Let it be so! UN Secretary General says the UN is running out of money

Legal Insurrection

“Our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer”

"Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General for the UN is concerned that the international governing body is alarmingly short on cash.

"According to Fox News, Guterres sent a letter to UN staff earlier this month saying there was “troubling financial situation facing the United Nations.” He went on, “our cash flow has never been this low so early in the calendar year, and the broader trend is also concerning; we are running out of cash sooner and staying in the red longer.”

"Deadbeat member states who pay late or not at all are being blamed for the UN’s cash flow issues." 

From Fox News

Capturing the delusional Middle East policy of Obama-Kerry perfectly, as the 2014 Gaza conflict raged.

Legal Insurrection

4 Years Ago – One of the Greatest Cartoons Ever

On July 31, 2014, Legal Insurrection cartoonist A.F. Branco posted what was, by far, the most viral cartoon he’s done for us, Crash of Civilization.

It took place as the 2014 Gaza conflict was in full swing. Here were some of our posts in the days before the cartoon, including:

• UN Official admits Hamas firing rockets “from the vicinity of UN facilities”
• Media cover-up of Hamas crimes starting to unravel
• Gaza ground war: More tunnel warfare, Hamas may have body parts of dead Israeli soldier. . . 

. . . 

"The cartoon (featured image) captured Kerry’s delusional attitude precisely. It shows John Kerry "mediating between Hamas and Bibi Netanyahu.

"Hamas’s demand was Death to All Jews. That is an actual Hamas demand. The 

Hamas charter calls for killing all Jews, and Hamas Imams call for the same.

"Kerry asked Bibi to at least meet Hamas half way.

"The cartoon worked at so many levels, and it went viral." . . .

Memo To Trump: Listen To Larry Kudlow And Fix The Unfair Capital Gains Tax

Investors.com  "Taxation: A few months before he became President Trump's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow wrote a column urging  Trump to index capital gains taxes to inflation. Thankfully, the Trump administration appears to be listening. Not only would indexing fix a glaring problem in the tax code, it would add still more juice to the economy.

"In a column published by IBD last August, Kudlow called the lack of inflation adjustment for capital gains taxes "an unfair and misguided policy that punishes risk and success." He said Trump "should use his executive authority — as he so often has to drain the swamp — to remove this prosperity-killing practice." 

"Right on all counts.

"First, consider the fairness argument. One of the most important tax reforms enacted by President Reagan in the early 1980s was to index income tax brackets to inflation. Before that, families whose incomes just kept pace with inflation would get pushed into higher and higher tax brackets. Indexing tax brackets to inflation ended this unfair, and hidden, tax.

"But capital gains still suffer from lack of indexing. Let's say an investor bought $1,000 worth of a company's stock in 2000. Today, it's valued at $1,500. If he sold the stock, he'd face up to a 23.8% capital gains tax on the $500 gain. 

"That's not counting any state-imposed capital gains taxes.)

"But in real terms, his investment has gained only $7. So, his effective capital gains tax rate is 139%. If the gains were indexed to inflation, his tax bill would be $1.67 instead of $119.

"The longer the investment, the worse this inflation tax get. The effective tax rate, in fact, can be infinite, if the inflation-adjusted "gains" turn out to be losses." . . .

Are the Dems actually trying to build an image of being bad sports?

Thomas Lifson

RNC-DNC softball game in gentler times (2017).  Photo from Twitter via the Daily Caller.

"The Democratic National Committee has refused to participate in the annual softball game between Democrat and Republican leaders and staffers, a decade-old tradition that reaffirmed a spirit of national unity, good sportsmanship, and love of a sport invented by Americans.  The old expression, "take your ball and go home," connotes bad sportsmanship when someone doesn't get his way and decides that a game therefore must end.

Benny Johnson reports at the Daily Caller:

Despite being a time-honored tradition going back many years, the DNC is refusing to play the RNC at this year's annual softball game.

