Cops Hitting the Door

President of Fraternal Order of Police laments..

Blue cities have lost thousands of officers since 2020 thanks to anti-police policies. Last week mentioned Minneapolis (down 400)."Police officers aren't stupid," Joe Gamaldi, the FOP's vice president, stated. "They realize that their far-left city councils and mayors will throw them under the bus at any opportunity."

He referenced several cities where staffing numbers have fallen "off a cliff" since 2020, including Chicago, New York, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. 

Gamaldi slammed those who oppose Trump's crime crackdown. "It is absolute lunacy to me that there are people actually pushing back on making our communities safer. I mean, we have D.C. who hasn't had a homicide in 11 days," he said Monday. "We haven't seen that in generations. We should be celebrating this. This is a huge victory."

"Any police officer worth their salt knows that only about 5% of the community are bad people that are committing crimes, and if you lock them up, crime will go down," he said. "Washington, D.C., right now is the perfect example."

Interesting case in point in El Salvador. Former citadel of MS-13 who actually ran the country. President Bukele, his Justice Minister and entire administration deserve major Kudos. In 2015 El Salvador was the murder capital of the world. Yes - worse than Chicago. The rate was 100 murders per 100,000 persons per year. One out of every 1000.

When Bukele came in he started arresting gang members - 80,0000 so far. He made crime priority #1. He built new prisons to hold these thugs. Remember to become a member of MS-13 in the US you must murder one person. In El Salvador, you must kill 10. Sorry, 9 isn't enough.

By following his word with programmed, technology aided determination Bukele has reduced the murder rate to 1.9 persons per 100,00. A 98% decline. That's why he got reelected with 80% of the vote and why Salvadoreans are returning in droves to their homeland.

Think about that Pritzker, Bowser, Newson, Mamdani. Does Chicago with 2.7 million people have to accept 600 murders a year when El Salvador, home of MS-13, with a population of 6.4 million had only 100?

The UK with a population of 66 million. 30X the size of Chicago also had 600 murders in 2024.

Where there's a will there's a way. (George Herbert, English playwright, 17th century).

UPDATE: This past Labor Day weekend in Chicago, the butcher’s bill was 58 people shot, dozens injured and eight killed due to gun violence, compared to 55 people shot and eight killed during the 4th of July weekend.

Fed Chair Groveling to Save Job?

Two weeks ago in Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell finally – and grudgingly – admitted what the Trump team has been saying all along: tariffs don’t fuel inflation.  At most, tariffs create a one-time adjustment in prices, not the kind of runaway spiral that demands punishing rate hikes. And even that one-time bump may be negligible if foreign exporters – not American consumers – shoulder most or all of the burden. 

The implication is clear: whether the impact is zero or merely a one-time step-up in prices, there is absolutely no justification for the Fed to hide behind "tariff uncertainty" as an excuse for overly restrictive interest-rate policy. 

This really is a historic epiphany from a Fed chair who has long misunderstood the power of Trumpnomics – the four beautiful horsemen of economic growth and price stability: tax cuts, deregulation, strategic energy dominance and fair trade. 

Fingers crossed...

Trumpnomics delivered both strong economic growth and price stability in the first term. It is delivering again in the second.  Markets immediately recognized the punch of Powell’s tariff epiphany. The Dow smashed through its 45,000 ceiling.

Global rate spreads underscore just how out of touch the Fed is with the rest of the world. The European Central Bank’s deposit facility sits at 2%. The Bank of Japan holds near 0.5%. China runs its seven-day repo at 1.4%. Against that backdrop, the Fed’s 4.25%–4.50% target range remains a glaring outlier – more than 200 basis points above Europe, nearly 400 above Japan, and triple China. 

The result: the U.S. economy combines the world’s highest policy rates and mortgage rates with the world’s strongest currency – a triple hit to American exporters. 

• Financing disadvantage: American manufacturers pay more to borrow, making new plants and equipment costlier.

• Currency distortion: Elevated Fed rates keep the dollar over-priced, inflating the price of U.S. exports while giving foreign competitors a pricing edge.

• Market share erosion: Foreign rivals win contracts not because they innovate, but because they borrow cheaply and undercut U.S. prices.

  
  

Last issue we cautioned against tinkering with America's, for the most part, success-breeding institutions, but sometimes it's damned hard to keep your finger off the trigger.

Make No Mistake about It - We Are for CRIME.

If Dems fight Trump's use of federal resources to solve or at least ameliorate its impact can there be any other conclusion than they are FOR CRIME? After decades of major Cities being run be liberal mayors and governors, who have systematically downsized police presence, isn't something new worth trying?

A clear example of common sense. A clear case of right versus wrong. No?

Talk about Cutting to the Chase. Getting to the Root Cause.

Here's their newest strateegery.

Third Way, a prominent center-left think tank, is aiming to shape the way Democrats speak to voters as they try to counter President Trump’s agenda, including avoiding words such as “birthing person,” “cisgender,” “the unhoused” and “Latinx. For the record, I don't know what any of those mean nor do I care.

The memo, directed to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA,” focuses heavily on words and phrases it says Democrats use as politically correct ways to signal inclusivity and diversity, particularly encompassing race and sexual orientation and identity.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) called on Democrats to stop using the word “oligarchy” to attack Trump and his allies, because she said the term wouldn’t resonate beyond lefty coastal audiences. She advised they should instead say the party opposes “kings.”

The memo says the alienating words and phrases fall into six categories:

“Therapy speak” includes words like privilege, dialoguing, othering, microaggression and body shaming.

