Month: July 2023

A big surprise in Delaware. Hunter Biden did not escape with a slap on the wrist for a felony charge after all. Federal Judge Maryellen Noreika did what all of us are advised to do: before signing anything, read the fine print. She uncovered a tiny paragraph in a secondary document that would have freed the President’s son from any future charges against him.

Hunter then admitted he received over $600,000 from a company owned by Communist Chinese. Add that to the millions his partners claim he received, and you start wondering what Hunter did to earn that money while his dad was Vice-President. Was he secretly farming 5000 acres in Iowa and selling them soybeans? Could he have been manufacturing transmissions in Michigan for Chinese cars? Or did the Chinese get something more valuable from his dad and President Obama?

As soon as that News came out, the Justice Department announced an additional charge against Donald Trump and his employees at Mar-a-Lago. This was to provide the TV Networks and newspapers a choice of which News to cover. Lately, it seems they feel compelled to pick a side, and ignore the other side.

And Friday evening, while everyone was pre-occupied, President Biden whispered to People magazine that he has a new granddaughter. And she’s already 4 years old. He did not say whether she would be visiting the Biden mansion on Rehoboth Beach during his August vacation.

Tomorrow, Devon Archer, a long-time business partner of Hunter Biden’s, is supposed to testify before the House Oversight Committee. Republicans and Democrats on that committee will be just like the TV Networks: pick one side and ignore the other. On one side, the Justice Department has ordered him to report to prison for stealing $60 million. The other side emphasizes that he worked with Hunter and has personal knowledge of Joe Biden being a key part of that business.

It is doubtful the Biden Family will rise to the level of power and scandal of the political machine in New York known as Tammany Hall. But it’s possible we may learn that Joe Biden’s influence over 50 years in politics has enriched his family almost as much as William “Boss” Tweed enriched Democrat cronies (and himself at least $100 million) while he was boss of Tammany Hall.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

     “… with Tammany Hall, when [Franklin Roosevelt] threw out a sheriff that had been ‘hoarding’ the city’s money for ’em personally. Why, that will boost his stock in the [states]. Even if Tammany was to change and get respectable, the world wouldent believe it.”  WA #481, March 13, 1932

Country music singer Jason Aldean is being crucified by city folks for a song, “Try That in a Small Town.” The song describes crimes that criminals usually get away with in cities.  But in small towns, “we take care of our own; you cross that line, it won’t take long for you to find out.”

The video with the song drew complaints because it includes news footage of the riots in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, plus videos of other crimes. Oddly, an image of a Tennessee Court House featured in a Christmas movie is controversial. Critics would prefer the video feature serene views of cattle grazing, kids playing baseball, and families going to church.

Most of us from out in the country or in “small towns” relate to this song. In 2020, we watched with disgust as stores were looted, buildings and police cars were burned adding up to over $2,000,000,000 in damages in big cities. And police and average citizens were prevented from responding. (Oddly today, employees in big stores, like Lowe’s and Lululemon, get fired for trying to stop thieves.)

We were thinking, “If these hoodlums try this in our towns, in most states like West Virginia, or Oklahoma, or Wyoming, they will be stopped in their tracks.” But big cities did the opposite. Their police were verbally abused, spit on, and attacked. So, what was the result? New York City recently announced they are paying $10,000 to each of 1300 people affected by the riots. No, not 1300 officers. The money is going to 1300 rioters who were arrested during the 2020 protests.

In Washington this week, two IRS veterans testified to Congress that the Ukrainian company Burisma, was coerced to pay $10,000,000 to the Bidens, with half to Hunter and half to Joe. In return, then-VP Biden got a Ukrainian prosecutor fired. (In case you doubt that, Biden has bragged about getting the guy fired.)

To counter that damning news, and to give the mainstream media something to talk about, the Justice Dept announced that Donald Trump will go on trial next May (another trial will start in March). Georgia will probably announce another trial date, maybe around July 4, to fill in a gap before the Republican Convention. If found guilty in all 3 cases, Trump could be jailed for the next 500 years.

The people in Texas got upset with the hordes of immigrants crossing the Rio Grande River and illegally invading their towns and ranches. The state installed floating barriers in the river and a fence on the bank. The Biden Administration got frustrated that fewer illegal immigrants are making it into Texas and ordered the governor to remove all fencing and floating barriers. Their excuse for this order? Too many immigrants are drowning. Drowning?

