And somehow transcripts of Trump's calls with Australia and Mexico were made and leaked

Wiretaps.

WaPo, here on February 5th, in the "Style" section:

The breadth of the leaks has surprised — and, of course, delighted — journalists, who say it gives the public an unfiltered view of what those in power are thinking and doing. The leaks of Trump’s calls to Turnbull and Peña Nieto may have been the most surprising of all; it’s rare for transcripts of presidential phone calls or details of meetings with foreign leaders, especially potentially embarrassing exchanges, to leak so soon afterward.

And the White House examined a transcript of a wiretapped conversation of Michael Flynn

Someone in the US government was wiretapping all over the place, and the White House read all about it.

It doesn't matter that Comey at FBI denies he's doing it, or that the FISA court refused to allow wiretaps. Someone wiretapped Flynn during the transition, and Manafort during the campaign, which means at Trump Tower.

President Trump is not wrong.

The New York Times, February 13, 2017, here:

The White House had examined a transcript of a wiretapped conversation that Mr. Flynn had with Mr. Kislyak in December, according to administration officials. Mr. Flynn originally told Mr. Pence and others that the call was limited to small talk and holiday pleasantries.

But the conversation, according to officials who saw the transcript of the wiretap, also included a discussion about sanctions imposed on Russia after intelligence agencies determined that President Vladimir V. Putin’s government tried to interfere with the 2016 election on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Still, current and former administration officials familiar with the call said the transcript was ambiguous enough that Mr. Trump could have justified either firing or retaining Mr. Flynn. ...

Officials said classified information did not appear to have been discussed during the conversation between Mr. Flynn and the ambassador, which would have been a crime. The call was captured on a routine wiretap of diplomats’ calls, the officials said.

And when did the wiretapping of Trump Tower begin?

The same NY Times article told us when, here:

The F.B.I. investigation into Mr. Manafort began last spring, and was an outgrowth of a criminal investigation into his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine and for the country’s former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych. In August, The Times reported that Mr. Manafort’s name had surfaced in a secret ledger that showed he had been paid millions in undisclosed cash payments. The Associated Press has reported that his work for Ukraine included a secret lobbying effort in Washington aimed at influencing American news organizations and government officials.

New York Times in print version reported American wiretaps provided to Obama White House, now we're supposed to believe there weren't any?

Here, January 19, 2017, in "Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates":

The F.B.I. is leading the investigations, aided by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit. The investigators have accelerated their efforts in recent weeks but have found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing, the officials said. One official said intelligence reports based on some of the wiretapped communications had been provided to the White House. ... It is unclear which Russian officials are under investigation, or what particular conversations caught the attention of American eavesdroppers.

This editorial note appears in fine print at the bottom of the online story indicating that these "intercepted Russian communications" were really American wiretaps:

A version of this article appears in print on January 20, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Wiretapped Data Used in Inquiry of Trump Aides.

Total government spending is well past the point of adding value

Wayne Winegarden, here:

At one-third of the size of the economy, total government spending is well past the point where additional expenditures add value.

Actually, it's higher than one third, as I previously pointed out here. In 2016 total government spending hit 36.1% of GDP. 

Noted in passing: Publius Decius Mus is Michael Anton, appointed by Trump to the NSC

Reported here. Anton, no surprise, cops to being a devoted Straussian.

The best part about the interview is that he thought Bill Kristol was his friend, until Kristol insinuated that Anton was a Nazi.

Kristolnicht. The guy can't be all bad, then.

Michael Mukasey says Loretta Lynch ordered the surveillance of Trump

From the story here:

“I think he’s right in that there was surveillance and that it was conducted at the behest of the attorney general – at the Justice Department,” Mukasey told ABC’s “This Week.” 

Laura Ingraham on Friday interviewed Mukasey saying the same thing.

Trump's right: It was Obama who tried to sell-out the country to Russia and keep it a secret

Here.

Former Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch calls for more marching, more blood, more death in the streets

The "E" used to stand for "eats too much". In the current video she appears to have lost weight since leaving office.

The video ends showing that it's under the auspices of the Democrats in the US Senate, here. Democrats. The Party of Violence.

Watch gun sales soar again.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, climate update for February 2017

Average temperature was 34.7 degrees F in February 2017 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 10.3 degrees above normal, the warmest February on record, beating out 1998's 34.1.

Monthly lowest minimum was 4.0 F. The mean is -2.0.

The high was 66.0 F. The mean is 50.

Precipitation was 2.05 inches. The mean is 1.76.

February snowfall was 2.4 inches. The mean is 13.

