Isn’t Bernie a socialist? Why, yes, he is and that’s bad. Updated, and that's good!

Update: Hat tip to Levi England

Bookworm Room

Contrary to the promise in a pro-Bernie website that socialism is great, it’s not: It destroys economies and makes people prisoners of their own government.

"The website I Like Bernie, But…, which was created in 2016 and has been updated for 2019, takes it upon itself to answer concerned readers who ask “Isn’t Bernie a socialist?” It assures these people that Bernie isn’t a socialist socialist. Instead, he’s a democratic socialist, which the website promises is something entirely different:

"The above conclusions are just wrong, and they’re so very wrong that they need to be corrected and explained in a lot of paragraphs.  Here goes:" 

"To begin with, you need to understand what it really means to be a socialist.  Only then can you understand that putting the word “democratic” in front of “socialist” doesn’t change anything.

"So, what is a “socialist” system?  Think of the realm of available politics as a line moving from left to right.  On the far left side are totalitarian regimes, which means government has all the control and the people have none.  At the far right side is anarchy, which means there is no government at all, although the resulting chaos usually means that people have no control either.  (Ironically, anarchy usually ends when a strong man takes over and creates a totalitarian regime.)"

Full article here.

Why Bureaucracy, Not Your Doctor, Is Making All Your Medical Decisions

The Federalist

With the current third-party payment structure, you doctor does not practice as much medicine on you as insurance executives and federal bureaucrats do.

"Americans, who practices medicine on you? The answer may seem self-evident, but it is not. In our current health-care system, millions of nameless, faceless government or private insurance bureaucrats practice medicine on you without a license for medicine.
"You may think your life is in your doctor’s hands, but it is not. The bureaucrats, not you or your doctor, make your medical and financial decisions. Consider these health-care decisions:

• Diagnosis
• Treatment: what, when, where, by whom
• Medications
• Paying for care

"Your doctor does not express your diagnosis in words such as arthritis, asthma, or heart failure. If a physician or hospital wants to be paid, they must use a letter-number diagnosis listed in the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) code book, which turns 1,400 human ailments into more than 68,000 codes. Examples of these “diagnoses” include: W55.21 (bitten by a cow); W61.33 (pecked by a chicken); V00.01 (pedestrian on foot injured in collision with roller blader); Z63.1 (problem with in-laws); and my personal favorite, Y92.146 (injured at a swimming pool within a prison).

"Once a diagnostic code is established, you expect the doctor to recommend the correct treatment by the most experienced operator in the best facility at the optimal time given your medical condition. In reality, you will receive whatever the insurance carrier allows, whenever the carrier allows it, at a contracted facility, by a specialist on the insurance carrier’s panel. All those medical choices are made by nameless, faceless bureaucrats, not your personal medical caregiver.

"Doctors Don’t Get to Make the Decisions  

"Clinical advisories and guidelines written by federal administrators have become medical mandates. These treatment plans generally work well for large populations but do not allow for the specific idiosyncrasies, variations, or allergies of individual patients that only their personal physicians know. Although wanting the best care for you, if the doctor deviates from the approved treatment plan, he or she risks reprimand, financial penalty, and even loss of clinical privileges." . . .

US Air Force deploys new weapon to deal with Iran, North Korea

“We hit every target we wanted to,” Boeing’s CHAMP Program Manager Keith Colman said in a company press release. “Today we made science fiction into science fact.”

Graphic shows the Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) missle taking out a target.

"(by Ronald Kessler for UK Daily Mail) – The U.S. Air Force has deployed at least 20 missiles that could zap the military electronics of North Korea or Iran with high-power microwaves, rendering their military capabilities virtually useless without causing any fatalities….

"Known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), the missiles were built by Boeing’s Phantom Works for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and tested successfully in 2012. They have not been operational until now.

"The microwave weapons are fitted into an air-launched cruise missile and delivered from B-52 bombers. With a range of 700 miles, they can fly into enemy airspace at low altitude and emit sharp pulses of high power microwave (HPM) energy that fry computer chips, disabling any electronic devices targeted by the missiles without causing any collateral damage.

