Paradigms and Demographics

Saturday, July 26, 2025

P&D and The Week That Was

Truth is the Sublime Convergence of History and Reality

De Omnibus Dubitandum, (Everything is to be questioned!)

This Link will take you to My Commentaries.

By Rich Kozlovich

It's hard to believe that every week things get more exciting, and frustrating as we watch the insanity of leftist thinking and action on display. This week Alina Habba was kicked out of her job as temporary U.S. Attorney for New Jersey by the District court, and they appointed one to their liking, or I should say to the liking of the Democrat Minority Leader of the House, Hakeem Jeffreis, who encouraged this action. So, I think it well to ask from where did such authority arise?

The authority for district court judges to replace temporary U.S. Attorneys comes from federal law, specifically 28 U.S.C. § 546, which allows them to appoint a U.S. Attorney when the President's nominee has not been confirmed by the Senate within 120 days of the Attorney General's interim appointment.

There's just a little bit of a problem with that, the Constitution cannot be overridden by Congress passing laws, and the Constitution says the only one who can appoint officers is the President of the United States, not some gaggle of political hacks they're calling federal judges. And guess what, Donnie don't tolerate rogue jurists infringing on his Article II rights, and so the DOJ fired their choice, and Alina Habba is back in.

The federal judiciary is filled with political hacks, and the various bar associations are responsible for much of that. That's over now. "Attorney General Pam Bondi notified the American Bar Association that the Trump administration will no longer grant the organization access to non-public information about judicial nominees. "

This kind of corruption was rampant during the three Obama terms impacting the military, the administration, and the judiciary, with Obamanites appointing federal judges for 12 years. And while Trump can purge the military and administrative branches of the federal government, the judiciary is out of control and uncontrollable. Getting a two thirds vote for impeachment in the Senate is impossible.

I've taken the position the only solution to the out of control judiciary is a 28th Amendment imposing age and term limits on the federal judiciary. I've been criticized claiming that's just silly, since we'll lose the good one we don't want to lose, and that's true. But since when is accountability silly, which is what my 28th Amendment imposes?

The good ones will be replaced right along with bad ones and they far outnumber the good ones. Since impeachment is impossible, we don’t have term limits, and Congress has failed, and will continue to fail in their invertebracy to use their Constitutional authority to rein the judiciary in, what's an alternative solution for how to fix an out of control judiciary?

We can speculate about the success of such an Amendment, but until someone starts the ball rolling, we have no idea how far it will roll. Insurmountable odds are only overcome by effort. No guts, no glory. Heroes are made by having the courage to be the rock in the current. Riley Gaines is a perfect example. She was vilified unendingly, and she’s now winning.

I keep asking those who criticize term limits what they're solution is, and I never get and answer, and the reason why is they don't have a solution. So if that's true, and it is, and since no other solutions are being presented it appears we must all agree term limits is the only solution that can rein in the federal judiciary. So, if that’s the case, and it is, then it must be promoted and fought for.

Heterodoxy isn’t for the faint of heart, and no one said it would be easy rowing against the tide, but if the battle is fought courageously and intelligently, the tide will turn

Obama and his cabal are lawyering up, and they need to. Not only will the Obamanators be facing federal investigations for what must be considered treason, they destroyed a lot of lives in their rampage through America. A rampage of propaganda, lies, and abuse of the legal system. I predict a lot of lawsuits in the near future as Tulsi Gabbard continues to release documentation of the foul deeds. Deeds that are going to come back to haunt them, and the Democrat party.

Polls are saying the Democrat party is too radical, their funding is drying up, and they're losing voters, in the deep blue states. In deep blue states Democrat registrations are down and Republican registrations are up.... by a lot.... and redistricting in states are going to bring in more Republicans, hopefully not RINO's, but given how RINO's seem to dominate state Republican parties, that may be a problem.

Today's edition has 8 commentaries by me, four of which deals with the criminal mindset of the Democrat party. That are 20 by others and the permanent six links.

Have a great weekend, and best wishes,

Rich

My Commentaries

Commentaries

CFACT takes the stage, delivers important message to ALEC attendees By CFACT
It's Time the Legal System Went After Barack Obama By Susan Daniels
Should parents put their children into the current U.S. Public School System? By John Droz, Jr.
Layoffs at – Versus Because of – Federal Agencies By Paul Driessen
New York Jews Support Trump More Than Any Other Group By Daniel Greenfield
California Mayors Urge Cops, Gang Members to Fight ICE By Daniel Greenfield
Fact Checking The Climate Claims I&I Editorial Board
The Voices of Today's Democrat Party By Robin Itzler
Diabetic Barbie Dolls By Robin Itzler
"California Leavin" - Part 2 of 3 parts By Robin Itzler
Events From Around the Nation and the World By Robin Itzler
Alligator Alcatraz: Some History By A Man Named Jack
New Record Set For Deaths From Climate And Weather Disasters By Francis Menton
Anti-Nuclear Cult Melts Down Over Trump’s Energy Agenda By Steve Milloy
China and the 20th Theorem of Government By Dan Mitchell
The “China Shock” and American Jobs By Dan Mitchell
Trump vs. Bureaucrats By Dan Mitchell
Comments On The Latest Revelations About The Russia!! Hoax By Dan Mitchell
The Milei Miracle, Part II By Dan Mitchell
Comparing China to other Majority-Chinese Jurisdictions By Dan Mitchell

Permanent Links

No matter what anyone says, you can’t marginalize the truth! You can suppress it, you can ignore it, you can avoid it, you can attempt to undermine it, you can attempt to subvert it, you can attempt to organize against it, you can even laugh at it, but if we have the courage and the fortitude to stand and confront the lies, irrespective of the personal costs, the truth will stand the test of time, because truth and time are on the same side.

Constant as the North Star

Friday, July 25, 2025

Putin is Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By Rich Kozlovich

This piece was inspired by a podcast by George Friedman of Geopolitical Futures. GF is a subscription site, and so I can't link it, and so too are some of my other observations, so you'll just have to take my word for what appears here. Or not as it please you. Otherwise information from non subscription sites are linked.

