Middle View – Not the Left, nor the Right, but in the middle, ideally with Common Sense and Fairness
Merrick Garland came on the national scene back in 2016 when President Obama nominated him for a vacant Supreme Court seat. He didn’t win that nomination but was nominated for Federal Attorney General (AG) slot and was confirmed by the Senate.
Under questioning about the border issues, Merrick Garland effectively used a Mohammad Ali like strategy of rope-a-dope. Feigning ignorance. Biden had campaigned on open borders and Garland did understand this fact.
During Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearing around Feb 22, 2021, he appeared say that attacks, say at night, while attacking a Federal Property not operating is not as serious an issue.
Below, the a member of the much vaunted “Wall of Moms” helps to tear down a chain link fence put their to protect the Federal Courthouse. Note that it is dark outside, so presumably no one is working overtime inside, and hence if there is a crime being committed here, it is insignificant Merrick Garland’s logic.
In discussions on the Capitol Bombing, Senator Cory Booker questions Merrick Garland on domestic terrorism in general.
Senator Cory Booker, in a bit of pre Jan-6th exuberance, here on Jul 25, 2018, tries to inspire his constituents to go to the Capital and get in the face of some Congress People. Thank goodness he is a good Democrat, otherwise, this tone of voice and his words might be considered, well, troublesome.
Merrick Garland was nominated by President Obama in March of 2016. Given the Senate majority at the time, Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) knew the votes weren’t there for a 51 votes, nor the 60 votes under old pre-2013 rules. And never brought the confirmation to a vote. He was able to use new Senate rules introduced by Harry Reid (D-NV) in 2013 no longer requiring 60 votes to confirm cabinet members and judicial appointees instead relying on a simple majority of 51 votes.
Harry Reid’s rule change allowed him and Obama to fill more then 100 district court judges in his last two years as Majority Leader.
With the timeline (see below), of Joe Biden’s classified document problem is slowly growing, as a 4th tranche of documents are found on Jan 20, 2023.
Biden, keeps saying he is a responsible handler of classified documents, yet he appears to be a serial hoarder of classified documents, leaving them in places where he last left them, and then forgetting about them. Some might say with the iterations involved, a case of Gross Negligence.
Biden, states he is transparent, yet not until CBS broke the story, from an un-named source in January, did any transparency come forth. He was successful in blocking any reporting prior to the Nov 2022 elections.
Note that if Joe Biden was a private citizen, working for the government, his treatment would be much different. For example on the Dept of Justice website, is a story how a Honolulu woman received 3 months in prison for offenses similar to Joe Biden[s. The story can be found here.
The author has held various clearances, with different agencies, at varying levels, included compartment’d access, for 31 years before retiring in 2017. What we have here is a classic “Chain Of Custody” problem. Who signed off and checked the documents out? I have seen people shown the door, a number of times, for less.
1) A sitting president has broad authority to declassify information and documents. Nominally however these tasks are relegated to various departments that are more closely linked with a given information set. This issue came up early in the Trump presidency in 2017, described here.
President Joe Biden’s best bet may be to have ex President Obama state the documents were declassified by him? Or, …, perhaps he simply forgot. Most people would believe the latter.
16-Aug-22()-
22-Sep-22(Thu) – Biden appears on 60 minutes, here, to discuss former President Trump’s Mar Lago. When asked about the Trump Classified document situation, Biden stated, “How that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible”.
2-Nov-22(Wed) The 1st set of classified documents are found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement.
4-Nov-22(Fri) The National Archives notifies the Justice Department
8-Nov-22(Tue) The midterm elections are held and completed.
9-Nov-22(Wed) With the midterm election completed, the FBI decides, mid-week, to begin their assessment.
14-Nov-22(Mon) Attorney General(AG), Merrick Garland, head of the Justice Department tasks U.S. Attorney John Lausch to begin reviewing the Biden documents.
16-Nov-22(Wed) AG Garland appoints a special counsel to investigate Trump’s Mar-a-Lago document set.
20-Dec-22(Tue) Biden’s lawyers, inform U.S. Attorney Lausch, that additional 2nd set of documents have been found in Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware.
9-Jan-23(Mon) Media outfits, CBS, begin reporting this story. With the elections over and new congress sworn in, it’s time to go public and begin framing the issue.
