Trump Trips on a Pygmy

It must be very frustrating for President Trump. He’s clearly sees what needs to be done politically to counter attacks from the left, but the political pygmies that surround him refuse to cooperate. And I’m not referring to the Democrats. This particular pygmy is Curator of the Senate Mitch McConnell.

The Curator would be much more comfortable if Trump were not the president.

Basley Salt Lake Tribune

McConnell wouldn’t be under any pressure to defend the White House. He wouldn’t be expected to push legislation past Hillary’s veto. He could quietly be his preferred passive–aggressive self.

Blocking Hillary’s Big Government initiatives when required. Dodging social issues supported by the base. And gaining the occasional favorable headline from the Opposition Media in exchange for passing ‘bipartisan,’ budget–breaking spending bills.

McConnell could continue to burnish his reputation for inertia by claiming he’s playing his risible “long game,” when the only time horizon he’s interested in lengthening is his time in office.

Trump might as well have Bartleby the Scrivener as Majority Leader.

Here is an example of what McConnell might do if he were an ally of conservatives and the president. The Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is Cong. Adam Schiff (D–Bug Eyes). His latest in a long line of abuses of power is the release of phone records of the ranking Republican on the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes.

The Washington Examiner reports Schiff claimed he found “it deeply concerning at a time when the president of the United States was using the power of his office to dig up dirt on a political rival, that there may be evidence of members of Congress complicit in that activity.”

The fact there is no crime alleged, there was no probable cause and Kommissar Schiff isn’t part of a law enforcement agency doesn’t bother the Opposition Media or the left. Anyone is fair game in their effort to nullify the 2016 election.

This is where Mitch McConnell should demonstrate that two can play at that game. He would quietly instruct the chairman of the Senate equivalent to subpoena Schiff’s records and then release the information.

That would immediately get Schiff’s attention and more important get Nancy Pelosi’s attention. I predict Pencil–neck Schiff would soon find himself on a very short leash.

Democrats get away with these abuses of power because there are no consequences. And there will continue to be no consequences on McConnell’s snooze. A source told the Examiner, “the GOP is considering ‘a wide variety of strong responses’ to Schiff’s actions.” No doubt ranging from sending a hot letter to hiring hot lawyers. Neither having any deterrent value for Schiff.

McConnell won’t even punish the leftist House for its Illegitimate Impeachment. Trump’s instincts here are exactly right. He’s been under a constant barrage of negative coverage over the so–called Ukraine scandal.

Schiff’s committee wouldn’t allow Republicans to call witnesses and Schiff blocked some questioning. The entire show trial was a one–sided attempt by the power–hungry left to propagandize the American people.

Trump has a chance to clear his name during the Senate trial. In a report from CNN that’s remarkable for finally portraying Trump accurately, the president is eager to finally have a chance to tell his side of the story and turn the tables on the left.

“[A highly visible Senate trial] is exactly what Trump wants. He’s made clear to advisers privately that rather than end the trial as quickly as possible, he is hoping for a dramatic event …He wants Hunter Biden, Adam Schiff and the whistleblower to testify. He wants the witnesses to be live, not clips of taped depositions. And he’s hoping to turn it into a spectacle, which he thinks is his best chance to hurt Democrats in the election.”

The public will have an opportunity to hear the other side of the ‘impeachment’ story that Democrats and their leftist stenographers in the Opposition Media have done their best to hide.

It’s a once–in–an–administration opportunity for Trump to finally set the record straight in a forum the OpMedia won’t be able to ignore.

Naturally, McConnell won’t do it. Mainly because there’s nothing in it for him.

Acting as the modern embodiment of Edmund Burke’s despised “false, reptile prudence,” CNN reports McConnell told the White House, “he hopes to end the trial as soon as he can, an effort to both get impeachment off his lap and protect his conference from potentially damaging votes should the process break out into partisan warfare.”

McConnell’s own words prove he’s either an idiot or a coward. “Partisan warfare” broke out almost three years ago. The question is will Mitch continue collaborating with the enemy or will he finally join the fight to support the administration and the 63 million voters who elected it.