The Russian oligarchs, former criminals, many of which formerly worked in Soviet intelligence agencies, are outraged at Putin. They created him and now because of him all their money that’s tied up in European banks are closed to them, they can’t get at it.

Putin's facing serious economic issues, and it's being reported the Russian economy is suffering, that Russia's economic growth plummeted after Trump took office, and their economic minister says the country is on the brink of recession. Now OPEC is going to boost oil production which will cut into Russia's income stream.

Trump was catering to Putin for quite a while, and while Trump is a brilliant negotiator, there’s a difference between economic negotiations, and the negations dealing with national pride..... and survival for Putin. But Trump is still Trump, and he’s had it with Putin, giving him a deadline for massively larger sanctions and sanctions on anyone who trades with him, and he’s not Obama.

Clock Ticking For Russia During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he believed he could end the Russia-Ukraine war with a few phone calls. I thought he could, too. I thought Russia and Ukraine were both weary, to put it mildly, and would be happy to be given a way out by the U.S. But we were wrong. Ukraine wanted to negotiate an end to the war, but Russia didn’t. ........
Trump's Eyes Opened on Putin. Now What Will He Do? - "I'm not happy with what Putin is doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin," said Donald Trump on Truth Social over the holiday weekend.
Trump Warns Russia: Make Peace With Ukraine in 50 Days—Or Monster Tariffs - President Donald Trump told reporters during a meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte on Monday that European NATO members would fund billions of dollars of American military equipment, including Patriot missiles, for Ukraine and threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with a massive 100-per cent indirect tariff if he did not make peace in 50 days....
Trump’s Ukraine Ultimatum: A Promising First Step - President Trump’s July 14 ultimatum to Vladimir Putin—demanding peace in Ukraine within 50 days and threatening secondary sanctions on countries like China and India if they continue funding Russia’s aggression—is a welcome and long-overdue step. But it is just that: a first step. If the goal is peace and deterrence of future wars, the United States and its allies must go further.......

What Putin is doing in these negotiations are what the Russians have always done. Talking a lot, saying nothing, delaying, and all the while pursuing their goals threatening to take more and more dramatic actions in order to force everyone to give in, "pounding Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul."

His military is undermanned and disgruntled sending Smartphone videos of protest back to their families. A Ukrainian drone attack destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russian territory, and Russian retribution for daring Ukrainian strike is postponed, perhaps indefinitely:

Ukraine’s June 1 strike on four Russian airbases exposed severe vulnerabilities in Russia’s air defenses, prompting patriotic outcries and demands for retaliation despite censorship and subdued official responses. Russia’s retaliatory strike on June..

Having around a million casualties from his war with Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands of them dying, Putin faces not only a serious manpower issues for his military, he also faces a serious labor gap. Now Putin's Ministry of Education is floating the idea they should try to recruit workers from Africa, Latin America, and India, but these are untrained people who will be expected to fill jobs that are far more technical than they capable of performing, in a culture with a language they're don't speak. That will take time to train them properly. This isn't a short term fix that can help Putin.

He's incapable of meeting the needs of his military any longer, and has asked Laos to send "engineering troops to help de-mine the Kursk region". Laos sent 50 engineers, even "providing rehabilitation support for wounded Russian soldiers."

North Korea is sending "25,000 more troops, 1,000 combat engineers, and 5,000 "military construction personnel to help rebuild Russia's Kursk region," and now Putin’s surrender to Islam:

In March 2025, tens of thousands of Muslims flooded Moscow’s streets for Eid al-Fitr prayers. Loudspeakers blasted the Islamic call to prayer, echoing under the gaze of the Kremlin itself. This wasn’t simply a religious gathering. It was a state-enabled spectacle of Islamic dominance in Russia’s capital—a country once considered the stronghold of Orthodox Christianity. The government not only permitted the display but also provided infrastructure and protection.

He attacked Ukraine only to abandon Russia to elements that will destroy Russia from within.

Putin has a Central Asian problem. Former Soviet Republics are, like Kazakhstan, moving in directions that are clearly meant to neutralize Russian influence. Kazakhstan is negotiating with Pakistan on military issues, and has aims to modernize their military via what they calling multivector diplomacy

Central Asia’s Water Crisis Becoming Russia’s Problem: To the extent that happens—and Moscow’s behavior makes such an outcome ever more probable—three developments are almost certain.

First, the Central Asian countries are likely to distance themselves from Moscow, even as an ever-increasing number of their citizens migrate to Russia to access sufficient water.
Second, the PRC, Afghanistan, and possibly other countries further from the scene will expand their influence in the region at Russia’s expense.
Third, Russia will likely become the site of more ethnic conflict and the political instability that such a development entails. Had Moscow taken a different position on diverting some Siberian river water to Central Asia or even shown itself more sympathetic to the problems of Central Asians, it might have avoided all these unwelcome outcomes. It may now be too late for the Kremlin to recover...............

The Caucuses, which are historically notorious for instability, are growing more and more unstable, and it's clear Russia is so tied up with Ukraine they're losing control involving their own region of Dagestan, along with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and now Turkey is involving itself. Just about everything the Russians have done has exacerbated the issues there.

The Poles have to worry about everyone. They don’t like the Ukrainians, the hate the Germans, and they fear the Russians, and rightly so since the Russians are talking about the “final act” an attack against European cities, and presumably they mean nuclear attacks. Which probably means they’re just talking since you don’t tell the enemy what you’re planning to do. But Putin is in trouble, and if he can’t do something radical to win this war, he’s toast.