RNC sources tell The Daily Caller that they were "stunned" when Democrats abruptly pulled out of the good-natured game between leadership and staffers at opposing political organizations.

. . .  

Freeing People from Left-Wing Lies

Tom Trinko  "The majority of Democratic voters are victims of a deliberate conspiracy by the leftist media, academia, and the Deep State to mislead them through lies of omission and commission.

"A recent Pew survey shows that leftists are much more likely not to want to associate with people who don't share t"heir political views than are conservatives.  Furthermore, leftists are more likely not to know any conservatives.

"Look at the electoral map from 2016 – the blue areas are all tiny and tightly grouped.

"Essentially, most leftist voters live in an intellectual bubble where the fake news media provide the propaganda, and their friends repeat, hence reinforce, the lies, making them seem credible.  This even impacts the fake news reporters themselves.

"On Twitter, for example, a leftist said the recently released FISA warrant application showed that the FBI had told the judge that Hillary was the one who paid for the Steele dossier, but that's not the case.  The application for the warrant said:" . . .

Georgia Journalism Dean Apologizes For Offensive Tweet Calling GOP Candidate ‘Nice Guy’

Weasel Zippers Terrorism of this sort will not be tolerated.

"A new low in being offended.  Via Fox News:"

A journalism professor at the University of Georgia apologized for offending people after calling the Republican candidate for governor a “nice guy” on Twitter. Charles Davis, dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at UGA, tweeted-then-deleted a message about the President Trump-endorsed candidate for Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, on the night he won the Republican primary.“I went to high school with GOP guv candidate @BrianKempGA,” Davis wrote in the now-deleted tweet. “We played YMCA ball from childhood. Politics be damned. He is a nice guy, always was. Kind to a fault. He’s a friend, always has been, and will be when we’re old(er) and grey(er). That’s how all this should work, people.”Liberals on Twitter labeled Davis a “racist” and one user said “You’d never vote for a black woman and would much rather vote for the white racist,” as reported by CampusReform.org.Three days after the tweet that put him under fire, Davis issued an apology.“I’d like to apologize to anyone offended by my tweet shout out to Brian Kemp,” Davis wrote. “It was ill-timed and poorly written. I’ve read and learned so much from you all and will endeavor to be more thoughtful.”

Keep reading…

When plastic straws are outlawed, only outlaws....etc.

How true that so much plastic waste lasts forever. It's just that something about 
self-righteous, virtue-signalling liberals invites caricature and ridicule. If only they didn't have such power to divide and destroy a nation. TD

SammyDress

For America

‘CNN SUCKS!’ Jim Acosta Heckled by ‘Massive, Angry’ Crowd of Trump Supporters at Tampa Rally

The Gateway Pundit  "CNN’s Jim Acosta was brutally heckled by a “massive, angry crowd” of Trump supporters at a rally in Tampa where President Trump is scheduled to speak Tuesday night. Loud boos and chants of “CNN sucks!” erupted when Acosta stood to give a report from the rally. One protester held a “CNN Sucks” sign behind Acosta."

Trump's crowd applying Maxine Waters' principles on CNN.  How sad, however, that American politics has descended to such a tribal level with Republicans returning Democrat bile only with, so far, less violence.

Springsteen gets into the gutter here: "F**k Trump". I know; I bleep the f-word here but fully reveal it in the video. But let Springsteen be the one to say it. TD

Stable Genius? Sorry Democrats, But This Is How China Views Trump’s Foreign Policy

Matt Vespa

"To Democrats, Donald Trump is reckless. He’s a moron. He’s threatening to blow up the U.S. economy through trade wars and renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement. He’s says other nations have stripped us of our wealth. He’s goes off half-cocked on Twitter. In short, the man is unstable and will lead us into nuclear World War III. Sadly, that’s not how the East views the president. In fact, they’re view him as a “master tactician” that’s trying to buck the old order and reassert American primacy in the process. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NAFTA, and the World Trade Organization get in the way of that. By casting them aside, with the U.S. still the top dog in the world, Trump can reassert American power on the international scene, according to Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations. 

