Supremes decline to rule on DACA ahead of court of appeals, could take another year to reach Supremes again

Illegality isn't an emergency to the Supremes. Neither is the challenge to the Executive branch's constitutional authority in the matter.

You live by the courts, you die by the courts.

If Trump had any balls, he'd ignore the courts and deport them all. Let the courts try to enforce their rulings.

Story here.

Peter Morici: Republican opposition to regulating prices will bring Medicaid-like single payer to USA

Here.

To Richard Brookhiser of National Review, illegal immigration isn't even a thing, and conservatism's biggest hypocrites are among the Religious Right

Here, where strong national defense, cultural and New York intellectual conservatives, and free-marketeers all receive his scorn:

Trump’s conservative admirers have had to abandon and contradict what they once professed to hold most dear.

The most egregious example is the religious Right. The religious Right is the latest version of an old model of American politics, variously incarnated by Puritans, abolitionists, and William Jennings Bryan. It, like its predecessors, has argued that America and individual Americans need to have a godly or at least moral character to thrive. Now the religious Right adores a thrice-married cad and casual liar. But it is not alone. Historians and psychologists of the martial virtues salute the bone-spurred draft-dodger whose Khe Sanh was not catching the clap. Cultural critics who deplored academic fads and slipshod aesthetics explicate a man who has never read a book, not even the ones he has signed. Followers of Harry Jaffa, the most important Lincoln scholar of the last 60 years, rally round a Republican who does not know why the Civil War happened. Straussians, after leaving the cave, find themselves in Mar-a-Lago. Econocons put their money on a serial bankrupt.

Poor fella. No one listens to him anymore.

Laugh of the Day: Incompetent Sheriff Israel thinks he's Sheriff Joe

Quoted here:

"Jake, I can only take responsibility for what I knew about. I exercised my due diligence. I've given amazing leadership to this agency—" Israel started.

The tongue really had to lube the lips for that one.

Nikolas Cruz called the cops on himself, but not even they listened, or cared

Are you listening, America? To anyone?

The New York Times reports, here:

Mr. Cruz, 19, himself called the authorities just after Thanksgiving, describing how he had been in a fight and was struggling with the death of his mother. “The thing is I lost my mother a couple of weeks ago, so like I am dealing with a bunch of things right now,” he said in a childlike voice, sounding agitated and out of breath.

The problem with Trump at CPAC is that he made it sound like the Second Amendment is negotiable

“By the way, if you only had a choice of one, what would you rather have — the Second Amendment or the tax cuts?”

More here.

I don't know what's more revolting, Rubio and Sheriff Israel appearing with Trump, or Trump proudly featuring the photo

Hey Trump, why not make 'em wait 'til 26?

There's no there there, just pure, unadulterated reaction.

Not only does Florida's Broward County Sheriff have four incompetent deputies, his political loyalties are to incompetents, too

More here.

Marco Rubio entertains infringing the Second Amendment

How about the First Amendment, Marco? Or the Sixteenth? or the Fourteenth? You skull full of mush.

Here:

"If we are going to infringe on the Second Amendment, it has to be a policy that will work," Rubio said in an interview Thursday with AP.

Ironman estimates stock repurchases by corporate America of $628 billion in 2018 due to tax cuts

Here:

What we find is that 2018's projected total of $628 billion in buybacks will break the previous record of roughly $589 billion worth of stock repurchases that was set by U.S. corporations in 2007, which would work out to be about a 7% increase over that previous record.

Time will tell if share repurchases were the right thing for the companies that are choosing this action to have done with the benefits they received from U.S. corporate income tax reform.

Surprise, the tax cuts are showing up in, not your wallet, but enormous stock buy-backs by large corporations, which explains the rising stock market

In other words, so-called sideline cash coming into the market is really nothing more than taxcut cash reallocated to stock buy-backs by corporate America.

Marketwatch reports here:

But now, courtesy of Goldman Sachs, we know where the tax cut is really going. Surprise! It’s paying for stock repurchases by corporations, as Corporate America despairs of investing in much other than dividing the pie provided by near-record profitability into fewer and larger pieces.

Buyback announcements are up 22% this year to $67 billion in just six weeks, Goldman said in a note to clients. This follows a report by benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt finding that 83% of large companies don’t expect the tax cut to boost salaries at all — just help pay for small bonuses companies like WalMart and AT&T gave workers, which reporters soon discovered were, themselves, skewed toward higher-paid, longer-tenured employees in many cases.