10-Jan-23(Tue) Biden, talking to the media states he (now) has a special room at his home where he.reviews classified issues. Note that Biden is now the “President”. No issue to the older documents being discussed here.
12-Jan-23(Thu) An additional 3rd document set are found in Biden’s garage next to his 67 Corvette. Biden stated, “My Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting out on the street,” Biden responded. “People know I take classified documents and classified materials seriously.” Easy to say, but at times actions speak louder than words.
20-Jan-23(Fri) CBS reported that FBI Investigators searched Biden’s home and found an additional 6 sets of documents.
Bernie Sanders – Bernie Sanders first ran for president in 2016. However, Hilliary Clinton working within the Democrat Party’s power structure was able to out snuff and silence his campaign, winning the 2016 Democratic nomination. He is popular among nanny state millennial’s for the amount of services he would like the Federal and State governments to supply. He describes himself as a Democratic Socialist. He has basically calibrated the Democratic ticket bar. Other Democrats may decide to go left, or right, around him.
Bernie tweeted today his concern about Southwest having received $7B from the CARES Act in early 2020. Since he voted for it he should realize the money was to keep people employed, at their full salary. The money really wasn’t meant for buying planes, or upgrading their infrastructure. Yes you can gripe about Southwest buying back their stock. All legal under congressionally passed tax law.
At times Bernie appears to be giving up again, he gave up in 2012, pushed farther in 2016, then gave up to the DNC manipulating, now in 2020, will he repeat his pattern? Basically he has used the election as a time for getting on his soapbox.
In the video he accuses Biden, of supporting NAFTA back in the day. Bernie and Trump’s views in this area are similar.
Much as been said of Trump’s Russian connections. Trump does have hotels in Russia, and in other parts of the world. Bernie however honeymooned there in 1988. Not where most American’s would have gone for their honeymoon’s during the cold war. Bernie has stated this trip after their wedding was not a honeymoon. But another trip, 1 year later to St. Lucia was really their honeymoon.
And as a mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981, Bernie had high praises for the Soviet Union.
LNot much is know about Bernie until he was about 40 years old and started to run in politics. He doesn’t talk much about it and as he is today, a rising star, more will come out in the future.
But one item was he wrote an article on shall we say relationships. It appears to the right/below of this text.
The reference to one my favorite movies, Blazing Saddles probably does not belong here, but, you get the idea.
This timeline will be a large undertaking for me. Joe’s history is long, half a century. Joe, for 2020, campaigned on Open Borders, and severely reducing the US’s fossil fuel usage. He has been largely successful on the border issue. But his proxy war in Ukraine is making it hard as the US pumps hard to get Europe the Natural Gas it needs for the winter.
2022-Dec-29 Meditate reported that Joe Biden, vacationing in St. Croix, tweeted about Climate Change, but the $1.7B omnibus bill needs to be signed by Dec 30th. So Joe Biden’s solution is to have a jet transport the 4,500 page document to St. Croix for his personal signing ceremony.
Note, there really should be no issue about him vacationing in St. Croix during the worst blizzard in US history. Yes people are dying in cities like Buffalo from the code. But like Ted Cruz’s famed Cancun vacation a few years back. Neither Ted nor Joe are necessary to the immediate solution and political grandstanding would just get in the way.
But there are two real Issues; 1) Flying 4,500 pages on a special flight seems very non climate friendly. And a mite hypocritical. 2) Biden’s vacations at crony donor’s villas, the Nevilles, really should be declared as income. What are the fair market values for the places Joe vacations at? Every holiday vacation stay is free, provided by donors?
Pete Buttigieg came to prominence during his failed run for the 2020 presidential election. Formerly a US Navy officer and a mayor of South Bend, Indiana. He married Chasten James Glezen Buttigieg, a schoolteacher and writer, in June 2018.
A the time of this writing he is presently the US Secretary of Transportation. His first year as Secretary of Transportation was subdued as he was either on maternity or paternity leave while at the same time moving his family to Michigan where he now resides.
The Christmas 2022 flying season was especially brutal this year. A lot of news reports on cancelled flights because of the increased number of passengers and the weather. Unfortunately Southwest Airlines appears to be having trouble getting back on track. Under the rules presently in place, Airlines do have an out if cancellations are caused by weather. But, as the weather has improved, Southwest is this season’s laggard.
Something tells me Southwest personnel are not just sitting back and waiting for Pete Buttigieg to give them guidance.
