Category Archives: politics

A Deported High School Student

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Recall the first debate between Senator Ted Cruz (R, TX) and Beto O’Rourke, Progressive-Democratic Party candidate for Texas Senator.  Ol’ Beto told the tale of a mistreated Dreamer [emphasis added]:

the salutatorian at tiny Booker High School in the Texas Panhandle, recently deported to his country of origin, not even speaking the language.

Oops.

It didn’t happen [emphasis added].

The honor student in question was actually the valedictorian.
She spoke the language.
It happened a decade ago, not recently.
And most importantly, said Yamile Guerrero Rosales, “I wasn’t deported….”

Oh, the lady was, at the time, here from Mexico, and she had to deal with six months of paperwork concerning her then baby, still stuck in Juarez.  But she’s now a naturalized citizen (tough to achieve after having been deported) and an accountant for a Booker area company.

Aides insist that O’Rourke was operating on second-hand information.  But come on, even the Dallas Morning News checks this kind of information, why didn’t O’Rourke?  Even if this was nothing more than an honest mistake—I’ll spot him that, tentatively—he’d repeated that tale on the campaign trail several times before he got to the debate and got fact checked.

Nor is this the first serious…error…O’Rourke has made (he now claims that an unidentified passenger in his own vehicle corroborates his claim).  It likely won’t be his last.  Is this the level of “carelessness” we want representing us in Texas?

Remember this, this fall.

An FBI Investigation

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Senator Jeff Flake (R, AZ) sold his Supreme Court Justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh confirmation floor vote for a week-long FBI investigation into Dr Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation against Kavanaugh.  Ostensibly this was a deal he made with his BFF, Senator Chris Coons (D, DE), in return for the Senate’s Progressive-Democrats dropping their complaints that six prior FBI background checks of Kavanaugh didn’t turn up enough dirt to suit them.

Immediately after the Senate Judicial Committee hearing to vote on passing Kavanaugh’s nomination out of committee with a favorable vote (it was) Coons said that if any other allegations of sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh surfaced during the week, he believed those would have to be investigated, too.  The deal, plainly, was just one more stall by the Progressive-Democrats so they could manufacture more smear.  It’s hard for me to believe that Flake was unwittingly played by his friend.

Minimizing delay and calling the Progressive-Democrats’ bluff, President Donald Trump ordered the FBI to conduct its investigation, starting last Friday (Trump ordered it to begin “immediately”), limited in scope to Dr Ford’s accusation, and to complete their investigation within a week.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) began, Friday evening, the process for the originally scheduled Tuesday floor vote for confirmation.  The combination, if the FBI’s investigation truly is done as ordered, means the floor vote can occur over the weekend—a small delay.

We’ll see what else the Party of Character Assassination will come up with in this week.

Sadly, what’s lost in all of this is how disgustingly the Progressive-Democrats have treated Dr Ford.  They chose to use her accusation—and it’s clear to me that she was abused by someone those decades ago—to manufacture a smear against Kavanaugh.  Further, by holding Dr Ford’s accusation until the last moment—she had written to Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) ‘way back in July, requesting anonymity at that time—these persons prevented the Committee and the FBI from investigating her claim weeks ago without exposing her.  Feinstein’s—their (does anyone really believe Feinstein didn’t share this opportunity with her colleagues?  Does anyone really believe that during those weeks Feinstein, et al., kept Dr Ford’s letter hidden from the FBI and from the Republican Committee members, they didn’t conduct their own investigation, that they really sprang this affair without knowing what they had in their hands?)—decision to expose Dr Ford to the press at the last moment was done solely for her/their personal political gain.

These Progressive-Democrats have abused Dr Ford almost as badly as did her unknown assailant.

The Rising Cost of Hurricanes

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It’s not from more frequent or fiercer hurricanes—the rate and sternness of them actually is down over the last several years—but the increasing density of population and supporting building on hurricane-prone shores and the increasing costs of the buildings that’s driving the cost of hurricane damage.

Counties along the US shoreline that endured hurricane-strength winds from Florence in September experienced a surge in population from 1980 to 2017, with an increase of 95 people per square mile—more than double the density. Overall, Gulf and East Coast shoreline counties, those vulnerable to hurricane strikes, increased by 160 people per square mile, compared with 26 people per square mile in the rest of the mainland, over the same period.

And

The devastating effect of Florence, like Harvey in 2017, was primarily related to flooding.
…
For storms like Harvey, changes in land use that come with urbanization, such as replacing permeable surfaces like grass with impermeable surfaces like concrete, can cause big changes in water runoff.
Sandy had downgraded from being a hurricane to what’s known as an “extratropical” storm by the time it made landfall in 2012, but it hit major population centers causing “extensive damage across several northeastern states,” making it the 4th most expensive storm to hit the U.S. since 1980 with $72.19 billion in damages according to NOAA’s analysis.

Yet insurance—for flooding, wind damage, and so on—isn’t seeing rising premiums.  That’s especially the case for flood insurance.  That’s also where Government has crowded out private insurers with Government flood insurance sold at artificially low premiums, wholly independent of the risks actually being covered.

And that means that no one has any incentive to think about where they build, whether commercially or residentially: the damage will be repaid with OPM.

Budgets and Austerity

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The Italian coalition government (interesting in its own right, consisting as it does as a teaming up of the far left 5 Star Movement and the far right Liga) has decided to increase government spending and decrease taxes.  This has been projected to produce a 2.4% budget deficit.  For a government already badly in debt, this deficit isn’t good.

Cutting taxes has been decried by others as being the cause of such deficits and debts.  Spending cuts cannot be allowed, say the same folks, because that would be an austere measure.

They’re wrong.

Cutting taxes leaves more money in the hands of the citizenry, the folks best positioned and best suited to make decisions concerning how their money should be used.

Cutting spending—a necessary measure to stay within the taxes collected—far from being an austerity measure, would enable Italy’s economy to burgeon. Getting the government out of competition with the citizens and businesses of the Italian economy for that economy’s resources will reduce price pressure, and it will leave those resources more available to the private actors, who will use those resources more efficiently than any government can achieve.

Italy’s move to cut taxes and increase spending is a half measure.  Spending needs to be cut to fit within the revenue the taxes will produce. Make no mistake on a related matter, too: the burgeoning economy will produce a net increase in revenue to the Italian government.

The EU and Iran

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The European Union is busily working with Iran to develop a channel for payments that’s outside the normal flow of currencies so that the EU and Iran can continue to do business with each other outside the US sanction regime.  The purpose of this is so the EU can facilitate Iran’s economy and so the EU can make money.

Nothing wrong with that last, at all.  The EU should be working to support its businesses.

There are other ways of achieving that, though.  With this path, the EU is making itself complicit in Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

[High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica] Mogherini said Iran has remained fully committed to its obligations under the nuclear deal, as certified by a dozen reports from UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. She also hailed the 2015 agreement as a major achievement for diplomacy and nonproliferation….

This is entirely disingenuous. On what basis does Mogherini believe Iran’s claims?

What inspections? No one is allowed to inspect Iran’s civilian facilities without weeks of advance warning. No one is allowed to inspect Iran’s military facilities, where weapons development primarily occurs, at all. Iran isn’t being inspected for compliance.

How is an agreement to delay nuclear weapons development for a few years (even stipulating Iran is honoring the delay) followed by complete release of all restrictions on Iran’s nuclear weapons development a major achievement for nonproliferation?

Mogherini and her EU cohorts have chosen not to explain any of that.