Maybe the obvious just isn't obvious in the South

You know, like slavery being wrong: Durham County North Carolina District Attorney drops all charges against Confederate monument vandals, even though there's lots of film.

On the other hand, they must call it North Carolina for a reason.

Laugh of the Day: Michael Moore, useful idiot of Russia-instigated "Not My President" rally 11/12/16

Along with about 25,000 other dimwitted New Yorkers.

"Michael Moore participated in anti-Trump rally allegedly organized by Russians"

Just words: A total joke endorses a total joke

Mitt Romney, running for Senate from a shit-hole Utah, accepts endorsement of President Trump.

Story here.

Today's installment in unserious America: A movie is a defining moment for Black America

"Why ‘Black Panther’ Is a Defining Moment for Black America"

Might as well be talking about Bill Cosby in "I, Spy", or Oprah beating Donahue, or Roots.

What vaporous, ignorant and meaningless lives we live that we elevate the fantasy du jour on a pedestal of meaning, and imagine we find it there.

Antietam September 1862 was a defining moment for black America. All other moments, especially this one, pale in significance.

Indictment of 13 Russians says interference efforts began in 2014, long before Trump was a candidate

Jonathan Turley, here:

Now, the special counsel and the deputy attorney general are saying that there is no evidence of knowing interaction of campaign staff with Russians interfering with the election. The paucity of such evidence follows a year of intensive investigation and the much heralded plea bargains with former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and the expected plea with former campaign official Rick Gates. There is still no evidence of anyone “wittingly” or knowingly colluding with these Russians. Moreover, the indictment says that the Russian efforts began in 2014, long before the candidacy of Trump.

The scam known as Informed Electorate PAC is quite the little money maker for its operators

A commenter has provided the website information from the State of Utah where the Informed Electorate PAC discloses its financials:

https://disclosures.utah.gov/Search/PublicSearch/FolderDetails/1414465

If you are one of the many contributors to this so-called PAC, your full name, address and contribution level are listed there.

And wow, there's an awful lot of gulls out there in America. It's a goldmine of a mailing list, free for the taking.

You'll also be fascinated to learn that for the "privilege" of paying these grifters to take your opinion, for that is what they are in my opinion, shameless grifters, they netted about $1.91 million in contributions in 2017 alone, of which about $1.79 million was expended.

On what? you ask.

Never heard of 'em, right? Most people haven't, which kind of gives the lie to their objective of informing anyone. I search in vain for itemized expenditures under "public relations". Instead I see lots of consulting fees and W-2 payrolls, evidently going to the principals.

Nearly $336,000 in 2017 went straight into the pockets of the President, Brett Payne, a board member Rob Andra, and someone named Joseph Demma, who appears to be related to Stacy Demma the Vice President (who is also the only other listed board member), and presumably the CFO Kenneth Kohfel and other unnamed employees. The reports show that the consulting fees in 2017 stopped being paid in July, and that the W-2 payroll line items start appearing once a month beginning in June.

A company named Fiercecom gets large sums regularly for data management, telephone services and fulfillment. Other regulars include Airespring, Heartland Payment Solutions and Skymail International.

One wonders if any of this PAC's principals have any personal business interests in any of the businesses which provide services back to the PAC.

Someone really ought to look into it, like 60 Minutes, or maybe the FBI.

I wonder what they'd find?

At any rate, for the umpteenth time, no legitimate polling organization asks YOU to pay to give your opinion.

The wonder of it all is that these snakes have found the ones that will pay, and that Utah has listed them all for the whole world to laugh at.

This is just one month from the disclosures, October 2017

Stock market boom? What stock market boom? It's been a bear market for return since August 2000 . . .

. . . and it could easily continue to be a bear market for return for three more years. The average length of the last three secular bears was 20 years, and we're only at 17.4 years through January 2018. Or, it could all end Monday in tears. Have a nice weekend!

As good as you think it's been, average return is underperforming the long term average of 9.13% by almost 38%.

The legacy of Mueller and Comey is yet more FBI incompetence revealed today: Tipster phone call to FBI ignored

From the story here:

PARKLAND, Fla. - Gov. Rick Scott called on the FBI director to resign Friday after the agency admitted that it failed to investigate a tip in January about the Parkland school shooting suspect. ...

The FBI confirmed Friday that a tipster who was close to Cruz called the FBI on Jan. 5 and provided information about Cruz's guns, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts.

The FBI said the caller expressed concerns Cruz could attack a school.