Buttigieg said customers would be able to file consumer protection complaints with the Department of Transportation. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as once again, airlines usually have weather as an out.
Note: I do fly Southwest almost exclusively, but never fly during peak period holiday periods. I will most likely continue to fly Southwest. OI am confident they will work these issues with Pete’s grandstanding.
During late August and early September America’s Rail Road unions were threatening to go on strike. This strike threatened to cost the US economy more than $2 billion in lost output per day.
Note that in the end all was fine. Biden convinced the Unions to postpone the strike till after the midterm elections. He wrote a thank you memo to Secretary of Labor Walsh thanking him for his work.
Post election the Rail Road unions wanted to get back to their strike. But Biden, Pelosi and Schummer, released from the shackles of the midterm elections, asked Congress to force them to go back to work. They dutifully complied and Congress wrote law forcing them back to work.
With Biden signing the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law on Nov 15, it allocated $600 billion to the Department of Transportation (DOT). But a large portion of the pie, $211 billion is un-allocated in the bill and is to be awarded as ‘competitive federal grants’.
This makes Buttigieg, the most powerful Transportation Secretary in the US history. You can count on America’s governors and mayors trekking to Washington DC to pay homage to Buttigieg. Mass Transit, walkways, bike paths, bridges, freeway widening, tunnels, the list is long. Any dollar the Feds supply, saves the local governments money and gives them the ability to dream bigger.
Given it may take a few years to hand out $211B of unallocated federal funding, Buttigieg may be a formidable presidential opponent when he does decide to put in a 5/40 work plan. He will meet many players as he discusses possible projects, this can only help his future if he plays his cards right.
Many articles in the media reflecting the Supply Chain Crisis. Ships parked offshore at the nations ports. Railroads backed up. Not enough truckers to move freight across the country and to the last mile to their destination.
Meanwhile Mayor Pete has been on leave pending the birth of his and Chasten’s twins.
The following links were copied from a “The Hill” article.
Did the US dodge a bullet by not having Mayor Pete be elected President? Even President Biden, almost 80 years older, seems to work harder.
Ever the one to promote clean energy. Secretary of Transportation has his motorcade stop a mile or so from work so he can be seen bicycling to work.
Optics are critical in today’s political environment.
Taylor Lorenz, at this writing, is back in the news again. Off Twitter, than back on again. Her antics are somewhat amusing to watch. Her recent 15 minutes of fame, Mar/Apr-2022, is when she started doxxing the Libs of Tik Tok creator. Libs of Tik Tok is basically an aggregator of publicly available videos from social media. This doxing behavior seems to have brought her heightened scrutiny in her niche of journalism.
Taylor, in a non-journalistic moment no doubt, revealed the previously anonymous woman’s, name, occupation, religion, and where about she lived. It also included a hyperlink that exposed the woman’s work address. But as the public outcry grew, the Jeff Bezo’s newspaper, the Washington Post later removed this link. But the original article can be found here.
Then around March 29, 2022 Taylor went on MSNBC to complain about suffering from PTSD. This to me was her 15 minutes of fame and will most likely be what she is remembered for. Move forward to Sep-13 and Taylor is stating that Morgan Radford, the interviewer, mistreated her.
2022-Mar-29 Taylor Lorenz, after doxxing a fellow woman, for collecting publicly available videos, declares that she is suffering from PTSD from the media outcry. Four days after the airing of this segment Taylor roasted MSNBC stating that MSNBC “F—-d Up Royally”.
What follows are just some of the articles relating to the subject of this timeline. I can and may add more when some event inspires me to.
Kamala Harris, now Vice President of the United States started her legal career in the San Fransisco Bay area.
VP Harris was being interviewed and was asked about Broadband. Her answer was straight and to the point. Things take time covers it.
In an interview with Chuck Todd interviewing America’s Border Czar, Kamala basically states, that the problems can be traced to Donald Trump’s handling of the border.
With many American’s being concerned about their respective pronouns, and possibly their gender, Kamala Harris announces her. Presumably for any blind people listening, she also stated the color of her dress.
President Biden, Mar 24, 2021, appoints VP Harris to the role of Border Czar. He basically states this allows her Carte Blanche, to move forward as necessary to manage the border.
During a Colbert Interview, states he knows that protests are happening in cities across the US. But he is just not seeing any reporting of them. Kamala responds exuberantly stating yes, and they should not stop.
