Thanksgiving Through the Tears

Thanksgiving shall be here the day after tomorrow, and it will

be observed with a tinge of sadness. Just the day before yesterday,

Waukesha, my county seat and a Wisconsin city that I have a long

history with, held its Christmas parade --- the biggest Christmas

parade in the state since Milwaukee discontinued theirs. It was 

always a joyous event, but this year it had a tragic twist: 

a driver of an SUV sped through the parade route on Main Street,

and ran into and over many participants and attendees. Five have 

died, while over forty (the count at the present time) are injured,

some severely. As more details regarding this tragedy are made 

known your sorrowful Peasant will update you, my loyal readers.

In the meantime, count yourselves lucky and be thankful that you

are safe and sound wherever you are, and give thanks for being so

as well as for all the good and beautiful things in your lives --- 

your families, your homes, your jobs, your physical, emotional,

financial, career, social, romantic and every kind of health that

a human being can possibly have. For all in this world is fleeting,

and it and we can go at any time. Let us, then, enjoy our many 

blessings while we can, and let's hug our spouses, children, 

brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, parents, grandparents, all our

family members, and our pets, as many of us count our dear

cats, dogs, and other pets as family too (I certainly count my

lovely cat Brownie as family!). For before very long our time

draws to a close, and believe me time zips by before we realize

it's gone. We can depart anytime, anywhere at all. 

Your thankful Peasant is overjoyed about the blessings I have 

been given. And that includes each and every one of you, my

wonderful readers!

MEM

Go For Broke; Make 'em Go Broke!

Saule Omarova is President Biden's nominee for Comptroller

of the Currency. And she has an idea for combating climate 

change.

In a video interview that she gave last February this Cornell 

professor was talking about U.S. national investment authority.

She sounds like someone Biden would nominate for Comptroller

or a similar position. The conversation oddly turned to climate 

change and how it would affect fossil fuel producers. She said

the most breathtaking statement regarding the smaller ones in the 

field: "A lot of the smaller players in that industry are going to,

probably, go bankrupt in short order --- at least, we want them 

to go bankrupt if we want to tackle climate change.  

Now let Omarova's words sink in. She wants to put some businesses

out of business, chucking heretofore working employees out the 

door, interrupting their means of making a living for their families

and themselves just to enact some crackpot program which will not,

despite its billing, solve climate change. Her attitude is,

I want to get this program to fight climate change up and running,

and if it hurts some workers by depriving them of their paychecks

and benefits, it's no big deal because these peasants, their families

and all, are no big deal. 

Omarova then added that the establishment of a National Capital

Management Corporation would make things better by "becom(ing)

a kind of equity investor at that point, taking over management of

those companies and basically leading them through restructuring 

to a new technological business model". Got that? First, put the

private firms out of business, then get government central planners

working on restructuring them in a way that would suit the political

class' tastes. The peasants in the private sector, you see, are far too

stupid, let alone insensitive to the environment and the climate to

allow them to continue to work and to allow them and their businesses

to keep functioning the way they have always done. Government 

knows everything; the peasants know nothing. 

As Comptroller Omarova would have lots of authority to regulate 

banks. She is signaling that her fondest wish is to refuse capital to the 

companies she despises and wants to see go bankrupt. Par for the  

modern Democrat Party apparatchik. Thanks and praise to the 

Wall Street Journal for their article in their editorial section shining 

light on her power lust and her grandiose scheme. Now We the People 

must contact our senators and tell them to vote her nomination down. 

MEM

Regarding Veterans Day ...

Once again, your humble and grateful Peasant wishes 

to thank our courageous veterans from all our military's

branches, who fought in the most recent wars which our

country was involved in, serving our United States of

America with bravery, dedication, and grit --- making

many sacrifices along the way; all gave some, while 

some gave all. 

As I have paid tribute to all our wonderful vets on this 

blog on Veterans Days past, I ask myself "What more 

can I say?" So I'll just say here today, this Veterans Day:

*If you like speaking your mind, thank a vet!

*If you enjoy the services at your house of worship, 

thank a vet!

*If you like going hunting with your shotgun or rifle,

thank a vet!

*If you appreciate being able to defend yourself, your 

family, your home or your business with same, thank a vet!

*If you enjoy your liberty, your very freedom which is

yours by virtue of being a citizen of this great and magnificent

country, birthed in bloodshed and nourished in trials and

soul-trying circumstances, springing up through the soil

of shifting fortunes and human machinations like a bright

and beautiful flower with generations of veterans the gardeners

helping the flower along, THANK A VET! 

Remember, as The Peasant says: Freedom isn't free; freedom costs.

But freedom isn't a luxury, it's a necessity! And our vets have 

always paid the price without counting the cost.

MEM

Big Brother's Kid Sister

The negotiations over the $3.5 trillion (more likely $4 trillion)

so-called Infrastructure Bill of President Biden's and his fellow

Democrats are foremost on the minds of many in Washington

but Biden has another bee in his bonnet: Supercharging the 

regulatory state. Toward that end, he has nominated progressive

(read: radical left-winger) Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communi-

cations Commission. Biden and his White House crew have 

praised Sohn as "one of the nation's leading public advocates

for open, affordable, and democratic communication networks."

