Tag: Government

That Pesky Constitution Thing

Gummint

I know that all the Kool Kidz (i.e. the Biden Administration and the Deep State) seem to treat the Constitution as a minor annoyance, to be brushed aside whenever it gets in the way of whatever ghastly thing they’re doing to fuck America over.

Of course, that might cut both ways, in this case when it comes to that pesky part that says that only U.S.-born people can become President.  (Lest we get any ideas:  amongst other things, it prevents me from running for President, which really is A Good Thing.)

But tell me that you don’t get feelings of longing when you realize that this guy is also prevented from becoming Our Guy:

Argentinian President Javier Milei is continuing his effort to shrink the size of the country’s government. Under his leadership, the government recently cut yet another pound of regulatory flesh from Argentina’s economy.

On Monday, it was reported that the state pushed forth another deregulation package in an effort to free up more of the nation’s market by getting rid of “Soviet resolutions.”

I just came over all tingly.  None of that “Add one, subtract two” of the First Trump Presidency:  this guy’s just chainsawing the whole fucking regulatory thicket out of existence.

Every time I see what Milei’s doing, I feel the need for a cigarette.  And I don’t even smoke.

USSC: Stop Doing That – Texas: Bite Me

Resistance

Nothing like a little Fort Sumter-style action to brighten my day:

The Texas National Guard continued to install razor wire along the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could cut through or remove the razor wire.

“The Texas Military Department continues to hold the line in Shelby Park to deter and prevent unlawful entry into the State of Texas,” Texas said in a statement. “We remain resolute in our actions to secure our border, preserve the rule of law, and protect the sovereignty of our State.”

To make it quite clear:

“The State of Texas, under Gov. @GregAbbott_TX ’s Operation Lone Star, will maintain its current posture in deterring illegal border crossings by utilizing effective border security measures – reinforced concertina wire & anti-climb barriers along the Rio Grande. The logical concern should be why the Federal Government continues to hinder Texas’ ability to protect its border, all while allowing for the exploitation, dangerous, & inhumane methods of permitting illegal immigrants, including children, to illegally cross a dangerous river where many have lost their lives. Texas is the only state using every strategy & resource to protect its sovereignty, combat criminal activity, & discourage illegal immigration. #Texas will continue to hold the line.”

Works for me.  I think “Fuck you, feds” is in our state constitution somewhere.  If it isn’t, it could well be there after the next election.

Jokes aside, the interesting part of all this is a Constitutional one.

One of the primary functions of the federal government is to secure and maintain the nation’s borders against incursions from foreign nationals (hence the existence of a federal defense force and an immigration department).  If the federal government is failing in that duty, is it not the duty of the border states to fulfill that function?

Asking for a friend (in this case, TXGov Abbott).

And lastly, to the Supreme Court:

Fuck you, too.
(signed: the State of Texas)

More Gummint Bastardy

Government Thugs, Rights

Oh, this is just priceless:

The Treasury Department, on behalf of federal law enforcement after January 6, 2021, asked banks to snoop through customers’ transactions for signs of “extremism,” such as purchases of “small arms” or from gun retailers Dick’s Sporting Goods, Bass Pro Shop, or Cabela’s.

Dunno why they’d include Dick’s, which doesn’t sell any guns anymore (or shouldn’t, given their track record), but whatever.  It’s Gummint, so their lists are probably way out of date.  But it gets worse, by Rep Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) estimate:

According to the analysis, FinCEN warned financial institutions of “extremism” indicators that include “Transportation charges, such as bus tickets, rental cars, or plane tickets. for travel to areas with no apparent purpose,” or the purchase of books — including religious texts — and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.

“In other words, FinCEN urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression,” Jordan wrote.

Jordan said FinCEN also distributed slides prepared by one bank explaining how other banks could use MCCs to detect customers whose transactions may reflect “potential active shooters, [and] who may include dangerous International Terrorists / Domestic Terrorists / Homegrown Violent Extremists (‘Lone Wolves’).”

This, by the way, is why you should never give the government any information, if you can — they’ll just use it, and not always (or ever) to your advantage.

I shouldn’t have to remind anyone of this, but:  cash purchases, individual sales, gun shows, and you know the rest,  Anything to prevent the fucking Gummint from seeing what’s under your fingernails.

As for the travel part:  drive, buy gas with cash, disable any tracking bullshit on your phone (Google Maps, for instance) and leave as little trace as possible.

Range time, Kim?  Yes, indeed.

Yeah, Nazzo Fast, Guido

Drive Time, Subsidies

Stephen Green takes a long-overdue look at the inevitability of electric cars and such, and comes up with this priceless observation:

We need to talk about the word “inevitability” because when it comes to electric vehicles, I do not think it means what supporters think it means.