It would take Jan 6th to occur before a number of Democrat politicians start to shy away from protests.
Joe Biden needed a VP running mate and he made his key requirements known. Woman, and a person of color, (POC), preferably black. Mainstream news organizations still circulated names like Gretchen Whitmer and Elizabeth Warren. Both are pasty white. Only Warren might have a chance, but now she is a former Native American, so on to the candidates.
With democrat nominee Joe Biden in search of a VP running-mate. Kamala Harris’s wikipedia page goes thru extensive edits in an attempt to market Kamala, and maybe erase information that could be detrimental.
During the early debates for the 2020 election, Tulsi Gabbard called out Kamala Harris on her stats regarding locking certain segments of society up.
But really, given the majority she prosecuted successfully wasn’t an issue. Given the plethora of cases presented to her, the hard part might have been deciding which cases to prosecute, and which to let go.
Harris 29, her new boyfriend, Willy Brown, 60, met in 1994 and as described by Herb Caen, going steady in March 94.. Okay. The #MeToo movement is still years in the future. And who benefits from this relationship?
Kamala and Willy were the talk of the town during Willy Brown’s mayorial election. He even gave her a new 94-BMW.
SfWeekly – Aside from handing her an expensive BMW, Brown appointed her to two patronage positions in state government that paid handsomely — more than $400,000 over five years. In 1994, she took a six-month leave of absence from her Alameda County job to join the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. Brown then appointed her to the California Medical Assistance Commission, where she served until 1998, attending two evening meetings a month, 1-2 hours, for a $99,000 annual salary.
Her attendance at these meetings was reported to be spotty.
Gavin Newsom, presently the 40th governor of the state of California, in this office since 2019. Gavin’s story on his rise to governor can really be explained the intertwining of 4 key familes, the Pelosi’s, the Browns, the Getty’s, and of course the Newsom’s. A historical and fascinating article on this can be found here.
In what may be a future 2024 Presidential Ad, and after Biden in a question about the border, stated there were more important issues, Gavin went to the border area of Calexico and Mexicali to make a soft statement on the border. Previously Gavin was very pro Sanctuary State and welcomed all. But has Biden pushed immigration too far and now Gavin is setting himself up to run for President?
Elections are trying times for both Democrats and Republicans. But it is always interesting to see the announcments that occur after the election.
A week after the midterm’s, Gavin Newsom announces that suddenly, predictions are that California will have budget deficit going forward.
With great fanfare Gavin Newsom announced that the California budget for the forthcoming year would show a surplus of $97.5 Billion.
Gavin Newsom had planned on closing Diablo Nuclear Facility. But a review of planned solar, wind, and other power generation technologies showed a hole. With EV’s gaining, and night time charging occuring, Diablo Canyon yields a steady supply of energy during the night when the sun doesn’t shine. (APNEWS)
Gavin , an opponent of the Diablo Canyon since his days of being a Lt. Governor for Governor Jerry Brown. This closure would cost the PG&E nearly $4 billion, and $1 billion would be left for customers to pay. (SDNEWSDESK)
Gavin Newsom has made news discussing California’s crime and homeless problems. On May 11, 2021 he helped in a railroad cleanup and on Aug 9th, helped in a freeway cleanup.
With Lockdowns being enforced by Emergency Executive Orders from Governor Gavin Newsom. Gavin took the opportunity to have a fundraising dinner with some of his best donors.
Although the event received wide press, most Californian’s forgave Gavin as he easily survived a Recall attempt and easily won reelection in Nov 2022.
Gavin Newsom has been married to actress and filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom since 2008. The pair reportedly met on a blind date set up by a mutual friend at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in October 2006.
Before that Gavin was married to Kimberly Guilfoyle. Newsom and Guilfoyle married in a lavish ceremony in 2001, with a 500 person reception held at Ann and Gordon Getty’s home. They were divorced in 2006.
In between Siebel and Kimberly Gavin dated Ruby Rippey-Tourk starting in 2005. Ruby Rippey-Tourk was the wife of Gavin’s campaign manager, and also worked for the City of SF as Gavins appointments secretary. In the end she left her job in 2006 to seek treatment for alcohol and drug abuse. Rippey-Tourk was also given $10,154 for ‘catastrophic illness pay’ from the city, which resulted in an investigation. The San Francisco office, under DA Kamala Harris, and the city attorney, Dennis Herrera at the time, cleared the payment.
updated, Adam Schiff, a California House Representative since 2000, chairs the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He is probably most famous for his outspoken criticism of Donald Trump.