Heating degree days came to 842. The mean is 1137.

Mark Levin: Obama's police state used intelligence services to spy on Trump campaign and leak the info

Here:

"We absolutely know this is true, the FBI did a preliminary criminal investigation based on a potential connection between a server in Trump Tower and a couple of Russian banks. That turned out to be a dry hole, but one of the most outrageous things I've ever seen... totally uncovered by the media. Instead of closing the investigation, the Obama administration tried to turn it into a FISA court investigation in June [2016]. Apparently the first application they submitted named Trump."

"Even the FISA court said no. There wasn't enough evidence to make out probable cause involving Donald Trump," he said. "In the middle of the campaign the administration was actively having Trump investigated."

Pelosi caught in lie just like McCaskill about meeting Russians

Black lefty, who once worked for Glenn Greenwald but was fired, arrested for threatening Jews nationwide

What, I thought Trump supporters were behind these bomb threats?!

Story here, where you'll discover he used the very same m/o which got him fired from The Intercept.

Flashback August 2015: 30 Senate Democrats meet with Russian and Chinese diplomats behind closed doors to discuss Iran nuclear deal

Two-faced lyin' hypocritical wankers.

Here:

"Other lawmakers attending the briefing included Sens. Al Franken . . .."

Obama actually has more flexibility now that he's out of office than after he was reelected

Now he can openly conspire against America as a private citizen without fear, with a little help from Valerie Jarrett, who is oddly moving in to the DC residence, and from a federal pension and a fat book contract for tens of millions of dollars.

Obama hated Great Britain, but he's going to take its tradition of shadow government and give it an, er, unAmerican twist, guarded by the Secret Service.

America still has cancer.

Story here. 

Ben Carson confirmed by Senate to HUD 58-41 and Rick Perry to Energy 62-37

"Carson and Perry are the 17th and 18th of Trump's 22 Cabinet and Cabinet-level nominations to win Senate approval."

Bravo Sen. Ted Cruz: Sen. Sessions meeting ambassador a nothing burger

Here:

Jeff was being asked about the Trump campaign communicating with the Russians. I think he understood that he was answering in that capacity. And that is perfectly understandable. 

Reuters/CNBC oil headline says Russian production cuts stall, when the truth is Russia is cheating

So who's working in sympathy with the Russians now, huh?

"US oil settles at $52.61 a barrel, down $1.22 after Russian output cuts stall" says the headline.

"Russia's February oil output was unchanged from January at 11.11 million barrels per day (bpd), energy ministry data showed, with cuts remaining at 100,000 bpd or just a third of the levels pledged by Moscow under the agreement with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries" says the story, here.

Headline should have read: "Russian oil output cuts fall 66% short of those promised two months in a row".

Bravo Sen. Joe Manchin: "We meet all the ambassadors"

Here.

Missouri should get a new senator to replace Claire McCaskill, who can't remember her own shit

Foreign influence flashback March 2016: Top donor to Hillary, Saudi Arabia, also bankrolled Trump critic Senator John McCain

This is real news. Jeff Sessions is fake news, which is why Jeff Sessions is being crucified, and John McCain rolls in the dough. The elites protect their own.

Reported here:

A nonprofit with ties to Senator John McCain received a $1 million donation from the government of Saudi Arabia in 2014, according to documents filed with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. ...

Founded in 1998 to raise money for then-President Bill Clinton’s presidential library, the Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from foreign governments over the years, including while Hillary Clinton, now running for president, served as secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s first term. The foundation says that Clinton was not involved in its work when she worked for the Obama administration.

The Saudi donation to the McCain Institute Foundation may be the first congressional instance of that trend coming to light.

“The extent of this practice is difficult to gauge, of course,” Holman said, “because we only know about it when a nonprofit or foreign government voluntarily reveals that information.”

There's lots to like in Trump's speech, but . . .

We can't afford $1 trillion in infrastructure spending and it won't accomplish what people say it will. We are $34 TRILLION behind in spending of all kinds, but that's obviously out of the question. Debt service payments at rock bottom interest rates already exceed 10% of the $4 trillion budget. This is the price we are paying now . . . FOR PREVIOUS "PROSPERITY", which was only borrowed.

Paid family leave, a new entitlement, will cost government and employers a fortune, subduing hiring.

Adding refundable tax credits for health insurance premiums paid by taxpayers to a tax system which already includes the Earned Income Tax Credit is a back door introduction of another new entitlement. It could end up costing the country tens of billions in lost tax revenue each year.

These proposals could be political feints on which he will ultimately never deliver, simple red meat for moderates and liberals thrown out there to garner bipartisan support for his overall program.

