Tag: Evil Bastards

Hold Off, Willya?

Legal Stuff

And now we are being treated to this little bagatelle:

President-elect Donald Trump told reporters at a press conference on Monday at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, that he would consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who was indicted on federal corruption charges in September.

If I may be blunt, Mr. Soon-To-Be-POTUS:  there’s way too much talk of “pardoning” going on for my liking.

Yeah, I know:  FJB pardoned his son (of a gun-related conviction, no less), and so on and so forth.  But that doesn’t mean that everyone — including you — should be throwing the stuff around like it’s confetti at a wedding.

Here’s my thought:  save the pardons for the people who are really worthy of a pardon, such as the Jan 6 tribe, and leave the wheels of justice to grind assholes like Hizzoner into the same kind of dust that we ordinary folks would be facing.  Now granted, these “corruption” charges were only brought by NYfC’s federal prosecutors after Adams give the Biden Administration the finger on border policy — in other words, said charges were of the same spiteful ilk that these shitheads brought to bear on Trump himself.

But why not just go after the federal prosecutors, who are surely as deserving of censure as anyone else?  All this pardon stuff is like handing out snakebite anti-venom kits instead of just chopping off the poisonous snake’s bitey head with a shovel.  (I know, decapitating government lawyers with a shovel may be problematic because of that Constitutional “krool & unyooshull” thing, but I think the point has been made.)

January 21, 2025 just cannot come quickly enough.

Dumping The Heritage

Diplomacy, Internationalism, Politics

Here’s a rather bad-tempered article (kinda like the ones I sometimes write) about letting go of the past:

Events over the past months have exposed a very stark divide between the globalist, collectivist, “woke” authorities of Europe and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) patriot movement here in the United States. To be frank, it is almost as if the snide, effete elitists who control the nations of the European continent want to rub our noses in their horror show.

Let’s be frank. Europe would be a total basket case without American taxpayers, American troops, and American subservience to their ever more bizarre “culture.” Since Woodrow Wilson first fell for the globalist-line that somehow “the better people” could build a world government free of popular input, the citizens of the United States have been played as fools. Churchill’s constant pushing and cajoling led to the so-called “special relationship” that has come to mean Uncle Sucker picks up the tab, does the dirty work and then allows others to make decisions.
…
All of this was made clear when a recent article by Giovanna De Maio and Célia Belin in the publication, Foreign Affairs, appeared entitled Europe’s America Problem. To set the record straight, the magazine is owned and operated by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). CFR has been the leading voice for globalist ambitions since its founding in 1921. It is the voice of the very people the MAGA movement has identified as those working to destroy American sovereignty and submerge us into a swamp.

Europe as advanced by the globalists at CRF, NATO, the Atlantic Council and the European Union (EU) is unalterably opposed to the core principles of the United States.  Even a cursory review shows them to outright enemies of liberty.

And then Wilson catalogues the list of atrocities:  (non-)freedom of speech;  extra-national prosecution of those daring to exercise such;  preventing the U.S. from supporting its own economic interests, yea even though that might affect those of other nations (gasp!);   preventing the U.S. from ignoring the utter fraud of “climate change” and its baleful bastard child Net Zero, and so on.  (Of their position on right of citizens to keep and bear arms, of course, we will not speak.)

Wilson asks the question, quite reasonably, that if the Euros are doing all this despite being essentially a welfare state propped up by U.S. taxpayers’ dollars, why should the U.S. play ball?

I think the answer is going to manifest itself, certainly over the next few years and maybe even longer as the next U.S. Administration and Congress take a long hard look at a cost : benefit analysis of our relationship with the Mother Country, so to speak.  And I don’t think the Euros are going to like the results of that analysis, and the actions that follow.

There was a time when the U.S. might have been prepared to bail the Euros out of the crap they got themselves in — two world wars and a cold one being good examples thereof — but that doesn’t mean the commitment is eternal:  not much is, in the realm of global politics.

And if the Euros seem intent as they are to drag us down with them, it would be foolish to go along with them because of such anachronisms like a “Special Relationship” or even historical ties.  I think that by now we have amply paid back our debt to France for the 1776 business, for one thing, and we sure as shit owe nothing to the Germans and other assorted malcontents.