Kremlin Increases Anti-Poland Propaganda Executive Summary: Russia is intensifying its hybrid warfare against Poland through cyberattacks, sabotage, and disinformation, while portraying Polish defensive actions as provocations to fuel domestic narratives and justify ongoing hostility. Kremlin propaganda is beginning to..
Pivotal Poland: Europe’s Rising Power Announcing – Promethean Liberation: Russia’s Emerging National and Regional Movements - The invasion of Ukraine has accelerated the decline of the Russian state and raised the prospects for domestic turmoil. It has resulted in an unsustainable militarization of the economy, falling state revenues, shrinking financial reserves, military failures, and signs of mounting regional and ethnic unrest. Without structural reforms that boost the civilian economy and absent any autonomy among Russia’s 83 republics and regions, the federal structure will become increasingly unmanageable and vulnerable to movements demanding sovereignty or secession.

And now Germany is promoting the idea Ukraine should be part of NATO. It's not going to happen for a number of reasons, including everyone is getting really tired of Zelenskyy.

Putin turned Russian politics in its head, and while Stalin never feared the other institutional structures of the communist regime because they all understood Stalin was the new Czar. Everyone between Stalin and Putin did fear them. Putin, like Stalin, doesn’t fear them, but he’s not Stalin, and he never built a structure around himself as Stalin did.

If he makes a peace with Ukraine after over three years of war, and a million casualties with the hundreds of thousands of young Russian men dying, billions of dollars in military costs, multi billions lost in economic sanctions, he’s toast. So, he threatens use of nuclear weapons, which he doesn’t dare do now since Europe fears him and is reaming itself against him. He’s threatening to attack Europe via an air war for arming Ukraine, but Europe is doing it anyway, and now Germany has deployed military brigades in Lithuania.

Their banking system is collapsing, the Russian people are not happy, but Putin is making it clear he’s in charge, he wants what he wants, and Europe had better be prepared for war, but I do believe there's a von Stauffenberg cabal within his military, and his government, and if that's true, he's not going to last much longer, especially if Trump imposes more economic sanctions on Russia and all those doing business with Russia.

China and the 20th Theorem of Government

July 19, 2025 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

I’ve expressed admiration for China’s partial economic liberalization and the impressive growth it produced.

But I’ve also warned that there are some misguided government policies that will make it very difficult for China to become a rich country. I’ve been especially concerned about industrial policy and other types of cronyism.

However, I may need to worry about fiscal policy as well. Teaching earlier today in Shenyang, China, I shared this chart with a group of students.

It shows, based on the IMF’s big database, that government spending has increased dramatically over the past 40-plus years.

This chart looks terrible, but it’s also misleading.

The best measure of a government’s fiscal burden is to compare the size of the budget to the size of the private sector (in other words, government spending as a share of GDP).

On this basis, you immediately notice that China’s fiscal policy was very good for almost 15 years, with the burden of government dropping to about 11 percent of GDP in 1996 (better than Singapore or Hong Kong!).

Unfortunately, that positive trend was only temporary. Since the mid-1990s, the burden of government has been on an upward trajectory.

Indeed, government now consumes more than one-third of the economy’s output, more than three times greater than in 1996.

At the risk of understatement, this eventually will lead to fiscal crisis. Especially when you consider China’s demographic challenge. A clear example of my 20th Theorem of Government.

For wonky readers who want even more data, the next chart provides a breakdown of average spending growth during the 1982-1996 and 1997-2025 periods.

Interestingly, the main difference between the two periods is not the average annual growth of the budget (13.9 percent compared to 15.4 percent). Instead, it is the growth rate of the economy.

For the 1982-1996 period, the private sector was growing faster than the government (fulfilling the Golden Rule). That’s when progress occurred.

Sadly, but that relationship reversed starting in 1997.

By the way, these are all nominal numbers, meaning they are not adjusted for inflation. So I also show the average inflation rate for the two periods on the right side of the chart.

Notice that the burden of government has grown faster than the economy during the 1997-2025 period, and also that the budget has grown far faster than inflation.

The moral of the story is that China should enact a spending cap.

P.S. Some economists believe Chinese government data is untrustworthy, but presumably any corrections would not change the fact that fiscal policy has been moving in the wrong direction.

Layoffs at – Versus Because of – Federal Agencies

By Paul Driessen

Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently fired 1,350 employees. The “reductions in force” brought tears, outrage, proclamations of resistance to “fascism,” and disbelief that federal workers could actually lose their “lifetime” jobs.

Losing one’s job and income is hard, disruptive and demoralizing – which helps explain why the RIFs received extensive coverage across the United States and overseas, and why most stories emphasized the anger and grievances of fired workers, their colleagues and unions.

However, equally important perspectives and realities must also be recognized.

State Department employment rolls had grown by 22,874 over 17 years: from 57,340 US and international employees in 2007 to 80,214 in 2024. The July layoffs were 5.9% of this growth; 1.7% of total 2024 employees.

The downsizing was part of a Trump-Rubio reorganization to streamline a bloated State Department and align it more closely with the administration’s policies and priorities, partly by eliminating or merging bureaus and offices, including those focused on DEI, transgender and “climate crisis” issues.

It recognizes the Trump, Vance and American voters’ belief in (and commitment to) reducing the size of government and the scope of its control over our lives, livelihoods, energy and personal choices.

Private sector companies often have to trim payrolls or shut down entirely – mostly with little more than local coverage. Journalist Amy Curtis noted that she lost her first nursing job when her medical facility closed, partly because of Medicare’s “abysmal reimbursement rates.”

“There were no tearful parades for us essential workers,” she observed. No politicians or journalists railed about how “unfair and dangerous it was to fire nurses, respiratory therapists and doctors” – and send them, support staff, spouses and children into food centers, poverty, debt and search for new employment.

Job losses triggered by government policies and edicts receive even less attention, especially from Democrats and the legacy media. On Day One of his presidency, Joe Biden shut the Keystone Pipeline project down, terminating up to 11,000 manufacturing and construction jobs.

Between 2008 and 2016, the coal industry lost over 80,000 jobs – casualties of cheaper, less polluting natural gas electricity generation and, even more so, the Obama Administration’s “war on coal.”