Only time will tell.  

Ryan Zinke confirmed by Senate to Interior Dept. 68-31

WaPo admits part of the delay had to do with politics, here.

President Trump sends Vice President Mike Pence to sell his speech to conservative talk radio

So far today I've heard Pence live on segments with Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Sean Hannity.

Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress tonight, pressing for unity to accomplish his agenda

Oh come on, the only thing this picture shows is that for a 50-year old dame Kellyanne Conway is still very flexible: She must be taking good care of herself

Wilbur Ross confirmed to Commerce by Senate 72-27 last night

And that took almost 40 days with that kind of support because why? Why because Chucky Schumer tried but failed to tar him with a connection to Russia.

Reported here.

Yeah, and I remember when Chris Plante pronounced "Die" in "Die Welt" rhyming with "lie"

It's like "dee", Dummkopf!

Michael Savage is right, "gender" is misused

Gender is an aspect of inflected language, as in gender, number and case. Sex is an aspect of human reproduction, as in male or female. The equation of the two is a phenomenon of contemporary times.

For example, "the dummy" in German is "der Dummkopf".

"Der" signifies it is a masculine noun, singular in number, and nominative as to case.

"Der Dummkopf" functions as the subject in a sentence, for example when Michael says "The dummy says gender when he means sex".

When it is the indirect object in a sentence, it is spelled "dem Dummkopf", in the dative case, as in "Michael said to the dummy . . .. "

Michael Savage talks to many dummies, "den Dummköpfen", who are plural in number and dative in case, who don't understand the difference between gender and sex.

There is no answer to "What is your gender?"

To "Sex?" the answer is either male or female.

And sometimes "Yes".

My hometown is a small town: Libertarians chafe at staying in the same place

Tyler Cowen, here:

Americans traditionally have thought of themselves as the great movers, and indeed that was true in the nineteenth century and even through most of the twentieth. But since the 1980s, Americans have become much less restless in movements across the country, and more people are looking to simply settle down and entrench themselves.

Why does the Trump Admin. communicate with its supporters with an Obama Archive button on the page?

Repeal the income tax of 1913: It facilitates the massive growth of our enemy the administrative state

After the passage of the income tax in 1913, outlays doubled from $2.9 billion in 1911 to $5.7 billion by 1917, and they keep doubling and doubling and doubling . . ..

In 2016 over 36% of GDP is diverted from the free market and misspent, poorly spent or destroyed. Almost $6.7 trillion . . . phhhhhht.

To kill the beast, stop feeding it.

Breitbart is an LLC owned by Larry Solov, the Mercer family, and Andrew Breitbart's widow Susie

Reported here.

Laugh of the Day: Over 100 days after death Politico still expects dead person to conduct her own autopsy

"In the absence of a definitive 2016 autopsy report from the Clinton campaign . . .."

I see dead people walking.

Witches around the world cast a spell on Trump and his supporters

"It was good to see Hillary out again."

Tom Perez, supported by Obama and Biden, beats Ellison, supported by Sanders, 235-200 to head DNC

But WaPo, in sympathy with the defeated far left Ellison, can't bring itself to report it that way here, making you do the math:

The race was close enough that it required a second round of balloting, with Perez winning 235 of 435 votes cast. With tensions still high as the result was announced, nine Ellison supporters chanted “Party for the people, not big money!” and stormed out of the room.

Liberal insanity in Texas: Girl taking testosterone to become a boy permitted to compete and win girls' state wrestling title

They call her a transgender boy to confuse you.

She advanced through the competitions due to forfeitures by girls who refused to wrestle a girl who gained an unfair advantage from taking drugs.

But the story here doesn't tell you that.

The Chicago Tribune here has the true story which the Fort Worth, Texas Star-Telegram didn't want to tell you:

Mack Beggs, a junior at Euless Trinity High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, won a regional championship after two opposing wrestlers forfeited, apparently over concerns that Beggs has an unfair advantage because of testosterone treatments that are part of the transition.

Beggs, who has a 52-0 record, has a first-round match in the state tournament Friday in suburban Houston. 

Obama hollowed out the military and SECDEF Mattis wants to keep those responsible in place at DOD

Kimberley Strassel delivers the bad news here:

President Trump promised to rebuild our hollowed-out military, a cause as urgent as any domestic priority. Years of Obama budget cuts and neglect slashed force sizes and provoked a readiness crisis. Over half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded. Of 58 Army brigade combat teams, only three are ready to immediately join a fight. The Air Force is short pilots and aircraft maintenance workers. ...