Trump Tip Rule Exploits Workers

It looks like Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia is tired of dining in relative peace and obscurity and he’s decided to pick a fight with the people serving his food.

Sack Star Tribune

Eric Trump has been spit upon by a waitress in Chicago. Curator of the Senate Mitch McConnell and his wife Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao were confronted at a Louisville restaurant. And former hand–wringing Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was heckled as she tried to eat at a Mexican restaurant (which if you ask me was a risky ethnic choice in the first place).

And none of the above had done anything to interfere with the livelihoods of restaurant personnel, give or take the odd deportation.

Scalia, on the other hand, is preparing to launch a preemptive strike on wait staff employees that will limit his dining out options to the department’s in–house cafeteria — assuming he can send a lackey to pick up his lunch.

The Wall Street Journal reports the Labor Dept. is proposing a new rule that would let restaurant owners steal tips more easily and more frequently than the busboy who swipes a few of the waitress’ tip dollars as he cleans the table.

“Businesses would more easily be able to require workers to share tips under a Labor Department proposal released Monday. The rule would allow employers to require workers such as restaurant servers to pool tips with colleagues who traditionally don’t get tips, such as dishwashers and cooks.”

Notice how businesses have no objection to restaurant socialism when they aren’t forced to participate.

This isn’t a strictly intramural conflict. Restaurant customers also have a dog in this fight. I wrote recently about restaurant reviewers — who eat and tip on the company dime — demanding diners pony up regardless. The WoePost’s reviewer was quite clear, “Poor service? You still have to tip 20 percent, no matter what.” This benevolence–by–proxy insulates him from the cost of his bright idea and transfers the expense to other easily persuaded leftists.

Even if a weak–willed diner let Mr. WoePost badger them into participating in this virtue extortion scheme, the customer knew who was getting the money. Scalia’s proposed rule even takes that small bit of agency away.

One of the few positive actions the Obama administration took was attempting to ban this tip–skimming scam in 2012 and now Scalia wants to bring it back. Evidently, he hasn’t gotten the word that Trump decided Republicans don’t have to reflexively support big business whenever it wants to gouge another penny or two from the staff and customers.

Naturally professional liars have an excuse for this latest strong–exploit–the–weak innovation. “Business advocates say tip-pooling ensures workers unseen by customers are fairly compensated.”

This is an echo of the WoePost critic’s mandatory tip regime, “I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding about tipping in America. Diners have been led to believe that tipping should be based on the quality of the service. But this is not the reason we tip. We tip because restaurateurs in America have shifted the burden of paying for some of their labor costs to diners. So when you don’t tip, it affects the wages of servers.”

This changes a night on the town into a GoFundMe shakedown. If business is worried about the behind–the–scenes staff not making enough money, restaurant owners should stop picking the wait staff’s pocket and give them a dang raise!

This tablecloth piracy affects customers in two ways. First it removes the server’s prime motivation for giving exemplary service. Why go out of your way to make a customer’s dinner experience outstanding when Hugo Chavez is going to sieze your tip money anyway? Second you may be giving a bonus to the guy who burned your steak.

Free market capitalists should be outraged by this new imposition on the exemplary working man. It imposes a hidden tax on servers that hits the hardest working the most and it allows restaurant owners essentially to pay their best employees the least. You make up the rest.

It appears there is something about the food industry that brings out the cannibal in management. Even woke tech companies are repurposing (stealing) your tips. The WoePost found “DoorDash …recently made headlines for using customers’ tips to offset workers’ wages.”

What that means is if a DoorDash serf is guaranteed a $10/hr. wage and you tip your delivery person $5, DoorDash overseers count that as half his wage, only pay him an additional $5 and the Internet titan in effect embezzles your tip.

I hope Tucker Carlson mentions this on his show so Trump will veto the policy. Otherwise, restaurant customers are going to get great service in the future just like Venezuelans get reliable electricity.