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and news coverage with opinions expressed |
Notes on spinoff pages: All the material about judicial vacancies, filibusters in the Senate, and lawyers in general, has been moved here. All the material about The Minimum Wage and Organized Labor Issues now appear on their own pages. (Splitting up these larger pages makes it easier for you to get to the information you want without having to wait for an enormous page to load.) Also there is a page about the 2004 election, its aftermath, and the lessons to be learned, and (obviously) a newer one about the 2006 election. There is also a new page about The Great Wall Street Bailout of 2008. There is a special subsection at the bottom of this page about Caroline Kennedy and her attempt to get a seat in the Senate based entirely on her family's wealth and influence. There is also a subsection about MADD, which is an organization that apparently spends its time and effort on a lot of issues unrelated to drunk driving. Note: All the material about domestic spying, normally seen in this spot, has been moved here. And now there is a new page about Term limits for Congress. The temporary hijrah subsection has moved to a page of its own,
located here. How about an Exit Plan for Mind-Altering Drugs? As it stands today, receiving a psychiatric diagnosis and drug "treatment" has become a life sentence. Yearly, the number of prescriptions being written for psychiatric drug treatments increases, leaving one to wonder why no one is getting better. It seems doubtful that this type of endless unchecked prescribing of drugs would be acceptable among the other medical professions. It should not be for the psychiatric/mental health industry, either. Obviously, it would behoove some smart person within the federal government to consider: if no one is getting better, and the mental health data seem to support that conclusion, then something in mental health treatment isn't working. Given that the go-to "treatment" is mind-altering drugs, maybe the length of prescribing needs to be reviewed and exit plan standards adopted. The war whores of the military-industrial complex are lighting the world on fire. The Biden administration has triggered another proxy war for Donald Trump to deal with when he becomes president next month. The U.S. deep state is fighting a proxy war in Syria, which appears to be waged with the intention of further destabilizing the Middle East and stirring up another front in World War III. Syria is collapsing under the weight of another U.S.-sponsored proxy Civil War, with the US, Israel and Sunni jihadists on one side and Russia, Iran, Assad, and Shiite jihadists on the other. Al Nusra (which is comprised of Al-Qaida and ISIS affiliates) is taking over the country with the help of Turkey, a U.S. ally and key member of the NATO military alliance. These rebels have seized the city of Aleppo and many smaller towns and villages. Academia's Real Blind Spot. Back in the day, Frederick the Great of Prussia conquered Silesia, a fruitful valley that straddles the Oder River. The victors of World War I gave it back to Poland. Why did Frederick conquer Silesia? Because he could. [...] But with the rise of the educated class things got nasty. They made us fight the Civil War because slavery is evil. About 800,000 died. They made us fight World War I "to make the world safe for democracy." About 40 million died. They made us fight World War II because Nazis were evil. About 70 million died. They made us fight the Cold War because communism was evil. About 100 million communists died. And now politics has exploded into a thousand moral crusades, to make us fight racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, climate deniers. Against this, the "authoritarian in a red tie" just wants an America where people can afford to get married, buy houses, raise children, and maybe live to spoil their grandchildren. Getting to the Bottom of Matt Gaetz's Nomination and Withdrawal. [Scroll down] So it was never about the money; it was about controlling Congress, and the $25 million was a down payment, after which Matt Gaetz would pay them with his votes. Don Gaetz contacted local FBI and wore a wire to his next meeting with the former DOJ lawyers, two of whom were later convicted for the extortion. But he was apprehensive, thinking Matt could get in trouble for what would be a bribe were it not an FBI sting operation, and he got it in writing that he was transferring the money for the FBI. The FBI or DOJ leaked the investigation (what the ex-DOJ lawyers were offering to cover up) to the New York Times almost immediately after he put it in writing, protecting the lawyers from the more serious charges that would have been pressed if the money changed hands. If Don hadn't put it in writing, would the investigation still have leaked? Or, as Mel Witte suspects, was the FBI's counter-sting a busted setup? The DOJ eventually dropped its charges on Matt, but Congress under Kevin McCarthy revived them, and that's where we are. It's the word of a congressman versus the word of prostitutes, they're propped up by Gaetz's known enemies in Congress, and it's as clear as day that those congressmen are corrupt. Fake Court Issues Fake Warrants for Fake Crimes. The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of committing "the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare; and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts," according to the text of an ICC press release (the actual warrants remain "secret"). [...] The major premise of the warrants, as Michael Elgort notes on X, is that Netanyahu and Gallant committed these crimes as "part of a common plan to use starvation as a weapon of war," which the ICC, incredibly, dates to the day after the Oct. 7 attacks. ICC Deserves To Be Gutted With Sanctions After Lawless Arrest Warrant For Bibi Netanyahu. There has been a lot of commentary about the abusiveness and unlawfulness of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. I think British writer and columnist Andrew Fox has it right: "international law smoulders in the ashes of the Palestinian drive to burn it to the ground." (See also his article, The case against Israel is built on lies.) Yet another institution destroyed by embracing Palestinian fanaticism and rejectionism, sacrificing truth for propaganda in the service of the war against the Jews. The ICC move has been described as "October 7 legal style". But the ICC is more than a corrupted institution, it's a dangerous institution. Not only were its claims substantively contrived, it reached way beyond its jurisdiction, as Israel (like the U.S., China, Russia, India, and others) is not a member. [The] French Establishment [is] Desperate To Stop [the] Rise Of Conservatives. EU elites and globalists with extensive political influence have been on the war-path the past several years as it has become increasingly evident that the European populace is shifting more conservative with each new election. In Germany, leftist officials are attempting an outright ban of the conservative AFD Party, primarily because they stand against mass immigration (a position which progressives claim is "xenophobic"). The AFD is currently the second most popular political party in Germany and is expected to gain substantial influence in the 2025 federal elections, unless their candidates are blocked from participation. In Austria, the conservative Freedom Party won a parliamentary election victory in September, though left wing and centrist parties are seeking to cement a coalition to nullify the FP's ability to govern. The European media has consistently compared the success of the Freedom Party to the rise of the Third Reich — The only fallback of failing leftists is to claim their opponents are "literally Hitler." Reported Senate Offer: We'll Give You Matt Gaetz in DOJ, if You Give us Mike Rogers in FBI. Majority Leader John Thune will play his cards carefully in order to extract maximum damage. The Senate is factually the core of republican opposition to MAGA and President Trump. The visible battle against Obama, Biden, Harris and the professional political left, always consumes the most attention. However, it is the less-visible battle against the entrenched ideological republicans that proves to be the hardest. The Republicans in the upper chamber will not relinquish power easily. They have a multitude of weapons to use against the insurgency of President Trump supporters. We are seeing this play out now in the alignment of Republican Senators who stand in opposition to President Trump's nomination of Matt Gaetz as U.S. Attorney General, and this recent report aligns with exactly the type of move we would expect. The basic outline is that senate leadership will reluctantly support Matt Gaetz for Main Justice, where 'support' means they will not directly oppose; in exchange for the nomination of FBI Director Mike Rogers to defend their interests at FBI. Spoiler: No. Brief: On the Article II Recess Appointments Clause. Given the extensive delays experienced during his first administration in getting the Senate to approve his nominees expeditiously, President-elect Donald Trump recently proposed the use of recess appointments, if necessary, to briskly stand up his new administration early next year. The question is whether the law and our history confirms the President's belief that he should be allowed to assemble his Cabinet quickly via recess appointments? The answer is "yes." Senator, you don't get to veto the people. The big hubbub in DC is over Trump's selection of Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, who does not meet Washington's standards. Those standards include Eric Holder who openly defied a congressional subpoena, Loretta Lynch who discussed Hillary's case with Bill in plain sight days before the dropping all charges against his wife, and the detestable Merrick Garland who jailed hundreds of Trump supporters. DC fears retribution for a decade of prosecutorial persecution of Trump and his team. An Insider Describes the Medical Field. A secret about medicine is that it is mostly self-taught. It is an expensive trade school without the apprenticeship. If you wait around to be taught, you will learn next to nothing. By the end of residency, the hurdles were obtaining board certification in my specialty and practicing medicine. Certification in your specialty board was once voluntary, billed as possessing knowledge that exceeded the average physicians. With the allure of creating an enormous source of income, the medical specialty boards turned what was once voluntary into something almost mandatory. Oh, If This Is What Schumer Wanted to Do, Republicans Should Nuke the Filibuster. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seemed to have taken the 2024 loss somewhat well. The Democrats expected a total blue takeover of Washington, with Kamala Harris at the helm. Instead, it was a MAGA landslide. Republicans kept the House, reclaimed the Senate, and took back the White House — a Democrat's true nightmare. The soon-to-be former Senate majority leader was mushy about bipartisanship and hoped that Sen. John Thune (R-SD), the newly minted leader of Senate Republicans, would be willing to work across the aisle. The problem is that Schumer didn't plan to be so accommodating if things had gone differently on election night. For starters, the man was planning to nuke the legislative filibuster if Democrats retained control, which should be on the minds of every Republican senator regarding any future talks on legislation. We Need To Take A Wrecking Ball To The DOJ. Matt Gaetz Is Just The Man For The Job. The collective pearl-clutching by the corporate press and Washington establishment on Wednesday after Trump announced he'd chosen Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general was something to behold. The swamp consensus is that the former Florida congressman is "unqualified" to lead the Justice Department. Never mind that the people making this claim are themselves deeply unqualified to hold their own positions of power. (Consider Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who dismissed Gaetz as not a "serious" pick. Murkowski is poster-child for unserious and unqualified Beltway drones. She failed the bar exam four times and only got a Senate seat because her corrupt father, Frank Murkowski, appointed her to his seat after he became a one-term governor of Alaska in 2002.) Republicans learned to ballot harvest. After the steal, I said learn to ballot harvest. Republicans did. They did their ballot harvesting legally and in front of the entire world. There were no midnight dumps of ballots from California into unattended ballot boxes. Vote tabulations did not suddenly change in the wee hours of the morning. Republicans read the rules, learned the rules and applied the rules in new ways. Trump urged voters to vote early — to bank their votes as they say. Republican voters did. According to the New York Times, in 9 states more than half the ballots cast were cast before Election Day either by mail or in-person. Trump won 8 of those 9 states, including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina, which were four of the seven swing states. The effort in North Carolina likely saved the state for Trump because of the extent of damage to western North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene. Deconstructing the Mythology of January 6. In the aftermath of the 2024 election, the certification of electoral votes at the House will stand as a looming civic impasse. There is a congressional process necessary to the certification of Presidential elections and the rhetorical interpretation of January 6, 2021 stands as a profound point of misunderstanding. The deliberate misrepresentation of events surrounding January 6 was the primary pretext to the longstanding argument against Trump's election — suggesting he is a "threat to democracy." The mythology of January 6 is an incredible story of the power of this misguided epistemology. Kamala Harris chose to build her closing argument for election upon the D.C. space where President Trump urged followers to "peacefully and patriotically" have their voices heard at the Capitol. The misunderstandings surrounding January 6, 2021 are at the foundation of current political angst in America that fears rising violence in the months ahead. Trump's Victory Makes Clear: America Is Still America. Last night was the night America roared back. The difference in vision of what America is and what America could be between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was as stark as has existed in a presidential election in decades. America's verdict was decisive — the popular vote, the Electoral College, the Senate in a landslide, and, presumably, the House of Representatives will soon follow. The American people affirmed the core message of Donald Trump's campaign: That America is still America, that it is worth all of us fighting for, and that our destiny is to do even greater things in the future than the remarkable things our ancestors achieved in the past. Trump's victory is a formidable setback for the New World Order. Donald J. Trump's victory in the electoral competition for the presidency of the United States of America constitutes a historic moment in the dramatic events of the present and marks a formidable setback for the criminal plan of the New World Order. I express my warmest congratulations to President Trump, while I thank Our Lord for having prevented the United States and the Western world from definitively falling into the tentacles of the deep state and globalist tyranny. The battle against the subversive elite of psychopathic criminals who hold the West hostage is not over; it now begins. I urge American Catholics and all Christians to pray for President Trump, so that the Lord may protect him in this transition phase towards taking office in the White House, guiding him in the unavoidable eradication of the lobby of corrupt and perverted people subservient to the deep state. His determined action against the traitors of the nation will also weaken the work of the deep church, which today holds the Catholic Church hostage. Who is the real Colin Allred? Who is Colin Allred? A native of Dallas, he received a scholarship to play for Baylor as a linebacker. He was signed by the NFL Tennessee Titans in 2006 and played in less than half their games between 2007 and 2010. After a serious injury in that final year, he left the NFL and attended the leftist UC Berkeley School of Law. He then worked for Obama's Department of Housing and Urban Development and moved on to the controversial Perkins Coie law firm, who were involved with the notorious Steele dossier. In 2018, he ran for Congress and defeated GOP incumbent Pete Sessions. From 2019 to 2023, he voted with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and then with Biden after her term ended as Speaker. The One Overlooked Reason Christians Should Vote in 2024. [Scroll down] By staying out of the election Christians remove themselves from being the salt and light in this election and in the administration that follows. Imagine the scenario that Trump ekes out a win — but the exit polls show he could have won easily if those millions of Christians had voted. Christians not voting nearly cost him the election. That lack of support can and will influence his administrative choices. It's simple human nature to remember who your friends were when you needed them the most. Given that scenario, how favorably will he look at deeply conservative and deeply Christian judges knowing that when Christians had a chance to stand up for him, they instead chose to stab him in the back? Christians Must Vote. [Scroll down] Trump's concerns are echoed by a recent article in The Jerusalem Post, which cites a recent report from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University. The study revealed that "approximately 104 million people of faith, including 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church, may abstain from voting this November." The report cites lack of interest in politics among both congregants and pastors, as well as lack of engagement with social issues. Some pastors even refuse to encourage congregants to vote. A deeper reason many evangelicals (and other Christians) are not voting is that many churches and church leaders over the last few decades gradually have absorbed the left's draconian secularist view of separation of Church and State. In essence, the agenda requires the total submission of the former to the latter. Worse, in the past and even in the present, secularist totalitarian regimes like the CCP seek to eliminate the Christian religion altogether, replacing it with anti-God ideology. Oswald and JFK: What insiders really say. [Scroll down] Oswald possessed six wallets, a spy camera, and the top of a small cardboard box with him when he was arrested at the Texas Theater immediately after the assassination. One of those wallets (with his alias, Alek Hidell) was found at the murder scene of Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit. The other was found on Oswald after his arrest at the Texas Theater. Oswald's last known phone calls from police custody in Dallas were directed toward intelligence contacts. [...] Senator Richard Schweiker said it best about Oswald. Leading the Senate Church Committee that investigated "performance or non-performance" of intelligence agencies during the initial investigation of the JFK assassination, Schweiker stated: "We do know that Oswald had intelligence connections. Everywhere you look with him [Oswald], there are fingerprints of intelligence." As of today, the president and U.S. intelligence agencies still withhold over 4,600 records related to the JFK assassination. Without question, a portion of these records will show Oswald's undeniable intelligence connections and that Oswald was involved in an operation that led to JFK's murder. This alone proves that the Warren Commission Report is pure fiction. When Did Halloween Decorations Go Demonic? Most of us know that Halloween originated in an annual Celtic pagan festival called Samhain, which was then "Christianized" by the early Catholic Church approximately 1,200 years ago, and named "Halloween." The jack-o-lantern is also from the Celts representing the harvest," which was to be competed every November 1st. Carving the pumpkin was done "in hopes that the good magic will help to preserve the harvested food through the dark half of the year, until the next growing season could replenish the community's food stocks," History.com says. Christianity.com assures us that even if we have a penchant for Halloween traditions, when we celebrate Halloween by passing out candy to children, dressing up, or going trick-or-treating, we are not celebrating evil. [...] But something has happened to the wholesome Halloween traditions that goes far beyond creepy — and it's not just State Senator Scott Wiener's Annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving Event with Celebrity Drag Queen Judges. This post should not be allowed. It's really quite simple. Schools were meant to teach students how to think, not what to think — to educate, not indoctrinate. There are only two sexes. Earth's climate has always been changing, often faster and more dramatically than it is today. Diversity is not necessarily a good thing. (Think diversity of crime, death, invasive species, etc.) The mainstream media is biased against conservatives. Incredibly so. There is a reason the U.S. became the most successful nation in history — and it has little to do with size, oceans, or resources. Capitalism has lifted much of the world out of poverty, whereas Marxism/communism put much of it into poverty. We are born with certain unalienable rights, granted by our Creator. Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You cannot tax and spend a nation into prosperity, just as a heavily taxed family can't spend its way into wealth. Those who desperately seek power for power's sake should never be trusted with it. You can't save a democracy by trying to silence, imprison, or kill your political opponents. The Orwellian Noble Peace Prize. Last week nominations for the Noble Peace Prize were announced, and the nominees were typical of the Prize's history. A perusal of past winners reveals that the majority of prizes are for good intention, moralizing internationalism and its institutions, short-lived peace treaties, feckless disarmament, and any choice that gratifies global anti-Americanism. And let's not forget terrorists and their enablers included in this year's nominees: the United Nations' Palestinian refugee agency, the International Court of Justice, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. All three reflect the Prize's long history of promulgating globalism and the "rules-based international order" that has serially failed to deter aggression. The Wall Street Journal's profile of this year's nominees is a must read. [...] The British are Coming — U.K Labour Party Sends 100 Staff to Assist Kamala Harris. Apparently, some forms of foreign election influence are okay. According to recent reports the British Labour Party are sending their staff to the United States to run support operations in battleground states. [...] It is worth remembering the British intelligence operation (Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6) was at the center of the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy in 2016. Additionally, September 27th, 2024 — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had a two-hour dinner with President Donald Trump after the U.K leader delivered a speech to the United Nations in New York. However, intentionally unnoticed by U.S. media, the Prime Minister immediately left the U.S. following the lengthy meeting with President Trump, and never met with Kamala Harris. Battleground Democrats Are Avoiding Kamala Harris Like The Plague As Election Day Nears. Several Democrats running for key Senate seats have distanced themselves from Vice President Kamala Harris and her bid for the presidency as polling continues to tighten between her and former President Donald Trump. Democrats such as Texas Rep. Colin Allred, Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Montana Sen. Jon Tester have been largely quiet about Harris's bid for President or have even skipped campaign events for Harris in their own states. Allred, who is running against Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, appears to be trying to keep Harris at an arms length. He did not appear with Harris during any of her half-dozen visits to Texas around July and the beginning of August. Allred's first endorsement of Harris, which came from his account on Twitter, was described as "cautious and unclear" and focused primarily on President Joe Biden's legacy. The Editor says... Do the Democrat Elites WANT Kamala to Lose? It sounds crazy, and perhaps it is. But there is a lot of suspicion that Democrats are either throwing in the towel on the presidential race or that members of their elite are so unenthusiastic that they want her to lose. [...] The case for Joe Biden wanting Kamala to lose is most compelling. Harris, after all, helped push him out of the campaign, sidelined him, and made him look like a weak fool. It was obvious that Biden didn't want to budge — he said so often and loudly enough — and it was similarly obvious that he resented being pushed out. Many people speculated at the time that Biden's endorsement of Harris hours after the obviously written-for-him letter bowing out of the race was a big screw-you to the Democratic Party. Harris was thought to be a terrible candidate without a chance of winning, and Biden put our his endorsement separate from the statement pulling out of the race, and was likely not filtered by an establishment which had been pushing for an open process. Elon Musk: Secretary of Cost Cutting. Most presidential candidates wait until they have at least won the election before they begin measuring the Oval Office for new drapes or at least begin picking new cabinet members, but Donald Trump is clearly not "most candidates." He proved that to be true yet again during a recent interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo when she asked the former president how he planned to "trim the fat" in Washington. Rather than identifying areas where he might make cuts, Trump suggested that he planned to expand his cabinet by adding a new Secretary of Cost-Cutting. That person would be SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. According to Trump, Musk is "dying to do this." This proposal opens up an entirely new set of questions as to how this new department would operate and how Musk would fit in with a presidential administration. Minnesota: Uniquely imbecilic politically? The Land of 10,000 Lakes, while beautiful, has also spawned about the same number of whacko politicians. These include, but are by no means limited to, "Gov. Goofy," Jessie "The Body" Ventura (who wasn't Gov. Goofy), Rep. Ilhan Omar (who apparently temporarily married her brother), Al Franken, Tim Walz ... and communists (but I repeat myself) like Gus Hall, who ran for president on four separate occasions, the last time in 1984. Gus was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) from 1959 until his death in 2000. What's more, the Loony State voted against Ronald Reagan in both 1980 and 1984 — the only state to do so in the latter election, in which it voted for yet another ultra-liberal, home-grown embarrassment named Walter Mondale. (Known to many as Walter "Mondull.") And now Tim Walz, who appears to be a big fan of Chinese-style communism as well as Tampons in boys bathrooms, is running for vice president so that he can help do to the country what he has done to Minnesota. A fraudulent Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve has been losing massive amounts of money since 2022 by essentially paying banks more money for their deposits than what they earn. The big banks are the biggest winners in this scheme. Instead of showing the losses in their balance sheet, they just create a fictional asset called a deferred asset. They pretend they didn't lose money. [...] The Federal Reserve simply pumps out more money to cover the losses, and all Americans are victims. This money is not counted as part of the deficit because they are off budget. The Federal Reserve is supposed to manage America's money, inflation, employment, and interest rates, but why should anyone trust them when they cook their own books? Let the Economy Roll. Maybe the primary complaint against Kamala Harris is that voters don't know who she is nor where she stands on issues, given her flip-flopping-for-votes campaign. But we can be sure that her instincts are to bridle the economy rather than unleash it. Not many weeks ago, we argued that Harris' Marxist roots, from both her mother and father, inform her economic positions. It should be kept in mind whenever looking at her economic proposals. [...] It is not a radical position to support a free market economy. The moral and material benefits of an open economy are enormous. No other system can match its dynamism and positive outcomes. After bungled response to Helene, demand a squeaky-clean election. Hurricane Helene has devastated parts of Georgia, east Tennessee and particularly western North Carolina. The death and destruction it dealt to unprepared mountain communities has been catastrophic. More than a week later, roads are still closed, thousands lack electricity, and hundreds of people are missing amid an unimpressive response from federal and state governments. So leave it to Politico to ask the big question: Is this good for the Democrats? "The parts of western North Carolina and eastern Georgia that were flooded by the monster storm are largely Republican," the outlet noted. Did Hurricane Milton Have Help In Suddenly Becoming One Of The Most Powerful Storms In History? This normally doesn't happen. During regular times, a hurricane is not supposed to go from Category 1 to Category 5 in less than a day. At this moment, the roads out of the Tampa Bay area are absolutely jammed with vehicles as local residents attempt to get out of the path of the coming storm. We literally just witnessed one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history, and now we are being told that Hurricane Milton could also be one of the most destructive hurricanes in U.S. history. So what in the world is going on here? Schrodinger's Election. Some people are predicting a Trump landslide, based both on the various predictors and on the haplessness of Kamala's part-time campaign and fourth-rate running mate. It's plausible. The nation isn't in great shape, despite the finagling of interest rates and unemployment figures (expect a bigger-than-usual downward revision of the employment numbers for this month after the election), the Biden Administration, after running on a "return to normalcy" after the "chaos" of the Trump years, has delivered chaos in spades, and there's a pervasive sense, everywhere from NASA to FEMA to the U.S. Navy, that nothing, at least nothing related to the government, works anymore. Trump, meanwhile, has come back from not one but two assassination attempts, named a first-rate, not fourth-rate, running mate, and is barnstorming the nation even as Kamala's appearances are so few and far between that Democrats are worrying out loud to Politico. Yes, Car Seat Laws Reduce the Birth Rate. Opponents of the Trump campaign are having fun this week with some year-old comments from vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance. Apparently, in a Senate hearing during March 2023, Vance stated that car seat laws have an impact on the number of children parents feel they can afford. [...] Most of the mockery was based on the idea that a $100 or $200 dollar car seat is surely not the deciding factor in whether or not to have another child. This claim may seem perfectly plausible to anyone who has never had children or has only had one or two small children at any given time. Anyone who has actually considered having a third child, however, knows that the cost of the car seat itself is not what dissuades parents from having an additional child. Rather, the realities of car seats and car-seat laws mean that a third child adds significant costs and obstacles in the form of a necessarily larger car. How To Blow Up the Middle East War in Five Easy Steps. When Joe Biden became president, the Middle East was calm. Now it is in the midst of a multifront war. So quiet was the inheritance from the prior Trump administration that nearly three years later, on September 29, 2023 — and just eight days before the October 7 Hamas massacre of Israelis — Biden's national security advisor Jack Sullivan could still brag that "The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades." [Promotional video clip] So, what exactly happened to the inherited calm that led to the current nonstop chaos of the present? In a word, theocratic Iran — the nexus of almost all current Middle East terrorism and conflict — was unleashed by Team Biden after having been neutered by the Trump administration. [Advertisement] The Biden-Harris administration adopted a 5-step revisionist protocol that appeased and encouraged Iran and its terrorist surrogates Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The result was a near guarantee that something akin to the October 7 massacres would inevitably follow — along with a subsequent year of violence that has now engulfed the Middle East. This Is A Slow-Motion Nationalization of the Economy. Global liquidity is expanding. In the past three months, the global money supply has soared by $4.7 trillion. This rapid increase started when the Federal Reserve panicked the first time and delayed the normalization of the balance sheet in June. Since then, we have seen a chain of fresh stimulus policies implemented by developed economies, adding to the large fiscal packages already in place. Multi-trillion-dollar investment packages like the EU Next Generation Fund now include massive deficit spending plans. However, money velocity is not rising. All these programs only lead to secular stagnation. Government projects and current expenditures are consuming money at an unprecedented rate. Developed economies cannot live without new and larger spending plans. The result is more debt, weaker productivity growth, and declining real wages. Is America Undergoing a Quiet Coup, Courtesy of Wall Street? In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the then-chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Simon Johnson, warned that the same dysfunctional policies he saw in basket case banana republics had taken hold in the United States. He warned that if we didn't act fast, we would plunge into a "quiet coup" as the American financial system effectively captures the government, bailing itself out until we run out of money. Well, we didn't act fast. In fact, it got worse. And here we are. [Video clip] Hurricane Helene Fallout Shows Why America Can't Afford Another Potemkin Presidency. Americans throughout several southeastern states are enduring catastrophic devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. So naturally, America's lamebrain Democrat president and vice president are missing in action. After making landfall in Florida late last week, the Category 4 hurricane ripped across the Southeast over the weekend, producing massive flooding and mudslides. At least 110 people across six states are reported to have been killed as of Sunday night, according to The New York Times. Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee were among the regions hardest hit by the storm. According to the Associated Press, residents in Asheville, North Carolina, had to be airlifted from a hospital due to floodwaters engulfing entire roadways throughout the city. Yet, despite such widespread suffering among the people they were elected to serve, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris — the latter of whom is running to be our next president — seem to have bigger things to worry about. Trump's Debate Anger Reflects America's Anger. Like a father to an indignant child, Trump answered Harris's lies and empty promises the way Babe Ruth hit home runs. One home run was his answer to Harris's copying Biden's economic plan, saying it was about four sentences of "run spot run" sophistication. Another home run: when Trump asked her point blank if she supported abortions outside the womb, Harris looked the other way and did not answer. Trump swatted the ball again over the fence again with: "Joe Biden still hates the Veep after the palace coup that ended up in his removal from the 2024 Democratic ticket. I'll give you a little secret: He hates her... He can't stand her, but he got 14 million votes. They threw him out. She got zero votes." Yes, Trump Really Did Do Better Than Kamala in the Debate. The first presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris has ended. While there were some inevitable disappointments and lost opportunities, I am here to assure you that, yes, Trump definitely performed better overall than Harris did, in spite of the egregiously biased moderators. Trump was working under a handicap, because the debate moderators — most particularly Trump-hating, Harris-loving David Muir — were as eager to undermine him as Harris was, meaning Trump was essentially debating three people at once. But he hit almost every major point he should have hit, he absolutely hammered Kamala on the border crisis and the disastrous economy (voters' top issues), and he came off most of the time as calm and confident, whereas Harris was sneering, giggly, and unlikable. President Trump Releases Statement After Shredding Kamala Harris in Rigged 3 vs 1 ABC Debate. President Trump delivered a masterclass performance in last night's debate against Kamala Harris, decimating her record on live TV. Despite the obvious bias of the Fake News ABC moderators, who sided with Kamala at every turn, Trump stood tall and dismantled Kamala's failed policies that have left Americans struggling over the past four years. During the debate, Trump laid out a clear, bold vision for America's future. His message of prosperity and security stood in stark contrast to the dark, government-overreach narrative pushed by Kamala Harris. President Trump Won the Debate with Harris. One of the most important successes that Trump scored that has been ignored by analysis was his effective handling of the hostile moderators. Muir and Davis "fact checked" Trump five times while making zero fact checks of Harris. The debate format is unusual because each candidate had an option to make a one-minute rebuttal at any point during the debate. Trump used this option masterfully to have the last word on most of the major controversies in the debate. This was compounded by his win of the coin toss where he again had the last word and made the powerful point that any of the proposals Harris made during the debate could be dutifully performed back at the White House. Trump suggested in the middle of the debate that the two of them should stop debating so she could go back to the White House and implement her proposals. A Harris Victory in 2024 Would Make the U.S. a One-Party State. The election of 2024 will be epochal for the United States. It will be as impactful on the course of the nation as the election of 1860 and the ensuing Civil War. This November's election will determine whether the U.S. remains a viable constitutional republic or becomes a one-party state. If Vice President Kamala Harris wins, the result will be the realization of President Obama's intent, voiced in his famous 2008 remark, to "fundamentally transform" the United States. Thus, the election is important for all Americans, particularly the voting public, to be aware that should Harris win, then 2024 is likely to be the last free, fair, and competitive election in the U.S. If she does win, then the U.S. by 2028 will be a one-party country, with the Democrats in permanent control, as California, Illinois, Massachusetts, or Hawaii are at the state level today. The Deep State Is Past Its Shelf Life. [Scroll down] Most of the federal blob is dead weight. Its chief purpose is to hook so many families on a federal paycheck that tens of millions of Americans will never stop voting for its continuing expansion. Even worse, it's a Janus-faced monstrosity with internally conflicting mission objectives. We've got departments dedicated to fomenting wars abroad and departments dedicated to stopping them. We've got agencies tasked with confiscating taxpayers' income and agencies tasked with providing economic relief. Committees are organized to study "problems," but those problems can't be officially solved because doing so would mean that committee-members are out of jobs. That possibility becomes the only "problem" that needless federal workers decide to solve, and they "solve" it by doing absolutely nothing. The end result is that an unknowable number of ghost programs dedicated to issues that arose decades ago are still bouncing around the bureaucratic ether for no other reason than to keep the federal blob paid and happy. What's Good For Generac Is Bad For America. We Bought One Anyway. If you are in the business of selling standby home generators, hurricanes, severe weather, and blackouts are good for business. And as the frequency of blackouts across the country increases, companies like Generac are making bank on the declining reliability of the US electric grid. Generac is profiting from people like me. Back in 2021, during Winter Storm Uri, we lost power for two days. At that time, I thought the Texas grid would recover and all would return to normal. That hasn't happened. Over the past 12 months, we have lost power at our house in central Austin three times, and in each instance, the outage lasted eight hours or more. Plus, ERCOT has repeatedly warned about looming power shortages. Given all that, we are installing one of Generac's whole-house standby generators. The cost: about $15,000 for a 22-kilowatt, gas-fired, air-cooled system that will automatically turn on when the lights go out. Our contractor is Current Power Technologies, a new company based in San Antonio. The Truth About World War II. In a recent and now widely seen Tucker Carlson interview, a guest historian named Darryl Cooper casually presented a surprising number of flawed theories about World War II. He focused his misstatements on the respective roles of Winston Churchill's Britain and Adolf Hitler's Germany — especially in matters of the treatment and fate of Russian prisoners, the Holocaust, the systematic slaughtering of Jews, strategic bombing, and the nature of Winston Churchill. Because of the size of the audience Carlson introduced him to, and because of the gravity of Cooper's falsehoods, his assertions deserve a response. It is simply not true, as Cooper alleges, that Hitler's Wehrmacht was completely surprised and unprepared for the mass capitulation of the Red Army and some two million Russian prisoners who fell into German hands in summer 1941. [...] Why Did Zuckerberg Choose Now to Confess? On many subjects important to public life today, vast numbers of people know the truth, and yet the official channels of information sharing are reluctant to admit it. The Fed admits no fault in inflation and neither do most members of Congress. The food companies don't admit the harm of the mainstream American diet. The pharmaceutical companies are loath to admit any injury. Media companies deny any bias. So on it goes. And yet everyone else does know, already and more and more so. This is why the admission of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was so startling. It's not what he admitted. We already knew what he revealed. What's new is that he admitted it. We are simply used to living in a world swimming in lies. It rattles us when a major figure tells us what is true or even partially or slightly true. We almost cannot believe it, and we wonder what the motivation might be. In his letter to Congressional investigators, he flat-out said what everyone else has been saying for years now. Hope Not Hate — the 'charity' built on deceit: Part One. This is not the first time I have expressed my concerns about the increasingly baleful influence of the registered 'charity', but in fact activist outfit, Hope Not Hate (HNH). Its original purpose in 2001 was to counter the rise of the British National Party (BNP). Its declared mission today is 'to work tirelessly to expose and oppose far-right extremism' as though that was the major threat to society. Its undeclared but barely disguised mission, as I will argue in these articles, is to position itself as the definer of political discourse and arbiter of free speech. This ideological thought control aim became clear in 2017 when HNH negatively associated Brexiteers (over half the adult population of this country) with racism and the 'far right'. By 2019, they had totally lost their way, justifying their existence by extending and distorting their definition of far right to anyone to the right of Jeremy Corbyn. How To Stage a Coup. After the Biden/Harris regime was installed in 2020 thanks to 3 AM vote dumps and mass censorship, regime changes have occurred around the world at a dizzying pace. Insurrections, coups, color revolutions, and civil unrest have become much more common compared to a period of relative peace in 2016-2020. It is staggering, yet unsurprising how little MSM coverage they have received. When America is weakened by a senile president, the planet destabilizes. Tectonic plates are shifting from unipolarity to multipolarity. In clown world, MSM claims that voting for the joyful word salad VP will fix everything. Freedom Is Now Just One Election Away From Extinction. Ronald Reagan famously warned us that "freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction." For many, this may have sounded like hyperbole, but in 2024 we find ourselves at a crossroads where that sentiment couldn't be more relevant. This time, freedom isn't just one generation away — it's one election away. Make no mistake about it, the principles that have defined our nation for over two centuries — limited government, individual liberties, and free-market capitalism — are under siege. But now, the radical left is so emboldened that they no longer even try to hide their intentions; they openly advocate for policies that would fundamentally alter the fabric of our republic. They seek to expand government power, restrict free speech, erode our Second Amendment rights, and impose a socialist economic model that would devastate the American Dream and make freedom a thing of the past. Retirees explain why they're fleeing Florida: 'It's all strip malls'. Florida has long been a top state where retiring Americans flock to — but some, like local resident Alisa Newman, are doing the exact opposite. Newman settled in the Miami area in 1997 when her husband got a job there. But now, at 58, she has decided to move out. While she knows she will leave behind many of Florida's retirement-friendly perks — such as no state income tax and year-round sunshine — she's also painfully familiar with the area's downsides. The Editor says... Which is Worse: Conspiracy Theory or Hive Mind? It's good to know that the daughter of two academics, one a Tamil Brahmin and the other a Marixt economist, is just Middle-Class Kamala. But now the last echo of the Kennedy mystique, RFK Jr., has plumped for Trump, after releasing a screed in which he accused the Democrats of being meanie jelly-beanies. But I wonder if the main contribution from RFK Jr. will be to help mainstream three "conspiracy theories." [...] Conspiracy Theory One is "our children's health and chronic disease in general." [...] Conspiracy Theory Two is the Ukraine war. [...] Conspiracy Theory Three is Democratic Party lawfare. [...] On Conspiracy Theory Three on saving democracy from the Democrats, I couldn't agree more. The best way to evaluate it is to imagine Republicans doing to Democrats what Democrats are currently doing to Republicans. Imagine the reaction to any Republican President loading up Nancy Pelosi with dozens of felony charges, and changing voting laws at the last minute to benefit Republicans. Mark Levin rips the mask off the anti-democratic 'thug' Kamala Harris in his FOX News show. Mark Levin is an attorney, a writer, a talk show host — and a great thinker. His eight non-fiction books, thoroughly researched and brilliant analyses of legal and political issues, are long form and have all been New York Times bestsellers. [...] I never miss Levin's FOX News programs. They are getting better and better, including his fifteen- to twenty-minute long opening monologues. Yesterday's show was a prime example. At the end of a week that featured all but one of the nation's mainstream broadcast and cable television media outlets fawning over Kamala Harris and essentially acting like the Democrats' PR surrogates to drag her over the election finish line, Levin zeroed in on the reality. Delivered with his usual laser-like intensity, Levin's analysis exposed the "thug" nature of Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim "Manchurian Candidate" Walz, and the ramifications of their Hollywood-style "joy vibes" convention. His unparalleled skills at commenting shone through. A New Documentary Rehabilitates Nixon's Reputation On Watergate's 50th Anniversary. Watergate expert and author Geoff Shepard, who was a young attorney on the Nixon Defense team and who, since then, has spent decades deeply researching administrative, political, and prosecutorial Watergate archives obtained through FOIA requests[, ...] has written three books on this subject. His most recent is The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, a detailed and easily read analysis of the whole Watergate debacle. [...] The book has now been made into a documentary motion picture, Watergate Secrets, with live discussions with Shepard and other notables, and with dramatic reenactments of Watergate events of the time. My advice: watch the movie, then read the book, then watch the movie again. Faking Reality is A Bad Idea. It boils down to this: Every take on reality is couched in a bias. The challenge for the serious is to find the best one — best, that is, in covering what is most important to human beings. The one that encompasses the most about what is most important to human beings gravitates toward God, the Creator. It is impossible for any human being to find a better, more natural take on reality. And it need surprise no one that when it comes down to the things of greatest significance in our lives — love, hate, loyalty, treachery, attraction to beauty and truth, etc., etc. ad infinitum — morally decadent leaders remain silent or spout dismissive rhetoric to hide their embarrassment. Politicizing the Military Must Stop. The Pentagon is now conducting an expedited review of the awards of Medals of Honor to soldiers who took part in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee, during which Seventh Cavalry soldiers killed an estimated 150-300 members of the Lakota Sioux Native American tribe. The rushed nature of the review reeks of political partisanship designed to help win votes for the Democrat nominee in November. This is not about the wisdom or ethics of that operation. Virtually all Americans understand that the United States government behaved dishonorably on numerous occasions during its relations with Native Americans as we expanded westward — including regularly signing and then violating solemn treaties. Congress often undermined treaties by refusing to appropriate sufficient funds to implement them. But I have seen no evidence that any of the soldiers whose decorations are being "reviewed" were involved in the decisions that led to the "massacre." Our Three Silent Mice. [#3 — Walz] [W]e are learning very quickly that Walz is as erratic, error-prone, and dishonest as Harris. He too is already heading for seclusion from the media. The man of the people from the countryside has scoffed, in self-incriminating Mike Bloomberg fashion, that rural Minnesota is little more than "rocks and cows." In mere hours after his nomination, he has grown mute about his past and politics except for teleprompted rah-rah speeches — avoiding reporters, interviews, and unscripted moments. Why? Because, in less than a week, the nation learned that Walz lied about his military rank, lied that he had deployed to Iraq, and lied that he had carried a weapon in war. The more we learn about Walz's record as governor in Minnesota, the more it trumps even the disastrous tenure of Gavin Newsom in his imploding doom-loop state that Walz apparently saw as a model for a once can-do stable Minnesota. Watergate(s) on Steroids. 50 years and one day ago, Richard Nixon resigned as president less than two years after being the first man to sweep 49 of the 50 states in his landslide to re-election. Washington forced out of office a man who had received more than 60% of the votes. He left to the cries of no man is above the law, and the coverup is worse than the crime. Both are untrue in the World of DC where a government too big and too powerful has been a magnet for crooks and traitors. The crime in Watergate was the press, the deep state and Judge Sirica conspired to make a third-rate burglary a presidential scandal. Everybody Knows the Captain Lied. The dice have been loaded for decades. The war was over in 1963 when the CIA, on behalf of the Deep State, murdered John F. Kennedy. The American people (the good guys) lost, and the Deep State won. They got their war in Vietnam. They got their Welfare State. They got guns, butter, a currency unlinked from gold, and the green light to create debt to infinity. The Deep State has consolidated their power and control over every aspect of our lives in the six decades since they killed JFK. They have used every crisis they create to abscond with more of our liberties, freedoms, rights and wealth. In addition to the never-ending wars created around the globe to benefit their military industrial complex, their wars on poverty, drugs, terror, CO2, and covid have enriched them and their lackeys, while exacerbating the very things they declared war upon. None of these wars are meant to be won. Keeping the masses in fear and ignorance makes them easier to control. As the stock market falls, so does Biden's White House of economic cards. Time has finally caught up with the Biden-Harris administration's disastrous economic policies. Global markets tumbled on Monday, sparked by sharp declines in leading US indicators, a worse-than-expected July jobs report and fears that the dollar will weaken in the coming months. The sum of all fears — a hard recession — is again looming after President Biden squandered his time in office jacking up unproductive government spending, subsidizing key Democratic voting constituencies with costly handouts and gaslighting the public Soviet-style whenever any negative economic news reared its ugly head. Since Biden entered office in 2021, he has overseen annual budget deficits of $2 trillion a year, thanks in part to his student loan bailout plan and other giveaways. The 1.3 million public sector jobs he's added kept unemployment figures artificially low — and with no significant firings or layoffs among government workers, last week's spike in job losses meant they've come almost exclusively in the private sector. 'Kamala Crash'? Wall Street — And Everyone Else — Laying an Egg. Did the July jobs report signal an oncoming recession? Or has something else spooked stock markets around the globe? Like, say, a regional war in the Middle East? Or maybe a bad election outcome in the US? [...] The fall didn't start this morning, as an interactive chart on CNBC shows. The DJIA peaked on Thursday and then began falling from its peak at 41,193 and some change. By closing on Friday, the DHI had lost nearly 900 points; now it's down nearly 2600 points since the Thursday close, and apparently is still falling. CNBC believes the shock of the large miss in the unemployment report on Friday is driving the losses. But AI trading could be partly to blame too: [...] Which Party Protects the Vulnerable? Numbers can lie, but no one can deny that poverty exists in America, and poverty contributes to vulnerability. And Biden/Harris have made poverty worse. Between 1959 and 2023, average American incomes grew at 3.2%, but during the Biden/Harris administration, incomes declined, including the worst year (the 2022 decline of 4.2%) since 1959. Because of the effect of compounding, those declines will continue to affect workers for decades to come. Under Trump, the median average household income rose from $61,372 to $67,521, more than a 10% increase despite the effects of COVID in the last year of his term. Guess Who Is Going to Steal the Election (or Tank the Economy!) This Time. So now it's the Federal Reserve that's going to either taint the November election or tank the economy. "Delivering a rate cut ahead of the election could rile up Republicans and former President Donald Trump," the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, "but withholding a needed reduction could undermine the economy and upset Democrats." Never mind that high rates are what's keeping inflation in check and that we've been told for three years that Bidenomics has delivered an economy so strong that it kicks sand in the face of 7% mortgages and 9% car loans. The facts are that full-time, private-sector jobs are still well below pre-lockdown levels and that the labor participation rate has been declining for a year and remains well below where it was in 2019. We've been in a jobs recession for four years and yet, thanks to Washington flooding the economy with trillions in funny money since 2020 and overregulation since 2021, inflation could still come roaring back. So what is Fed Chair Jerome Powell supposed to do? Starmer will follow in the footsteps of Ardern's "how to ruin a country". The Conservative Woman published an article today by Stephen Becket discussing the policies and actions of New Zealand's Ardern government, drawing parallels with the government under Keir Starmer. Becket was born in Scotland. After leaving the British Army he spent over 40 years in construction, travelling the world. After a lifetime working in jungles and deserts, he decided to retire to the more temperate climate of New Zealand. "Although Ardern made me wonder if I had done the right thing," he said. His article highlights issues such as energy bans leading to problems with fuel quality and supply, overpayment of certain public sector workers, soft approach to crime, negative impact on education, diversity and inclusion policies, inflated house prices, tensions around indigenous rights, media manipulation and the potential implications for the UK. "Oil, gas and coal bans led to the closing down of the Marsden Oil Refinery, the only one in New Zealand. This resulted in the importation of refined fuels, at greater cost and with a drop in the quality of that fuel," Becket wrote highlighting the problems that ensued because of this policy. Freeing America From The Shackles Of Big Government. [L]ast week marked the 55th anniversary of man landing on the moon. Impelled by the words of a murdered president, Americans achieved what was easily the most technologically complex operation man ever undertook. [...] The moon landing was perhaps the high point of American civilizational achievement. The America of the first two-thirds of the 20th century was a robust nation that could do almost anything. Americans won two world wars and, between them, built the Empire State Building in 13 months and the nuclear bomb in 4 years. Perhaps most tellingly was the fact that, at mid-century, Detroit was not only the richest city in the United States, it was the richest city in the entire world. Charting A New Course. The level of insanity in the government of the United States of America has crossed yet another red line. The nearly simultaneous events of the Trump assassination attempt, the resignation of Joe Biden from the campaign, the Crowdstrike attack, the carelessness with which conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are being managed and the open border signal a lack of leadership at all levels. The fact that there is no one apparently in charge or responsible for defending against any of these catastrophes, no one who takes the blame and subsequently is either fired or resign, indicates a level of acceptance of that failure and a queasy feeling that they are by design. In the United States, and especially this page, there is an understanding that there has been a communist coup, probably initiated in 1963, but invigorated over the supposed Pandemic and the increasingly provable stolen election in 2020. Other nations, however, see this as simple anarchy, producing a military and governmental weakness that can be exploited to their benefit. Crowdstrike, which helped orchestrate the Trump-Russia hoax, is not to be trusted. Over the weekend, the world has been witnessing a global software outage that has impacted computer systems across all sectors, from business to healthcare to critical infrastructure to government systems and beyond. That problem reportedly traces back to a software update with companies that use Crowdstrike, a controversial American cybersecurity company with deep ties in government and political circles. [...] I know little to nothing about cybersecurity, but I know enough about Crowdstrike to never trust the company with legitimate professional services. To understand the corruption associated with Crowdstrike, we have to go all the way back to 2015, when the cybersecurity outfit laundered its reputation and legitimacy to a massive campaign of fraud and deception that was organized by Hillary Clinton and the broader Democratic Party. Democrats relied upon Crowdstrike — and for reasons still unknown, not the federal government — to determine that Russia was responsible for claimed cyber attacks against the Democratic National Commmitee (DNC) and email leaks from high-profile Democrats. Trump's Hillbilly VP. Trump nominated Ohio senator J.D. Vance as his vice president. [...] Trump's nomination of Vance is significant. It shows that he was committed to picking a vice president who's fully on board with his MAGA agenda. This isn't 2016 when Trump went with Mike Pence, the preferred candidate of the Republican establishment. In 2016, Trump was willing to play by the "rules," much like in 1980 when the Republican establishment pushed the moderate George Bush on the more conservative Ronald Reagan. Bush had previously condemned Reagan's supply-side economic agenda, "voodoo economics." So he wasn't a natural Reaganite. The consultant class, including Karl Rove and other Republican advisers, were highly critical of Trump's decision to nominate Vance. They preferred a more centrist figure, hopefully from a swing state, who could appeal to suburban voters, or a female or minority candidate to attract those demographics. But Trump ignored them and picked Vance. JD Vance: The Perfect Pick. J.D. Vance was there through it all. Right alongside us, he has become a fighter for election integrity and putting America First. He has decried weaponizing the justice system for political purposes. He is against men competing in women's sports and has strongly opposed killing the unborn. His voting record speaks for itself. He currently has a 93% rating with the conservative grassroots organization Heritage Action for America, whereas most republicans have a 63% score. His opposition to increasing the national debt, and tying federal funding for military defense and securing the southern border to foreign wars, is unwavering. The price of calling Trump a Nazi is made obvious. At what point does angry political discourse cross the line between legitimate impassioned advocacy and direct incitement to violence? It's a question that's been all too common in both the United States and Israel for the past generation. It's one that would be difficult to answer for even the most objective observers. But given that few of us are truly objective about the issues and disputes that generate the greatest amount of heat, most tend to respond along self-interested lines, treating our own positions as inherently legitimate and those of the people with whom we disagree as clearly beyond the pale. That is why acts of political violence — such as the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump this past weekend — can just as easily exacerbate the tensions within societies rather than help heal them. Any Assassination Investigation That Includes Merrick Garland Or Chris Wray Is A Coverup. The White House, Congress, and FBI immediately announced investigations into how a 20-year-old who couldn't make his high school gun team nearly killed the former and potentially future leader of the free world Saturday. In a city as corrupt as Washington, D.C., "investigation" is politico-speak for "cover-up." That goes double for Merrick Garland or Chris Wray, the heads of the DOJ and FBI, respectively. Any investigation into this assassination attempt from which they do not recuse themselves is irrevocably poisoned. In fact, any involvement even from their headquarters and D.C. offices is a sure sign the investigations are cover-ups. It's not even clear that field offices are credible investigators. The best option would be a genuinely independent commission or special prosecutor. The
Immaculate Conception of Thomas Crooks. Plenty of poisonous rhetoric has been flying
around on the left for the past decade. Biden is waging a campaign whose only argument,
expressed with intermittent coherency, is that democracy is on the ballot. "We're done talking
about the debate, it's time to put Trump in a bull's eye," Biden told donors last week. Even
in the 2022 midterms he was scaremongering in front of Washington, D.C.'s Union Station, telling
voters that the race was about "democracy itself" and a Republican victory would "allow dark forces
to thirst," whatever that means. The New Republic and others compare former president
Donald Trump to Hitler. We don't know whether those moronic and misguided talking points led
Thomas Crooks to try to assassinate Trump, but there are a few things we do know.