"Leonard spoke with numerous officials and members of the Chinese elite, some of them high-level, who are more wary of what they see as Trump’s “creative destruction.” He also said the people he spoke noted that Trump is the first president to attack China economically, military, and on the basis of ideology. They also viewed his Helsinki presser with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which many viewed as a low point in the administration, with the hysterical view being that it was treasonous, as Kissinger-esque in the sense that Trump is using Russia to isolate China." . . .

Remember the Barrycades? Only Obama would handle a government shutdown this vindictively

Tunnel Wall archives

1. No Barrycades! Sec. Zinke Will Spend The Government Shutdown Ensuring The WWII Memorial, National Parks, Stay Open
From 2013: Obama barricades Lincoln Memorial unlike during 1995 “shutdown”  "Morgen Richmond, of the former Verum Serum blog, has been doing great research on the closure of parks and monuments in Washington, D.C. by Obama and the Democrats, revealing rank hypocrisy and mean-spiritedness.

"For example, The White House now claims that it needed to erect barricades at the WWII Memorial to keep out vistors, including a group of visiting WWII veterans, because parks service personnel know how to perform CPR.  (Seriously, that’s the claim.) " . . .

. . . The Barry-cades should be the symbol of this “shutdown” — political opportunism by Obama and the Democrats in Congress who create unnecessary photo-ops, even if it means ambushing visiting WWII veterans and ordinary citizens in order to protect special Obamacare privileges enjoyed by members of Congress.  . . .

Called by some a "veangeful narcissist".   "A top-secret memo that has been released to members of Congress, but still is being withheld from the American public, characterizes Barack Obama as “the vengeful narcissist” and alleges surveillance abuses by his administration" . . .

The Trump shutdown compared with the Obama shutdown

2. If lane closings end Gov. Christie's career, what about Obama's closing of national monuments and parks?

The work of a vindictive, petulant president: Federal Government Park Service blocking view of Mt. Rushmore from highway    "With South Dakota’s most famous park, Mt. Rushmore, many people can stop along the highway and take pictures because… Well, because IT’S A MOUNTAIN.
....
"But the Obama administration won’t have any of that. They have actually gone to the step of putting parking cones along the highway, so you can’t stop and take a freaking picture of the nation’s most famous mountain from the road..."

How much did it cost to do this?
Thomas Lifson gives his estimate of the former President's character

The vindictiveness of Obama shown during the government shutdown
"However, the Obama Administration is going out of its way to take unreasonable and unnecessary steps to block public access to parks and monuments that isn’t warranted by a government shutdown. For example, open air parks and national monuments, places without doors or gates, where people are allowed to visit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, have been barricaded off. In addition, none of these D.C. memorials were closed during the last government shutdown in 1995-1996 under the Clinton Administration. The Obama Administration’s closing of these sites is not something they are required to do; it’s something they are CHOOSING to do. The Obama Administration wants the effects of this government shutdown to be as painful as possible." . . .

Obama's Spite Fences.

"First remember: Park Rangers Ordered to ‘Make Life Difficult’ During Shutdown Those would be the National Park Service of Obama's Rangers and never forget that.

“It’s a cheap way to deal with the situation,” an angry Park Service ranger in Washington says of the harassment. “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”

"Blame whomever you will for this issue, but know that it was Obama who ordered these sites blocked!" . . .

Read the entire collection here.

Socialist Democratic Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Women’s March co-leader Linda Sarsour were featured speakers at the 16th Annual Universal Muslim Association of America

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Linda Sarsour co-headline political action conference

. . . "Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t hide her hatred towards Israel, but fumbled answers on the subject and admitted that she’s “not the expert on geopolitics on this issue.” From The Times of Israel:

“The lens through which I saw this incident, as an activist, as an organizer – if 60 people were killed in Ferguson, Missouri, if 60 people were killed in the South Bronx, unarmed, if 60 people were killed in Puerto Rico – I just look at that [Gaza] incident more through just, as an incident, and to me, it would just be completely unacceptable if that happened on our shores,” she said.