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg gave $174 million to the Sierra Club and other radical greens to finance their Beyond Coal Campaign and buttress the Obama efforts. 2019 presidential candidate Joe Biden said the jobless miners should just “learn to code. Anybody who can go down 3,000 feet in a mine can sure as hell learn to program!” Combined federal programs promised a paltry $7 million in job retraining aid.

The Obama EPA went after coal-fired generating plants with equal zeal, using questionable to bogus claims about climate change, mercury and fine particulates to justify its actions. One victim was the Navajo Nation’s coal-fired power plant and Kayenta mine, mainstays of the tribal economy.

The Navajos lost 700 jobs and $40 million in annual revenue. There were no viable replacements. So much for “environmental justice” for indigenous people.

Nor is it only jobs and revenues. These government actions also brought reduced living standards and healthcare … and increased risks of depression, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, alcohol and drug use, spousal and child abuse, and premature death within involuntarily unemployed families and communities.

Once the Obama-Biden Administrations demolished coal, they went after natural gas, and those jobs.

Federal, state and local government restrictions on public gatherings during Covid ruined thousands of bars, gyms, restaurants and other small businesses, costing millions of jobs and incomes. NY Governor Andrew Cuomo forced nursing homes to accept elderly Covid patients, likely killing thousands – and then buried data about the actual disease and death tolls. Some lockdowns lasted almost two years.

Thousands of military personnel were booted for refusing to get vaccines that evidence increasingly showed posed myocarditis and other risks for young men who had little to fear from Covid 19.

On a far larger scale, the grand scheme for a legislated, mandated “transition” to “cheaper” wind and solar power would mean rising electricity costs, widespread environmental impacts and millions of lost jobs.

The final votes on the Big Beautiful Budget Bill restored many federal wind and solar subsidies. A slim majority of senators and representatives bought into claims that lost federal funding would jeopardize investments and projects in their districts and states, put hundreds of thousands of “green energy” jobs at risk, and cause electricity prices to surge, threatening still more jobs.

In the real world, wind and solar power are far more expensive than coal, gas, hydro pr nuclear electricity.

The higher costs are paid directly through higher utility bills, or indirectly via higher taxes to finance subsidies. Both are often cleverly disguised or hidden. But the result worldwide is that electricity costs rise in tandem with a country or state’s reliance on wind and solar power.

Germany and Britain have among the most “nameplate” megawatts of wind and solar globally – and highest electricity prices: 3x higher than average US prices; up to 4x higher than in 30 US states. That’s why so many European automotive, glass and steel companies are slashing payrolls or closing shop.

Every megawatt of wind and solar must be backed up with expensive, duplicative, reliable power generation for the hours, days and weeks when wind and sunshine fail to do their job. And wind and solar installations are typically far from data and urban centers that need their electricity, requiring long transmission lines ($1-8 million per mile) and numerous transformers that adjust voltage up for transmission and down for consumption (up to $4 million per unit).

Backup power can come from coal or natural gas generators – or from vastly more expensive (and fire-prone) grid-scale batteries that would cost American taxpayers and ratepayers trillions of dollars.

All those costs get added to utility and tax bills, making it especially hard for energy-intensive hospitals, factories and other businesses to afford electricity without raising prices, reducing services, issuing pink slips, closing their doors, or all of the above.

As to those “hundreds of thousands of American green energy jobs,” they’re mostly in constructing, maintaining, removing and landfilling these installations. The mining, processing and manufacturing jobs (for the incomprehensible amounts of raw materials needed to make all this “renewable” energy equipment) are mostly overseas, primarily in China, mostly burn coal for fuel, and have few or no pollution control, workplace safety or child labor regulations.

None of this includes the costs of croplands, wildlife habitats and scenic vistas destroyed for “clean” energy installations, birds and bats killed by turbine blades, or reduced living standards resulting from recurrent blackouts, higher utility costs that make proper heating and air conditioning out of reach for many, and having electricity when it’s available instead of when we need it.

Americans are right to be more concerned about all of this than about State Department layoffs. We clearly need fewer federal offices and employees promoting “climate crisis” and “renewable energy” reports, GIGO computer models, DEI, junk science and fearmongering.

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environment, climate change and human rights issues.

Democrat Crimes: It's Cultural, it's Ubiquitous

By Rich Kozlovich, Tags: Russiagate and the Obama Cabal, Let's Talk About Letitia James, The Biden Cabal

Everything about what these leftists do is predicated on a corrupt moral foundation built on self serving mendacity,...they lie.... a lot.... about everything, and in point of fact, many of them are outright criminals at many levels, and time is catching up to them.

Evil, Thy Name is Democratic Party - They are lying about everything. They are lying about climate change. They are lying about the Epstein files. They are lying about Trump, transgenderism, racism, babies, the economy—what are they not lying about? And lying is evil.........The biggest problem with removing evil from American culture and what’s left of our civilization is, quite frankly, the Democratic Party. Their mantra calls evil good, and good evil, and it is imperative, for them, that they have as much human depravity as possible.......... And if there is anything the modern Democratic Party craves above all, it is power, control, and thus more government. Hence, they need more chaos.

Ask yourself, how did a deep stater like "former USAID chief Samantha Power have a net worth of "just under $7 million [grow] to over $30 million on a salary of $180,000 per year?"

In Minnesota one Democrat Senator, Nicole Mitchell, was "caught red-handed, burglarizing her stepmother’s house at 4:30 in the morning. The crime occurred during the 2024 legislative session, and the Democrats had a 34-33 majority in the Senate and thus needed her vote. The Senate voted on whether she would be able to vote for the remainder of the session, and Mitchell cast the deciding vote in her own favor."......... the trial was continued so that she could participate in the 2025 session. Which she did, again representing the decisive vote in a chamber that was divided 44-43. Once the session began, not a single Democrat suggested that she ought to resign. Not a single reporter asked any Democrat why he had changed his tune."