They Tried to Kill Trump — Now We're Going to Fight Twice As Hard. Both Trump and America literally dodged a bullet, but the left did as well and doesn't even know it. The scumbag crawled onto an open building roof with a view of the podium that somehow wasn't covered or defended and got off several shots that — but for one inch — would have blown Trump's brains out. The convulsions that would've followed in our society are terrifying to imagine. Unfortunately, he did manage to murder one Trump supporter and wound another. You could almost feel the disappointment in the coverage by the regime media. After the regime media reluctantly admitted it was an assassination attempt, which took hours, it was followed by a few halfhearted thoughts and prayers from the left, as well as more than a few social media cheers. Major Democrats are now publicly shaking their collective collectivist head over political violence for once. Out of public view, they are probably pounding their collective collectivist head against the wall because they fear — rightly — that Trump's glorious defiance in the face of his attempted murder may have just won him a landslide against their dementite candidate, a corrupted, perverted zombie who thinks Matlock is a real lawyer and that Hunter ought to hire him for his next trial. The Loss of Political Trust. There was a time when a majority actually believed our government. Pollsters have quantified the erosion of trust. Pew identified a peak of 77% in 1964, a full 55% above the current level. Gallup puts the current number disbelieving the lone nut gunman explanation for the JFK assassination at 65%, static over the past decade but "higher between 1976 and 2003." Immediately after the assassination, 52% believed in a conspiracy. The objective of the Warren Commission's report — 16,000 pages, 27 volumes — was to bury the truth. It failed. Ditto for the J6 "select" committee. Disbelievers increased to 81% in 1976, followed by a steady deterioration since. Why? Probably because younger generations are unfamiliar with the subject. Why the 1976 peak? That year the House Select Committee on Assassinations was formed, eventually concluding: "The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy." And: "The committee believes on the basis of the circumstantial evidence available to it, that there is a likelihood that James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a result of a conspiracy." Our Brezhnev, Our Pravda, Our Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev led the former Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Communist Party until 1982. But like most Russian apparatchiks who excessively smoked, drank, and gained weight, he aged prematurely. Also like them, his disabilities never led to his abdication. By Brezhnev's late 60s and early 70s, he was too ill to travel abroad or make public appearances. Indeed, his debility left the Soviet Union without a real leader for the final six or seven years of his tenure. Brezhnev got away with it because the Soviet state-controlled media doctored photos and videos to attest to his supposedly vigorous health and constant hands-on involvement. "Journalists" sent out false communiques. They spun narratives that Brezhnev was robust, hale, and working long hours on behalf of the Russian people. Any dissenting journalists who sought to report the true, sad state of affairs were in danger of losing their jobs, freedom — or even their lives. Dethroning Biden. The rules for the debate that Biden's handlers demanded were no consequence to either participant. Strangely, the Democrat-leaning moderators appeared to be fair to President Trump. When adversaries suddenly display fairness they always have ulterior motives. This was an order from the top, to allow Biden to crash on his campaign runway even before takeoff. Biden's incoherent performance led to waves of disapproval within the DNC. In just a few days those waves have become a tsunami across the party with many prominent Democrats in politics and Hollywood urging Biden to drop out and making it clear that he cannot win. Nothing about this is genuine or well-meaning. These individuals knew of Biden's decline all this time, but not only did they keep quiet but lavished blandishments on Biden. Now they suddenly want him to quit. George Clooney is a prime example. Three weeks ago, he held a fundraiser for Biden. He knew of Biden's condition but chose to stay mum. But suddenly he urges Biden to quit and others such as Mia Farrow and Rob Reiner, join the flock. This group, much like the debate moderators, is following orders from the DNC establishment. Ending 'Treason Citizenship': Deporting "native born" terrorist supporters from America. Terrorists running around cities waving the flags of Islamic terror groups could have easily been removed from the United States, even if they were born in this country, until the 1960s. That's when the Warren Court detonated one of the 'bombs' buried in the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment, passed during a period of suspension of civil liberties and legal norms after the Civil War, was an example of why the Framers made it so difficult to add amendments to the Constitution and why adding them is usually a bad idea. [...] But the biggest time bomb in the 14th Amendment was birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment had set out to end once and for all the debate about black citizenship that had been argued in cases like the Dred Scott decision by confirming citizenship for former slaves and their descendants. While Section 1 had set out to stop Southern states from suppressing black voters, its sloppy language created the entire civil rights industry and automatically made anyone born in the United States a citizen regardless of anything else. Reviving the Constitution. For 60 years we've been waiting for the courts to recognize "affirmative action" for what it is: state-sanctioned racial discrimination. Finally, at long last, the Supreme Court has ruled that benign intentions cannot justify discriminating against any racial group. For 50 years we waited for the great, and thoroughly unconstitutional exercise of eugenics and birth control known as Roe v. Wade to be overturned, and it finally happened. For 40 years we've waited for the sprawling, invasive administrative state to be brought under control, and with the overturning of "Chevron deference" it's finally happening. None of these cases were, in the least sense, revolutionary. They were, in turn, a restoration of equal protection, judicial restraint, and the separation of powers. The Democrat mutiny machine wants to have their braindead Biden cake and eat it too. Even if the mutiny attempt against President Biden succeeds, it seeems that he won't be made to resign immediately, because that would potentially empower the political opponents of the coup plotters. You see, Democrats — which includes the politicians, the donor class, and especially, the corporate media — are in a bit of a pickle. They want to declare Joe Biden braindead, but not so cognitively impaired that he wouldnt be able to serve out his term, but also braindead enough that he must immediately declare that he's not going to run for another term. Should Biden resign or should VP Kamala Harris and the Biden cabinet pursue the 25th amendment approach, things would get rather dicey for the newly enshrined President Harris, who would become vulnerable to the political priorities of Republicans in Congress. Some point to a potential precedent of how President John Tyler went an entire term without a vice president, but that would probably no longer fly. Is Lawfare Against the Left the Only Means to Restore Norms? The key to blocking political lawfare is more political lawfare, legal experts regretfully asserted Monday at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington. Possible targets for conservative lawfare include Attorney General Merrick Garland and Kristen Clarke, the head of his Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, they said. Since President Joe Biden's administration, backed up by local and state prosecutors, has targeted former President Donald Trump and other conservative-leaning leaders, unilateral disarmament isn't an option, law professor and former government lawyer John Yoo said. "Unfortunately in warfare, the only way to get someone who refuses to obey important norms is [that] you have to retaliate," Yoo told conferees at the Capital Hilton. "So, if we're not going to become a banana republic, unfortunately we are going to have to use banana republic means exactly the same way by conservative or Republican DAs, until they stop." Democrats — postpone Trump's sentencing and question Biden's fitness. [Scroll down] At the same time the Democrats temporarily postponed their lawfare against Trump, Democrat loyalists in the media and elsewhere are continuing the attack on Biden. This is the same media that defended the current president as "the best Biden ever" up until June 27, knowing this was false. The media could have done what they usually do to protect a Democrat: ignore the issue, make up excuses, blame Trump, or pivot away from Biden and focus on "Trump's lies," abortion, racism, and Russia. Democrat loyalists in the media typically never criticize their candidate. Yet now, the Teleprompter Readers making seven-figure salaries who fancy themselves real journalists but are actually prostitutes for the elite, and many of the analysts and experts appearing on left-wing news continue questioning Biden's fitness. They had to receive permission to squeal to their sheep about Biden's deteriorated cognitive state. Biden, though, insists he's not going anywhere, and is now on the offensive against the elite. But someone gave instructions to Bragg to opt out of fighting the sentencing delay and gave the media permission to tell the truth about Biden. Who Turned Off the Gaslight? There's a reason that the fable of The Emperor's New Clothes is so potent: it describes a mentally ill society that retreats into abject unreality, to avoid contending with truth. Alas, this archetypal human quandary shoves such a society towards nemesis: downfall and punishment. And that is exactly the consequence of our news media's craven, dishonorable, degenerate behavior the past decade. They have disordered our nation's consensus about reality with peremptory lying about everything, in service to a political party that lies to its citizens about everything. The big question is: who or what recruited them into serving the Party of Chaos, and why did they go along? The Spirit of 1776. Any smooth-talking politician who pretends that government should be praised for the "gifts" it bestows upon the people is a smiling agent of the Crown fashioning new chains for citizens to wear. Laws, taxes, and regulations do not liberate human beings; they are the bricks and mortar trapping us inside ever-smaller cells. Government is the destroyer of liberty. Bureaucracies do not light the flame of freedom; they snuff freedom's light out. People alone (separate from the organizing strictures of the State) secure their liberty by pushing back against and restraining the otherwise ever-growing oppression of power-hungry governments. Citizens hold the keys to their own prison cells. They must only find the courage to open up their doors and walk outside. This was true in 1776; it is no less true today. The Only Way to Read This Biden Fundraising Email Is That the Campaign Is Having a Meltdown. Joe Biden's Thursday night debate performance was unspinnable. The only way to cope is to pretend it didn't happen. The debate was on CNN, which was friendly territory for Democrats, with debate rules the Biden team thought would benefit them. Instead, it blew up in their faces, with Joe Biden being kicked in his dentures for 90 minutes in a national political slaughter where Trump didn't need to do much heavy lifting. That's one of the most [damaging] aspects — all Trump had to do was not bully Biden and deliver his lines without entering a brain fog. The former president did that, but Biden failed miserably. Democratic donors, lawmakers, and other bigwigs are freaking out. However, the Biden campaign is still trotting out the 'don't believe your lying eyes' line, and it's insulting to the American voter, especially to supporters of the president — all of whom know that Biden got steamrolled. Biden's Failing Brain Exposes Deep State Treachery. I know the country's going to hell in a handbasket. Inflation is killing working-class families. Illegal immigrants are raping and murdering little girls. "Woke" corporations are pushing "transgender" madness on young children. Public schools are telling students that they will not survive the "climate apocalypse." Biden and the build back better buffoons in control of Western governments are doing everything they can to drag us into WWIII. Still, if you are a Trump supporter who believes the status quo must go, Thursday's presidential debate was awfully fun. Perhaps you couldn't bring yourself to watch the event "live" because you knew CNN was going to do everything it could to prop Biden up and tear Trump down. If that is the case, then surely you were happy to awaken the next morning and find your usual newsfeed filled with two types of headlines: one recognizing Trump's winning performance and the other recounting Biden's total humiliation. Two Trump justices just failed the First Amendment test. The U.S. Supreme Court may have mortally wounded the Constitution this week by seemingly forgetting or not caring that the First Amendment is kind of the whole ballgame. [...] Stick with me now, John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Because if "we the people" don't have permanent and unambiguous standing on behalf of the First Amendment to the Constitution, then explain to me what we can possibly have standing on without threat of it being taken away. And what is the ACLU's standing to sue Oklahoma over speech? Or what's the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation's standing to sue Louisiana over speech? Notice how this street only goes one way? Archbishop Viganò: I accuse Bergoglio of heresy and schism. [Scroll down] Before my brothers in the episcopate and the entire ecclesial body, I accuse Jorge Mario Bergoglio of heresy and schism, and I ask that he be judged as a heretic and schismatic and removed from the throne which he has unworthily occupied for over 11 years. This in no way contradicts the adage Prima Sedes a nemine judicatur, because it is evident that, since a heretic is unable to assume the Papacy, he is not above the Prelates who judge him. I also accuse Jorge Mario Bergoglio of having caused — due to the prestige and authority of the Apostolic See which he usurps — serious adverse effects, sterility, and death in the millions of faithful who followed his insistent invitation to undergo the inoculation of an experimental gene serum produced with aborted fetuses, even to the point of issuing a formal "Note" declaring that using the vaccine is morally permissible[.] He will have to answer before the tribunal of God for this crime against humanity. Finally, I denounce the secret agreement between the Holy See and the Chinese communist dictatorship, by which the Church has been humiliated and forced to accept the government appointment of bishops, the control of liturgical celebrations, and limitations on its freedom of preaching, while Catholics loyal to the Apostolic See are persecuted with impunity by the Beijing government with the complicit silence of the Roman Sanhedrin. The debate: A victory in the first half. Biden's response to the question about voters feeling worse off under his presidency appeared unnaturally polished, almost as if he were reading from an invisible teleprompter. This raised questions about the authenticity of his answers. His comments on Medicare, where he repeatedly misspoke about "trillionaires" when he meant billionaires, only added to the perception of his stumbling performance. Tapper had to step in to redirect the conversation, highlighting Biden's difficulty in staying on message. Trump did not miss the opportunity to point out what he described as Biden's failures. He accused Biden of weaponizing his office against political opponents, describing Biden's actions as "absolutely criminal." Trump emphasized the safer borders and stronger national security during his administration, contrasting them with what he called Biden's open-border policies. The death of Europe is greatly exaggerated. I spent the last month hiking and trekking in France, Austria and Germany. [...] I concluded in a non-scientific sort of way that the death of Europe has been greatly exaggerated. [...] French women are very friendly but not very hot. German women are very hot but not very friendly. (Those respective attributes and liabilities make sense when you think about it.) Scottish women are neither. German men are large. Europeans don't refrigerate eggs. We don't have to refrigerate them either, and grocery stores know that, but American consumers don't. Muslims are certainly in Europe. In France in particular, it's common to see Muslim women. You know they are Muslim because they want you to know. They are in long dresses and scarves. They tend to be overweight. A great many are pushing baby carriages. Insider Trading: Why Politicians Can Do it and You Can't. When the SEC prosecutes someone, it can cost millions of dollars in legal fees to defend against them. And as with most regulatory law, concepts of ethics, justice, and property rights never even enter the equation. Instead, it's a question of arbitrary legalities. Whether someone is prosecuted of insider trading is largely a question of who he is. A maverick researcher and a powerful government official will tend to get very different treatments. It's also a question of the psychology and motives of the prosecutor. Insider trading is generally a non-crime that can be used in a Kafkaesque manner by upward-mobile prosecutors. Insider trading should, at best, be the basis of a tort suit by a company if a board member betrays a trust. It shouldn't be a crime prosecuted by the State. Any ethical problem shouldn't be about how information is used or who profits but whether it's acquired honestly. Whether information is "inside" has no moral significance as long as it is honestly acquired. Let this be the last debate. I am not saying debates are irrelevant. Certainly the 1960 debates elected JFK and the one Carter-Reagan debate in 1980 elected the right man president. But if Nixon had won, the nation and world would be better today. Nixon and Khrushchev held an impromptu kitchen debate in 1959 and the Soviet leader learned not to mess with him. Khrushchev met with Kennedy in Vienna in 1961 and sized him up as a fool. A year later, the Berlin Wall was built and Soviet missiles were headed for Cuba. Politicians have adapted and are wary of debates. That the only debate between Biden and Trump occurs this week, four months ahead of the election, informs me that no one wants to risk having the debate affect the outcome. I agree. While I am not knee-deep in the hoopla, I am amused by the spectacle before the spectacle. If Julian Assange Is A Criminal, So Is The Entire Corporate Press. Julian Assange is now a free man, but he should never have been charged with a crime to begin with. The Wikileaks founder, who has spent the last five years in a British prison, was released Monday after striking a deal with President Biden's Department of Justice. Assange pleaded guilty to violation of the Espionage Act for publishing classified material about U.S. government operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan beginning in 2009. [...] As Assange's years-long ordeal comes to a close, it's worth noting that what was done to him is criminal — and it poses a very real threat for journalists who dare to question the national security state. Put simply, what Assange did is no different than what The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and many other corporate media outlets do every day: they publish and report on classified material that was stolen or obtained illegally by sources. The main difference between Assange and these outlets is that Assange did what he did in order to hold power to account, whereas the corporate press does it in service of power — at least when a Democratic administration is in the White House. Trump Needs to Hammer This During the Debate. The first and perhaps only presidential debate between presumed nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden takes place on June 27 in CNN's Atlanta headquarters. Home court advantage goes to President Biden. Is there anyone at CNN, aside from the janitors and cleaning crew, that support Trump? Doubtful. The debate will be moderated by the Trump hating undynamic duo of Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. CNN will mute the microphones, to keep Trump from objecting to Biden's fabrications, and likely to silence Biden's gibberish, something occurring with increasing frequency. No live audience will watch the debates, which will run 90 minutes, two commercial breaks, time for Biden to get a shot of vitamins, stimulants, or whatever keeps him awake and coherent for brief stretches of time. "CNN said they won't be allowed to use any props or pre-written notes but will be given paper, a pen and water." The Editor says... Everything in Our Civilization Is Stacked To Keep Us Believing the Propaganda. It's not so much that people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are dumb, or because humans are selfish. Primarily, people buy into the mainstream propaganda worldview because humans are lazy. [...] This lazy tendency to select for cognitive ease and defend the worldviews we construct as a result of that tendency is what gives rise to confirmation bias, because believing things which confirm our preexisting ideas about the world is easier than believing things which would blow our worldview apart. If you're among those who've gone from fully believing the mainstream propaganda worldview to realizing that everything you've been trained to believe about the world is a lie, then you know how uncomfortable and disruptive this shift can be. Canada is America's Least Helpful Ally. The official NATO estimate of Canada's defense effort is only 1.33% of GDP. Canada is currently the world's ninth largest economy, and the most productive major manufacturer committed to unilateral disarmament. A combination of incipient anti-Americanism, which creeps in as early as grade school history education, coupled with a federal government focused narrowly on the material well-being of Canadians, disincentivizes political leadership from spending political capital on international relations. From the perspective of a Canadian, U.S. politics oscillates wildly from expensive international engagement to isolationist hostility against international norms and institutions. Canadians, in contrast, proudly embrace joining international organizations that demand little of it. The Coming Collapse Of Venezuela. Here's Peter Zeihan to state what conservatives knew a decade ago: Venezuela is headed for collapse. [Video clip] [...] "In calendar year 2022 and calendar year 2023, the Biden Administration did a partial lifting of sanctions on the regime, basically saying that if you start working in the direction of free and fair elections, we will allow investment to come in to stabilize the energy sector and get some more oil out of the ground. Uh, we're going to trust your word for it, and then we will reassess when we get closer to elections in 2024." I bet everyone reading this can figure out exactly how well that worked out. "We'll just take your word that your three card monte game is on the level." It's All Fixable. The bureaucracy of DC exists to sustain the career influence and affluence of a group of people who would never survive in the private sector. Their weak work ethic, selfish worldview, insufferably annoying character traits, flawed logic, silly outlooks and disconnected opinions created in a bubble that has no relationship to reality, are only useful within their echo-chambered system. President Trump has a skillset of commonsense accomplishment that runs completely counter to the mindset of the administrative state. President Trump thinks like you and me; Trump finds optimal solutions. Washington DC simply cannot fathom successful policy outcomes that do not come from their creation. Trump succeeded with a doctrine that was entirely unfamiliar to the DC bureaucracy. It is absolutely critical that we never forget this. A Gift From God. "The Internet is a gift from God," said my brother once, "that will save mankind from tyranny and injustice. The people now have a power to reckon with." I think my wise old brother had forgotten that those in power control the means of mass communication, including the Internet. Did he not see that in this capacity they can use the Internet to make "the people" parrot their narratives and follow their agendas? Had he not observed how easy it is to mold the opinion of a public dumbed down for generations in the public schools? Were we actually to believe that people could liberate themselves from tyranny and injustice with computers, smartphones, tablets and what-have-you? [...] [T]he reality is that a computer, smartphone, or any device of access to the Internet is, to begin with, not even one's own property. They really belong to the corporate conglomerate that controls them. These devices can be disabled against the will of the users by those who run them, and this includes the government, along with private hackers. The evidence ought to make it abundantly clear that technology is subject to manipulation by those who provide it and make it work. The Broken Chain of Command. There have been a few times in history when the decision of a single person has held back the waves of destruction of a nuclear war. Most notable of those is Stanislov Petrov, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces and on duty in September of 1983. It was only a few weeks after the Soviets shot down Korean Air Lines flight 007. With international tensions running high, Petrov was informed of a missile launch from the United States. Shortly after that the system showed that another five missiles had been launched. They were, theoretically, in the air, on their way to Soviet Russia. But Petrov did not report the launch to superiors as he was supposed to, knowing that a counterstrike would be ordered based on his report. Several minutes ticked by as he waited for confirmation of the launches that never came and he did not report it until later. [...] One thing Petrov had going for him was the general suspicion of computers prevalent in 1983, so when he received an erroneous report from sensors that there was one launch, and then five more, he had reason to doubt the validity of what turned out to be a rare alignment of sunlight on high altitude clouds. Today's military are much less skeptical of the accuracy of computer generated reports. D-Day and America in 2024. This nation is at the stage that it cannot be salvaged if far too many Americans continue to be obsequiously deferential to and place their unbridled faith in the self-serving promises of egomaniacal collectivist politicians and succumb to the irrational influence of the nescient societal elites. The past four years have been a period of extreme trials and tribulations for the people of the United States. They are struggling to regain a sense of optimism and confidence in the face of near unbridled despotism, brought about by one political party. If Americans, beginning in 2024, do not begin the process of soundly rejecting the Democrat party and returning to the advancement of liberty and individual self-determination that so many over the past 248 years fought to defend, then the sacrifices of the soldiers on D-Day and their fellow patriots over the centuries will have been in vain. Did The Government Frame Lee Harvey Oswald? A Forged Object In An X-Ray Says 'Yes'. Dr. David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., in conducting his optical density (OD) measurements of the three extant JFK autopsy skull X-rays in the National Archives, was perplexed at finding a 6.5 mm object inside JFK's right orbit on the anterior-posterior (AP) skull X-ray. This (apparent) bullet cross-section was clearly the largest metal-like object in the X-ray films. But — under oath — none of the three autopsy pathologists could recall seeing it at the autopsy, nor did they remove it. Even more mysteriously, that piece of "metal" is not in the National Archives. Sometimes People Aren't Merely Misguided. They Really Are Evil. If people are working for an evil cause — whether they identify as a freedom fighter, Woke individual, humanist, truth-teller, or whatever pop culture phraseology they may care to use when they work for the Devil — the core evil of that cause rubs off on them. Certainly, redemption is possible, but the siren song of engaging in evil acts for supposedly good causes is not a form of protesting, no matter how much your cute little college coed thinks it is. Nor is revisionist history that seeks to reform evil people. Groups like Hamas or individuals like Hitler, Marx, or AOC parroting the party line of evil agendas will always be as evil personally as the essential evil that they espouse. I don't care if Hitler loved [his dog] Blondi. It does not change his status one iota. Let's Pick Members of Congress at Random. Anyone who managed to stay awake during their classes in high school knows how members of Congress are selected. People who wish to run for office set up campaigns and the parties hold primary races to determine candidates. Then a general election is held and the person with the most votes is sworn in at the beginning of the next session. So how's that been working out? According to many, not all that well, really. With that in mind, Rasmussen has once again asked the public if we might be better off if we just randomly selected people out of the phone book and sent them to Washington. The largest majority in the history of this survey (54%) said that randomly selected members would probably do a better job. Let's hope the current crew in DC is paying attention to these results. The Editor says... You are being nudged. We might expect our governments to rely on transparent rational argument to influence the electorate. Recently published research, on the other hand, has given further credence to a view that has been gaining popularity over the last decade or so: our thoughts and actions are being furtively influenced, on an unparalleled scale, so as to align them with the goals of our political elite. A major source of this psychological manipulation is state-funded behavioural science, a discipline dedicated to strategically reconfiguring our physical, social and informational environments — by deployment of "nudges" — so as to increase the likelihood that we do the "right" thing. A nudge is a method of persuasion that often achieves its impact below the target's level of conscious awareness, thereby providing a "low cost, low pain" way of inducing new ways of behaving "by going with the grain of how we think and act". When every word uttered can be deemed offensive, small talk is doomed. What is wrong with people these days? Why is everybody tripping over themselves to take offence? When did hypersensitivity become a lifestyle choice? That's what I might have said had I stood on the steps of the Old Bailey this week, channelling Elle Woods (yes, we are clearly related) in Legally Blonde after an employment tribunal ruled against a Japanese academic and in favour of small talk. What's that? Employment tribunals aren't heard at the highest court in the land, but in drearily municipal buildings without Sicilian marble floors, allegorical paintings or even a single ornate mosaic arch between them? Oh, and also the Old Bailey is a criminal court and it's not an offence to sue your bosses because a colleague mentioned a fondness for sushi? Biden can't be trusted to take on anti-Semitism. On 7 May, Joe Biden condemned the 'anti-Semitic posters', the 'slogans calling for the annihilation of Israel' and the 'rationalising' of 7 October on colleges across the US. Such practices 'must stop', he said in a speech marking the annual Days of Remembrance ceremony at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Yet where does the US president think that campus anti-Semitism comes from? Pro-Hamas hysteria is the foreseeable outcome of a belief system dominant not only in academia, but also in Biden's own administration — a belief system in which the West is [condemned] as 'systemically racist', and the world divided between 'marginalised groups' and the white, male, heterosexual power structure that oppresses them. Campus anti-Semitism will not stop until the university is transformed and the Democratic Party rejects identity politics. The Looming Electrical Power Shortage. People in developed nations take abundant electricity for granted. When asked where electricity comes from, most will point to their wall outlet. But many states in the U.S. are headed for a serious and prolonged shortage of electrical power not seen in decades, driven by rising demand from the artificial intelligence revolution and mandates to adopt green energy. For 20 years, U.S. electrical power policy has been dominated by efforts to try to "mitigate" global warming, believed to be caused by human greenhouse gas emissions. In 2021, President Joe Biden called for achieving a 100% carbon-free electric sector by 2035. Twenty-three states have enacted statutes or issued executive orders to achieve net-zero electricity generation by 2050. Because of net-zero mandates, grid operators spent the last two decades replacing coal-fired power plants with natural gas plants, wind turbines, and solar installations. More than 200 coal plants have been closed, reducing electricity output from coal by almost 60% since 2007. The Editor says... The Machinery of Fascism Revisited. Read any writings from polite society from 1932 to 1940 or so, and you find a consensus that freedom and democracy, along with Enlightenment-style liberalism of the 18th century, were completely doomed. They should be replaced by some version of what was called the planned society, of which fascism was one option. A book by that name appeared in 1937 as published by the prestigious Prentice-Hall, and it included contributions by top academics and high-profile influencers. It was highly praised by all respectable outlets at the time. Everyone in the book was explaining how the future would be constructed by the finest minds who would manage whole economies and societies, the best and the brightest with full power. All housing should be provided by government, for example, and food too, but with the cooperation of private corporations. That seems to be the consensus in the book. Fascism was treated as a legitimate path. Even the word totalitarianism was invoked without opprobrium but rather with respect. The book has been memory-holed of course. Unrepresentative Government. The 2020 election was strange because of COVID, which became a pretext to change the rules in order to rig the outcome. This time, there is no such excuse for a "basement campaign." It's true that Biden is old, feeble, and unpopular. And Trump has been sidelined, quite deliberately, by a malicious New York judge who won't allow him to travel and conduct his signature rallies. The problem, however, now infects all electoral politics. There used to be rituals common to all political campaigns, but you don't see them much anymore. This included multiple events taking place every day, announced in advance, and open to the media and the public. There used to be rituals common to all political campaigns, but you don't see them much anymore. Call for the Resignation of Pope Francis. [Scroll down] On October 4, 2019, Pope Francis attended an act of idolatrous worship of the pagan goddess Pachamama, and participated in this act of idolatrous worship by blessing a wooden image of Pachamama. On October 7, the idol of Pachamama was placed in front of the main altar at St. Peter's and then carried in procession to the Synod Hall. Pope Francis said prayers in a ceremony involving this image and then joined in this procession. When wooden images of this pagan deity were removed from the church of Santa Maria in Traspontina and thrown into the Tiber by Catholics outraged by this profanation of the church, Pope Francis, on October 25, apologized for their removal and another wooden image of Pachamama was returned to the church. On October 27, in the closing Mass for the synod, he accepted a bowl used in the idolatrous worship of Pachamama and placed it on the altar. Warning: Everything on Social Media Is Probably Fake. If you are on a social network like Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, do not trust any video you see, especially any that asks you for personal info or credit cards. Advertisers are using images of well-loved celebrities to hawk their wares and I don't know how they get away with it. The latest one I saw was a video of Tom Hanks promoting a dental plan, but fortunately, Mr. Hanks went on several talk shows warning that his AI image was being used and he was not endorsing any dental plan. Unscientific American. In continuous publication since 1845, Scientific American is the country's leading mainstream science magazine. Authors published in its pages have included Albert Einstein, Francis Crick, Jonas Salk, and J. Robert Oppenheimer — some 200 Nobel Prize winners in all. SciAm, as many readers call it, had long encouraged its authors to challenge established viewpoints. In the mid-twentieth century, for example, the magazine published a series of articles building the case for the then-radical concept of plate tectonics. In the twenty-first century, however, American scientific media, including Scientific American, began to slip into lockstep with progressive beliefs. Suddenly, certain orthodoxies — especially concerning race, gender, or climate — couldn't be questioned. The Paramount U.S. Constitution. To preserve our constitutional republic, the federal government must stop funding all initiatives undermining this country and its historic values. Funding should be eliminated for Marxist critical theory (e.g. CRT, DEI, ESG, gender theory, etc.) implementation and promulgation (e.g. through our own government, into the hydra known as the U.N., WEF, and supporting nonprofits and NGOs), for Trojan horses such as climate change emergencies spurring energy costs skyward and aiming to destroy unfavored industries and coercing consumers into buying inferior products they wouldn't otherwise voluntarily purchase, and for the multitude of expenditures that are inconsistent with the limited powers granted the federal government. Expenditures for the military industrial complex, censorship industrial complex, medical/pharmaceutical industrial complex, federal police state, and NATO should be on the chopping block. [...] Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Congress must assert its constitutional prerogative to be the only branch of government passing legislation. Journalism Is Not a Crime, Even When It Offends the Government. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been imprisoned in London for five years, while Texas journalist Priscilla Villarreal was only briefly detained at the Webb County Jail. But both were arrested for publishing information that government officials wanted to conceal. Assange and Villarreal argue that criminalizing such conduct violates the First Amendment. In both cases, the merits of that claim have been obscured by the constitutionally irrelevant question of who qualifies as a "real" journalist. Assange, an Australian citizen, is fighting extradition to the United States based on a federal indictment that charges him with violating the Espionage Act by obtaining and publishing classified documents that former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning leaked in 2010. He has already spent about as much time behind bars as federal prosecutors say he would be likely to serve if convicted. You're on your own: what to do about it. The police can't protect you. There are so very few of them, and even if you're able to call 911, it's going to take much longer than you'll have for officers to arrive, even longer for them to orient, decide and act. Better yet, the police have no obligation to protect anyone, and can't be successfully sued for failing to protect anyone. Sound crazy? If they could be sued for failing to protect people they had no idea needed protection, who would become a police officer? What city could afford a police force? One could simply never go out in public, but then there are home invasions and burglaries, so that's no solution. Besides, why should any American surrender their freedom of movement and association to the depredations of criminals, particularly when the American Left is encouraging and aiding them? What became of communism in Vietnam? Rainer Zitelmann's book, How Nations Escape Poverty, is particularly interesting for American veterans who served as G.I.s in Vietnam or for those who may have lost their fathers or family members in the conflict. The irony of history is that the communists initially won — however, upon establishing their socialist regime across Vietnam, they came to realize what a huge mistake they had made. Today, young Vietnamese in particular admire the USA and capitalism, as Zitelmann's book shows. [...] Zitelmann describes how Vietnam, the poorest country in the world in 1990, overcame poverty and became a prosperous country by abolishing the planned economy and introducing private property rights. By examining the case of Poland, which was among the poorest countries in Europe in the 1980s but has since emerged as Europe's growth champion for the past three decades, Zitelmann shows how capitalism makes people's lives better. War By Affirmative Action? Why does Biden play Iranian poker with American and Israeli lives? [Advertisement] Answer? He envisions war sort of like affirmative action, in which the less accomplished belligerent is allowed all sorts of concessions for the sake of equity. [Advertisement] Israeli and American military capability, and particularly their missile defenses, are seen as unfair, almost like high achievers' top SAT scores that are seen as unearned and used to privilege some over others and therefore must be countered or dropped. Given Iran's and its surrogates' incompetence, the administration, then, must extend the theocracy some allowances "to level the playing field." Biden does not believe in an equality of opportunity in war, when an aggressor does its best to attack or indeed destroy a defender, who in turn does its own best to retaliate and achieve victory. Pope Francis on Earth Day: Planet Is 'Falling into Ruin'. Pope Francis commemorated Earth Day on Monday by warning that the planet is "falling into ruin" thanks to humanity's failure to protect it. "Our generation has bequeathed many riches, but we have failed to protect the planet and we are not safeguarding peace," the pontiff chided on X (former Twitter). "We are called to become artisans and caretakers of our common home, the Earth which is 'falling into ruin,'" he declared, followed by "#EarthDay." For the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020, Pope Francis issued a similar indictment of humanity's failure to care for the planet, blaming human selfishness for the ruin of the earth. The Editor says... Who is going to tell them? Kennedys boost RFK, Jr.'s campaign without realizing it. [Scroll down] Everyone knows that RFK, Jr. is not like the rest of the Kennedy chi-chi crowd. He thinks for himself, he challenges canards and narratives, he takes care of himself, he talks sense on many things, and he certainly has lived an honorable life. He couldn't be less like the rest of the Kennedys and that's part of why he's doing so well in the polls. Unbeknownst to the Kennedys who put out these ads, Americans don't like dynasties. The dynasty thing was one factor that took down Jeb Bush as the GOP heir presumptive in 2015-2016; Bush's statements were the other. The same dynamic loathing of dynasties is going on on the Democrat side, but with RFK, Jr. alienated from the Kennedy compound clan, his bloodlines are not held against him. The Kennedys would have you think that they're so royal, so influential, so popular, that people just won't be able to resist their appeal to vote for senile old Joe. America is in a Deepwater Horizon Moment. Moments like the one we live in now come along from time to time, providing the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past. For instance, key takeaways from the Deepwater Horizon incident of April 2010 and how they apply to today are clear except to those who deny them. [...] Today, the financial pressure percolating below the surface of trillions of dollars of debt is being denied as a problem by the so-called experts who know just enough about economics to be dangerous. At some point the pressure will be too much not just for the U.S. but for the nations to whom the U.S. is indebted as well. The results will be a global catastrophe. However, just as with the Deepwater Horizon, where needless suffering and death could have been avoided if the "experts" had listened to the people with the experience running the rig, so too global disaster can be avoided if the people with the experience resist the pressure of the so-called experts. The World Is Paying A Deadly Price For Barack Obama's Foreign Policy Legacy. If a belligerent state launched 186 explosive drones, 36 cruise missiles, and 110 surface-to-surface missiles from three fronts against civilian targets within the United States, would Joe Biden call it a "win"? Would the president tell us that the best thing we can do now is show "restraint"? What if that same terror state's proxy armies had recently helped murder, rape, and kidnap more than 1,000 American men, women, and children? What if this terror state were trying to obtain nuclear weapons so it could continue to agitate without any consequences? This is what Joe Biden and the Barack Obama acolytes, Iranian dupes, and Israel antagonists he's surrounded himself with demand of Jewish State. And by "Iranian dupes," I don't only mean the Jake Sullivans and Antony Blinkens of the world, who worked to elevate the mullahs over Sunni allies and the Israelis, or even a Hamas-bestie like Rob Malley or Israel-hater like Maher Bitar. I mean assets of the Islamic State who promised the Iranian government to help out in any way possible. Their worldview is a cancer that's metastasized within the Democratic Party. "Don't" Is Not A Foreign Policy. The ground shook in Tehran as Ali Khamenei, the 84 year old supreme leader of Iran, shook in his boots as he listened to President Joe Biden give his terse warning to Iran about attacking Israel. Biden looked into the camera, mustered all of his intestinal fortitude, and barked a single word that he thought would instill fear in the rogue country, "Don't." Without another sound, he turned and shuffled away from the podium. He had spoken. It was feckless, but why should we expect more from this man who has disappointed us daily during his presidency? I can imagine Biden had a similar effect on Benjamin Netanyahu as he listened to the American President, and it just adds to the confusing message of support that Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have been delivering since the October 7 attack last year. One day, Biden is pledging unwavering military support for our greatest ally in the Middle East, and the next day, he is condemning Israel's strategy and tactics. Since World War II, American support for the sovereignty and safety of Israel has been unconditional except for two Presidencies, Obama and Biden. Independent Voters: Not the Brightest Crayons in the Box. After the popular votes of five of the last six presidential elections, what other conclusion are we to reasonably derive? Leftists are not stupid. Leftists are intolerant, fanatical, violent, fascistic, and single-minded in purpose. But they are not stupid. They control the media, the schools, Big Tech, much of corporate America, the IRS, the DOJ, the FBI, the Pentagon, an increasing number of religious organizations, and almost every lever of representative and bureaucratic government, not to mention our physical streets, whenever they want, with zero consequence. Whatever that is, it isn't stupidity. Stupidity is maintaining the farce that choosing between democratic republicanism and mob tyranny is a difficult choice for rational citizens. With both parties now on polar opposite sides of the spectrum, the idea that there exists any legitimacy in carefully weighing which side to vote for no longer holds merit. A Big Hand for the Little Ladies. Unfortunately, the tanks did eventually roll on into Tiananmen Square to crush the protestors, merely delayed, not stopped, by the random man. Leftists are never stopped for long — even if their cultural tanks are momentarily blocked by a couple of problematic children's authors. [...] The scolding busybodies in Scotland are not going to ever forget how J.K. Rowling has defied them. Pointing out that their philosophy just doesn't work doesn't change their minds. Because Marxism, communism, socialism, or any other kind of -ism, are really just flags of convenience. The true motivation is the gathering, growth, and entrenchment of power. Power over you, incidentally. No amount of logical argument will divert them from that path. The answer is to limit the amount of power piled in one spot, governmental or otherwise. It draws them like flies to honey. Or to manure, depending on which metaphor you might think more appropriate. Who does the Commie Pope think they is? The current Pope was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Argentina, and took the name Francis when he moved to Rome. The Cardinals thought they were showing real strategerie in picking a guy from Latin America. There's lots of alleged Catholics there, and their numbers grow every day. In contrast, in Italy there aren't even many putative Catholics, even fewer real ones, and their numbers are dwindling every day as Italians make a religion out of defying the Church's birth control prohibitions. Pope Francis is known for what he doesn't like. He doesn't like Israel. He doesn't like Ukraine. He doesn't like America. He doesn't like Europe. He doesn't like the best tool in history for alleviating material suffering — capitalism. However, he does like food. He likes to lecture people about their morals. Like all Argentinians, he likes inflation. He likes Karl Marx. But (or is it "therefore"?) he likes the most lavish palace in all of Christendom, the Vatican. Biden [is] Not [the] Only Reason for Dems To Panic. One incident last week showed the dynamic of the 2024 presidential election campaign better than anything else yet, and what it reveals is that the Democrats have good reason to panic, and it has nothing to do with the obvious weakness of their candidate. What matters even more is that the Republican Party is showing signs of waking up from its long uniparty slumber and recognizing that fighting back is the best way to win an election. You saw elements of this renewed engagement last month when the new leadership of the GOP opted to partner with community activist Scott Presler to increase voter registration and legal ballot harvesting in battleground states. Why We Should Keep Lovin' on RFK Jr.. Back in the 1950s, there was the Red Scare. Up until a couple of months ago, there was the "Kennedy Scare." Corporate media was spinning that Robert Kennedy Jr. might swipe more votes from Donald Trump than creaky Joe Biden this autumn. That was never going to happen. RFK Jr. is Donald Trump's best chance to win the White House. A three-candidate race hurts Joe Biden. Okay, the state of nation matters, but with the electorate strongly polarized, the game is less about persuasion and mobilization than securing ballots. Independents count, but many are partisan leaners, so they aren't truly independent-minded. Securing your side's leaners is key in battleground states. The Editor says... The Bezmenov Plan: Is America now in the Last Stage? [Scroll down] And it's not hard to recognize the plan being followed is parallel to the blueprint plan revealed forty years ago by Soviet defector Yuri Bezmenov, who explained the four stages of communist subversion: 1) Demoralization, 2) Disorientation, 3) Crisis, and 4) Normalization. The United States has been under prolonged internal attacks of demoralization for several generations, through the educational system and the culture which have delivered messaging that disparages the United States and derides traditional values. The second stage, known as disorientation, is most successful after a large portion of the population has been demoralized. Covid-19 brought about disorientation through mask mandates, social distancing, quarantines, lockdowns, and the abandonment of best medical practices of preventative and therapeutic treatments. Another important part of disorientation that was inflicted on America at that time was the ginned-up racism after the death of George Floyd, which triggered rioting, looting, and destruction of several billion dollars' worth of property and the tearing down of historic statues and memorials in many cities across the United States. That 1938 Feeling: A scent of trouble in the air. It's feeling a little like 1938. There's not a great power shooting war going on, but you can smell one coming. There's the Ukraine war, which involves Russia (kindasorta a great power, but not really nowadays), and which seems to fill the role that the Spanish Civil War played in the 1930s — a testing ground for new technologies and tactics, and an indication of just how destructive, and expensive, modern war can be, but not a main event. Meanwhile, the main antagonists — this time around, that's the United States and the People's Republic of China — are arming up, seeking allies, and thinking strategy and tactics. [Tweet] Only an 'Educated' 'Expert' Could Give Advice This Bad. Sometimes, you see things that one cannot believe. It is as if recent history means nothing. The National Institute of Health is considering the effectiveness of an opioid (Tramadol) for depression. The USA is still in the midst of an opioid crisis, and our edumacated experts are considering opioids as a treatment option?! [...] Again, if you have pain issues, there is nothing wrong with Tramadol. It is quite effective, and it works. Use it wisely. But don't label it as an antidepressant. And again, I can understand why some people might need psychiatric medication, but opioids should not be part of the psychiatric arsenal. America's Minsky Moment Approaches. Named after American economist Hyman Minsky, the idea behind a Minsky moment is that a financial markets crisis (especially in credit markets) is caused by a sudden and systemic collapse in asset prices, usually after a sustained period of speculative investment, excessive borrowing, and widespread financial risk taking. In other words, it's the moment when the music stops playing, investors stop buying, and the Ponzi game ends abruptly. It's a hard crash. America may be on the brink of its Minsky moment. The Third Fall of Rome. What we take for granted today — freedom, safety, and prosperity — we might have to fight to keep tomorrow. In the outside world, e.g. the capitals of the so-called "BRICS" countries, preparations are made to end the hegemony of the West. Sure enough, we have paid indulgences for our alleged sins of colonialism for almost a hundred years. However, we should not expect forgiveness or pity on that account. In case we think that we have built "goodwill" with the third-world countries receiving foreign aid, we have seriously miscalculated. As far as they are concerned, our wealth is up for grabs. [...] If the Westerners of today had any historical awareness of the past, they would know that, since the dawn of time, we have fought against invasions from the East. The wealth and strength, which we have preserved so far, are due to the ingenuity of our ancestors, their courage and care for posterity. However, there is a general reluctance to face the real dangers of today and fight for our home in the West. America Has Become A Society Of Gamblers. You may not think that the US economy is broken, but the average American would disagree. It is now less expensive to rent than purchase in all 50 major metros. Citizens owe more than $1.1 trillion on credit card balances. More than 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt, with the average balance being more than $37,000. The US dollar has lost 25% of its purchase power since January 2020. For every $1 someone had 4 years ago, they can only buy $0.75 worth of goods today. Given these facts, gambling doesn't seem so illogical. There are only two paths to fixing the problem. Either the United States figures out how to stop the accelerated debasement of the currency, which would allow citizens to gain restored confidence in the protection of their hard-earned economic value, or citizens will have to resist the urge to gamble and instead seek out alternative assets that help them outperform the inflation they are experiencing. Why Are So Many Pushing for America to Have a Hot War with Russia? In a war with Russia, American soldiers will be forced to fight with horrendous casualties. When this happens, Americans will relive the Vietnam War. Also, as our Afghan withdrawal displayed, we have no Pentagon leadership. That leadership will also direct a war against Russia. Moreover, today's woke military will not fare well against battle-hardened Russian troops. Many fighters have been forced out because of their Judeo-Christian values. Others are gone for refusing to surrender their right not to take an experimental vaccine that has unknown efficacy and side effects. Woke troops will not get the job done. A "Black Swan Event" - General Flynn Raises Questions About Baltimore Bridge Collapse. "Can we take the idea that this [Baltimore bridge collapse] was a terrorist attack off the table ... and absolutely we cannot do that," President Trump's former national security adviser (and retired lieutenant general) Michael Flynn told Alex Jones in an online interview. [Tweet with video clip] Flynn called the container ship ramming the 1.6-mile-long bridge mile bridge at the Port of Baltimore a "black swan" event. [Tweet with video clip] Meanwhile, the White House and federal government agencies have been quick to declare this was not a terror attack. [...] Maritime job placement company BalticShipping shows the captain of the container ship is a Ukranian. This Analysis Of The Dali Hitting The FSK Bridge Is Popping Up On Various Social Media Sites. [Video clip] The Meltdown of Commercial Real Estate. In case you've still got money in a bank, Bloomberg is warning that defaults in commercial real estate loans could "topple" hundreds of US banks. [...] So what happened? The Fed's yo-yo interest rates first flooded real estate with low rates and cheap money. Which were overbuilt. Then came the lockdowns, which forced millions to figure out new workday patterns. People liked foregoing the long commute (not to mention the free money). Despite every effort, downtown businesses have not been able to get all workers back. These days, everyone talks about hybrid models of working, some in-person and some remote. But judging from observation, remote is winning. In any case, even a 30 percent reduction in the footprint of office space once the leases are renewed could topple the entire sector. The restaurant and retail sectors of downtown feel the pinch, with more closures all the time. Adding to the pressure are absurd levels of inflation and ever-riskier streets on matters of personal security. Put it all together and there is ever less reason to slog to the office. Tulsi Explains Who She Thinks Is Running the White House. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama portrayed former Rep. from Hawaii Tulsi Gabbard as a traitor and a Putin puppet after she risked her life in service of her country. Tulsi bucked them on war. She addressed that with Tucker Carlson during a recent interview. [...] Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not in office right now, but they still continue to wield immense power in influencing the decisions that are being made. Tucker asked her who is running the government. "It's obviously not Joe Biden. You think Hillary?" Tulsi: ["]It's not a leap of imagination to know that that's true. When you look at the people who are in Joe Biden's administration, they are the people who were the right hands for the Obama administration, for President Obama, and for Hillary Clinton. When Hillary Clinton said herself the other day, she said, oh, yeah, I talk to the White House every day. So it's not. it is no shock or surprise, who the influences are behind the policies that are coming out of this White House that many people say is the most radical and woke White House that our country has ever seen.["] Tulsi left out George Soros. His close ally, Neera Tanden, took over for Susan Rice. She runs domestic policy, including pornographic books in the school libraries. Another bad idea: Touchscreens in cars. In 2018 when my car was built, Audi was building cars with features controlled with a simple and intuitive driver interface. One could navigate through systems with tactile controls requiring minimal distraction from the road. For the 2020 model year, the engineers at Ingolstadt decided that touch screens would become the new control method in Audi interiors. Many of the physical buttons were removed. Controls are now in the center screen, activated by pushing on a flat panel without any haptic feedback. In many cases, previously simple tasks are now buried behind several menus. We Should Fight First for the Bill of Rights. Would you be willing to fight and die for multiculturalism? Would you put your life on the line for "Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity" (DIE); "Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance" (ESG); or other Marxist worldviews? Would you go to war to preserve the right of delusional men to use women's restrooms and dominate women's sports? Would you fight for any government that hunts down and imprisons J6 protesters as political hostages but celebrates Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters who cause physical injury and property damage? I [...] wouldn't. I will not fight for institutionalized racism, corporate Marxism, viewpoint discrimination, or the profits of multinational investment houses. I will not fight for people who wish to erase the First and Second Amendments while paying lip service to what's left of the Bill of Rights. I will not fight for the Federal Reserve's continued manipulation of the dollar or BlackRock's control over foreign policy. I will not fight for a government that is guilty of murder, rape, drug-trafficking, and other violent crimes because the Department of Homeland Security refuses to enforce our sovereign borders. I will not fight for the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, or any other international body that seeks global control over local communities. Keep American Troops Out of Haiti. You can already hear the same old scam revving up, this time about Haiti — yet again. I remember 30 years ago when we were going to fix Haiti. And since I read history, I know about 100 years ago when we were also going to fix Haiti. Now, our garbage ruling class is on the verge of demanding we try to fix Haiti yet again. Spoiler — you can't fix Haiti. And it's not worth one single American life trying to. That's not to say Haiti isn't a mess and that we shouldn't provide some humanitarian aid. Look, Haiti had it hard from the beginning. It was a French colony of slaves, so that's two strikes right there. They overthrew the French, a military victory for which they are quite proud even though [it] is an achievement on par with beating Chris Christie in a breakdance competition. And from then on, it was chaos broken only by extended periods of cruel and rapacious dictatorship. Turkey's Islamic supremacist, Jew-hating tyrant. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the Turkish President, and the rude-and-crude master of all he surveys from the 1,100 room "White Palace" that he had the government build for him in Istanbul, at a cost to the Turkish taxpayers of $615 million. But when a man like Erdogan comes along only once a millennium, why should the national exchequer skimp? In Istanbul, having announced to the world that he will not be running for office again (the hundreds of journalists he has imprisoned in Turkish jails must now be breathing proleptic sighs of relief), just to make sure we do not forget that he is still the Padishah and Grand Panjandrum of Turkey, he has now delivered himself of some unusually unpleasant remarks, even for him, about Israel and Jews, and Hamas. In Praise of Ties. The first thing I notice when I watch a black-and-white TV show on one of the rerun networks is the ties. In the 1950s, every man wore a tie. The milkman wore a tie. The mailman wore a tie. The policeman wore a tie. Even Elvis wore a tie on occasion. Chuck Berry always wore a tie. Gas station attendants wore them. You could trust your car to the man who wore the star because he had a tie on. Men wore ties to ballgames because men were civilized. Ties were important because they gave a sense of authority but ties also showed that a man wants to belong in society. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others." But gradually the ties came off. Comfort meant more than community. Men's stores gave way to Sears and then Kmart and then Wal-Mart, which is now Walmart. The loss of ties — the loss of formality in interactions with strangers on the street — came with a price. When you stop wanting to please others, you begin to stop caring about others. Report: President Trump Didn't Release The Classified JFK Reports Because They Were That Bad. Donald Trump told Andrew Napolitano that he didn't release the JFK assassination records because "if they showed you what they showed me, you wouldn't have released it either." Napolitano said the comments came one week before Trump left office in 2021. "I said, 'you promised you would release the records of the JFK assassination.'" "He said to me, 'Judge, if they showed you what they showed me, you wouldn't have released it either.'" [Video clip] Let's Move the Capital. Washington, DC, Squandered Our Trust. For most of the nation's history, the District of Columbia was an inhospitable "swamp" with relatively few permanent residents and a minimal federal establishment. Pigs and cows roamed the streets; summer heat and humidity were unbearable; slavery was widespread until it was outlawed in 1862. Congressional sessions were brief: representatives and senators did not enjoy life in the capital, and did not stay there any longer than necessary. The expansion of government since the 1960s (along with air conditioning) has changed that: Washington today is a company town, with government as its sole business — and a growing business at that. It is increasingly remote from the people it is supposed to serve, a development feared in 1787 by supporters and opponents of the Constitution as incompatible with representative government. The Capital today is far removed from the geographical and population centers of the country, which today are located well beyond the Mississippi River. The Editor says... Western Civilisation Is Crumbling. We all know by now that the corrupt elite need their wars to keep their finances in tip top condition and to tighten their grip on society via the imposition of emergency legislation to control the populace and to control the supply of food, energy and merchandise. But that aside, all bets are off if they spark all out nuclear war. We all fall down. Mutual assured destruction (MAD) they called it back in the day. Even those who hide away in their bunkers built with stolen taxpayers' money lose out. What world have they got to return to when they eventually step outside into the light, bleary-eyed and bloated from their six month champagne and freeze-dried caviar binge? Not much of one I imagine. A post apocalyptic ruined wasteland doesn't seem much like the flower of opportunity even for your most ardent fascistic control freak. Stupid! Really, really stupid. But stupid people don't like being called stupid. In fact, they are extremely sensitive about it. A Course in Biden Budgetology. After President Biden's award-winning SOTU speech on March 7, 2024, it was time, on Monday 11, [sic] 2024, for the President's FY2025 Budget, which is now up and running on usgovernmentspending.com. Hey, nothing to see here. Deficits of $1.5 trillion as far as the eye can see: [...] Earth to Uncle Joe. Here's how the economy works. Some guy starts selling books online from a garage in the 1990s. The result in 2024 is a corporation, Amazon, today worth 1.8 trillion dollars. What do you say, President Biden? Is Amazon an example of supply-side, trickle down, middle out, or bottom up economics? Or is it a question of having the right idea at the right time and working your pants off? I wonder what experts agree. Can We Survive. Spring is in the air. The weather is getting milder by the day. But many people are getting nervous. We can pretend all we want that everything is normal, but many of us know better. An election is coming unlike any election in our lifetime or even our history, if anyone even reads history anymore. [...] A democracy, in its purest form, is a government of the majority. Our founders were wise in that they knew a pure democracy was not benevolent; it can and often is oppressive. A common metaphor would be two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch. So, pure democracy was out. A federal government was created to disburse power between the central government, states, cities, local governments, and so forth. Our founders decided that an electoral college was necessary to give representation to the minority. Otherwise, only large cities would choose our leaders. It did not age well. The tendency of mankind is to take power and keep it. Our government was no different. The Most Foreseeable Disaster in U.S. History. As has become painfully obvious since Oct. 7, you should dismiss everything coming out of the Ivy League these days if you want to stay sane. Well, almost everything. A recent warning from the University of Pennsylvania about the national debt reminds us of the dangers of blanket dismissals. [...] The authors estimate the U.S. debt held by the public can't exceed 200 percent under "today's generally favorable market conditions," i.e., historically low interest rates and a functioning economy. The United States' precarious balance sheet could lead to disaster even sooner than the rosy 20-year scenario. Financial markets may start to doubt the federal government's unsustainable "debt dynamics," which need only a little economic weakness before they start to unravel. The military-industrial complex changes the subject: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. A new book has been published entitled: "The Final Analysis: Forensic Analysis of the JFK Autopsy X-Rays Proves Two Headshots from the Right Front and One from the Rear" by David W. Mantik M.D., Ph.D and Jerome R. Corsi Ph.D. Dr. Mantik has a PhD in physics and is an radiation oncologist. At the heart of this book is a re-analysis of the original radiographs from JFK's autopsy. The re-evaluation of the original forensic evidence of President John F. Kennedy Assassination using modern pathologic techniques should send shock waves through the world. [...] This book exposes how our government had to have murdered a US president in cold blood (who else could have done it?), lied to the American people about the assassination and then the USG created a massive cover-up story, which included framing an innocent man for the murder and most likely ordered his execution. For over sixty years, our government has not only covered up this murder, they created an alternate reality of facts that have been presented as truth to the entire world. This may be the first concrete example of psywar on the American people. Being conducted by multiple agencies and may even be in collusion with one or more of the following US presidents. This is truly a rogue government. NASA: Solar Storms 'Could Cause Internet Apocalypse' by 2025. NASA is warning that the Sun is entering a period of high volatility as it nears the peak of its 11-year solar maximum cycle. During this time, sunspots have the potential to generate intense solar storms, which — if directed at the Earth — could cause widespread outages to electronics and radio communications.The last several months have seen a spike in solar activity, with sunspots causing several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — phenomena responsible for solar storms. NASA, which has been monitoring our Sun's activity using the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), warns the potential for a solar storm-caused "internet apocalypse" remains a cause for concern through 2025. Such an event could surge currents through our planet's infrastructure, disrupting navigation, communications systems, and the GPS-enabled time synchronization critical to the functioning of the internet. The Editor says... Col Douglas Macgregor Response to Joe Biden SOU Speech Is Profoundly Accurate and Important. Retired Colonel Douglas Macgregor delivers a surprisingly accurate response to the situation created by Joe Biden as espoused in the 2024 State of the Union address. I cannot emphasize the value of these remarks strongly enough, in part because my own independent research — and that of a global team I have been working with — is in direct alignment with this outline. Two years ago, I accepted the reality that Western sanctions against Russia were profoundly different from all other sanctions and completely ridiculous in the bigger picture of how the global economy operates. A sanction regime is familiar and has been used against Cuba, North Korea, Iran and even Venezuela before. Few were paying attention, but for the first time the U.S sanctions against Russia were not created to target Russia and punish any violator, they were created to remove the tools which would allow violations. The actual dollar as a trade currency was being weaponized. What followed was not a surprise. [Video clip] The Five FUBARs. [#4] The people of this land are not being allowed to do business, to find a livelihood, to transact fairly. "Joe Biden's" shadow string-pullers are messing as badly with the oil and gas producers as they have messed with Ukraine. And they are doing it in pursuit of a laughable mirage: their "green new deal." John Podesta, the "clean energy czar" who replaced the Haircut-in-search-of-a-brain called John Kerry, sits on a $370-billion slush fund that can be used to just dole out to anyone and everyone as a political patronage payoff, especially to janky "community" orgs and NGOs with fake agendas. This really just amounts to an asset-stripping operation that will leave the American people busted and with broken supply chains for everything. Instead of annual budgets, Congress raises the US debt ceiling by "continuing resolutions" to keep the government from shutting down. The national debt races to the $35-trillion mark. As interest rates on debt rise, our debt payments now exceed our military spending. You can be sure that our country will break down financially very soon. No, Substack is Not a Haven for Misinformation. [Scroll down] But you can see, with all the panic in our "six ways from Sunday" Intelligence Community over their faked COVID panic and their faked climate panic, that our mechanical Gutenberg rulers just can't get their arms around the new Free-for-all Age. Just Press Publish! And yet, if they had half a brain, they would know that it's been a century since the mechanical physics of Newton was superseded by the wave function and the probability amplitudes and the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. Just Press Publish! It's been a century since Ludwig von Mises said that socialism couldn't work because it couldn't compute prices. It's been 80 years since Friedrich Hayek said that planning couldn't work because planners can't plan. It's been nearly a century since Stalin's Five Year Plans failed, and over half a century since Mao's Great Leap Forward plan failed. We are in the middle of understanding that our global COVID plan failed, and the farmers are about to teach us that the NetZero plan is failing, and the Democratic Party is in the middle of understanding that its unrestricted immigration plan is failing. Left With the Ashes. The Heritage Foundation has put together a 920 page book called "Mandate for Leadership" in PDF, for free. It details the changes they would make, day #1 of a Trump second term. The reason I bring this up, is it shows that there could be a plan to save America from the Administrative State. It is possible. Even acknowledging that the communists that currently run Washington would fight it tooth and nail, lawsuit after lawsuit, the authors of the book know that too. This is a landmark work of extreme importance. I would take it and use it to rebuild a state or a confederation of states, but this is what should have been done in the first Trump presidency, not the second. Why Farmers Are Protesting Around the World. From Europe to India, farmers have taken to the streets in recent months to protest agricultural policies. First, demonstrations erupted across Europe, with farmers forming blockades, dumping manure in cities, and egging government buildings. Now, thousands of farmers have marched toward New Delhi in scenes that recall the mass protests of 2020-21. Although the reasons for agricultural workers' discontent differ from country to country, the ongoing unrest comes as the world's farmers are "increasingly feeling under political attack," Christopher Barrett, an agricultural economist, recently told FP's Christina Lu. This edition of Flash Points considers the root causes of the farmers' protests, what unites them, and how climate and trade policy are transforming global agriculture. Republicans Must Use Leadership Change as Opportunity to End Business as Usual in Senate. To anyone not living under a rock, it should be clear what's at stake. The leftist regime is prosecuting former President Donald Trump. The border is wide open. Inflation and federal deficit spending are crushing everyday Americans. These are existential threats to the republic. Regardless of what happens in the presidential election, the Senate is — by design — positioned to address these issues. Conservatives across the country are exhausted by business as usual in the face of these multiple impending crises. Senators must recognize the moment in considering what type of leadership to elect. As Sen. Mike Lee has pointed out, Republican senators regularly vote with Democrats to pass Democrat priorities, yet this is never reciprocated. The irony of this is that, because of the structure of the filibuster, any 41 senators could block bad legislation and demand changes in exchange for passage. To the great shock of absolutely no one, there aren't 41 Republican senators with the political will to do this. The Benefits of Hardship. While the Patriot Act broadened the toolkit for tracking down foreign threats, its nefarious use as a domestic surveillance weapon took a sledgehammer to Americans' privacy. Rhetorical battles against Islamic supremacy morphed into another "politically correct" surrender in which Americans were required to speak of Islam as a "religion of peace." Fighting the terrorists overseas somehow meant we were also expected to open our doors to millions of new refugees. What originally felt like a robust offensive strategy for eliminating hostile threats transformed into an endless military occupation on the other side of the world with little in the name of long-term strategy. Why were Americans fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq? If you asked a warrior, he was there for 9/11 payback and to end the threat of Islamic terrorism. However, the official line from the White House evolved into some inscrutable notion that Americans must put themselves in harm's way, so that ancient tribal cultures could magically become stable democracies that valued human rights. That strange vision didn't make sense to anybody but the politicians in D.C.
