What Connolly said of federal workers is often true. But it’s also often not. Pushing back against Connolly’s assertion, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) noted the obvious irony: “Think about what this bill says. All of those hard-working taxpayers in the private  sector, hey, you are already making less, but now you are going to have more of your tax dollars go to pay people — who are already making more money than you — to get a raise. How is that fair?”

Backing Jordan’s argument are last year’s federal workers’ salary numbers, provided by the Congressional Research Service. One statistic that is quite illuminating shows that  92,000 federal bureaucrats earn as much of more than the governor of the state where they work. For example, 1,000 clerical workers in Alabama made $120,000 in salary; in Ohio, 333 made nearly $149,000; in Maryland 3,561 made at least $170,000. And the list goes on.

Adam Andrzejewski, CEO and founder of the government accountability website OpenTheBooks.com, pointedly asks, “When public affairs staffers in Alabama are out-earning their governor, it’s time for Congress to hold hearings regarding the proper pay levels for federal employees. How can [thousands of] general administrators, clerks and office service staffers make as much as a governor?”

The House voted 259-161 in approving the salary raises, with 29 Republicans siding with every Democrat.  ~The Patriot Post

In his prepared testimony, Scalise was to argue, “These new gun-control measures being proposed in H.R. 8 would not have prevented any number of recent mass violence events. … Instead, whether intentionally or not, the gun-control proposals in H.R. 8 could turn law-abiding citizens into criminals while also failing to achieve the stated purpose of reducing gun violence.”

Scalise planned to point out that the data simple doesn’t support the Democrats’ justification for their latest draconian gun-control effort, as well as to warn that it would only endanger law-abiding Americans by further encumbering their Second Amendment right to self-defense. “Every single month in America, law-abiding citizens with concealed carry permits defend themselves and others against criminals who have guns,” Scalise notes. “For example,” he says, “on January 8th, a man approached a 25-year-old woman in Chicago, displayed a weapon, and attempted to rob her at a bus stop. The woman had a concealed-carry permit. She drew her own weapon and fired a shot, killing the armed robber. The owner of a nearby pharmacy said such violence happens ‘all over’ Chicago. However, in this case, the intended victim was able to defend herself with her own gun.”

Once again, rather than being honest, Democrats attempt to hide their anti-Second Amendment agenda and cloak it with disingenuous terminology like “commonsense gun-control” as they seek to further erode Americans’ constitutionally protected rights. In doing so, they weren’t about to give the floor to a real Second Amendment advocate who’s life had been saved by good guys with guns.  ~The Patriot Post

The Democrats’ strategy since Trump’s surprising election win has been to hamstring him with investigations. That’s what the dirty cop-Mueller/scumbag-Comey/scumbag/liar-Clinton collusion is all about. And as we’ve asserted before, a recession that boosts Demo chances in 2020 would be a cherry on top for them.

Democrats wasted no time after the SOTU. On Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman scumbag-Adam Schiff launched a new probe into the president’s foreign business relationships and if those are affecting U.S. foreign policy. “He has no basis to do that,” Trump retorted. “He’s just a political hack who’s trying to build a name for himself. It’s just presidential harassment and it’s unfortunate and it really does hurt our country.” The Hill also reports, “The House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday voted to give special counsel dirty cop-Robert Mueller transcripts from dozens of witness interviews from the panel’s Russia probe.”

Meanwhile, on the House Ways and Means subcommittee docket today: examining the disclosure of presidential tax returns — a move clearly meant as a shot across the bow for Trump’s decision to withhold his own returns.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck scumbag-Schumer taunted the president, saying, “He’s scared. He’s got something to hide. Because if he had nothing to hide he’d just shrug his shoulders and let these investigations go forward.”

Memo to scumbag-Schumer: Pointing out that investigations are a political witch hunt — which these are — is a lot different than obstructing those investigations. Trump has done nothing to stop the process; he’s merely exposed the partisan hackery of it all.  ~The Patriot Post

Case in point: The recent admission by actor Liam Neeson that he once entertained racist animosity in his past when he learned that a family member had been raped by a black man. Neeson explained, “I went up and down areas with a cosh [billy club], hoping I’d be approached by somebody — I’m ashamed to say that — and I did it for maybe a week, hoping some [in air quotes] ‘black bastard’ would come out of a pub and have a go at me about something, you know? So that I could … kill him.”