I do expect, however, that we might well continue to do good business with countries such as Poland and Hungary, because they seem to be as skeptical as we are about the intentions of the EU.  Others might follow suit, of course, but not as long as they subscribe to the internationalist bullshit coming out of the WCC, UN, EU and similar institutions.

Yes, our fabled patience, forbearance and tolerance is wearing thin right now, and the Euros would do well not to make things worse with empty threats.

Out Of Control

Government Thugs

Here’s one that will make your nose bleed and your trigger-actuating digit twitch:

One of the more egregious abuses of power is the U.S. Department of Justice’s abuse of its power to harass citizens and companies through frivolous or dramatically expanded charges if that company/person pushes back against their legal threats.

An example of this is an October 21, 2024 lawsuit that the Biden administration brought against Rocket Mortgage because they followed the law.

That’s right, you read it correctly, Rocket Mortgage is having to spend millions of dollars in legal fees to defend itself against charges around actions they legally have no control over.

The DOJ lawsuit stems from a claim that a home was unfairly appraised and somehow that was Rocket Mortgages’ fault.

At this point, people who know anything at all about the business will be going “Huh?  What about Dodds-Frank?”  and rightfully so.  Why?

It is important to note that while a mortgage company may contract with the appraiser, the law requires that the appraisal be completely independent of the mortgage company. In other words, it is illegal for the mortgage company to put their thumb on the scale in the determination of the value of a house under consideration for financing. In fact, to ensure appraisal independence is maintained, mortgage lenders contract through third-party appraisal management companies and have no authority over the independent appraisers.

Yet:

Yet, somehow, the Justice Department chose to splash Rocket Mortgage’s corporate name as the lead in their October 21, 2024 press release announcing a suit for racial discrimination in a clear attempt to grab headlines at the expense of the online mortgage innovator.  Rocket Mortgage has received numerous customer service satisfaction awards from J.D. Power, and the decision by DOJ to very publicly seek to do harm to this company through their news release headline is a demonstration of the soft power to destroy which an out of control Justice Department possesses.

Even worse:

In an Orwellian twist, the Biden DOJ is seeking to harm a company’s reputation using the argument that they should have broken that law by putting pressure on the appraiser to come up with the right number in direct violation of the law.

In true socialist fashion, only the intentions are important.  All that other inconvenient stuff — you know, existing law, the Constitution, actual right vs. wrong [stop sniggering] — none of that matters as long as DEI (All Hail DEI!!) is satisfied.

And if you dare to resist, say hello to lawyers’ fees, millions and millions of dollars’ worth.

The New DoJ — Trump’s — needs to end this shit, and have the charges dismissed, with Rocket’s costs reimbursed, said costs to be partially clawed back from the retirement accounts of all the individuals who initiated, authorized and executed this travesty.

And lest you think that it’s only a corporation involved here, and who cares about them?  let me remind you of a certain individual named Randy Weaver, who refused to break the law at the behest of a federal agency (on this occasion, during the Dark Time Of Clinton).  Things didn’t go well for him, did they?

The principle is precisely the same.

And if you think this one is bad, wait till you see the next post.

No Resistance

Corporate Fuckery, Government Thugs, Shootin' Time, Surveillance Society

When it comes to hatred of corporations, I yield to no man thereof.  Having worked in the festering cesspits of same on more than a couple of occasions, I know how they operate, and the depths of corporate bastardy in which they have no problems swimming.

This is especially loathsome when it comes to rolling over and offering up the corporate belly for the godless government agencies to scratch (and even claw, sometimes).

Small businesses, by comparison, have shown a great deal more spine than their larger brethren.  One has only to recall that gym owner in New Jersey who, when overcoming the totalitarian state government agents and the governor during the Great Covidiocy, ended up giving all of them the finger when the eighty (80!) charges against them were all dismissed with prejudice.

