Stuff is Piling Up!

Your loyal Peasant faces a backlog of stuff, making a rather

lofty mountain for me to climb. Therefore, climb it I must;

as a long-ago mountain climber answered when someone 

asked him why he was going to climb a particular mountain,

"Because it's there!" Well, he was referring to the irresistible 

challenge that the mountain posed, as if it were taunting

the climber "You can't do it! You can't climb up to my tippy-

top!" My mountain is not taunting me in this way, but is 

nagging me with "Time is fleeting and you've got to take care 

of all this stuff, so get cracking!" 

So, my wonderful readers, I shall be cracking this week. 

However, I shall return to you once I leveled this mountain

into a parking lot. Thank you for your understanding and 

support, and we'll get together again soon!

MEM   

The Weird Couple

Well, Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris has her

running mate picked out, not long after becoming the presumptive

nominee of her party on the heels of President Biden stepping down 

from being a candidate for a second term. Your faithful Peasant 

doesn't know if Harris picked her second or if the party bigwigs did, 

but the Dems' ticket is set --- the Vice Presidential nominee is

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Who is Tim Walz? Simply the most radically left-wing candidate 

ever to run for Vice President on a major party ticket. How so?

Here's a sampling from his record as Minnesota's governor thus far:

1) Walz has worked hard at transforming Minnesota into a model of

what he would like to see the country become: he signed into law a 

bill establishing abortion as "a fundamental right" in the state. 

2) He also endeavored to refashion Minnesota into a "trans refuge" 

for transsexuals, complete with rights to use the women's rest rooms 

and locker rooms, and to "gender-affirming care".  Another 

"fundamental right" in his book, I suppose. 

3) The guv also thinks that illegal immigrants should have drivers' 

licenses; toward that end Walz has supported and continues to 

support this dubious idea.

4) And who can forget the slow-as-molasses response by Walz to the 

2020 riots following the death of George Floyd while he was in police 

custody? Gov. Walz at last sent Minnesota National Guard troops to 

the City of Minneapolis, only after the riots began and fires were

started by the rioters, including burning down a police precinct

building (!), not to mention the endless looting of stores after  

many millions of dollars worth of damages were incurred. I don't 

know how many injuries and deaths were caused, but the carnage

made Minneapolis look like a war zone; in a real sense, it was.

There are more, many more, examples of Gov. Walz' extremist 

governance of Minnesota, to be sure. But here are but four which are 

enough to illustrate that Walz and Vice President Harris are two of

a kind, the kind that the United States can absolutely do without.

Furthermore, this political gruesome twosome are a stark example 

of just how radicalized the Democrats and their party have become 

in recent years. There was a time when such extreme candidates

would much more likely be heading up a radical third party ticket

(the various socialist parties that have come and gone are examples).

Now, they have taken over one of the two major political parties in

the country and have shoved the moderates and what few conser-

vatives there were aside. Outgoing President Joe Biden may be 

a far lefty in his own right, but he looks like a Reaganite next to 

these two! And these two horrors call Republican nominee, our

former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. 

Vance "weird"?

In the meantime, more than a few Democrats have openly complained 

that they have been denied a chance to state their preferences for 

a candidate to replace the not-quite-so-healthy seeming President Joe

Biden as their presidential nominee, that the party big shots and 

big money donors made the choice for everyone making the upcoming

Democrat convention in Chicago a mere formality. The Republican 

Party chided the Democrats for this power move and have begun to

make political hay over it. Let's hope that it will be instrumental in 

spelling victory for the GOP in November! In the meantime, the Dems 

made this maneuver to keep whatever hopes they have of retaining

the White House alive, what with Biden's health and his governance

making a shambles of the national economy and the country's standing

among our friends and enemies abroad. It is a curious hybrid of a 

power move and a desperation move, and my money is on the whole

shebang collapsing, taking down the Dems' hopes with it. 

The Democrats have also been trying to manufacture a feeling of 

excitement and exuberance in the ranks of their party and in the 

Democrat constituencies over the prospect of electing the first

woman (and a black woman to boot) president. However, Vice

President Harris has never been a favorite among Democrats 

in Washington, among party operatives, nor among the Democrat

voters; presidential preference and opinion polls have shown 

shockingly low favorable ratings for Harris. And let's not forget,

when she ran for president in the Democrats' primaries and 

caucuses she didn't last long beyond the Iowa caucuses

which are at the start of the two major parties' journey to their

nominating conventions. Kammie has never been the favorite 

flavor of her party, it seems.

And the Democrats are not the favorite flavor of the nation either.

This will be made manifest on November 5.

MEM

Time for My Irish Holiday!

We are now in the middle of August and by now you all,

my magnificent readers know that the Milwaukee Irish Fest

is close at hand. Beginning tomorrow your proud Irish-de-

scended, American born and bred Peasant will be at the fest

for the entireity of each day it is to be held. We shall, to be 

sure, regroup and reunite after the event and resume our

picking and poring over the political and financial news 

of the day. 

