It’s Monday, May 1st, 2017…but before we begin, two quick questions: first, what does the following quote tell you about its author, Peggy Noonan?

“If the greatest opera goes down in New York, that art form no longer exists in America. And a great nation must have opera.“

Answer: in addition to confirming she’s just another New York snob…

…simply that even Pulitzer prize-winners can have their heads so far up their elitist asses they can count their teeth.

Soooo,….seriously: we should equate the demise of opera with the fall of Western civilization?  Or would Noonan have us believe, opera not having been invented until the 16th century, neither Greece nor Rome ever achieved greatness?!?

And don’t even get us going about the sorry state of Italy, the birthplace of this most annoyingly boring of the so-called “arts”…outside of ballet and modern dance.

Might we suggest if Peggy so fervently feels the survival of opera in America is inexplicably inextricably intertwined with our nation’s continued greatness, she pay for it…whether its tax deductible or not?!?

Oh,…and did we mention HITLER loved opera…provided, of course, it was Wagner!

Second, what if The Left scheduled a protest at the NRA convention…

…and nobody came?!?

Perhaps its because the organizer of the event, one Shannon Watts (who you’ll remember as the professional “activist” who so strenuously objected to United Airlines’ dress code for anyone traveling on an employee pass)…

…is a self-impressed Socialist who’s only real cause consists of her own thirst for power and influence.

Now, here’s The Gouge!

We lead off the May Day edition…

Yes,…a 30-hour work week; so more of your sorry, Socialist asses can be replaced by machines!

…with a snippet from Jim Geraghty’s Morning Jolt detailing the inescapable hypocrisy of B. Hussein’s speaking fee fiasco:

“…The two hallmarks of almost every major figure in the Democratic party over the past quarter century are 1) being much wealthier than the average American and 2) denouncing the greed of “the rich” and “corporate America” as the root of all of the country’s problems. They speak as if they became rich by accident. They just set out to make the world a better place, with no interest in accumulating wealth, and just happened to end up fabulously affluent with multiple houses!

And it’s not hard to find other Democrats who are wary about powerful political figures collecting six-figure sums from financial elites. This week one leading Democrat declared, “Because of money and politics, special interests dominate the debates in Washington in ways that don’t match up with what the broad majority of Americans feel.”

That Democrat was, er…Barack Obama…”

Barack Hussein Obama: the living embodiment of John 8:44:

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.“

Talk about an apple falling not far from the tree!

Next up, courtesy of the WSJ, Kimberly Strassel suggests this constitutes…

Trump’s Finest Moment (So Far)

His tax-reform plan is smart policy, but even better politics: It’s a challenge to Congress.

“Here’s how to know a Republican president has scored big on a proposed tax reform: Read the New York Times — and chuckle.

The newspaper’s headline Wednesday lectured: “White House Proposes Slashing Tax Rates, Significantly Aiding Wealthy.” The story said that Donald Trump had offered a “radical reordering of the tax code,” though one that he “rushed” so as to “show progress before the 100-day mark of his presidency.” The proposal was but a “skeletal outline” and “less a plan than a wish list.” It contained “no explanation of how the plan would be financed.” And, oh, it would “richly benefit Mr. Trump” personally. This was a news article, by the way, not an editorial.

The president’s tax proposal—a big, swashbuckling vision for enacting pro-growth principles—offends many on the left by its very nature. Within a few minutes of its release, liberal economists, politicians and pundits were ripping it as a payoff to the wealthy, a deficit buster, regressive, unrealistic. That alone is proof Mr. Trump is getting the policy right.

Yet what Mr. Trump may be doing best is the politics of tax reform. The president’s proposal marks not only a triumph of ideas, but a savvy acknowledgment of the Washington landscape. After a rocky first few months, Mr. Trump is playing to win…”

We cannot find fault with anything Ms. Strassel has written…other than to to politely propose this…

…has been The Donald’s finest moment…thus far.

In a related item also courtesy of the WSJ, Holman Jenkins accurately identifies the true nature of freedom’s most implacable foe:

America’s Most Anti-Reform Institution? The Media

Spending cuts are unendurable, but when the crisis comes, will the press point a finger at itself?

If budget cuts truly kill, shouldn’t the Environazis be behind them as a means to decrease the surplus population?!?

“As team Trump digs into taxing, spending and health-care reform, it’s learning a vital lesson of Washington. Once a government benefit is given, it can never be taken away. If young people have been overcharged by ObamaCare so middle-aged people can be undercharged, then the solution is to undercharge young people too. The taxpayer—usually visualized as a hedge fund manager—can always pay more.

Ditto the budget as a whole. The Washington Post moans that the White House’s new spending plan would “eliminate the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the federal response to homelessness across 19 federal agencies,” including providing funding for “Meals on Wheels, a national nonprofit group that delivers food to homebound seniors.” Never mind that Meals on Wheels is not a federal program.

…Such considerations are logical but go unmentioned in the rush to suggest any cut in spending is unendurable. Budget debates are conducted in terms of sob stories: What? You’re not in favor of meals for the elderly? You’re not in favor of export loans for small manufacturers? You don’t think our fighting men and women deserve the best equipment and training money can buy?

Try it yourself. It’s all sob stories, never a discussion of costs and benefits.

The second shoe fell with the Trump tax plan this week, though it was the same shoe as far as the media was concerned. “Trump’s Plan Shifts Trillions to Wealthiest,” went the New York Times headline.

Shifts? The plan doesn’t raise taxes on anybody, except the affluent and businesses by ending certain deductions, and does so partly to pay for lower rates for the affluent and businesses. There is no taking from the poor to give to the rich. Our income tax is almost exclusively a tax of the affluent and business. Working-class Americans are taxed through payroll taxes, which fall far short, even so, of covering their expected future benefits.

…There may be much to regret in President Trump’s temperament, his nonmastery of detail, his estrangement from the facts. Not without utility, though, is his generalized disdain for the major media, the most reflexively anti-reform institution in American life. Both major parties look like hotbeds of freethinking in comparison.

Our comeuppance lies in a less and less distant future. But today we get only the horror of any proposed budget cut. We get the intolerability of any entitlement reform—and will continue to get such reporting right up to the day when it all unravels. Any cut in the nominal tax rate for affluent taxpayers is an attack on the poor even if this claim has no relation to the logic of how our tax system actually works.

…Then, in the other great twitch of American journalism, will come the blame-laying. The finger will be pointed at everybody but the press itself for wringing out of our politicians any inclination they might have mustered to meet our challenges head-on.“

Since we’re on the subject of The Left eating its young, we turn now to today’s edition of the Environmental Moment, where the New York Slime‘s recently-purchased token Conservative is quickly realizing some jobs ain’t worth the extra money:

Times columnist blasted by ‘nasty left’ for climate change piece

Bret even went so far as to acknowledge a point we adamantly refuse to concede: namely, human-produced CO2 has had any effect whatsoever on global temperatures.  Yet STILL he was pilloried!

Here’s the juice: The Left’s unequivocal, absolute adherence to the junk science of anthropogenic global warming is second only to its slavish devotion to the slaughter of the unborn.

Similarly, neither position withstands exposure to the light of day…let alone the harsh scrutiny of the light of truth.

Finally, we turn to The Lighter Side:

Magoo