Neeson also expressed remorse and regret for his racist thoughts and actions: “It was horrible, horrible, when I think back, that I did that. And I’ve never admitted that, and I’m saying it to a journalist. God forbid. It’s awful. But I did learn a lesson from it, when I eventually thought, ‘What the f— are you doing,’ you know?”

Instead of receiving commendations for being honest about the ugliness of his past racist thoughts — and expressing sorrow for it — social media instead piled on Neeson for being a racist. It is the “unforgivable” sin, after all. There was no consideration for Neeson expressing that he used to think one way and saw the error of it and changed. Nope, it’s too late — once a racist, always a racist.

And this same judgmental mindset is being applied across all intersectional “victim” classes. For example, this year’s Academy Awards show will be host-less after actor and comedian Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting following blowback he received over disparaging comments he had made about homosexuality in the past. Hart noted that he had repeatedly apologized for his past comments, writing, “if u want to search my history or past and anger yourselves with what u find that is fine with me. I’m almost 40 years old and I’m in love with the man that I am becoming. If you want to hold people in a position where they always have to justify or explain their past then… I’m the wrong guy, man.”

As are millions upon millions of Americans. Nothing less than perpetual apologizing and groveling will be accepted by the “social justice warriors” — and even then one’s past cannot be truly forgiven.  

~The Patriot Post

Actually, New York is playing us for fools.

evil-Cuomo complained specifically about the tax reform’s modification to SALT (state and local tax) deductions. He stated, “In the tax reform plan, they end the mortgage-interest deduction for homes over $500,000. Now, $500,000 is an expensive home, but those homes are in states like the State of New York and the State of California. They limit property tax and their compromise. They limit property-tax deductions over $10,000. A lot of states don’t have property taxes over $10,000. The State of New York … [has] many homes that pay property taxes over $10,000.” That doesn’t sound like a federal concern.

Like others, the governor was prescient in anticipating future budgetary problems. But that’s wholly a function of the Democrats’ wrongheaded handling of taxpayer money.

This week, evil-Cuomo revealed that New York has a revenue shortfall of $2.3 billion. According to him, “[Capping] SALT was an economic civil war. It literally restructured the economy to help red states at the cost of blue states. That’s exactly what it did. It was a diabolical, political maneuver.” (Sidebar: In reality, a diabolical maneuver is evil-Cuomo’s “directing that New York’s landmarks be lit in pink to celebrate” late-term abortions.)

In fact, the opposite is true. The way SALT deductions worked before is that lower-middle-class taxpayers, for whom SALT deductions are less accommodating, were significantly subsidizing upper-middle-class taxpayers who had the luxury of using SALT for write-offs. In other words, the tax obligations of higher earners were lessened by virtue of the fact their hefty deductions were being underwritten by people with less income.

Or as the Washington’s Examiner’s Tiana Lowe puts it, “Curbing the SALT deduction merely requires wealthier New Yorkers to foot the bill for their own recklessly high taxes rather than offload the cost of their profligacy onto other states.”

Yes, changing the SALT rules meant some states would take a big revenue hit. But reversing this wasn’t a “political maneuver.” Instead, it balanced an extremely lopsided playing field. Despite evil-Cuomo’s assertion that “it’s wrong for New York,” the change was good for most of the nation.

evil-Cuomo simply doesn’t want to accept the more levelheaded, tried-and-true financial approach seen in conservative states. He also literally can’t accept that tax reform worked. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Last week the Congressional Budget Office released a 10-year forecast — the first to assess the effects of tax reform after one year of hard results. Compared with its prereform projection, the CBO now expects annual GDP growth to be almost $750 billion higher by 2027, the last year of its prior forecast. A strong case can be made that tax reform played a predominant role in accelerating GDP growth.”

Just because Gov. evil-Cuomo is salty over Republican tax reform doesn’t mean he’s right to malign fiscal conservatives. And if spending cuts are the solution to balancing his state’s budget, so be it. evil-Cuomo wailed, “God forbid if the rich leave.” That’s entirely within his power to control.  

~The Patriot Post

The Washington Post, of all places, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request a 1986 registration card for the Texas Bar Association on which Warren listed her race as “American Indian.” The Post reports, “Dated April 1986, it is the first document to surface showing Warren making the claim in her own handwriting. Her office didn’t dispute its authenticity.”

“I can’t go back,” dinky-Warren told the Post. “But I am sorry for furthering confusion on tribal sovereignty and tribal citizenship and harm that resulted.”

Clearly, she’s hoping this controversy will be a distant memory by the time the 2020 primaries kick off. Her fellow Democrats may leave the issue alone given their convoluted handling of “identity” issues, but voters may not be so forgiving. Trump would love to square off against “Pocahontas” in the presidential election, but her viability just took a huge hit.  