[Mattis] wanted, for instance, former Obama undersecretary Michèle Flournoy for a top post. He’s looked to recruit from Ms. Flournoy’s liberal-hawk think tank, the Center for New American Security. And he’s pushed for some names who hail from Never Trump backgrounds, including Mary Beth Long, an official in George W. Bush’s Pentagon.

Perhaps only to make a point, Mr. Mattis is blocking some rock-star conservative talent. One is Mira Ricardel, a former Boeing executive and Bush Pentagon alum who helped with the Trump transition. Mr. Mattis continues to nix a long list of names offered by the White House team. ...

The Pentagon today remains in the hands of Obama holdovers who have spent years thwarting congressional requests, minimizing readiness problems, and generally covering for Obama failures. Those holdovers include Deputy Secretary Robert Work, an opponent of reform, and Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Stephen Hedger.

Mr. Hedger helped write an infamous 2016 Pentagon memo outlining how the Obama administration could use a presidential veto of greater defense spending as a “weapon” to get other Obama priorities. Civil servants are also place-warming other key positions. As well-intentioned as many are, it’s unrealistic to expect this crew to march in a new direction after eight years under President Obama.

Mattis isn't a Mad Dog. He's just mad, as in crazy.

Nearly half of Trump's cabinet still not confirmed, a record, because of Congress

Nearly half of Trump's cabinet still not confirmed, a record, because of Congress

There's no urgency felt by the Congress, which has been in recess all week, but you wouldn't know that from the CNBC story, reported here:

More than a month in, nearly half of Trump's Cabinet nominees have yet to be confirmed by the Senate, the longest run for any modern president.

"It's just delay, delay, delay - it's really sad," Trump told a cheering crowd at a Conservative Political Action Committee meeting Friday. "I love setting records. But I hate having a Cabinet meeting and I see all these empty seats. I said, 'Democrats, please, approve our cabinet.'"

Hey Ann Coulter, stop covering for CPAC: They're unenthusiastic for Trump because they're libertarians, not conservatives

Trump to CPAC: Basically, all I've done is keep my promise

Your opposition to Trump's border control initiatives is directly proportional to the severity of your drug addiction

Story here.

Steve Bannon poses as our new Albert Jay Nock, says Trump's third goal is the deconstruction of the administrative state

Good stuff, except the real enemy is the income tax. Leave the income tax in place and a new behemoth administrative state is just another administration away.

Here.

Hey Hillary, put a sock in it, it's you who couldn't stand the heat on the 9/11 anniversary

With its new motto "Democracy Dies in Darkness" maybe WaPo should switch all its publishing to Confide

That way its stories would evanesce into the ether and no one would ever be able to blame it again for its partisanship and lying.

What happens to investments when capital is misallocated to a foreign war and a war on poverty

Supreme Court ruling in 2011 requiring releases from Calif. prisons to ease overcrowding results in officer slaying on Monday

The story is here.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who dissented here, called it "perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our Nation's history": 

Today the Court affirms what is perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our Nation's history: an order requiring California to release the staggering number of 46,000 convicted criminals.

What? Roe v. Wade, which resulted in the deaths of millions of innocents, was less radical? Overturning millennia of marriage law and the statutes of 30 states was less radical? Obliging people to engage in health insurance commerce was not a repudiation of centuries of contract law? 

Antonin Scalia was right to dissent in this one, but come on, Solomon he was not.

WNBA 98% lesbian, average attendance at a game is 7,655, NBA averages just shy of 18,000

So says WNBA star Candice Wiggins, here, who was

"harassed for being straight". . . “I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they [the other players] could apply.”

And you thought guys liked watching lesbians.

This woman is far more disgusting than Milo because she's paid by the state to sexually abuse children

Here.

Trump outraised Obama, and Hillary and Bernie combined, from small donors

From the story here:

Mr. Trump raised about $239 million from small donors during the campaign, compared to $137 million for Mrs. Clinton and about $100 million for Mr. Sanders, according to the report from the Campaign Finance Institute.

Mr. Obama had raised about $219 million from small donors during the 2012 race and about $181 million during the 2008 campaign. Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, raised about $58 million from small donors that year.

Obama started to cut back on deportations after his 2010 ass-whuppin as a 2012 reelection strategy

Lots more here.

California has gone from exceptional drought in Feb. 2016 to mostly abnormally dry one year later

Calif. exceptional drought 2/16

Calif. abnormally dry 2/17

I don't believe Milo is gay, I think it's all an act and he's just trying to make money like Ru Paul, who isn't a tranny

If Milo is gay, I say release the movie and prove it.

