IS MITCH MCCONNELL INSANE?
US Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has rejected calls from an unlikely alliance of President Donald Trump, congressional Democrats and some Republicans to boost coronavirus aid.
The House of Representatives, held by the Democrats, had voted to increase aid cheques to Americans to $2,000.
Dozens of House Republicans, reluctant to defy Mr Trump, backed the increase.
But Mr McConnell's objections mean there will not be a direct vote on a revised Covid aid bill in the Senate.
Mitch McConnell said raising aid cheques would be "another fire hose of borrowed money".
Optics matter. Last week Congress voted to give billions in "Covid relief" to the rest of the world. That was a fire hose of borrowed money. Unless something is funded by taxation today it is borrowed money.
Optics matter, whatever the details and the politics, The Georgia Senate runoff is in less than a week. It's a tight race and the GOP must win both seats to prevent a total commie takeover. As far as I can see McConnell's message is designed to help the Democratic Party. He saying an American is worth 600 bucks but two grand is way too much.
THE NHS IS SO BAD
Nightingales will not have enough nurses to ride to the rescue of overwhelmed hospitals, the Royal College of Nursing leader has warned.
1.3 million employees but "not enough nurses". The NHS is a unrelenting disaster.
Travelling Light!
By Mike Cunningham On January 1st, 2021 at 5:36 pm
For My First Post of this New Year,
I simply post a self-explanatory photograph, sent me by my eldest Son.
By Patrick Van Roy On January 1st, 2021 at 2:00 pm
Emancipation Proclamation takes effect
President Abraham Lincoln's executive order proclaiming the freedom of all slaves held in rebel states goes into effect, signaling an ideological change in the Union's reasons for fighting the Civil War
One month after the qualified Union victory in the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln issued a preliminary proclamation warning that in all states still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, he would declare their slaves "then, thenceforward, and forever free." January 1 came, and with it the final proclamation, which committed the government and armed forces of the United States to liberate the slaves in rebel states "as an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity."…
ATW NEW YEAR'S OPEN THREAD
By Pete Moore On December 31st, 2020 at 7:10 pm
As good as it is to see the back of the Chinese Year of the Lie, 2021 isn't looking too promising. You can gaze into your crystal balls if you like. I have no idea.
At 11.00pm the UK is not just out, but we are out out. The extension ends, the UK/EU deal comes into effect, and for the first time in 47 years we can say that we are a sovereign nation, under our own laws, free to hire and fire our legislators. It's like reclaiming our Saxon heritage. Our ancestors would be so proud. And then next year everyone will discover just how mediocre this class of politicians is. What we have done is remove the fig leaf British politicians have long hid behind, that of "We can't do anything about it because of EU rules." That excuse has been taken off the board. The British political class now needs to take responsibility. It'll fail horribly.
So I wish everyone a Happy New Year. Have yourselves an Open Thread along the way. This one comes with an illustration which caught my eye this year. It's by Bob Moran, cartoonist for The Telegraph and the best in the business. It's sweet, poignant and, in 2020, quite revolutionary.
Tell us what you know –
FORGET THE LAWYERS
Can we hang the bureaucrats instead? As soon as mediocre Matt Hancock announced that the NHS would be doing the vaccinations you knew that a crapshow was guaranteed. A long, slow crapshow bound up in red tape.
It now appears that the vaccination "roll out" is stalling in part because ex-NHS clinicians, who have volunteered to help, face a labyrinth of bureaucracy to get on board. Simply registering requires documents to be provided on Equality, Diversity and Human Rights, Fire Safety, Conflict Resolution, and Preventing Radicalisation. Needless to say loads of them are giving up.
China has detected its first case of the new coronavirus variant that is spreading fast across the UK.
It was found in a 23-year-old female student returning to China from Britain, according to a publication run by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The student was tested in Shanghai on December 14, according to the latest edition of China CDC Weekly.
Oh dear, how sad. Let's hope she didn't infect the plane, unleashing China 2.0 across the whole country. That would be deeply unfortunate.
By Patrick Van Roy On December 31st, 2020 at 3:00 pm
Please read my article and share it with everyone you know. Thank you!https://t.co/vdAqIQlJcN
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) December 30, 2020
January 6 is the day we learn whether our Constitution will hold and whether congressional Republicans care.