~The Patriot Post

But, surprisingly, that changed last year with Donald Trump’s first address, “Our New American Moment.” His second address last night was even better than the first. These SOTUs did not follow the worn template of providing a wish list, but instead were a running recap of administration and congressional successes over the last two years.

In both instances, President Trump’s remarks strongly contrasted the difference in Republican optimism and Democrat pessimism — Republican advocacy for Libertyand self-reliance versus  Democrats’ advocacy for dependence, statism, and now  unapologetic socialism based on their failed policies of the past.

We concluded years ago that the Democrat Party was not one of the oppressed but of the depressed. And that deranged institutional depression has become epidemic.

Again in his latest SOTU, Trump instilled pride in who we are as a nation. It was framed by unity rather than partisanship. “Victory is not winning for our party,” he declared. “Victory is winning for our country.” He began and ended his address with calls for unity and he highlighted numerous areas that should enlist universal agreement, largely about America’s promise and historical achievements. There were several issues in the middle of his speech that should unify Americans, especially the Trump administration’s strong economic record. But the Democrats would have no part in a call for unity.

Trump opened, saying, “Members of Congress, the state of our union is strong.” Yet over his shoulder, Nancy “Sourpuss” Pulosi shook her head. Clearly, good news is bad news for Democrats, whose best political hope is to drive the nation into recession before 2020.

Americans may disagree on how to achieve border security and an orderly legal immigration process, but we should all be able to agree that caravans of migrants should not be free to cross our border.

Trump noted, “In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall — but the proper wall never got built. I will get it built.” He completely shifted the immigration debate to protecting American jobs and people.

Trump declared, “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country. We are born free, and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.” That shouldn’t be controversial, although socialist Sen. commie-Bernie Sanders and other socialist Democrats looked like they were suffering heart failure.

Record-low unemployment — especially for black and Hispanic Americans — rising wages across the board, and an overall strong economy are not partisan issues; they are facts. Yet in each instance when we should all agree, many if not most Democrats sat on their hands rather than applauding. However, Trump did get almost the entire room chanting “USA, USA” after mentioning the stats on the number of women now in the workforce.

People may not see eye to eye on when abortion is appropriate — there’s not much common ground between “never” and “most of the time.” But it should be beyond dispute to say that children should not be killed at the moment of or even after birth.

“Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life,” Trump said. “And let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: All children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God.”

Notably, Trump did receive almost unanimous approval for what we believe was the best gathering of gallery guests in any State of the Union.

Trump concluded, “We must choose whether we are defined by our differences — or whether we dare to transcend them. We must choose whether we squander our inheritance — or whether we proudly declare that we are Americans: we do the incredible, we defy the impossible, we conquer the unknown. We must choose between greatness or gridlock, results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress or pointless destruction. Tonight, I ask you to choose greatness.”

We rate this high among the best modern-day SOTUs, and many who viewed it agree. The Leftmedia network CBS reluctantly reported its findings regarding public approval of Trump’s State of the Union: 76% of those watching the speech approved, including a 30% approval rating among Democrats and 82% among Independents. Notably, 72% approved of his immigration plan. (We hope Trump will not derail the success of this SOTU, as is his penchant, with some petulant, dis-unifying social-media post.)

Of course, chief among those not approving were Pelosi and DNC Chairman Tom Perez.

For her part, Pulosi concluded: “It will take days to fact-check all the misrepresentations that the president made tonight. Instead of fearmongering and manufacturing a crisis at the border, President Trump should commit to signing the bipartisan conference committee’s bill to keep government open and provide strong, smart border security solutions. … President Trump must now take concrete steps to work with Democrats to strengthen the health and economic security of families across America. After two years of the president’s empty words, the American people deserve real results.”

Actually, this is a fine example of Pulosi’s “alternate universe” perspective. The Trump administration and Republican Congress have clearly strengthened “the health and economic security of families across America” and, demonstrably, the American people are experiencing “real results.”

And for those watching the SOTU, there is now a consistent Pulosi poker tell — when she knows Trump has succeeded where Democrats have failed, she starts doing that smirk thing, as if trying to get the spinach out of her teeth. The Demo/MSM machine was certainly consumed with what it claimed was a teenager’s smirk two weeks ago — but not a word on Pulosi’s smirk, and all the others on the left side of the room last night.