Well, as of Friday, she'd been found guilty of two felonies, and the Republicans are demanding she resign immediately, which will end her ability to break tie votes, and doesn't get to give a two week notice. But she's not having it. She's refusing to resign until August 4th, two weeks from her conviction with her lawyers saying her "constituents deserve for her legislative projects to be finalized or ready to hand off to her successor before she resigns.” Yeah, right!

Democrat from Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormack, is being investigated for "unlawfully retained a staggering $5.8 million over payment from the state of Florida", which she used to fund her campaign for Congress, and that's just a part of her ethical issues.

AOC Under Federal Investigation for Employing Illegal Aliens, Helping Others Evade ICE -Border Czar Tom Homan announced on Monday that he formally launched a federal investigation into Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for reportedly employing an illegal immigrant on her staff and helping other illegal aliens evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
House Ethics Committee Finds AOC Impermissibly Accepted Met Gala Ticket for Boyfriend and Underpaid for “Tax the Rich” Dress and Accessories - The House Ethics Committee released a report on Friday, finding that far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) impermissibly accepted more than $3,700 worth of apparel and accessories and a $35,000 Met Gala ticket for her then-boyfriend, Riley Roberts. “Despite Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s significant attempts, the Committee found that she failed to fully comply with the Gift Rule by impermissibly accepting a gift of free admission to the 2021 Met Gala for her partner and by failing to pay full fair market value for some of the items worn to the event,” the committee writes in the report that they unanimously voted to issue earlier this week following a years-long investigation. .....

AOC Directed to Pay Over $2K for Breaking House Rules at 2021 Met Gala

House to Vote on Censure of Democrat LaMonica McIver Over Assault of ICE Officer - Republican Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) has introduced a resolution calling for the censure of NDemocrat Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was federally indicted for allegedly obstructing Homeland Security agents during an immigration facility visit in May. The resolution also demands McIver’s removal from the House Homeland Security Committee. It cites a clear conflict of interest due to her involvement in national security oversight.Higgins argues that McIver’s continued role on the Homeland Security Committee, which holds oversight power over federal immigration enforcement, is untenable given her indictment for obstructing federal officers...........
Report: Massachusetts Democrat AG Spent Nearly $300K of Taxpayer’s Money on World Travel - Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell (D) reportedly spent a mountain of taxpayer money last fiscal year on things such as worldwide travel. Campbell spent almost $300,000 on a taxpayer-funded credit card for trips to France, the Caribbean, and hosting a party, the Boston Herald reported on Friday citing its analysis.............
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) in 2024 attended the Master’s golf tournament in Georgia and used taxpayer money for the trip. A few years before that in 2022, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D) confirmed she would refund the city after it was revealed she used taxpayer money to spent about $30,000 on several first-class flight upgrades, per Breitbart News.
And no one can forget Mayor Tiffany Henyard (D) of Dolton, Illinois, who lashed out when she was questioned on her controversial spending habits in early 2024, Breitbart News reported at the time.

Pencil neck Adam Schiff (D-CA) is facing is being investigated for mortgage fraud, which I'm sure Trump is enjoying saying he's in “big trouble, and should pay the price of prison.

Adam Schiff Accused of Years-Long Mortgage Fraud Scheme - I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist. And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud......
Trump Blasts Schiff, Says Authorities ‘Have Him 100 Percent on Mortgage Fraud’ - President Donald Trump on Tuesday told reporters that Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) engaged in mortgage fraud and suggested authorities have very strong evidence he did so.... ....(My Take - Ahh, poor Shifty, I really feel bad for him. Nah, I'm just being a snot, I don't feel bad at all, in fact, I think this qualifies as a schadenfreude moment .... because.... No one is above the law..... shifty! RK)

Mark C Ross asks this pertinent question: Is Schiff: the tip of the iceberg? And I have no doubt he is. For a politician to declare to be a resident of a state other than the one they represent disqualifies them from holding their office, and if mortgages are obtained predicated on that lie, it's a serious crime called defrauding the lender, which "former Representative Fortney H. “Pete” Stark, also of California, declared his Maryland home as his primary residence so he could get a discount on his property taxes."

Lurking within this dynamic is the sad fact that public office often attracts unscrupulous, self-aggrandizing charlatans. Can you say Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul made $38M worth of stock trades before inauguration? This also brings to mind the insider info that Hillary Clinton’s son-in-law got about a Greek bond issue… which, however, didn’t end so well.

Remember Judge Hannah Dugan who helped an illegal alien escape by diverting ICE agents, and then was arrested by federal agents? Well, she decided she couldn't be arrested or face criminal charges since she's a judge, and she has qualified immunity. Which is in effect a tacit acknowledgement the charges are valid. Well, her legal theory has bit the dust, and that theory has been rejected by the courts and by all rights, she should end up in jail, and she shouldn't be alone either, there are other judges facing charges. All of which the party of "no one is above the law" denounced as an unprecedented attack on the judiciary.

I don't understand how these Democrat lawmakers can get away with encouraging people to attack ICE agents. How can that not be a crime? One Texas Democrat openly calls for 'dead ICE agents' in Los Angeles, which Monica Showalter calls:

"the up-and-coming Democrats are, the rotten fruit of a rotten political culture, fermenting in political defeat but not gone yet. They are the wave of the Democrat future. In New York, they have Zohran Mamdani. In Texas, they have this dirtbag."

Antifa freaks open fire on an ICE facility, and as Elizabeth MacDonald notes: It was a powder keg waiting to EXPLODE. Democrat Party rhetoric against ICE and Border Patrol finally boiled over....and turned violent. Agents were ambushed in McAllen, Texas today, just as Tom Homan had warned. But Stephen Miller just EXPOSED the irrefutable reason Democrats are at war with ICE and enforcing immigration laws.

So when these Antifa freaks ambush ICE agents why aren't these politicians held countable? Texas has a flood and many people die, and the Democrats blame Trump. These rioters kill and/or attempt to kill agents and that's Trump's fault also. Not the Democrat leaders encouraging this misbegotten behavior. What kind of twisted minds think in such a manner?

