration law. Instead the policy is catch and release. The Biden administration reimagined the meaning of “crime” to give a pass to illegal immigrants.
Instead of locking up dangerous criminals Durbin’s party advocates eliminating cash bail and putting them back on the street. Decarceration and defunding the police take the place of making cities with escalating violence safer for their law abiding residents.
Just in case that’s not enough to kill the rule of law, when the radical left commits violent crime there is an unspoken agreement amount liberal politicians to ignore it.
Unless they are condemning the rule of law any Democrat who mentions these three words is telling a lie.
Hypocrisy update February 27, 2021:
#81: not calling their $1.9 trillion bill the American Rescue Lie
Democrats don’t seem to like America very much but that won’t stop them from trying to sell the nation $1.9 trillion in spending with the preposterous assertion that it has something to do with rescuing America and Americans.
In the interest of decorum we won’t call Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) statement in support of the American Rescue Plan a lie. Let’s call it a grotesque, hypocritical exaggeration of the truth:
The COVID-19 pandemic is a once-in-a-century tragedy. It requires a once-in-a-century continuing, comprehensive and compassionate congressional response. That is what the American Rescue Plan represents. It’s our hope that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will stop playing politics and support the effort to meaningfully support the American people.110
The argument is always the same. We are right. Agree with us on behalf of the people.
Except Democrats are wrong, very wrong and they know it. We will hear for years about the atrocious abuses in this House bill. The spending includes $350 billion in bailouts for states like Illinois that refuse to manage their money and shut down their economies hoping for this Democrat Party handout. Nancy Pelosi gets her Silicon Valley underground railway. Family planning organizations like abortion vendor Planned Parenthood get money too, even though their business is reducing the population and not adding to the number of hands out. There are environmental justice grants and funding to preserve and maintain Native American languages.
This litany of spending vehicles is so ridiculous Pelosi’s House must have been rolling in the aisles when they cast their votes.
Senate Democrats are panting to get their hands on this pile of taxpayer abuse with the outlandish claim that they will:
join with President Biden to save American lives, support struggling families and get our children safely back to school.111
Hubris prevents them understanding how much of the pandemic destruction was caused by officials and bureaucrats from their own party. This is a Democrat rescue plan that should be called the American Rescue Lie.
Government hypocrisy doesn’t get much better.
Hypocrisy update March 1, 2021:
#82: celebrating Women’s History Month by canceling women
Today is the start of Women’s History Month. Nancy Pelosi pretended to be in a celebratory mood:
Women’s History Month is an opportunity for all Americans to celebrate the extraordinary achievements and contributions that women have made and continue to make to our nation. Since our nation’s Founding, our progress has been inextricably linked to the courage and commitment of millions of women from every background and corner of the country who have worked to build a brighter future for themselves, their daughters and all Americans. 112
I say pretended because just last week she cheered the passage of H.R. 5, the Equality Act:
We are so excited that today the Equality Act will come to the Floor. We have passed it in the House before – the Equality Act, H.R. 5 – to end discrimination against the LGBTQ community. This time it will be not only passed in the House, but on a path to a signing at the White House. We’re very excited about that. 113
This is another piece of sneaky liberal politics that isn’t what it sounds like. The bill swaps identity for biology by placing a prohibition on discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identification.
By now you’ve probably heard what this could mean. Women’s sports are doomed thanks to men who identify as women. Creepy boys will hang around in girls’ school restrooms. There will be lots of new opportunities to stir up trouble in the name of gender neutrality and non-discrimination.
Only time will tell if any of this will happen. The bill has to clear the Senate first and this is about hypocrisy, not the legislative process. Pelosi wins the hypocrisy prize again by swapping the science Democrats revere for the identity politics that brings them power and cancelling women in the process.
If only they could legislate away genitalia we could eliminate men and women once and for all. I’m sure Democrats have someone working on it.