"Mary Lou Robinson, the chief of the High Power Microwave Division of the Air Force Research Lab at Kirtland Air Force Base, confirmed that the missiles are now operational and ready to take out any target."

Murkowski is 'Disturbed,' All Right; "Impartiality"? Come now!

Interestingly, Murkowski’s became “disturbed” after #NeverTrumper Bill Kristol of the now-defunct Weekly Standard and his group, Republicans for the Rule of Law, targeted Murkowski with a million-dollar ad buy to persuade her and other wavering GOP Senators to turn on Trump:

Daniel John Sobieski   "Today the character of Jeff Flake, the former resident Hamlet of the Senate, is being played by GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who originally inherited her Senate seat from her daddy, Frank Murkowski. Murkowski the daughter says she is “disturbed” by Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s statements that he will be working closely with and taking his cues from President Trump in any impeachment trial in the Senate.

"Imagine that -- the leader of her party in the Senate defending the President from her party from a political coup involving one sham investigation after another with no real crime, not even a poll-tested crime. There is no real evidence, except for fake evidence paid for by the DNC and Hillary Clinton and/or manufactured and manipulated by Obama’s corrupted FBI, DoJ, and intelligence community complete with forged documents and hidden exculpatory evidence. This does not disturb Murkowski, but McConnell objecting to and refusing to participate in this charade does disturb her: . . .

. . . 

Full and fair process?  Murkowski was silent when. Rep. Adam Schiff was conducting his star-chamber depositions of hearsay witnesses in the House catacombs, when Team Trump was being denied due process, the presumption of innocence, and the right to confront one’s accuser. McConnell called it what it is – a charade. . . .

. . . 

Murkowski is hardly a profile in courage. During the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh she invoked her own purity test in opposition: . . .

. . . 
Chuck Schumer blasts Mitch McConnell for declared partiality on impeachment but said the same thing himself in 1999

. . . "Actually, what I'm most amazed about is that CNN[!] of all places spotted the hypocrisy and double standard." . . .

WSJ's Jason Riley: Murkowski Using "Democratic Talking Points" On Trump Impeachment Trial  "We know how it played out in the House. They were not able to peel off Republicans, even Republicans that were retiring like James Sensenbrenner and Will Hurd. They had nothing to lose. The Democrats were unable to peel them off.

"Murkowski is not up for election. She is quirky. She does have an independent streak. We saw that in the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, we saw it in the Obamacare repeal vote. I do wish she would stop using Democratic talking points to make the argument that she is making. I mean, the fact of the matter here is that the House's job is done and this idea that they should have any say in how the Senate conducts this trial just is not supported by what is written in black-and-white in the Constitution.

"The idea that Mitch McConnell isn't going to be bipartisan enough or objective enough, that is not his job. I expect him to be as bipartisan as Nancy Pelosi was and as Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler were. The job of being objective lies with Chief Justice Roberts, who will be overseeing the Senate trial. Mitch McConnell is a Republican leader in the Senate and I expect him to act like it." . . .

Democrats seeking votes around the country

Photosnark by The Earl of Taint

Conservative watchdog sues for alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella's communications

Washington Examiner  "A conservative watchdog is suing the CIA and the Justice Department for the communications of a CIA analyst who is alleged to be the Ukraine whistleblower.
"Judicial Watch said Thursday it had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits against the agency and the department for the communications of Eric Ciaramella.
"The watchdog filed FOIA requests in November to the Justice Department seeking communications between Ciaramella and former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and special counsel

Robert Mueller’s office. It also filed a request with the CIA for Ciaramella’s emails between June 1, 2016, and Nov. 12, 2019.
"Attorneys for the whistleblower, whose complaint prompted the impeachment investigation into President Trump, have neither confirmed nor denied whether Ciaramella is their client.