If he does, report back here and tell me what you saw (comments subject to editing) because I won't watch it, even if it becomes the last movie on earth.

Trump's right about the lending slowdown

In the 15 quarters ended 3Q2016, total loans in all sectors have grown by a measly 14.5%.

Compare the 15 quarters ended 3Q1986 when the measure grew by 53%.

The fact of the matter is lending hit the big brick wall in 2007. It has recovered but not to anything like the post-war rate where total credit market debt outstanding doubled every 6 to 11 years. Under Reagan it doubled in 6 years.

Ten years out from 2007, we're currently about $34 trillion behind the outside range with a year to go. We aren't going to make it.

Why that is has to do with the broken housing model more than anything else, and the failure to find anything else to replace it.

With overcapacity everywhere else in the economy, it doesn't seem likely anything will be found to take housing's place, either, except housing.

Maybe someone could revive "A Dodge in every garage and a chicken in every pot"?

Obama certainly failed to understand the central importance of housing to the economy, and Trump talk now of $1 trillion in infrastructure spending is laughably unimaginative, the equivalent of taking a wizz in the ocean.

Infrastructure spending isn't conceivably up to scaling the $34 trillion lending deficit we face.

The Wall Street Journal features my nutty Congressman, who represents an ideology, not me

Students revolt against Moochelle's school lunches throwing away $1 billion worth of food a year

From the story here:

Penn-Trafford High School is among more than 500 schools that have dropped out of the NSLP since strict nutrition regulations were imposed on schools through the Healthy Hunger Free Act championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.

The changes drove down school food sales nationwide for the first time in years and created an estimated $1 billion in additional food waste as students across the country revolted against the rules.

Obama had 950,062 on his deportation list as of May 21, 2016, he just wasn't deporting them

Hm. Imagine that.

From the story here:

The 680 seized in recent sweeps by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents represent just .07 percent of the 950,062 with deportation orders as of May 21, 2016. ... ICE has custody of just 11,006, or 1 percent, of the 950,062 ordered deported.

Dan Alpert is kooky, says economy will go nuts if Trump spends on infrastructure: Let's try cutting spending by $200 billion a year instead

Here:

“If you spend $200 billion in this economy in additional government infrastructure spending, rebuild bridges, airports and railways, especially if it’s well targeted. This economy is going to go crazy. It’s going to do great.” 

Outlays in fiscal 2008 were $2.9825 trillion.

Between 2009 and 2016, outlays for the eight years, beyond that level, have come to $4.86 trillion. $200 billion or even $1 trillion isn't going to amount to doodleysquat if nearly $5 trillion has done nothing.

Cut federal spending and lower the tax rates and see what the people do with the money instead.

Laugh of the Day: Over 100 "Day Without Immigrants" protesters fired from their jobs

From the story here:

More than 100 protesters across the country were fired from their jobs after skipping work to take part in last week's "Day Without Immigrants" demonstration. Restaurants and day cares were among the businesses in states like Florida, Tennessee, Oklahoma and New York where bosses fired workers after they didn't show up for work in order to protest. ... At Ben's Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant & Caterers in Long Island, New York, 25 workers were fired Friday when they returned to work, according to Telemundo 47. Police escorted the workers from the restaurant — most of whom were undocumented and have worked there for years.

Obama pollster Cornell Belcher gets one thing right: Hillary failed to hold the Obama coalition

Or as we say, 5.1 million former Obama voters in 39 states from 2008 didn't vote for Hillary in 2016.

Do Belcher's math. He estimates from exit polling data that about 7% of the non-white millennial electorate voted third party, allowing Trump to squeeze in. Hillary's total of 65.85 million popular votes supplemented by the 5.1 million in 39 states who didn't vote for her is 70.95 million, 7% of which is 5 million.

Belcher, who is black, racializes the whole thing from there, complaining that Democrats failed to make the race about race. But obviously these non-white millennials still voted for whites, so it wasn't about race for them either. It was about young progressives being unable to bring themselves to vote for two loathsome candidates, one of whom turned out to be more loathsome to more people than the other.

As they say in the legal profession, hard cases make bad law. Election 2016 was a hard case, and we shouldn't draw the wrong conclusions from it as both Democrats and Republicans still seem to be doing.

Belcher, here in Salon:

Demographics are destiny. What happens to a centrist Democrat quite frankly who can’t hold that Obama coalition? Donald Trump is a president who did not win a plurality of the public. In fact, one of my reports was leaked to the New York Times, saying that millennials were rejecting the binary choice of the lesser of two evils.