“Seminar room language” includes “critical theory,” “systems of oppression,” “Overton window,” “cultural appropriation” and “existential threat,” whether to climate, the planet or democracy.

“Organizer jargon” includes “stakeholders,” “the unhoused,” “barriers to participation,” “food insecurity” and “person who immigrated” (as opposed to immigrant).

Oh never mind, I can't go on. No doubt this will stop Putin and Xi in their tracks. And all those murders in US major cities? Dead in their tracks (no pun).

Guess we can stop using they- them, which I never really mastered to be honest. I kept looking for the other person.

Another new lib tactic is using swear words. Guess they think that's how tax paying, working people talk to their boss.

And you thought Biden was the only one non compos mentis.

Honestly, why won't Democrats give us a 5-year plan for something, anything?

Lefty Judges Continue Meddling

A radical left appeals court delivered a major legal setback to Trump's trade policy, declaring most of his sweeping tariffs unlawful under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. This will surely not help get the final trade deals done with India, China, etc. Many will likely hold off to see how SCOTUS rules, which will be months away.

A Biden judge blocked efforts to reunite 700 kids with their parents/guardians in Guatemala. President Arevelo said Guatemala was ready to accept these children and called the act to reunify a "moral and legal obligation".

Gas Prices Lowest since Pandemic

$3.15 nationwide. Hit $3.79 under Biden. Don't forget were $2.22 under Trump 1.0.

Gun Violence

Maybe it's not enough to just ask applicants if they have a mental health history before issuing a gun permit????

Great Replacement Well Underway

A friend send me a video of an address at the 2024 CPAC conference in Hungary. CPAC is an acronym for Conservative Political Action Conference, The speaker cited some statistics.

Amsterdam is now 56% Migrants.

The Hague 58% Migrants

Rotterdam 60%

London 54%

Brussels, home of the EU, 70% Migrants.

The vast majority of these immigrants are from African and Middle Eastern Countries.

So what does this trend mean? Well, clearly fewer White People. That native born Europeans may soon no longer be a majority in their own countries.

Can you imagine that happening in an African country like, say, South Africa where the slogan "Kill the Boers" was uttered recently by its President? (Boers are white farmers).

Worse yet, it was the late Pope Francis who encouraged this takeover..."Diversity is our Destiny".

You make ask what are the leaders of Europe thinking? I ask what were the voters (now a minority) thinking?

Remember Public Service Unions?

Well, President Donald Trump recently canceled public-employee union contracts for thousands of federal workers. The employees worked in agencies tied to national security, allowing Trump to invoke a national security exemption to the normal rules governing federal employees. Trump’s decision builds on his March executive order expanding the agencies covered by the exemption. But this should be only the first step.

There is plenty of history.

In 1902, President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt issued an order barring federal workers and postal employees from lobbying Congress. His successor, William Howard Taft, took a similar action in 1909 with Executive Order 1142, which focused on preventing lobbying by members of the military.

In 1937, Roosevelt wrote a pivotal letter to the president of the Federation of Federal Employees. According to Roosevelt: "All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service." 

A big change toward the acceptance of public-sector unions came during the John F. Kennedy administration. In 1962, Kennedy issued an Executive Order 10988, explicitly allowing federal employees to form unions. He excluded collective bargaining.

If there was one president who did the most to promote public-sector unionism in the federal government, it was Jimmy Carter. (No surprise #2 WOAT). When Carter signed the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act, he expanded union power at the federal level. The law granted most federal employees the right to join unions and bargain over the "conditions of [their] employment."

Carter also created the Department of Education, long sought by teachers' unions. They have been paying back Democrats ever since. A new report shows the top two teachers' unions have given almost $50 million to left-wing groups since 2022.

Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan, pushed back in August 1981 when he fired 11,345 illegally striking air traffic controllers. Reagan issued a statement he wrote himself: "We cannot compare labor-management relations in the private sector with government. Government cannot close down the assembly line. It has to provide without interruption the protective services which are government’s reason for being.… Those who fail to report for duty… are in violation of the law, and if they do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated."

Looking back, presidents as different as Theodore Roosevelt, Coolidge, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Trump all agreed on one thing: limiting the scope of public-sector unions, especially in national security. Unfortunately, today the issue is highly partisan, with Democrats staunchly in favor of public-sector unions and Republicans looking to curtail their power.

Public Service Unions are funded by taxpayer monies. All taxpayers' money. No way they should be allowed to ballot stuff. Especially when their bias is breathtaking. They collect dues from their members and then send 99% to fund leftwing candidates and causes.

How is that fair or common sense? Like I said, some things are just wrong.

Another Example of Why Politics is Flat Out Good Business.

It was just revealed that Omar Ilhan, the left wing zealot from the Gopher State, and her husband, (Ilhan claimed she wasn't a millionaire earlier this year) are now worth over $30 million. Little wonder they'll do/say anything to stay in power.

"Protect Our Kids"

That's what the tee shirt worn by Randi Weingarten, Head of the Teachers Union, at a recent rally.

Here's a few stats on the job being done by the public schools whose teachers Ms. Weingarten leads.

NYC - 23% can do MATH at Grade Level. 29% can READ at Grade Level by 8th grade.

Chicago (which spends $20K PER STUDENT.) - 29% can do Grade Level MATH and 23% can READ at Grade Level.

And, and...there is 41% absenteeism among students and, get this, 41% absenteeism among TEACHERS in the Chicago Public Schools..

And we expect to keep up with the Chinese?

Guess we know where Trump will turn his attention after he gets the cities cleaned up.

That's it for a Couple of Weeks.

Headed to eat some olives and drink some vino with Vito Corleone. Off to Sicilia.

Stay well.