The whistleblower continues to work on issues relating to Russia and Ukraine and is driven to work by armed security officers when threats against him increase, according to the Washington Post. "Ciaramella, 33, was Ukraine director on the National Security Council at the end of the Obama administration and was the acting senior director for European and Russian affairs in the early months of the Trump administration. He is now a deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia on the National Intelligence Council.
"He worked closely with Vice President Joe Biden and attended a State Department banquet at Biden’s invitation in 2016.
"Ciaramella was also cited in Mueller’s report in connection to a meeting between Trump and Russian officials in the Oval Office in May 2017, the day after James Comey was fired as FBI director.
"Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said there is “significant public interest” in Ciaramella’s actions.
“ 'CIA operative Ciaramella is documented to be involved in the Russia collusion investigation, and was a key CIA operative on Ukraine in both the Obama and Trump White Houses. Our lawsuits are designed to break through the unprecedented cover-up of his activities,” Fitton said in a statement.

[Read more: 'Bro-like': Schiff aide was White House friend of alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella]

Schiff Names Eric Ciaramella As Whistleblower  "Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee revealed the whistleblower listed on transcripts in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, as Eric Ciaramella.
"RealClear Investigations first published their suspicions about Ciaramella, who is a CIA analyst. He worked at The White House on October 30.
"Ciaramella was at the center of the impeachment probe. He was there in the White House through the Mueller Investigation, and according to multiple news sources worked in the Obama administration under Vice President Biden." . . .
"Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took the stage on at the Trump Rally on November 4 said:

“We now also know the name of the whistleblower. The whistleblower needs to come before Congress as a material witness because he worked for Joe Biden at the time Hunter Biden was getting money from corrupt alagarks. I say tonight to the media, do your job, and print his name, and I say this to my fellow colleagues in Congress and every Republican in Washington, step up and subpoena Hunter Biden and subpoena the whistleblower.” . . .

WaPo Media Critic: Maddow Has A Lot To Answer For With Steele Dossier Obsession

Hot Air

"Plenty of people need to answer for their embrace of the Steele dossier — the FBI, James Comey, Adam Schiff, Christopher Steele himself. A number of media outlets need to provide accountability, especially Buzzfeed for its inexplicable decision to publish what turned out to be a salacious package mostly consisting of rumor as misinformation. But when it comes to the worst offender, Erik Wemple* declared yesterday, no one surpasses MSNBC’s biggest prime-time host.

“Name a host on cable news who has dug more deeply into Trump-Russia than MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow,” Wemple writes. And no one got it more wrong, either — and no one ran as fast from it when it fell apart. “She was there for the bunkings, absent for the debunkings,” Wemple concludes, “a pattern of misleading and dishonest asymmetry.”

"It began with the Buzzfeed publication of the dossier, fueled by the absence-of-evidence fallacy:

Sorting through the silence from the FBI and the unverified claims in the dossier, Maddow riffed on her Jan. 13, 2017, program: “I mean, had the FBI looked into what was in that dossier and found that it was all patently false, they could tell us that now, right?” said Maddow. “I mean, the dossier has now been publicly released. If the FBI looked into it and they found it was all trash, there’s no reason they can’t tell us that now. They’re not telling us that now. They’re not saying that. They’re not saying anything.”

That line of analysis has gained some important context via the Horowitz report. The FBI did, in fact, find “potentially serious problems” with Steele’s reporting as early as January 2017. A source review in March 2017 “did not make any findings that would have altered that judgment.”

"So why didn’t the FBI admit that publicly, as Maddow apparently expected?" . . . 

*So, who's Eric Wemple, you ask?