“Of course the dynamics there, in terms of geopolitics … is very different than people expressing their First Amendment right to protest,” Hoover replied.

"She called the killing of Palestinians at the Gaza fence a massacre. Terrorist group Hamas encouraged people to breach this fence and members of the group died at the the fence. Hoover brought this up:

“Yes,” Ocasio-Cortez conceded, adding, “But I also think that what people are starting to see at least in the occupation … of Palestine [is] just an increasing crisis of humanitarian condition and that to me is just where I tend to come from on this issue.”

When Hoover, a former aide to President George W. Bush, asked Ocasio-Cortez to clarify what she meant, Ocasio-Cortez paused and answered: “I think what I meant is like the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas in places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes.”

"In another interview, she “drew parallels between Gaza and civil rights protests in America, a rhetorical turn that American Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League have criticized.”

There’s a lot of evidence of Sarsour’s hatred of Israel, but her appearance at an event in Chicago 2017 sticks out the most for me. That’s where Sarsour embraced terrorist Rasmea Odeh, the woman received a “prison term for a 1969 supermarket bombing in Jerusalem that killed two Hebrew University students, Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner,” and convicted “for the attempted bombing of the British Consulate that same year.' ”

Socialized healthcare: Just another reason to go out and vote this November

32 trillion reasons to reject Ocasio-Cortez  "Over the last week, we've seen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the young woman who defeated incumbent Democrat Representative Crowley, on TV outlining her socialist fantasies.

"A new report ought to force Miss Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Sanders to explain how they will pay for Medicare for all.  According to this report, it will be super-expensive: 

. . . The study confirms what we've known for years, unless you are a liberal Democrat looking for a talking point.  In other words, doubling all federal individual and corporate income taxes would not be enough.

"But don't expect Senator Sanders, or most in the media, to explain how he is going to pay for all of this.

"Just another reason to go out and vote this November. "

"Sen. Bernie Sanders' 'Medicare for all' plan would boost government health spending by $32.6 trillion over 10 years, requiring historic tax hikes..."
"... according to the analysis by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia. Doubling federal individual and corporate income tax receipts would not cover the full cost, the study said" (Bloomberg).

"If every major country on earth can guarantee health care to all, and achieve better health outcomes, while spending substantially less per capita than we do, it is absurd for anyone to suggest that the United States cannot do the same," Sanders said in a statement. "This grossly misleading and biased report is the Koch brothers response to the growing support in our country for a 'Medicare for all' program."  From Althouse.

Think Tank: Medicare For All Has $32-Trillion Federal Price Tag;  Would increase annual federal spending on health care by $2.5 trillion

. . . "That assumption—that Medicare for All would mean all Americans enjoying the much lower prices Medicare commands in buying health care services—is key to the slight advantage the Sanders plan has over the current trajectory. That goes away, the paper finds, if for example we assume that payments will be made at the current average market rate—the mean of all of the private and public health care prices in the market today. If we use that number, then the ten-year cost of Medicare for All rises to $38 trillion, well-outstripping status quo projections.

"Other key assumptions—all of which Blahous explicitly outlines—keep the cost of Medicare for All lower than what it would likely actually be. For example, the Sanders plan assumes that the government could successfully substitute all brand-name drugs with generics—failing to do so would make "actual savings… less than assumed under these projections." The estimate of the amount of savings that would accrue from reduced administrative costs is similarly termed "aggressive" by Blahous, and would likely be far less significant if the Medicare-using population quintupled.

"In other words: Medicare for All would likely be more expense than the status quo, a cost that would be borne by taxpayers in one way or another, rather than by individual consumers.

" 'There should be a robust public discussion," Blahous concludes, "of whether these outcomes are desirable and practicable before M4A's enactment is seriously considered."

The Comical Conservative