When you look at the exit data, you have 8 or 9 percent of younger African-Americans voting third-party. You have 6 or 7 percent of younger Latinos voting third-party. Hillary is almost off Barack Obama’s winning margins by the same percentage of our young people voting third party. So that’s how [Trump] squeaked in.

Again, Trump didn’t expand the Republican tent. He didn’t bring in all these millions upon millions of new Republican voters. This was about Democrats losing, more so than Trump remaking the electorate and winning in some sort of profound and new way. It should not have been a winning percentage, right? ...

When you look at battleground state after battleground state, Hillary was off Obama’s margins by five or six points and Trump was, at best, one or two points up in Michigan or Wisconsin or Florida. Again, it wasn’t like he was four, five points better than Mitt Romney. It was that she was five or six points below what Barack Obama did.

Rand Paul slams John McCain, says he would have bankrupted the country by now with perpetual war

McCain's in Munich slamming Trump as a dictator. McCain's proving everyday what a horrible president he would have made.

Senator Rand Paul, putting the embarrassing man in his place, here:

“He would bankrupt the nation. We’re very lucky John McCain’s not in charge, because I think we’d be in perpetual war,” Paul added.

Laugh of the Day: The Stasi calls Trump a traitor

Linda Stasi, here.

Go back to East Germany where you came from.

Nathan Lewis thinks pretty highly of Judy Shelton's book on the gold standard

Here:

Today, the Federal Reserve, with the blessing of Congress, large banks, and many others, has embarked on an open-ended policy of printing money on a daily basis, basically to fund the Federal government's budget deficit although no one may speak such things in name. These situations tend to end badly, and are soon followed -- as was the case with the United States in 1789, immediately after the Continental Dollar hyperinflation of the 1780s -- by a rigorous gold standard system, more along the lines of the other four proposals that Shelton identifies.

The biggest gold standard advocates are those who lived through a hyperinflation. It is easy to forget that the hard money advocates of 1789 -- Hamilton, Jefferson, et. al -- were actually the same people that were printing money to finance Federal budget deficits in the 1780s, in the guise of the Continental Congress. Oops. More recently, people like Ludwig von Mises, who lived through the Austrian hyperinflation of the 1920s, became the biggest gold standard advocates of the 20th century.

Larry Kudlow likes her a lot, too, and had her on his show yesterday. You can listen to the podcast about an hour and twenty in at wabcradio.com: Go to the Saturday schedule and scroll down for the podcast.

The murder rate in Europe dropped by over 60% after the invention of firearms

Hey Drudge, it's "Der" Spiegel, Dummkopf

CNBC and WaPo just plain lie: Cost of Air Force One alone under Obama was $577 million

2799 hours in the air @ $206,377 per hour.

But here's CNBC lying through its teeth, relying on WaPo lying through its teeth, putting the cost at less than 17% of that:

Trump's time in office could cost taxpayers "hundreds of millions of dollars or more," topping the estimated $97 million of travel-related expenses during the Obama administration, the Post reported. 

Trump can fly to Mar-a-Lago and back every weekend for 9.2 years before he spends what Obama spent flying everywhere.

Michigan man outs sexual past of libertarian teacher in Texas on Facebook, gets her fired but only because she told on herself

Facebook. Why are you people on there again?

From the story, here:

DISD initially cleared her in an internal investigation last March, when officials first learned of her past. But the district didn’t move to terminate her until last fall. Woodward is active in the Libertarian Party, and a Michigan man took issue with one of her posts and “outed” her on Facebook. She was removed from the classroom after alerting the district about the man's action. 

Up for reelection, sexist Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill gets out front early distancing herself from progressives even though she is one

"Men, just shut the hell up"

What a liar.

Here:

“Many of those people are very impatient with me because they don't think I'm pure. For example, they think I should be voting against all of Trump's nominees and of course I'm judging each nominee on its own merit," she said.

Says the woman who gave her opponent Republican Todd Akin money in order to defeat him.

She's pure all right, pure trouble, deception and lies.

McCaskill gets a D- on immigration reduction from NumbersUSA here, and votes with conservatives in Congress only about 13% of the time, making her . . .

very liberal.

She backed same sex marriage. She backed Hillary Clinton. She might as well represent Connecticut.

Wake up, Missouri, ditch this bitch who thinks men should just shut the hell up.

Story in the Daily Beast about rift between Obama's OFA and Democrat Party smells like a ruse to me

As in, move along, ignore the OFA, nothing to see here.

I don't think so.

The story here wants us to take seriously the idea that Democrat regulars have a very low opinion of Organizing for America. But every Democrat is cheering that this organization is putting hostile audiences at Republican townhall meetings to protest Trump, support Obamacare, promote immigration at airports, yada yada yada.