Predictably, according to Perez: “After attending Trump’s State of the Union tonight, I know this for certain: The only way that we will be able to stop his outrageous, divisive agenda is by taking back the Senate and putting a Democrat in the White House in 2020. I am going to fight like hell to make sure we’re building the infrastructure necessary to continue to elect Democrats up and down the ballot in the months and years ahead.”

The bottom line: There will be no unity in the next two years, because Democrats and their Leftmedia publicists thrive on division and partisanship, the antithesis of unity. They have reconstructed their political platform on a “Hate Trump” foundation, rejecting Rule of Law, the most basic tenets of morality, and America’s First Principles.  

~The Patriot Post

According to an April 19, 2018 report by Fox News, this small atoll, about 1,200 miles from Tokyo and about 1,400 miles from Wake Island, is sitting on a motherlode of rare-earth metals. As in, enough to supply world demand for them for at least the next four to eight centuries.

You might be asking, “What’s the big deal about rare-earth metals? And why nine months later?” Well, for starters, if you want to know why it matters, just look at the cell phone you may well be reading this article on. Rare-earth metals make that smartphone possible. Without rare-earths, it’s just not possible to keep our economy going.

And China, for now, has about 95% of the world’s rare-earth metal production. This has been used by China as a bit of a “stick” when there have been tensions. Cut off the rare-earth metals, watch countries and companies who depend on those metals for high-tech devices become much more amenable to Chinese demands.

The key words are, “for now.” With Japan developing access to these metals, well, the situation has drastically changed. The position of Marcus Island is such that China has to come out into the middle of the Pacific — and while its navy is growing, it’s not growing fast enough to make that challenge successfully, especially given that Indiastill would warrant China’s attention.

China is facing a bind much similar to what Russia is dealing with vis-à-vis natural gas. It used to have virtually all of the proverbial pie, could charge a higher price for what it exported, and had the ability to leverage the product. The Marcus Island mother lode changes that. Now, China is finding that not only does it not have a near-monopoly on rare-earth metals, but also that the pie is smaller. Beijing’s leverage has decreased greatly as a result.

Just as Russia is losing its geopolitical kompromat over Germany and Eastern Europe thanks to American exports of natural gas, China has lost its leverage over the United States and its allies. Japan can now provide the rare-earth metals indefinitely to the United States, meaning the U.S. can apply more pressure to China over trade, its aggression in the South China Sea, and on human rights. And as a result, Japan is laughing all the way to the bank as it reaps the reward for providing this technological lifeblood.

The geopolitical ramifications of the Marcus Island mother lode will be good news for the United States of America, especially as China now faces the double whammy of lost leverage and lost money. That good news is also going to emerge in a more concrete way for individual Americans as well, in the form of lower prices for electronic devices, thanks to the increased supply from a friendlier and more convenient source. It’s not every day when consumers win, America wins, and the butchers of Beijing lose. The best part of all is that no shots were fired.  ~The Patriot Post

On Sunday, conservative media outlet Big League Politics, the same outfit that first published the story on Northam, broke a story alleging that Fairfax sexually assaulted a Stanford fellow back in 2004 during the Democratic National Convention in Boston.

On Monday, Fairfax called the report false, noting that “not one other reputable media outlet has seen fit to air” it. But no less than The Washington Post pushed back against his assertions that the paper had found “red flags” with his accuser’s story. The paper insisted that the only reason the editors originally chose not to publish the story was due to the fact that they could not find any corroborating witnesses. Fairfax admitted that he and his accuser did have an encounter, but he insists that it was “consensual.” Mark Alexander observes, “All such claims are ‘behind closed doors’ and can’t be corroborated. Most of these cases depend on a pattern of behavior. If another woman comes forward, Fairfax is toast.” Fairfax first took to insinuating Northam had leaked the accusation before shifting blame to Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, a possible competitor to Fairfax in 2021.

Initially, following the revelation of Northam’s racist 1984 yearbook photo, it appeared that Democrats were well positioned to deal with the fallout. They would get Northam to resign and then Fairfax, who just happens to be black, would step in as the “knight in shining armor” to save the day. It would reinforce Dems’ commitment to the Left’s grievance ethic, which affords no room for forgiveness or reconciliation. However, that notion quickly soured upon the revelation of sexual-assault allegations against Fairfax. And ironically, Democrats have only themselves to blame for weaponizing #MeToo’s flawed ethic of “always believe the victim” in their underhanded attempt to thwart Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Now both Northam and Fairfax are damaged goods, serving as massive beacons of Democrat hypocrisy.  ~The Patriot Post