The 2020 presidential election was, in several targeted battleground states, an unconstitutional electoral exercise. Even putting aside evidence of significant fraud, virtually none of which received a hearing by our courts, events leading up to and including the November national election constituted a radical and grave departure from the federal electoral system adopted by the framers of the Constitution and the state ratification conventions. Now, let's be clear: None of this matters to the Democrat Party, since it and its surrogates perpetrated these unconstitutional acts, as I shall soon explain. Nor does it matter to the media, which is utterly illiterate on the subject and unequivocally supports the supposed outcome in any event. But it should be of great moment and concern to the people of this country and especially to congressional Republicans in both Houses, for if the latter do not at least confront and challenge this lawlessness on January 6, when Congress meets to count the electors, it will be the GOP's undoing and, simultaneously, the undoing of our presidential electoral system. Ultimately, it will be the people of the United States who love our republic who will be the losers.
Win, lose, or draw, on January 6, the Republicans must not act as if "the people have spoken" and be cowered into passivity or worse, such as joining the Democrat Party and media hecklers, by insisting that they are part of a lawless party seeking to "reverse the results of the election." Too many Republicans have already buckled, including the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, Sen. John Thune, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger. No doubt others who are unreliable and cowardly when facing the organized mob will follow. But let us not be judged by those who have intentionally and strategically manipulated our politics and the law to undermine our constitutional order. It is they who must be condemned.
Specifically, Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the federal Constitution could not be more explicit. It states, in pertinent part: "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress …" This language was purposeful. During the Constitutional Convention, there were various proposals suggested for electing a president. Should the president be directly elected by the people? That proposal was rejected out of concern that such a purely democratic process could be hijacked by a temporary majority. Should the president be chosen in the first instance from within the national legislature? That proposal was also rejected on grounds of separation of powers. Should the judiciary play a role in the selection of the president? That idea was dispensed with as being the most objectionable, as judges were to be the least political of all public officials. The framers deliberatively and with much thought created the Electoral College process, in which the people and their elected legislatures — both state and national — would play important roles. But the electoral process rested first and foremost on the state legislatures directing how the electors would be chosen. The reason: While rejecting the direct election of a president, the framers concluded that the state legislatures were closest to the people in their respective states and would be the best representatives of their interests. At no time did the framers even raise the possibility that governors, attorneys general, secretaries of state, election boards, administrators, etc., would play any significant role in the electoral process. Indeed, certain of those offices did not even exist. Moreover, as I said, the courts were rejected out of hand. Thus, such an important power was to be exercised exclusively by the state legislatures.
By Patrick Van Roy On December 30th, 2020 at 10:49 pm
There was a Presidential Election, now I believe there was significant fraud, enough to throw the election. The argument among the average person is not worth the time. Very few are read well enough to discuss it knowledgably, and the rest of them are rabid foaming at the mouth with TDS and have long lost the ability to reason.
Now even if you choose as all the courts have to not review the evidence, the fact that is 5 States violated the Constitution. That can't be denied, but the 9 people in Black don't feel it worth the time. That in my view was a big mistake. If the evidence and the case is crap you ridicule it in open court and expose it for nonsense. By not granting a hearing the matter is never settled. It also solidifies the belief of the crazies that it is a conspiracy. The long-term effect of not hearing the case is more detrimental than any chaos of hearing it. All of that is here nor there, debate for the scholars' for centuries.
The last play of this drama takes place on the 6th. The Challenge has been tried several times in history the last was after the Bush v Gore debacle, but no Senator would join the Members of the House Representatives that objected to it so the challenge died. That is the likely result this time also. (Sen Josh Hawley, just said he would object)
The odds are we will still have at least 4 years of a Biden Administration, even if Joe doesn't last the whole 4. Take away the scare tactics of the worst case scenario's of what if's, and look at just what we know they will do.
Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, Amnesty for 20 Million Illegals, (they already defunded immigration holding facilities in this last Bill), Shutdown of all Wall Construction, and a rejoining of the Iran Deal.
One destroys our economy and our future, the second overwhelms the system causing further collapse of the safety net structure, and the third leads to War in the Middle East.
It sounds like interesting times.
Posted in America, ATW | 215 Comments »
Finally a set of Balls
Sen. Hawley signs on to contest Biden's electoral victory https://t.co/COXzib5eX6 via @mercnews