The Great Replacement is Real. The Nightmare Scenario is Now. All over the world, people joke about us, mock us, and for the past fifty years, we have deserved it all. We went to sleep, we let the buggers have it all and we deserve everything that is happening. Our passivity is real. But it is skin deep — a recent and artificially imposed national character. The people I grew up among, all the families, the thousands among whom we lived, were anything but, though by the time I left university, the new Canada was forming, courtesy of the Marxist Trudeau and the civil service he bulked out. The truckers invented the protests going on all over the world right now in every single country. That was us. Don't count us out, but this is what they did, over fifty years, when we trusted them, how they bullied and destroyed a great people. The Dark and the Light. The poison killing our country is pervasive untruth. Every institution we have relied on to run the public interest has become a factory churning out lies, evasions, and misdirection — not unlike the way mRNA "vaccines" turned the cells in your bodies into tiny generators of spike proteins destroying your organs. Likewise, half the population, apparently, thinks this is a good thing, that we need more lawfare — the perversion of law by attorney perverts — and that we need ever more lies, evasions, and misdirection (just as the degenerates who run Harvard declare their student body needs more mRNA boosters to remain in school). Since the doctors have all failed — miserably and dishonorably — America needs an exorcism. [...] Are you asking yourselves: what will satisfy these maniacs? Anything short of the ruin of our country? What will their coveted power be worth in a ruined country? Mr. Trump volunteered to play the role of exorcist in this grand psychodrama. Whatever else you make of him, he has shown a lot of fortitude. I'll Vote for Anyone Who Promises to Nuke the Dept. of Education. It should come as no surprise to regular readers here that I think Republican candidates in 2024 should lead with Joe Biden's border nightmare when attacking Democrats. It's both a humanitarian and national security crisis and this country can't survive another four years of open borders madness. While that is the most pressing issue, there's plenty more to throw at the Dems after a few years of the Team Biden wrecking ball. One issue that predates this clown car of an administration is the hot mess that is public education in the United States of America. It's an evergreen issue and one that I think the Republicans haven't been giving enough attention to in recent election cycles. There are a number of ways to attack the failures of the Dept. of Education because it manages to screw up anything it touches. It's the classic example of a bloated bureaucracy that is nothing but a black hole for taxpayer dollars. Kids are getting dumber, and the Democrats can only screech for money. France Teeters on the Brink. Upon first seeing videos of the European farmers' recent protests, I, along with many others across the Atlantic, was deeply impressed. Like Canadian truckers on steroids, these supposed hayseeds gave the world a lesson in determination, ingenuity, courage, and organizational skill beyond the wildest dreams of the appalling bureaucratic yahoos who lord over them and seek to drive them to extinction. Rumors of French President Emmanuel Macron avoiding Paris hinted on possible lasting effects for the better. In their protests, the farmers also displayed several of the highest of human character traits, including an admirable level of restraint against violence, and even a wicked sense of humor. It was inspiring and hilarious all at once. Watching them block roadways to major cities for weeks, simply "off-roading" in their tractors when confronted by the so-called authorities, was awesome. How Would a Post-Apocalyptic Society Function Without Electricity and Running Water? For a person to survive without electricity and running water is actually quite easy. There were still many people in America who didn't have electricity and running water well into the 1940s. Even in Boston there were people on the outskirts who still used outhouses into the 1930s. [...] In a modern society where the electricity and water failed there would be no way to flush toilets and eventually the sewer pipes would fill up with waste. Modern sewers require a certain flow generated by waste water to move the waste to the treatment plants. A rain storm can help, but these don't happen frequently enough to clear the sewers. Federal Reserve records massive losses, makes up fictitious value called 'deferred assets' to compensate. Maybe the problem with all of the government can be summarized by what the Federal Reserve is doing. The Federal Reserve lost $114.3 billion in 2023 and doesn't seem to care. Maybe that is why the federal government has run up $34 trillion in debt, while they pretend government programs are paid for. They don't care. They can always print more money. So what does the Federal Reserve do on its books when it has this massive loss? It just books a fictitious asset and fictitious equity. It cooks the books. It has no justification to claim it has money coming but does it anyway. It just assumes it will make money in the future. It certainly is not based on generally accepted accounting principles. How many other fictitious assets are on the books at the Federal Reserve or other government agencies to intentionally mislead the public? If a company were to book a fictitious asset to pretend they had more equity than they do, they would be charged with fraud. Hospitals Aren't Charities. Stop Pretending They Are. Expenditures, and profits, in the health care sector have been rising inexorably for decades, as everyone reading this article knows all too well. We're approaching 20 percent of our GDP solely dedicated to health care, which is a dubious honor no society on earth has ever achieved before. To make a long story short, a lot of people are making money hand over fist by providing medical services — some of them necessary and life-saving, and some of them high-tech snake oil. When that much money is changing hands, the opportunities for corruption and for fraud are legion, needless to say. One area that is catching the attention of many experts is the tax breaks and incentives that many medical providers receive, often based on criteria that are highly suspect. For example, the vast majority of hospitals in the state of New York are privately run but still tax-exempt because they are "nonprofits" that provide "charity care". This means these giant institutions pay no federal or state corporate income tax, no state sales tax, and no local property tax either. That's a massive giveaway that amounts to a $9.4 million windfall per hospital, in case you like round numbers. Think About It. [T]here is a reason that the WEF-Globalist cabal is losing the battle to control and dominate the rest of us. They are trying to power straight into the opposing currents of reality. Above all, they seek to centralize power and decision-making. But the world is moving in the opposite direction. All of the WEF's aims founder on the macro trends unspooling in history. The rising rule for human affairs now is that anything organized at the giant scale is going to wobble and fail. There will not be any world government run by the creatures of Davos or Brussels, or Washington DC, or any other place that the grandiose imagine would be their seat of global power. It's not going to happen so you can stop worrying about it. But you'd better prepare for what is happening: everything in our world wants to get smaller, slower, finer, and more local. Anything that opposes these trends is [futile]. Do We Have A Democracy? The issue of whether the USA is a democracy continues to arise. The simple truth is: No, the USA is not a democracy, not even a representative democracy, although it once was. That needs to change if America is to survive. Theoretically, we live in a democracy. Schools then and now keep saying America is a democracy, and our federal constitution and all our state constitutions say we are a democracy. But today, the actual structure of our federal government and of all our state governments violates all those constitutions, so democracy is effectively dead. Trump or Bust. In nine months, America will be holding an election for the ages. Yeah, I know everyone says that about every election, but the stakes for November 2024 could not be higher. This assumes we will have an actual election. If it looks like Donald Trump is running away with the election, expect a false flag event to postpone or cancel the election. The excuse could be a war, especially as several are brewing, ready to boil over in October. Or some other excuse to invoke martial law and lockdowns for "public safety." How about those millions of migrants, military-aged males, an invading army ready to cause trouble when called upon? Or a cyber-attack directed at election systems? Another pandemic, the so-called "Disease X" could shut down the country, including voting. And there is still good old-fashioned cheating, although this may be difficult if the margin is too large. The De-evolution of the West. It has been said that intellectuals can reduce a city of stone to sand. Unfortunately, this is especially true as today's "thinking class" wages all-hands-on deck warfare against Western Civilization. The most prominent of these attacks is the Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DIE) movement but DIE is not, however, the only assault. Less obvious, but of no less importance, is how "scholars" now attack Western Civilization by celebrating, "indigenous" cultures that had largely been replaced by Western Civilization. These enemies are not romantics wanting to "return to nature" by living off the grid sans modern conveniences. Rather, the enemies of Western Civilization want it replaced. [...] Finally, there is the celebration of the contribution of indigenous people featured at the 2024 DAVOS meeting, the conclave of the world's most powerful political and economic leaders. In fact, listening to the people from the rain forest and similar backward areas was a central feature of the conference. If... Then... 2024. One must wonder if our nation's capital is hopelessly lost. One must wonder if the Deep State unelected bureaucracy is actually controlling America. One must wonder if the social contract between the government and the governed is dangerously close to breaking. One must wonder if there is anyone or anything that can rein in our CIA/FBI/NSA. One must worry about President Trump's safety and health between Election Day and Inauguration Day. One must wonder how long until normal moms and dads and regular grandmas and grandpas will "no longer comply." One must wonder how many pastors, priests, and preachers will become Dietrich Bonhoeffers. One must wonder if the Supreme Court and the other courts and judges (thus the law) are no longer blind. One must wonder how far the Catholic and Evangelical communities will go to protect their freedom of religion and their First Amendment rights. One must wonder how long two distinct and diametrically opposed cultures can remain one country. One must wonder if time is running out, and the sun is setting, on the American Empire. Why It's Important to Get to the Bottom of Who Killed the Kennedys. The following is a collection of facts suggesting that we may not know what we think we know about two of our nation's most infamous assassinations, those of the Kennedy brothers. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy affected no single person as profoundly as it did then-vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. He and JFK hated each other. Johnson was embroiled in the filthy Bobby Baker scandal, and JFK was considering tossing Johnson off the ticket in his 1964 re-election bid. LBJ's political career would be over, and he might even go to jail. If JFK had lived, Johnson was finished. If the president died, LBJ would inherit the White House. So it's suspect that a last-minute change of plans found JFK in a slow turn into Dealey Plaza, feet from a known communist and former Marine sharpshooter with a history of violence, all in LBJ's home state of Texas, where he held considerable influence. Now is a good time to mention that JFK and the CIA weren't getting along. The Bay of Pigs SNAFU allegedly led JFK to claim he wanted "to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds." Both LBJ and the CIA had everything to lose if Kennedy remained alive and everything to gain if he went away. 10 Questions That Will Determine Who Becomes the Next President of the United States. We can't predict everything, but here are ten critical things to watch as the year goes on. [#1] If Biden continues to look weak, do the Dems switch candidates? If Biden can't continue or is pressured into retirement, what happens next? Do the Democrats end up with a D-lister like Gavin Newsom, Elizabeth Warren, or Kamala Harris? On the other hand, could they end up with much stronger potential candidates like Gretchen Whitmer, Roy Cooper, or Michelle Obama? Unless it happens very soon, the primary process also wouldn't be a factor. Would Democrats embrace a change that is made in smoke-filled backrooms instead of the primary process? There are a lot of questions here, but not a lot of answers yet. Kafka at the International Court of Justice. Kafka's classic novel opens on a mystery we expect the rest of the book to solve: "Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K., for without having done anything wrong he was arrested one fine morning." A regular legal case reveals who is leveling the accusation and provides relevant details of the alleged crime. But Joseph K. never learns what he stands accused of, by whom, or under what authority. In this state of indeterminacy, no man can prove his innocence. Unable to figure out the system that has put him on trial, he is ultimately killed. "It was as if the shame of it must outlive him." Texas Rebellion? The issues in Texas have much greater consequence than a mere state's rights issue. It is a question of national legitimacy. Is the Constitution the legal and rightful expression of American government or is America now simply a mass of lawless land? Is the president a dictator who can ignore the laws passed by congress, invite thousands of terrorists and foreign armies in without consequence, or is he bound by the laws as much as the states and the people? When will the people punish him for this lawlessness? The Constitution, for all of its flaws, shields the people from the government and serves as a limitation on the powers of the government. It stands in the way of the power of government and as such has been attacked by government officials from the day it was presented to the people. [...] The issues are simple. Does the executive branch have the right to ignore laws passed by the congress? That would violate the separation of powers. Does the executive branch have the right to forfeit national security simply because it is charged with maintaining it? That would seem to violate national security, a crime, a felony. If the executive branch can, and indeed has, violated the laws and endangered the nation, particularly damaging the border states, is it not within the power of those states and the people to defend themselves? Defenestrating the Deep State: Implement Schedule F. Our government agencies have a set of existing career officials who can prevent a duly elected presidential administration from accomplishing its goals (e.g., the Russian dossier hoax). The Pendleton (Civil Service Reform) Act of 1883 sought to improve government efficiency and end the "spoils system" by creating a professional managerial element based on merit. A noble idea that, since its enactment, has been corrupted by demographical shifts. An elected presidential administration deserves to have a bureaucracy that facilitates accomplishing its goals, not one that obstructs it. Gitmo [is] still there. It was 15 years ago that President Obama signed an executive order to close Gitmo and keep a campaign promise. Closing Gitmo was supposed to restore our place in the halls of freedom and due process; or so we heard during the campaign of "hope and change." Well, where are we now? Many of the bad guys are still in Gitmo and you don't hear much from the former president about it. [...] It's now 15 years later and they are still there. It's no longer an issue. The "Squad" has moved on to other issues. So what happened? I think that President Obama discovered a couple of realities. The public had little sympathy for the so-called rights of terrorists. Honestly, people are a lot more concerned about someone blowing up a bridge than a bad guy spending the rest of his life in Gitmo. The public instinctively knew that these guys would go back to terrorism if released. Many did. The truth about Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism has been given a bad rap by leftist intelligentsia and their media sycophants. [...] America is not a race; it is an idea based on a set of self-governing principles. America First "nationalists" want to secure our sovereignty and the principles established at our founding. We want our elected representatives to serve the interests of our people, not the elites in Brussels, Davos, or Rome. Our people, being Americans. Not "white Americans," but Americans. The Left is also trying to equate Christianity with the legalism more commonly associated with Islam. Christianity imposes no demands on your values or life choices. It does offer value precepts and invites its followers to adhere to said precepts as a basis for living a righteous life and for positively interacting with our fellow man. Our Founders, while crafting our Declaration and Constitution, well understood that those documents were only as good as "the people" who they were chartered to serve. You're Going To Get Dirty. [Scroll down] We have already allowed them to back nationalism and populism into a corner, framing it solely on Trump and his behavior and approval, but it isn't just Trump. They know that. There were several outbursts at Davos that suggested that more of the world's leaders are starting to see through the manipulation, the failure and fraudulency of their proposals. Green Energy is being exposed and rejected, the whole house of cards can be brought to collapse, if we just continue to push, continue to resist, but the first thing we have to resist is the tendency to seek acceptance; to be seen as congenial participants in a crooked system; believing that holding onto our own decency will somehow overpower their wickedness. The Truth About Vivek. [Scroll down] A lot of stupidity gets posted because that's what you want. Until you learn discernment, you're going to keep getting more of the same. Vivek is different. Whether he believes what he's saying or not is a question only God can answer. No More J6s. [Scroll down] Learn About False-Flag Operations. There's nothing at all new about any of this. The Soviets pulled off this kind of thing repeatedly, and with great success, going back to the 1920s. The CIA, FBI, MI6, Mossad, and numerous domestic law-enforcement outfits have done the same. Familiarize yourself with this history, to help you recognize the methods and techniques. [...] Don't be a Media Puppet. There is nothing that media lefties enjoy more than destroying an unwary grassroots conservative on the air. This can range from trick questions in on-the-spot interviews up to reportage on the exact type of scam event that we're discussing here. Ask yourself: has a single legacy media source reported honestly concerning Jan. 6? Don't let them make a fool of you. [...] The Authorities are Not on Your Side. Don't think for a minute that the cops — whether local, state, or whatever — will be in your corner and will understand your point of view. Nearly half the "conspirators" who set out to "kidnap" the Witch of Lansing were undercover FBI operatives. In a sane world, that case would have been dismissed immediately on grounds of entrapment, but we don't live in one of those. There will be no cavalry riding to the rescue. Archbishop Viganò: Bergoglio is acting as an emissary of the deep church to discredit the papacy. For over three years, Monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò, through his videos and messages, has revealed the truth about the narrative of the great deception we are experiencing. Starting from the Great Reset, then passing through Davos, without neglecting any argument concerning the violation of the individual rights of all peoples, Archbishop Viganò highlighted the worldwide intertwining of the diabolical plan hatched by the globalist elite. The heartfelt appeals of the high Prelate are aimed at strengthening the truth against the "satanic evil" that — warns Archbishop Viganò — is invading the world, to lead it towards a precipice not only of economic collapse, but above all in the direction of an irreversible moral abyss, as if to say that there is no more religion. The Decades of Evidence That Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) Antidepressants Cause Mass Shootings. SSRI antidepressants have a variety of horrendous side effects. These include sometimes causing the individual to become agitated, feeling they can't be in their skin, turning psychotic, and occasionally becoming violently psychotic. During these psychoses, individuals can have out of body experiences where they commit lethal violence either to themselves or others. As lawsuits later showed, this violent behavior (and the frequent suicides that followed it) were observed throughout the SSRI clinical trials, but were covered up by the SSRI manufacturers and then the drug regulators (e.g., the FDA). Once the SSRIs entered the market, there has been a wave of SSRI suicides and unspeakable acts of violence. Sadly, the idea that SSRIs could cause any of this has always been viewed as a "conspiracy theory" or "mistaking correlation with causation" because very few are aware of the extensive evidence linking SSRIs to violent and psychotic behavior — despite it now being on the warning label of those drugs. Our Awakening Terrifies the Left. The Dems spent two years claiming there's no evidence of Biden corruption. Now they're saying there's no "direct" evidence of Biden corruption. Direct evidence being a cancelled check with "Bribe to Joe Biden for services rendered" written in the memo line, and drawn against a Burisma account. Without that proof, the Dems claim this is all a political witch hunt, distracting Joe from doing the people's work of surrendering to goat herders, equipping the Ukrainian military, and ceding our airspace to Chinese balloons. The MSM is doing more stories about Republicans "pouncing" than about what they're pouncing on. They're claiming that Republicans are cheapening impeachment by making it about politics. [...] The jig is up because the mark is onto the con. There will be no token sacrifice of a few useful idiots who have become unuseful — as they claim to have remediated the problem and continue the game. They are acting desperate because they know the awfulness of the Biden administration is awakening Americans to the fact that the whole leftist movement is corrupt from the ground up. The Most Consequential Act of Sabotage in Modern Times. at 2:03 a.m. on Monday, September 26, 2022, at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, an explosion tore open one of the four massive underwater conduits that make up the Nord Stream pipeline. The pipe, made of thick, concrete-encased steel, lay at a depth of 260 feet. It was filled with highly compressed methane gas. Pressure readings would show a sudden plunge as compressed gas screamed through the breach at the speed of sound, tearing the pipe apart and carving deep craters on the seafloor. Gas escaped with enough force to propel a rocket into space. It shot up and up, creating a towering geyser above the surface of the water. There was no one in the vicinity — the middle of the sea in the middle of the night — to see or hear any of this, but the event registered with the force of a small earthquake on seismometers 15 miles away, on the Danish island of Bornholm. Because the explosion had occurred in Danish waters, Denmark dispatched an airplane to investigate. Do Not Apologize. Do not apologize for saying the COVID virus came out of China, with the help of Fauci, and that the Deep State tried to cover up America's involvement in the COVID creation and China's involvement. Do not apologize for saying that those in Washington care very little for the average normal American, who works five to six days a week in a forty- to fifty-hour work week. Do not apologize for wondering if the CIA/FBI were involved in the assassination of JFK. Stop apologizing when someone calls you a "conspiracy theorist," since most of these theories eventually become facts. [...] Do not apologize for believing that Biden and blue-city district attorneys are operating under tyrannical rules today. Do not apologize for refusing to take the untested, untried, and apparently unhealthy vaccine. The Collapse of Credible Authority. In the last couple of decades, almost all of our institutions have failed. One after another has been caught doing things that no one ever imagined they would do. Most of us remember a time when the FBI were not the hired goons of the Democrat party, but almost always obeyed the same laws they were sworn to enforce. Most of us can remember when the Democrat party was, at least from time to time, still worthy of its name — and might cough up the occasional politician who wasn't simply an empty cipher for the radical activists who now apparently run the DNC. More broadly, there was a time when politicians lied when they were backed into a corner, or maybe when it was expedient — but didn't lie as a matter of course. [...] Companies that made packaged food did their best to make it tasty so it would sell — but they did not hire chemists and biologists to make it literally addictive. There was a time in which the FDA could have been reasonably expected to care that roughly 9 out of 10 Americans are metabolically unhealthy. It wouldn't have been crazy to assume that everything you bought in the grocery, other than cigarettes and alcohol, was fundamentally safe for human consumption. Who in his right mind believes that now? Archbishop Viganò: 'False prophet' Bergoglio is guilty of 'all-out apostasy'. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò delivered an address to the "Is the Pope Catholic?" conference this past weekend forcefully stating that Jorge Maria Bergoglio is a "false prophet" who fits the description of the one spoken of by the prophet Daniel during the time of the "final persecution" of the Church, to whom no Catholic owes "any" obedience or collaboration but rather steadfast resistance. "We are ... far beyond heresy," His Excellency declared. "[St. Robert] Bellarmine could never have imagined that an emissary of Freemasonry could go so far as to be elected pope with the purpose of demolishing the Church from within, usurping and abusing the very power of the papacy itself against the papacy. Nor could he have imagined that a hypothetical pope would surpass mere heresy and embrace all-out apostasy." How The American Republic Was Lost. Some may say that it is an exercise in futility to consider what could happen if.... Nevertheless, if not for the Seventeenth Amendment, the Senate would not be controlled by political parties, and the states would have a say in any proposed legislation. Obamacare, the skyrocketing deficit, generous welfare programs, the government-run education system, the departments of Energy and Agriculture, open borders, climate change, and a host of programs and executive orders, plus volumes of intrusive government regulations, would never have seen the light of day. Contrary To Leftist Revisionism, Native American Culture Was Indeed 'Savage'. Progressives embrace victimhood to give themselves moral superiority, which often requires grossly distorted narratives instead of historical facts. Nowhere is this more apparent than in The Nation magazine, where two American Indian "activists" recently "debated" Should America Keep Celebrating Thanksgiving? They agreed that Thanksgiving needed to be "decolonized" and that Thanksgiving needed to refocus on the evil of the colonists. [...] Great. Let's have that "truthful" conversation. The big lie behind this "debate" is that colonial era "indigenous culture" was superior to Western culture. Scratch the surface, though, and you see that their complaint is not that the European colonists were evil but that, in the clash of civilizations, the Indian tribes lost. The world — and the American Indians today — are far better for colonization. The truth is that all the colonial-era North American Indian tribes were nonliterate, militaristic, brutal, stone-age, and only steps removed from hunter-gatherers. Their decentralized tribal governance was a cause of constant war and bloodshed. The Federal Reserve Broke The Budget. Buckle Up For What Comes Next. The 10-year Treasury yield set off roaring alarms about the U.S. budget when it surged to 5% last month. Now those warnings look like a fire drill. Federal Reserve rate hikes seem to be over for now, giving the bond market a reprieve and allowing a powerful S&P 500 rally to resume. Enjoy it while it lasts. The next debt scare may be the real thing, and it could rock the U.S. economy and stock market. Here's why: The Fed's historic turnabout, from enabling massive budget deficits to directing the sharpest rate hikes in 40 years, has seemingly broken the budget. Treasury market stress is almost certain to return. The era of Fed quantitative easing and near-zero interest rates promoted carefree fiscal policies that led the U.S. to rack up $20 trillion in federal debt since the 2008 financial crisis. It's not migrants — saving New York City requires union concessions. When the public complains about announced cuts to police protection and garbage collection, Mayor Adams weasels back, "Don't yell at me, yell at DC." Adams is trying to shift the blame to President Biden and the Democrats' open-border policy. Don't fall for it. The surge of migrants accounts for less than half (42%) of the city's looming fiscal crisis. New York was heading off a fiscal cliff before the surge. Adams' predecessor, spendaholic Bill de Blasio, is partly to blame. But Adams worsened the crisis by negotiating insane labor contracts — especially with the teachers union — that the city cannot afford. It's a transparent attempt by Adams to lock in big labor's support for his own mayoral reelection — never mind that he's selling out city residents. Spaniards Aren't Afraid To Protest, So Why Are American Conservatives? Tens of thousands of protesters have flooded city streets across Spain since October in sustained demonstrations opposing a socialist takeover of the Spanish government. Protesters are showing their opposition toward an amnesty deal between Spain's socialist President Pedro Sánchez and treasonous Catalan separatists, who violated the Spanish constitution in 2017 by attempting to secede from Spain. By striking a deal to free incarcerated and exiled Spanish criminals, Sánchez was able to secure a third term in power. [Tweet with video clip] The protests are organized by Spain's conservative People's Party and Vox, its further right, populist party. In an interview between Vox President Santiago Abascal and Tucker Carlson last week, Abascal explained that the amnesty deal is a crime "against the constitution" and "national unity." But the massive demonstrations are not just in defense of the Spanish Constitution, Abascal explained; they're about what an illegal third Sánchez term means for Spain, namely a failing Spanish economy, two-tier justice, mass illegal immigration from Muslim countries, speech policing, globalism, the demonization of Spanish history, and loss of Spanish identity. A Plausible Explanation for JFK's Assassination? JFK's assassination happened 60 years ago today, November 22, in Dallas. Assassination "investigators" agree on very little, other than Kennedy was killed. Why JFK was assassinated and who did it are the stuff of elaborate theories, a veritable grocery store full of them. An entire industry has been created from them. All claim to have solved the 60-year-old whodunit. But most of it is highfalutin conjecture. Facts are stretched. Supposition is often presented as fact. Solving Kennedy's death is bad for business. JFK assassination: 60 years later we know the truth about the real killer. The JFK mystery will never be solved. Any immediate conspirators are dead or have kept silent into their 90s. If there were indeed a conspiracy, it is remarkable that the silence of conspirators (and their children and grandchildren) remains unbroken over six decades. Yes, there is an abundance of discrepancies and contradictions to provide fodder for the conspiracists; among them, an alleged shot from the grassy knoll, Oswald's presumed deficient Marine training in sharpshooting, his meeting with a KGB agent in Mexico City, and a flawed presidential autopsy. Some sensational and near-comedic explanations have become grist for the conspiracy mill, such as Oswald was not Oswald but had been replaced by a KGB doppelganger. [....] Is not a delusional and dyslexic high school dropout, working for the minimum wage, ill qualified to murder a president single-handedly? My own answer is that we have grossly underestimated Oswald. The Two Nations. Two political, economic, and cultural movements are vying for the soul of America. One is a program from above, and the other, a movement from below. But neither is nationalist as such. One aims to dissolve the nation into a universalist glob, while the other intends to starve the State of resources and disempower its means of centralized command and control. The dominant, top-down political orientation of the current regime is globalism. It makes no practical difference to the U.S. whether the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, or any other globalist organization is behind its program. It has been fully embraced by the government and its corporate partners, or what I call, in my book Google Archipelago, "governmentalities," otherwise "private" companies that operate as state agencies and undertake state functions. Globalism has as its aim the de facto if not legal dissolution of the sovereignty of the United States. It aims at eradicating national borders, nullifying the Constitution, and abrogating the rights of national citizens. It means to control the consumption, reduce the living standards, remold the habits, overwrite the cultures, and even reduce the population of its subjects. Globalism involves a technocracy, with an "expert" class wielding technological tools and systems for surveillance, behavioral modification, and repression. When will NYC do something about the 'staggering' number of e-bike fire deaths? Eric Adams ran for office on a public-safety platform two years ago. His crime record is mixed, but public safety isn't just crime: E-bike and e-scooter battery-fire deaths are reaching "staggering" levels, his fire commissioner says. So it's not good the unrelated corruption suspicions swirling around the mayor involve ... pressuring the FDNY to ignore safety rules, rules that inconvenienced donors and their friends. The familiar story unfolded again last week: A powerful fire obliterated a Brooklyn brownstone. Three people from three generations of the West family, ages 33 to 81, perished. As has become common over three years, the cause was a battery charging an e-scooter, blocking exits. So far, 17 of this year's 93 fire deaths are from such batteries. When the Truth Hurts, Lie. The U.S. Treasury is being looted for their benefit and political money laundering on a massive scale until the bonds can no longer be sold to other nations or corporations that see the writing on the wall. The bond rating has been rightfully downgraded from AAA+ to AAA- and should actually be AA+ or effectively junk, because no one believes they will ever pay them off. This places the banking system and the industries who depend on it in jeopardy from rising interest rates and no one says a word about it, because to acknowledge it would be to recognize our economic demise. To recognize that would be to understand the completely broken nature of the whole system. Vote for whoever you want, the financial and therefore the political structure is unsustainable, by any party no matter who controls the government and the further left the party is, the quicker it will be done. Social
Justice Bullets. Although the following bullets regarding social justice are
routinely ignored by alleged progressives, they will not go away:
America in October of 2024. Joe Biden will not be the Democrat Party nominee in 2024. His high unfavourability stemming from his egregious scandals, his age, his mental decrepitude, and his overall incompetence will embolden the party hierarchy to convince Biden to drop out of the race in the spring of 2024 and then resign after November 5, 2024. Thus, allowing Kamala Harris to serve as the historic first female President of color. The party will nominate someone else who can run on not being responsible for the failures of the Biden Administration while making Donald Trump the entire focus of their campaign. Donald Trump, will in all likelihood, be found guilty of at least one felony in the January 6th "insurrection" trial as it is being adjudicated in Washington D.C. in front of a grossly prejudiced judge and a jury that will no doubt be predominantly made up of anti-Trump voters. America in October of 2024. The 2024 presidential election is a year away. The political landscape of America in October of 2024 will be far different than it is today. The current polling, which focuses on which candidate for president is winning and the attendant punditry, is meaningless. Over the next twelve months there will be a significant increase in voter dissatisfaction due to unabated crime and illegal immigration as well as seismic shifts in the economy and foreign affairs which will dramatically affect the fortunes of both parties and their candidates. A September 2023 poll revealed that just 28% of Americans believe the U.S. political system is working extremely or somewhat well. [...] When combined with 76% of Americans believing the country is headed in the wrong direction, the darkly negative outlook of the citizenry will not improve over the next twelve months as there is virtually nothing indicating a sea change in the nation's fortunes or politics. In fact, an unjaundiced view of the immediate future reveals ever-growing dark clouds on the horizon. The Damage of the 'White Privilege' Smear. One of the many satanic paradoxes of the Third Reich's architecture of the Final Solution was the requirement — mandated after the 1939 outbreak of the war — that Jews anywhere under German rule or occupation had to wear a yellow badge or armband with the Star or David. Yet was not all this elaborate bureaucratic need for identification embarrassing to the Nazi apparat? After all, if Nazi doctrine about supposedly manifest Aryan "racial" superiority — Nordic looks and build, superior intelligence, stable disposition — were so persuasive, then why the need for Jews to identify themselves? In contrast, the Star-of David IDs were prima facie proof that the entire bankrupt Nazi project was based on the unspoken fear that millions of Jews were indistinguishable in all respects from other Europeans. Are We Witnessing The Suicide Of The Nation? America is falling apart at the seams, or so it seems. About a decade ago, Dr. Richard Land — then the president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, today the executive editor of The Christian Post — wrote a book called, "The Divided States of America." If we were divided then, how much more so today? It is inconceivable that the day would come that Jews in America would need to feel fearful. For all of its flaws, America has been a secure place of refuge for the downtrodden, including Jews, who have been historically oppressed in nation after nation. But after Hamas' barbaric atrocities in Israel on Oct. 7, including the beheading of Jewish babies, protesters in America have taken to the streets to denounce the Jews. This anti-Semitic wave is just one of many examples of the decline of our nation. Several months ago, the Wall Street Journal opined that if Western civilization, of which the United States is a prime example, were to die, it would be through suicide. US Banks Are Sitting On $650 Billion In Unrealized Losses — Disaster Is Just A Bank Run Away. Our economy runs on credit, and our banks are the beating heart of that system. Without healthy banks, how would Americans buy homes, purchase vehicles or get credit cards? The way that our system is currently constructed, it is absolutely imperative for our banks to function properly. Unfortunately, the truth is that our banks have gotten into deep financial trouble. They are sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars in unrealized losses, and the primary reason why those losses have become so large is because we have witnessed a historic bond market crash over the past several years[.] Will America Make It Until November 5, 2024? [Scroll down] The complete ineptness and incompetence of Joe Biden and his hapless administration is on full display for all of America's enemies to see. While he claims "rock solid and unwavering support" for Israel, he is pushing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a "humanitarian pause" and criticizing Netanyahu's conduct of his nation's self-defense. Let's also add in the billions of dollars going to Ukraine. What happens when Xi Jinping looks at the calendar and realizes Joe Biden may only be in office for another year, and now might just be the time to invade Taiwan? What then? Islamic Nazis. Quiz: What is the difference between Hitler's Nazis and Palestinian supporters of Fatah and Hamas? Both are national socialists, both have embraced the totalitarian oppressors of their respective peoples and elected them whenever they were given the chance. Both are driven by a demonic hatred to exterminate the Jews. Both deploy "Big Lies" to justify their malignant cause. Answer: The main difference is that Hitler hid the "Final Solution" — the extermination of the Jews — because he feared that Germany's citizens were too civilized to embrace such an inhuman and evil cause. By contrast every Palestinian leader has stated their intentions clearly, written them in their covenants and visions of a Palestine without Jews, boasted of their massacres of innocents down to the cradle, and even shouted them from the rooftops. America Is on the Brink of Becoming a Communist Nation. In 2020, America went through a cultural revolution instantly recognizable to escapees from totalitarianism like Xi Van Fleet, who had lived through the terrors of Mao's China as a schoolgirl, The New York Post reported. Her new book, "Mao's America," is a grave and urgent warning that "the root of today's 'woke revolution,' not to mention its ultimate goal, is Marxism followed by Communism." Mrs. Van Fleet is one of the Virginia moms who spoke to the Loudon County School Board in 2021 to warn them that critical race theory and other woke ideology forced on children is what she experienced during Mao's murderous cultural revolution in China when she was a child. "Chinese by birth, American by choice, survivor of Mao's Cultural Revolution, defender of liberty" is how she describes herself, having emigrated to America in 1996. China's Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Zedong, the Communist dictator who ruled from 1949 to 1976, lasted ten years and covered most of Van Fleet's school years. "In my memory, it also appeared to happen overnight, just like in America in 2020 ... Overnight, we were told the country we lived in was rotten to the core and needed to be dismantled. A War Designed To Be Perpetually Inconclusive Is Not Always Moral. One of the most poorly informed debates in the media coverage of war is the concept of "proportionality." The average person understands it as a kind of transaction. If X kills N citizens of Y, then Y can fairly retaliate by killing N*(1+i) citizens of X, i being a penalty. But what it really means according to the Red Cross is it prohibits attacks against military objectives which are "expected to cause incidental loss of ... civilian objects ... which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated." It might be restated this way: disproportionate acts are operations of war that are not worth it. The bombing of Hiroshima is actually held by some, but not all, as justifiably "proportionate" because it averted an even deadlier invasion of Japan and ended WW2. The same argument can be made to justify the Dambuster Raids, Dresden, the firebombing of Tokyo, etc. It is certainly a slippery slope, but it provides one important insight: useless military acts, symbolic bombings, etc., are potentially disproportionate if they intentionally achieve nothing. World War III is Here and We're Losing It. World War III is everywhere and nowhere. Politicians and pundits predict it and warn about it as they've been doing for 70 years. And for all of that time we've been fighting World War III. Is WWIII in Iran or Ukraine? Yes in its own way. Is it in the confrontations in the South China Sea, the Hamas attack on Israel or in the riots in the streets of our own cities? Also all yes. Not to mention cartels smuggling drugs and foreign influence operations being run in D.C. And it's in a thousand other incidents and crises, some that make the news and some that don't, but that are all around us and others which have long become part of our history. It's all WWIII. This Saturday, Just Say No To The Clock-Changing Madness. This weekend, hundreds of millions of Americans will dutifully set their clocks back one hour, convincing themselves that they've "gained" an hour — despite spending at least part of it resetting all their timepieces. Americans should instead refuse to play along. Few government mandates combine such utter pointlessness and serious public health harms than the twice-a-year switch on and off Daylight Saving Time. It's time to end the madness. A taste of their own medicine: Chomp Chomp, Gulp Gulp. If we manage to avoid World War Three, America has its own grave problem to consider, which is comprehensive collapse — of economic activity, the financial scaffold for it, and of civil order in a society under deadly stress. Most of this damage has been induced by our own political leaders. Now that the House of Representatives has been put in order, it's time for that body to act expeditiously and relieve "Joe Biden" of his responsibilities... and then Ms. Harris... and then Messrs. Garland, Mayorkas, and Wray. Out with them, post haste, and begin the project to save our own country. Johnson as Speaker Changes Everything. Now in the final stages of a decades-long inflation, our economy is exceptionally fragile. Federal spending accounts for 24.2% of GDP. The more it is cut, the greater the short-term negative impact on economic activity. The massive Bidenomics deficit spending, including the Inflation "Reduction" Act, constituted a desperate effort to postpone the inevitable. Credit is contracting, the first step toward a deflationary death spiral. The Federal Reserve's continuing efforts to control inflation by tightening credit contributes to this inevitably. The federal budget will be slashed, one way or the other. This can be accomplished through the political process and/or by financial markets. The latter occurred in 1980, when bond vigilantes restored sanity. Tucker Warns of End Times: A 'Really Dramatic Abrupt Change Is Coming'. Tucker Carlson issued a cautionary statement regarding the imminent occurrence of "abrupt change" that is being seen by a significant number of Americans, hence creating a sense of impending crisis or the "end times" inside the nation. During his address at The Daily Caller News Foundation Gala, Tucker made the following statement: "If something really dramatic in your country happens — like young people can't, I don't know, get married, you know, or buy houses or have any hope for a future that approaches, you know, the middle class upbringing they had — then you've got a huge problem and someone should be responding to that," Carlson advised. He appended. "And if your economy is like on the brink of collapse, you know, if your country is literally bankrupt, I hope someone would say that." Dinesh D'Souza's 'Police State' — You Will Not Look at Government the Same Way After Seeing This Film. My husband and I went to see this movie on Monday night. I was encouraged by the fact that almost every seat in the theatre was filled — more people to get the word out. D'Souza is joined in the general narration of the film by fellow conservative commentator Dan Bongino. As a former New York City police officer and later as a Secret Service agent during the Bush 43 and Obama administrations, Bongino's experience lends much credibility to the many examples of how government agencies, like the FBI, whose chief duties have traditionally been law enforcement, have now become heavily involved in domestic surveillance. The movie asks the essential question of how we got here, and maybe even more importantly, who is responsible for it? Dinesh D'Souza's Police State: I was literally shaking. It's a familiar trope: The agitated young "transgender" person claims that being "misgendered" left him or her "literally shaking." I've always seen that as a sign of a tragically weak human being. However, last night, while watching Dinesh D'Souza's Police State, I found myself literally shaking, too. Maybe I'm pathetically weak, or maybe that movie triggered such a strong "fight or flight" response in me that, sitting there in my seat, unable to react to either instinct, all I could do was tremble. Why is the movie so powerful? Because using a combination of reenactments, interviews, news footage, police body cams, and individuals' security cameras, D'Souza has compellingly put together things we already know about America in 2023 but don't want to admit: We have in place a government that is loyal, not to the people but to the government itself. The Day the Delusions Died. We disagree about politics, [Thomas] Sowell argues, because we disagree about human nature. We see the world through one of two competing visions, each of which tells a radically different story about human nature. Those with "unconstrained vision" think that humans are malleable and can be perfected. They believe that social ills and evils can be overcome through collective action that encourages humans to behave better. To subscribers of this view, poverty, crime, inequality, and war are not inevitable. Rather, they are puzzles that can be solved. We need only to say the right things, enact the right policies, and spend enough money, and we will suffer these social ills no more. This worldview is the foundation of the progressive mindset. By contrast, those who see the world through a "constrained vision" lens believe that human nature is a universal constant. No amount of social engineering can change the sober reality of human self-interest, or the fact that human empathy and social resources are necessarily scarce. People who see things this way believe that most political and social problems will never be "solved"; they can only be managed. This approach is the bedrock of the conservative worldview. Step It Up and Go. The endless insults to common decency and common sense by the vicious governing blob that runs things don't help, either. The main question du jour: when things break really badly, will they break against that vicious blob hard enough to make it stop? This blob — a weird cabal alien to our heritage — is composed of people with names and duties, and institutions too. They have already lost their credibility, their authority, and their legitimacy. The problem is that they haven't lost their power to wreck our country. Exposed and disgraced as they are, they still occupy the seats of command, still twiddle the dials on the control console, still enjoy a foolish illusion of invulnerability. I'm in favor of wholesale impeachment of these top people as the best way to go, first, to pry their hands off the levers of power, and second, use the process of impeachment to move public sentiment to a firmly anti-blob position. What Israel and the US Have in Common. At a current national security level, the two countries share a similar strategic threat from enemies at their borders and, in some respects, enemies internally. In the case of Israel, like the current United States, it was its southern border that was recently penetrated by invaders (at the Kerem Shalom checkpoint near Egypt, among other locations). Moreover, its northern flank, like in the U.S., is also exposed, and to its east looms a vast land mass of hostile interests that can encroach through an unstable Iraq, right up to Israel's lines of defense. [...] What both countries really share, however, is hatred from outside. It is a hate based in many ways on envy. Israel has many successes to claim, while also hosting a social culture utterly unlike its neighbors that surround it, who are still psychologically tied to customs and thought patterns rooted in centuries-old belief. This includes the treatment of women, for example, as well as the full panoply of human rights, law and economics, and their respective institutions. Very bad things are about to happen, on all fronts. The right is divided and weak, and too often unwilling to stand up to the worst behavior of the left. It is so divided that it can't even elect a speaker in the House of Representatives. The left meanwhile is united and angry, and willing to use that anger forcefully at all times. [...] There is great uncertainty on whether the 2024 elections will be run fairly, or whether the Democrats will use fraud and vote tampering to falsify a victory. The weakness and disunity among the Republicans only reinforces this uncertainty. Adding to this uncertainty is the violence and barbarism in the streets of most American cities. All political meetings — from school boards to Congress — seem fraught with anger and shouting and chaos, and it seems impossible for any sane and civilized person to make any headway against this madness. Not Everything That Looks Like a Conspiracy Is a Conspiracy. This past week, I have seen too many smart people conjecturing about whether the Hamas invasion of Israel was a "false flag" operation. This possibility has prompted others to state as a given that 9/11 was an "inside job," or that the CIA killed John F. Kennedy. None of these theories is a given. Skepticism is healthy. Cynicism is not. In times of genuine peril, it can be crippling. Conspiracies fall into two general categories: conspiracies of execution and conspiracies of concealment. The former are rare, at least at high levels; the latter are a dime a dozen. In my own humble career, I have emerged as the chief chronicler of at least three significant conspiracies, two of concealment, one of concealment and possible execution. Close the Border. The American people, at least the reader, has to start getting tough. Those in the government are not your enemies, because they don't even give you the respect of being a human being. They consider you less than that and they've made that clear since 2008 when they threw the people under the bus so they could bail out the banks as if a total crash and reset wouldn't have benefitted the people. It would have. We would now be climbing to new heights of prosperity. Just a simple solution to 2008 would have been this: any bank that went bankrupt would not only not get a bail out, it would not even be able to sell mortgages, of any sort to another banking institution. The loans would have been dissolved. This would have put a lot of homeowners in possession of their homes, commercial real estate would have remained with the businesses associated with them. That would have flooded the economy with liquidity, instead they took the people's retirements, trillions of dollars in private equity and gave it to the banks, who faithfully returned a pittance to the politicians who agreed to the deal, who did it for peanuts in the broader scope of things. Carlson: Our Country Is 'Changing Faster Than It Ever Has, But Not Through Democratic Means'. Tucker Carlson argued in the Thursday edition of his online program on X, formerly Twitter, that the United States is being fundamentally changed under the Biden administration without the approval of the American people. "Nations are defined by the people who live in them. That is the most basic of observations about the world," Carlson began the show. "If you have a country brimming with people who work hard, believe in Christianity and western standards of fairness and are willing therefore to settle their differences without violence, you will likely have a peaceful, prosperous nation," he continued. But if the people inhabiting your country believe in tribalism over universal principles of justice, don't want to work 40 hours a week, and lack self control, "you get a place like Congo, a country that has remained in a state of perpetual civil war since before most Americans were born," Carlson contended. Close the Border. The American people, at least the reader, has to start getting tough. Those in the government are not your enemies, because they don't even give you the respect of being a human being. [...] There are three things the American people need to demand and the time for asking and persuading is over. The demand needs to be threefold: 1) close the border; 2) kill all spending bills; 3) dismantle the FBI. When those things are accomplished to the satisfaction of the people who pay taxes and run the country, then spending bills can be revisited. For Israel, Failures Never Learned and Lessons for Today. In 1947, Arab countries rejected a UN plan to partition the British mandate in Palestine into two states. Armed with British weaponry and guided by British officers, Arabs were convinced they could claim the entire territory by military triumph. If not for comrade Stalin, who supplied the Jews with weapons via Czechoslovakia and dispatched hundreds of seasoned Soviet officers and generals of Jewish heritage to Palestine, all of whom played a pivotal role in the formation, organization, and leadership of the Israeli army, including the air force, Israel would not exist. In subsequent years, however (e.g., 1956, 1967, and 1973), after each decisive victory, Israel crawled back to the humiliated enemies, begging them for reconciliation and offering captured lands as concessions for peace and recognition of the State of Israel. The process was called "land for peace" and has resulted in neither land nor peace. Biden Admin in the midst of crisis: climate change still the biggest threat US and world faces. The Biden Administration is the biggest threat to America right now. Not Russia. Not China. Not Iran or North Korea. Biden. Why? Because the Biden Administration is profoundly stupid and evil and keeps creating disasters wherever it turns its attention. Biden could easily mumble, stumble, and bumble us into a world war at any moment. Biden has made every other threat to the country much worse. Those guys may be the enemy, but Biden is better placed to actually harm the US and is too stupid to keep our foreign adversaries at bay. In the midst of all the crises America and the world face, listen to what Admiral John Kirby says is the biggest problem America faces. It is the most profoundly stupid thing I have heard since AOC opened her mouth and spoke. [Tweet with video clip] I would have expected Kirby to resign in disgust, but he has instead defended Biden's "successful" exit from Afghanistan, his failure to prevent the Ukraine war, and his border policies which have invited millions of military-age men and even terrorists into the US through an open border, and just handed billions of dollars to Iran as it planned and authorized an invasion of Israel. Greg Mannarino: Watch For A "MAJOR FALSE FLAG" On U.S. Soil! The entire global war situation is becoming increasingly unstable, and with that comes a warning from market analyst, Greg Mannarino. He warns that we should be ready and watching for a "major false flag" to occur on United States soil. In his most recent video upload to YouTube, Mannarino warns that tomorrow is going to get interesting because the bond market is closed today. What is going on, since this new war, is the "knee jerk" into the dollar. It is a little stronger. "This new war, the timing of it is... exactly what you would expect in this kind of an environment," he said. Obviously, this war is a "false flag," and "if you think this is the last false flag that you're gonna see, no. Be ready for not just another false flag, but something even bigger! Much bigger!" he warned. The Impact of Third Parties on the 2024 Election. A Gallup poll published on October 4, 2023 should serve as a wake-up call to both the Democrat and Republican Parties as well as their prospective presidential nominees in 2024. A massive 63% of those polled told Gallup they agree with the premise that the Republican and Democratic Parties do such a poor job of representing the American people that a third major party is necessary. 46% of Democrats and a whopping 76% of Independents believe a third party is needed. The change among Republican voters claiming the need for a third party is the most significant revelation of this poll. As of October of 2023, 58% of Republicans believe a third party is a necessity. That is up 13 points from last year when Donald Trump's announced he would run for a second term. None Dare Call It Disruption. [Scroll down] The catastrophic mistake of shutting down the economy due to a virus, coupled with the wrongheaded decision to impose energy scarcity through regulatory schemes and politically correct virtue signaling born from ideological nitwittery, combined with higher tariffs, together created a perfect storm of economic disruption and are the primary reasons for what everybody calls "inflation." Except that, again, it isn't inflation. It is a rising price level driven by these underlying factors. The higher prices in the economy have nothing to do with a devaluation of the dollar because there has been no devaluation of the dollar. The US dollar remains the strongest currency in the world. And there is no evidence that it is being devalued. Moreover, the cost of an ounce of gold has been falling consistently since May of this year. A rising gold price is your first sign of a troubled dollar. The Horrific Attacks in Israel Are Brought to You by the Biden Administration. Our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, fell under attack in a highly planned, highly tactical assault where thousands of rockets were fired into major urban areas in the Jewish state while terrorists simultaneously flooded the streets and killed civilians and soldiers alike. Israel now finds itself in a war against inhuman actions and guerilla war crimes that have not been seen on this level in decades, with many fearing it's only going to get worse. As of this writing, Joe Biden himself has been silent. The administration's response wasn't just utterly embarrassing, it was borderline obscene. The U.S. Office of Palestinian Affairs actually sent out a tweet calling on Israel not to respond with violence. [Tweet] It's not the end of anything. Why is there such consternation and surprise at the House's first-time ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy? Please recall, McCarthy didn't obtain the position until the fifteenth vote! And the victory came with a pyrrhic yoke around McCarthy's neck — the specter of a single Representative capable of starting an impeachment process against him. Which is exactly what just happened. [...] Conservatives are fed up with the Republicans "going along to get along." They want action. Action on dealing with the porous border and stopping the arrogant interlopers with a chip on their respective shoulders, some with their home country's flag in their hand as they illegally sashay into our space and accept American largesse of "free" stuff: food, clothing, healthcare, and shelter. One can only hope that better things are coming from a new Speaker of the House. A crisis of our own making. Higher interest rates, like we see today, make it harder to pay for the essentials, such as critical infrastructure, national defense, and entitlement programs. This forces the government to borrow more and more. It's a vicious cycle. Then one day the music stops. How will the government meet its obligations then? By reaching deeper into your pockets. We can fix the problem, if politicians find the will. But how likely is that? Is America Nearing Fall of Rome Status? America is moving in the wrong direction. New York City, a hotbed of leftist ideology and a microcosm of what's causing America's decline, recently announced it would cut police funding to spend $12 billion more on illegal aliens. The streets may not be safe for U.S. citizens, but at least those here illegally will be comfortable. New York was once the greatest engine of prosperity in the world, and now people are fleeing in droves. We haven't quite gotten to cows grazing in the Roman Forum, but entire swaths of once-thriving cities are now abandoned. Even the inhabited cities are in decline, with rising taxes outpaced by the crumbling institutions they allegedly fund. Left behind is lawlessness, dying communities, and a two-tiered society with the lower class living in progressive misery and insecurity while the rich retreat to luxurious enclaves. Like Rome before it, New York is a valuable warning to America at large because our nation has been heading in the same direction as New York City — just moving slower. 2024: The Trump Boom vs. the Biden Bust. Nothing focuses the minds of American voters more than an economy gone sour. As voters watch their chances of living the American dream dwindle — the price of homes, gas, cars, food, and other necessities skyrocketing; good-paying full-time jobs disappearing; and layoffs spreading throughout the economy — they just want to make the pain go away. And the easiest way for citizens to rid themselves of this pain is to vote out of power its perceived cause: the sitting president and his party. Can the Fed be made to go against human nature? Rate hikes and federal spending don't seem related, until we get into the underlying intent of our fiscal leaders. It's not a pretty sight. But it is to be expected that a government entity, the Federal Reserve in this case, will naturally seek to prolong its existence and power. The ugly side is that in order to preserve their power, they must act against the good of the people for whom they are supposed to work. As an example, today's inflation was started by Fed actions taken in 2008, when they began printing U.S. dollars and ended up creating $8 trillion in new debt. There are a few problems with this. We citizens pay off that debt through increased taxation. Further, that debt was used to allow government spending on Congress's favorite pork projects. Finally, all that debt, all those dollars printed, resulted in inflation. Once again, we citizens are paying for it through high prices. Time to End the Fed and Its Mismanagement of Our Economy. Every major economic downturn of the last 110 years bears the mark of the Federal Reserve. In fact, as long as the Fed has been around, it has swung the economy between inflation and recession. Yet Americans, surprisingly, have tolerated it. But we shouldn't expect that to go on forever. We had three central banks before the Fed, and confined each to the ash heap of history. The problems inherent to central banking are cause to scrap the Fed as well. Globalism Must Be Destroyed. Powerful institutions as varied as the United Nations, World Economic Forum, BlackRock, and even the Vatican all demand an essentially borderless world, in which the peoples of any nation are encouraged to migrate freely into others. Decades of mass migration, primarily in the West, have resulted in not only an explosion of ethnic enclaves existing somewhat autonomously inside host nation-states, but also the fracturing of common civic bonds that once loosely united those nations' native peoples. When citizens or political parties have fought back against policies of uncontrolled immigration, globalist-minded authorities have been quick to demonize their own citizens as racists; xenophobes; or, more recently, purveyors of "hate." Even more devastating for afflicted populations, assimilation is now scorned. Rather than encouraging new residents to adopt the language, customs, and traditions of their adoptive land, governments have chosen to prioritize the cultural identities of recent transplants over the historic identities of the nation states they now call home. Shedding the Republic. We are a nation shedding its skin. It's a painful process, because the old skin isn't quite dead, yet. The new skin, that of a communist, globalist tyranny is anxious to come out, to breathe freely. [...] It's hard to know what side to be on right now. I'm a stalwart American patriot, where that is defined by someone who loves freedom, hates control, wishes to be left alone, but anxious to engage a threat. I fit right in with those who believe that all rights are God-given and no government has the right to take them, even when they have the ability. But is that the America we have been these past few years? I believe in getting the truth and making my decisions based on that. I even understand the responsibility to make sure that I am being given the truth, before making my decisions. No one owes me the truth, though it would be better, more efficient, if I didn't have to track down every statement made by doctors, lawyers and politicians to see if it's the truth before I make a decision, but ultimately the obligation to seek the truth is mine. Big Tech must not be judge, jury and executioner. I'm almost surprised it took them this long. Barely three days after comic, actor and self-styled online guru Russell Brand was accused of rape and sexual assault — as part of a blockbuster Sunday Times, Times and Channel 4 investigation — YouTube has 'demonetised' all of his videos on its platform, depriving him of any advertising income. Brand's channel has 6.5 million subscribers. His videos — catering to that curiously large intersection between 'wellness' aficionados and conspiracy theorists — often rack up millions of views. Industry experts estimate that he was raking in between £2,000 to £4,000 a video, potentially amounting to £1 million a year. But no longer. Brand has been deprived of one of his main revenue streams at a stroke. Apparently, because he has violated YouTube's 'creator responsibility' policy, which allows it to punish videomakers if their 'off-platform behaviour harms our users, community, employees or ecosystem', a standard so vague that it could conceivably be applied to any unpleasant offline conduct. In effect, Brand has been defunded because he has been accused of serious crimes. Is the Pope Catholic? I watched a YouTube video that was filmed this month by Father James Altman, a priest from Holy Cross Parish in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It has gone viral because Father Altman has dared to state that Pope Francis is not a valid Catholic and thus not the pope. In his video, Fr. Altman reads from the Council of Trent, which details certain mortal sins that incur automatic excommunication for any Catholic who commits them. In his video, Fr. Altman lists many recent statements and actions that Pope Francis has taken that disturb Fr. Altman considerably. He refers to Francis only as Jorge Bergoglio. Is Fr. Altman right? Is "Bergoglio" no longer the pope? After some research, I've discovered innumerable responses from those with theological expertise that mitigate several of Fr. Altman's charges. But many supportive videos have also been broadcast on YouTube and Catholic webzines. This division can serve as a microcosm for the wider division plaguing the Catholic Church. Ken Paxton's Tucker Carlson interview and Texas's Vichy Republicans' war against conservatives. When we think of American political families that just won't go away, we tend to look left. The Kennedys, Clintons, and Obamas keep popping up again and again. The Kennedys are a multigenerational dynasty, the Clintons are like a nasty rash, and Barack Obama is clearly Biden's puppet master, with Michelle waiting in the wings if things seem to be turning sour for Democrat prospects in 2024. However, there's another American political family, and that's the George H.W. Bush clan, from Bush, Sr., to Bush, Jr., to Jeb!, to the youngest member of the family, George P. Bush. This clan also won't go away and, from behind the scenes, it plays a very damaging role in the GOP, which it still controls. Rumors Are Flying That Fetterman Has Been Replaced With a Double — but They're Missing the Biggest Oddity. Ever since video spread far and wide last week of Sen. John Fetterman (D-Uncle Fester) reacting with sarcastic derision to news that House Republicans were considering beginning a formal impeachment inquiry against Old Joe Biden, rumors have been flying that the guy in the video wasn't Fetterman at all. Twitter/X is full of detailed comparisons of still photos from each, with the slovenly socialist's supporters deriding doubters as crazed conspiracy theorists going nuts over photos taken with different lighting or from different angles. Amid all the back-and-forth about whether there are now two Fettermans, however, the biggest part of the story has been missed, and that is this: when did this man become coherent? [Tweet with video clip] Lauren Boebert 'Beetlejuice' scandal starting to smell like a political hit. Of course, there's immediate cause for suspicion and heightened skepticism when high-resolution and infrared video footage, focused right on a high-profile conservative firebrand, from a blacked-out theater, emerges almost simultaneously with the scandal. [...] If we use our abductive [sic] reasoning skills... if it looks like a political hit, swims like a political hit, and quacks like a political hit, it's a political hit. The Editor says... Some
truths for conservatives to remember as things falls apart: Americans are immersed in
an ocean of lies, deceit, and propaganda. The MSM, at the behest of the Marxist-Leninist Lizard
Overlords, gleefully inject their digital fentanyl into our "skulls full of mush," knowing that tens
of millions of zombiesque addicted souls will never recover their sense of inquiry and resolve.