Then we have my favorite Democrat criminal, New York’s Democrat Attorney General Letitia James, who is now facing .... watch out now ..........here it comes..... mortgage fraud. My file on her is way too large for this piece so I did one just dealing with her, Democrat Crimes: Let's Talk About Letitia James.

Jim Jordan: The Left Has a ‘Template’ — Tell a Lie, Big Media Reports the Lie, Big Tech Amplifies the Lie

There are six words no Democrat, or their myrmidons in the Pravda media, has uttered since Trump has been elected. "No one is above the law!" Lock-em up!

The Voices of Today's Democrat Party

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note: This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. If you wish to get the full edition, E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free.

They might still call themselves the Democratic National Party, but in reality they are the Communist-Democrat Party. Think of past Democrat leaders. Compare the comments of today’s communist-loving Democrats to Democrats such as Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy. These are the leaders of today’s Democrat Party:

David Hogg, thrown out as vice chair of Democrat Nat’l. Party; X—June 27, 2025 “F--k the Supreme Court. F--k the Federalist Society. F--k Mitch McConnell.”

Side note: Hogg supported Deja Foxx in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District Democrat primary last week. In the five-candidate field, Foxx came in second. So, why does Hogg still hog so much spotlight?

Zohran Mamdani, Democrat Party mayoral nominee for New York City; Various interviews, podcasts and campaign stops “Globalize the intifada!” (Note: This phrase is a call to annihilate Jews.)

Jasmine Crockett, Texas Democrat Representative; MSNBC—March 8, 2025 [just one of many stupid comments.] “It is not a criminal violation to enter the country illegally … It’s not a crime.”

Alexandria Cortez, New York Democrat Representative; Campaigning; 2018 [just one of many stupid comments.] “Because we look at these (unemployment) figures and we say, ‘Oh, unemployment is low, everything is fine, right?’ Well, unemployment is low because everyone has two jobs.”

Tim Walz, Minnesota Governor; compares ICE to Nazi Gestapo Commencement address; May 2025 [just one of many stupid comments]

"Donald Trump's modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets. They're in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans and disappeared. To be clear, there's no way for us to know whether they were actually criminals or not because they refused to give them a trial."

Read After NYC the DNC Looks DOA by Arthur Schaper.

New Record Set For Deaths From Climate And Weather Disasters

July 23, 2025/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

During the first half of 2025, a new record was set for the number of deaths caused by climate and weather disasters. Can you guess what that record was?

If you read left-wing media sources, and believe anything they say, you might think that the recent record has something to do with a large and growing number of deaths. Recent articles in sources like CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and CBS News all explicitly claim that climate change is making weather events “deadlier,” or leading to increasing numbers of deaths, or some variation of that same message. I’m sure if you checked thirty such “mainstream” news sources over the past year, all thirty of them would have pieces parroting that same narrative.

Therefore you might be surprised by the actual record that has been set:

The first half of 2025 (January to June) has seen the fewest number of deaths from climate and weather disasters of any first half year this century.

Just curious if you’ve seen that information reported in any source other than here? (I came across the information at Roger Pielke, Jr.’s Honest Broker Substack. He in turn cites the Global Catastrophe Recap for the first half of 2025 issued by insurance broker Aon and the EM-DAT data base of catastrophe losses.)

But before getting to the details, let’s consider what you might believe if all you read or see is the usual “mainstream” sources:

From MSNBC, July 9, “How climate change is making natural disasters deadlier”: “At least 119 are dead and over 170 people are still missing after the catastrophic flooding in Texas. NBC News’ Jay Gray and The Kerry County Lead Editor and Publisher Louis Amestoy share the latest updates from Kerrville, Texas, and University of Pennsylvania Presidential Distinguished Professor Michael Mann joins Chris Jansing to discuss the impact of climate change on natural disasters.”
From CNN, July 9, “Extreme heat is a killer. A recent heat wave shows how much more deadly it’s becoming”: “Extreme heat is a killer and its impact is becoming far, far deadlier as the human-caused climate crisis supercharges temperatures. . . .”
From CBS News, March 18, “World climate report warns of growing risks to lives, economy and planet”: “A new report from the World Meteorological Organization delivers a stark warning: climate change is accelerating, with some impacts now irreversible for centuries. The State of the Global Climate reportconfirms global temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions and sea levels all reached record highs in 2024.”
From the New York Times, October 31, 2024, “Climate Change Is Making Disasters Deadlier. Here’s How Much.” “Two weeks before world leaders meet to debate the climate crisis, a report released on Thursday shows the 10 deadliest extreme weather events in the past two decades were made worse by burning fossil fuels.”

So let’s now look at the actual data on deaths from climate and weather disasters during the 25 years since 2000, and specifically focusing on the first half of each year. The following statement (quoted by Pielke) appears in the Executive Summary of the Aon report:

At least 7,700 people were killed due to natural disasters during the first half of 2025, which is well below the 21st-century average of 37,250. Majority of the deaths (5,456) occurred as a result of the earthquake in Myanmar.

An earthquake is not a climate or weather disaster. Take out those 5,456 deaths from the Myanmar earthquake, and you have only 2,244 deaths left that could possibly fall in the climate or weather category.

How does that compare to other recent years? Pielke goes over to the EM-DAT data base, where he finds data for deaths from weather and climate-related disasters for each of the years from 2000 to 2024. Here is the chart he compiles for January to June of each year:

The tiny red bar at the right represents the ~2,200 climate/weather related deaths through June 30, 2025. Those ~2,200 deaths from climate and weather-related disasters this year is clearly the lowest in the comparable period of the 26 years in question. The second-lowest is 2009 at about 2,600. Also obvious is that the numbers of deaths are hugely dominated by major disasters that have occurred in a few years, particularly 2008, 2010 and 2022. But with or without those outlying years, there is no obvious trend up or down in the annual number of deaths from these causes.