Don’t be surprised if President Biden orders Texas to build a couple more dams to dry up sections of the river. Yes, they want a million immigrants a year to walk into the country without getting their feet wet.

Meanwhile, Mayor Adams of New York City announced the city is full of illegal immigrants and homeless people and can’t handle any more. He is imploring them to stay in Texas or go to other cities. You know, if I’m an immigrant why would I want to go to an overcrowded, crime-infested city when I could listen to Jason Aldean and settle in a small town.

In a surprise move, the President announced a reduction in federal spending. There will be no more money sent to China for “gain-of-function” research at the Wuhan Lab. Why did it take 3 years and a million deaths to make that decision?

All the writers in Hollywood went on strike May 2. Then the actors joined the strike; without writers the actors had no idea what to say. Now, I don’t blame them for striking because the “market” has changed. Young people today expect to watch everything on their phone or tablet for free. If nobody pays, that puts a crimp on the continuing payments called residuals. Viewers are eager for an agreement so they can stop watching reruns and old movies. Old timers in Hollywood will remember that up until 1960, writers and actors worked like most of us, getting paid an agreed-on amount monthly or when a project is finished.

Or they could do what Will Rogers did: “Most actors have some writer to write their material, but I don’t do that. Congress is good enough for me. They have been writing my material for years and I am not ashamed of the material I have had.” (WA #78, June 8, 1924)

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“(To musical critic H. T. Parker) you unconsciously paid me a Bear of a compliment when you said ‘Will is a small town Actor.’ You bet your life I am small town. I am smaller than that, I am NO town at all, and listen, that is what I am going to stay is Small Town.” WA #160, Jan. 3, 1926

        “It was just a joy to see hundreds of the men that we read about all the time… for pretty near all of our big men are country or small town boys.” WA #358, Nov. 3, 1929

In 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor stated, “Race-based preferences will no longer be needed to balance out school admissions in 25 years.” That was the only reason the Supreme Court Justice gave for her deciding vote in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision that established affirmative action for Black students in college admissions. Without that expectation of improvement in public schools, she would have voted against the University of Michigan’s Law School admissions policy.

Twenty years later, the Supreme Court decided, 6-3, that leaders in charge of raising the education level of minorities, especially in big cities, had had enough time to achieve Justice O’Connor’s goal. (For those too young to remember, Sandra Day grew up on a ranch, which Will Rogers would say is an ideal background for any Justice. She was the first woman on the Supreme Court, appointed by President Reagan in 1981.)

Unfortunately for most Black students, political leaders in those big cities totally failed. Grade: F-. Close to Zero. For example, in Baltimore and Chicago, high school “graduates” can’t read or write well enough to get a decent job, let alone succeed in college.

Here’s a solution. Baltimore spends $21,000 per student, $7000 more than the U.S. average. That $21,000 should be allocated to the student, payable to an accredited school, whether public, private, or religious. Wow, with that much money, a private school could hire the best teachers, provide 3 meals a day, and invite parents to join their student for at least one of those meals a week.

Providing a similar choice in every school district, including Chicago, would set the stage for meeting Justice O’Connor’s goal of equality in education.

Along with teaching the 3 R’s, schools, and especially parents, should teach children that it’s against the law to steal. (The 8^th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Steal.) Most of you already did this and your kids wouldn’t even think of walking into a store and running out with bags full of clothes, steaks or jewelry.

The example needs to be set with how adult thieves are treated. Anyone who steals from a store should be sent to jail. Make ‘em pay back double for whatever they stole. If they don’t have any money, let ‘em work it off by cleaning toilets in the jail. Today, we see too many ludicrous examples. Thieves are seldom caught or prosecuted and store employees who record or try to stop the robberies are fired.

Meanwhile in Washington, President Biden is counting on “Bidenomics” to win the 2024 election. But Bidenomics provides nothing to brag about in a campaign. Prices have inflated 15% and interest rates jumped. The Federal Reserve issued $5 Trillion of “printing press” money. We’ll likely have a recession in 2024. Despite Biden’s claim he created 12 million jobs, last month 161.0 million people were employed compared to 158.6 million before the Covid shutdown. That’s an increase of only 2.4 million, not 12 million. Any growth in wages has been wiped out by inflation. Gasoline is $0.75 a gallon higher than 4 years ago.