So, for the never woke, the un-woke, the semi-woke, and the drooling woke, I have gathered a short list
of what I believe is the honest ground truth in America today. [...]
Never Hire Anyone Who Looks Like They'd Be a Lawsuit to Fire. While I believe social media is, over all, a cancer on society, it does serve some invaluable purposes for people willing to look for them. One, possibly the biggest, is it leads a lot of leftist weirdos to show the world exactly who and what they are. Radical racists, anti-American militants and attention-whoring gender mutants all feel compelled to film themselves saying things that used to be met with [violent retribution]. [...] The current crop of crybabies are ready to be victims; they crave it. They are the mental equivalent of Meghan and Harry — telling every camera they can run up to about how they just want to be left alone without recognizing the irony. Anyone with enough time to make up some dumbass word they insist passes as a "pronoun" simply because they've added "self" to it is worth avoiding. And while the general state of unattractiveness, neck and face tattoos and so many piercings in their head that passing through airport security requires an extra hour of prep work are all dead giveaways, there's nothing like a confession. Beware of man-made gods in churches. In the context of this op-ed, I would like to underscore the activities of man-made gods that are not made of wood and stone. These are human beings who have taken the place of God by arrogating supernatural powers to themselves and pervert the true worship of God. In many African churches today, worshipers are no longer adhering to the Word of God but the words of false teachers. Their words have become more authoritative than the Bible to their followers. They made themselves appear so holy that no one dares criticize them. Every one of their follower bows down to them whenever they are passing by and everyone stands still at their presence. They have thugs and bodyguards who surround them and physically manhandle anyone who refuses to bow before them. Despite Media Pearl-Clutching, Paxton Has A Clear Path To Beating Impeachment. In Texas, the impeachment trial of popular Attorney General Ken Paxton has gotten off to its historic start. The state has never impeached an AG before, and the last time a statewide elected official was removed from office was in 1917 — more than 100 years ago. For many in corporate media, the day of trial was a long time coming. For more than a decade, Paxton and his wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, have been relentlessly pursued in the press on allegations of misconduct and impropriety. [...] However, contrary to the prognostications of commentators and the wishes of the press corps, the first day of trial showed that Paxton has a very clear and very attainable path to victory. In order to convict the attorney general and remove him from office, two-thirds of the Senate must agree. While Sen. Paxton will be recused from casting a ballot for or against her husband, she is permitted to remain on the floor, meaning that out of the 31 senators, Paxton needs only 10 to vote for his acquittal. The Veil of National Security. There is no national security. One cannot have national security with an open border and unvetted entrants. It's as simple as that. What we do have is national secrets kept from the people for no other reason than to protect the usurpers and treasonous from the consequences of their actions. Part of this is accomplished from hiding the facts from the people, the other part is accomplished by arresting those who discover the hidden facts. The point is, if the government didn't have so much to hide from the people, especially their illegal activity, there would be very little that would have to be kept secret. But, today, almost everything that points to government corruption is hidden behind the veil of national security. If this were a proper republic, with laws and stuff like that, where individuals had rights to privacy and the government didn't, as intended, it would be a much different place and it might prosper. But in the corrupt world the treasonous have created out of the shell of the republic, it cannot. Prosperity is the first casualty of tyranny. No, Governor DeSantis, You are not a Navy SEAL. Yes, JAG officers work with the SEALs, write wills for them, write powers of attorney, give legal advice, and sometimes even advise SEAL commanders on rules-of-engagement matters. This is honorable service. And yes, JAG officers might find themselves in harm's way. But the SEALs, with the most dangerous job in the world, are always in harm's way. DeSantis knows that JAG officers don't jump from a plane at 30,000 feet over the ocean, or go on top-secret missions to kill Al Qaeda Terrorists. Technically, DeSantis claiming "I was with the SEALs" may be accurate, but misleading and incomplete. DeSantis was a JAG officer, not a SEAL. Both are honorable, but there's a difference. India Lands Cartoon on the Moon. First China and now India have successfully landed animations on the "moon" and in upside down world you are expected to digest it all as fact despite precious little proof that these scientific "accomplishments" are real. And in the case of India's moon mission, the animation on South Park is better. [Video clip] India's Chandrayaan-3 moon lander spotted from lunar orbit. A NASA moon probe has snapped an aerial photo of India's Chandrayaan-3 lander, the first craft ever to successfully touch down near the lunar south pole. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the image on Aug. 27, four days after Chandrayaan-3's history-making landing on the moon. The photo shows the dark rectangular shadow of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander surrounded by a "bright halo," which "resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil)," NASA officials wrote in an image description today (Sept. 5). Did India Really Land on the Moon? [If so, we would expect to see better TV pictures with 21st-century technology than we saw in 1972.] [Video clip only.] But wait... Time for Another Great Awakening. We may be on the path to a combined financial, moral, civil, and geopolitical crisis that could extend for many years. This is no one-day event. There are no easy answers to what lies ahead. People already sense trouble and are starting to pay attention. We don't need a transformed nation; we need a restored nation. And that happens only through a change in individual attitudes and beliefs toward the Divine Providence of God. Why Are Mortgage Rates So High? Thirty-year mortgage rates were over 7 percent at the end of August 2023, a level not seen (other than two isolated weeks) since 2002. Why are mortgage rates so high? Factors commonly mentioned are important. Interest rates are higher due to the Federal Reserve's increases in rates from their near-zero levels. These higher rates indicate some combination of higher expected inflation and higher expected real interest rates. These higher short-term rates are reflected in higher long-term rates and higher yields to maturity on government bonds. This indicates that the higher short-term rates are expected to persist. Is Justin Trudeau the Worst Prime Minister in History? Having recently posted an article in which I ask the rhetorical question "Is Joe Biden the Worst President in History," I felt an andiron piece with regard to my own country might be appropriate. Is Justin Trudeau the worst prime minister in history? The answer is, "Well, probably." He's a work in accelerated progress, though it must be said that he had immense help along the way: a compliant Parliament, an appointed Senate, a complicit Judiciary, and a bought-and-paid-for media have been loyally riding shotgun. Trudeau is perhaps the most disappointing, unctuous, and injurious prime minister ever to occupy the seat of power in Canada. It's Time To Bring Back Citizen Militias. The most common retort you will encounter from skeptics and dishonest people when it comes to discussing the issue of economic decline, social breakdown and the PROVEN conspiracy of globalist institutions to centralize power under the formation of a worldwide financial system and a world government, is that "It's all well and good to talk about the problems, but unless you can come up with solutions your analysis is irrelevant." This is a classic disinformation tactic: Suggesting that the person who identified the problem must also solve the problem, otherwise they should not be taken seriously. This is called "deflection." You loot, we shoot" is Americans' answer to the left's plot to enslave them. Governor Ron DeSantis is a very good governor. He may or may not out-debate the California pretty boy governor if that debate actually happens, but he sure out-governs him. The guy can run a big state, which historically suggests he could run a big country. See, Reagan, Ronald; but see, Carter, Jimmy. DeSantis gave a speech the other day about the aftermath of a hurricane that barreled through Florida. Concern had been expressed about looting in the wake of the disaster. [...] He all but said "Make my day." I don't advocate shooting looters. But I find it very understandable. I used to own some firearms myself until that tragic boating accident sent them to the bottom of a lake whose name I've forgotten. Until that happened, it's quite possible that an intruder into my home would have been confronted with the business end of them. BRICS is fake. This somewhat odd organization began life 22 years ago as an investment strategy created by Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O'Neill — basically, a grouping of large developing countries he thought would grow rapidly. "BRICs" was an acronym for that list of countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China. Later, the four countries actually got together and decided to turn the Goldman Sachs acronym into an actual economic forum, where they'd meet periodically and talk about how to speed economic development, create new financial institutions, and increase developing countries' general influence in the world. In 2010 South Africa joined, and BRICs became BRICS. The BRICS kept meeting and proposing economic initiatives, none of which went anywhere. The flip side of 'I, Pencil'. [Scroll down] In 1958, our fear was that foolish western governments would copy the Soviets and the Red Chinese, issuing five-year plans to compel manufactures, gumming up the works in the process. In 1958, we never dreamed that our greatest risk would be the reverse. Today, the Western economies — once called market economies; if only it were true — are shutting down industry after industry, for the most outrageous reasons. We ban oil drilling, creating unnecessary shortages of energy and plastics. We ban smelting and other metalworking, creating a dependence on failed third world economies or the use of substandard materials. We ban any form of manufacturing that's labor-intensive at home, leading to the unspoken reality of furthering miserable child labor conditions abroad. In the generations since Leonard Read wrote "I, Pencil," in fact, governments have mastered the deviant art of thoughtlessly banning whole industries "for our own good." This has made us dependent on "foreign low-cost-countries," primarily Red China, for not only finished products, but a huge percentage of the components for the products we manufacture here. Left-Wing Rage: Don't Pretend It Doesn't Exist. The University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats' June survey of 3,543 adults has produced a lot of data noise but it also includes some useful information. Of course the media want to ring the bells over one finding in particular: an increase in the percentage those who agree that "the use of force is justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency." According to the project, in early April only 4.5% of those polled agreed with that statement. By late June, though, it had risen to (a rounded-up) 7%, "the equivalent of an estimated shift from 12 million to 18 million American adults." The media-wide implication is that the growing support for using force to put Trump back in the White House is fueled by the extremism (and dare we say "semi-fascism"?) of Republicans and MAGA followers. A prime example of this bias is found in the headline over a story in The Hill. It reads "More say violence could be necessary to restore Trump to White House." A closer look at the data, however, show both Democrats (4.5%) and independents (7.8%) agree with the statement. So it's not just Republicans who would be sympathetic to the use of force in favor of Trump. Isn't that a point worthy of highlighting? The Decline and Fall of a Once Great Company. On August 25, 2023, the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) will convene its annual members meeting to re-elect the CEO and Board of Directors. For over 100 years, USAA has provided insurance and banking services to the military community and relied heavily on this symbiotic relationship to promote its business model. But since 2020, when Wayne Peacock became USAA's only non-veteran CEO, the corporation has embraced diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE), corporate social responsibility (CSR), and environment, social, and government (ESG) programs. Soon after Mr. Peacock's appointment as CEO, USAA renewed its exclusive sponsorship with the National Football League, disregarding pushback from many of its members, who objected vehemently to players taking knee during the playing of the National Anthem. USAA executives dismissed these concerns, framing the disrespectful display as a freedom of speech issue. The implication was that USAA's financial support of unpatriotic, controversial behavior is compatible with the company's mission. American Self-Government is Falling Apart. The American system does not require unanimity. In fact, its design presumes deep disagreement on matters of morality and policy. This is why questions like religion are left to individual conscience, and why most policy is left to states or even smaller units, where the law's touch will not be felt as harshly, because it reflects the more similar values of a smaller group. Finally, regardless of who has the reins of the federal government, the Constitution renders a great deal of substantive activity off limits, as exemplified by the Bill of Rights. The theory is sensible. Sometimes one side wins, sometimes the other. Because one does not know if his side will be in power or on the receiving end of the power of others, government is limited. [...] This system requires some minimal degree of national unity and national identity to function. The Frame of Reverence. In the end of the Obama Era, a trend began to germinate in the bibliosphere of a certain social cohort — here to be called the Liberal-Identifying Bourgeoisie (LIBs) — wherein more conventional themes of liberal discourse — themes such as skepticism of war, protection of civil liberties, and economic justice — were superseded by what amounted to a collection of tropes, such as Decency, Empathy, and Compassion. [...] The LIBs are consistently the most eager to suspend or attenuate constitutional guarantees, and the most vocal proponents of "emergency exceptions" to constitutional protections. This erosion of liberal principles among the LIBs is traceable to a sociological fact — namely, that this is the cohort that has most thoroughly "transcended" the Mythos of Civic Americanism. Al Gore, his legal team and I tried to find uncounted presidential votes, lobbied officials and fought in the courts in 2000. Electoral challenges have long been part of American history. Only now are they being criminalized. I was one of the lawyers involved in objections to Florida's presidential vote in 2000. A margin of less than 600 ballots determined that Governor George W. Bush rather than Vice President Al Gore won the state and, thus, the electoral college vote. I was convinced then and I am convinced now that this result was wrong. No one was indicted, disbarred, disciplined or even much criticized for those efforts, yet here we stand today. President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants has been charged with election fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and more, under a law designed to take down criminal organizations, known as the RICO Act. Should Al Gore have been charged in 2000? What about me? The Impeachment Chorus Needs to Cool It. Politics is not a sporting event to entertain fans of opposing teams. It is a strategic battle to effect change, accomplished by winning elections. Which requires attracting crossover voters, not pandering to an existing base. Those demanding prompt impeachment need to consider how this impacts the upcoming election. Who will go to prison, Biden or Trump? President Biden and former President Donald Trump are now in a legal death match, where, for either one to stay out of prison, his opponent will probably go to prison. The Biden Democrats have made no secret that they are willing to do almost anything to put Mr. Trump behind bars. The necessity of locking up Mr. Trump for Mr. Biden and his family to remain free has become even more acute given the added evidence of wrongdoing by the Biden family. Mr. Biden has to be reelected to be certain that no member of his family, including himself, is convicted of any felony with prison time or, if convicted, pardoned. Will Dems mysteriously turn red Iowa blue? Bet on it. The Wall Street Journal this week ran a compelling story entitled, "Why Democrats Lost Iowa," pointing out that Iowa was a "key state that helped elect Barack Obama president." It observes, "Iowa was once a center of gravity for both political parties during presidential elections and a key swing state. In recent years it has turned so red that Democrats have little political power in the state and the party's candidates have few reasons to go." No doubt, Democratic Party leaders read the story and reached the same conclusion about the suddenly red, inconvenient flyover state. Ron DeSantis jumps the shark. I've been a fan of Ron DeSantis for a long time, given the great job he's done as Florida governor and the results of it leading to Florida becoming a red state. I've been willing to overlook his errors, e.g., too much emphasis on the trans issue, the extended fight with Disney, the flip-flopping on Ukraine, the idiots on his campaign staff, the ill-timed and unwinnable campaign against President Trump — because his successes outshine these stumbles. But he's gone over to the dark side in his recent remark that the election of 2020 was fraud-free. Did FDR Bait the Japanese to Attack Pearl Harbor? In 2021, U.S. Navy veteran Douglas P. Horne published a masterfully researched book, The McCollum Memorandum: a Story of Washington, D.C., in 1940-41, that takes a microscope to the available historical facts in the lead-up to Pearl Harbor and concludes that FDR not only knew about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance but had wanted it to happen. Now, Horne has a fascinating podcast discussing the McCollum Memorandum, a foreign policy action memorandum authored on October 7, 1940, by Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. McCollum, the director of the Office of Naval Intelligence's Far Eastern Section. Vivek Ramaswamy: Not Constitutionally Eligible to be President. The Constitution should be no "respecter of persons" and should be upheld as the supreme law of the land, period. Moreover, this article is meant to clarify, not vilify. Unfortunately for the Constitution, we've already seen a man elected to the presidency who many believe wasn't a natural born citizen: Barack Obama. That doesn't mean that we should abandon the natural-born citizen eligibility requirement. As with any other error, once discovered we can take steps to prevent its reoccurrence. As for Ramaswamy, although he refuses to directly answer questions critical to determining whether he is a natural-born citizen, the public record provides enough information to make the call without his help. We know that Ramaswamy was born in 1985. We know that his mother and father immigrated here from India about 40 years ago, according to information revealed in a Washington Post article from April 3, 2023. The process for becoming a naturalized citizen typically takes about five years. I worked for several years as an immigration attorney and can personally attest to the truth of this. If we subtract 40 from 2023, we get 1983. If allow a range of two years on both sides of the estimated year of immigration of Ramaswamy's parents — 1983 — that gives us a range of 1981-1985. Regardless of where the actual date of arrival in the United States falls, that range does not provide sufficient time for Ramaswamy's parents to have completed the necessary steps for naturalization before his birth in 1985. Does America Need a New Authoritarian President? Given the highly-publicized histories of certain authoritarian leaders, younger readers may be surprised to learn that America has already had several authoritarian presidents. Theodore Roosevelt stands out as one of the best-known, revered by many, with John F. Kennedy running a close second. Donald Trump was and perhaps will be again, a strong authoritarian president. And don't forget about Woodrow Wilson either, who very much fits the definition. Why are we afraid of the word authoritarian? Well, because there are notorious authoritarians too, men like Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. The Editor says... Yellow Freight and an economy on the margin. Yellow Freight, a massive, almost century-old LTL carrier, has gone out of business, and the "spin" of the business world will likely rival the spin of the political world in covering this news. First, some background. LTL refers to "less than truckload freight," so an LTL carrier is one that picks up relatively small loads, usually 1 to 5 pallets' worth, and consolidates them at terminals with other such freight with similar destinations, in what is called a "cross-dock" operation. [...] Yellow has had multiple restructurings and acquisitions since the 1970s, each time hoping to emerge stronger, while arguably digging itself a deeper hole. Gradually, Yellow had to lower its prices to keep business, reducing opportunities for profits, bleeding cash year after year as a result. Reining in Regulatory Agency Fiefdoms With a Dose of Democracy. This fall, the Supreme Court will hear several cases affording promising opportunities to rein in the federal administrative state. The court has agreed to decide cases that challenge the practice of federal courts showing judicial deference to agency interpretations of the laws they are charged with enforcing as well as the constitutionality of an agency funding scheme that's free from the congressional appropriations process and regular congressional oversight. The court also has agreed to hear a case that may restore one of the greatest innovations of free people — the jury trial — to a whole class of civil cases currently prosecuted by administrative agencies and presided over solely by judges employed by those agencies. The potential of SEC v. Jarkesy to instate the right to a jury trial in administrative civil cases could make it one of the most consequential cases of the upcoming term. New Poll Makes a Compelling Case for Stripping Power From the Federal Government and Returning It to the States. Does this make the case for more federalism and focus on states with a weakened or nonexistent centralized government? [...] The most recent Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that only 40 percent approve of President Joe Biden's performance, while 54 percent disapprove. At the end of former President Donald Trump's presidency, approval rating was at 34 percent, while 62 percent disapproved. The data seems to show that Americans have far more trust in their state governments than in the federal government. While some presidents have enjoyed net positive approval ratings when they left office over the past five decades, it is doubtful that Biden's will be much better than Trump's. The trend seems to show that the federal government's popularity has eroded considerably since 1789, doesn't it? Vivek Ramaswami is not my pick for POTUS 2024. Things may change, and 2028 is right around the corner. Will the European Union Devolve into a Group of Third-World Countries? For 30 years, the E.U. bought cheap natural gas from an adversary, Russia, to fuel its nations' economies. The cheap gas allowed them to maintain cost parity with their Asian and U.S. competitors in the world export markets for manufactured goods like machinery, vehicles, and chemicals, all energy-intensive manufacturing processes. At the same time, they shut down fossil fuel power plants and even nuclear power plants, although the latter emits only heat and water vapor as byproducts of their operations. In doing so, they abandoned 79 billion tons of domestic coal reserves across the E.U., further placing their manufacturing sector at the mercy of foreign energy producers. Then, when the E.U. placed an embargo on the import of fossil fuels from Russia due to the latter's invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, administered the coup de grâce: he cut off the supply of Russian gas to the E.U. from the Nord Stream One pipeline. Parties unknown sealed the fate of the E.U. when they blew up the undersea pipeline, ensuring that the supply of cheap natural gas to the E.U. had ended. Carbon Fascism, Where it Came From. As the saying goes — the same ones who sell the panic sell the cure. Reinventing government allowed for the most powerful corporations, NGOs, private equity companies, non-profits to help design and manufacture every modern crisis we've faced, only to follow up with the remedy to what ails us as a society to increase the globalist control apparatus — exponentially. Look no further than the Covid 19 pandemic as the perfect example for that. Who funds all of this? We do. As consumers, what choice do you have other than to pull up to the pump and buy gas from Chevron, BP or Exxon? Who can resist the convenience of Amazon? 10 companies control most of the food we buy. Apple iPhone — surveillance, convenience, connectivity, control you NEED to function in today's society — shut up and take my money. Big banks, investing YOUR pensions and retirement to achieve the global goals, and as long as your business conforms to the agenda, BlackRock will grant you a hefty loan. Who profits off of the wars? Reference Carlyle Group and how they made all of their money and continue to gobble up companies at breakneck speed — namely defense contractors. How much did Halliburton rake in at the behest of ex CEO and Vice President Dick Cheney? Who do these large corporations and private equity companies praise their allegiance to? The United Nations and World Economic Forum. The "stakeholders" are no longer the customers. Meet the Threat that No One Saw Coming. Have you ever tried to warn people about something, only to be told repeatedly that there's nothing to worry about? That you are not a serious adult for even broaching such issues? Ever wonder how things would have gone if people shouted out their windows for Paul Revere to shut up, the king's army is on the other side of the ocean? Ever started to feel like Cassandra? What if there were substantial evidence that shady operators currently inhabiting the U.S. have the determination and connections to pose a threat to free speech, starting with the press and the internet? Suppose these individuals are known to have connections in U.S. and in international political, charity, and think-tank circles? Biden's minions target gas generators. Is there anything Joe Biden and his greenie paymasters won't try to take away from us? Issues & Insights has found a doozy of a new item they're targeting for taking away from us — gas-powered generators, which are used in the event of blackouts: [...] The legality of this is amazingly questionable. They're literally ruling by "rules" to enact vast declines in our standard of living, taking away our freedom of what we can buy for our basic energy needs because of global warming. It's [nonsense]. In places such as California, the grid has been so battered by greenie requirements for energy production blackouts are expected and inevitable. [...] Generators, in particular, are a bad one to target as they are used in emergencies, that's right, emergencies, and as emergencies, that means people die if they don't have them. That could be the electricity needed to power a life-saving medical device, or the electricity to keep a resident from baking in his own home during a heat wave or freezing to death in some mountain redoubt during a snow-in and Arctic-cold swoopdown. They may be the difference between food in the fridge or no food at all. But none of these factors seem to bother the Bidenites, who are already on record as wanting to take away our flush toilets, our incandescent light bulbs, our gas stoves, our meat supply and, now, our generators. You'll Have Blackouts and You Will Love Them. When the power goes out, most of us just have to wait until it's restored to get back to our normal lives. In the meantime, as we wander through a dark house flipping useless switches out of habit, we make sure we don't open the refrigerator and we put off anything we had planned that requires us to burn electricity. The more-prepared among us, though, buy fossil-fuel-powered generators to avoid interruptions[.] Their future, though, is in doubt. The Biden administration wants those generators to go the way of the incandescent light bulb. The Editor says... America's Degradation Is No Accident. What happened? In a single word, the answer to the question "What happened" is "Hijacked." The government we inherited from the American Founders has been hijacked and turned against us. George Washington characterized America as "an experiment in ordered liberty." The experiment promotes liberty, but liberty requires order. Every society has a criminal element. Supplying the order sufficient to suppress this criminal element calls forth the police power of the state. To fulfill its purpose, this police power must be considerable. Washington accurately described this power when he stated, "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." The Last Election. Political polarization in the U.S. is a fact. "According to the Pew Research Center, members of both parties who have unfavorable opinions of the opposing party have doubled since 1994, while those who have very unfavorable opinions of the opposing party are at record highs as of 2023 ... American Facebook users on the political right and political left shared almost no common interests." Not only are two camps emerging, they are fighting, even at the expense of governance. GOP senators are rattled by a radical conservative populism that is taking rhetoric beyond mere talking points to its logical conclusions. [...] The Democrats and Republicans are being pulled apart by the new Woke conspiracy attractors reshaping the scene. The old axis is being disrupted by a second dimension perpendicular to it. It's interesting to watch the political parties try to cope. On the GOP side, it produced a plethora of outsider candidates. On the Dem side, it created a Brezhnev-like inbred stagnation. This is why RFK is shaking up the Dem primaries by running as a conspirator and why the GOP establishment candidates are languishing. The parties can only grow in forbidden directions, and the pressure to transform is plunging them into crisis. The Global Constitution for the World. The call for a Constitutional Convention of States under Article V of the U.S. Constitution grows louder. The pretext used is the desire to reign in the out-of-control government spending and corruption in Congress. Governments across the globe are nudged by globalists to institute digital currency and, in the U.S., the Constitution stands in the way and it must be modified. Proponents of such a convention even found escapees from communist regimes like Cuba and Venezuela and are using them to make public statements that such a convention would prevent communism from taking hold in this country, a ludicrous idea. Aside from the fact that communism has not been defeated but adopted in the U.S. and grown exponentially thanks to academia, public schools, and the main stream media, people fail to mention the real possibility of a runaway convention where the Constitution would be replaced with one already written, waiting to be adopted and deployed. What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. As a matter of habit, the Administrative State formed Fanny and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants which now underwrite 90% of all home mortgages in America. This government interference in our once free enterprise system first led to skyrocketing home prices, then it led to the housing and stock market crash of 2008. Today, the government "commands and controls" 100% of the home mortgage market. At the same time the housing and stock markets crashed in 2008, the federal government set out to "help those who cannot afford to go to college" by taking over the student loan industry. It was once one of a family's proudest moments, to go to the local bank, take out an affordable loan, and send a family member to college, so their life might be afforded greater opportunities. That was until our federal government, exercising an old vice that has become a habit, decided to take control of another sector of our once free economy. The Amazing Accomplishments of Adam Andrzejewski and Open The Books. When Congress approved and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in 1966, it became the law of the land that the public business of the United States is the business of the American public. Just because the FOIA had become the law, however, little immediately changed in the dominant culture of secrecy, self-serving, and cover-up that always and everywhere pervades bureaucracies, but especially the sprawling bureaucracy of the federal executive branch. That suffocating and constantly expansive culture would only change when millions of individual citizens and activists (plus journalists devoted to "the public's right to know") made continuing use of the FOIA and insisted that the law be respected and followed, even if doing so required persistence and insistence to the point of hiring lawyers and heading into court. When the authoritative history of the succeeding 56 years is written, one individual and the non-profit group he founded will stand out — Adam Andrzejewski and Open the Books. 'Not My Concern" Narrows the GOP Field. One of the best responses was from Vivek Ramaswamy, the young ferociously articulate candidate who, I think, will not be president this time, but who truly gets it. Asked about the origin of January 6, 2021, the little contretemps at the Capitol in 2021, he said, "Well it was probably because of censorship." Tell people they cannot speak, he said, and they will scream. Tell them they cannot scream, and they will start taking things apart. There you have it. I love Vivek. Maybe he will be president someday. Not this time, I think, but maybe soon (how about a Trump Vivek ticket? I am just saying). The Editor says... America: Land of the Free, Home of the Deluded. A severe mental and emotional breakdown on a mass scale is taking place. Or, as my closest friend recently put it, "America is going insane." The issues we face are not only those about which reasonable people might disagree, but delusional concerns lacking a basis in reality. Incorporating Out-of-State Regulations is Unconstitutional. Besides Washington D.C., as many as 14 states — the CARB states, so called after the California Air Resources Board — apply the bluebook, California's stringent air pollution control laws. In most of them, lawmakers have neither legislated on the matter nor consulted citizens. This anomaly is being challenged as unconstitutional by Peters Brothers Inc., a trucking firm based in Lenhartsville, Pennsylvania. The family business owns a fleet of refrigerated trucks. Artificial Intelligence: The Facts. Artificial Intelligence was introduced by Alan Turing in his 1950 paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." Turing had first proposed computers in the 1930s and then played a role in building the earliest working models for the British codebreakers at Bletchley Park. [...] Turing had originally dismissed notions of machine intelligence due to the fact that machines lacked intuition — the human facility that enables us to skip step-by-step procedures and go immediately to the heart of a problem. There exists no way to quantify intuition — along with other related human capabilities such as imagination. Though Turing ignored this factor in his 1950 paper, it remains true today. There is no means of breaking down intuition, imagination, or simple common sense to make them programmable. Our Nation Was Not Founded in 1776. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress voted to approve the Declaration of Independence that established separation of the colonies from England. The Declaration did not establish new rights but simply re-affirmed the old rights that all Englishmen had under law. The rights of the colonials were already codified into English law. The Crown and Parliament were ignoring those rights and, through government force, were actually curtailing them. The Colonials were only fighting to keep their rights for themselves and their descendants. [...] The colonies would become "Free and Independent States," equal to the State of Great Britain, and free to form their own governments. They were not bound together as a nation, but "unified" solely for the purpose of defending themselves against invasion by the British. [...] The Declaration of Independence simply established the secession of thirteen colonies from Great Britain, each of which would form its own "nation." Say, Looks Like That Supply-Side Stuff Works After All. Bidenomonics has been, and will continue to be, a disaster. This is what happens when lawmakers manipulate economies. No one should ever expect a different outcome when politicians enact ideas that they believe are so brilliant that they will overcome the laws of economics. The way out of this mess is to make a policy U-turn to both unleash the economy and expand precious liberty. What the Fourth of July Was Not. [Scroll down] In other words, so-called white males established a foundational document whose inherent logic was that the millions of Americans not yet born — who would not necessarily look like them, or share their ancestry — would become their political equals. Most nation founders do not envision the future of their country in terms that might not privilege those of their own tribe. In contrast, today it would be difficult for a foreign national to become a full-fledged Chinese, Mexican, or Iranian citizen, with full equal rights, who either did not look like, or embrace a religion different from, the majority population. Don't Look Now, But Utter Chaos Is Being Unleashed All Over The World. The relative peace and tranquility that we had been enjoying for several months has been shattered. All of a sudden, chaos is erupting all over the globe. Rioters are setting fires in cities all over France, the IDF just conducted the largest military operation in the West Bank since 2002, and the Russians and the Ukrainians are both accusing one another of wanting to attack the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. If that facility is bombed, it could potentially cause a nuclear disaster far worse than the one that we witnessed at Chernobyl in 1986. Unfortunately, I believe that global instability will be the norm throughout the remainder of 2023 and beyond. Much more civil unrest and war are ahead, and that has very serious implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet. The Controlled Demolition of Nation-States. [Scroll down] Additionally, because central banks have encouraged borrowing, they have pumped more money into the greater economy. With the supply of money artificially increased, some individuals are willing to pay more now than before for the same goods or services. Consequently, the prices of goods and services increase, producing inflation. There are two important effects stemming from inflation: (1) a middle-class citizen on a fixed income must now pay more for living expenses, while (2) a higher-class citizen who owns stocks, homes, and other assets will see the currency-denominated value of those assets increase. In other words, inflation acts as a tax on poorer individuals who own little and a supplement for wealthier individuals who own much. While a middle-class citizen living paycheck-to-paycheck will effectively have less income, a higher-class citizen whose principal wealth exists in the form of assets will have increased net wealth. Inflation effects a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. The coming collapse of commercial real estate. The climate changistas have long dreamed of a virtual business environment, one in which people in white-collar professions work from home. For them, the lockdowns were the perfect catalyst. At the macro level, telecommuting ends traffic jams and stops the need for vast building complexes that despoil possibly more attractive natural environments. It theoretically lowers the cost of doing business because companies no longer need to pay mortgages or rents on office facilities, as well as attendant costs (e.g., insurance, janitorial maintenance, etc.). For white-collar workers, there are upsides, too. Not having to commute to work can save them hours per day, as well as cutting back on the costs of bus fare, fuel, and car wear and tear. Latchkey kids are no longer an issue because one or both parents are home when the kids come home. You also don't need to spend money on a work wardrobe or expensive lunches downtown. UFOs or not — something is up. [Scroll down] And now, in the last couple of weeks, we've seen a wild new development: The Whistleblower David Grusch. An experienced, clever, articulate and highly respected American intelligence officer, with a glittering CV, at one point seconded to a new unit 'studying UAPs', Grusch recently resigned so he could come out (under the protection of new UFO whistleblower legislation) and make the most extraordinary claims. Claims that he has made under oath to Congress, with the support of colleagues. Here are just a few of them. The US military is in possession of crashed 'alien' craft (notably Grusch does not use the term 'extra terrestrial', he says 'non human intelligence: NHI'). These NHI craft — or their 'pilots' — have, in the past, injured and even killed humans. At least one craft is in private possession. The bodies of pilots have also been retrieved. And there's more. The NHIs — the aliens — may not be from beyond the solar system, but existing in a parallel dimension to ours, right here. Their craft seem to have the ability to bend space and time: they appear bigger on the outside than inside. Investigators who go inside them have suffered bizarre ill-effects. [...] The obvious reaction to Grusch's statement is that he is mad. And yet he does not seem mad. So then he must be lying. But if he is lying, why would he lie like this? [...] Perhaps he is doing it all for money. But what money? He risks global ridicule, his career is surely over, many have questioned his sanity, and if he is doing it for cash he has jeopardised his entire professional reputation to maybe sell a book and earn a few bucks on tiny UFO websites. How Trump can team with RFK Jr. to win the election. Have you seen the latest polls? Not only is former President Donald Trump winning the GOP presidential primary by a mile in every credible poll, but he's also beating President Joe Biden by a large margin in the general election, too — in both the latest Rasmussen and Harris-Harvard polls. But there's something else brewing among the American electorate, something utterly remarkable. Despite all the negative press [...] and indictments, Trump also holds the title of "the most popular politician in America." Amazing. But I'm not done with the remarkable part yet. Can you guess who is tied for No. 1 with Trump? Robert F. Kennedy Jr. RFK Jr. just announced he's running for president a few weeks ago. There's a total blackout and blacklist of RFK in the mainstream media. His interviews are banned on YouTube. The DNC has announced there will be no Democratic presidential debates — denying RFK any platform to reach the voters. Yet RFK Jr is tied for No. 1 most popular politician in America? How can this be? Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud. Never let Deep State defenders such as Bill Barr or Lindsey Graham hypnotize you into believing that criticism of the American government threatens the durability of American institutions. It is government corruption that threatens those institutions, and only those institutions resilient enough to survive public scrutiny deserve continued life. Tyranny thrives in the absence of confrontation. It depends on a conspiracy of silence when good people become too afraid to speak its name. Do not fear directing an outstretched finger at the unjust machinery of the State. Those quick to denounce free speech as "treason" are often the most deserving of blame. Does the Brown hit the fan if UPS walks? UPS and the Teamsters sat down across from each other in mid-April to start hammering out a deal for a new contract. The one currently in effect ends 31 JUL, so there wasn't much time to waste. They'd already come to some accommodations pretty quickly that — having seen our UPS folks around here on sweltering, humid, FL-in-Aug afternoons lugging boxes — seem to have been common sense from the get-go. But they've been non-starters for the longest time. Air-conditioning. Those brown trucks and drivers have never had it. [...] I mean, I was flabbergasted when I found that out, although it never occurred to me to wonder why drivers always had the door open, either. I do have my braindead moments. But working at the retail shop downtown for 12 years gave me a new-found respect for our UPS fellow, Tremaine, whom I just adored anyway. I don't know how he did it. But it finally caught up with him — heat stroke, hospitalization, and a couple months out of work, it was so severe. I can't imagine he was an outlier. Less Freedom. Politicians claim their bills bring us good things. Free health care! Child care! A cellphone for all! But government isn't Santa Claus. Government is force. Most every law takes away a little of our money or freedom or both. The Heritage Foundation ranks economic freedom across the globe. The United States once ranked No. 4 in the world, but we've been in decline. This year, as my new video explains, we're 25th. What's Really to Blame for the Canadian Wildfires. Smoke from forest fires arriving from Canada this summer is choking residents of the United States and millions more Canadians in the prairie and eastern provinces. Thick, roiling smoke may pose health hazards to the aged and infirm in both countries. The origin of the fires traces back to late winter and spring. An abnormally dry winter left Canada's boreal forests in conditions ripe for fire outbreaks from various causes, including ignition from lightning strikes in tinder-dry material. Forested portions of Alberta and British Columbia have been the sites of pine bark beetle infestations that have left millions of acres of dead trees and combustible residue on the ground. Beetle-damaged areas in remote locations are ideal places for conflagrations to start, where effective control is almost impossible. Wildfires in remote areas are often left to burn themselves out or await the arrival of rain. Senator Fetterman needs to resign and seek the medical help he deserves. As a stroke victim, Senator John Fetterman has my deep sympathy. As well, he has my best wishes for recovery, a task to which he should devote himself full-time. But as he demonstrated yesterday in a hearing covering the damage to Interstate 95 in Philadelphia — a link vital to many of his constituents — he is incapable of representing them in the Senate. I watched with a mixture of pity and horror as he was unable to form basic sentences in English, much less pronounce simple words correctly, when Senator Carper from neighboring Delaware asked him to comment: [Tweet with video clip] Mainstream news outlets want to end Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s primary challenge. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced his primary challenge to Joe Biden in April, the media shrugged him off as a meme candidate who would soon collide with political reality. Two months later, Kennedy is polling as high as 20% and his campaign is gaining momentum. And the media — unwilling to let Biden be primaried by this pedigreed populist — have decided it's time to step in. And step in they have. Over the past weeks, major print and broadcast organizations have laid the foundations for a powerful narrative designed to hobble Kennedy's campaign before a single vote is cast. The strategy is to disqualify Kennedy by labeling him a font of misinformation, out to serve America's monied technocrats. In other words: a Republican in Kennedy clothes. The
Republican House Must Make The Senate Offers It Can't Refuse. One of the promises
Kevin McCarthy made was that the House would operate under "regular order." That means, among
other things, that each departmental appropriations bill will come up for a vote by itself. [...]