Democrat regulars will have to do better than a "leaked email" and some lies told with a wink and a nod.

Let's give women a week without taking out the trash

Hillary call your office: Jason Chaffetz sends letter to AG Sessions asking for grand jury or charges against Bryan Pagliano

Story here.

Pruitt confirmed to EPA 52-46, Senate to take a week off leaving Trump appointees still unconfirmed

Here.

Now we're talkin': Much of State Dept. 7th floor staff laid off

The Deep State at the State Dept. sent packing.

From the story here:

Much of seventh-floor staff, who work for the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and the Counselor offices, were told today that their services were no longer needed. ... Ambassador Kristie Kenney, the Counselor of the State Department and one of the last remaining senior officials, was informed that she will be let go. She is a career foreign service officer who had served as an ambassador under Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton. 

Newsflash for those of you who think Trump's talk of an inherited mess is silly

You obviously had full-time work under Obama. We didn't for almost eight years, and not even part-time work for five. Our best money-saving work years are now all lost.

You obviously enjoyed the stock market recovery and even continued to invest, but we had to sell assets to preserve them and liquidate some just to survive.

Now we're stuck with non-income producing investments thanks to Ben and Janet and a stock market which is too expensive for a sane person to buy.

You obviously refinanced your mortgage at rock bottom rates, but we couldn't without that full-time job. And now that we can, it's hardly worth the expense thanks to Elizabeth Warren and her CFPB.

Meanwhile the gutters leak, the driveway needs paving, and the snowblower needs an overhaul.

You obviously drive on fresh wheels, but our cars are 10 and 20 years old in 2017. We'll probably keep them another ten because our mechanic is an honest Christian.

You obviously feel entitled to vacations and take them regularly, but we haven't had a real one since the 1990s.

You obviously enjoy dining out at restaurants, but we shop for bargains and cook at home almost every night.

You obviously consume healthcare like you do jet fuel, but we only go to a doctor, dentist, ENT or ophthalmologist when we absolutely have to because it's all out of pocket because of ObamaCare.

At Christmas we mostly give each other necessities, like new shirts socks and underwear, just so we have plenty of things to open to make the holiday seem more festive than it is.

We don't have television service because it's a costly waste of time, but for entertainment we enjoy listenting to Donald Trump on the radio dressing you down.

He's the best thing that's happened to us in years.

Of course Trump had the biggest electoral win since Reagan because no one expected the Hillary defections

Just as America turned its back on incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1980, so did America to Hillary Clinton, heir apparent, in 2016.

Trump was expected right up to the eve of the election to lose by between two to four points, and did end up losing by two points, except that he won enough states to win in the Electoral College 306-232 before faithless electors had their say.

The magnitude of that was overwhelming because it was unexpected. We even had people predicting Trump would win the popular vote but end up losing to Hillary in the Electoral College.

It turned out exactly the opposite. Every honest person who stayed up until three in the morning watching it all unfold knows how unexpected was Trump's win in the Electoral College. Everyone on our side expected the worst . . . a decisive Hillary victory.

The fact remains: Hillary underperformed Obama 2008 in 39 states because the people disliked her more than they disliked Trump.

And that's quite an accomplishment.

Mass hypnotist persuades 5.1 million former Obama voters not to vote for Hillary

66-year old gay Latina named Cox claims to be frightened by Trump election

Sure you are, sweetheart.

Here.

Open-borders free trade fanatic at Hoover wants Trump to resign

Richard Epstein, here, who didn't vote at all.

62,985,106 Americans who did vote for Trump don't.

Under pressure from Puritan Democrats, Puzder withdraws nomination to Labor Dept.

From the story here:

Over the last few weeks, Senate Democrats repeatedly hammered the CKE Restaurants executive for his business practices, like the risque advertising employed by fast food chains Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s.

The left takes over American institutions, then a lefty says . . .

"American Institutions Are Pushing Back Against Trump", to give the idea legitimacy.

Peter Beinart, here:

"[Flynn] lost his job because of an independent bureaucracy and a vigorous press." 

What a joke. Beinart knows the bureaucracy is in the tank for the left, as is the press.

Repeating otherwise is his function.

Flynn lost his job because he was a Democrat who had the temerity to serve Trump after serving Obama.

ObamaCare Update: Trump policy induces IRS to say leave form 1040 line 61 blank if you want

From the story here:

The IRS was set to require filers to indicate whether they had maintained coverage in 2016 or paid the penalty by filling out line 61 on their form 1040s. Alternatively, they could claim exemption from the mandate by filing a form 8965.

