"At least 12 major US cities have already set historical murder records in 2021, even as three weeks remain in the year.

"Philadelphia, the nation's sixth largest city, recorded 523 murders as of Dec. 7, surpassing its formal grim milestone of 500 murders, which was set in 1990, police data showed. ...

"Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; St Paul, Minnesota; Portland, Oregon; Tucson, Arizona; Toledo, Ohio; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Austin, Texas; Rochester, New York and Albuquerque, New Mexico also had their deadliest years on record, according to ABC News.

"Five of those cities topped notorious benchmarks that were set in 2020, the article said. All of them were led by Democratic mayors, as are the vast majority of US cities."

Read the entire article here.

"As a member of Congress, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes a whopping $174,000 annually, meaning that she individually earns more than twice the average U.S. household's income. Yet the progressive Democrat nonetheless thinks that working-class taxpayers should have to pay off her student loan debt.

"That's one of the main takeaways from Ocasio-Cortez's latest speech on the House floor. In the congresswoman's remarks, she issued yet another factually challenged and morally distorted plea for 'student debt cancellation,' a progressive euphemism for having taxpayers pay off approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. (The loans aren't 'canceled' magically but paid off by taxpayers. Congress can't just make debts go away.)

"This is nothing new, as student debt 'cancellation' has been one of Ocasio-Cortez's pet issues since the beginning of her political career. Yet an interesting twist in this speech is that Ocasio-Cortez uses herself as an example -- and directly calls for taxpayers to pay off her financial obligations."

Read the entire piece here.

"A bank that misplaced over one-fifth of its deposits would be shut down almost immediately. So would a hospital that bungled one in five operations, or a private health insurer that mishandled one-fifth of its claims.

"But apparently, the bar is a lot lower for government programs. The Biden administration recently admitted that 'improper payments' made up 21.69% of total Medicaid spending in fiscal year 2021, which ended September 30.

"That error rate, which the administration buried in the tenth paragraph of a press release about the supposedly great work they're doing on fraud prevention, underscores how deeply broken the program is."

Read the entire article here.

"Crime is raging across the country, from violent attacks to brazen shoplifting to mob 'smash and grab' attacks. The White House this week had a simple answer for the cause of this rising lawlessness: It was not 'defund the police' efforts, or more restrictive policies for police and prosecutors. It was the familiar scourge cited in debates ranging from infrastructure to supply chains to tax increases -- the pandemic.

"The pandemic now seems to have reached the mythic levels of gods who once were blamed for everything that went wrong in life. Africans had Anansi the Spider, while the Norse had the trickster Loki. Both were known to assume different identities to wreak disorder or steal precious things.

"For politicians, it is useful to have a lurking Loki to explain that social problems are not really of their making, the result of their failures. The Loki factor was evident in the press conference this week when Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked about the rising lawlessness seen in major cities such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles: 'Does the president still think that crime is up because of the pandemic?' White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied that 'many people have conveyed that.'

"Doocy persisted: 'So when a huge group of criminals organizes themselves and they want to go loot a store -- a CVS, a Nordstrom, a Home Depot until the shelves are clean -- do you think that's because of the pandemic?' Psaki replied: 'I think a root cause in a lot of communities is the pandemic, yes.'

"That damned Loki."

Read the entire article here.

"Unemployment fraud exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Labor Department Inspector General's semiannual report to Congress.

"Approximately $872 billion in federal funding was allocated to unemployment benefits in the last year, and at least 10% was estimated to be paid 'improperly, with a significant portion attributable to fraud.'

"This means that at least $87 billion was lost to fraud, the report said. By contrast, $27.3 billion in total unemployment insurance benefits were paid in 2019, according to the Labor Department.

"The major increase in fraud is labeled a 'significant' concern by the inspector general."

Read the entire article here.

"If you're still wondering why raising the cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction was important enough to Democrats to sacrifice their stated principles and resort to brazen gimmicks in order to fit it into the reconciliation bill, look no further than the latest release of the IRS's tax migration data, covering tax years 2018-2019.

"The data shows that certain states continue to alienate their own tax bases with punitively high taxes and uncompetitive business tax environments. High-tax states are losing taxpayers at an alarming rate, while states that tax their residents less aggressively are benefiting from their fellow states' loss.

"The five states that lost the most taxpayers are not exactly known for fiscal restraint. New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Massachusetts lost, on net, 219,937 taxpayers and over $28 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI). On average, these states have a state-local effective tax rate of 11.8 percent.

"The five states that gained the most taxpayers, on the other hand, are all low-tax states -- in fact, three of the five have no state income tax. Florida, Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, and Washington state gained, on net, 194,340 taxpayers and $28.9 billion in AGI, all while averaging a state-local effective tax rate of just 8.96 percent. Unsurprisingly, Florida is the big winner here, adding $17.5 billion in AGI to its tax base alone."

Read the entire article here.

"Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged Tuesday that he now expects high inflation to continue into the middle of 2022, stating that the government should no longer push what had been a recurring slogan of it being 'transitory.'

"During a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell noted that when the Fed says 'transitory,' they do not mean it as just referring to how long inflation will last, as the average person might expect. Still, he said it is time to stop using the word.

"'So I think the word transitory has different meanings to different people,' Powell told Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. 'To many, it carries a time, a sense of short-lived. We tend to use it to mean that it won't leave a permanent mark in the form of higher inflation. I think it's probably a good time to retire that word and try to explain more clearly what we mean.'"

"As illegal migrants continue to stream across America's southern border in record numbers, the Biden administration has announced Trump-style travel bans affecting eight southern African nations. The administration also instituted a vaccine mandate for essential travelers legally crossing the border -- including truck drivers, emergency response workers and government officials.

"These new measures, allegedly designed to protect Americans from the spread of the emerging COVID-19 omicron variant, are little more than political theater. Under current Biden administration policies, migrants detained at the southern border are only being tested for COVID if they exhibit symptoms. There is no vaccine requirement for them.

"That means hundreds of thousands of people are flooding into the country illegally while truck drivers are prohibited from doing their jobs unless they are vaccinated. At a time when a shortage of drivers is hobbling already crippled supply chains, Biden's new regulations have a huge down side with very little up side."

"In the beginning, Build Back Better wasn't just the most expensive piece of legislation ever. The multitrillion-dollar price tag was a bargain because the bill would totally transform America, President Biden claimed.

"Whatever the problem, from jobs to climate change to child care, BBB was the solution.

"When came inflation, with the White House hiding behind the fictions that rising costs were overstated and transitory. When the price of everyday consumer items jumped, a slimmed-down Build Back Better was drafted for a new assignment: Suddenly it was the cure for inflation, the president insisted.

"Comes now a new COVID variant that is shaking health officials and global markets. How long until the White House claims BBB is key to surviving a new round of social and economic disruptions?

"The ever-shifting rationale and price tag behind Biden's signature legislation is an apt metaphor for the confusing incoherence of his presidency. As Winston Churchill said in a different context, 'This pudding has no theme.'"

"Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!"