We don't need to argue about whether the Department of Education is constitutional. It
isn't. But it gets in under the "general welfare" label for the moment. So, what would
happen if the new DOE funding bill includes:
The Editor says... Who else is on board with the Big Guy? Light bulb: Maybe ole Joe's not the only one "invested" in Ukraine, and China, and other ports of call. Let's remember that representatives of both Romney's and Pelosi's children were out and about on business in Ukraine during one period in the Biden record. Let's not forget that Mitch [McConnell] has made a packet off his wife's family Chinese business. The Pandemic of Nuclear Trash Talk. After the world escaped a nuclear exchange during the Cuban missile crisis of October 1962, it has been generally understood that nuclear-armed nations did not publicly threaten their rivals and enemies with thermonuclear weapons. Of course, there were occasional lunatic exceptions to the rule. Since 2006, when the unhinged North Korean regime acquired nuclear weapons, the world has periodically dismissed the zany threats from the Kim dynasty. Kim Jong Un has sporadically warned he might strike Japan, South Korea, and the United States — usually in an outrageous and outlandish fashion. Kim finally was warned of the consequences of his brinkmanship rhetoric, most famously by Donald Trump in 2018. He reminded Kim that the American nuclear button was bigger than North Korea's — an eerie counter-warning that for a time led to the cooling of North Korean rhetoric. RFK Jr. has the White House sweating, and rightly so. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has the White House worried, and rightly so: Boys who shout "The emperor has no clothes" have an impact. So far, the Bidenites are relying on their media allies to maul RFK Jr., Politico reports. Problem is, the reason the challenger's running at 20% in primary polls has less to do with his last name (even Marianne Williamson's at 8%) than with President Biden's incredible weakness. Biden's record is beyond atrocious, and at 80, he's showing signs of serious decline. Voters — most definitely including Democrats — know it. So even someone as flaky as RFK Jr. starts to look appealing. The Editor says... Gitmo's Unsolved Deaths. If street thug prosecutors manage to railroad President Trump to prison, could he be Epsteined? Many Americans would be shocked to know that the government has previously covered up horrible prison deaths with outrageous lies. One of the most notorious incidents happened at a secret CIA facility located just outside the perimeter of Guantanamo. [...] The incidents at Guantanamo starkly reveal how easy it is for the Deep State to conceal crimes of murder. Instead of being forthright, they spew out nonsense with impunity. The big question is whether Trump needs to fear being their next victim. America Is Destined for Dictatorship. A small internet kerfuffle kicked up several days back when conservative talker Jesse Kelly tweeted out something of an eye-opener, saying we're destined for dictatorship and that it's what we deserve. [...] Kelly is saying that, at the end of the day, America — as defined by its political institutions — is only as good as the Americans. In President Ronald Reagan's words, liberty's "never more than one generation from extinction." The people who founded this republic understood human nature — having lived under the misrule of a mentally defective king and the arrogant, corrupt, unaccountable state surrounding him — perhaps better than any revolutionaries in human history. They got it. And Jesse Kelly would say that they'd take one look at us now and marvel at how we've managed to stay free as long as we have with the manifest social dysfunction we tolerate and propagate. Behold the DEI scam in microcosm. It's a story that could have been written by Scott Adams. A White person gets on her moral high horse only to be, as she sees it, stabbed in the back for trying to be an "ally." It never pays to be an ally of people firmly situated on the Left, whether the grievance is race, gender, class, or any other category. You will get burned. The DEI business that the two women started made bank during the COVID DEI boom — and that is where the problems started. Originally their business model was a 50-50 split, with [Melissa] DePino doing the books and keeping things running, and [Michelle] Saahene being the Black face of the organization. They each did their racial kabuki theatre, but Saahene is probably right that without a Black face to front for the organization, it might not have taken off. Saahene didn't like the split — she wanted more, because "equity." It's always "equity," isn't it? From there things went south fast. Obesity Industrial Complex pushes junk food on children so they grow up to become pharmaceutical junkies. People might be living longer today on average than they did centuries ago, but does a longer life mean a healthier life? The answer to that question is a resounding no, and the reason has to do with the machinations of the Obesity Industrial Complex. In a recent episode of "Breaking Points," journalist James Li presented evidence to show that the food industry is conspiring with the pharmaceutical industry, the media, medicine and the government to keep everyone fat, sick and ultimately addicted to pharmaceutical drugs. America's obesity epidemic seems to get worse every year to the point that even very young children are blowing up like balloons before they even reach puberty. This sets them on track for a lifetime of illness and drug use, not to mention the newfound transgender craze that lures them into mutilation and debauchery as well. According to the "authorities," the nation's fatness problem has nothing to do with unhealthy dietary and lifestyle norms. Instead, it is all genetic, we are told — but this is false. A Lot Has to Change Quickly for Republicans to Have a Chance in 2024. To be clear, I am writing this as a pollster, not as a politician or partisan. Here's the bottom line. As it gets closer to the summer of 2023, I would rate the Democrats as more likely to again take/keep the White House. They might even hold on to the Senate and re-take the House. This is a tough message to deliver to the Republican faithful at a time when inflation is way up, millions have crossed the border illegally, China and Russia both pose true threats to international stability, and crime has spiraled in many areas of the nation. What to Do and Why It Matters. If you have not already done so (or it has been a while since you have), please read and enjoy Claire Wolfe's 101 Things to Do 'til the Revolution, a book she "dedicated to you, the enemy of the state," a full twenty-five years before the federal government declared war on half the country, started taking J6 scalps, and openly embraced political persecution. In her subversive classic, published during Bill Clinton's presidency, Wolfe begins, "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." From the introductory dedication alone, she nails our current predicament swimmingly with a few salient points: [...] Leftist Cancellation is the New Rite of Passage. If you're on the Right and the Left cancels you, three things can happen. The first is you lose your job, your platform, or your relevancy. The most striking examples are people who literally aren't around to defend themselves. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and of course, Robert E. Lee. Or more recently, John Wayne and Dr. Seuss. Anyone could be a target. This is because their existence or their memory could commit the crime of reminding Americans of their traditional values or history. The second thing that can happen is that when some try to appease the mob by apologizing or promising to "change my ways," the Left still will double down to totally destroy them. By apologizing they aided in their own cancellation. People most vulnerable to this are those dependent on one platform or job to maintain their relevancy. [...] The third thing that can happen is relatively new. This is where people on the Right are targeted by the Left and for all intents are cancelled, but they re-emerge stronger than ever. One key to this is that they never apologized. Don't pay Congress if there's a shutdown. The proposal in the title is the underlying premise of a new bill that was introduced in Congress last week. The bill is called the "No Pay for Congress During Default or Shutdown Act" and it has both a Democrat and Republican sponsor. The title really sums up the legislation. If Congress fails to pass a budget and keep the lights on, congressional paychecks would be suspended. It was introduced by Democrat Abigail Spanberger of Virginia in partnership with Republican Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. The basic selling point that Spanberger is pitching is, if you are a working American, "if you don't do your job, you don't get paid." So Congress shouldn't either. The New Cold War. Russia's targeting of Ukrainian civilians and China's genocidal imprisonment and brutalization of a million Uyghurs shows that nothing has changed here in Cold War II. For those on the front lines, this so-called "Cold" War is hot, horrific, and massively murderous. As for Iran, while its genocidal ambitions remain presently unrealized, its state media make relentlessly clear Iran's intent to annihilate every last one of Israel's seven million Jews. Iran's having surrounded Israel with heavily armed terror syndicates, along with its unceasing rush to build deployable nuclear weapons, makes clear the extreme gravity of this threat. The readiness of all three countries to unleash and carry out genocides is not just a moral issue of massive proportions. It is also a geopolitical signal of great significance — namely, that these countries will stop at virtually nothing in their pursuit of global dominion. The Truth Tellers. When Fox News unceremoniously and inexplicably ousted its most popular host Tucker Carlson last month, people naturally speculated as to why. Was it because of his reporting about the events of January 6, 2021? Or the corrupt relationship between Big Pharma and the media? Or was it a condition of the Dominion settlement with Fox as revealed this week by the O'Keefe Media Group? Whatever the reason, one thing was clear: Tucker spoke truth and had to be stopped. The clock started ticking the moment he questioned — perhaps one too many times — the institutional narratives meant to herd us into groupthink. That, coupled with the fact he had a national audience in the millions and was hitting key target demographics — bringing eyeballs and ratings to Fox that its competitors could only dream of having — meant Tucker was the dominant voice in cable news. In this bizarre, anti-reality age in which we find ourselves, it's frankly amazing that he lasted as long as he did. Congressional Democrats beg Biden to nullify their existence. This week, Heaven's Gate came to mind as I watched members of Congress line up to take a step that runs against every assumption of self-preservation in Madisonian democracy: They sought to make themselves nonentities. They called upon President Joe Biden to reject their very institutional existence, discard the separation of powers and unilaterally borrow and spend federal money. At one event, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released a letter to Biden on behalf of himself and nine Democratic senators "to urgently request that you prepare to exercise your authority under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution." He was joined in this by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), among others. Obviously, these are not Nike-wearing cultists, but that only makes their actions all the more inexplicable. These are rational leaders whose desire to nullify their own existence would have seemed entirely implausible to the Framers. Making state constitutions harder to amend: Good idea, bad timing. The Constitution is notoriously hard to amend. [...] An article in Monday's Wall Street Journal chronicled how some state officials are trying to make their amendment processes harder. It is a good idea. But before articulating why, I also must admit it is a terribly timed one. As the article relates, the officials wishing to change the state amendment process are almost entirely from one party (Republican) and wish to do so mostly because of one issue (abortion). In state after state, including Republican-leaning ones, voters over the past year have bypassed state legislatures to enshrine abortion rights. Thus, the attempt to change the amendment process now clearly smacks of a partisan gaming of the system, an attempt to change general rules to protect particular policy outcomes. It also smacks of hypocrisy. Conservatives used the same processes in the 2000s through measures banning gay marriage. Only now, when the rules aren't yielding desired results, do they question those rules' legitimacy. Does ADHD even exist? This week the BBC's Panorama programme quite rightly exposed some very worrying private clinics. In online consultations, staff had diagnosed a BBC reporter with ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — despite an in-person, and far longer, assessment by an NHS psychiatrist concluding that he didn't have the condition. The clinics, while charging rather plump fees, seemed to have an extremely relaxed attitude towards diagnosing this increasingly common complaint. It is a huge issue. ADHD was once mainly confined to children but is now spreading rapidly into the adult populations of the Western world. The clinics, one of them working on behalf of the overloaded NHS, were also willing to prescribe powerful stimulant drugs on the basis of this. Big Pharma's Destruction of American Journalism. Tucker Carlson was abruptly dismissed from Fox News sometime between Saturday, 4-22-23, and Monday, 4-24-23 (likely closer to Monday). Many believe the ten-minute segment he made (on 4-19-23) caused Fox News to cancel the most popular news host on national television despite it significantly damaged the network's financial revenue. Given the importance of what he said here, I hope his firing results in many more people seeing that segment, and I hope if this article speaks to your heart, you will help make that happen. [Video clip] Let the Blue Cities Die. The Democrat cities are urine-soaked hellholes that reek of pot where criminals stalk unmolested while the full fury of what is supposed to be the law hangs over the head of any citizen who dares do something about it, and that's good. The idiots who live there voted for turning their urban landscapes into petri dishes of social pathologies, and they should enjoy the full benefits of their decisions. We normal people should avoid these socialist wastelands and elect legislators to Congress who will starve them of the federal funds that enable their decline. In red states, our legislators should wage warfare on the blue tumors in their midst lest they metastasize outside the city limits. The Fed Is Broke And It's Cooking The Books. Behind closed doors, the report is already making the rounds in expert circles: if you follow the rules of sound commercial accounting, the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) has lost its equity and is, as common language would have it, bankrupt. What happened? [...] The Fed currently holds around $8.5 trillion in debt securities on its balance sheet. A price drop of just, let's say, 5 percent on this debt portfolio would result in an accounting loss (an "unrealized loss") of $425 billion, reducing the Fed's equity capital by the same amount. (It should be noted here that if the Fed held the securities to maturity and the borrowers repaid them in full, the accounting loss would disappear by maturity.) Any conventional company would be in dire straits under these circumstances. (By the way, failing to report a loss would be a punishable offense in many countries.) However, the Fed, like any other central bank, is not a conventional company. Rather, it has the state monopoly of money production, which makes it truly special. Tolerance Is Overrated: It's Time To Start Gatekeeping American Society Again. Leftists argue for tolerance of aberrant behaviors while admonishing normal human tribal and biological reactions. They have a vision for the world, and certain beliefs are not accepted within that Utopian fantasy. The basis of the leftist religion is not a deity, it is self perception. They worship themselves and think the collective is valuable so long as it reaffirms their identity. Anything that might restrict their pursuit of self aggrandizement is considered oppressive. This is why they often argue in favor of moral relativism. They have a delusion in their mind of what they are; they see themselves as a fantastic gift to the world. But, if people are allowed to judge them on their moral failings then they will always be reminded that they are not all that impressive. So, they seek to control the views and speech of others. The War on America's Babies. Our problems in health care can no longer be framed as Democrats versus Republicans. It's now the Health Care Swamp versus the rest of us. That Swamp filled with captured regulators and the jumbo corporations that profit when our children are vulnerable or sick. Babies reliant on formula for their survival, either because breastfeeding has not been possible or effective, or because they're adopted, are some of the most heartbreaking victims of regulatory incompetence. You may not realize that the critical shortage of baby formula that made headlines two years ago is still in effect. Initially the news covered reasonable complaints of parents, and Facebook support groups like "Baby Formula Search and Swap: Parents Helping Parents" cropped up, but these grassroots work-arounds are no substitute for a regulatory enterprise doing its job. Why I'm Not a Republican. We no longer have a liberal Democrat Party and a conservative Republican Party. We have a far-left Democrat Party bullied by Marxist adolescents and a weak divided Republican Party. There are a handful of good conservatives in the Republican Party but the "leadership" and too many other elected Republicans, are only interested in cashing checks, putting on make-up for the camera, "losing gracefully", asking their donors what they're required to do, taking pictures with birds, confirming leftist justices that don't know what a woman is, fawning over the Messiah, betraying their voters and, of course, stabbing other Republicans, generally the few with a backbone, in the back. Is The Federal Reserve Trying To Cause An Economic Depression? Even though banks are collapsing, the commercial real estate market is imploding, home sales are plunging, and large companies are laying off workers all over America, the Federal Reserve just decided to raise interest rates even higher. This is nothing less than economic malpractice. They know that higher rates are crushing the economy, but they apparently believe that more pain is needed. Officials at the Fed just hiked rates another 25 basis points, and they are now the highest that they have been since August 2007. America's empire is bankrupt. Empires rise whenever a nation becomes powerful enough to dominate other nations and drain them of wealth. They've thrived as far back as records go and they'll doubtless thrive for as long as human civilisations exist. America's empire came into being in the wake of the collapse of the British Empire, during the fratricidal European wars of the early 20th century. Throughout those bitter years, the role of global hegemon was up for grabs, and by 1930 or so it was pretty clear that Germany, the Soviet Union or the US would end up taking the prize. In the usual way, two contenders joined forces to squeeze out the third, and then the victors went at each other, carving out competing spheres of influence until one collapsed. When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, the US emerged as the last empire standing. Did Zelenskyy get Tucker Carlson fired? There is nothing inherently nefarious about this sort of thing. It would be odd if he didn't try to influence coverage of the war. Just as coaches in sports, one of the jobs of world leaders is to "work the refs" in order to get better outcomes for their team. Of course, one of the jobs of the refs is to ignore the coaches as much as possible because their job is inherently in conflict with the desires of the coaches. So what is at issue is not Zelenskyy's attempt to shape the coverage at Fox, but rather whether Murdoch was unduly influenced by the pitch. Kennedy Jr. is a Trojan Horse. Commentators on the right tend to suffer the Bush Syndrome of wanting love and respect from the enemies of America we call the left. This explains the praise of Robert Francis Kennedy Jr., who is challenging Biden for the presidential nomination. I warn readers that Biden is not Kennedy's target. It's Trump. Democrats want a Pretend Populist to keep him from winning re-election. On Race and Crime, a Counterfactual Narrative. On April 13, 2023, at around 10 P.M., 16-year-old Ralph Yarl went to the wrong address in a Kansas City residential neighborhood to pick up his younger brothers. Yarl rang the doorbell, summoning the 84-year-old homeowner, Andrew Lester, from his bed. Lester, who lived alone and who appears from photographs to be in the early stages of dementia, grabbed his handgun and went to the door. He became "scared to death," he told the police, when he saw the larger Yarl pulling at the exterior storm door handle. (Yarl denies trying to open the door.) Lester shot Yarl, once in the head and once in the arm, through the storm door. Thankfully, Yarl will likely survive the horrifying attack. Every news outlet that covered the shooting led with the race of Yarl and of Lester. Yarl was inevitably identified as a "Black" teenager and Lester as a "white" homeowner. The Kansas City district attorney validated the race narrative. The shooting had a "racial component," the prosecutor said, without offering evidence. (The DA has charged Lester with assault in the first degree because the potential maximum sentence — life in prison — is higher than that for attempted murder.) Why SVB's meltdown shouldn't make you panic. Silicon Valley Bank grew deposits by $100 billion in a year and a half. That is the first wave in a perfect storm. The problem or opportunity originated from easy money with which the Federal Reserve flooded the economy (printing $9 trillion via Quantitative Easing). SVB depositors were high-tech recipients of government spending on ESG and DIE projects. Those deposits are considered hot, subject to withdrawal at a moment's notice. SVB's next mistake was to mismatch volatile deposits by investing in long-term bonds. They invested those deposits in ten-year Treasuries yielding 1.6%. Then SVB execs and bank examiners were distracted by meaningless woke activity; they spent more time on social justice than on bank fundamentals. Tucker Carlson is Right: It's about Evil. Prior to being fired by Fox News, Tucker Carlson spoke to a Heritage Foundation audience. Carlson's remarks were seminal. He identified the clash between traditional America and the Left as rising to an entirely new and ominous level. We've moved beyond mere politics and policy differences, Carlson claimed. The conflict is with a Left that has increasingly embraced evil. That's hard to accept. Most Americans don't want to regard other Americans as evil. But the evidence is abundant and growing. Maybe Carlson's bold assertion was a reason why the Murdochs canned him? The Murdochs are quintessential players. Their interests aren't served when their network's marquee personality infers that a civilizational clash is underway. RFK Jr. Slams Dems for Rigging the System. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to give the Democrat establishment fits, and it's wonderful to see. Just when the far-Left authoritarians who control the party thought that they had their entire membership (with the partial exception of Joe Manchin) marching in lockstep, along comes RFK Jr., daring to think his own thoughts. As a scion of the nation's most celebrated political family, Kennedy is hard to ignore altogether, but the Democrat leadership is doing its best. On Sunday, in what must be a first for a Democrat presidential candidate, RFK even appeared [...] to denounce the Democrat establishment's efforts to sabotage his candidacy and make sure that Old Joe Biden coasts to renomination. Russia Appears to Be in Very Bad Shape. Recently Dr. Bastiat initiated a discussion about Russia with this post titled "Pretending to Be Mystified by the Obvious." Nicholas Eberstadt was mentioned in the post and this reminded me of a podcast that Eberstadt participated in about a month ago. In that podcast, Eberstadt mentioned that Russia has managed to have a society with European levels of education and Haitian levels of life expectancy, at least for 15-year-old males. Jack Teixeira Isn't the Only Person Who Shouldn't Have a Security Clearance. ith the recent arrest of Airman First Class Jack Douglas Teixeira for mishandling classified material, we are all left wondering how such a thing could happen. A thorough investigation will follow, but we have too many people with clearances who do not need them. We also have too many programs and operations that are unnecessarily classified, and far too many people with clearances have unnecessary access. I've listened to the pundits cry out with incredulity at how a 21-year-old could access classified materials. The truth is that it is more common than rare for a 21-year-old to have such access. Most recruits for military service are between the ages of 18 [and] 22, and many are assigned to positions that require clearances. There are not many 30-year-old recruits signing up for military service. The Very Bad Wizards of the Banking System. [Scroll down] [W]hy do banking industry regulators need to reassure depositors that "the U.S. banking system remains resilient and on a solid foundation" if the U.S. banking system is actually "resilient and on a solid foundation"? Does the banking system merely appear to be in a state of disarray? Or are crashing banks and billion-dollar bailouts just the way things go? It's interesting to note the joint press release doesn't specify which "financial crisis" spurred "reforms that ... ensured better safeguards for the banking industry." Did they mean the recent SVB/ Signature bank bailouts? Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX $32-billion crypto exchange implosion? The 2007-2009 "Global Financial Crisis"? Bernie Madoff's $80-billion Ponzi scheme? Or any of the long list of financial crises that have occurred over the past hundred years under the not so keen oversight of the federal regulatory apparatus? Both American Political Parties Have Adopted Lenin's Strategy for the Destruction of Capitalism. Ironically, uncontrolled spending and the massive assault on capitalism are the products of our irresponsible democracy. There are three critical points. First, the Democrat party made an epochal ideological shift toward egalitarianism. For years the Democrat elite and party leaders have displayed their distaste for capitalism, fracturing the country's moral consensus. Second, the Republican Party opted, for the most part, to ignore the ideological challenge. Third, the American voters, who are dumb enough to elect untutored graduates of American universities that are uninformed and poorly read; a few have even earned notoriety for inconceivable stupidity. Some of them, aware of self-worthlessness, adopted Marxism and can hardly contain their awe and envy at the American enterprise and question its moral validity. The others are pedestrian opportunists with no intellectual basis and, as such, going along just to get reelected. Since 1971 when the gold standard was abandoned, the Democrat and Republican administrations, with the support of the House and Senate, have been replaying Lenin's strategy for the downfall of capitalism, spending, and printing money at unprecedented levels. The war on those with good credit. Here's a story that hasn't drawn nearly enough attention yet. A new change being driven by the Biden administration's Federal Housing Authority will cause new fees and increased interest rates for home mortgages. Starting on May 1st, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will offer discounted mortgage rates to prospective home buyers with "riskier credit backgrounds" (meaning people with poor credit ratings) to enable them to qualify for a mortgage. But that will generate more losses in the system and that money will have to be made up somehow. So people holding lower-cost mortgages because they have a good credit rating will be charged more, leading to their monthly mortgage payments going up. What Does Chat GPT and AI Mean for Opinion Writers? [Scroll down] One of the biggest concerns with Chat GPT is the potential for misuse. Because Chat GPT can generate text that sounds human-like, it can be used to spread propaganda or misinformation on a large scale. Additionally, malicious actors could use Chat GPT to generate spam or phishing messages that appear legitimate, increasing the risk of cyber attacks and fraud. A Trump-DeSantis Ticket Can Win in 2024. The Democratic Party and President Joe Biden are wrecking the country. Their ongoing economic blunders, perverse cultural agenda, and corrupt foreign policy, if unchecked in the near future, will turn the United States into a dystopian nightmare comparable to Venezuela. This can be averted if former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis run together on the 2024 Republican presidential ballot. Neither can win in 2024 without the other, even if the Democratic alternative is an unpopular incumbent whose running mate is a running joke. DeSantis can't win without Trump because the latter is all but certain to capture the Republican nomination. Trump can't win without DeSantis because his legal difficulties — no matter how illegitimate — will turn off many of the independent voters who will decide the outcome of the 2024 election. Air Force Academy Cadets Don't Know What Their Oath to the Constitution Means. U.S. Air Force Academy cadets reportedly don't understand what the oath they take to uphold the Constitution even means. Apparently, the U.S. military is so busy implementing pro-LGBTQ initiatives and critical race theory programs that it forgot to teach cadets what their job is as American servicemen and women. [...] Of course, a lack of understanding of the Constitution because of bad or insufficient education on the topic isn't, unfortunately, limited to the Air Force Academy. Many if not most conservatives absolutely believe in unconstitutional programs like Medicare nowadays. The point is that, whether leftist or conservative, the overwhelming majority of Americans pick and choose which parts of the Constitution they believe in following — most without even knowing that's what they're doing. America has the greatest Constitution in history, and a significant part of our problems in this nation today comes from the government not abiding by the Constitution. Confused About MRNA Vaccines in Meat? That's Exactly How They Want It. When Holly Jones introduced Missouri House Bill 1169 there was industry pushback. HB 1169 is a tiny little bill; all it does is mandate reporting on whether or not food products have been treated with gene therapy products. Nothing is banned. The bill simply empowers consumers to make the best choices for themselves and their families. Free markets can't function when people can't make informed choices. The past three years have made many people deeply distrustful of the expert class; they don't want their food being tampered with. They feel strongly enough about avoiding mRNA-treated meat to be willing to look around and shop carefully. HB 1169 would give these people the knowledge to make informed decisions, and that's exactly what the pharmaceutical giants and industry lobbyists don't want. Industry lobbyists want things to be vague. They want the general public confused and willing to do whatever "the experts" tell them. Review of 'Grid Down, Power Up'. Dennis Quaid went viral in early April after he appeared on Fox News to promote his documentary "Grid Down, Power Up." So, I decided to watch it, and now I can't sleep. The documentary, narrated by Quaid, focuses on the vulnerabilities facing the American power grid and the risks posed by failures to upgrade facilities to withstand physical attacks from terrorists and our immediate cosmos. While it is definitely not the best-made documentary I've ever seen, it is arguably the most important piece of informative entertainment in modern history. "Grid failure is a real and imminent threat, a devastatingly deadly occurrence leading to life-threatening shortages of heat, food, and water. If protective measures are not taken, we will experience catastrophic failures leaving citizens in states of starvation, death, destruction, and darkness for months," the documentary's official website describes, and it's spot on. Treat Student-Loan Borrowing Like Medicare. Irecently turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare. Like other medical insurance, Medicare requires providers who accept reimbursement to agree to a set rate for the services they provide. Since Medicare is one of the largest healthcare payers in the country, it uses its size to negotiate very low reimbursement rates, sometimes even lower than the cost to provide services. Capping reimbursements for services is one of the reasons people have health insurance; the leverage of a big insurance provider helps to keep costs low. If Medicare paid whatever the provider billed, the system would soon go bankrupt. And yet, that is exactly what the Federal Student Loan program does with higher-education institutions. The Return to Enumerated Powers America. America must return to the pre-"progressive" era of the early 20th century. American government must be reduced to the size it was for the first century and a half of its existence, it must be restored to the ideal government that the founders laid out in the Constitution, and must never again be allowed to go outside of the size or scope that the founders envisioned. Government, in essence, must return to only performing the duties that the Constitution explicitly demands and allows them, and absolutely no more. It must be a government that looks like the one described by the Enumerated Powers in Article I, section 8 of the US Constitution. The Editor says... Is It Time to Panic Yet Over the State of America? The economy is a mess with daily news stories about another country abandoning the U.S. dollar for trade and commerce, favoring the Russian ruble, Chinese yuan, or gold, but no longer the U.S. dollar. What happens as these countries, now making up most of the world population, start dumping dollars? Today's current inflation will look the good old days. As these dollars otherwise held and used by many countries flood back into the U.S., "too many dollars chasing too few goods" will go into overdrive, fueling hyperinflation, destroying the savings and pensions of most Americans, leading to economic misery as we see in Argentina or Venezuela. Politicians are oblivious, those of both parties continuing to throw money into a losing proxy war in Ukraine, adding to a national debt that we soon will be unable to even pay the interest on. Is that panic time? A Sober Look at the State of Our Beloved Country. Young people tend to look to the government because they are less familiar with the virtue of self-reliance, which has been under attack by the left for many years. Many people believe they can't manage things by themselves. Democrats and government officials encourage this idea. A new level of dependency is developing, and a sense of surrender to big government seems to be growing among some conservatives, too. But rather than a "conservative" program of more government services, what Republicans need to offer — and it's a lot more work — is a re-education in the great American virtues of self-reliance and independence, the stuff of the old western movies, as well as the classical and Christian virtues. Why a desperate America may soon annex its 51st state. US government finances are appallingly bad. The national debt exceeds 100% of GDP, annual deficits run into the trillions of dollars with no end in sight, and major trust funds for Social Security and Medicare will soon run out of money. Political incompetence is mind-blowing; politicians fail to be able to even identify problems, let alone understand them, let alone reach compromises to solve them. Ditto for central bank incompetence. These people simply cannot understand how, by keeping interest rates at zero for nearly a decade and conjuring trillions of dollars out of thin air, they engineered record high inflation. And they also fail to understand how their actions to 'fix' inflation are causing widespread havoc in the economy and financial system. Social divisions across the country are extreme. Censorship and cancel culture prevail, and corporations now wag their fingers at their own customers to "be better". The education system is in pitiful shape, with many politicians and school board officials turning classrooms into activist training camps. The population is terribly unhealthy. Obesity and drug addiction are epidemics. Plus there's an obvious mental health crisis that drives far too many people to commit horrific acts of violence on innocent people, including children. National security is in decline. Military readiness is down, yet top officials seem more concerned about diversity and inclusion rather than the ability to prevail in war. The rule of law has been perverted, including for political purposes and self-aggrandizement. We send politicians to stop the madness of government, but nothing changes. Why? Washington DC is a Potemkin village. We focus on the visible but the constructs that impact us do not originate from the false facade. There's something behind that facade, and what we see is — entirely — a facade. That's why sending the politicians doesn't change the outcome. To get to the core of the issue, we must first stop looking at the Potemkin village and instead look behind it. Legislation, rules, regulations and laws are not written by congress. The paperwork comes from the assembly of legal and lobbyist foot soldiers on K-Street. That's where the ink is put to the paper and the legislative outcomes first originate. K-Street is where the corporations, multinationals and financial organizations control the process. If the corporations behind the DC facade want to shift the money, they proactively write the rules, regulations and laws that steer the actual policy outcomes to their financial target or destination. Their wealth expands and they reward the participants, the politicians. Most of the entry level politicians are oblivious to where the corporations have proactively moved; however, a few of the politicians — the leadership groups — know exactly where the destination of the legislative intent is going. The latter are tenured in the power structure behind the facade. Australia shows the devastating power that modern banks have over people's lives. My parents were loyal to Australia's Commonwealth Bank way beyond what was logical. It took a lot of evidence from the bank's own actions for them even to consider changing banks, and even then, it was emotionally painful for them. The reality is that banks have been appalling for a very long time, and their pathology has been progressing exponentially lately, as they no longer try to hide their craven intent. Here in Australia, for a $10.00 "overdraft" that exists for less than 24 hours, banks charge $25.00. They call this a "fee" because, if they acknowledged that it's an interest charge, that rate per annum would be over 90,000%! Banks block our accounts for any number of reasons. My favorite is because a government bureaucracy decides the accountholder transgressed. As we all know, in the world of bureaucracy, everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Getting access to the account again is an uphill battle. You must spend time and money proving that the money you earned and that you put into the bank for safekeeping is, in fact, your property. Kamala In Africa: What Could Go Wrong? During the first Cold War, sub-Saharan Africa was red hot with proxy wars. With China and Russia continuing to increase their footprints in the region, Cold War II looks like a sequel, perhaps with a different ending. Given the consequences of losing Africa to despotic nations, it makes sense that the United States is strengthening alliances there. This past week, Kamala promised $139 million in direct assistance to Ghana and $100 million to help counter armed Islamic militants in the region. Presently, Ghana is experiencing an armed inter-tribal conflict between the non-Muslim Kusasi and the Muslim Mamprusi, who have attracted Al Qaeda. End of the Republic: Is the title of this piece apocalyptic hyperbole? I wish it were. But everyone in the country and most of the people in the wide world know that Donald Trump has not actually been indicted for the crime of giving hush money to a prostitute. He has been indicted for the crime of opposing the Leftist elites and challenging their control over the political system. For the first time in American history, a politician — indeed, a front-running presidential candidate — has been indicted in order to destroy his political chances. Americans used to take pride in the fact that such things didn't happen in the United States of America. But that United States of America is over. On Little Men and Big Men: Donald Trump Is the Next President. The struggle now being waged for the soul, and likely the survival, of the nation is generally understood as a political and cultural battle between competing visions of the future, a globalist and technocratic dispensation against a national and populist resistance. It is being fought in the institutions of governance and frequently on the streets. It involves the diverse agencies of power, legislative interventions, radical interpretations of the Constitution, media censorship, and the weaponization of law on one side; on the other, an originalist reading of the Constitution, the Rule of Law, an impartial justice system, and the defense of the democratic order. But the issue can also be simplified as a battle between a modest platoon of political actors we may describe as "big men" and a veritable army of "little men." This is not to suggest that little men are harmless. A little man can wield "a bow and arrows," brandish a dagger, fire a gun, raid homes, or pass criminal legislation in spades. Indeed, powerful organizations are replete with little men. Everyone Is Just Pretending Nothing's Wrong. The fact is that I just don't care about how the bowels of the system works. I don't need to care. All I need to know is that money creation as a method of "solving" recessions can't continue in perpetuity: the dollar amounts necessary for bailouts become astronomical, too quickly, and inflation becomes a pressing issue. Then, as we are now, Central Bankers get stuck between an "inflation vs. recession" rock and hard place. It's a flawed system that once exploited a loophole (money printing) to slap band-aids on problems. We then thought we could do it in perpetuity to keep ourselves and voters consistently comfortable by presenting the illusion that everything had done "back to normal" — and now we're finally going to have to deal with very uncomfortable consequences of our actions. How Much Longer Can Western Governments Spit on Their People? Labor strikes and fiery riots dominate French news after King Macron's imperial decision to raise the nation's retirement age without any vote from parliament. In reaction to spiraling inflation, German transportation workers shut down the country on Monday in one of the largest European walkouts in decades. In the Netherlands, a new anti-globalist, pro-farmer political party fighting back against the World Economic Forum's climate change — obsessed "Great Reset" agenda just dominated Dutch elections. [...] Clearly, revolution is in the air. If you thought incendiary political turmoil threatened to combust only in the United States these days, then you have missed the growing protest movements throughout the collective West. From belated pushback against government COVID tyranny in New Zealand and Australia to percolating hostility across the European continent stemming from the ruling class's "Build Back Better" pipe dreams, State-sanctioned illegal immigration, and costly "green" energy — induced inflation, there is a powder keg of popular resentment against governing authorities just one spark away from a history-altering explosion. Are rich people dishonest? Why do so many people believe that rich people are dishonest? It is because of "zero-sum beliefs." This is the view that the rich are only rich because they have taken something from the poor. [...] I suspect that a majority of prison inmates are adherents of zero-sum beliefs. They believed they could only get rich by robbing a bank, breaking into someone's home or cheating someone. But many intellectuals also imagine economic life as a zero-sum game. Accordingly, rich countries should give some of their wealth to poor countries, and rich people should give aid to the poor. From this point of view, it is only because the rich are so selfish and mean-spirited that so many people are still poor. Tim Burchett Spoke The Truth About School Shootings. The mainstream media is apoplectic after a Tennessee congressman spoke an uncomfortable truth. Following the horrific Covenant School shooting, reporters hounded Republicans to get them to support gun control. Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett gave them the answer they definitely didn't want. [Tweet] "It's a horrible, horrible situation," Burchett told inquiring reporters. "And we're not gonna fix it. Criminals are gonna be criminals. My daddy fought in the Second World War, fought in the Pacific, fought the Japanese, and he told me... 'Buddy, if somebody wants to take you out and doesn't mind losing their life, there's not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.'" The Federal Reserve shot itself in the foot. By now, most understand that SVB failed due to an extreme mismatch in maturities between its deposits and its assets. Can you believe that the Federal Reserve has fallen prey to the same mistake? Further, the Feds' own actions caused its problems. Ever since the Federal Reserve started printing U.S. dollars in 2008, called Quantitative Easing (Q.E.), we have expressed grave concern that the Treasury bonds the Fed was buying were short-term and therefore subject to a rising interest rate environment. Further, those Treasuries decline in face value as rates rise. That has all come to pass. The Federal Reserve shot itself in the foot: since the same entity that printed dollars (Q.E.) invested those dollars (Treasuries), and then raised interest rates (FOMC), which impacted its income and its balance sheet (the value of the Treasuries also declined when the Fed raised rates), the Federal Reserve is the instrument of its own demise. The Decades of Evidence That Antidepressants Cause Mass Shootings. Prior to the Covid vaccinations, psychiatric medications were the mass-prescribed medication that had the worst risk-to-benefit ratio on the market. In addition to rarely providing benefits to patients, there is a wide range of severe complications that commonly result from psychiatric medications. Likewise, I and many colleagues believe the widespread adoption of psychotropic drugs has distorted the cognition of the demographic of the country which frequently utilizes them (which to some extent stratifies by political orientation) and has created a wide range of detrimental shifts in our society. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have a similar primary mechanism of action to cocaine. SSRIs block the reuptake of Serotonin, SNRIs, also commonly prescribed block the reuptake of Serotonin and Norepinephrine (henceforth "SSRI refers to both SSRI and SNRI), and Cocaine blocks the reuptake of Serotonin, Norepinephrine, and Dopamine. SSRIs (and SNRIs) were originally used as anti-depressants, then gradually had their use marketed into other areas and along the way have amassed a massive body count. How Will We Know When We're Winning? American leftist ideologues — those Democrats philosophically aligned with our communist adversaries — have been part of the Democrat Party for decades. In the last few years, though, these leftists and our communist adversaries have finally made their move. Leftists have now fully taken over the Democrat Party. They've purged any Democrat politician holding office who wasn't on "the team" by using the primary process. The Democrat Party, as we once knew it, doesn't exist anymore. Further, Chinese connections and money have coerced established, regular politicians into joining "the team," turning them into willing allies of the leftists. This may even include some Republican leaders, who now seem to be active saboteurs of their own political party. Count on a Conservative Comeback — in America and Its Neighbor to the North. As a country with a revolutionary tradition, the United States has always considered the right to own and carry firearms as implicit in the success of the American Revolution, and in the right and ability of all Americans to protect their property. This was implicit in the Declaration of Independence, in particular in Thomas Jefferson's ungenerous references to the Native people. [...] The constitutional right to bear arms has been indicative and supportive of the muscular citizenship of a very free people. In Canada, the imperial monarchical state conferred liberties that conservatives and liberals benefit from and exercise in a narrower band of prerogatives, largely defined by rates of tax and the extent of behavioral regulation. This brings us to the perturbed present, where a glance at both Canada and the United States, and Great Britain also, might incite the inference that the mainly English-speaking countries have lost the capacity for self-government. But with regime change, as both Canada and America have surely now earned the right to enact, we could slightly replicate the tale of the tortoise and the hare. Where Is Occupy Silicon Valley? Bank failures tend to come in waves, and we are experiencing at least a mini-wave now. Banks fail for three basic reasons: 1. Credit transformation: deterioration in borrower creditworthiness, usually due to an adverse economic shock (e.g., a real estate bust). 2. Maturity transformation: borrowing short, lending long, and then getting hammered when interest rates rise. 3. Liquidity transformation combined with an exogenous liquidity shock, à la Diamond-Dybvig, where idiosyncratic depositor needs for cash lead to withdrawals that exceed liquid assets and therefore trigger fire sales of illiquid assets. The two most notable failures of late — Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate — are examples of 2 and 3 respectively. In some respects, SVB is the most astounding. Not because a bank failed in the old-fashioned way, but because it was funded primarily by the deposits of supposed financial sophisticates — and because of the disgusting policy response of the Treasury and the Fed. What it's like to live life not trusting your bank or your money. Now that we are seeing inflation and serial bank failures in the U.S. with few prospects of any improvement so long as Joe Biden is in the saddle, perhaps a look at what that's like when the experience is extended is worth the trouble. Emily Stewart, at Vox of all places, has written a brilliant, yes, brilliant, piece describing in minute detail just what the hell that kind of living is like. What is it like for a modern economy and a first world lifestyle to go the way of, well, Argentina? She describes it from a recent trip very, very well. It all kind of looks the same as here. It's first world. People have kitchens and electricity and flush toilets. They wear shoes, go to school, and speak English. But it's not the same, and the changes creep up in the manner of the boiled frog — until they become complete lunacy around the issue of money. NATO's Perilous Quest to Justify its Existence. The unraveling of the Soviet Empire was widely perceived as a vindication of American verities and the beginning of an era of universal peace. Unfortunately, the preservation of the military alliance and its subsequent eastward expansion created an atmosphere of mistrust and trepidation. Established in April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO's prime purpose was deterring Soviet expansionism. By 1989 with the Berlin Wall coming down, NATO accomplished its founders' stated objective. "Mission accomplished," however, was not good news for the military alliance — it needed to be dissolved, find new enemies, or find a new mission for self-preservation. Did 'Woke' Banking Trigger America's Banking Crisis? The rising threat of bank insolvency implies that Dark Ages are ahead. Banking analysts forecast that many "smaller and regional banks could be consolidated or collapse in a manner resembling the savings and loan crisis," which triggered the failure of 1,000 banks from 1986 to 1995. Rising uncertainty could result in banks tightening credit application rules, thus making it harder for people to get mortgages or credit cards. This could push the nation into a recession, spurring layoffs and economic decline. The necessity of assigning blame goes to the heart of the world's current financial problems. Properly assigning blame rests on two propositions: first, the failure of regulators and regulations, and second, the imposition of new regulatory objectives focused on social justice rather than sound banking practices. These two propositions are related. SVB's failure confirms this claim. Lessons embedded in SVB's collapse apply to the entire banking system. The Other Things Fueling Inflation. The financial sector is still roiling from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank. At the epicenter of factors triggering the collapse is the Federal Reserve's strategy of hiking interest rates. This would be a good time to ask: How else might we tamp down inflation? Rapidly ratcheting up interest rates is intended to "cool down" the economy by inducing unemployment, or at least reducing job openings. Policies that lower labor demand make it easier for companies to compete for employees without triggering so-called "wage-price" inflation. And lower employment, in turn, also means there are fewer people with "excess wealth" demanding goods and services and thus driving inflation. The alternative is an economy that meets or over-supplies goods and services. Such an economy is disinflationary because it drives competition and thereby lowers prices. Ferraris and Hungry Children: Venezuela's Socialist Vision in Shambles. After years of extreme scarcity, some Venezuelans lead lives of luxury as others scrape by. The nation of grinding hardship has increasingly become one of haves and have-nots. [...] Venezuela's economy imploded nearly a decade ago, prompting a huge outflow of migrants in one of worst crises in modern Latin American history. Now there are signs the country is settling into a new, disorienting normality, with everyday products easily available, poverty starting to lessen — and surprising pockets of wealth arising. That has left the socialist government of the authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro presiding over an improving economy as the opposition is struggling to unite and as the United States has scaled back oil sanctions that helped decimate the country's finances. Is There A Way To Stop Bank Panics Like The One That Took Down SVB? In recent years, the U.S. has suffered recurring banking crises almost like clockwork. Indeed, about every 10 years or so we seem to go through another financial panic, only to be followed by a spate of bad regulations passed to ensure "it won't happen again." But it always does. So how do we end this cycle? U.S. banking disasters plagued the late 20th century and early 21st century. But of course they go back long before even that, to 1907 and 1929, as two examples. More recently, there was the 1980s and '90s savings and loan crisis, the 1998 collapse of Long-Term Capital Management and global crisis, the 2007 financial crisis (which also became a global bank crisis), and, now, the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, which has already hit both smaller U.S. banks and foreign banks hard, and still remains a threat to the stability of the global financial system. There Are Compelling Pragmatic Considerations Behind Supporting Trump Or DeSantis. It's still very early in the cycle, but my guess is that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will not run for president. Many voters do not like a governor who was just re-elected walking away from the job, especially when the election was a few months before the announcement. In Florida, officeholders running for federal office must resign their position. It's being reported that the legislature is quietly preparing to change the law. Although Florida Statute 99.012 has wiggle room, having it changed solely to benefit DeSantis would be seen by many as an unethical perversion of legislative power. Should DeSantis resign, Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez would become governor. Those relocating to Florida primarily because of how DeSantis runs the Sunshine state should start researching Nunez. The government wants you to be terrified of emergency medicine. Patient safety studies by government agencies and officialdom in general have always been plagued by methodology problems, all the way back to original 1978 study by Don Harper Mills for the California Med Association, intended to evaluate feasibility of no-fault malpractice insurance. Here's the problem: patient safety bureaucrats are motivated to exaggerate the risks to the public so they can ride the wave as saviors and rescuers. That's what public officials enjoy a lot: a role as a savior bureaucrat, scholar, and conscientious public official. [...] Many emergency medicine medical organizations have objected to this effort by the AHRQ to denigrate and vilify emergency care providers, to knife them in the back with a ridiculously biased and inadequate study, and then publicize it for their own selfish bureaucratic purposes. SVB collapse Shows ESG Is a counterproductive, virtue-signaling scam. If there is one giant takeaway from the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), it is that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores are utterly pointless in assessing the health and vitality of a major financial institution. On the other hand, as the SVB saga demonstrates in spades, ESG scores are extremely helpful in determining whether or not a bank is likely to receive a government bailout when it goes belly up because it was fanatical with its fidelity to the ESG cult instead of making sound financial investment decisions. Incredibly, the now insolvent SVB, which held $200 billion in net assets not that long ago, remains in very good standing when it comes to its ESG score. As the record shows, to this day, SVB is still in the good graces of the ESG crowd. In fact, all three of the big ESG ratings agencies still give SVB a solid ESG score despite its pending bankruptcy. So, how did SVB attain such a stellar ESG score while it was making terrible risk-assessment decisions and putting its clients' funds in peril? What Does it Mean that Our Rulers Didn't Learn from 2008? If you go by this Bailout Meter, from FRED courtesy of Breitbart Business, we are already in 2008 Meltdown Range. [...] You know, back in the day, Warren Buffett said that he ought to hire a guy whose only job was to tell him not to buy airline stocks. Maybe we ought to have a law that every banker needs an assistant whose only job is to tell him how far its bonds have to fall to wipe out the bank. Although I would think this is not that hard. Yet SVB operated without a Chief Risk Officer for most of 2022. A Cheat Sheet on the SVB Collapse. This week, a lot of attention has been focused on the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank. It is, in fact, a story of faulty accounting practices, poor government oversight, and the effects of government micromanaging markets at the same time that it fails in its oversight responsibilities. And you will be paying for it. Over at the Wall Street Journal, William L. Silber explains this better than anyone, and in terms anyone who ever purchased a government bond can understand. They are safe. The problem is liquidity: ["]SVB held tens of billions of dollars in long-term government bonds. On its face, this may seem like a prudent investment for a bank, but Treasury securities are riskless only when held to maturity. [... "] The Creepy Advent of Digital Currency. With the recent spate of bank failures, public concern has gravitated to the solvency of our money itself. Many have raced to withdraw a portion of their savings in cash. Others have looked to move it into alternate investment vehicles like I-Bonds or Treasury Bonds, commodities like gold or silver, and even cryptocurrency. With the coronavirus pandemic and government attempts to shutter and then manage a shuttered economy came massive injections of new cash and record inflation. This inflation resulted from an increase in prices based on an expansion in the supply of money without a corresponding expansion in the supply of goods. When the Federal Reserve moved to tamp down this inflation by increasing interest rates to retract the available credit supply, it created an inverted yield curve, where short-term interest rates are higher than long-term interest rates. To write new loans, the banks must borrow at a higher rate than they get in return on existing loans, and profitability tanks. ESG
Will Bankrupt You — Financially and Morally. Do you believe in cautionary
tales or think most things happen without warning? Your answer might reveal how your psyche
processes information to which you are exposed. Everything you need to make good decisions is
readily available, depending upon which sources you rely. Recently publicized topics should
set your spidey senses twitching:
Putting 'diversity' and 'equity' first nearly crashed the economy. Several years back I asked what it would take to halt the diversity, inclusion, equity obsession in America. What would it take to get back to excellence and competence as the only criteria for employment? Perhaps it would require the bridges to start falling down. Though I suspect that if they did then certain people would claim they'd only fallen because of "structural racism." Still, this week we had a good reminder of just how over-tolerant we have been of this insane, anti-excellence agenda. Because although the bridges haven't yet started to collapse, the banks have. And one reason is that the banks in question prioritized equity over excellence. Biden killed SVB. We're next. The blame game over SVB's collapse is a diversion. [...] The media is not that bright. James Hickman is. He is the founder of Sovereign Research. He looked at the numbers and he found the culprit. Biden. He made government bonds worth less which has banks dropping like cockroaches in a Raid commercial. Using the pen name Simon Black, Hickman wrote, "Silicon Valley Bank was no Lehman Brothers. Whereas Lehman bet almost all of its balance sheet on risky mortgage bonds, SVB actually had a surprisingly conservative balance sheet. "According to the bank's annual financial statements from December 31 of last year, SVB had $173 billion in customer deposits, yet only $74 billion in loans." So where did the money go? Hickman said, "SVB failed because they parked the majority of their depositors' money ($99 billion) in U.S. government bonds. "This is the really extraordinary part of this drama. U.S. government bonds are supposed to be the safest, most risk free asset in the world. But that's totally untrue, because even government bonds can lose value. And that's exactly what happened." SVB lost money on government bonds by the billion and that brought the bank down. That is like water catching fire. The John Fetterman Situation Just Got Much Weirder. Despite a "recovery" from the stroke that is clearly going in the wrong direction, talk of Fetterman resigning has been dismissed as ableism. [...] The New York Times wrote a full spread actually suggesting that it is normal for a senator to co-sponsor legislation that he's not even aware of. That's the best defense they could come up with for a guy who not only can't perform the duties of his office, but can't even hold a conversation with someone. The entire point of electing a representative is that they make decisions in the interests of their constituents. In all my time covering politics, I have never once heard of a Senate staff co-sponsoring legislation for their boss without his or her knowledge. That's so insane and contrary to the electoral system as to be scandalous all on its own. We aren't supposed to be a government run by staff proxies. These are the people who rule the world. For those of you who don't know what central banks do, all you need to know is that they control the money supply by putting a stranglehold on credit. In the US the central bank is the Federal Reserve, and if you have noticed mortgage rates jump dramatically in recent months, you can thank the Federal Reserve. You can also thank the Fed for helping fuel inflation, after pumping trillions of dollars into the economy. You like inflation, right? Thank the Fed. You're gonna like what they are about to do to reign [sic] in inflation even less, I assure you. Wringing inflation out of the economy is very painful. The Deadly Incompetence of our Leadership. [Scroll down] Given that Iran subscribes to a martyrist view of Jihad, a major loss of life would not deter Iran from a war in order to achieve its aim of destroying Israel. The Jews however want to live, and given Israel's diminutive size — where 1 nuclear weapon could wipe out a large part of the country — Israel has no options but to preemptively attack Iran. This is not avoidable by negotiation. President Biden would not be able to stop the war, and Israel would go ahead with or without American approval. Israel has no choice. When that attack comes, it may require Israel to use nuclear bunker busters to demolish Iran's well sunken and fortified manufacturing sites. The genie would be out of the bottle. Russia may then decide to use nuclear weapons on Ukraine, citing Israel's use on Iran as a precedent. All hell would break loose. Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman Really Are Two of a Kind. The nation watches in horror as Joe Biden pretends to be capable of being president of the United States, and behind the shell of a man is a woman: Jill Biden, who most certainly knows better than anyone that Joe Biden is many fries short of a Happy Meal® but pushes her husband along, away from the occasionally inquisitive media that dares to think that the president of the United States should be able to answer a few simple questions. [...] Yeah, it's crazy to think that Joe, who often doesn't even know where he is, forgets basic information, and mumbles words. How dare anyone even suggest mental competency tests? Her response is eerily reminiscent of Gisele Fetterman's lame attempt at defending her husband last year from questions about his cognitive health after his public appearances showed severe mental impairment. When the media honestly reported on her husband's communication problems, she demanded an apology and likened the reporting to an attack on the disabled community. Just how unjust is our system of justice? The CIA and FBI have turned away from investigating foreign threats (like China) and against law-abiding Americans, especially conservative and/or Christian Americans. Turns out the Church Committee did not effectively reform those institutions as promised. The FBI/DOJ/CIA/DNC complex robbed Trump of his 2020 victory because he was and remains a threat to their personal wealth and power. Now our blighted and corrupt administration is fighting a proxy war with Russia over the national security of their eastern border which is insignificant to America. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says this is the most important issue on the planet? China is our most dangerous adversary, not Russia. Will DeSantis Rescue Republicans or Let Them Down? Unfortunately for Ron DeSantis, expectations of him could not be higher. For a critical mass of Republicans seeking to move past Donald Trump, the Florida governor is already the anointed savior. While Trump still holds the lead in most polling, DeSantis is almost always second choice and is the favorite for many Republicans who want a new standard bearer because they believe Trump can't win. Though he has not yet launched a campaign, and his allies say he would not until the state legislature completes its session in May, DeSantis definitely wants us all to think he will soon be a presidential candidate. Fetterman Chief of Staff 'Acting Senator' Adam Jentleson Repeatedly Questioned President Trump's Mental Health. Adam Jentleson, chief of staff for Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who is steadfastly supporting his nmentally ill boss who has been hospitalized because he is an apparent danger to himself, was singing a different tune about elected officials' mental fitness for office during the Trump years. Jentleson even warned against efforts to "normalize... mental illness". Jentleson is a sharp-elbow throwing partisan who was deputy chief of staff to one of the dirtiest Senators in recent history, the late Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)[.] Fetterman suffered a debilitating stroke last May and has struggled to do his job as Senator since being sworn in on January 3rd. Fetterman has been hospitalized twice this year after assuming office because he is unable to take care of himself and because his chief of staff, who should have been looking out for his boss' health and well-being, ran him into the ground. The names of some of the 51 anti-conservative American businesses may surprise you. The major retail giants are also pushing leftism. We've seen it with Target, which has been in the forefront of Gay Pride for decades, but it may surprise you to learn that Walmart and Home Depot are also using their economic power to push leftist policies. "For example, 1792 Exchange notes Home Depot 'advertised flyers to its employees about confronting their 'white privilege, Christian privilege, heterosexual privilege, able-bodied privilege,' etc.'" The leftist madness continues with food and beverage companies. We already knew about Ben & Jerry's, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg's (with a history of weird progressivism spanning more than 100 years), but you probably didn't know that McDonald's and JM Smucker were also on the leftist bandwagon. Again, they sell their products to everyone but use their profits to advance leftist political goals. Injustice of the Court. I was encouraged to look at sacrifice for my nation as the highest honor. I saluted the flag, got choked up at the sound of the national anthem. Now, I have to ask what purpose would my sacrifice serve? Would it be to keep Hunter's diary a secret? Would it be to hide all the crimes of pedophilia among our representatives, senators, presidents and judges? Would my sacrifice be to see drag queens in Kindergarten? Would it be to keep political prisoners of the current regime? Would it be to fund extortion and brutality of parents concerned about their children and the schools they go to? The problem that has been created is that as a patriotic son of the founding ideals, I would have to fight against all of that, against the crooked institutions of today. I could not, in good conscience fight to sustain this treason. It's a paradox created by their lies and deceit that I could not fight for the government of my nation, but am forced to try and bring it to heel, to bring it back under control. How to save ourselves from Chinese, Democrat Party communism. The Biden regime's support for socialists throughout Latin America is aiding China's efforts to dominate the region. We must recognize and counter the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) imperialist ambitions or lose our liberty. We cannot do so with an antiliberty regime in the White House that hates America and all it stands for. We must survive the next two years with Biden in the executive and recover our government from those whose goal is to transform the federal government into a dictatorship. One step in this direction, which has begun, is congressional Republicans investigating the Biden regime and informing the public of the truth. Even though meaningful legislation will almost surely not become law, the Republican-majority House must propose bills to counter the Biden regime's harmful policies. Is the United States Really Ready for Any Disaster, Whether Man-Made or Natural? [Scroll down] [W]hat if the United States were to have a large electrical blackout like the one that affected the east coast in August of 2003? Thankfully, that happened in the summer and in most places lasted no longer than 18 hours. What would happen if 50, 60, or 70 million people on the east coast were all of a sudden left without electricity in the middle of winter, like in the summer of '03 — but for a longer period of time? I sincerely doubt the United States government would be able to mobilize quickly enough to help citizens stranded without a basic tool that we take for granted each and every day like electricity. Without electricity you can't keep food cold, medicine that needs to be refrigerated will go bad, and the gas that is needed to fuel cars to move around will be stuck in the ground because pumps won't operate. This
Is America. Consider recent news items reporting stories of unusual events, ones growing in
frequency. With the technology and knowledge developed over decades, stupid stuff shouldn't happen nearly as much
as it does.
