Frankenstein

So, will we taxpayers be paying the student loans of the pro-terrorist demonstrators?

***

Frankenstein

Ever since the Supreme Court ruled last year that President Biden had no authority to unilaterally write off $430 billion in student loans, he and his aides have been crowing that they intended to do it anyway.

Biden declared he would “stop at nothing to find other ways” to get what he wanted. Soon the administration began generating fresh schemes to cancel student debt — or, more accurately, to transfer that debt to taxpayers. In February, announcing his intention to relieve an additional 153,000 borrowers of the obligation to pay back what they owe, Biden again stressed that he would not comply with the court’s mandate.

“The Supreme Court blocked it, but that didn’t stop me,” he boasted on Feb. 21.

Recently the White House moved to wipe out more student loans — this time absolving some 30 million individuals of their liabilities. Once more there was an explicit assertion of resistance to the court’s decision. “When the Supreme Court struck down the president’s boldest student debt relief plan,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona proclaimed, “within hours we said: ‘We won’t be deterred.'”

So the government opposes itself. Somehow the administration sees itself as rebellious, like a street demonstrator, asserting its position against a structure specifically designed as the national foundation, created to protect its citizens from the government by defining and channeling it.  

Anyone concerned by the rise of lawlessness might well start here for a cause as the executive proudly defies its creator.

Barr's Vision for Democracy

 

In an interview Friday, the BBC called the White House 'cowardly.'

***

Barr's Vision for Democracy

The Trump candidacy--indeed his entire public nature--has suffered from the intense criticism he has received from his prior cabinet members who not only hate his policies but hold him personally in low regard.

Kelly, his longest serving Chief of Staff: "A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.There is nothing more that can be said,.God help us.”

Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: "It’s now obvious to me that you don’t understand that world order. You don’t understand what the war was all about. In fact, you subscribe to many of the principles that we fought against."

Mark Esper, Trump's former secretary of defense, “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

And, most damaging, Trump’s well-regarded former attorney general, Bill Barr, “He is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.”

But there has been a shocking change. Barr has changed his mind and will vote for Trump. Why? Because, while Trump is playing 'Russian Roulette,' Biden's pathway is certainly 'suicidal,' and, with Trump, at least society has a chance.

The great and successful democracy has been reduced to the position where a personality disorder playing Russian Roulette is America's best chance.

Not the greatest compliment but...

Notes and Noted 2

Notes and Noted 2

The Gospel today is disturbing, with Christ contemplating man and his failures.

***

The Obama administration in 2016 paid some $1.7 billion to Iran in a combination of foreign currencies – most of which was the settlement of a decades-old financial dispute – to secure the release of four detained Americans with no restrictions on how the money would be spent. Photographs of the first installment of $400 million in cash, packed on a wooden palette for transport, were famously leaked and fueled the outrage of GOP critics.

The nuclear deal is believed to have resulted in a roughly $50 billion influx of cash for Iran from its implementation in 2016 to 2018, when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement – a significant amount but a far cry from the $150 billion that Trump estimated had reached Iran.

While the Biden administration renewed talks with Iran to reenter the pact, the discussions have led nowhere and U.S. negotiators publicly walked away. Though not believed to be directly connected, some analysts have speculated that the Biden administration's move to free up the $6 billion could have been an incentive to continue talking even as Tehran slowed the pace of development of a nuclear weapon.

***

The Atlantic article, "Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls
The case for making journalism free—at least during the 2024 election"
by Richard Stengel, is behind a paywall

***

More from the unreal mendacity universe. Soaking the rich, while appealing in its simplicity, misses the scale of the problem. Brian Riedl, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, noted that if we were to confiscate 100 percent of the income of everyone making over $500,000 per year, it would fund the government for less than a year. This puts into perspective the enormity of the $34 trillion national debt versus the income of the rich.

Taxing the rich is a convenient distraction hiding the reality that if spending isn’t cut, taxes will have to be raised on everyone, a lot. 

***

The ‘whistleblower’ who sparked Donald Trump’s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump wanted probed, newly obtained emails from former Vice President Joe Biden’s office reveal.