Stopping Lisa Murkowski From Playing Lady Macbeth

Issues & Insights  . . . "It can be a murky business dealing with Lady Murkowski, who in the past has been willing to magnify her one vote in the U.S. Senate, acting as a kind of RINO empress. When Barack Obama was president, she used her Senate floor votes to support his position over 70% of the time.
"This year she refused to sign a Senate resolution opposing House Democrats’ Trump impeachment inquiry. And most notably, last year Murkowski was the only Republican senator to vote against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, despite being recorded as voting “present” thanks to a technical maneuver on the floor. Alaska’s state GOP opposed her opposition to Kavanaugh.
"Would Murkowski play Lady Macbeth and help and encourage Democrats in their campaign to remove Donald Trump? She certainly is letting Republicans know they would be unwise to relax and expect her to fall in line and support a Republican president, and almost all of her fellow Republican senators.
"The Republican leadership would do well to take a page out of the strategy manual of Lyndon Johnson, who as Senate majority leader, and later as president, knew how to keep senators in line, using threats, flattery, a talent for reading his fellow man, and plain hard work.
“ 'I do understand power, whatever else may be said about me. I know where to look for it, and how to use it,” LBJ once reflected.
"Early this year, a Democrat explained how his party doesn’t tolerate Murkowski-style dissidence. “We are a team,” northern California Rep. John Garamendi, a Pelosi ally, said of the speaker’s willingness to punish House Democrats who opposed her too strongly or too publicly, like New York’s Kathleen Rice and Anthony Brindisi. “If 99 of us are going in one direction and the other person is going in the other direction, we’ve lost 1/100th of our potential,” he told The Hill." . . .

Democratic lawmakers insist Durham resign from Justice Department probe of Russian meddling in U.S. elections

Remember the Democrat verbal assassination of of Judge Ken Starr as he investigated Bill Clinton's impeachable? Cross the Democrats but remember what judges Bork and Kavanaugh had done to them by those same demagogues. TD

Hartford Courant

"Congressional Democrats who fear Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham may be conducting a partisan investigation into the origins of the FBI’s probe into Russian meddling in U.S. elections are calling on him to resign.

"Rep. Hank Johnson*, D-Ga., has written Attorney General William Barr and Durham, saying “neither of you possess the integrity necessary to serve in the Department of Justice.”

"Signed by 10 of Johnson’s House Democratic colleagues — but none from Connecticut — the letter’s demand for Barr’s resignation is not unique.

"In May, for instance, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Barr should “probably resign” because, the senator said, the attorney general had mislead the public about the conclusions of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report into Russian meddling." . . .  Let the reputation destruction begin.

*You may recall Rep. Hank Johnson and his fear that a military base on Guam could make that island capsize?

Sanctuary laws defy the will of the American people

Brian Lonergan  . . . "Evidence can be found in two elections last month. While Arizona is a traditional red state that is now trending purple, its second-largest city of Tucson has long been a blue stronghold. That’s why it was so surprising that its citizens soundly rejected a ballot initiative by a 71-29 margin that would have declared Tucson a sanctuary city.    

"In deep-blue Sussex County, N.J., residents similarly voted by a 2-1 margin to support an initiative that would allow law enforcement to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

"What is going on here?

"It’s quite simple, really. Voters are standing up and rebelling against the propaganda they have been force-fed by politicians and the media. The dubious message has been that sanctuary laws are good for their community, that they make it safer, more welcoming and fair. It’s a classic “the emperor wears no clothes” moment. The rhetoric does not match up with what people see and hear in their own lives every day."  . . .

. . . 

"The idea that sanctuary laws are fair and compassionate to aliens has also been exposed as fraudulent. Such laws attract more aliens, and they tend to cluster in dense communities. Inevitably, that population includes drug traffickers, sexual predators and members of violent gangs like MS-13 who gravitate to the lenient law enforcement atmosphere. Those miscreants prey on the nearest available victims, most often nonviolent aliens living among them.

"For those here illegally, a sanctuary community is probably the most dangerous place to live. Those who claim to be fleeing violence in their homelands may as well stay put. The violent narco-terrorists of the Northern Triangle have already moved to the United States in large numbers and are being shielded from deportation by out-of-touch politicians." .  .  .

Respected veteran journalist calls out his profession for betraying its principles going after Trump

With John Durham empaneling a grand jury, we may soon have some stubborn facts that even the most deranged of Trump haters cannot ignore, and like Captain Dreyfus, President Trump will be vindicated not just in the eyes of historians in the distant future, but in the eyes of the vast majority his countrymen.