So 2025 is clearly the record holder for fewest first-half-of-year climate/weather disaster deaths in the 21st century. But how about before that? Pielke does not have comparable data for the comparison. However, before modern weather reporting and disaster warnings, deaths from climate and weather disasters were generally hugely greater than they are today. Drawing on other sources, he finds fairly rough estimates of around 50,000,000 deaths from climate and weather disasters in the decade of the 1870s (that would be 5,000,000 per year), 5,000,000 in the 1920s (500,000 per year) and 500,000 as recently as the 1970s (50,000 per year). The generally much greater levels of deaths in prior decades leads Pielke to the following assertion:

I’d go so far as to suggest that it is likely that the first half of 2025 has seen the fewest deaths related to extreme weather of any half year in recorded human history.

It’s not possible to prove that assertion definitively, but it is very likely correct.

The constant efforts of the media to scare people out of their wits on this subject are, frankly, despicable.

The “China Shock” and American Jobs

July 24, 2025 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

From an economic perspective, the most important part of this video is at 2:22, when I explain that everyone is better off in the long run when there are job losses caused by creative destruction.

Today, I want to share some real-world data to confirm that assertion.

Here’s a chart showing the 10 metropolitan areas that reportedly suffered the most (the “China Shock”) when China became part of the world trading system.

As you can see, both low-income and average-income residents in these cities now have higher wages than they did before trade with China supposedly wreaked havoc.

The chart comes from an article by Jeremy Horpedahl.

Here are some excerpts.

Much has been made of the “China Shock,” or the impact on US manufacturing from two related trade policy changes: the US granting China permanent normal trade relations in 2000, and China’s accession to the WTO in 2001. …

David Autor and co-authors have been some of the primary contributors to academic research on the China Shock, showing its negative impact on certain people living in various parts of the US. …we can identify 10 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) that are the most affected by Chinese imports…

What happened to those “most affected” MSAs? Here’s a shocking fact: all of the MSAs hit hard by the China Shock still managed to have significant and positive real wage growth across the distribution since 2001… Wage gains in several of these places, in fact, are better than the national trends. …the 10th percentile workers saw larger gains than the median worker.

It’s also worth looking at employment data. The next chart shows that these communities have enjoyed as much job growth – on average – as the rest of the United States.

The conclusion is that protectionism is not the right way of responding to trade.

…the lesson of the China Shock isn’t that we need more tariffs and industrial subsidies. Instead, it’s that the way to help Americans and US regions that are hurt by foreign trade (or any other economic shock) is to allow them to transition to a different, more modern industrial structure and allow their service sectors to flourish. …To emphasize one more time, …

I have focused on the MSAs that were most affected by the China Shock—in other words, the worst-case scenarios. Yet even these worst cases show that the US economy is more than able to adapt to employment changes brought on by international trade, even as we enjoy all of its other benefits.

Amen.

None of this means that there are not victims from trade. But as I’ve explained before, there are far more victims from internal trade than there are from international trade.

What’s important is making sure there is a good economic environment so that job gains are greater than job losses. And so long as government doesn’t interfere too much, that will lead to rising incomes over time for everyone.

CFACT takes the stage, delivers important message to ALEC attendees

By CFACT Ed July 22nd, 2025 @ CFACT |1 Comment

The 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council took place last week in Indianapolis, drawing together conservative and libertarian-minded state legislators from all 50 states. Prominent in this gathering was CFACT, which used the opportunity to sponsor four “model bills” and to make a presentation on the perils to the grid from green (solar and wind) energy.

CFACT takes stage, delivers important message to ALEC atendees 2

Speaking before a packed chamber filled to “standing room only,” CFACT President Craig Rucker teamed up with the Heartland Institute’s president, James Taylor, to offer the attendees a takedown of the Green New Deal’s energy policies. The panel, hosted by energy expert Steve Milloy, was kicked off by Taylor who took aim at the shoddy science backing up the climate alarm theory and the exorbitant costs imposed by transitioning the grid from reliable to unreliable energy.

President Craig Rucker takes time to chat with New Hampshire State Representative Jeanine Notter about energy concerns in the Granite State.

After Taylor finished, Rucker then took up the microphone to expose the forces driving this change, namely the radical environmental movement and their allies in the UN and mainstream media. He then concluded his talk by urging ALEC members to distance themselves from an “all of the above” energy strategy. After they finished, Milloy moderated a Q&A segment of the presentation before it closed. As it ended, the audience gave a huge applause to all the speakers.

This memorable presentation was followed by a meeting of an “Energy, Environment, and Agriculture” task force on Friday, where CFACT had the opportunity to present four pieces of legislation. The first piece of legislation dealt with restricting “conservation easements” to no more than 20 years in duration, as opposed to “in perpetuity,” as they are currently configured. A second addressed the issue of PFAS pollution in and around solar farms. The third and fourth bills looked at measures to prevent the early closure of reliable fossil fuel plants and eliminate the advantages renewable energy enjoys over fossil fuels in the electricity market. None of the bills passed, unfortunately, on the first go round. However, all are either scheduled to be reviewed by ALEC’s executive committee or taken up for debate again in the fall. CFACT expects each of them to eventually get voted on and passed at future gatherings.

CFACT takes stage, delivers important message to ALEC atendees 3

State Representative Reagan Paul introduces CFACT’s model bill to the Energy and Environmental Task Force and fields questions.

All in all, the ALEC meeting in Indianapolis proved to be a fruitful one for CFACT on many fronts. Business cards were gathered, connections made, legislators educated, and important ideas advanced. Expect to see CFACT continue its involvement in this important forum for years to come!

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Democrat Crimes: Let's Talk About Letitia James

The Letitia James story is a tale of moral immiseration.

By Rich Kozlovich, Tags: Russiagate and the Obama Cabal, The Biden Cabal

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby was found guilty of mortgage fraud and sentenced to 12 months of home confinement and three years of supervised probation. What did she do? She "signed the application for the $428,400 mortgage and attested to the accuracy of her answers in the application", only there was a little bit of a problem. She lied.