Back when I was running a supermarket chain’s loyalty program, I always made it clear that individuals’ right to privacy was paramount when it came to their shopping data and habits.  On more than one occasion I told divorce lawyers to piss off when they came snooping around, a couple of times facing them down when they threatened me with a subpoena.  (When I shared one of these incidents with the guys who were in my share group, one owner of a small chain said, “Oooh, I wish that some asshole would come after me with a subpoena;  I’d go to jail with the greatest of pleasure, and the positive PR I’d get for the company would be worth millions!”  He was seventy-five years old at the time.)

Of course, the banking industry — to a man, it seems — shows no such defiance when the feds come a-calling:

A new report released by the House Judiciary Committee, in partnership with the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, reveals extensive violations and abuse of the law by the federal government.

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According to congressional investigators, the FBI abused the Bank Secrecy Act in order to work with banks to target opponents of the Biden administration and Trump supporters. 

“The information obtained during the Committee and Select Subcommittee’s investigation, and detailed in this report, is concerning. Documents show that federal law enforcement increasingly works hand-in-glove with financial institutions, obtaining virtually unchecked access to private financial data and testing out new methods and new technology to continue the financial surveillance of American citizens.

“Documents obtained by the Committee and Select Subcommittee demonstrate that federal law enforcement increasingly relies on financial institutions for highly sensitive information about Americans without legal process. Federal law enforcement has effectively deputized financial institutions to advance its investigations and to gain access to the information that financial institutions possess. As financial institutions’ capacity to track and gather data on Americans continues to increase, federal law enforcement will continue to be incentivized to rely on banks for easy access to sensitive information about Americans’ private lives.”

Now I can — sorta — see the point if the purpose is to track down gangster money-launderers or tax evaders (and even then, I’m skeptical in the extreme because nunya).  But that wasn’t the case here:

In a previous investigation done by the Committees, investigators found the FBI was flagging purchases that included “MAGA,” “patriot” and even bibles. As Townhall reported in January 2024: 

Federal law enforcement agencies partnered with a number of financial institutions to flag transactions with the terms “MAGA,” “Trump” and more. They also monitored transactions at stores like Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop. Other purchases linked to religious texts, like Christian bibles, were flagged under the guise of “preventing extremism.”

Further, the FBI has conducted hundreds of thousands of illegal searches without proper warrants in recent years.

I realize that Trump’s DOJ is going to have its hands full for the first couple years of the new Administration.  But I hope they can spare a few moments to track down the bastards who authorized this nonsense, prosecute and imprison them.

Then again, as it was the FBI themselves who indulged in this un-Constitutional larceny, I’m not holding out much hope.

And they wonder why pics like these are so popular…

Seasonally Appropriate

Health

Seeing as health insurance companies are in focus all of a sudden, this seems appropriate:

And (from Sarah):

More on this topic later in the week.  I see that they’ve apparently caught the asshole who shot that CEO in NYfC, so there’s that.  But there’s a deeper issue, which I want to explore.

Save The Wales

Eco-Crap, Terrorism

This is a strange one:

One of America’s most wanted terror suspects has been tracked down and arrested in rural Wales some 21 years after a double bombing attack in San Francisco.

Wales?

The BBC reports Daniel Andreas San Diego, 46, is in custody after an operation Monday backed by counter terrorist police and North Wales Police.

The fugitive now faces extradition to the U.S. after being arrested at a remote property near woodland in north Wales by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA).

The NCA said the Berkeley, California-born runaway was arrested at the request of U.S. authorities and appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court in London on Tuesday, where extradition proceedings began.

Okay, the “Berkeley” part makes sense, but…

The FBI has previously called the suspect an “animal rights extremist” and was the first alleged domestic terrorist to be added to the U.S. agency’s most wanted terrorists list.

Ooooh, an eco-terrorist. (Now does the title of the post make sense?)

I suggest that he be reunited with his beloved Mother Nature en route back to the U.S. in the usual manner, from 10,000 feet up:

Ocean, prairie, jungle, Berkeley, Wales, whatever.  I’m not fussy.

Or if we wanted to make the punishment fit the crime, we could always borrow a pager from some other terrorist and duct-tape it to his scrotum.

Potato, potahto.