And then the killer:

Inevitability, you see, is when government spends money we don’t have and passes laws that won’t work to bribe or force people into buying cars they don’t want.

Like Karl Marx’s sense of inevitability — the inevitable fall of capitalism and the inevitable advent of its replacement — such things which go against human nature always need assistance from the firm foot of government to be applied with a heavy hand.

If the above is slightly incomprehensible to you, you need to read Stephen’s whole piece.

No Consequences

Marxists

As I never tire of telling people here (and other places), Marxism is one of those strange belief systems that holds that as long as the intentions are praiseworthy, the consequences are irrelevant.  Take this latest episode in the People’s Soviet of Kaliforniaaahhh:

In their seemingly never-ending quest to make lives for Californians miserable, the state legislature passed a bill that Governor Newsom signed into law mandating a $20 minimum wage for fast food workers by April of 2024.  

…and why not?  Don’t we want people to be able to earn a “living” wage in California?  (Okay, Califuckingfornia is expensive to live in because of their insane one-party government and its onerous laws, rules and regulations, but we can discuss all that some other time.)

Well, sure.  Except that business owners, already driven up against the wall by said laws and regulations, have decided that enough is enough, and they need to rein in costs — in this case, salary costs.

So:

PacPizza LLC, operating as Pizza Hut, said in a federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act notice filed with California’s Employment Development Department that the company has made a business decision to eliminate first-party delivery services and, as a result, the elimination of all delivery driver positions. Similarly, Southern California Pizza Co. has also announced layoffs, impacting about 841 drivers across the state.

Thus, Californians too lazy to fetch their own pizzas will now have to rely on expensive “third-party” delivery services (e.g. UberEats etc.) to deliver their deep-dish delicacies.

Oh, wait;  didn’t California recently pass legislation that made Uber service essentially too costly for people not on a corporate expense account?  Why yes, yes they did:

The California Legislature passed a law in 2019 that changed the rules of who is an employee and who is an independent contractor. It’s an important distinction for companies because employees are covered by a broad range of labor laws that guarantee them certain benefits while independent contractors are not.

While the law applied to lots of industries, it had the biggest impact on app-based ride hailing and delivery companies. Their business relies on contracting with people to use their own cars to give people rides and make deliveries. Under the 2019 law, companies would have to treat those drivers as employees and provide certain benefits that would greatly increase the businesses’ expenses.

But hey, that was too much even for the serfs and helots a.k.a. ordinary Californians, who later passed Proposition 22 in a ballot measure, in essence telling the legislature to fuck off and leave Uber and their drivers alone.  Of course, that was no good, so the CalGov tried to get the Prop 22 overturned in the courts (standard Commie reaction when the peasants revolt, if they can’t be stuffed into gulags or shot in killing pits).

Then in early 2023:

App-based ride hailing and delivery companies like Uber and Lyft can continue to treat their California drivers as independent contractors, a state appeals court ruled Monday, allowing the tech giants to bypass other state laws requiring worker protections and benefits.

The ruling mostly upholds a voter-approved law, called Proposition 22, that said drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft are independent contractors and are not entitled to benefits like paid sick leave and unemployment insurance. A lower court ruling in 2021 had said Proposition 22 was illegal, but Monday’s ruling reversed that decision.

Everyone following the story of the film so far?   (There may be a test.)

Anyway, now that the Cali Politburo has decreed that workers have to be paid a lot more than their services are worth, and employers have responded by applying one of the basic capitalist principles (when wages get too high, reduce the workforce), expect the Politburo to pass some equally-stupid new law, say that companies which sell fast food have to employ drivers.

You heard it here first.

Frankly, I look forward to the day when Californians have to fetch their own fucking pizzas, driving cars at $7/gallon fuel costs or EVs which catch fire and turn them and their pizzas into extra-crispy meals for buzzards.

Me, I say:  Let California sink.

Top 3 For The Chop

Bureaucracy, Gummint

Here’s the background to the question below:

Argentina just elected a new president, Javier Milei, and his first act upon being sworn in? He signed an executive order reducing their government departments from 21 down to NINE.

As Twitchy points out, we have only(!) fifteen FedGov departments (but innumerable sub-departments).

My question to my Readers:

You can eliminate three Cabinet-level federal government departments (to start off with) and all their sub-departments.  Which three would you eliminate first?

Mine:  Environment (an agency, not a department in the strictest sense of the word), Education (in toto) and Homeland Security (all their sub-departments to be reallocated to their original departments, e.g. Secret Service to Justice, Coast Guard to Defense, etc.).

I don’t know how it works in Argentina, but here in Murka, federal government departments exist at Cabinet level at the President’s pleasure — Richard Nixon, for instance, elevated the EPA’s chairman to Cabinet level by executive order — but departments can only truly be eliminated by Congress defunding them.  Nevertheless, play the game.