Byrne

Thomas Lifson  "Few are the establishment journalists willing to tell the truth about their profession, which largely has abandoned its commitment to objectivity in the cause of opposing resident Trump and, if possible, driving him from office. One brave soul with standing in the profession just did so. Dennis Byrne, who for decades was a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times and now is retired, has published a remarkable call for journalists to regain their sanity. The title of his column, published on his blog, The Barbershop, tells the story: “As a one-time journalist, I'm deeply ashamed of today's media.' ” . . .

"He continues:

I once was a journalist and proud of my profession.

No longer.

Today's media are habitually violating what once were the profession's governing principles: that the news must be reported objectively, fairly and without bias. As the report of Justice Department's Inspector General Michael Horowitz reveals, the media fed the nation a  steaming pile of BS.

For years, their unrelenting hated of President Donald Trump has been their guiding principle.

"What lends [credibility] is that Byrne is no fan of the 45th president:

Not that Trump doesn't deserve to be nailed. He's his own worst enemy; one might argue credibly that he has brought the BS storm on himself.

But that's not an excuse for the media's self-satisfying, twisted practices. Only a few called their profession to task.

"Read the whole thing!" . . .

REPORT: For The First Time, More People Are Leaving California Than Moving In

And let's look at some reasons why.

The Gateway Pundit

"Progressive policies are hurting the state of California.
"It is now known for high taxes, a massive homeless problem, disease in the cities, and human waste in the streets.
"All of this combined is causing people to flee the state.
"The Associated Press reports:

California still most populous, but stalls at 39.9 millionMore people are leaving California than moving in, evidence of the toll the state’s housing crisis is taking as the world’s fifth largest economy inches toward 40 million people.An estimate released Friday by the California Department of Finance put the California’s population at 39.96 million, just shy of the 40 million milestone demographers had predicted the state would have passed by now.The report shows California added more than 180,000 people when accounting for births and deaths for the 12 month period ending July 1. But when you include people who moved in and out of the state, California lost 39,500.State officials say it is the first time since the 2010 census that more people left California than moved in over the course of a year, contributing to the state’s slowest recorded growth rate since 1900.“People won’t move here because they can’t afford to come in the door,” said Dowell Myers, professor of policy, planning and demography at the University of Southern California. “The jobs are there. The people aren’t there.”More than 158,000 people moved to California over the 12 month period that ended July 1. But more than 197,000 people left.

"The homeless crisis is definitely one of the driving factors here.

"NBC News reports:

HUD estimates 2.7 percent rise in U.S. homelessness due to California housing crisis . . .

All emphases in the original. 

Bring it on! Trump and California Governor Newsom battle over California’s homeless crisis  "California is now a national laughingstock. It’s one-party state government, totally dominated by Democrats, has so badly bungled its treatment of homelessness (not to mention its stratospheric taxes) that its major cities are becoming unlivable, notorious for sidewalks covered in excrement, open drug use by people swarming over parks, sidewalks and spare plots of land under freeway overpasses, and taxpayers fleeing. A huge portion of Californians are actively considering leaving (one in four of the total population; 82% of 18 to 19 year olds), as poignant an index of government failure as can be imagined, short of anarchy or genocide.
"Gavin Newsom, the governor, once was considered a potential future president, despite his despicable personal history (having seduced the wife of one of his best friends), but the crisis on his watch is making that a pipedream now. So what does he do? You probably already have guessed the of course, he blames Trump! Leah Barkoukis reports:
"The Office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom touted its efforts in combating the homeless crisis in the state and took shots at the Trump administration even as federal data shows it is responsible for the uptick in the U.S.'s overall homeless population." . . . 

Ben Carson: I hoped to find more 'urgency in the leadership' in California on homelessness

Homelessness crisis: From houseboats to boulders, unconventional methods used to tackle problem in 2019

Democrat solution: blame President Trump or any Republican within arm's length.