"She had not lived in Florida as she had claimed. She failed to disclose all her liabilities. She failed to disclose that she was delinquent in paying her federal taxes and that the IRS had a $45,022 tax lien against her. And the gift letter she provided to the mortgage company was also false."

Now we have Letitia James, who made it clear if she was elected she was going to find Donald Trump guilty of mortgage fraud, and "once elected, filed a civil fraud case against Trump for inflating the value of his real estate properties in order to receive better loan and insurance rates." A case where there were no complainants. As Jack Hellner notes:

If the Trumps committed bank fraud, as James says, they would have sued him and filed a criminal referral on him, but they did not. The state was not a victim, nor the bank, nor the citizens of New York, so why is she suing? Well, either she's extremely dimwitted or the move is purely for political reasons....

The bank gets independent appraisals, evaluates financial statements, reviews tax returns, and takes whatever steps necessary to protect its regulators and owners to ensure the borrowers have the cash flow capacity to pay back the loan. Due diligence may be a foreign concept to politicians, but the regulators would put severe restrictions on banks that didn't do their job. How could an attorney general not know this?

Well, it appears Letitia is in trouble....for mortgage fraud. Ya just gotta see the humor in that.

I do love irony, as now the person who, along with a corrupt judge, persecuted Trump, who did nothing illegal, "he paid back all the money plus interest, and the banks hoped to do business with Trump again", is now being investigated for illegally falsifying her business transactions. Maybe she didn't know about Marilyn Mosby.... nah.... her criminal activity precedes Mosby's going back to 1983.

No One Is Above the Law—Including Letitia James

But there's more. She's facing ethics charges from the New York Bar Association charging that "James is in violation of the New York State Bar Association's rules of professional conduct, which prohibit lawyers from engaging in "illegal conduct" that can adversely impact the lawyer's honesty and trustworthiness." This criminal activity could adversely impact her honesty and trustworthiness? Really? Imagine that. So, it's no coincidence that the DOJ is looking into Letitia James.

This is the hypocrite who told America "everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank to get a mortgage to buy a home" in February 2024 after she secured a $486 million judgment against Trump for allegedly falsifying his business records."

It turns out she's also a slum landlord. According to her tenants:

....she does nothing about bedbug infestation, peeling paint, using an apartment illegally, and more. They have lodged 17 complaints in the last 20 months with the New York City Department of Buildings. These include unauthorized construction work without proper permits, the alteration of a load-bearing wall without permits, the illegal use of apartments as hotel rooms, illegal conversion, a fence over the height limit, and a failure to notify authorities of scaffold work. In addition, all four tenants report problems with bedbugs. ........

James is not only incompetent, she's corrupt in every aspect of her position.

Letitia James’s Former Colleague Says ‘Opportunistic’ NY AG Abused Her Power - Former assistant New York solicitor general Brian Ginsberg, who reported to James from 2019 through 2022, warned the Supreme Court in a May 12 filing that James is abusing her prosecutorial powers in an ongoing Title IX case against a western New York school district over four disparate sexual misconduct allegations between its students.......... Ginsberg reminded the Supreme Court that James has a history of allegedly abusing her powers, citing comments from a justice of the New York supreme court in November 2024 reprimanding James for bringing forward a politically charged environmental case against Pepsi, which the court tossed. "The same New York State Attorney General who initiated this action against the School District has been judicially chastised for abusing her power to initiate representative actions to launch 'predatory lawsuits that seek to impose punishment while searching for a crime,'"............

Her vile character knows no bounds as she attempts to thwart local law enforcement agencies around the state in aiding federal agents enforcing immigration laws. She belongs in jail, but how much do you want to bet it ain’t gonna happen. But she needs to be prosecuted at the state and federal levels, separately, so even if she slips the bonds of justice, the process will be her punishment, her financial ruin, and the end of her political career, and quite hopefully, her legal career. Steven Miller calls her "one of the most corrupt, shameless individuals ever to hold public office."

She can bloviate and claim it's all politically motivated, and/or racism, but make no mistake, she's scared, and visibly unraveling—rambling, overreacting, spinning, frantic, sounding irrational, cornered and guilty. She's so panicked she organized an $18,000/person fundraiser, and she needs it as she's hired some of the highest priced lawyers available.

Conspiring to obstruct our election
Abusing her public office to prosecute an innocent man
Overthrowing our democratic processes and procedures

Well, it all just got worse, on Tuesday the Gateway Pundit reported their article regarding in investigation of the Standard Charter Bank found "at least $9.6 billion of illegal payments by the bank to Iranian and Hezbollah entities." The article went on to say this "case implicates NYAG Letitia James and the Federal Reserve for ignoring billions of these illicit payments and ignoring Treasury sanctions designations. Maximum Pressure is not being enforced because of the failures of the Fed and the NYAG." This exposure led to an extension of this investigation. Who knows where that will end up.

In short, Leticia James was great at making up crimes that didn't occur for political gain. She works diligently to intimidate local law enforcement to prevent ICE from arresting illegal immigrants, who are in point of fact criminals. And she's an abject failure in enforcing laws of crimes that were occurring. Crimes she should have been aware of. Does it seem to anyone other that me think the words, fatuous, incompetence, corruption, collusion, mendacity, animus, moral immiseration, calumny, execrable, and treason apply here?

Maybe Donald will visit Letitia’s trial - About a year ago, AG was in the courtroom watching President Trump on trial. My guess is that she was enjoying the show and imagining what her TV ads for governor were going to be like. “Vote for me because no one, not even Trump, is above the law” or something like that. Well, it didn’t turn out that way. Maybe President Trump will go to her trial. Here is the latest in the life and times of AG Letitia James:.............Nevertheless, the irony of all of this is incredible. The woman who wanted to nail a man over “fraud” that didn't actually happen now faces a case of “fraud” that allegedly happened. As my late mother used to say, God has a great sense of humor.

There are six words no Democrat, or their myrmidons in the Pravda media, has uttered since Trump has been elected. "No one is above the law!" LOCK HER UP!