In the meantime, know that I'll be thinking of you all during

my rest periods in between the shows, the features, the Irish 

stage productions, meals, snacks, and some always wonderful

Irish drinks! On my return I shall share with you the wonderful

time I had with my family and friends from near and far, from

Milwaukee to Ireland, and our activities together. 

Jaysus, I love me yearly Irish holiday! It does me a treat!

MEM

Some People are Hard to Satisfy

Some people are hard to satisfy. New Jersey's Gov.

Phil Murphy (D) and his fellow Dems who have 

solid control of that state's legislature are frantically 

trying to get their hands on money --- a lot of it ---

even with an increase in tax revenue of 35% over 

the past five years (!). Add to that Murphy's promise 

to let a corporate tax increase lapse. So the guv 

gets the bright idea to bring back a 2.5 % surtax

on corporate income, atop New Jersey's current 

corporate rate of 9%. And just last year Gov. 

Murphy bragged about allowing a 2.5% corporate

surtax on income above $1 million expire (!!),  

stating that a lower tax rate would increase business

investment in the state, thereby resulting in an increase

in jobs.

Well, that was then and this is now. The aforementioned 

surtax lapsed at the end of 2023, and Gov. Murphy now

wants to bring it back and tack it onto income above 

$10 million, RETROACTIVELY TO THE START OF

THIS YEAR (emphasis mine)! What gall!! The Governor

claims that the surtax will hit only the wealthiest businesses 

--- many of which are based in other states. This is another 

crock of you-know-what. New Jersey taxes corporations 

based on their share of revenue, including but not limited to

business-to-business sales, rents, royalties, dividends, interest,

and capital gains that they generate in the state even if they 

are headquartered outside of the state! Businesses presently

in New Jersey would have strong incentive to move to 

states with lower or no corporate income taxes, i.e.

Florida. And bear in mind, the Dems in charge in Trenton

are lusting after all this money even when the economy

is doing rather well!

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D), wants to spend 

the proceeds on property tax relief and other money for

seniors, while he and the rest of the Dems hope like mad 

that voters will forget that they exploded the state's 2% 

property tax cap just last month to get even further into 

the good graces of the teachers' unions.

The Trenton Democrats are as trustworthy as a bunch of 

sidewinders. It's time to seal the snake pit.

MEM

Bidenomics: Spending Has No Negative Consequences

President Biden has a method to his madness

(or so he fantasizes) which is his economic

philosophy: Spending has no negative conse-

quences; rather, it has only positive ones! 

He believes that the federal government can 

spend and borrow limitlessly, and tax more as 

well, with no economic risk whatsoever. 

Free-market economists laughed at this notion,

as they know, and many of us know, that history 

is loaded with nations that attempted to spend,

borrow, and tax their way to prosperity, only

to compound whatever economic difficulties they

may have had at the outset. The list is long:

The ancient Roman Empire, Germany between

the World Wars, Postwar Britain, Argentina, 

Bolivia, Mexico, Greece, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela.

Left-wing governments in some of these countries 

made lame excuses as to why their plans didn't work. 

President Obama's administration here in the U.S.,

gave as an explanation why Obama's big-ticket

$800 billion stimulus plan didn't yield anywhere

near the promised 4% annual growth in its billing;

they claimed that they hadn't spent enough!

Economic ignorance or chutzpah? 

In 2021 the then-new Biden Administration concocted

a budget with FOUR TIMES (emphasis mine) the spending 

of the Obama team. Even President Trump, a Republican,

made the mistake of  enacting a Covid-relief spending 

rampage. Biden persuaded Congress to put $4 trillion

into social-welfare programs, corporate-welfare grants,

(can't leave anyone behind, the Biden team figured) 

college and healthcare subsidies, and other goodies for

still other individuals and groups. Despite the fact that

the economy was already making a comeback as businesses

reopened. The Biden bunch congratulated themselves for 

having invented a mechanism that would make the economy 

run more efficiently by helping the country to "build back

better", to quote a Biden slogan. Instead, we got the worst 

inflation in 40 years. They even tried to con the American

people into believing that the economy is doing marvelously,

and that the inflation will soon subside! These people are,

among other things, two-bit charlatans!

Although Biden and company tried to take credit for a rise 

in the average weekly earnings employees of 15% between 

January 2021 and May 2024, prices for goods and services 

shot up 19%, so the weekly earnings of employees suffered 

a loss in real terms. Despite the trillions in handouts, working

Americans' average real income declined by more than $2,300

in today's dollars. To date, not a single economist in the U.S.

(or anywhere else) has backtracked on their glowing claims 

about and praises for significant spending programs and backing

them with borrowing and taxing the likes never before seen 

anywhere in the world. Perhaps they're in hiding.

MEM