The Editor says... The Institutional Pathology That Took Down James O'Keefe. Was this really due to the long arm of Pfizer as so many assume, or was it just old fashioned jealousy and fragging which has cleaved James O'Keefe off of the "Project Veritas" organization which he built to support his passionate activities? I have seen versions of this sad story play out time and time again. Yet another version of the very human social forces that prevent our species from reaching its full potential. Whatever his personal character flaws may be, my heart goes out to James O'Keefe. From where I sit, this appears to be yet another case of an innovative, hard working, highly motivated leader brought down at the very moment great achievement by the pettiness of the small minded. The Curse of the One-Sentence Paragraph. The once-mighty paragraph that adorned our best writing in history and politics, as well as literature, is getting shorter by the day, often settling into the one-sentence fragment. Not only a block of print on a page, the paragraph is a unit of thought, a means of conveying a description, a theory, a report, an impression, a complex idea, or a rhetorical flow with a degree of authority. It is holistic by nature and, as such, an aid to contemplation. It is not merely a stylistic tic or a passing literary convention that can be denatured for convenience. A paragraph properly leads to another when the mental trajectory it favors and permits is complete. It is, in its way, like a cerebral lobe that serves a particular function. One-sentence paragraphs are like lesions. Of course, a standard paragraph these days may run to two or three sentences, but the difference is not significant. The sense of continuity is stunted. Meeting Military Recruitment Goals. Recently we've heard arguments that the failure of the military to meet its recruitment goals is a product of recruitment policy. [...] Does the media shout our servicemen's bravery, their commitment to national pride and support? No — they are shown as failures of our politicians, failures of our foreign policy, stupid for even joining and ignored at home. Returning soldiers commit suicide at record levels because of lack of public and political support. There is no end to the wars in far-off lands where politicians bloviate and big business grows wealthy. I spent 26+ years in green, so I know what the military can do for you and how it can help make you a better person. That military is gone. It died as we went to war in Iraq. Vietnam was bad enough for politicalizing foreign wars. The Middle East is worse. There is no end to battling a religion. As long as one person believes, the war rages on. Especially when some areas are off limits to attack, as were Cambodia, North Vietnam, and Laos. Or Pakistan and Iran. We never seem to learn that war is either all or nothing. The military knows this simple fact; politicians don't. Educating for Freedom. How do we educate our students for freedom? After all, many of them arrive in college today believing that the United States is systematically oppressive, hopelessly unjust, and that there is not much worth celebrating or defending about our country (or so they have been taught). So I often start my class by asking them a simple question: "Out of the world's twenty largest countries, in which country would you rather live?" I pick the world's twenty largest countries because size matters. The larger a society's size, the more complex will be its social, economic, and political problems. There is also the difficulty of maintaining freedom and representative government in the midst of sharp political differences and quarrelling factions and interest groups. Each country's character as a free society must be judged not by reference to some abstract ideal standard but by reference to societies that actually exist in today's world. This is not a trivial point. The most horrible atrocities committed in the last century, numbering in the hundreds of millions of victims, were carried out by people enamored of some beautiful future vision of perfection. Who Killed Philip Haney? The Mystery Continues. February 21 will mark three years since Philip Haney, 66, was "found deceased" in Amador County, California, killed by a gunshot to the chest. The victim was not the typical Sierra foothills resident. Philip Haney was the author of See Something Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government's Submission to Jihad, first published in 2016. The DHS whistleblower also authored Frontpage articles, "Deobond Attacks in San Bernardino, Sri Lanka," "The Terrorist Ties that Bind," and "The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America's Ominous Post-Election Statement." The expert on Islamic jihad had been punished for doing his job at a high level. This is the man found deceased in Amador County. In Haney's RV, the sheriff found numerous thumb drives, a laptop computer, and other materials. Sheriff Martin Ryan turned these over to the FBI, which did not reveal what the devices contained, and the bureau remained silent on the case through 2021. Last year, the Amador County sheriff's office told Frontpage there was "no new news" about Haney and that the case was closed. A month later, in March, 2022, more than two years after Haney was found deceased, the case was proclaimed a suicide. Claims that Haney killed himself had appeared from the start, but were steadfastly denied by Haney's friends, family and members of Congress. A counterintuitive take on the risk that China poses to the world. David Archibald, an Australian scientist and analyst, counterintuitively argues that China is weaker than we think. I don't agree with everything Archibald says, both factually and theoretically, but I thought his essay is interesting enough to bring to your attention. The premise of Archibald's claim that China is not as forbidding as Xi Jinping makes it appear is summed up in a single sentence: "China has a lot of structural problems that make it a fragile state, a frail state and even potentially a future failed state." The Shameless Abuse of John Fetterman Comes to a Head. As RedState reported, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is back in the hospital for a second time since taking office. According to a statement put out by his staff, the senator recently checked himself into Walter Reed to receive treatment for severe clinical depression. That should be news to Pennsylvanians given there was never any admission during the 2022 election that Fetterman suffered from depression. Apparently, this has been a long-running issue, separate from the stroke that has left him unable to perform the basic functions of his office. Where do things go from here? Who knows. Pennsylvania elected a man who was clearly not capable of doing the job, and now they are stuck with him until he resigns, at which point the Democrat governor will appoint the replacement. CVFC PAC: Chinese War Planners Are Ecstatic with Biden's "Opens Door Policy" Allowing for Chinese Sabotage. Communism China poses an existential threat to the United States and all Mankind. Over the last two years the Biden/Obama administration has had an open-door policy with Communist China which has been predictably disabling the military defenses and disarming intelligence defenses of the Republic. In this article, read what China Expert Gordon Chang writes Chinese sabotage at the Gatestone Institute, where he is a senior distinguished fellow and an Advisory Board Member. While Biden recently met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Indonesia, he incoherently stated we are not adversaries, there is no need for a Cold War. He said the US and Communist China are friendly competitors. However, one would have to be brain dead to believe that the US and Communist China are not in a Cold War. The Chinses Communist Party (CCP) is conditioning the population of Communist China to expect a coming war. Yet the Biden/Obama administration is ignoring the continued threats by Communist China to Taiwan, and the repeated outright warnings to the United States not to defend Taiwan. New Report Reveals the Depths of Fetterman's Problems. It was a shameful thing that Democrats were so concerned about power and holding onto the Senate that they kept John Fetterman in the race despite his medical problems. [...] There's a new report that among the issues he's dealing with is the depth of his cognitive issues. According to the report, he hears people speaking like the way you hear the voice of the teacher from the "Peanuts" cartoon. [...] Fetterman has to carry around a closed captioning device to have conversations since he can't understand what people are saying on his own. They've wired his office and the Senate chamber so closed captions can be typed out for him by professional broadcast captioners. Even with all that help, he's refusing to take questions from reporters in the Senate hallways because he can't understand them. His fellow Democratic senators also tried to downplay it, with folks like Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) saying, "There are a lot of people out there who understand disability, and understand struggle." Yes, there are, but you also want to have people in the position who can fully serve. If you can't even understand what people are saying in the hallway, that's a big problem. Julie Kelly of American Greatness could just be our George Smiley. Joe Biden has numerous shortcomings as a political leader; apart from apparently being challenged by a severe shortness of brainpower, the commander-in-thief regards the people of MAGA not as fellow citizens to be respected, but as political foes to be destroyed. Applauding a charlatan's State of the Union address throughout, not just politely at start and end — as Speaker McCarthy did — assumes geniality and kinship. Such a speaker needs guidance in Political Reality/USA 101. The person to provide such guidance, I submit, is Julie Kelly; Ms. Kelly's exposés regularly blast openings in the media's Iron Curtain around Biden to keep Americans informed about the repressive conduct, particularly post-Jan. 6, of the Department of Justice, the FBI, the federal courts, and the maltreatment of detainees as if they were political prisoners in a ruthless dictatorship. Significantly, Ms. Kelly does not say, as did the Speaker, that the Capitol cop who shot the late Ashli Babbitt was "just doing his job." To the contrary, every member of Congress, not just the panel on un-American practices by the federal government, should read this very important disclosure by the one and only Kelly on Capitol Hill brutality: January 6 Was the Worst Incident of Police Brutality Since Civil Rights Era. Has The State Of The Union Ever Been Worse? [Scroll down] In answer to our own question, yes, the state of the union has been worse. There was a bitter war between the states that ripped the nation apart in the 1860s, Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the Great Depression was egregious, and there were moments in the 1960s when it appeared the country had lost its way. The 2020s so far are more like the late 1970s, when Jimmy Carter, having no idea how to leverage America's immense advantages, used the office of the presidency to try to soften a national crash. Except in the case of Biden, the decline is by design. He's not trying to minimize the damage of a wreck he could avoid. He's accelerating as we head for the ditch. Why voters chose Biden over Trump might forever be a mystery. Yes, the Democrats did all they could to fix the election for Biden, working within a cabal that changed election rules and laws in ways the hurt Trump, manipulated media coverage so that it was more favorable to Biden, and controlled the gates of information. But even with that advantage, voters should have easily seen the difference between the candidates: one who might appear crass but believes in the American people; the other wants to subjugate them to the authority of the ruling class that has helped cover up his lies, failures and corruption — the one who will tell us tonight to trust him because he's been doing such a good job. Cancel the State of the Union. ow did the State of the Union — which owes its origin to a one-liner in the Constitution instructing the president to "from time to time give to the Congress Information of the state of the Union," become an annual political carnival that requires an UltraMax security cordon to be cast over the Capitol Building, swallows hours of live TV coverage on a half dozen networks, and goads reams of pre- and post-analysis out of the typing press — become such an all-consuming gala? The Constitution's authors didn't think the SOTU was essential, giving presidents the wide instruction that they must only address remarks to Congress "from time to time." If the president stiffed Congress on the SOTU, no constitutional crisis would ensue. Nor must the president present his remarks in person. Every president from Thomas Jefferson to William Howard Taft produced remarks for Congress and then mailed them in. And the State of the Union wasn't even called the State of the Union until the 1940s during Franklin Roosevelt's reign. Previously it went by the more humble name of the "Annual Message." They're Not Worried About 'Russian Influence', They're Worried About Dissent. Being labeled a Russian propagandist all day every day for criticizing US foreign policy is really weird, but one advantage it comes with is a useful perspective on what people have really been talking about all these years when they warn of the dangers of "Russian propaganda". I know I'm not a Russian propagandist. I'm not paid by Russia, I have no connections to Russia, and until I started this political commentary gig in 2016 I thought very little about Russia. My opinions about the western empire sometimes turn up on Russian media because I let anyone use my work who wants to, but that was always something they did on their own without my submitting it to them and without any payment or solicitation of any kind. I'm literally just some random westerner sharing political opinions on the internet; those opinions just happen to disagree with the US empire and its stories about itself and its behavior. Yet for years I've watched people pointing at me as an example of what "Russian propaganda" looks like. Everything They've Told You About Russia Is A Lie. I'm going to show you why I always thought it was lunacy to start in with the Russians. [#1] Russia Is Not Iran, Iraq or North Korea. It's not just Americans who misjudge Russia. The United Kingdom — America's faithful lapdog — is utterly delusional when it comes to the Russians. [...] There's nothing in Europe or North America that Russia absolutely needs. Guilty Unless Proven Innocent is the Army Norm. For most of the history of the Army, what would in the 21st century be known as Equal Opportunity (EO) and Sexual Harassment and Rape Prevention (SHARP) programs were sorely lacking effectiveness. Soldiers could face bias, harassment, even sexual assault, with little or no real recourse. Soldiers could report the offenses, but leadership often swept accusations under the rug. In the mid-2000s a female senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) was raped by a male officer. She would not file a complaint against the man because, "nothing's going to happen about it." This was all too common. Forward to the early 2010s and things began to change. The Army threatened commanders that if EO or SHARP were not properly investigated, and a blind eye was turned, their careers would be endangered. EO and SHARP complaints began to be taken seriously. Investigations occurred. Guilty perpetrators were held accountable. Accusations soared because soldiers felt more comfortable reporting. But the pendulum continued to swing away from the do-nothing of the past towards the #metoo and #trustallwomen knee-jerk reactions of the late teens where accusations equal guilt. The
biggest, most ignored demographic in electoral politics. The majority of non-voters are independents who
do not identify with either party. Most have no higher than a high school education and also make less than
$40K/year. [...] Here are potential remedies to the real or imagined disincentives for non-voters to participate in the
Great American Experiment:
To Save America, Abolish the Civil Service. Over the past few months, we've been considering the wholly negative history of the so-called "Progressive"-era constitutional amendments, none of which did anything to improve the nation but did much to undermine its founding principles. Until the end of the Civil War, the constitution had only been amended twice since the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1791: the obscure, jurisdictional 11th Amendment, (1795), which had to do with lawsuits involving state and federal courts, and the 12th, (1804), which partially clarified the procedures for presidential elections. Then, between 1865 and 1870, came the three Reconstruction amendments, abolishing slavery (except as a punishment for a crime, such as a prison chain gang) and giving African-Americans citizenship and voting and other rights. And then after a 43-year break, came the Progressive Era and its assault on Americans' money and personal freedom, the radical changes in how the Senate is selected, Prohibition of a formerly legal substance, and finally the extension of the franchise to women, in defiance of all historical norms going back to the ancient Greeks, on the theory that it wasn't "fair." All have been proven disasters. The Real Great Reset. The year 2023 is shaping up to be the start of long period of destruction and renewal. The old global world is collapsing under the impact of the war in Ukraine, the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, high energy prices, supply chain disruption, and a declining public confidence in authority. The coming year will see the demolition continue until perhaps the point is reached when it is simply easier to start over again. Weaponization of the DOJ by the Chinese Communist Party. In a shockingly direct conflict against the interests and security of the U.S., the CCP has weaponized the DOJ to pursue "dissidents, political rivals, and critics" who have trusted our government's laws protecting asylum seekers from hostile foreign governments. U.S. law firms doing business in and on behalf of China are subject to the malign influence of the CCP through the "unrestricted warfare" tactic of lawfare. In 1992, the CCP began allowing foreign law firms to establish practices in China, requiring, as FBI Director Wray explained, "the law be interpreted according to the CCP's orders, directives, and interests, and... uphold the leadership of the party." No one understands CCP lawfare tactics better than Chinese dissident, Miles Guo,because he's been their primary target. According to The Wall Street Journal, "Some U.S. national security officials view Mr. Guo, who claims to have potentially valuable information on top Chinese officials and business magnates and on North Korea, as a useful bargaining chip to use with Beijing." We Can Have A Federal Spending Cap. When We the People get to the point in our personal finances where we are at risk of not even being able to pay the interest on our credit cards and loans, that's a wake-up call at the cliff's edge of bankruptcy. Most of us never get there. When we do, it's time to (1) stop spending and (2) get those bills paid down, if not completely paid off. Such personal responsibility needs to be manifest at our national level too. It's time to stop funding every seemingly good idea that comes along. Fiscal restraint is required. We need a spending cap, one that comes with such strong cables attached that they cannot be sawn through. The spending cap must contain reductions by a fixed percentage every year for the next ten years. Parsing an Ungrateful Generation. [Scroll down] Quitting your job without giving the standard two-week notice (or more if you are in a critical position) is considered by molly-coddled younger workers to be nothing more than leveling the playing field. The prevailing thinking seems to state that companies are exploiting their workers through the very requirement to show up for work. Many of those young believe they have better things to do than punch a clock or make money for someone other than themselves and detest the inconvenience of having to work for money. To them, this is literal proof of White Supremacy. [...] Millions of our young live with a profound distrust for America, its systems, fairness, and perhaps, even a question of how long the America of their parents and grandparents will continue to exist. These issues constitute the root cause of our current predicament and where we must collectively make our stand. It's Time To Try A Different Approach To America's Drug Problem. As deaths from illegal drugs rise, many people recommend more stringent law enforcement. The basic thrust of this argument is simple. In the last few years, we have seen overdose deaths rise from sixty-odd thousand to over a hundred thousand per year. The drugs they die from are brought into the US illegally and typically contain fentanyl. We need more cops and so on to stop the flow. Full disclosure: I am a retired anesthesiologist who administered fentanyl extensively throughout most of my thirty-six years in medicine. I have literally given gallons of the stuff, so I'm intimately familiar with it. [...] If I take you into the manufacturing process, you'll discover that these drugs cost almost nothing to manufacture. That's right, they are no more expensive to make than aspirin, and you can buy that cheap. So why are we seeing inexpensive safe drugs killing people and criminals like El Chapo becoming as rich as Croesus? I'll give you a hint. It's not the drugs. Should You Raise Chickens? Yes. That's it. That's the article. Well, it could be, because IF you have the means and IF you have the space and IF you're physically capable of raising chickens, then you definitely should consider buying and raising them. I was saying this before eggs became so expensive in the United States that people started smuggling them from Mexican supermarkets. Now, it's really a no-brainer. How the world works (for dummies). Poverty in America is so bad that some people can barely afford their cell phones. In much of the rest of the world, poor people starve to death, or die of what in America are ordinary, survivable diseases or injuries. In America, injustice is so bad that many lawyers appointed by the court cannot get their clients acquitted of the crimes they committed, and must settle for a plea bargain. Elsewhere, to be accused is to be found guilty and imprisoned in hell-hole cellars, innocence being irrelevant to the courts of so-called justice. In the U.S., police sometimes bruise a resisting felon and get fired for excessive use of force. In some parts of the world, the main difference between their police and their criminals is a badge. Are Americans Still Capable of Self-Government? In a 1789 letter to the British philosopher Richard Price, Thomas Jefferson observed that "wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government." By that standard, it's no longer clear that the American electorate is equipped for the task. Jefferson was, of course, an ardent advocate of a free press whose primary function would be to provide the voters with enough information about the government's actions to assess the soundness of its policies. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that he would dignify today's corporate media with the appellation "free press." Jefferson's definition of the term would not, for example, apply to "news" organizations that collude with government officials to suppress debate on important national issues such as the COVID-19 lockdowns. Nor would it include the major broadcast networks that collectively refuse to report a major government-censorship scandal like the Twitter Files. This kind of story is why First Amendment protections for the press exist. On National Security, Can the Center Hold? China and Russia are explicit concerns. The NDAA establishes a defense modernization program for Taiwan. This includes up to $10 billion in Foreign Military Financing grants over the next five years and up to $2 billion in loans. It would create a regional contingency stockpile, allowing the U.S. to place weapons in Taiwan for use if a conflict erupts. To strengthen U.S. capabilities, construction of nine warships and two support ships is to begin this year and $1 billion is directed to improve the shipbuilding industrial base. The Navy will need to build more warships, faster, if it is to maintain naval superiority against a China that has the world's largest shipyards dedicated to expanding its battle fleet. The NDAA would extend and modify the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, authorizing $800 million this fiscal year. The program provides funds to pay the American defense industry to produce weapons to send to Ukraine, rather than drawing from current stockpiles which American forces may need. Good riddance to Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand. One of the most obnoxious wokester players on the world stage surprised everyone Wednesday by saying she was calling it quits. [...] It couldn't have come soon enough. She was a wokester fanatic whose gun-grabbing, China-kowtowing, sneeriness at conservatives, softness on crime, and draconian COVID lockdowns ran New Zealand's economy into the ground and it all just caught up to her. Despite the international plaudits that brought from the international left, the reason she got out was that she was loathed at home, and wouldn't have been able to win re-election in the general election in October. She didn't want her name attached to the loss to her entire party that was coming. In the last month, her popularity fell to a stunning 29%, from an initial high of 70%. [...] These leftists have made a hash of things, and New Zealanders finally got tired of it. Ardern could no longer deny what was going on with that 29% popularity rating that just kept moving lower. It goes to show that a progressive leader, with dictatorial tendencies, doesn't take long to grow very unpopular, even from an initial base of good will. Ardern leaves her office as a failure, despite the fakey-fake words of praise even from her (undoubtedly delighted) opponents at her exit. Comedian Konstantin Kisin's Oxford Debate Speech Was Epic. At 40, Kisin is an early Millennial (or Xennial, as they are now being categorized). So, he has lived some life, had a taste of career success, and has a family. Some of the things that indicate that your views on how life and the economy works is not merely theoretical. Kisin also was born in Russia and emigrated to Europe, domiciling in Great Britain. So, he has not always benefited from living in the Western petri dishes where WOKENESS germinates and takes hold. Which is what makes him, and this debate speech he gave at The Oxford Union Society so compelling. [Video clip] Joe Biden and the CIA Worked to Install Current Communist Regime in Brazil — This Was All Planned. As The Gateway Pundit reported on Saturday — The US began deporting Brazilian opposition leaders back to Brazil this week and the Lula Gulags. This is taking place at the same time that as evidence was presented that the January 8 riots in Brazilia were staged. US journalist Glenn Greenwald is now complaining about the Communist takeover he helped support and enable. Greenwald was an outspoken critic of President Jair Bolsonaro the past several years. He got what he asked for — criminal Lula is back in charge, the communists are fully in charge and the iron boot of Marxism is taking control of Brazil. WATCH: Sheriff Mark Lamb on Upholding the Constitution Instead of the State. Sheriff Mark Lamb joined the program [What program?] to discuss his new children's book titled "The Adventures of Seymour Clues and Mr. Mouse," and why it is important for people with conservative values to create competing alternatives to the progressive ideology being pushed in the school system. In this episode, Lamb also discussed the proper role of a sheriff and how people in these roles have a duty to uphold the Constitution even when it goes against the wishes of state governing authorities. Most people are not aware of a sheriff's true role in the community and believe they are only another enforcement arm. But these officials are also tasked with ensuring that the rights of their communities are not threatened by government and civilians alike. It was quite an enlightening conversation. [Video clip] A Reminder to Doctors about the Meaning of Life. Many people now know of Damar Hamlin, who suffered a similar event on national television. After COVID politics, under which the physician's first obligation to provide the best care for his patient has frequently been ignored (e.g., mandated vaccines for patients with immunity), millions of Americans were again reminded what real medicine looks like, as a medical team revived Damar. Illustrative of a true doctor-patient relationship, the focus was solely on Damar's health. There were no legal consent forms, no administrators detailing which procedures could be billed, no food from a salesman pushing the "best drug" for a patient in cardiac arrest, and no complex codes required prior to chest compressions. Patients have the right to expect from their physician a relationship free from the influence of power, money, and anonymous third parties. The Editor says... Do We Need a Department of Transportation? [Scroll down] Government regulators have no real track record at improving anything, let alone system performance. Regulators typically make things worse. Let's take a look at the Department of Transportation (DoT). It's stated mission is "To deliver the world's leading transportation system, serving the American people and economy through the safe, efficient, sustainable, and equitable movement of people and goods." The DoT was established in 1966 and combines thirteen agencies that cover all aspects of transportation from air, road, and rail travel to the administration of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. Its FY23 budget is $105 Billion, up from the FY21 budget of $87.6 Billion and it employs over 58,000 personnel. What has the DoT done for us? In addition to the failures listed above, there is plenty more where those came from. First off, the Federal Aviation Administration, one of the DoT agencies, failed miserably in certifying the 737 Max jet, causing two major crashes and the loss of many lives. While spending over $16.9 billion (FY23) on mass transit the U.S. has failed to modernize its system. The Motor Carrier Act of 1980 removed much of the price controls and red tape in the railroad industry, resulting in a 159% increase in productivity and a real price decline of 44%. Now, the Surface Transportation Board is starting to regulate reciprocal switching agreements. The net effect will be to bog down the rail industry and increase prices. With the ongoing failures of the Department of Transportation, is it fair to place the blame on one person? No. This is a system problem that needs to be dealt with in a different way. What needs to be done is to start to dismantle the DoT, agency by agency. Let's start with the FAA. Trump Era Officials Say Americans 'Should Be Insulted' By Mexican President 'Lecturing' US On Border Wall. Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador, who has a history of speaking out against Republicans cracking down on illegal migration, talked to Biden about migration issues on Tuesday at the North American Leaders' Summit, and thanked him for not building "even one meter of wall" despite pleas from Republicans. López Obrador made the remarks because he does not want to be held "accountable by America for his and Mexico's responsibility for the human and drug trafficking running through his country," former Deputy DHS Secretary and Senior Fellow for Center for Renewing America Ken Cuccinelli told the Caller. He has historically been against the wall for "political reasons," but Trump "prioritized the safety and well-being of the American people over the opinions and perceptions of Mexican leaders," Chad Wolf, former acting secretary of the DHS and executive director of the America First Policy Institute, said. "It's clear that President Biden does not share that same view, and the President of Mexico has taken advantage of it." Investigating the Investigators. Of course, the very name of the subcommittee — the "Weaponization of the Federal Government" — suggests a wide-ranging inquiry that could look into the actions of a number of federal agencies — the FBI/DOJ, Department of Homeland Security, the CIA and NSA, etc. It would include efforts by the Biden Administration and FDA/CDC to eliminate unapproved speech about COVID-19 and how the FBI made sure social media companies, including Twitter, took down alleged misinformation about the 2020 election and had a part in the suppression of the Hunter Biden story. And that's just the more recent history of governmental abuses. What else is out there, still waiting to be uncovered? There is sure to be more. We just haven't heard of it yet. Then there are the federal abuses of their investigative powers, starting with the Russiagate fiasco. Yet even with Russiagate there's much we don't know. It's either hidden under layers of classifications or kept secret as part of federal investigative steps. Or the evidence remains with the DNC and Crowdstrike, assuming it hasn't been destroyed. Trump Was Right On Tariffs, And Biden Knows It. Free traders on the left and the right routinely excoriated Donald Trump for his willingness to implement tariffs on foreign imports. With the election of Joe Biden in 2020, many hoped the incoming president would reverse the former president's "protectionist" trade policies and return to free trade orthodoxy. This, however, never happened. [...] President Biden has, time and time again, skirted the issue of tariffs. Instead, he has opted to quietly continue his predecessor's America-first tariff hikes, despite having forcefully criticized Trump's trade policy with China in 2019: "President Trump may think he's being tough on China. All that he's delivered as a consequence of that is American farmers, manufacturers and consumers losing and paying more." Biden must have conveniently forgotten this previous stance. By keeping in place the Trump tariffs, he has successfully frustrated economic liberals in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The Elitists' Communications Counterrevolution. In sum, the communications revolution is an historically unprecedented technological boon for personal empowerment, growth, enrichment, and self-government. It is this last that alarms the elitists. The elitists believe they are entitled to wield power for the purpose of governing their inferiors (i.e., the rest of us). To facilitate this inversion of our free republic's design, the elitists require the complicity of a significant amount of the citizenry who, through acquiescence, apathy, and/or dependency, are more than willing to submit to the elitists' control over their lives, be it wholly or in part. Thus, for the elitists, the communications revolution is an existential threat. The empowerment of sovereign citizens to self-govern and, be it singularly or collectively, increase their ability to control and curtail — i.e., to subordinate — the power of public and private sector elitists, had to be blocked through co-option and coercion; through a communications counterrevolution. Are All Politicians Liars? It is not for Democrats to pass judgment on Rep. George Santos; they have no standing to do so. Neither is it the purview of Congressional Republicans to remove Santos, as he was duly elected by his constituents. But he can be sanctioned in other ways: shunned, humiliated, and otherwise disgraced. The sanctioning of Santos should be done very publicly, in-house, by Republicans and other conservatives, as an example for all the world to see because there is so much at stake. Reality bites: We don't currently have a House of Representatives. As the clown show in the House of Representatives stretches into its fourth day, a disturbing reality has begun to set in. By any functional definition of the institution, we currently do not actually have a House of Representatives. Under the long-standing rules of the House, no business can be conducted without a Speaker. That includes the swearing-in of all the members. (Not just the newly elected ones.) The terms of all of the previous members have ended, so until they are sworn in, there technically are no sitting members of the House. And until all of the non-members can figure out how to put someone in place as the Speaker, there will not be a House. The Senate is unable to do anything except internal housekeeping chores without the cooperation of the currently non-existent House, so the country currently does not have a legislative branch. A Little Rebellion in House Speaker's Race Is Good Thing. Unlike how the Left now defines "democracy" — which vacillates between pure mob rule and rule by a bureaucratic, woke priesthood — the Founders understood that democracy had a limited, but important place in our federal republic. In the debates over the Constitution, George Mason of Virginia called the House the "grand depository of the democratic principle of government." The Framers created it to more directly represent the interests, temperament, and immediate concerns of the people — certainly by comparison with the Senate. If democracy was the only element of our government, as with the Greek democracies of old, we would quickly obliterate ourselves. However, if democracy is entirely shunted aside, we end up with other forms of malignant government, such as oligarchy. Democracy can be brutal and unthinking, but it can also provide a quick and necessary course correction when conventional wisdom is wrong and "elites" have become corrupted. What Happens If Some House Members Start Voting 'Present'? A few months back, the Congressional Research Service prepared a useful report on how the speaker of the House is chosen. The CRS report, relying on authoritative House practice manuals, explains that the speaker is elected by a majority of members voting "for a person by name." Translation: 218 votes are not necessary if (a) fewer than 435 members attend the vote, or (b) members who are present opt not to vote for someone by name — i.e., if those latter members vote "present." [...] According to some reports, a number of the dissenters have warned McCarthy that they don't care whether their opposition to him leads to the election of a Democrat. Taking a Roller Coaster Ride with the Fed. The monetary policies pursued by the Fed over the past 20 years have contributed to economic instability. The 0 percent federal funds rate policy, holding interest rates artificially low, motivates malinvestment, i.e., investments that result in unsustainable credit expansion. These investments cease to be profitable once reasonable interest rates return. Malinvestment became clear during the Great Recession in 2008, as artificially low interest rates combined with Fed purchases of mortgage-backed securities fueled an unprecedented housing boom and bust. Congress also contributed to this economic instability by financing the purchase of mortgage securities through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. During the Great Recession, the federal government bailed out government lending institutions as well as private corporations and financial institution. These bailouts created a new generation of "zombie enterprises" that now depend on government subsidies and bailouts to keep them afloat. 10 Scandals To Keep Your Eye On In 2023. [#2] Intelligence Agencies' 2020 Election Interference: A related scandal to track in 2023 concerns intelligence agencies' interference in the 2020 election. Even before Musk took over at Twitter, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed the FBI's role in prompting the censorship of the Hunter Biden story. As I previously reported, during an August 2020 interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg revealed that before the Hunter Biden laptop story dropped, the FBI had warned the Facebook team to "be on high alert." According to Zuckerberg, the FBI told Facebook, "[W]e thought there was a lot of Russian propaganda in the 2016 election" and that "we have it on notice that basically there's about to be some kind of dump similar to that so just be vigilant." Based on the FBI's warning, when the New York Post broke the Hunter Biden story, Facebook treated it as potential misinformation and limited the visibility of the scandal. Rebellion Against the People. While it's important to justify one's position, to provide proof and evidence of crimes, betrayals and treason, I believe we're past the discovery phase and need to move on to the resolution. What more do we need to know than the CIA has been involved in some of the most treacherous acts committed against the republic, that they've had their hands in the dirtiest of business? What more do we need to know than the FBI has worked with social media companies to install a worthless, feckless president, perpetrating a treasonous coup in the guise of an election? All of this, while recently verified, was information we had long since accepted as true. Such villainous acts were known in 1992 when Vicki Weaver was shot down by a government sniper while holding her infant at Ruby Ridge. Does that not speak of the inhumanity with which the government views all of us with dissenting views, those who will not simply obey every outrageous law or dictate? To domestic enemies, patriots are scum. This is a division between the people and those entrusted with power that cannot be ignored without the absolute destruction of the republic in all but name. That is the current state of the union and has been, I would venture, since 1963. Why Congress Can't Refuse to Seat Santos. he Democrats and the Fourth Estate have finally found, in congressman-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.), a Republican who is genuinely guilty of lying to the voters. Having thus discovered themselves — for once — in possession of the moral high ground, they have made the welkin ring with cries of outrage and calls for his resignation. However, if he ignores those calls, it may be difficult to stop him from being seated in the House and even harder to expel him once he takes office. But surely the Speaker of the House can simply refuse to administer the oath of office to Santos, right? Wrong. This was attempted in January of 1967, after Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (D-N.Y.) was re-elected despite allegations that he had misappropriated funds as Chairman of the Education and Labor Committee. At the opening of the 90th Congress House Speaker John McCormack (D-Mass.) refused to swear Powell in and the House passed a resolution that denied him his seat while a bipartisan committee investigated the charges. 10 Steps to Save America. In 2010 then-President Barack Obama appointed a bipartisan "National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform." More commonly remembered as the Simpson-Bowles commission, after chairmen Senators Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.) and Erskine Bowles (D-N.C.), it included private citizens and elected officials. The commission recommended radical tax simplifications and some cuts — along with reductions in tax deductions and credits, an increase in the gas tax, restraints on entitlement spending, and various spending caps. Obama and Congress ultimately rejected the recommendations and the commission's blueprint died. But had it succeeded, the current debt would have long been frozen at the 2014 level of $17 trillion — with annual reductions ensuring that this coming year 2023 the debt would have plunged to $10 trillion and then disappeared in another decade. Something like Simpson-Bowles could still stop the madness and avoid the natural corrective on the horizon of financial collapse. Sam Bankman-Fried is not the only fraudster in America. Sam Bankman-Fried was shuffled off to his new digs in the Bahamas, where it seems likely that he will be spending a great deal of time. That his "mortal coil" might be shuffled off as well is an open question in the era of Jeffrey Epstein. Who are the bigger fraudsters, though? A spoiled kid who bilked his investors for billions or a bureaucracy that prints and spends public money with reckless abandon? It would take an eternity for SBF to graduate to the level of these government and quasi-government scammers. At the time of his bankruptcy filing, FTX's liabilities were in the neighborhood of ten to fifty billion dollars. Compare that to the greater than $31 trillion in debt the U.S. government has rung up. Deep State Suspicions. Sixty years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the National Archives and Records Administration has finally released over 13,000 records in its possession relevant to that tragic event. Some 3% of the records are still being hidden from us. Why? So many years have passed and so many of the key figures have passed away it seems hard to imagine a benign explanation. The event was always the subject of theories critical of the official line. Truth to tell, one need not have been a conspiracist to question it. To take just a single example, the single-bullet explanation never stood up to analysis in my view. And that's just one part of the story. After the record release, Tucker Carlson reported that someone with "direct knowledge" of the still-withheld records states the CIA is connected to the assassination. A Life Beyond the State. A free people should live confidently beyond the control of the State, conscious of their own rights and careful to preserve them. They should exercise their own common sense, not rely on Harvard experts to decide what is best. Unfortunately, we are now a long way from this ideal of freedom. Government spending at all levels has risen to $10.3 trillion out of total U.S. GDP of $21 trillion. Much of that spending is directed toward "educating," shaping, and intimidating individuals so that they become enthusiastic supporters of the State. There is no reason why the federal government can't exercise its specified powers on 2% of GDP rather than the current 33.4%. Government spending not only deprives individuals of their earnings, but provides government with the means of controlling them. Freedom is impossible when the State spends half of the money that should be in the hands of individuals. An obvious first step would be the elimination of both the individual and corporate income taxes, coincident with the elimination of many government departments. Does ESG Violate America's Antitrust Laws? Over the past few years, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics have become ubiquitous among the biggest Wall Street investment firms and Fortune 500 companies. From BlackRock to Vanguard, almost all of the nation's largest financial management companies have hopped on the ESG bandwagon, along with the trillions of dollars in assets under their control, which in actuality mostly belongs to everyday Americans in the form of public pension plans and various retirement accounts. While much has been made over whether or not ESG is a sound investing framework that prioritizes left-wing ideological ends over profits, an even greater case can be made that ESG, as currently practiced, violates America's age-old antitrust laws. The argument that ESG violates America's antitrust laws is certainly gaining momentum in the House of Representatives, which will soon be controlled by the GOP. Harden the Electrical Grid, or Suffer the Consequences. Almost 50,000 Duke Power customers in Moore County, N.C. were left in the dark on Sunday night in what has been called a domestic act of terrorism. [...] While the liberal media immediately started blaming "right-wing militants" because of a nearby gay pride march that afternoon, the broader implications of the attack have been largely ignored: our power grid is completely vulnerable to anyone with a gun and the knowledge of where to shoot. The Editor says... Elon Musk Has No Idea What He Purchased with Jack's Magic Coffee Shop. According to both the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI), via Chairman Mark Warner, and the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) via Mike Turner, the Chinese social media platform TikTok represents a "national security risk" to the United States. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, soon to be the vice-presidential candidate for the DeSantis-Noem 2024 ticket, has also called TikTok a national security threat and banned it in the state. Now, think about that carefully. What is it about a social media app that allows short video sharing that would constitute a national security risk? [...] The need for control is a reaction to fear. TikTok, as a social media platform, is not considered a national security threat because the Chinese government can control it. TikTok is considered a national security threat because the United States government does not control it. Where's the Antiwar Movement? I can't recall a truly powerful and effective antiwar movement since the Vietnam War days, when the draft was still in force and American troops were dying in the tens of thousands in a useless and atrocious war in Southeast Asia. And those are, of course, two key reasons why America lacks a strong antiwar movement today: there is no military draft, and Americans are not dying in large numbers in a deeply unpopular war. [...] America spends roughly a trillion dollars a year on wars and weaponry and an imperial military presence, so that's what we get. We're not spending a trillion a year on peace and diplomacy and conflict resolution. We reap what we sow, and what we sow is almost entirely favorable to more war. Advice to DeSantis: Wait for '28. Reports surfaced two weeks ago that Florida Republicans are considering changing the state's "resign-to-run" law so Governor Ron DeSantis could throw his hat in the ring for the 2024 presidential nomination without losing his governorship. It is one sign among many that DeSantis, or those close to him, are thinking about taking on Donald Trump in the primary. A word of warning and wisdom to DeSantis: Don't do it. DeSantis is a promising politician with a real future on the national scene. He should want to be president. But not yet. DeSantis needs to understand his true self-interest. Running for president in 2024 isn't it. I can save DeSantis and his team a truckload of money and an embarrassing performance in the primaries by stating the obvious right now: There is no way to win against Trump in 2024 for the GOP nomination. Period. Global Health and the Art of Really Big Lies. In a former role I had a boss who lied a lot. The lies were pure fantasy, but massive in scope and delivered with sincerity. They were very successful. This success was based on the reluctance of most people to consider that someone in a position of authority in a humanitarian organization would completely ignore any semblance of reality. People assumed the claims must be true, as fabricating information to that extent in those circumstances seemed to defy logic. The principle of Really Big Lies is based on their being so divorced from reality that the listener will assume their own perception must be flawed, rather than the claims of the person speaking to them. Only an insane or ridiculous person would make such outlandish claims, and a credible institution would not employ such a person. Therefore, given that the institution was apparently credible, the statements must also be credible, and the listener's prior perception of reality therefore flawed. Lesser lies, by contrast, are likely to be perceived as sufficiently close to known reality to be provably wrong. Inventing truth can be more effective than bending it. I'm sick and tired of video-chatting. I trust my toaster, but I don't take orders from it. Nor do I let my microwave micromanage my affairs. My TV's bossy, constantly telling me to vax and mask and I'll be saved, but I ignore it. [...] I bring this up because of the seemingly ever-present tyranny of technology these days. It's hard even to meet a friend in a different part of town if you don't bring your phone. And I do not like to carry a phone. What's the need? If I get in trouble on the street, they'll capture it on camera and decipher the footage six weeks later. Out of a concern for safety in a defund-the-cops era, we're constantly being filmed and photographed even walking on the street. Frankly, that camera on us everywhere is discomfiting. Parents pay a high price for the privilege of owning their children. [Scroll down] Any play by the government for rights in the nation's children can only be successful if the government pays for all these real and intangible expenses. In theory, parents who live comfortably only because welfare payments for their children provide an income will be more compliant. In fact, though, those parents who do receive welfare payments will still be unhappy with government overreach. The state is and always has been a poor substitute for the mother or father who is asleep in the next room. Officialdom will never be there to comfort the crying child. Let us not take an efficient system of raising physically and mentally healthy children and sour the milk that feeds them by adding politics to their diet. The Insanity of 'Zero Covid'. China believes they can "test and interdict" Covid. False, as now proved by more than two years of them literally welding people into their apartments or forcibly relocating them to "quarantine camps." The virus hangs out patiently and then infects people; all you've done is change the time to infection and the build of natural recognition of the virus and thus protection, not the outcome. So why do they keep doing it? That's predicated in their social-political system. China's leader, in this case Xi, is seen as being effectively "God" who cannot be wrong. To admit that he was wrong means he loses his "stick" and thus his claim on the leadership! This has been a feature of China's social and political system for millennia. [...] In short China can't change its position in this regard as they've gone "all-in" publicly early on and to make said change is to admit they were wrong, which they will not do. Were Xi to do so he would lose his position and quite possibly his head. That's why they are even now building more isolation "camps" and quarantine facilities — despite it being known that their policy in this regard is epidemiologically bankrupt and it is physically impossible for it to succeed. We Are Trapped in a Truman Show Directed by Psychopaths. Since March 2020 we have been trapped in a dystopian reality show based on lies, deception, and fake narratives about a weaponized virus created in a lab funded by Anthony Fauci and utilized to further the totalitarian Great Reset agenda of Schwab, Gates and their ilk, while maximizing the profits of Pfizer, TV networks and filling the pockets of politicians, shills, and apparatchiks willing to sellout the people of our country for thirty pieces of silver. [...] The State is run by an eager group of psychopaths who are hell bent on destroying our civil society and common culture on behalf of globalists attempting to implement their Great Reset agenda, and enforcing it through technological surveillance, mind control through propaganda messaging, and strict management of the daily plot via mainstream media and social media censorship of the truth. As Plato contemplated twenty four centuries ago, most men will remain in their cave, believing shadows presented by their overlords is reality, never questioning their servitude or seeking the truth. Rights Here, Rights Now. Excessive emphasis on individual rights always ends up jeopardizing the political conditions that makes them possible, a lesson brutally retaught by the French Revolution. As Tocqueville noted, among the three main revolutions of Western modernity, only France's failed to install a sound and durable regime, because it was the only one which refused to make any concessions to premodern principles. The British attachment to monarchy and traditional jurisprudence, and the American attachment to associative life and religious piety, fostered individualistic ideals revealed through and compatible with human experience, not revolutionary will or conjecture. To realize how far the French Revolution strayed from human experience into philosophical abstraction, one needs only look at some of the laws passed by the revolutionary regime. Anti-Xi protests should end American left's China envy. Xi Jinping, just starting a third term as head of China's ruling Communist Party, is having a bad week. It wasn't supposed to be this way. In his first two terms, Xi cracked down hard on opposition to government policies, cut back on his predecessors' economic liberalization and purged rivals to consolidate power. But now he faces grassroots protests across China, with large groups of demonstrators even calling for him to step down and Communist Party rule to end. Protesters aren't just denouncing Xi, the party and the government's heavy-handed COVID policies — they're also objecting to rampant censorship by holding up blank sheets of paper. The government has tried to keep the public from figuring out what's going on, but it has failed. Big Trouble in Little China. The Peoples Republic of China is a slave state boasting a record of military ineptitude unrivaled by any other large nation on earth, and is entirely of a piece of nearly all Chinese governments that have come before it. It has no affinity with the West, nor does it desire one. Almost congenitally incapable of creativity, innovation and exploration, it has instead adopted financial colonization as a central instrument of its foreign policy, using its own people as pawns in an international chess game only one side is playing. Today, having scorned them as an undifferentiated mass of coolies led by a handful of mandarins, we fear them, but for all the wrong reasons. As I've often observed, based on the historical record, the only people the Chinese can defeat in combat are themselves, as the stupefyingly high body counts of the Taiping Rebellion and Mao's civil war attest. Joel Osteen and Deceptive Prosperity Preaching. When one of the most popular Christian leaders in America focuses more on self-improvement, personal finances, and positive thinking than on the essential doctrines of the faith such as repentance from sin, sanctification, and the atoning work of Jesus Christ, there's a problem. The prosperity gospel preached by men such as Joel Osteen has been described as biblically anemic theology. And millions have fallen for it. It's like a caffeine or sugar high with the nutritional value of cotton candy, but make no mistake: it can be quite lucrative for those preaching it. A friend of mine visited his church and said there were no crosses and there was no mention of Jesus. He may be sincere, he may be naive; but he will be held accountable by God for what he preaches. Lakewood Church in Houston church rakes in about $70 million a year. For his latest book, Joel Osteen received a $13 million-dollar advance. One book. He and his wife have a fortune estimated at $60 million. His 17,000 square-foot mansion is listed at $10.7 million and has six bathrooms, five fireplaces, three elevators, a swimming pool, guest house, and parking for 20 cars — including his $230,000 Ferrari. A High Noon Showdown for America. We may well be living in some of the most interesting times in the history of America. After President Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2024, Merrick Garland announced late last week the appointment of a special counsel to continue, in yet another form, the same Democrat/RINO witch hunt that has wrongfully hounded the former president in different mutations for the last six years. [...] [We] should take as an advance warning the events the world is now witnessing in Brazil as its unlawfully elected dictator is now tightening the noose he has placed around the necks of those protesting his fraudulent election. Just this last weekend, that beneficiary of election fraud informed his adversaries that if they don't stop protesting, go home, and stay quiet — i.e., elect to become submissive and obedient to his tyranny — the government will seize their children. For how long will the children be detained? Who knows? One might guess that will be decided later by the tyranny that ordered them to be taken hostage in the first place — much like those J6 hostages our present government is holding indefinitely without due process for petty offenses. Such are examples of a government's weaponization of law enforcement at its finest. Except for those who willingly choose to remain blind to reality, the parallels between these events in Brazil and what appears to be evolving in America is becoming frighteningly uncanny. Hard Truths and Radical Possibilities. As a treatise on constitutional government, The Federalist is and will always be a classic work of political science, with many enduring insights. But in terms of supplying a guide to how our federal government works, The Federalist has become the owner's manual to a car that no longer runs, or was stolen long ago. What Publius describes about the functions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches — as well as the countervailing powers of the states — has almost no connection with current reality. Congress doesn't write, the executive does not enforce, and the judiciary does not interpret the laws. Power and wealth have become massively centralized in Washington, D.C. Federalism, judicial review, executive authority, the legislative process, appropriations — none of this remains operational in a way James Madison would recognize. And now, the country's most powerful corporations are in active collusion with the federal security apparatus to enforce the regime's authority. That's practically the definition of fascism. The
White House can end the energy crisis by next year if it wants to. Power the Future is an American energy
advocacy and research organization that promotes solutions to energy-related crises currently facing the United
States. In a report simply titled Energy Policy Roadmap, the group sets forth ten basic steps that President Joe
Biden and/or Congress could begin taking immediately before we run out of diesel, experience more rolling blackouts, and
all the rest of the very real threats America is facing because of the current destructive energy policies that are now
in place. [...] Here is the bullet list, and every item on here could be put into motion tomorrow if Joe Biden has the
will to take action or if the new Congress is willing to stand up to him and put corrective measures in place.