Adam Schiff, the House Intel chair at the time, was chosen to lead the impeachment against Trump. Nominally this job would have gone to Jerry Nadler, the House Judiciary chair.
Schiff’s newest push is attacking Twitter, a social media site. As the site is being reformed under Elon Musk more freedom to discuss issues using allowing more viewpoints has been the result.
And as more and more reports are coming out how Twitter blocked opposing views, even a few Democratic politicians, Rho Khanna for example, have called out that this was wrong. Both the Washington Post and Newsweek reported.
Note that it is possible to create a Safe Space on Twitter using the following simple rules.
1) Only follow the people you agree with.
2) Block any user who you find offensive.
Morgan Ortagus, a View host, questions Adam Schiff about his culpability in promoting his Steele Dossier. The View is nominally, very, very supportive of Democrat causes. Schiff was most likely blindsided by this line of questioning. He nominally sticks with CNN or MSNBC for safe interviews.
Ortagus later added that Schiff was so “obsessed” with stopping former-President Trump that he took shortcuts and politicized the intelligence community.
Sometime in April of 2017, Adam Schiff was contacted by a two Russian pranksters on a crank phone call. They offered dirt on President Trump. A longer version can be found here.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also known as AOC, is a member of the Democratic party, serving in the 14th district of New York. Ocasio-Cortez attended Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating cum laude. Her previous jobs entailed bar-tending and being a waitress.
She quite often puts out video’s describing her feelings on various topics. Her followers and disciples love her dearly on social media. This video, I saw on Twitter, awhile back, caught my eye. Why? Well as an Econ major, it makes me wonder how they teach the subject at her alma mater, Boston University. Here she confuses Milton Keynes, a town in England, with John Maynard Keynes, a very famous Economist, talked about endlessly in the authors early Economic college classes. And most likely, Milton Friedman, another famous economist from the second half of the 20th century. Ie, MILTON F, and John M. KEYNES, do not equal Milton Keynes.
Is Boston college just a diploma mill, accepting Federal Student Loan monies with no regard to course content?
I have asked a number of younger people as why they have such high expectations of Ms Occasio-Cortez and it seems to center around her perceived intelligence. I ask for specifics and it seems her policy goals center around the proverbial idea of government helping more and more. All fine and good, but isn’t their concept of intelligence really empathy?
The House Committee on Ethics issued a statement that it is investigating Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). With the holidays fast approaching it is expected that any real investigation would take place once the new congress is sworn in this January. House rules allow members to accept free tickets to charity events. But with non charity media conglomerate Conde Nast controlling the invitations their could be a case that AOC may have violated house rules.
Her dress, from Aurora James’s, who founded the design company Brother Vellies, a company with a history of Federal and state issues. And Aurora James herself as a history of landlords she rents from, being forced to use the courts to recover their rental money.
The New York Post reported on AOC’s getting comped a pair of $35K tickets for 2021 September Met Gala. Her dress, of course also provided free of charge because it is “on loan”.
Her dress, from Aurora James’s, who founded the design company Brother Vellies, a company with a history of Federal and state issues. And Aurora James herself as a history of landlords she rents from, forcing the landlords to use the courts to recover their rental money.
Politico reported more than 200 youth activists, flanked by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, flooded House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office this morning urging more action on climate issues.
Protestors lined the hallways wearing shirts that said, “we have a right to good jobs and a livable future” and “12 years”. AOC left before 51 people were arrested.
Time reported that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared victory when Amazon announced Thursday that it would not build a second headquarters (known as HQ2) in Queens, New York. AOC was against the tax breaks being offered to the company to locate in the city. Governor Cuomo stated the HQ2 would have brought “at least 25,000-40,000 good paying jobs for our state and nearly $30 billion dollars in new revenue to fund transit improvements, new housing, schools and countless other quality-of-life improvements.” HQ2 would have been in AOC’s district. Now these jobs can go elsewhere.
AOC’s reasoning is that Amazon pays little in Federal Taxes. But, Amazon, has had the habit of investing everything back into growth. Given tax laws for years allowed expensing of capital items, rather then using multi-year deprecation, this will occur. She won’t say that it is congress at fault here. Which she is a member of.