Hypocrisy update March 3, 2021:
#83: rewarding smoking with the COVID vaccine
Illinois added smokers to the priority list for the current Phase 1b round of COVID-19 vaccinations.114 The state also includes vulnerable people in danger because of obesity and the chronic health conditions it creates. Others lucky to get the vaccine in this phase are illegal immigrants classified as essential workers and felons sitting in prison.
For the rest of us who don’t smoke, try to stay healthy, and follow the law salvation from COVID-19 still seems like a very distant hope. There are too many more deserving people in front of us.
Rewarding smokers is an especially egregious affront to people waiting for their shot. Smoking is already punished with sky-high sin taxes, stomach-turning public service messages, and all manner of private and public sanctions meant to deter this bad habit. So why are we rewarding it now? Is the strategy to save the lives that public health departments warn are going to be cut short anyway, or is this another equity judgment because of the higher mortality from smoking-related illnesses among minority Americans who are disproportionately impacted by this virus?.115
With the health costs from smoking already adding to our atrocious national health care tab rewarding cigarette use with a life-saving vaccine doesn’t seem like the kind of message our health authorities should send, but neither does giving the shots to felons and illegals.
Since a law-abiding, healthy lifestyle seems to be to my detriment I’m going to cut this update short, go buy a pack of smokes, stop by a liquor store, and maybe visit my local legal weed shop for good measure. If government health hypocrisy is going to dictate who gets saved from COVID on the basis of their bad habits I don’t want to be too healthy to be one of the lucky ones.
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63Ibid.
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71“Remarks at Media Availability with Leader Schumer.” Speaker.gov. November 12, 2020. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/111220-0, retrieved November 15, 2020.
72“Emergency Travel Order.” Chicago.gov. Updated November 17, 2020. https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/sites/covid-19/home/emergency-travel-order.html, retrieved November 24, 2020.
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92Ibid.
93”Chairman Jeffries: “Donald Trump is a Living, Breathing Impeachable Offense.” Dems.gov. January 13, 2021. https://www.dems.gov/newsroom/press-releases/chairman-jeffries-donald-trump-is-a-living-breathing-impeachable-offense, retrieved January 14, 2021.
94Rep. Mondaire Jones in “Pressley, Omar, Colleagues Unveil Privileged Impeachment Resolution Against President Donald J. Trump.” Pressley.house.gov. January 7, 2021. https://pressley.house.gov/media/press-releases/pressley-omar-colleagues-unveil-privileged-impeachment-resolution-against, retrieved January 14, 2021.
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98“Veterans and Military Families for Biden.” JoeBiden.com. https://joebiden.com/vmf/, retrieved January 23, 2021.
99“Congressional Tribute to U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick.” Speaker.gov.February 3, 2021. https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/2321, retrieved February 3, 2021.
100“Remarks by President Biden at Signing of Executive Orders Advancing His Priority to Modernize Our Immigration System.” Whitehouse.gov. February 2, 2021. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/02/02/remarks-by-president-biden-at-signing-of-executive-orders-advancing-his-priority-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/, retrieved February 3, 2021.
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104“Rep. Sewell Statement on Senate Acquittal of Former President Donald J. Trump.” Sewell.house.gov. February 13, 2021. https://sewell.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-sewell-statement-senate-acquittal-former-president-donald-j-trump, retrieved February 14, 2021.
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107Ibid.
108Ibid.
109“Durbin to Garland: You Can Restore the Faith of the American People in the Rule of the Law.” Judiciary.senate.gov. February 22, 2021. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/press/releases/durbin-to-garland-you-can-restore-the-faith-of-the-american-people-in-the-rule-of-the-law, retrieved February 23, 2021.
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Supposedly intelligent …
Boy, Civil Candor you sure called it the way it is. All screwed up! It is hard to see how supposedly intelligent men and women can destroy a country without even trying. All the President and Congress has to do is disagree with each other, pass some stupid legislation and then tell the taxpayers that it is all for their own good and that of the country. Talk about the rise and fall of a country, the US under this administration, will beat all previous records in getting the job done quickly..