***

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has fired 28 employees after they were involved in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion joint contract with Amazon.com Inc. to provide the Israeli government with AI and cloud services.
 

Non-Profits Are Their Own Reward

It looks as if Israel's attack on Iran has been muted. Their public disdain for America's position was not.

***

Non-Profits Are Their Own Reward

The United Network for Organ Sharing is a non-profit scientific and educational organization that administers the only Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network in the United States. It was established by the U.S. Congress in 1984.

Here are some elements brought to light by Organize, another non-profit patient advocacy group that under an 'innovative' program embedded with the HHS and working with HHS staff produced hard data. They are particularly outraged by the current kidney donor monopoly.

Advocacy groups--especially when funded by government--are always a bit hard to be sure of but here are some of their claims.

One out of every four kidneys that are recovered from an American organ donor is thrown in the trash.

Organs are literally lost and damaged in transit every single week. The OPTN contractor is 15 times more likely to lose or damage an organ in transit than an airline is a suitcase.

Organs are not GPS-tracked!

Seventeen percent of kidneys are offered to at least one deceased person before they are transplanted. The tracking system for patients is so dysfunctional that 17% of kidneys are offered to patients who are already dead.

Medicine is obsessed with self-scrutiny where physicians evaluate themselves and their colleagues. The prototype: M&M conference, Mortality and Morbidity where a week or month of complications are publicly reviewed and decisions debated--by the participants. But the infrastructure, the architecture where the practice of medicine lives, is never questioned.

Energy Costs

Energy Costs

This chart shows the average change in electricity prices over the last decade. Electric rates remained relatively flat in the seven years before President Biden took office, rising 5% thanks to cheap natural gas. Yet since January 2021 electricity prices have soared 29.4%—about 50% more than overall inflation. Big numbers.

Electricity prices have increased 13 times faster under Biden than across the previous seven years. 13 times. Big numbers. 

Most of it is a result of the left’s climate agenda, and the price increases will get worse. And what if Israel attacks Iran?

  The world would be so much safer if the leaders simply prioritized          protecting their citizens. And smarter. It would be nice if they were          smarter.

     

Justice Delayed

Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction. --CEO of NPR

***

Justice Delayed

What is going on in the Middle East?

Israel responded violently to the Oct. 6 atrocity and the Americans were alarmed because their reconciliation policy toward Iran, initiated by Obama, was suddenly in jeopardy. The Americans have given Iran billions, removed restrictions to trade, and encouraged moderation by Israel in its relations with its tormentor. One might argue the Americans are cynically trying to avoid damage to Iran's contribution to the world's oil production--and American oil prices in an election year-- but that likelihood is subservient to the basic Obama theme of normal relations with the terrorist theocracy. Then Iran hit Israel with 330 missiles.

The Middle East froze. What would Israel do? Would Israel hit the oil refineries? The Iranian nuclear facility? Biden said, "Don't."

And Israel has done nothing. And Passover is coming. And some of Israel's domestic polling has turned cautious.

There are rumors. The U.S. has traded Israel Rafa for Iran. America has threatened to remove military support. Or military hardware supplies. There is some gigantic NATO-like plan on the table here with the Shiites.

Whatever is afoot, Israel's declining a righteous revenge opportunity would be a first. And its impact would be fascinating because, while the university children demonstrating do not understand, both aggression and caution with fanatics are dangerous.

Atrocity

Atrocity

So, we have been hearing about attacks on citizens by Israel since the gruesome Oct. 7th atrocity. Never mind the uncertainties of war, the wildness and errors. Never mind the Hamas attack specifically targeted civilians. Israel is as guilty as any culture at war. Are they more guilty? Was Hamas 'more guilty?'

Or we can focus our social concerns on Iran--but not Hamas. Iran launched 320 drones, rockets, and cruise missiles at tiny Israel. Were 320 missiles all targeting military sites?  Are there that many military targets in Israel? Should we just assume that Iran was behaving differently?
 
Who do these demonstrators think they are kidding?