Tag Archives: politics

Restoring Police Funding

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…in Progressive-Democrat-run cities. But I repeat myself. There aren’t any Republican/Conservative-run cities that have defunded, or even tried to defund, their police departments.

Some of those Progressive-Democrat jurisdictions are seemingly starting to refund their police departments.

In Texas, the Democrat-led Austin City Council voted last August to cut funding for the Austin Police Department by $150 million, slashing a range of services that one year later have proven to be sorely missed. Last month, the department announced it was no longer responding to non-life-threatening emergency 911 calls, and its homicide rate spiked.

But not unless forced:

In response, a citizen-led movement collected enough signatures for a petition that resulted in adding a November ballot measure to restore police funding.

Baltimore is another being forced to refund and expand:

Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan (R) announced the state was investing $150 million in a “re-fund the police” initiative. …
“Our $150 million ‘re-fund the police’ initiative will provide a desperately needed shot in the arm to our state and local police agencies and their critical efforts to stop crime,” Hogan said.
…
The city of Baltimore is a poster child for the basic failure to stop lawlessness. There’s a prosecutor who refuses to prosecute crime.

And this foolishness in Seattle:

[T]the Downtown Seattle Association called on city leadership to use federal COVID relief money to subsidize private security costs….

Because there aren’t enough cops left on the force.

New York City and Los Angeles are trying pay raises to stem the outflow of officers from their departments and to recruit replacements.

Burlington, VT’s, “Democratic/progressive-led city council”

cut the police budget and ordered a 30% reduction in the number of uniformed officers.

Now the city is trying $10,000 bonuses just to keep existing officers from walking and $15,000 signing bonuses for new hires. And Burlington suburbs

South Burlington is offering a $7,000 sign-on bonus to fully certified officers, Berlin a $4,000 bonus to senior officers, and St. Albans a $10,000 bonus[.]

Frankly, I can’t think of any reason why anyone would want to go to work, or go back to work, in any of these Progressive-Democrat-run cities, no matter the level of claimed “refunding.” Especially since in at least some of those jurisdictions, the refunding has to be forced into their unwilling budgets.

At least not until the incumbents in those city governments have been replaced 100%. Those worthies already have demonstrated they cannot be trusted actually to support police or policing.

Biden’s Attack on our Energy Independence

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…continues. President Joe Biden (D), the privileged white male patriarch half of the Biden-Harris administration, said at his Thursday CNN-hosted townhall—and he actually was serious:

I don’t see anything that’s going to significantly reduce gas prices right now. My guess is you’ll start to see gas prices come down as we get by going into the winter, I mean excuse me, into next year in 2022.

Of course he does see what would significantly reduce gas prices—and stop the inflation in the cost of so many other consumer goods that depend on energy production. And no, I don’t mean begging more piteously for OPEC to increase oil production, nor do I mean imploring Russia to increase its oil and gas shipments.

Biden could unlock American oil and gas production, he could freely allow exploration and drilling on Federal lands, he could get out of the way of production from ANWR, just for starters. All of these things Biden knows full well.

Biden could stop his assault on American oil and gas production and let us go back to the energy independence that lowered our costs to historic lows. Biden knows this full well, also.

But he won’t. Instead, he’ll continue to dissemble, like he did at that townhall. It’s about control, not what’s good for our nation.

Out of Touch

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At last Friday’s noon-ish press conference, a reporter (Fox News‘ term) asked President Joe Biden’s (D) Press Secretary Jen Psaki why Biden’s approval ratings were so low. Psaki’s response:

I would just go back to what our view is, is that we’re still going through a hard time in this country. And people are tired of fighting the pandemic, they’re tired of the impact on their lives.
…
And we all thought it would be over at this point in time[.]

No, we’re not tired of fighting the pandemic, or of its impact on our lives. We’re tired of the impact Government is having on our lives with its overreacting to the virus, its interference in our lives, its using this virus situation to increasingly limit our liberties.

We’re tired of the hard time Government is causing under the guise of the virus.

And: the virus situation has long since been over. Peak new Wuhan Virus Delta variant cases was ‘way last August, and peak Delta variant-related deaths was ‘way last September. On top of that, those peaks were a small fraction of the peaks from the original Wuhan Virus new cases and related deaths.

What our view is. This is how out of touch with us average Americans the Biden-Harris administration is.

Or, maybe it’s their fingers in their ears.

“Take the American People for Fools”

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That’s what Congressman Jodey Arrington (R, TX) says the Biden-Harris administration and their Progressive-Democratic Party syndicate are doing to us average Americans with their claims that their $3.5 trillion reconciliation package won’t cost us anything.

It’s actually more like $5 trillion, Maria, and their gamesmanship and their sleight of hand will be to try to truncate the duration of these policies. But no matter how short the duration the policies are, they will be extended, they will be made permanent, and they will be expanded like every other mandatory spending and entitlement program that has ever showed up on the balance sheet of our government.

But it’s not only Biden-Harris and their syndicate who are taking us for fools.

They will be extended. They will be extended only because politicians—Republicans and alleged Conservatives, as well as Progressive-Democrats—will actively vote to extend them, and Presidents—Republican and alleged Conservative, as well as Progressive-Democrat—will sign those extensions into law.

Certainly, it’s hard to cancel, or to expire, such policies. Certainly, it’s hard to stop trading welfare payments—however unneeded they are in truth, however damaging to our free market economy, and so to our individual liberties and responsibilities, they might be. It only gets harder, though, the longer such unneeded programs are allowed to exist.

Those who vote for extension, permanence, expansion while proclaiming the damages such programs do are choosing their own, their personal, political fortunes over what they know to be their duty to their constituents and to our nation.

It’s often hard to do one’s duty. Hard, though, means possible. And duty is a necessity, not a nice to have.

Those who, like Arrington, claim to be against such programs yet keep extending them are the ones who take us for the biggest fools. Just like they do with every other mandatory spending and entitlement program that has ever showed up.

Zeroing In

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That’s what the Biden-Harris administration claims is all it wants to do with its “new and improved” personal bank account monitoring scheme.

…banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions would be required to report annually on accounts with deposits and withdrawals worth more than $10,000….

Here’s Biden-Harris’ Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen:

Today’s new proposal reflects the administration’s strong belief that we should zero in on those at the top of the income scale who don’t pay the taxes they owe, while protecting American workers by setting the bank account threshold at $10,000 and providing an exemption for wage earners like teachers and firefighters

Because some American workers are more equal than others of us, and so more deserving of protection from this government spying.

On top of that is the Biden-Harris/Yellen disingenuousness and that of their Progressive-Democratic Party syndicate that this is solely about tracking down those Evil Rich Tax Dodgers. Even at $10,000, though, those Evil Ones would need hundreds, if not thousands, of bank accounts to get down to sizes even approaching that $10k threshold. No, this move remains centered on the prurient interest those peopling our government have in the private doings of us common citizens.

After all, rather than spying on those of us average Americans of whom this administration disapproves (remember how narrow the “exemption” really is), the government could simply audit those Evil Rich individuals. No peeking in windows necessary that way.

Besides, I have it on good authority that the men and women in our government already know what income has gone unreported and how much tax is owed. From that, those worthies also already know where that missing income is and who owes it. If anyone.