For most filers, filling out line 61 would be mandatory. The IRS would not accept 1040s unless the coverage box was checked, or the shared responsibility payment noted, or the exemption form included. Otherwise they would be labeled "silent returns" and rejected.

Instead, however, filling out that line will be optional.

Earlier this month, the IRS quietly altered its rules to allow the submission of 1040s with nothing on line 61. The IRS says it still maintains the option to follow up with those who elect not to indicate their coverage status, although it's not clear what circumstances might trigger a follow up.

But what would have been a mandatory disclosure will instead be voluntary. Silent returns will no longer be automatically rejected. The change is a direct result of the executive order President Donald Trump issued in January directing the government to provide relief from Obamacare to individuals and insurers, within the boundaries of the law.

Forget "Where's Waldo?" Where's Obama's GDP?

Obama's GDP came to $133.66 trillion through calendar 2016, Obama's spending to $28.72 trillion through fiscal 2016, 21.48% of the total.

Bush's GDP came to $102.87 trillion through calendar 2008, Bush's spending to $19.16 trillion through fiscal 2008, 18.62% of the total.

Together they averaged federal spending of 20% of GDP in response to  9/11 and the Panic of 2008, but it has gotten us nowhere except in deep kimchi.

Contrast their record with the 16 years before the Income Tax was passed, 1898-1913. It's a good comparison because the Panic of 1907 was a real crisis, in response to which the Congress foolishly introduced the Corporate Tax in 1909, and both the Income Tax and the Federal Reserve in 1913.

Federal spending over the whole prior period through 1913 was just 2.5% of GDP, 8 times less than now, yet GDP increased 142% despite a whopping 11% hit to GDP in 1908. GDP didn't recover from the Panic of 1907 until 1911, but it did so without any increased federal spending.

Fast forward to America's GDP hiccup from 2008 to 2009, which amounted to a measly 2.0% hit to GDP. GDP promptly recovered by 2010, yet all these yokels could deliver us was a total GDP increase of just 80% since the year 2000, 44% less robust than that period 100 years ago, before the advent of the bureaucratic state.

Put more sharply, Obama spent nearly $10 trillion more than Bush to solve a comparatively tiny $300 billion shortfall in GDP, but got nothing for it. Where, pray tell, did all the money go? Where is the GDP?

The spending excess has left us with a pile of debt which is now costing us $411 billion a year to service, 70% of the current Defense budget, despite the lowest interest rates in history.

At some point those rates will rise, and when they do, you'd better pray we still have a strong enough military to defend ourselves when the people we can no longer pay come a callin'.

There will be blood.

Obama's GDP, $4.31 trillion, Obama's spending in excess of Bush's last year, $4.86 trillion

I don't know how to show a negative $550 billion Nothing Burger, so the regular Nothing Burger will have to do.

You want cheese with that?

Interest payments on the debt averaged $411 billion under Obama, highest ever despite interest rates manipulated to the lowest ever

Call Senator Lindsey Graham, tell him to investigate his campaign contributions from Soros

ph: (202) 224-5972

Obama's Organizing for Action is behind the anti-Trump riots (used to be Organizing for America and Obama for America)

Paul Sperry, here:

Far from sulking, OFA activists helped organize anti-Trump marches across US cities, some of which turned into riots. After Trump issued a temporary ban on immigration from seven terror-prone Muslim nations, the demonstrators jammed airports, chanting: “No ban, no wall, sanctuary for all!”

Run by old Obama aides and campaign workers, federal tax records show “nonpartisan” OFA marshals 32,525 volunteers nationwide. Registered as a 501(c)(4), it doesn’t have to disclose its donors, but they’ve been generous. OFA has raised more than $40 million in contributions and grants since evolving from Obama’s campaign organization Obama for America in 2013.

Mnuchin confirmed to Treasury 53-47

Puzder to Labor is next.

24 days in and Democrats still won't let Trump form his government.

Hillary would have turned the entire federal judiciary into the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Michael Goodwin, here:

The activist judges who based their ruling on their liberal politics instead of the Constitution are the same kind she would appoint to the Supreme Court and all other federal courts if she were in the Oval Office.

Newsmax' Chris Ruddy "over drinks" with the president, really?

You decide which drink is talkin'. WaPo, here:

One of President Trump’s longtime friends made a striking move on Sunday: After talking privately with the president over drinks late Friday, Christopher Ruddy publicly argued that Trump should replace his White House chief of staff [Reince Priebus]. 

Honestly, Trump is his own chief of staff. Priebus is his liason to the Speaker of the House.