Translated into truth-speak, this statement of enthusiastic 

support means Sohn is in favor of utilizing the FCC's regulatory

power to handcuff broadband providers and to diminish 

the First Amendment rights of conservatives. 

Sohn founded Public Knowledge, a lefty group that has long 

worked for increased government control of the internet as 

well as the media in general. She was a major force in the 

battle to enact the "net neutrality" regulation which classified

broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the

Communications Act of 1934, as well as the Wheeler rule, 

created by Obama FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (to whom 

Sohn was a counselor) which banned broadband carriers 

from charging heavy-bandwidth using websites. i.e. Facebook

higher prices to carry their content. You know the lefties' rule

regarding a company making a profit; profits must be punished

and restrained in the name of economic justice. Broadband 

investment declined, before making a comeback when then-

President Trump's FCC tossed out the Wheeler rule. 

Progressives want the government to regulate broadband rates

like electricity prices, and Sohn is rather warm to the idea.

Furthermore, Sohn is certainly no friend of the First Amendment

as she is very keen on using the FCC's regulatory power to 

censor conservative media and revive a version of its antiquated

and outmoded Fairness Doctrine which made sense in the days of 

far fewer television and radio stations and the internet was not 

yet invented, but not today now that there are dozens of internet

sites, more television networks, and more radio networks as well.

Sohn especially has it in for Fox News: "For all my concerns

about #Facebook, I believe that Fox News has the most negative

impact on our democracy." Could Sohn be concerned about more

American TV audience members turning conservative, therefore

eschewing the Liberal Establishment media and their dreck?

Horrors! 

Additionally, Sohn has suggested using the FCC's power over 

broadcast licenses to censor conservative outlets, such as Fox

News. She claims to be a supporter of "a diversity of voices in

the media" but doesn't want to extend that diversity to conservatives.

That's the left-wingers' idea of diversity: everyone, regardless of

racial, gender, gender-preference, and other classifications make

a mighty chorus, but no righty voices are welcome and no one 

in the chorus is allowed to sing from the conservative songbook.

The FCC is currently evenly divided, 2-2, and if Sohn is confirmed

(and she definitely should NOT be!) the Dems will make a 

blitzkrieg to enact the progressive agenda in the agency. Biden 

will be all too happy to do this favor for the predominant progressive

wing of the Democrat Party, as they helped him to get elected,

reasoning that at least Biden is not anything at all like Trump. 

If these people get their way, the First Amendment will be on 

its deathbed.

Sohn clearly cannot be placed on the FCC. Furthermore, Biden may

make her Chairwoman as soon as she is safely aboard the FCC

ship. He's done something like this before, nominating and getting

far left-wing Lina Khan on the Federal Trade Commission, then

making her the FTC's Chairwoman. 

The Senate Commerce Committee will hold a confirmation hearing

next week. All senators on the committee should ask her some tough,

probing questions, regardless of their party affiliations, for this is not a 

matter of political loyalties; this is a matter of adherence to and 

preservation of constitutional law. 

MEM

Captain Kirk Gives a Royal A**whooping

A follow-up to the story of William Shatner's trip

to outer space: the actor who played Captain Kirk

on Star Trek has gotten into a shootout with Prince

William of Great Britain, who recently made some 

pointed remarks about Shatner's record-setting trip.

In an interview with a BBC reporter, Prince William

Stated "We need some of the world's greatest brains

and minds fixed on trying to repair this planet, not

trying to find the next place to go and live." He then

followed his missive with a crack about Shatner's 

spaceship having created a carbon footprint while

making a flight for the purpose of leisure. Really?

To begin with, there are precisely no inhabitants of 

our planet seeking to move to another planet. Zero,

zip, nada. As for the alleged carbon footprint, the rocket

carrying Shatner and a few other passengers was  

powered by liquid hydrogen and oxygen. 

An atmospheric scientist told LiveScience.com just last

July that "The main emissions will be water and some 

minor combustion products, and virtually no CO2."

So much for carbon footprints. Now, building the 

rocket and sending it into space does create some 

carbon emissions, but not to the degree that Prince

William and other like-minded people claim.

Besides, putting on a royal wedding with a bunch of

guests from around the world and a military flyover

produces much more carbon emissions, Billy Boy.

So what was William Shatner's response to Prince 

William? In an interview with Entertainment Tonight,

Shatner remarked "He's a lovely, gentle, educated man,

but he's got the wrong idea, the idea here is not to go, 

'Yeah, look at me, I'm in space!' " Shatner also said that 

the Blue Origin flight was just another "baby step" into

the heavens. And your favorite Peasant would like to add

that the aforementioned space flight, along with all of 

those that took place before, let alone all of the earthly 

journeys to see what is on other continents and on the 

other side of our world raises human ambitions, including

helping its human inhabitants to increase their knowledge 

and understanding of the world. Does Prince William 

believe that this is a bad thing, or didn't he consider 

this truth? Pity he didn't do the latter before flapping

his royal yap.

In closing, isn't it better to have American billionaires 

competing with NASA and with other nation's

governments for the business of space travel, much like

air travel in airplanes? And to have other billionaires from

other countries such as Richard Branson in this field of

endeavor as well? I always thought that competition 

between providers of goods and services was a good thing.

What say you, Prince William? 

MEM