Speaking of President Biden… Do you know who brought cocaine into the White House? How’s this for a guess: It was the same young person who 18 months ago leaked the draft of the Supreme Court decision on abortion. Ok, even if it’s different culprits, they have one thing in common with the thieves above: they likely won’t be caught or prosecuted.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

         “Robbing is one profession that certainly has advanced in this country… We spend billions of dollars on education, and we are no smarter today than 30 years ago, and we spent nothing to foster robbing, and here it is one of the most skilled industries we have.” WA #176, Apr. 25, 1926

       “Every Guy just looks in his pockets and then votes. And the funny part of it is it’s the last year that is the one that counts. You can have three bad ones and then wind up with everybody having money, and you will win.” WA #196, Sept. 12, 1926

The Supreme Court shocked a lot of people by ruling that colleges cannot use race in deciding which students to admit. That practice violates the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution. Harvard lost in the lawsuit but is already plotting how to continue discriminating against one minority (Asian Americans) and admit less qualified students of another minority (Black). Many brilliant White students are also denied admittance.

If all K-12 students were allowed to attend a high-performing school, no “preference” would be needed. Instead of a university assigning a few admission staff members to give preference to lower-performing minority students, they should work with politicians and local school systems to provide a quality education to ALL students. Allow parents to freely choose their schools, whether public or “private.” And focus on the 3 Rs, not DEI and CRT. (If you have forgotten, the 3 Rs are readin’ ritin’ and ‘rithmetic. More recently, schools have been affected by Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Critical Race Theory.)

Instead of emphasizing the 3 Rs, New York City Mayor Adams wants schools to start with a couple of minutes of “breathing exercises.” Maybe those minutes would be better spent the way I remember (yes, many years ago), with a short devotion/inspirational message and the Pledge of Allegiance.

The Supreme Court also overturned Joe Biden’s campaign promise to former college students to forgive $10,000 (or $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients) of their outstanding loans.

The students with unpaid college loans were duped into voting for Biden in 2020. He knew that only Congress can approve transferring that debt to every other taxpayer. The plan was pushed as a one-time deal to forgive $400 Billion of debt. But if Democrats had had a big majority in Congress, I bet they would have passed a bill that would have also promised $10,000 or more for every current and future college student. The cost would have quickly gone over a Trillion.

And University administrators are whining. Generous student loans from the federal government, regardless of the probability of a student paying it back, are the source of the problem. Student debt is $1,760,000,000,000, TRIPLED since 2008. It’s time for universities to cut costs to students so they don’t need to borrow so much. And it’s time to eliminate degrees that don’t have a career payoff. (I’ll get in trouble if I don’t make an exception for our under-paid school teachers.)

For any university president who says it’s impossible to cut costs, look at Purdue University in Indiana. Tuition has not changed in 12 years! Room and board have not increased either. Purdue is one of the top ranked universities in the country and enrollment, no surprise, has increased.

Mitch Daniels was the Purdue president who started that goal and stuck with it. Can you imagine if he was President of the US, and had kept the same budget since 2011? (National debt was $15 Trillion in 2011; now $32 Trillion)

By coincidence, the Biden Administration has added regulations that raised household costs about $10,000 so far. President Biden could save us $10,000, including students, by eliminating those expensive regulations. The regulations include ones on fossil fuels, health, labor, telecommunications, and banks.

President Biden is fuming at the Supreme Court. He answered a question with, “It’s not a Normal Court.” My follow up question would be: when was the Supreme Court “normal?” Was it in the early 1940s when all 9 Justices had been appointed by a liberal Democrat, President Roosevelt? Or 1954, when they overturned segregation in schools? Is it only “normal” when it follows political whims and ignores the Constitution?

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

        “The only salvation I can see for the young is to increase the college term to an additional four years… You’ll say, ‘What could they learn in another four years?’ Well, there must be something about making a living that they haven’t learned yet, and they could kind of work on that for the next four years.” Radio, June 2, 1935

      “Borrowing money on ‘easy terms’ is a one-way ticket to the Poor House.” WA #14, March 18, 1923