The US economy is at the mercy of Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen. While Americans struggle to pay their bills amid soaring inflation, the institutions we rely on to wrestle the economy back to stability are engaged in a secret power struggle which only worsens the impending crisis. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are engaged in a tug of war over interest rates, sources say. On Yellen's side are liberal members of the Fed, including the ambitious, climate-obsessed Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard, who spearheaded the stealth takeover of the board by progressives over the past year. While Powell is determined to bring down inflation by hiking interest rates, as central bankers around the world traditionally have done, sources say Yellen has been counteracting his efforts with the assistance of progressive "doves" of the Federal Reserve, who background journalists that there might be a slowdown in rate hikes, leading to roller-coaster market rallies. The Upside-Down World of Currency. [Scroll down] It is no accident that the biggest and most widespread global bull market in history has coincided with interest rate suppression to zero and even lower over the last four decades. Equally, a trend of rising interest rates will have the opposite effect. Unlike bull markets, bear markets are often sudden and shocking, especially where undue speculation has been previously involved. There is no better example than that of the cryptocurrency phenomenon, which has already seen bitcoin fall from a high of $68,000 to $16,000 in twelve months. And in recent days, the collapse of one of the largest crypto-exchanges, FTX, has exposed both hubris and alleged fraud, handmaidens to extreme public speculation, on an unimaginable scale. For any student of the madness of crowds, it would be surprising if the phenomenon of cryptocurrencies actually survives. The Digital Revolution Has Destroyed the Usefulness of Telephones. I remember when telephones were useful as telephones. Today they are used to surf the Internet and for text messages. Most people don't answer the ring unless they recognize the number. Many never set up their email or message functions on their cell phones. I keep my cell phone off and only turn it on when I have to use it in order to report Internet or power outage or to receive a security code so I can sign on and connect with an Internet financial or payment site. I have ceased answering the house phone unless I am expecting a call. 95% of calls are intrusive scams or robo calls. The digital revolution has made it possible for your privacy to be invaded by scum from every country who assume they have a right to invade your space and use your time in an attempt to take advantage of you. Despite the destruction of privacy, a Constitutional right, people are being forced to have a cell phone and endless apps just in order to function. Telephones are useless in other ways. Businesses are no longer set up to answer phones or to let you speak to a person. You get a robot that gives you a menu unrelated to the reason for your call. Congressional
Hearings — Do Them Right or Not at All. At the Federalist, Jordan Boyd offers up a
proposed agenda for the new House of Representatives. Boyd's agenda is the following, not necessarily in the order
he ranked them:
Lazy Voters Enable Democratic Fraud. The Democrats, buttressed as always by their liberal media allies, recognize that today's lazy voter will never press the matter of voter fraud. So, the fraud continues and Democrats will forevermore "win" every close election. The anti-Americanism of Obama's 3rd Term continues. The fecklessness and the corrupt, willing complicity of the McConnell-McCarthy Rino/Deep State wing continues. Unless real pro-American conservatives step up in a meaningful and intelligent way, the country is doomed. Counting on Votes. As we adjust to the results of this charade of an election, we must face the depths to which this nation has fallen. We are no longer in a place where simply voting can change things. Something terrible is at the bottom of this pit we've fallen into, something that must be dealt with before we can count on our votes meaning anything. 20,000 Vehicles Under the Sea: Inside the Felicity Ace Disaster. During the pandemic, as cargo ships backlogged outside ports, the phrase "supply chain issues" became occasional shorthand for "lost at sea." For all of air freight's efficacy, it costs around five times as much to move a product through the air as it does by sea, according to the logistics firm Freightos. Water remains the chief transport artery for global trade, with around 90 percent of traded goods carried via ship. And all it takes is one clog to trigger a global panic attack. That much became clear in March 2021, when the 1,300-foot, 200,000-ton container ship Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal, jamming one of the world's busiest trade routes for six days. The accident, initially blamed on stiff winds, is estimated to have blocked $9.6 billion in trade per day and marooned more than 300 ships outside the Suez's northern and southern entrances, and those ships carried everything from oil to cattle to cars. While Egyptian crews worked to dislodge the Ever Given, the vessel gained internet infamy as a metaphor for the pandemic age. You'd think that a ship the size of the Empire State Building would be able to withstand the stresses of a gusty day. But in the shipping business, margins matter. For decades, cargo ships have been steadily growing in size in order to carry more freight on each voyage. The German insurance company Allianz estimates that capacity for 20-foot shipping containers alone has spiked by 1,500 percent over the past 50 years. In 1990, the largest ships could hold 5,000 containers. The Ever Given carries four times that. Biden and Trudeau Beclown Themselves by Parading Around Asia in Commie Mao Jackets. Joe Biden and Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, North America's one-two punch of Marxism, were filmed happily flouncing around the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in matching Mao starter kit jackets. [Video clip] [...] Biden will meet Jinping for the first time on Monday to discuss, among other things, the tension between China and Taiwan. What better way for Trudeau and Biden to stand up to the pinkos than by dressing like their exalted, draconian leader? It reminds me of Jen Psaki wearing a Soviet hat in Russia. Unreal midterm elections and the search for sanity in America. The election last week defied reality. For example, John Fetterman, the Democrat who won the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, promised more inflationary spending, more lenient treatment of felons amid a violent crime wave and more of the left's radical, parent-dissing sexual agenda. Yet he won. Do you really believe that a majority of Pennsylvanians voted for a stroke-damaged, hard-core leftist who comes across as a professional wrestling villain? I don't. Celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz was not the strongest Republican candidate and was perceived by many as a RINO. But he should have prevailed in an election in which Democrats had to defend the Biden train wreck. Lauren Boebert Wins Colorado CD-03, Also Arizona and Nevada Solid GOP Wins - Delays Are Media Anti-Trump Narrative Engineering Efforts. The Boebert lead will continue widening until they "officially" call the race. The delay is strictly because Lauren Boebert was an identified media/maga target, similar in construct to Marjorie Taylor Green, who won by too wide a margin to be useful for this intention. The delays in Arizona are for the exact same reason. All GOP wins. Kari Lake easily won the Governor contest and Abraham Hamadeh has easily won the Arizona AG position. Slightly lesser probability, but still likely, both Blake Masters (AZ Senate) and Mark Finchem (AZ Secretary of State) will stand victorious at the end of this narrative engineering delay. The same applies for Nevada where Republican Adam Laxalt has easily won the Senate Race and Joe Lombardo is the new Republican governor. ESG Boomerangs on BlackRock. On January 15, 2020, BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink sent a letter to CEOs saying that he will use its power to ensure "every government, company, and shareholder must confront climate change." The plight of these targeted companies is made worse by investment managers at index funds like BlackRock, who control vast numbers of shares. They can use the ESG ratings against corporate boards by promoting shareholder resolutions to force management to advance liberal social causes, eco-climate standards, and diversity employment goals. ESG eco-activists especially target fossil-fuel companies that are slated ideologically for extinction. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with index funds worth $10 trillion. With Vanguard and State Street — all under "woke" management — Blackrock has been using its massive financial muscle to steer Wall Street down disastrous ideological paths. Wall Street and investors are pushing back. The Time of the Jesters Honoring Themselves Comes to an End. [Scroll down] Yesterday's bomb-vest wearing terrorist on TV screaming "Allahu Akbar" may have morphed into middle-class suburban American parents at your local school board meeting opposed to gender dysphoria and CRT propaganda. They may not know that their names may be part of an FBI file. But Joe Biden's Justice Department knows who they are. And now the Jesters take the stage, spinning their magical tales of a dystopian future if the Democrats don't win on Tuesday, and Democrats are in absolute hysterics, with President Biden shrieking threats that Americans who don't vote to keep Democrats in power are destroying democracy in America. John Fetterman's health and heart condition still unaddressed. Despite numerous editorials from local newspapers across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as the Washington Post, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman's campaign still refuses to release updates on his medical condition. That includes not just the aftereffects from his stroke earlier this year but also an update on the heart condition that caused it. [...] The evidence of the stroke's impact is now manifest. Fetterman struggles to speak at his campaign rallies. He relies on tropes, such as talking about New Jersey, crudites, and banning the filibuster, rather than speaking extemporaneously on current issues. His symptoms have never been addressed by the medical experts who are treating him. No doctor has spoken publicly about his condition outside of the letter released by his cardiologist in June. No doctor has taken questions about him from the media. The New Collectivism of Big Government Elites. The sorry record of wealth generation in the Soviet empire and its client states, and the subsequent repudiation of central planning in favor of market-based economic arrangements by the People's Republic of China, mean that no serious observer today believes that economic collectivism "delivers the goods" in a manner superior to that of free-market capitalism. Similarly, the joy observed in the wake of the Berlin Wall's collapse offered ample evidence of the moral bankruptcy of centralized economic organization as a means of cultivating just and fair living conditions for a nation's citizens. Since then, the playing field has shifted. In modern democratic societies (in contrast to high-tech despotisms like China under the Chinese Communist Party's rule), a compelling case must be put forward for any proposed policy or form of economic organization. As the record of centralized economic decision-making in creating and distributing material wealth is a poor one, those still in favor of big government are largely left with tired, worn-out tropes about "trickle-down" economics and with empty slogans about building an economy "from the bottom up and middle out," along with other non sequiturs. Language designed to stoke class envy may excite committed class warriors, but it means little to regular people simply trying to make ends meet. Ben Franklin, the Middle Class, Socialism, and Global Warming. We forget that in Europe, before and during colonial times, there was an upper class and commoners. The upper class was made of owners who made the rules, the commoners were workers who obeyed the rules. If there was a need to be fulfilled the ruling class made that decision. Commoners stayed desperately poor. The wilderness of America changed this hierarchy. Settlers, mostly commoners, learned that if they wanted something done they had better do it themselves. Mere farmers became masters of many trades. They didn't wait for anyone's permission. As the population of the colonies grew, the marketplace grew. Small businesses began to pop up offering goods and services. [Ben] Franklin printed a newspaper. He also formed "The Leather Apron Club," later called the "Junto." Its purpose was to encourage entrepreneurship and improve society. People with dirt under their fingernails were proposing libraries, fire departments, hospitals, and even universities. It was the beginning of the middle class. Who has really been running our country? On the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, he signed dozens of extensively radical executive orders. Then the Biden administration began populating the federal government and the federal Judiciary — including the new Supreme Court vacancy — with hundreds (probably thousands) of the most extreme anti-American people imaginable. [...] This has all the fingerprints of the Soros organization. The people there are extremely intelligent and proficient, they passionately hate America, they've been leading up to this for several decades, and they have access to untold wealth and influence. Everything mentioned above is something they are more than capable of organizing and carrying out. But most of this couldn't have been accomplished during Biden's first two years without the cooperation of the 50 Democrat U.S. senators and the Democrat majority in the House. And then there are the cowardly Republicans in both houses, including the leadership, who consistently put up a "gentlemanly" fight that is destined to lose. Right now, job number one is openly exposing the "shadow government" that is really running America, and doing everything possible to drive them completely out. John Fetterman Is Getting Worse. Since John Fetterman rolled to victory in Pennsylvania's Democrat primary for the US Senate, the story surrounding his massive stroke has changed multiple times. Following his disastrous debate performance against Republican Mehmet Oz, a series of recent media appearances are starting to paint a clearer picture, though. In short, John Fetterman is getting worse. Early on, his caretakers (including his wife) insisted that Fetterman was fine and was suffering no ill effects. Eventually, written reports of his inability to communicate started to leak out, but it was rejoining of the campaign trail that really lifted the veil. Fetterman made numerous, extremely short speeches in public where he appeared to stumble over his words in ways that weren't normal. He'd repeat words, forget words, and make up words. When he started to do media interviews sometime in September, it was impossible to hide his condition any longer. A proposed MAGA manifesto. [O]n September 1, Joe Biden gave a bizarre speech outside Independence Hall in Philadelphia, whose style and content could have been from the 1930s, in another country. Its purpose was to denounce a vaguely defined group — "MAGA extremists" — for vaguely defined anti-social activities. Substitute "Jews" for "MAGA extremists," and you know where Joe is going with this. Then, [...] on October 21, Joe's writers, finding they hadn't gotten the traction with "MAGA extremists" they had expected, turned the knob up to 11 and had Joe come out with "mega-MAGA" (a million times MAGA — a lot of MAGA). What is Joe's revulsion of MAGA based on? What is it in MAGA that Joe hates so much that he wants all America to know it, and to join him in it? Below is what we are calling the MAGA Manifesto, the list of what policies we MAGAs support, and by extension, what Joe finds so unbearable that the policies on this list must be eliminated from public discourse. This is a condition we call Democrat Governance. It is what you get when you elect Democrats, and which Joe has been doing since he took office. Pelosi Got Hammered. [Scroll down] Maybe as more details come dribbling out, the events of that night will make more sense. However, when a gay rights and BLM activist who looks like a New-Age-y vegetarian disciple of the left's murderous hero Che Guevara comes knocking on Paul Pelosi's back door in the middle of the night and Pretend President Biden and his Democrat Propaganda Machine immediately jump into action by blaming Trump-supporters, the whole spin operation reeks of the same odor still choking doubters of Jeffrey Epstein's declared suicide. Maybe Epstein — the key witness to a child prostitution ring involving unknown perverts and rapists purportedly from the highest ranks of the world's business and political classes — killed himself in a New York jail cell while guards and cameras were conveniently absent, and maybe Paul Pelosi's alleged commie Castro nudist attacker was leading a secret double-life as a MAGA enthusiast. Maybe the same FBI agents who still can't find the alleged culprit responsible for leaving failed explosive devices near Republican and Democrat party headquarters around January 6, 2021 will miraculously find footage of the San Fran hammerer wearing a bright red cap and suspiciously waving an American flag. Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman should be held accountable. My friend Teri Christoph at Smart Girls Politics describes Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman as "enableists." It's a term she made up and it perfectly captures the abusive behavior of political wives who are overcome by their own desire for power at the expense of the health of their husbands. It's a play on a favorite word used by the left these days — "ableism." The definition of enableists is: "Democrat political wives who willingly subject their ill husbands to public ridicule with the sole purpose of amassing political power. See: Jill Biden and Gisele Fetterman." Teri says "The Toxicity Twins" have a lot to answer for. CNN Embarrasses Itself with Documentary Series Slamming Rupert Murdoch. Fox News first appeared on the scene in October 1996. In 2001, Fox News first beat CNN and MSNBC (which also launched in 1996) in the ratings. If you can't beat 'em, then attack them has been the MO of CNN since then. For most of the next two decades, Fox News has been far and away the ratings leader in the highly competitive, and highly remunerative, cable television news landscape. CNN's series on the Murdochs premiered last month. It's a sweeping, technically state-of-the-art examination into the lives of Rupert Murdoch, born in Australia and now a U.S. citizen, and three of his children, unsubtly subtitled "Empire of Influence." Long-gone Yellow Journalism mogul William Randolph Hearst step aside: It's the Murdochs, according to CNN, who are the most influential — and the most problematic — media barons in world history. John Fetterman is physically incapable of being a senator. I've never seen anything like the Pennsylvania Senate debate between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz on Tuesday night, and I hope never to have to see anything like it ever again. It was horrible. I didn't think I would ever experience a moment as painful in the midst of a political campaign as the Perry moment, but that was like watching Pavarotti sing "Nessun Dorma" compared to this. The stroke that Fetterman himself said "knocked" him down at the debate's outset has impaired him. Full stop. Don't believe anyone who even tries to tell you different, and you should probably not trust any such person to tell you whether you need an umbrella because you don't know whether it's raining. Seeing Fetterman struggle to answer simple questions and form simple sentences was nothing less than an agony. There's no sense even in trying to characterize how he did in expressing himself on issues, or how Mehmet Oz did talking about matters ranging from abortion to fracking to Social Security. Well, That Was Weird. John Fetterman and Dr. Mehmet Oz are contesting for the Pennsylvania Senate seat to be vacated by Republican Pat Toomey. It's a marquee matchup that has taken on horror-movie elements as Democrats and their media adjunct seek to push Fetterman over the finish line. Hobbled by the aftereffects of a severe stroke, Fetterman is obviously unfit for high office. He is fit for the doctor's office. They met last night for their one and only debate preceding the election. I watched it live on NewsNation. [...] As expected, Dr. Oz turned in a professional performance. He makes the appearance of a mainstream politician of generally conservative disposition and reassuring demeanor. He was a little too ardent in arguing Fetterman's radicalism in response to almost every question, but I thought he made a good appearance. Fetterman looked like he had wandered in off the set of Night of the Living Dead. The lunacy of climate activism in Florida. It would be better for all concerned to pause for a moment and contemplate the reality of Florida. Whether or not the climate is changing, whether or not any of that change has anything to do with human activity, the truth is that Florida was never a place where God intended man to live. The first Americans to visit Florida, back in the 1830s, were soldiers who were deployed to harass the Seminole Indians. The men were appalled by the conditions they found in Florida. A typical opinion of Florida can be found in the writings of an Army surgeon who recorded, "Florida is certainly the poorest country that ever two people quarreled for.... It was the most dreary and pandemonium-like region I ever visited, nothing but barren wastes." If the soldiers had had their way, they would have left Florida to the mosquitoes. [...] Florida is a paradise today because more than half of the Everglades were destroyed to create a rather dubious living space for humans. Environmental activists either don't know this fact, or they choose to ignore it. After the Jan. 6 Committee finishes, maybe a GOP Congress can probe some actual 'threats to democracy'. How the United States went from an energy-exporting nation with a booming economy, low gas prices and no new foreign wars to an energy-short nation with a stagnating economy, soaring prices for gas (and everything else) facing a potential nuclear confrontation with Russia deserves some looking into. America has a president who's not all there mentally, a doddering figure controlled by those around him. He was elected despite hiding out in his basement during a close election season. Scandals involving his son Hunter — and him — were banned from the media and from tech platforms in the leadup to the election. Problems with his mental capacity were known to the press and to Democratic Party officials but were hushed up. Time magazine even ran a triumphant story, post-election, about how a "cabal" — Time's word — of tech companies, political officials and media folks "saved" the election from Trump by ensuring Biden's victory. We need to find out more about that. How involved were government officials in this "cabal?" Government 2.0. In our lifetimes we have seen productivity improvements that are nearly unimaginable in many public sectors except one, and that would be government. In fact, a case could be made that whatever advances have been made in the economy, they have been negated if not worse by government. It's not just that government steals the fruits of the working class' labor, it is now headlong stealing whatever freedoms we have left. When you have to take a self-threatening but claimed to be a self-protecting 'vaccine' under the argument that you must do it to protect others, you are pretty much at the end of your freedom road. For some reason, we tell ourselves that our 250-year-old form of government is the best there is and the best we can do. But that is just old people talking. There is probably a good reason God designed our world where old people are constantly replaced by new people. I suspect that it, in its infinite wisdom knew that if that wasn't the case, nothing would ever change or improve. Accordingly, I direct this article to anyone still able to dream and is willing to consider how it might in fact be possible to upgrade our current form of government to a 2.0 version. The Midterms. Look, I know it's tough bordering on impossible to govern from Congress, but the least we can expect from the GOP is no-nonsense and quick investigations into major Democratic scandals which are just hanging out there: e.g., Biden laptop, Biden relations with Ukraine and China, the politicization of the FBI, ATF, IRS, CIA, etc., failure to enforce our immigration laws, "defund" the police disaster, and, of course, holding accountable the hoaxers who perpetuated the damaging Trump-Putin collusion story, and the COVID shutdown of the economy. The Civilization That Knew Too Much. [Scroll down] A generation ago, public perception of the interior of institutions was low-resolution, almost pixellated. The average person could not know the details of what went on inside religious, law-enforcement, educational, corporate, or scientific organizations, he simply saw them through the lens of reputation. Reputation can be thought of as a kind of data compression process that reduces a vast and complex reality into what in some cases is a single number. People relying on indexes like the US News ranking of the Top Ten universities often need know nothing about an organization other than that it is Number X in a particular category. But it was enough for many. In that old world, people thought law enforcement mostly upright, churches mostly holy, educators largely trustworthy, journalists largely truthful and Washington occasionally honest, not because they knew the details, but because they accepted the Number. Is Cyborg John Fetterman Really Fit For The Senate? After suffering a severe stroke in May, Pennsylvania senatorial candidate John Fetterman now relies on speech-to-text software to understand the spoken word. The digital interface has become a part of him. In a recent NBC interview, Fetterman can be seen gazing at his desktop screen, struggling to comprehend the questions asked. The Democratic nominee will even be allowed to use this software in the Oct. 25 debate with his Republican opponent, Dr. Mehmet Oz. In a healthy society, Fetterman's own party would urge him to resign for the common good. This situation is beyond the polarized arguments over immigration, crime, or nuclear war. Cognitive fitness is crucial for political leaders. Their job is to engage the public, project competency abroad, and go toe-to-toe with rivals. But we do not live in a healthy society. Rather than acknowledge the danger of electing a U.S. senator who, tragically, has been forced to merge with a machine, Fetterman's supporters are framing this as an "equity" issue. The normal desire to have leaders of sound mind and body is being denounced as "ableism" — i.e., the expectation that people are able to do their jobs. In a culture that rewards virtue-signaling, even compromised cognition is exalted as a virtue. Europe's self-inflicted depression. EU ambassadors held their annual conference last week, and some surprisingly frank things were said for a meeting of diplomats. Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, quite openly excoriated the assembled ambassadors. The European model is no longer working, he said: 'The United States [takes] care of our security. China and Russia provided the basis of our prosperity. This is a world that is no longer there.' [...] This marks a clear change in tone from the complacent end-of-history mindset which persisted in the EU even into the late 2000s. Yet Borrell still remains in a minority. Too many in the EU are clinging to the idea that the current global turmoil is just a phase, and that a return to the world of the 1990s is just around the corner. It isn't just diplomats in Europe who suffer from this delusion. Mainstream economists still seem to believe that the economic crisis we are going through today is just a phase in the business cycle, albeit one exacerbated by the external shocks of Covid and the war in Ukraine. Pope Francis Uniting Roman Catholics and Muslims Forming World Church! There are about 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, and faith groups in the world, and Pope Francis is trying to get everyone together; however, each group makes its own pitch for their "way." Obviously, Francis has to convince everyone to consider their own teaching as non-essential in order to merge with the other groups that are in error. To leftists, unity is far more important than truth. The Pope is trying to unite the predominant religions in the world — Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism totaling over 5 billion people. He also wants to include pagan followers, and all those who worship Satan, snakes, snails, and the sun. At a religious conflab consisting of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists, he warned against "the temptation to fundamentalism" or the tendency for each group to be true to their foundational truths. [...] Francis thinks he is doing God's work in bringing everyone together; however, the Pope has no heavenly mandate to accomplish this gargantuan task. He does have religious gravitas that goes with his position, but it will take supernatural help to get the job done. His help is not coming from above but from below! What happens if the pope is a heretic? Church history professor explains. On today's episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, Dr. Edmund Mazza helps us sift through the confusion and insanity paralyzing the Catholic Church throughout Francis' pontificate and explains what happens if a pope teaches heresy. [Video clip] About that genocide of Indians. A reader in Mexico whose wife and children are descendants of Aztecs wrote to me about my Columbus Day piece. He wrote, "Not many know it, but I think it was 1569, a new disease killed half (50%) of the surviving indigenous people in the entire nation. Spanish and Indians often lived in the same houses, and indigenous died while the whites, who often cared for them, were untouched. "There were many doctors and scientists there, and there was extensive documentation of the illness, and it was NOT anything known in Europe. Among other differences, the dying person's blood turned green before death. "There is a doctor in Mexico City, who is worried that it is a disease like the plague that went into remission among humans but is still existing below ground, and only comes out in certain climate conditions." So I checked it out. He is right. Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipelines? On September 26, 2022, seismologists in Denmark and Sweden recorded underwater seismic activity in the Baltic Sea between 2.1 and 2.3 on the Richter scale, equivalent to an explosion of several hundred pounds of TNT. After investigations, authorities in both countries determined that there had been apparent efforts to sabotage the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. Both lines of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one line of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, yet to be commissioned, were impacted. [...] As every fan of detective stories knows, determining the means and motive of suspects is the key to solving a mystery. Given the geopolitical nature of this issue, it seems that there are four likely suspects: Russia, the European Union (E.U.), the United States (U.S.), and China. Let's examine each one separately in an effort to determine if they had the means and motive to sabotage the pipelines. Forget the blame game, Nordstream Sabotage is about the Great Reset & nothing else. Last night it was reported that "blasts" had damaged both Nordstream pipelines that carry gas exported from Russia to Germany and other nations across northern Europe. As a result, large amounts of natural gas were leaking into the Baltic sea, and supplies through the pipeline were completely shut off. The alleged incident has caused a furious round of blame tennis, with accusations flying back and forth across what — for the sake of simplicity — we'll call Iron Curtain 2.0. The European Union has claimed the pipes were "sabotaged", but doesn't directly blame anyone in their statement. The Telegraph is already blaming actively the Russians, specifically Western Bogeyman President Vladimir Putin. [...] On the flip side, the Russians have said the idea they would sabotage their own pipeline is "stupid." Some Western alternate media have pointed to Joe Biden's vow to totally shut down Nordstream 2 back in February as a sign the US was behind the alleged attack. The former Polish defence minister has come right out and said that NATO forces blew up the pipeline, according to Forbes. The question — one it seems I keep asking the last two years — is "does it really matter?" Denmark, Sweden view Nord Stream pipeline leaks as 'deliberate actions'. [Scroll down] Mikhail Krutikhin, an energy analyst from the RusEnergy consultancy, told DW that initial evidence clearly pointed to sabotage, and said that a key question going forward would be whether the damage originated inside or outside the pipe. He said the shape of the damaged segments of pipe should indicate this. If the explosion came from without, "then it was an explosion from outside made by some sabotage group or some underwater equipment," he said. If the explosion originated inside the pipe, "then it was Gazprom," adding the Russian energy giant "could easily send something technicians call a pig — a robot that goes inside the pipeline." Krutikhin said it is "very easy to send it in the pipe to a specific point and then have it explode." How Different Would America Be Today if Trump was Still President? This is the easiest column I've ever written. It's so simple to imagine what America would be like today if Trump was still President. What a tragedy that we allowed a brain-dead, feeble, confused, old man with dementia and diapers, and his radical, anti-American, globalist, communist handlers to destroy the greatest country in world history — in only 22 months. Let's start with the obvious. How did this happen? The 2020 election was stolen. That's how they removed Trump from office and installed a man who doesn't know who he is, where he is, or what he's doing. A man who can't put 2 sentences together, and who can't attract more than 20 people in concentric circles to his speeches, yet they want us to suspend reality and believe he got 81 million votes — the most in history. Bizarre. It's the Far Left Who Are the Fascists. Do anti-liberty leftists ever look in the mirror or have a moment of self-reflection that maybe they're the threat to our constitutional republic? Do they ever consider the possibility that they are the "baddies"? Do they understand that we of the pro-freedom right really don't have a choice in being inundated with leftist propaganda 24/7? Even the radio stations that carry our favorite pro-freedom programming tend to lean toward the collectivist side of the spectrum. Don't even mention National Propaganda Radio, funded by our tax dollars taken at gunpoint, where their idea of "balance" is a gaggle of leftists with an oh, so slightly different viewpoint on the definition of socialism. Why The Right Should Choose Trump Over DeSantis. Donald Trump is the kingmaker of the Republican Party, and for that reason alone, he remains the best choice for 2024 despite the firestorm of negative media coverage, censorship, and the looming threat of indictment, which have haunted him since being forced out of office in January 2021. In the time since Trump has been gone, Americans have watched their economy tank, their freedoms attacked, and we are now disconcertingly close to an out-and-out ground war with nuclear Russia. Meanwhile, Democrats plan to do irreparable damage to institutions (like the Supreme Court) that have checked the worst excesses of liberal hegemony. The military industrial complex, having been subdued in the Trump years, is now back with a vengeance not seen since the Bush-Cheney years. For their part, the Republicans have reverted to their preferred disposition: that of lovable losers. The concerted efforts of many Republican establishment types to elevate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over Trump is in keeping with that disposition. It would be a grave mistake for many reasons. Army of the Woke. The Army fell approximately 15,000 (25%) people short of meeting their recruiting goals this year, and some Pentagon officials focused on the tight job market as the culprit. Though access to civilian jobs and higher pay is a factor, the truth is broader and ignored at our peril. Rather than confront the reality of what is occurring in the military and the consequences of these actions, these same officials have decided to make blaming anything but the truth an Olympic level sport and our nation's readiness to defeat our adversaries is running in last place. I served in the military for 28 years, both as an enlisted member of the Army's Infantry, and as an officer in Aviation. As a former junior enlisted Solider I know what it takes to keep good Soldiers in the military, and because I commanded up to the brigade level as an officer, I know that retention of quality servicemembers is a critical component and signal of successful command. I never failed to exceed retention goals in my seven years of command, today I don't think I'd sign up to serve at all. Is The Fed About To Destroy America? Today The Fed is holding an emergency meeting under "expedited procedures." The actions to be considered are the discount and advance rate — in other words, interest rates. The rumored reason is that Credit Suisse may be in trouble — specifically due to writing interest rate swaps, along with a number of other institutions which happens to include pension funds both in the UK and US, none of whom should ever be playing with levered instruments for the simple reason that leverage is everywhere and always speculative. But of course they are because nobody has ever gone to prison for using leverage as a means to evade requiring the underlying organization to fund pensions adequately with actual money. Why that would cause both firms and governments to have to behave responsibly and we can't have that. This sort of act is a ridiculous violation of anything approaching fiduciary responsibility — which is a legal obligation for pension managers, not a suggestion. After all its not their money — its the pensioners' money and they are charged with prudent management of same, which the use of leverage, especially leverage on a trend 40 years old that cannot reasonably go below zero, is the exact opposite of "prudent." Of course the same is true for banks; they have fiduciary responsibilities too, including to the nation as a whole since they have a backstop through the government for depositors. Nobody went to prison last time in 2008 for this [stuff] either, did they? Blinken: Whodunnit, Who Cares? It's A Tremendous Opportunity! Remember Blinken's initial, reflexive, response to the US sabotage of the Nordstream pipelines? It was to gaslight: Nobody benefits from this. Get it? It was all a big mystery, so don't bother asking, Cui bono? There's no point. Of course, as economist Michael Hudson pointed out, that bit of gaslighting wasn't going to have much of a shelf life — If nobody benefited from the sabotage, how do you explain the incontrovertible fact that somebody did do it? This wasn't some teen prank. This was the sort of state sponsored terrorism that only a handful of countries had the technical means to pull off, and state actors don't do drastic deeds of this sort unless they see a clear benefit. All an inquiring mind needs to do is to take that short list of capable countries and ask, Which country on the list benefits? Not Russia, for sure. The Thinnest Veneer of Civilization. Civilization is fragile. It hinges on ensuring the stuff of life. To be able to eat, to move about, to have shelter, to be free from state or tribal coercion, to be secure abroad, and safe at home — only that allows cultures to be freed from the daily drudgery of mere survival. Civilization alone permits humans to pursue sophisticated scientific research, the arts, and the finer aspects of culture. So, the great achievement of Western civilization — consensual government, individual freedom, rationalism in partnership with religious belief, free market economics, and constant self-critique and audit — was to liberate people from daily worry over state violence, random crime, famine, and an often-unforgiving nature. Did the US (or its agents) blow up the Nordstream pipelines? Thanks to an open threat issued by President Biden, the question must be asked: Is the United States behind the two explosions that caused a massive natural gas leak into the Baltic Sea? The incident has cut off Russia's ability to deliver methane gas to Germany and other European nations. The release of methane into the water and atmosphere is killing marine life and delivering a greenhouse gas pollutant into the atmosphere that would be gravely feared by believers in man-made global warming. The word "eco-terrorism" comes to mind the describe the act of sabotage, if that's what the explosions were. [...] What raises intense suspicion on the United States is the very specific threat that President Biden issued against Nordstream last February 7: [...] Donald Trump and the Future of Western Civilization. The West, in particular the United States, is currently populated with patronizing, oblivious, and callous leaders more concerned about themselves and globalism than the people and the future of their respective countries. Nor do they acknowledge that Western Civilization, because of its roots in Christianity, has increased freedom, wealth, health, comfort and life expectancy to unprecedented levels throughout the world. When virtually all Western nations pursue the same ruinous policies, and their ruling classes have the same self-absorbed characteristics, decline and collapse from self-immolation is inevitable. In the debauched current state of Western Civilization, the sole path of reversing this decline and collapse is for a tenacious and intrepid egalitarian leader from one of the major Western nations to assume the mantle of leadership. The only experienced and successful current or past leader with these attributes in the West today is Donald Trump, who temporarily stanched and exposed the factors behind the downfall during his four years as president. With the specter of China/Russia hegemony and the accelerating deterioration of the West looming over the United States and Europe, Trump must seriously consider running for president again in 2024. A man of accomplishment: Ron DeSantis' pitch for president. Ron DeSantis is running for president. He has as much as admitted it, although he hasn't done the obligatory visits to Iowa and New Hampshire. 2024 should be his time and it would be a waste if he didn't run. Governor DeSantis doesn't have to announce yet. The contenders for the nominations are former president Trump or DeSantis. Everybody else is an also-ran. Trump, should he decide to run, can count on residual loyalty. DeSantis can appeal to voters as a younger, more vital, less controversial, and arguably more politically savvy alternative. Trump commands attention, but that attention tends to draw focus to himself. DeSantis commands attention, but he draws focus to an issue. He can force the news media to cover anything he chooses, even when they would rather do just about anything else. Are you better off than you were two years ago? When the Democrat Party assumed office in January 2020, we were a nation that was essentially energy independent and a net exporter of energy, we had one of the lowest unemployment rates in recent history to include many minorities groups, our borders were secure, inflation was negligible. President Biden was ostensibly elected to office to "unify" the county and tone down the rhetoric. In other words, many Americans looked to him to return the nation to "normal" and be the father figure to heal our differences. If anything, allowing the Democrat Party to assume control of our lives has caused the opposite. Our borders are porous, causing a mass influx of fentanyl which has killed thousands of our youth, violent crime in our inner cities is at an all-time high, inflation is rampant, and the country is hardly unified — and this happened in just a short two years and yet the Democrat Party is asking you as a voter to give them two more years to try to get it right! So, when you cast your vote, I would urge you to ask your self are we better off than we were two years ago. From my perspective the answer is NO, so please make an informed decision based on facts and logic. Trump or DeSantis? Why not both? Gov. Ron DeSantis shattered the elites' virtue with the Martha's Vineyard ploy. It was delectable, but busing illegal aliens to blue states was originally Texas governor Greg Abbott's idea. DeSantis took it to another level. Is DeSantis as creative and clever as he seems to be? I hope so, but DeSantis's life has not been bombed the way Trump's has. The way I believe voters are beginning to frame their choice for the "who can save America" presidential candidate boils down to whether candidate Trump or candidate DeSantis is the indispensable choice to overcome the Deep State and the absolutely massive cheating to come. I do not think Trump is in any way a loose cannon problem that a "tempering" DeSantis would solve. To allow the media to be arbiters of what is cringe-worthy is old-school fretting that will not be helpful next time around. Donald Trump understands the battlefield as no one else. He would help mature DeSantis to be an even greater force for his own eight years. I think having both in the White House at the same time is the indispensable choice. This thread explaining why nobody is joining the military is a must-read. The military is in trouble and its leadership has no clue. So what's the problem, exactly? You are about to read a lot of common sense packed into a few short paragraphs. It's a rare thing to see. [...] Are Democrats Deliberately Choosing Impaired Candidates? Once could be excused. Twice is suspicious. Three times seems like a strategy. Are Democrats choosing infirm, intellectually challenged, feeble people to run for office so that they can be easily manipulated? [...] George Soros, the Obamas, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett, and many other wealthy, elite, no-borders, one-world Marxist climate zealots have an iron grip on the Democrat Party from bottom to top. Are the elites deliberately choosing weak people so as to control them from behind the curtain? We know they have done that with Biden, Kamala, and Fetterman. Is this their new modus operandi; choose the weak who will bow to the strong because the weak are more palatable to voters than the strong? After all, why run candidates with minds of their own when you can run a candidate who has a mind that can easily be hijacked for radical leftist causes? Can the GOP Accommodate Two Rock Stars? Fresh from his deft Martha's Vineyard gambit, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew into Kansas on Sunday to rally support for Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, now running for governor against incumbent Democrat Laura Kelly. Saul Alinsky, the acknowledged master of forcing poseurs to honor their own policies, could not have done better than DeSantis. No political stroke in memory has succeeded in exposing liberal hypocrisy quite so effortlessly and effectively. Had the Islanders taken the 50 illegal aliens in, they might have checked DeSantis's move and saved a little face, but they didn't. They lived up to their most ludicrous stereotypes, calling in the National Guard and deporting the hapless Venezuelans to some sterile Army base on the mainland. It will be years before "Martha's Vineyard" is anything but a template for a meme or a punch line to a joke. Both Schmidt and U.S. Senator Roger Marshall had fun with Martha's Vineyard in the speeches they gave preceding DeSantis's. The SRO crowd at the Olathe (O-lay-the) Civics Center ate it up. When DeSantis took center stage, the thousands in attendance were primed. They surged to their feet and roared their appreciation. If it wasn't clear before this past week, it was clear to everyone in Olathe. Ron DeSantis has arrived. Idolatry: Is the media honeymoon running out for John Fetterman? Let's not mince words: Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) may not be capable of performing the duties required of him if he wins his race for U.S. Senate against Republican Mehmet Oz. This perspective comes after Fetterman, who suffered a stroke nearly four months ago, seems to be avoiding a debate with Oz before early voting begins on Sept. 19. Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV had offered to host a debate between the two on Sept. 6, but Fetterman declined. "As I recover from this stroke and improve my auditory processing and speech, I look forward to continuing to meet with the people of Pennsylvania," Fetterman said in a statement after the Oz campaign offered to debate in September. "They'll always know where I stand." Actually, voters won't know where Fetterman stands if he continues to do T-ball interviews with handpicked media members and avoids being challenged directly by Oz in a debate setting. Germany Plays Blame Games after '16 Years of Energy Policy Failure'. Germany's economy and climate minister has angrily lashed out at Angela Merkel's party, accusing it of being responsible for "16 years of energy policy failure". While the ongoing gas crisis across Europe gets steadily worse, political tensions in Germany appear to be growing, with the country's economic and climate minister, Robert Habeck, angrily lashing out at his political rivals in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of former chancellor Angela Merkel. Despite having been warned by then-President Donald Trump that relying on Russia for energy was endangering the security of both Germany and her allies, Merkel's government presided over a green agenda-fueled shift away from domestic fossil fuel production that made the country ever more reliant on gas exports supplied by Moscow. America Delira. Travel abroad and or talk to pro-American foreigners here, and you will be surprised at what they say. It is not boilerplate anti-Americanism of the usual cheap Euro style. And their keen criticism is not just that we are $30 trillion in debt, dependent on China, with a corrupt elite, or have gone insane inventing the most lurid crimes to put away the supposedly predetermined guilty Donald Trump. Instead, they express disbelief, worry, lamentation even, that the one solid referent in the world has gone, well, completely rabid. They are terrified after the Afghanistan debacle that their old ally or new homeland, the once constant America, is delirious, incompetent, and self-loathing, and now there is no plausible alternative to the old American deterrence. So, they wonder who will resist China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea — and are silently petrified to go it alone without the United States. What Drives Government Action? It is understandable that folks are baffled and dismayed by the news that confronts us each day. The Babylon Bee can barely keep a step ahead of the nitwittery we see playing out in real time. For example, California politicians decided to take money from taxpayers in order to buy medical insurance for illegal aliens. The federal government tossed bundles of COVID relief cash every which way, with over a billion dollars of it raining down on incarcerated convicts, including Boston Marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. And we witnessed government spend billions to fight the prospect of climate change, only to create the reality of crushing inflation. Why are these things happening? Who benefits? Which politicians ran on a platform of doing any of this? And, if we claim to be a government by consent, who is it that consented? The Great Upheaval Is Almost Here. [Scroll down] Manufacturers are hustling to engage scarce labor and increase production — but that's to fill backed-up orders. New demand is stalled, which means when the old orders are filled everything stops. It stops because when it costs so much to make new things, the resulting price is beyond what the market will bear. And so comes the crash. But it could get worse than that. Look at Europe, where it's less a question of how much it costs to make new things and more whether making them is possible at all. The lights are literally going out all over Europe. Two-thirds of the pubs and restaurants in the U.K. could close because utility bills are pricing them out of business. Natural gas and coal are sky-high. The energy markets are so roiled by the lack of fossil fuels from Russia that governments are faced with bailing out the energy firms, else a "Lehman Brothers event" wipe out the sector. A Massive Economic Storm Is Already Overhead And Nobody Seems To Notice. The biggest recessionary factor that should have alarm bells ringing is new orders for business, especially manufacturing, which are plummeting. Manufacturing surveys from Federal Reserve Banks in New York, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Richmond show new orders for business falling fast, in some cases at the fastest pace on record. The corresponding service sector surveys show similar trends with deteriorating business conditions and declining new orders. In the New York survey, current business conditions are rated worse than any time besides the depths of the 2009 crash and the pandemic. In July, future business conditions were worse than at any point besides September 2001, when the survey was taken right after 9/11. In other words, the coming economic storm is more worrisome to manufacturers than anything besides a terrorist attack. Can the United States Stop the March to Self-Destruction? Since the founding of the nation there has been a consensus that the demise of the United States would not come about by being conquered from without but rather by destroying itself from within. That consensus about the first-of-a-kind constitutional republic with no history of either monarchical or dictatorial authoritarianism is rapidly becoming a reality. How did this evolutionary process come to pass, and can it be stopped? November's Choice: The New Aristocracy Or Our Traditional Liberties. The 2022 election should not simply be a referendum on individual Republican or Democrat candidates; optimally, it should lead to indicting and convicting entrenched politicians and operatives in both political parties who relentlessly rush to surrender America's sovereignty to hostile and corrupt schemers at the United Nations, World Economic Forum, and other odious globalist organizations and profit personally in the process. Beneath campaign nastiness, [there are] legitimate concerns about Fetterman's health. Pennsylvania lieutenant governor and U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman has not fully recovered from the serious stroke he suffered in May. His campaign has acknowledged his obvious struggles with "auditory processing" and speech, but the persistence of those struggles has contrasted with the campaign's rosier predictions of a return to the rigors of campaigning, including debating his opponent, Mehmet Oz. If Mr. Fetterman is not well enough to debate his opponent, that raises serious concerns about his ability to serve as a United States senator. Our corrupt elites reveal that what Jefferson feared has come to pass. If ever there was a time when constructive criticism was urgently required, it is now, in the summer of America's deepening discontent. One thing to criticize is that we are fast becoming an oligarchy, something hidden behind ostensible political battles that distract us, something Jefferson warned of 240 years ago. Currently, the shiny object we are being funneled to focus upon is the Mar-a-Lago raid. We cannot take our eyes off it, even as Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI director Christopher Wray tell us to stop criticizing our betters in government even as they shred the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. [...] Rivals on many issues — progressives and conservatives — likely agree that tyranny under a surveillance state is not an American ideal. That's why, the more we learn about the raid on Mar-a-Lago, the more all of us should be terrified as tyranny seemingly has come to infect the American body politic. The assault upon a popular, mega-rich former president was likely another step in the plot to destroy those who reject ruinous unregulated globalism and to stifle a reckoning, through the courts and at the polls, that is long overdue. What the Biden-Harris administration did at Mar-a-Lago may only be a taste of what it ultimately does to us all, whether we are Trump-supporters or simply proud to be free and independent Americans rather than serfs to the international and fake Illuminati. In Protecting the KGB, Gorbachev Laid the Foundation for Putin's Gangster-State. The notorious KGB chairman Yuri Andropov recruited Mikhail Gorbachev, cultivated him, and placed him in the Kremlin leadership to ultimately take power. Once he led the Soviet Communist Party, Andropov's recruit protected and rewarded the Soviet secret police by making it off-limits to any truth-telling, accountability, or reform. Gorbachev has died, but the KGB that he nurtured and protected lives on under an ungrateful Vladimir Putin. Until the day he passed away at age 91, Gorbachev got an international pass for saving the core of Soviet power: the ever-watching secret police and its global spy and active measures networks. MAGA and the Memory of America. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis [...] is intelligent and articulate, but what makes him probably the most popular Republican governor in the country — and why he brought star appeal to the Keystone State — is that he fights, and wins, political battles for conservative principles. Earlier this year, the Walt Disney Company — one of the largest employers in Florida, and one of the most influential corporations in the world — opposed legislation sponsored by DeSantis that prohibited public school teachers from discussing sexual topics in kindergarten through the third grade. It was a strange position to take for a business that caters to parents with young children, and an indication of how ideologically deranged corporate America has become. Not long after, DeSantis demonstrated a rare willingness to inflict pain on his political opponents by signing a bill revoking Disney's special regulatory and tax exemptions. It was a major showdown, and DeSantis is rightly proud of himself for not backing off. If only more Republicans in other states, and in Washington, D.C., followed his lead. DeSantis is proof that political power, like muscle power, grows when it is used. The O'Keefe Project: Footsteps Getting Closer. It has been evident that the Biden Justice Department is out to get James O'Keefe and Project Veritas since O'Keefe et al. were raided last year under federal search warrants procured by the FBI. Although O'Keefe was instructed to remain mum, the authorities promptly leaked news of the raid to the New York Times. All this in the matter of Ashley Biden's diary. [...] The national security establishment has treated Ashley Biden's diary as a federal case. They have leaked confidential information to Times reporters including Adam Goldman and Michael Schmidt, both of whom promoted Russia hoax stories that won Pulitzer Prizes. Ashley Biden's diary is now subject to the Russia hoax treatment, both within the Biden Department of Justice and at its Times public relations arm. In the latest development yesterday, Florida residents Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. The Trump Campaign Turned Down the Ashley Biden Diary. Just the News has the story of Aimee Harris and Robert Kurlander, who entered guilty pleas to stealing Ashley Biden's diary and selling it to James O'Keefe and Project Veritas. Before they did that, Harris and Kurlander decided to try for a big payday and attempted to sell the diary to a party that they thought would be very interested in it and certainly had the cash on hand to meet a hefty price tag: namely, the Trump campaign. But the plan hit a snag. Not only did the Trump camp reject the offer, but they also recommended that Harris and Kurlander turn it and other stolen items over to the FBI. Yes, that FBI. More on the Ashley Biden diary story. Yesterday I wrote about the two people from Florida who pleaded guilty to stealing Ashley Biden's diary. As I pointed out in that post, the reason this is being treated as a federal case is that both of them pleaded guilty to transporting stolen property across state lines. They qualified for those charges because a) the knew the material was stolen, b) they transported it across state lines and c) the material had a value of more than $5,000. But in order for Project Veritas to be guilty of receiving stolen property, the would have had to know the material was stolen. And by all accounts, the thieves who brought them the diary claimed it wasn't stolen but had been abandoned in a house where they found it. But here's where things get a bit more tricky. Project Veritas, in an effort to verify the diary was real, asked the two thieves to return to the house and gather more material belonging to Ashley Biden. Ordinarily, The American People Benefit From Viewing Presidential Records. While the DOJ's and FBI's raid on Mar-a-Lago is suspect, and currently seems to be more about protecting the Deep State than about benefitting the American people, we shouldn't forget that, under ordinary circumstances, the American people benefit from gaining access to presidential records. Since 1992, America has gone from sole superpower to bumbling fool and stupid-power, even more so in the still unfolding horror show that scares most everyone thinking clearly about Biden-Harris priorities and policies. The downward trajectory of America is undeniable and likely involves grifters in both political parties. Adjusted for rampant inflation, we are poorer, we are already drowning in debt, and we are less safe at home and abroad. Along the way, we also seem to have surrendered our "inalienable rights" and constitutionally protected freedoms to unaccountable, unelected, and arrogant bureaucrats. Why Aren't Our Generals Learning? A third of the way into his article, "Afghanistan Did Not Have to Turn Out This Way", David Petraeus, former head of Central Command, who led forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and then headed the CIA, admits the war was never going to end. "Some senior officials, including me, had cautioned that we would not be able to do in Afghanistan what we had done in Iraq — that though we might be able to drive violence down, we would not be able to 'flip' the country, as we had during the surge in Iraq, and provide it a whole new beginning," he writes. "When we recognized that we couldn't 'win' the war, we did not even seriously consider that we might just 'manage' it," Petraeus complains. Managing the war would mean a permanent military presence in Afghanistan. There was never any serious plan to withdraw from Afghanistan. Nation building, Petraeus argues, "was not just unavoidable; it was essential". The Point of No Return. This is an election year. But the issues this year are not about Democrats and Republicans. The big issue is whether this nation has degenerated to a point of no return — a point where we risk destroying ourselves, before our enemies can destroy us. If there is one moment that symbolized our degeneration, it was when an enraged mob gathered in front of the Supreme Court and a leader of the United States Senate shouted threats against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, saying "You won't know what hit you!" There have always been irresponsible demagogues. But there was once a time when anyone who shouted threats to a Supreme Court Justice would see the end of his own political career, and could not show his face in decent society again. You either believe in laws or you believe in mob rule. It doesn't matter whether you agree with the law or agree with the mob on some particular issue. If threats of violence against judges — and publishing where a judge's children go to school — is the way to settle issues, then there is not much point in having elections or laws. Is Kamala Harris 'Inevitable' as the Next Democrat Nominee? Larry Elder Thinks So. We all watch the painful clips of Vice President Kamala Harris speaking publicly. It is so memeable that Blaze TV host Stu Burguiere has an entire series called "Veep Thoughts." In addition to her public speaking gaffes, Harris is a horrible retail politician and has not been able to claim a win on the border, Ukraine, or the voting rights legislation that President Biden gave her to lead. Yet radio host Larry Elder is confident that she will be the Democrats' nominee in 2024 if Joe Biden does not or cannot run. Failing that, it will be "her turn" in 2028. The Editor says... The Church of the Federal Reserve is Here to Save Us. The Federal Reserve is a fraud and has been from its inception. Its creation was via dubious means in 1913. That year was arguably the worst in U.S. history for freedom lovers — 1913 was during the "Progressive Era" and also saw the passage of a permanent income tax. Oversight of the banking industry is necessary, particularly in a world of fractional-reserve banking. Banking committees and oversight functions exist inside the Federal Government. Why was this one created as some contrived hybrid? G. Edward Griffin addressed this abnormality in his The Creature from Jekyll Island. To assess the effectiveness of the Federal Reserve, an economic review of general economic performance before and after its creation is useful. The Fed began operations in 1914. Shortly after its creation, a boom, the "Roaring 20s," occurred. That quickly ended with the greatest stock market crash in history in 1929, which preceded the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Final Months of a Bad Employee. If you work in the business world long enough, you will notice that an employee reveals the most about his own personal work ethic, not when he starts out, not when he's angling for a bonus or promotion, but at the end, when he gets a new job and gives his two weeks' notice, or when he starts training his successor as he reaches retirement. [...] The same goes for political leadership when it has had its walking papers served on Election Day, or even when that eventuality becomes evident, months in advance. [...] In this context, we ask: how are today's Congressional leadership adjusting their behavior in light of polls that show they are on their way out? Are the Pelosi and Schumer majorities trying to win back public support by reacting to recognition that the nation desperately needs a course correction in so many ways? Or are they doubling down on the destruction causing our current problems? Sadly, there is no indication that they are interested in the concept of working for the public good until the last moment, as the Trump administration did. Is Anyone Tracking China's Land Grabs in America? China is doling out hordes of cash to buy American real estate. Over $6 billion was spent gobbling up American land last year. One purchase raised eyebrows since the plot of land is near a US Air Force base with military drone capabilities. [...] Chinese land grabs near US military bases are unconscionable. We all know Beijing's spy network is vast and efficient. They've infiltrated Congress, cultural institutions, and higher education. We need to keep an eye on these purchases. With China smelling the weakness from this administration, they're bound to get more aggressive. They're already trying to stop an arms sale to Taiwan. They shared our information about the Russian military buildup in Ukraine with Moscow before the invasion. They know Joe won't do anything. Actor Russell Brand calls green energy movement a scam to bankrupt farmers and grab their land globally via the Great Reset. Actor/comedian Russell Brand tore into the green energy movement, calling it a scam and alleging that it is part of the Great Reset with a goal to bankrupt farmers and grab land across the globe. Brand hosts a popular podcast where he has been exposing the Great Reset and the plight of farmers. Especially when it comes to the fertilizer shortage and predators like Bill Gates buying up farmland. Brand discussed Dutch farmers who have been protesting over climate laws being forced on them that are bankrupting their livelihoods. That includes being unable to get the fertilizer needed to grow the crops in the first place. [Video clip] Globalism and the Georgia Stones. On July 6, in an act of vandalism for which the culprits are still at large, one of the four "Georgia Guidestones" was blown apart. The damage was so severe that the entire monument was rendered too unstable to leave standing. For safety reasons, state officials almost immediately demolished the rest of the monument. While the Georgia Guidestones are not as well known as, say, Stonehenge, among critics of globalism they had acquired a certain infamy because of the inscriptions on the stones. Carved into four massive blocks of granite, and rendered in eight languages, this is what was on the stones: [Text omitted for brevity, among other things.] [...] But what was it about the Georgia Guidestones that made them a target? To answer this, you first have to wonder — who is more paranoid, those anti-globalists who believe an international elite is determined to erase nationalities and reduce the population of humans to "sustainable" levels, or the Malthusian-environmentalist faction of the globalists themselves, who believe the planet is on the brink of total ecosystem collapse because of too many people consuming too many resources, and this must be corrected by any means necessary? How To Recognize Civilization When You See It. What do we mean, as individuals, when we say that someone, not a certain society, is "civilized"? Can that assertion point to anything solid beyond vague approval? This idea has proven notoriously resistant to capture. Brace Yourself for the Biden Housing Bust. During the final two years of [Jimmy] Carter's term, sales of existing and new homes collapsed because the Fed was forced to raise interest rates sharply to get double-digit inflation under control. This, in turn, produced double-digit mortgage rates that priced millions of potential buyers out of the market. Like our current chief executive, Carter was delusional about the threat inflation posed to the economy. [...] If you're too young to remember the Carter era, it may be difficult to imagine double-digit mortgage rates. If so, consider what you would have said to anyone who predicted two years ago that you would now be paying $5.00 a gallon for gasoline. Likewise, the possibility of committing to a double-digit mortgage rate to buy a house may seem absurd. In 1980, however, many had to choose between doing just that and not buying at all. For some potential buyers, there was no choice. They couldn't afford the mortgage payments. Our Founding Fathers weren't the patriarchy, they were heroes. In our country today, there are people who dismiss the Founding Fathers through the prism of 2022. If these people had their way, they would remove every plaque, statue or word that celebrates the genius and courageous acts of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. For example, on July 3, 2019, a journalist from Vox put out this little gem: "The main benefit of the revolution to colonists was that it gave more political power to America's white male minority." I suspect that when the 56 men signed the declaration in Philadelphia in 1776 — a literal death warrant for each — "identity politics" was the furthest thing from their minds. Especially for those who were imprisoned, had their homes burned to the ground, their livestock slaughtered and their wives arrested, simply for daring to add their name to the most inspiring document known to humanity. Each of the 56 men who put that quill pen to parchment knew they were very possibly signing their own death warrants. John Hancock not only knew that but purposely increased the risk to himself. Why? Legend tells us he upped the ante so King George III "can read my name without spectacles and may double his reward on my head." To Avoid Civil War, Learn To Tolerate Different Laws In Different States. Most commentary on the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization — which overturns Roe v Wade — has focused on the decision's effect on the legality of abortion in various states. That's an important issue. It may be, however, that the Dobbs decision's effect on political decentralization in the United States is a far bigger deal. After all, the ruling isn't so much about abortion as it is about the federal government's role in abortion. State governments are free to make abortion 100 percent legal within their own borders. Some states have already done so. The court's ruling limits only the federal government's prerogatives over abortion law, and this has the potential to lead to many other limitations on federal power as well. In this way, Dobbs is a victory for those seeking to limit federal power. America Is More Fragile Than the Left Understands. Our elites assume that all our nation's past violent protests, all its would-be revolutions, all its cultural upheavals, all its institutionalized lawlessness were predicated on one central truth — America's central core is so strong, so rich, and so resilient that it can withstand almost any assault. So, we can afford 120 days in 2020 of mass rioting, $2 billion in damage, some 35 killed, and 1,500 police injured. We can easily survive an Afghanistan, and our utter and complete military humiliation. There was no problem in abandoning some $70-80 billion in military loot to terrorists. Who cares that we tossed off a billion-dollar new embassy, and jettisoned a $300-million refitted air base, as long as our pride flags were waving in Kabul? The Strange Sequence Of Events Happening Now Are Not Random. Bear with me here, and get out your tin foil hat, because I have a tale to tell you. One where I take a step back, or a thousand, and look at the strangest events over the course of the past few years, and "see" dots connecting from one to other, how one event intertwines with another, until we get here. Here being a moment in time where the man who occupies the White House, supposedly the "decision-maker" needs cheat cards to tell him when to sit, when to leave, and when to talk. Here being a time when gas prices are at a record high, with no end to the continued increases in sight. Here being a time where Americans just went through a year of being controlled, threatened and harassed because of a "pandemic," where states were locked down, businesses deem "non-essential" by state leaders and closed, and Americans forced to be masked or banned from everyday events, such as shopping for food. Here being a time when on the heels of one "pandemic" we are warned of another, and where diseases such as Polio, are supposedly making a comeback. Here being a time when things look so bad for democrats politically heading into the midterms, and BOOM, "coincidentally" there are a rapid series of "mass shootings," so democrats and republicans in name only (RINOS), take yet another step towards violating the Second Amendment right to bear arms. View of Cleveland Fed Reserve Bank President Shows Massive Economic Disconnect in Causation. Loretta Mester is the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and appeared on CBS Face the Nation to give her opinion/analysis of the US. economic condition. The disconnect in her viewpoint is alarming and should signal to everyone how the Federal Reserve Board, just like every institution of government, has become a political agency. In her mind Ms. Mester appears to believe what she is saying, but the disconnect between her view of our status and the reality on Main Street is alarming. In this interview Mester says emphatically that current inflation is being driven by consumer demand that is outpacing supply. Not only is this view of inflation origination wrong, and has been wrong for well over a year, it is dangerous. To Fight Marxist Education, We Need a New Kind of School. What is the antidote to "wokeism"? Knowledge. How do ordinary people resist the growing tyranny of State power? By questioning everything they're told. How can people being controlled fight back? By remembering that they alone control their thoughts. You knew these answers without my help. Variations of them are entwined with our cherished cultural beliefs. Knowledge is power. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. The truth will set you free. In the past, perhaps, these idioms were too often seen as nothing more than inspirational bromides one might find embroidered on a decorative bookmark. Now their gospel truths are strikingly clear. Stupidity breeds weakness. Obedience kills critical thinking. Ignorance invites enslavement. Wisdom ameliorates suffering. Imagine how much stronger America would be today if America's children understood these vital lessons. Andrew Sullivan: The scolds are in retreat. Sullivan's latest piece on Substack is titled "The Vibes They Are A-Shiftin'" and that actually undersells the case he makes that the woke left (or whatever you prefer to call them) appear to be in retreat. He opens by noting that it was only 2 years ago that the world was figuratively and sometimes literally on fire. Activists were demanding police be defunded and Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo were seemingly anointed as our foremost public intellectuals. Jump forward two years and things look very different. Sorry, Democrats: Other Opinions Exist. This week, my company, The Daily Wire, premiered a blockbuster new documentary starring Matt Walsh. Titled "What Is A Woman?", the documentary investigates radical gender theory and its peculiar hold on the elites in our society — and how the insane proposition that men can become women and vice versa has become so well-accepted that even normal Americans now live in fear of questioning it. The film has been the single largest success in the history of The Daily Wire; hundreds of thousands of Americans have subscribed to view it. Yet Rotten Tomatoes, the review aggregator for film and television, has not a single traditional review of the film. That's because, according to the legacy and entertainment media, the film doesn't exist. When the Daily Wire press team sent out invitations to reviewers to watch the film — knowing, of course, that the vast majority of reviewers are left-leaning and would undoubtedly pan the film — reviewers began responding with insults and declarations of preemptive hatred. Biden's America resembles a Soviet era hellhole. I'm old enough to remember watching news reports about the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states describing electricity blackouts, showing stores with empty shelves and people standing in long lines at shops to purchase scarce necessities. Commentators explained how only government officials had access to nice homes or cars and how only government employees and Communist Party members were exempt from the rules they established for the populace. I saw it for myself in the early 1960s when I visited East Germany, crossing through Check Point Charlie, into East Berlin. I visited again 20 years later in the early 1980s before the "Wall" came down. Nothing had changed in that 20-year interval. The city was still drab, people on the street dour and scruffily dressed, and store shelves still empty. The dystopian state of our nation. The signs of decline are everywhere: violent crimes, corruption, riots, all with little or no consequences for the perpetrators, election fraud, and medical mandates for vaccines that do not work. [...] All of this is part of the left's grand plan to "transform" American society from the free nation of our founding into something resembling communist China. The one thing they did not plan on was the presidency of Donald Trump. His four-year term in the White House was unexpected because the Democrats were certain that they had that election in the bag. Hillary was on board with their globalist/Marxist plan, and they just knew that all their plans were a go. But they underestimated the America First movement and were gobsmacked by Trump's thoroughly unpredictable victory. That is how blinkered they are. What is a woman? I worried that the just-released Daily Wire documentary on the topic, What Is a Woman?, produced and directed by Justin Folk and starring Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, wouldn't offer anything new. In a sense I was right. My mind wasn't changed. I went in knowing that transgenderism is deranged and dangerous, and the film confirmed my point of view. But what confirmation! Folk, Walsh, and company have put together a serious and definitive piece of work — at once a comprehensive survey, a chilling indictment, and, strange though it may sound, an often laugh-out-loud piece of entertainment. Guns Are Not the Problem. Americans have owned guns since the founding, but it wasn't until comparatively recently that mass shootings became a concern. Guns are not the problem. Our culture is. Broken cultures produce broken human beings. For every school shooter, there are thousands of other weak, confused, mentally disturbed men who are drifting away from society. They aren't dating, aren't working, and they spend most of their time in their bedrooms playing video games, smoking weed, watching pornography, and stewing in social media echo chambers. None of this is healthy or normal, but we have been desensitized to dysfunction. [...] Your average school shooter spends months writing the script of his own little action movie that he wants to force society to watch. They are living out a fantasy of glory. The childish, sadistic theatrics of these spectacles bear the imprint of a childish and sadistic popular culture. It is absurd to suggest that the man who dresses up like a "Call of Duty" character to go kill children has not been influenced in some way by gratuitous violence in mass media. What about packing the House of Representatives? In the first U.S. Congress, the members who represented the largest number of people were the Senators from the most populous state, Virginia, who represented about 750,000 people. For the current Congress, the median district of the House of Representatives includes about 750,000 people. [...] The reason congressional districts have grown to have such a large population now compared to the early Congresses is that the number of members of Congress was frozen at 435 by statute in the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. In 1929 the U.S. population was about 120 million. Today, the U.S. population is around 330 million, meaning that with a fixed 435 House members, district population has grown and will continue to grow until the number of House members is increased or, better yet, linked to population. [...] Having congressional districts the size of the largest state at the founding and growing means that members of Congress are more and more removed from the people they are supposed to represent. A not too surprising result of this is that members of Congress now think and act more like senators. Uvalde and the Problem of Evil. What do people who don't believe in evil do? They blame inanimate objects. Guns. 19 years ago, a middle-aged unemployed taxi driver carrying two milk cartons full of gasoline walked onto a South Korean subway and started a fire that killed 192 people. That was not a milk carton problem. Nor was it a gasoline problem. 6 years ago, a Muslim terrorist drove a truck into a Bastille Day event in Nice, France killing 86 and wounding over 400 other people. Body parts were being pried out of his wheel wells. That was not a truck problem. Across the long stretch of human history, millions of people were killed long before the invention of firearms, in often cruder and far more brutal ways. 'Top Gun' Is Much Better Recruitment Than That Lesbian Wedding Cartoon Ad The Army Made. When "Top Gun" came out in 1986, it helped drive a surge of interest in flying for the U.S. military, including a 10 percent spike in service academy applications. [...] The Pentagon collaborated with producers on the movie, as it has with myriad other military flicks. Now, from ads lined up to accompany the movie to recruitment tables set up outside theaters, the Navy and Air Force are making no secret of using "Top Gun: Maverick" as a recruiting tool, as well they should. It's a far better promotion for the U.S. military than the embarrassing, woke garbage that equity consultants have been churning out. [...] It's painfully obvious that the point of the ad was to check boxes in the Army's department of showing how much the Pentagon loves lesbian weddings. The animation is reminiscent of a B-list kids TV show, and so is the sugary tone of the voiceover. There is zero in the video to inspire any kind of bravery, sacrifice, duty, honor, integrity, excellence, teamwork, or respect. Like the short-lived "Army of One" slogan of 20 years ago, this ad is all about being your best self and fulfilling your personal needs and desires. The real replacement. Nigerian immigrants replacing white natives are not a problem. Welcome aboard, I say. The real problem is replacing God with government. The country's values have changed mainly for the worst over the last 70 years. That coincides with a nation that has gone from being 90% white to one that is 76%. But don't blame non-whites because the change in race is casual, not causal. America is not changing color. America is changing values. We are replacing God with communism. The little old ladies in tennis shoes were right. There was a plan to defeat the nation from within. There is a way to stop school shootings. Willie Sutton robbed banks because that's where the money was. Shooters target schools because that's where the easy targets are. If we truly want to stop school shootings, it's past time we hardened our schools so that our children are no longer easy targets. We could learn a lot from Israel, a country that takes the protection of children so seriously that there have been only six attacks on schools since 1974. While Israeli law focuses more on repelling terrorist attacks than school shooters, their security measures work well on both threats. There are armed guards in Israeli schools. There are limited points of entry to schools. There are shelters and fences at schools and reinforced school buses. Armed guards might even accompany students on field trips. Nor do the Israelis rely on security at the school site. They also engage in behavior profiling, including monitoring the social media of potential shooters. Such measures are controversial and would no doubt encounter resistance in the United States. However, there have been 2,052 school shootings in America since 1970 (although only the smallest percentage are mass shootings of the type pioneered at Columbine; most are extensions of or the same type of violence seen in urban neighborhoods). I Wish Our Government Understood Memorial Day. I wish we had leaders who unflinchingly defended the Bill of Rights. I wish we had a Congress that respected the constitutional limits of its enumerated powers. I wish we weren't saddled with a century of errant Supreme Court jurisprudence that has habitually refashioned the plain meaning of the Constitution's words in service to the partisan bents of its members. I wish the 16th Amendment hadn't made it permissible for the federal government to tax the fruits of Americans' labor. I wish the 17th Amendment hadn't transformed the Senate from a legislative body representing the individual states' interests into a national House of Lords representing the national security state's interests. I wish our fifty state governments fought ferociously against the federal government to protect their inherent sovereign powers. I wish the American people understood more broadly that the federal government has slowly but surely stolen from them rights and liberties that were once strictly protected from government infringement. I wish we were not represented by presidents who disloyally insist on ceding American self-determination to international governing bodies stocked with unelected bureaucrats who believe their "expertise" outweighs Americans' priorities. The word no one mentions when discussing school shootings. [Scroll down] No one asks the central question; why are kids shooting up schools? Schools are the target. Schools are the objective. Schools are the focal point. What are schools doing that makes them so hated? You can go to any website and see the open and growing craziness within the teaching profession. There are too many cotton-candy haired narcissists who only preach a cause to their captive audience. They might preach about homosexuality. They might preach about Critical Race Theory. But it's all about their personal cause. These spokesmen for the Cause are creepy because the Cause trumps all other knowledge. Look for reading scores on the bottom shelf, just below basic math. Narcissists' teaching budding narcissists' is not a healthy diet for the soul of our country. Even the books students read are self-centered, crafted so that the reader "can relate" to the subject. So they learn not to relate to others. Cannabis causes psychosis. Psychosis causes violence. Yep, there it is, the first reference to cannabis use by Salvador Ramos, the Texas elementary school killer. In the New York Times. Took 24 hours, give or take. ["]And Ms. Rodriguez recalled he would often talk about how much he despised his mother and grandmother, whom he told her did not let him smoke weed or do what he wanted.["] [Source] This is only one case. Except it's not. Nikolas Cruz, the Florida high school shooter, was a heavy user and told the police detective who interviewed him that he heard voices. Devin Patrick Kelley — who shot up a Texas church and killed 26 people in 2017 before blowing his head off — had THC in his system when he died. (Kelley had anti-anxiety drugs too; a lot of heavy cannabis users wind up using Xanax or Klonopin to try to tamp down their paranoia.) Darrell Brooks Jr., last seen allegedly racing through the Waukesha Christmas Parade, is a self-described stoner. Meanwhile, cities like Portland, Oregon have suffered an explosion in violence following the legalization of cannabis. Portland had 16 murders in 2013, the year before voters in Oregon approved full legalization. Last year it had 90. It's on pace to have even more in 2022. It has gone from being one of the safest medium-sized cities in the United States to one of the most dangerous. Denver has seen a similar trend. 4 Steps Every School Can Take to Help Prevent Shootings. [Scroll down] In almost every one of these shootings, and now apparently in this one as well, there have been signals that the shooter has given, mostly on social media, sometimes to friends, family members. And the problem is people see these things like pictures of him with guns saying he's going to go do a shooting. Apparently, this young man had some friends that he used to cruise around the neighborhood [with] and shoot BB guns at people's cars or at people walking on the street. Behavior like that is a signal. It doesn't mean always that there's going to be a big tragedy like this, but it's the kind of signal that somebody needs to respond to. And you cannot pass [it] off ... "Oh, well, that's just Johnny blowing off steam. He really doesn't mean that." We can't say that anymore. We have to respond. We have to get authorities involved. There has to be an intervention. Bush Dynasty, Its Influence Fading, Pins Hopes on One Last Stand in Texas. His famous name shadows George P. Bush, the only member of the dynastic political clan now in public office, as he enters the final days of an uphill campaign to unseat Texas' attorney general. To some Texans, the Bush family name is a badge of integrity, harking back to a bygone era of rectitude and respectful political debate. To others, it is the disqualifying mark of a Republican old guard that failed the party and betrayed its last president, Donald Trump. GOP voters and Attorney General Ken Paxton. On Tuesday, GOP voters will choose AG Ken Paxton over George P. Bush, the challenger serving as the commissioner of the Texas General Land Office since 2015. The Bush campaign has focused on the stories and allegations regarding AG Paxton's ethics. [...] So why are GOP voters looking the other way? I see two reasons: First, AG Paxton has done a good job. He has been a tough advocate for Texas and on attacking the Biden administration over the border chaos; and, Second, I think that a lot of GOP voters are very skeptical of the media. They see all these anti-Paxton stories and wonder if it means anything. The Editor says... What the Blue-State Left-Coasters Don't Understand about Culture. Yesterday, I met a man from Mumbai. He happened to mention that he was new to Idaho, so I asked how new, and it turned out he'd been here for only a month and a half. He spoke good English, and I learned he'd gone to an English-speaking school, which made his getting a job here in Idaho possible. I asked him what he thought about Boise, and he said he loved it here better than Mumbai. People don't care about you in a big city, he said. Whether you live or die makes no difference to them. But here in a little-big city like Boise, he said he could stand outside a store with a large purchase, and people would ask if he needed help. He'd already done this the day before and been asked by eight people. He'd never seen anything like it in his life. The Editor says... Goodbye Jen Psaki — no one condescends quite like you. So long Jen Psaki! As White House press secretary, you were indeed very informative: every day you provided an example of how today's Democratic Party turns normie soccer moms from Greenwich into reality-denying attack machines sputtering insults and cheering on lawbreakers because they can't face up to the unpopularity of the far-left agenda. As blathering Joe Biden retreated into the background and suggested to the world that America was in the hands of a man who should be shuffling around Sunset Acres in a bathrobe, Psaki became the face of an administration that is determined to head into the midterms like Thelma and Louise. The return of Vindman, clamoring to start World War III. Among the most fervent war hawks in America today is Alexander Vindman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and a former member of the NSC, who now works at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Foreign Policy Institute. His previous claim to fame was as a witness who testified about former president Donald Trump's call to Ukrainian officials in the second impeachment trial of Trump. He became an instant hero to the crowd at MSNBC and other anti-Trump major media (is there any other kind?). Vindman also reportedly claimed that Trump "bears an enormous burden of responsibility" for the Russia-Ukraine war, even though Russia's aggression against Ukraine has occurred during the Obama and Biden administrations. There was no Russian aggression against Ukraine on Trump's watch. Party like it's 18-94! Democrats are in deep trouble 6 months away from the midterm election. How bad will it be? 2010 Tea Party bad? 1994 Gingrich Revolution bad? Try 1894. In 1894, West Virginia had 4 congressmen. All were Democrats. All lost re-election. It was part of a sweep in which Republicans gained 130 seats in a 357-seat House of Representatives. Democrats lost more than half their seats as Republicans re-gained the House — and would control it for the next 16 years. West Virginia was not alone in wiping themselves clean of Democrats. Illinois went from an 11-11 split to a 22-0 shutout by Republicans. Indiana went from an 11-2 advantage by Democrats to a 13-0 shutout by Republicans. Michigan went 12-0, Minnesota 7-0, Nebraska 6-0, New Jersey 8-0, and Wisconsin 10-0. A Mexican cave disgorged a massive pre-Columbian crime scene. One of the left's useful narratives is that Native Americans lived in idyllic, pastoral harmony, only to have this paradise brutally destroyed by the invading Europeans and their Christian God. There's some truth (some Native American tribes were peaceful and some Europeans brutal) but that's not important for the left. Angelic indigenous people and evil Whites are the core story for them. That's why it's intriguing to learn about the fate of 150 people whose skeletons were found in a cave in Mexico. The skeletons were actually found a decade ago. Now, though, Guatemala's Institute of Anthropology and History has determined when and how these people had died. It turns out that they were victims of human sacrifice around 1000 years ago. The World Does Not Run on Magic. At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, the CEO of Colonial Pipeline made an admission which illustrates quite well our negligence and improvidence. The company paid out nearly $5 million in blackmail money to an unknown hacker when the pipeline was shut down for several days. That, of course, was bad enough, and most of the man's testimony had to do with the technicalities of which government agency was notified and when, and what the company's computer experts did to remedy the situation. But there was another piece of his testimony, one that you had to look hard to find in the news reports. He testified that most of the men who could operate the controls on the pipeline have died or retired, so that the 5,500-mile line must rely almost wholly upon computerized systems for its operation. 5 Ways Democrat Policies Work To Destroy Children's Lives. Americans who would sacrifice anything to protect their children may be surprised to learn that their inclination is a rather modern phenomenon. For most of human history, the most dangerous period of any person's life was childhood. Only if a newborn survived the first decade of disease, warfare, hunger, and all the other mundane threats to ordinary human existence would the survivor gain any type of social recognition. O.M. Bakke explores this reality in his book, "When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity." Before the spread of Christianity transformed prevailing cultural beliefs, children had no legal standing in the pagan societies of the Roman Empire and elsewhere. In human history, it has been normal for unwanted babies to be aborted, smothered, or abandoned to wildlife. Parents could beat or kill their children at will. Children were routinely sold into slavery. And it was quite ordinary for adults to use low-class or enslaved children as sexual playthings. They Can Print Money, But They Can't Print Food. Whenever there is some sort of a major crisis, our politicians normally attempt to solve it by spending money. But in this case, that isn't going to work. Our leaders can try to throw billions or even trillions of dollars at the global food crisis, and they may even convince themselves that they are making a difference. However, the truth is that they simply cannot create food out of thin air. As I discussed last week, we are facing a worldwide nightmare of epic proportions. Fertilizer prices have spiked to absurd levels, extremely bizarre weather patterns are playing havoc with crop production all over the planet, and the war in Ukraine has caused a growing supply crunch that will not be resolved any time soon. There simply is no "magic wand" that our politicians can wave that will make this problem go away. What To Do About China. 1937 was the year in which if you were in Europe or America, you could sense the trouble. If you were in Asia in 1937, you would be even more worried, because that year saw Japan's second invasion of China that decade. No matter where you lived, however, you could not be sure that the worst would happen, that great armies and navies around the world would clash. There was still hope that the situation could be managed. As we now know, the worst did happen. In fact, what happened was worse than what anyone thought at the time. We are now, thanks to China, back to 1937. Revocation of Disney's Special Privilege Does Not Violate the First Amendment. In 1967, when the Florida legislature gave The Walt Disney Company a special district, it did so to help Disney create a family friendly entertainment mecca. Walt Disney put it this way: "Over at our place, we're sure of just one thing: everybody in the world was once a child. So in planning a new picture, we don't think of grown-ups, and we don't think of children, but just of that fine, clean, unspoiled spot down deep in every one of us that may be the world has made us forget and that maybe our pictures can help recall." Disney intended to avoid programming that would embarrass. He meant to preserve youthful innocence — to inspire wholesome interests, imaging, and values, indeed to celebrate them — and to thereby support and uplift families. "The important thing is the family," he said. Mounting U.S. Debt and Misguided Foreign Policy Risk a Dollar Doomsday. The U.S. dollar is getting perilously close to losing its status as the world's reserve currency, and there is less room than ever for error on the international stage. Blunders in U.S. foreign policy are likely to have more harmful effects on both our allies and our enemies than in the past given the sorry record of the Biden administration. Should the U.S. dollar be knocked out of its position as the reserve currency, hell would break lose across global markets. With recent memories of Biden's humiliating and bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is less confidence in the reliability of the United States from our allies, and far less respect and fear of the United States from our enemies. It's self-evident that the powers behind Biden favor prolonging the Russia-Ukraine war, rather than promoting an expedient end to hostilities, because the ongoing conflict dominates U.S. media and diverts Americans' attention away from disastrous domestic policies and breaking high-stakes scandals and prosecutions of Democrats and their deep state operatives. Hypocritical Disney makes money in countries that ban homosexuality. Florida lawmakers voted to end the Walt Disney Company's special, self-government privileges, which it never should have received. Since 1967, Disney has operated its own mini-state, surrounded by Florida — much as the Vatican is encircled by Rome. The Reedy Creek Improvement District exempts Disney from certain taxes and regulations that burden other companies. This arrangement also empowers the Magic Kingdom to establish its own levies, ordinances and emergency services in and around its Disney World theme parks. Let's hope Disney enjoyed this cushy 55-year ride. Too bad its rotten corporate citizenship cost it these precious goodies. A Fix For The Regulatory State. [Scroll down] Congress has decided that it doesn't need to take the time to read multi-thousand-page bills before passing them, so its members cannot claim lack of time as an excuse not to take up multi-thousand-page proposed regulations for ratification. To that end, a very simple statute should be put in place as soon as possible. Every new regulation by any executive agency should be ratified by a (super-?) majority of both houses of Congress and signed by the President before becoming effective. Don't complain that Congress doesn't have enough time. All that means is that they have their fingers in too many pots. [...] The Constitution was designed to limit government. Over time it has become a behemoth that swallows up everything. Every step to take a bit back is a good one. American Churches are Killing Christianity. [Scroll down] [Matt] Walsh asks us to imagine that a "heathen horde" comes to America from a foreign land, looking to vanquish Christians and Christianity, so they look for a church where they can slaughter some Christians. A man directs them to one but the heathen are confused because the church looks more like a post office or a medical clinic. They go inside and find what looks like a "rehab center for wealthy drug abusers." The heathens enter and find people in casual clothing sipping coffee: ["]They had pictured an America filled with pious, modest, prayerful believers, but instead they find silly, shallow, oversexed nihilistic zombies who live vicariously through their phones which they have stocked with photographs of their own faces... They hear a band performing a pop song. Nobody is demonstrating anything approaching reverence. There is no sign that anything sacred is happening here, or that anyone believes it is.["] Trickle-Down Racist Antiracism. Elected governments were rare in the past. They did not appear until over four millennia after civilization first emerged in the Near East. Constitutional systems were fragile at birth. And they are on the wane today. Nation after nation seems to be devolving into autocracy. Multiethnic, multiracial consensual governments have been even more brittle and sporadic in history. The Roman, Ottoman, and Soviet empires were multiracial. But they were not consensual. Instead, they required a degree of force to ensure calm among rival tribes and warring peoples — violence that we would find incompatible with our notions of modern democracy. Today, India and Brazil are large multicultural and multiethnic democracies. But neither, so far, has guaranteed their citizens either prosperity or security. So present-day multiracial America is a great experiment in the unknown. Confessions of a Disney writer. [Scroll down] Disney's recent commitment to "add queerness" wherever possible can't be explained as just trying to teach tolerance and inclusivity. The executives know that by showing "queerness," they are modeling queerness and encouraging kids to imitate that behavior. In fact, Disney has had issues with sexualizing children for a long time. Cole Sprouse, a former Disney Channel star, recently noted that he and his co-star brother both suffered trauma from their acting career. He added, "The young women on [Disney Channel] were so heavily sexualized from an earlier age than my brother and I that there's absolutely no way we could compare our experiences." You only need to witness the spectacular flameouts of Disney child stars Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan to wonder what traumas changed them from adorable ingenues into hypersexual vixens. Tracking the endless legal troubles, destructive addictions, and mental breakdowns of former Disney stars has become almost a parlor game, as in this depressing article, "20 Child Stars Ruined By Disney." If You Want to Punish Disney, Take Away Mickey Mouse. In 1998, Congress passed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act. In a classic case of bipartisan corruption, the bill brought together Republicans, along with Barney Frank and John Conyers, to do a special favor for Disney and for other entertainment industry companies. The Mickey Mouse Act (formally the Copyright Term Extension Act) was one of a series of measures that took the original copyright system, meant to protect an author's rights, and instead turned it into a permanent monopoly cash cow for Hollywood studios. Mickey Mouse, a character created in the 20s, will only become public domain in 2024. That is if Republicans don't once again decide to do a special favor for Disney, Warner Bros, and a number of other massively woke and wealthy entertainment industry monsters. In response to Disney's support for pushing sexual indoctrination on kindergarteners, Rep. Jim Banks has sent a letter warning that the free ride was over. The Editor says... Is the Federal Reserve lying about our country's fiscal health? The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States that is supposed to promote actions that benefit the U.S. economy and serve the public's interests. Yet, some are suggesting that the System is failing the U.S. and its citizens, and others go further and say it is purposely lying about our country's financial health. Thank Pence for Biden's Trainwreck. There can be little doubt that former Vice President Mike Pence thought he was doing the right thing. There are certainly many pragmatic reasons for his decision to not intervene in the electoral processes during those fateful days in January 2020. We're a year and a half into the geriatric Biden regime and those pragmatic reasons are quickly losing their luster. The nation is suffering — not from the constitutional crisis feared by the establishment but a systemic, methodical, sadistic infliction of pain and loss resulting from disasters of policy that are breathtaking in scope and frequency. It's almost as if Biden and his administration hate Americans, our Constitution, and want to extract a pound of flesh from anyone they think supported President Trump. The Editor says... The Debasement of our Professional and Political Classes. Will Republican magnanimity suffice to shame the Democrats to be more professional in the future? Or will tit-for-tat deterrent reciprocity alone ensure a return to norms? Specifically, will Biden be impeached Trump-style, after losing the House in November? Say, to give just one possible example, for deliberately not enforcing and, indeed, undermining U.S. immigration law? Will Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in Pelosi-fashion, start yanking troublesome radical Democrats off House committees? Will a conservative Robert Mueller-like "wise man" head a $40 million, 22 month-long special counsel investigation of the Biden-family influence-selling syndicate — arrayed with a "dream-team," "all-star," and "hunter-killer" right-wing lawyers to ferret out "Big Guy" and "Mr. Ten Percent" quid pro quo profiteering? Would a Republican-led House set up a special committee to investigate the racketeering and "conspiracies" across state lines that led to a near "coup" and "insurrection" marked by "the riots of 2020?" The Editor says... Garland Feels the Heat. Attorney General Merrick Garland's swan song, we can presume, isn't exactly turning out how he had hoped. [...] According to the New York Times, Joe Biden is displeased that Garland hasn't yet charged the former president for crimes related to the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021. "[While] the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6.," the Times reported over the weekend. Although the Times attempted to portray Biden as hands-off when it comes to the business of his Justice Department, that is simply untrue. By repeatedly describing January 6 as an act of terror and comparing the protest, which resulted only in the deaths of Trump supporters, to 9/11 and other atrocities, Biden has signaled how he expects the Justice Department to proceed. His desire to see everyone from Indiana grandmothers to Donald Trump and his family behind bars hasn't exactly been a secret. Convention of States gaining ground. America's Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention knew any form of government they created would become corrupt. They had already seen it happen in numerous states. That and other failings were what led to the need for a new form of government to replace the confederacy. Those known abuses that would arise were the reason for the Amendment process being able to take two distinct routes. One through Congress, before proposed Amendments reached the states. The other was strictly through the states, giving Congress no role other than calling for a Convention of the States. The Founders, in essence, gave a third option they did not have when rebelling against Britain: The power of the states to curtail governmental abuse. Opposing viewpoint: Walt Disney Company is infested with perverts — is this why the company opposes Florida's anti-grooming legislation? It is becoming clearer than ever that the Walt Disney Company, at least in its current iteration, is infested with perverts. Disney has a serious pedophile problem (among other things), it turns out, with more than 35 employees at Disney World alone having been arrested for child sex crimes since 2006. Back in 2014, CNN, of all sources, highlighted the issue. At the time, a total of 32 pedophile perverts at Disney had been convicted, and the remaining cases were pending. "Disney ... has been plagued by employees arrested for a variety of sex crimes against children, including trying to meet minors for sex and possessing child pornography," reported the National Pulse in a recent article, shedding light on why the company today is vehemently opposed to Florida's new anti-grooming legislation. FWIW at Least Someone Said It Out Loud. While the jackboot on our neck doesn't seem to be getting any lighter, at least someone says what's going on out loud. House GOP representative Jim Jordan delivered a speech on the floor today [4/6/2022] that essentially encapsulates most of the current issues that have become the collective weight from the jackboot. Insofar as congressional speeches have value, this summary from Jordan is quite succinct. [Video clip] The 'Don't Say Gay' Contagion Is Killing the Left - Good. I've never seen the left so completely misread the room. This issue isn't about compassion or saying "gay." Everyone feels compassion for children. I do hold visceral revulsion for adults who want to sexualize children. Thankfully my position seems to be the dominant view. But the left won't let go. Now the City of New York has produced a digital ad campaign to entice Floridians to move to New York City. [...] "Come to the City where you can say whatever you want." What? Say whatever you want, as long as you're children are still wearing masks. You can say whatever you want — unless you say what you want and use the wrong pronouns of a nonbinary-two bear dude dressed like a poodle — then you can't say what you want. Or if you complain about men in women's restrooms — in that case, you can't say what you want. Or if you're offended by people who want to sexualize children — keep your mouth shut. The Fed Is Going to Trigger a Recession Within Six Months. The bond market is telling us that the Fed is in very serious trouble. [...] The Fed ended its Quantitative Easing (QE) program through which it prints new money and used it to buy assets from Wall Street in early March. Since that time, the Fed has also begun raising interest rates, implementing its first rate hike of 0.25% on March 17th. Historically, when the Fed begins raising interest rates, it looks to the 2-Year U.S. Treasury for guidance: the Fed tracks the yield on this bond as a proxy for where rates need to go. With that in mind, the yield on the 2-year Treasury, is exploding higher. The New Financial World Order — The Intent of the Digital ID That Follows the Vaccination Passport. The World Government Summit 2022 took place on March 29 and 30 in Dubai, hosting more than 4,000 individuals from 190 countries including senior government officials, heads of international organizations, and global "experts." The invited participants presented ideas and worldviews from within their various fields of specialty. One presentation that needs to be highlighted was from Dr. Pippa Malmgren, an American economist who served as special advisor on Economic Policy to President George W. Bush. Her father, Harald Malmgren, served as a senior aide to US Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. In this segment, Mrs. Malmgren says the quiet part out loud. Yes, they are no longer hiding the construct; indeed, as you will hear they are saying quite openly what the future will look like. [Video clip] Were You Better Off with Trump? [President Trump] won over ten million more voters than in his previous 2016 victory, won almost every traditional bellwether county in the country by double digits, and expanded his share of the electorate with women and minorities. But for Biden being declared the winner by the press after four days of counting in a handful of battleground states, Trump's impressive gains in 2020 would have been heralded as a resounding endorsement from the American people. That is the part of the 2020 election story that has always bothered me most. If it were stolen, and I obviously believe it was (sorry, thought police), then the theft not only denied the American people their say in their own governance and saddled the country with a dangerous, corrupt, and cognitively declining stooge, but also unfairly recast widely successful Trump policies as having been rejected by the people. That rewriting of history is as dangerous and consequential as the election fraud itself. In tort law, there's a doctrine known as res ipsa loquitur — "the thing speaks for itself" — which permits the inference of a negligent act even without direct evidence because no other plausible explanation exists. The thing speaks for itself is how I've felt about the 2020 election. The Six Best Conservative Governors In America. [#2] I don't think I'm overstating the situation when I say Ron DeSantis has quickly become a political superstar. Not only is DeSantis redefining what it means to be a Republican governor, he's redefining what it means to be a conservative. On his current trajectory, Ron DeSantis could well be the most important conservative voice of this generation. And keep in mind, at 43-years-old he's the youngest governor in the country, Democrat or Republican. Pick an issue and DeSantis is not only conservative, he takes an in-your-face stance on it. DeSantis didn't just call out the absurdity of the recent Lia Thompson, transgender swimmer issue, he accurately called the second place swimmer the rightful winner. Tom Cotton Destroys Brown Jackson Over Support Of Suspected Terrorists. Tom Cotton would already have earned an A+ for his digging into Joe Biden's affirmative action nominee Ketanjio Brown Jackson and her disgusting leniency toward and support for consumers of child pornography. She is vile. As if Cotton hadn't done enough already, now he's going after the judge and Supreme Court hopeful for her almost-as-bad representation of suspected terrorists and detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Kudos to Cotton for having the stones to do what few GOP seem willing to anymore. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, John Kennedy, and Marsha Blackburn have been impressive throughout the hearings as well. The chaos that is about
to be unleashed is unlike anything that the world has ever seen before. [Threat reader] The technocrats that
had an incremental change in store for all of us but... The Canadian Trucker protests and the massive protests all over the
world against mandates frightened those who have planned this disrupting and dismantling of our world. Not to mention,
it became common knowledge who was behind this attack on humanity: @wef Personally, I have been relieved that many now
understand what @wef and @OpenSociety have been doing for the last 30 years. But this frightened them: for the
first time, @wef was commonly understood as the enemy of humanity. So what was going to be incremental is now going to be a
blitzkrieg. [...] There is no way — even with all of the cheating and scheming — that the DNC and RINO Republicans
can hold on to the House and Senate in 2022. And there is no way that they can hold on to the Presidency in 2024. So it
is now that they must begin to introduce Turn On The Spigots. President Trump quickly and radically reversed the focus and direction of America's standing on the international stage. Yet even more quickly *President Biden has tanked America's position, drained her of her leverage, and seems content to literally have no say in events that the entire world will be shaped by. None of this to mention that in cutting off our energy production Biden's administration personally funded Putin's war machine. The solution to all of this is pretty simple, but the American people need to express the collective will that we tell Washington what to do — not the other way around. Turn on the spigots. Sell our energy to Europe and watch the price drop here at home. We can bankrupt Russia and Iran in the process. We can reduce the financial pain for every American who drives a vehicle almost overnight. We can re-employ all the pipeline workers, and leased drilling operators immediately. And we can alert the world that America is not diminished but potentially stronger than ever. DuckDuckGone? To some users, it feels like another Big Tech bait and switch. To others, it's a case of getting half a loaf. But to many, it's a betrayal of a principled promise. The search engine DuckDuckGo will now begin making judgments about the accuracy of the information produced by its search algorithms. As Breitbart reports in "Diet Google: DuckDuckGo Will 'Down-Rank' What It Decides Is 'Disinformation,'", the company's CEO and founder, Gabriel Weinberg, posted a Twitter thread announcing that, as part of standing with Ukraine, the search engine had been rolling out search updates that down-rank sites associated with Russian disinformation. In addition to down-ranking sites associated with disinformation, we also often place news modules and information boxes at the top of DuckDuckGo search results (where they are seen and clicked the most) to highlight quality information for rapidly unfolding topics. In justifying his company's decision to wade into determining which information is "disinformation" and "misinformation" — a.k.a., censorship — Weinberg carefully reiterated his company's promise to users (and plugged his search engine): [...] The Fed Has One Job To Do, And Blew It. Along with President Joe Biden and Congress, the Federal Reserve has a responsibility to manage inflation, a job it was established to do. And just like Biden and Congress, the Fed has failed at its job. At the Fed's own website, it states clearly what its primary job is, by law: "Conducting the nation's monetary policy by influencing money and credit conditions in the economy in pursuit of full employment and stable prices." Well, today, we have neither "full employment" nor "stable prices." On Tuesday, the government reported that wholesale prices, that is prices just a step before retail, surged 10% in February. As bad as that number was, it didn't include the huge jump in energy prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Consumer prices rose "only" 7.9% in February. So expect them to go even higher next month. This inflation came thanks mostly to absurd policies — paying people to stay home while spending trillions of dollars of "stimulus" on federal programs not related to COVID — pursued by the Democrats who control both Congress and the White House. Biden and Obama Must Answer for Russiagate. What did Barack Obama and Joe Biden know about the Russiagate collusion hoax their fellow Democrats ginned up to kneecap Donald Trump — and when did they know it? How much did their chicanery contribute to Vladimir Putin's decision to invade the Ukraine? Those questions are coming into sharp relief following a definitive report by my RealClearInvestigations colleague Paul Sperry last week that places the worst political scandal in our nation's history and Putin's brutal war directly inside the White House. Drawing on a wide range of documents, many never previously reported, Sperry details how the Obama administration worked closely with the Clinton campaign and a foreign government — Ukraine — in a "sweeping and systematic effort" to interfere in the 2016 election. It turns out Democrats were guilty of every false charge they lodged against Trump. What If Everyone Is Wrong About The Russian Military? It's tough to say if they're targeting civilians or simply launching wildly because they can't target anything — Putin being a monster doesn't help with this. But logistically, they are absolutely a joke. A competent military doesn't get a 40 mile long convey, on which most of their alleged strategy depends, stuck in the mud and out of gas for 3 weeks. What I think might be at play is pretty simple: the military leadership in Russia is just as corrupt as the political leadership, because why wouldn't it be? When the people giving you orders are dipping their hands into the pie, why wouldn't you when whatever is left gets to you? That leads to corners being cut, to laziness. [...] ake a look at any of the pictures of captured Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Do they look ripped or do they look pregnant and ready to retire? Perhaps Tucker Carlson's most profound monologue ever. I won't lie: I'm a Tucker Carlson fan. He is willing to speak honestly about topics others ignore, sugarcoat, or lie about. Even when I don't agree with him, I find him worthwhile, and never more so than his Friday-night [3/11/2022] monologue about Biden's latest, terrifying power-grab and how our government is destroying the American economy. It was a tour de force, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Tucker opened with something I'd meant to write about and now don't need to: without a single pause, the Biden administration slipped effortlessly from COVID emergency powers (which are now passé thanks to polling) and is, instead, assuming war powers, even though we're not at war: [...] If Tucker had stopped there, he still would have said something incredibly important that should cause all Americans to question the power Biden has seized for himself and how, once seized, it will be kept and used in the future. But Tucker didn't stop there. He segued smoothly to the vast, unimaginable power the tech monopolies have over American minds and how they are steering us inexorably to accept treating Russia as a nation to be destroyed just because we don't like it. Questioning Potential Jurors Undermines the Very Basis of the Jury System. [The jury] system supposes that the average citizen, chosen at random, is capable of judging the guilt or innocence of an accused solely on the basis of the evidence presented in court. To do so is the purest example of attempted cognitive rationality. Indeed, the judge tells the jury that they're to consider only what they see and hear in court, that they're to put all other information, rumor, or prejudice from their minds. If it were not possible for them to do so, then the whole system would fall to the ground. My experience, as a witness in murder trials in England, suggests to me that most people are capable, when it's demanded of them, of judging solely on the evidence put before them. As with any system that involves human beings, there must be exceptions and failures: Perfection is not to be expected. But in none of the trials in which I was involved did the jury come to a perverse verdict that flew in the face of the evidence put before them. Relevant evidence may sometimes have been missing or withheld from them, affecting their verdict, but that was not the fault of the jury. The Great (Destructive) Reset of Capitalism. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is promoting a dystopian vision, and it is closer than you think. By 2030, it says, "You will own nothing and you'll be happy." Ownership and control will be vested in a handful of government leaders and a cabal of the wealthiest individuals in the world. You will lose more than just your possessions. Under the WEF's "Great Reset," individual freedom, personal responsibility, and opportunities for growth and self-fulfillment will be eroded away. Democracy, the free market and national sovereignty will be replaced by a new world order, stakeholder capitalism and centralized control by some NGOs, globalist corporations and the elite. Klaus Schwab, the WEF's founder and executive chairman, gloated over the pandemic: to him, it was a "window of opportunity" for this reset. Blinken and Biden Fold, Pentagon Rejects Poland Offer for United States to Start World War III. Oh, the Biden administration is not happy with Poland. Not happy at all. Earlier this afternoon [3/8/2022], Poland called Secretary of State Anthony Blinken's bluff, over the U.S. claims that Poland was going to send fighter jets into Ukraine. This followed Sunday's announcement where Poland said the U.S. State Dept was lying. Earlier today, Poland said they would give the U.S. the planes if Blinken and Biden wanted to start World War III, but Poland wasn't going to help the U.S. create a war with Russia. This put the U.S. in a 'put up or shut up' position. Why Should Deplorables Fight for Those Who Hate Them? What happens when a self-anointed "ruling class" spends years demonizing its own citizens as racist, white supremacist, deplorable, insurrectionist Neanderthals bitterly clinging to their guns and their Bibles? What happens when the fools in charge censor dissent and throw their political enemies in prison? What happens when the political Establishment floods the country with illegal aliens while publicly wishing for the quick "extinction" of those proud to wave the red, white, and blue? Maybe when those same elitist snob-goblins start beating the drums of war, declare patriotic love of country acceptable once again, and call for deep sacrifices to be made in the interest of preserving freedom, the people most needed to pick up a rifle, fight, and sacrifice life and limb instead turn their backs on those who have relentlessly tormented them. Maybe America's real protectors just walk away. VISA Suspends All Operations in Russia, We Are One Step Closer to Losing the Dollar As Global Trade Currency. Canada was the beta test when the government targeted the financial networks of the truckers and political opposition. Now, the global governing system replaces Trudeau and uses the private financial industry to target Russians instead of truckers. When I previously said to pay attention, because we are not going to like the world on the other side of a Biden, NATO, EU, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Word Economic Forum and multinational corporate victory, I was not joking. This public-private merge of government with private financial institutions will never be reversed... ever again. Tedros Introduces the Globalist Plan to Take Over the World's Health Systems. As many governments are gradually being forced to pull back from covid restrictions, we have been searching for the direction of the next global assault on individual freedom and the sovereign constitutional republics of the world, including the U.S.A. We have discovered the next move of the global predators — already in progress — in their escalating assaults against individual and political freedom. The next big assault on human freedom involves a legalized takeover of national healthcare systems by the World Health Organization. This stealth attack — with its initial plans already backed by many nations — will begin full implementation in 2024 if it is not quickly recognized and fought! The Americans itching for war. The foreign policy experts promised us that President Biden would restore our standing in the world and "stand up to tyranny." Retired Admiral William McRaven said Biden would make America lead again. They were wrong, of course. The Afghanistan withdrawal was a disaster. The reliance on intelligence and security from the Taliban got Americans killed. If they were right about anything, it was about the return to American "normalcy." This was one of our biggest concerns with Biden. Normalcy in the U.S. is incompetence. It got us the war in Iraq and a ~20 year war in Afghanistan. It gave us Libya and the emergency of ISIS. This same class of experts — the ones who were wrong on Biden, wrong on Iraq and Afghanistan — are now salivating at the prospects of war with Russia. The American Trucker Convoy Is a Really Bad Idea. I was a strong supporter of the Freedom Convoy in Canada. I felt their cause was just and that the crackdown by PM Justin Trudeau was truly authoritarian and disturbing. The thing about that protest movement, though, was that it had a clear goal: To get rid of the federal vaccine mandate affecting truckers. While the ideological boundaries were stretched at times, it was never a question that the Freedom Convoy was fighting for something tangible and just. On that note, what is this American trucker convoy protesting? There is no federal vaccine mandate for truckers (or private employees in general) in the United States. COVID-19 mandates at the state level have also been nearly universally lifted. Further, the fact that the U.S. is a republic has always presented a far different dynamic compared to Canada's top-down, federal control of the populace. In short, you cannot have a successful political movement if it isn't focused, and if the point is just to bait law enforcement in hopes of getting attention on CNN, that doesn't seem like a very good reason for its existence. Before We Go To War, Let's Take A Look At The Current State Of The U.S. Military. If we are going to have a war with Russia, perhaps we should determine if our military is actually prepared to fight such a war first. Unfortunately, as I will detail below, the answer is very clear. At one time, the U.S. possessed the greatest fighting machine ever assembled, but decades of neglect, incompetence and cultural deterioration have taken a devastating toll. Just look at what happened in Afghanistan. After nearly two decades of fighting, we couldn't even defeat a ragged bunch of drug dealers and goat herders known as the Taliban. In fact, the Taliban appears to be even stronger today than when we first invaded. And now we think that we can take on the Russian military? Sadly, the truth is that we aren't ready for any sort of a major conflict at this stage. 'Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible Will Make Violent Revolution Inevitable'. I will be supporting Donald Trump in 2024. The Durham revelation that the Clinton campaign spied on candidate Trump before the election and President Trump after should be enough to see that virtually everything Trump claimed was happening... was actually happening. So what does this have to do with 2024? Everything, including the election fraud of 2020. Every single American with a functioning brain knows that Donald Trump won the election in 2020 and that everyone from Mark Zuckerberg to the mainstream media to the Democrat party to Never Trumper "conservatives" conspired to steal it. And they did. Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada should start worrying. Given the green light from Biden, Russia is unilaterally annexing only a portion of Ukraine. There's its "minor incursion." Biden is trying to talk and act tough but, of course, it's too late. [...] The "minor incursion" greenlight that Biden (Obama) and Co. just flashed dictators worldwide will reap a very grisly harvest. Why can't Venezuela grab tiny Guyana? It's minor after all. Why can't Putin enlarge his access to the Baltic at Lithuanian or Polish expense? Why can't Trudeau take back a chunk of Maine? And why, oh why can't Xi Jinping get his hands on Taiwan Semiconductor? Reflect that Putin took Crimea on Obama's watch, then takes the Donets Basin on Biden's watch. Notice a pattern here, America? We will never know what is treason and what is rank stupidity and weakness but, clearly, the Left (i.e. the Democrat masterminds and overlords) just rolled out the welcome mat for thugs the world over. An Open Letter to Justin Trudeau and the Federal Government. We are writing to you as representative pastors of Christian congregations from across the nation and as law-abiding citizens who respect the God-defined role of civil government and uphold the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the highest law of our land, which recognizes the supremacy of God over all human legislation. For the past two years, we have sought to respectfully and peaceably make known to all levels of government our profound concern about the indefinite suspension of civil liberties, coercive mandates and perpetual state interference in the life, freedom and worship of the church — freedoms guaranteed by both our inherited Common Law tradition and Charter. We have also prayed earnestly for our governing authorities, met with them, written letters and petitions, peacefully gathered for protest with other concerned citizens and in some cases filed lawsuits. We have used every lawful means at our disposal to be heard and taken seriously. Yet at every turn, we have been largely ignored, brushed aside, insulted and even told we in no way represent Canadians. Canada Tightens the Screw. Canada's trucker protest has been inspiring. Americans, though imagining themselves a freedom-loving people, have been quiet compared to Europeans, Australians, and now Canadians standing up against draconian Covid restrictions. The truckers' protest has a combination of good optics, big numbers, a clear message, and it is causing substantial distress to the centers of power. The truckers' protest is designed to make a mess of things. By tying up critical roadways in Canada's capital and blocking ports of entry, it imposes economic pain across the country and brings attention to the cause. But it is a peaceful protest, the kind of civil disobedience about which authorities used to wax poetic, when they agreed with the message and when the conflict was located in the distant past. Real protests challenge the powerful. You can tell the truckers' protest has some teeth, because Canada's rulers have responded without mercy. Forensic linguists say they now know the origin of the Q texts on the message board that began the QAnon movement. One of the enduring mysteries of the Trump era — 'who is Q' — appears to be solved, sort of. Two sets of forensic linguists have published two separate papers using two different techniques to conclude that Q appears to be two people: South African tech journalist Paul Furber, 55, and 4chan internet message board moderator and computer entrepreneur Ron Watkins, 34, according to the studies. 'While relying on two completely different technologies, both stylometric [quantitative study of literary style] analyses could establish that QAnon's early period on the 4chan forum, from October to December 2017, was likely the result of a collaboration between Paul Furber and Ron Watkins,' according to Claude-Alain Roten, the CEO of OrphAnalytics. Going for Coffee Is Now a Crime in Ottawa; Police May Attack and Threaten You. One of the things that has been ironic about the police action against the Freedom Convoy in the city of Ottawa has been that the government's complaint that people were blocked from going about their daily business in the city. While areas of the city might have taken longer to get through and there was a lot of honking, no one was blocked from going anywhere. That is, until now. The city has installed checkpoints and fences, just like a police state, to prevent people from peacefully protesting. They also shut down what had been the "hottest club" in the city — the protester dance party area right in front of Parliament. Washington and Lincoln Call the American People to Reclaim their Rights from Government. With the shock and awakening of Americans that the freedoms, rights and opportunities they had taken for granted for generations have been brazenly stripped away in the last few years, this President's Day 2022 may well be one of our most significant holidays. Presidents Day is unique among American holidays in providing the opportunity to appreciate why George Washington and Abraham Lincoln — whose birthdays fall in February — were the two greatest U.S. presidents. While Washington was the founding father of the United States, becoming the first President in 1789 after final success in the War of Independence, Lincoln would save the nation from division and collapse — bringing an end to the Civil War and the scourge of slavery as the sixteenth President in 1865. In short, Lincoln saved the republic that Washington made possible. And two remarkable men they were, whose wisdom, judgment and foresight are more relevant today than they were in their times. Tyrant Trudeau shows his true colors. Like most liberal poster boys, Justin Trudeau's claim to fame wasn't based on his record or his talents. It was instead based on a famous father, virtue-signaling, and being a subscriber to groupthink. From climate change conferences to marches for abortion, LGBT, and even BLM, Trudeau was always an eager participant, playing the part of a "nice guy" before slobbering media personnel and cameras. But real nice guys don't feel any need to make a spectacle of their niceties. For them, the act of kindness itself is the reward. When an individual such as Trudeau dedicates most of his energy to the act, it is because he wants to conceal his hollowness. Like most method actors, Trudeau eventually became a caricature of himself. The Decline of American Medicine. The COVID pandemic has highlighted concerning trends in the way medicine is practiced in the United States. These trends have been present for long time, predating the appearance of COVID, but their pernicious nature has become more apparent under the stresses and anxieties associated with the virus. The fundamental and most deleterious trend is the decline of the physician/patient relationship. There are many causes for this — some economic, some cultural, some ideological — but the cumulative effect is corrosive. [...] One set of challenges arises from the inescapable fact that medicine and health care are a business. Over the past decades, the physician-patient relationship has been gradually replaced by the "service line" or "supply chain" model of health care delivery, in which the physician is a fungible part, and the physician-patient relationship an optional accessory. If We Had a Real President, Here's How He (or She) Would React to Trudeau's War on Canadians' Freedom. [Scroll down] This fictional president would remind Trudeau that the entire Anglo-American political tradition going back to the Magna Carta in 1215 has been a trajectory of the recognition of the rights of the individual, as well as limitations on the powers of government as a guard against tyrannical rulers making questionable use of vaguely worded laws in order to crush their opponents and preserve themselves in power. He would scold the Canadian for trampling upon that tradition, and quote some ringing words from Ronald Reagan or Alexander Solzhenitsyn about how tyranny crushes the human spirit and must be resisted. Then the real president would get down to business. He would issue a warning: if Trudeau seizes the truckers' bank accounts, Canadian assets in the United States will likewise be frozen until the Canadian government returns the funds to the truckers. Yesterday I Was Levi's Brand President. I Quit So I Could Be Free. [Scroll down] In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call. "You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company," our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down. I responded: "My title is not in my Twitter bio. I'm speaking as a public school mom of four kids." But the calls kept coming. From legal. From HR. From a board member. And finally, from my boss, the CEO of the company. I explained why I felt so strongly about the issue, citing data on the safety of schools and the harms caused by virtual learning. While they didn't try to muzzle me outright, I was told repeatedly to "think about what I was saying." Meantime, colleagues posted nonstop about the need to oust Trump in the November election. Woke Hiring, Reduced American Competitiveness? When Bill Clinton supported the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which was eventually enacted in 1994, third party presidential candidate Ross Perot at the time stated that it would be like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking American manufacturing jobs into Mexico, and to a lesser extent into Canada. [...] Again, this was started under the Clinton administration, but continued under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. How serious this has become was dramatically demonstrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Vital pharmaceuticals, like antibiotics and steroids are no longer manufactured in this country. The same for surgical face masks, gowns and gloves, among many other items. We had to depend on China, the source of the pandemic, and an obvious potential adversary, to supply our needs. This is obviously an unacceptable situation, but it is only the tip of a very large problem lurking below the surface. Because of the policies of a series of administrations from both major political parties, we have allowed ourselves to become dependent on offshore sources for vital materials, the lack of which threaten our very survival as a nation. We have allowed, no, virtually requested, that potential adversaries place their boot on the throat of our country. Free Crack Pipes, y'all. We are watching a movie and we have a front row seat. We are not only witnessing the collapse of a political party, but the destruction of the global elites. Everyday, more and more truths are being revealed Everyday, more and more people are awakening. I encourage you to hold on — the best is yet to come. Oligarchy's Response to the Freedom Convoy Bodes Ill for Them. As I write, Canadian police, many dressed in military garb and supported by armored vehicles and snipers(!), are moving in to enforce several court orders and demands of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and others that the "Freedom Convoy" of Canadian truckers stop blocking the Ambassador Bridge, the major artery between the United States and Canada, and disperse. Some of the protestors are leaving while many others are standing their ground. Will the heavy hand of the state succeed in crushing the protest? In the short term, perhaps. [...] But impotence comes in long-term and short-term varieties. Long-term, I think [Tucker] Carlson is right. Officialdom's response to the Freedom Convey is a desperate effort to put the genie of liberty back in the bottle. Ultimately, it will not work. But on the way to that failure there will be plenty of opportunities for the coercive power of the state to manifest itself. One Way to Fix the Gerrymander Problem. Without an amendment, a 1911 statute fixed the number of Representatives at 435. With the US population then at 92 million, that meant that each Representative had about 211,000 constituents. If Congress were to expand to keep that degree of representation, then we would have 1,594 Congress-Critters. [...] We don't trust the government. It has gotten too far away from the people, and we want some real say in what's happening. Gerrymandering is just one illustration of how politicians protect themselves at our expense. Multiplying the number of seats in the House would be one way of diluting that power and restoring the House's representative role. Truck Trudeau. In the dead of winter, thousands of Canadians have been streaming into Ottawa, led by a massive convoy of truckers protesting draconian Covid mandates that have harmed their ability to earn a living. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau refused to meet with the protesters and slammed the freedom convoy as "an insult to memory and truth." Fils Justin thus invites memories of himself and Trudeau père. As Edward Gibbon noted, hereditary rule is always the most risible, and apart from the connection with his father, Canadians would be hard pressed to find any merit in Justin Trudeau his own self. He has no scholarly achievement, no record of publication, and no experience running business. [...] When embattled Canadians take to the streets in a peaceful protest, Justin Trudeau smears them with lies. Ottawa police are now threatening to arrest those bringing fuel and other supplies to the protesting truckers, which is not a crime. This is what happens when Pierre Trudeau's son becomes prime minister of Canada. Biden Facing Likelihood of Impeachment if GOP Wins Back House. It's becoming increasingly likely that Joe Biden will be impeached if Republicans win back control of the House in November's midterm elections. While speaking with Just the News founder John Solomon, Texas GOP Rep. Lance Gooden, whose district has been overrun by the surge of illegal aliens, argued that Biden's failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border has increased the likelihood that Republicans may push to impeach Biden if the GOP regains control of Congress. "I really believe that impeachment could be on the table. And I would support that, certainly," Gooden said, drawing a contrast with the two-time Democrat-engineered impeachment of Trump. The Editor says... Organized civil disobedience is the correct next response. ... to the prolonged, indefinite and deliberate abuse of exotic emergency powers inconsistent with being a free people in our own country. I don't want to go there, but it is time. We are going to have to get CCP influence out of our country. We are going to have to get Fauci and Daszak to explain what we were doing in Wuhan. We are going to have to drive Pfizer out of news sponsorship. We are going to have to extend freedom of speech to digital speech. We are going to need algorithmic transparency from Twitter through regulation. We are going to need to rein in the Feds ability to print its way into crushing the working class through seignorage and blowing out income inequality for holders of risk assets. We are going to need to scale back our military obligations so we can actually be counted upon by our partners. All Republican Candidates Must Learn a Lesson From Arizona Gubernatorial Hopeful Kari Lake. Kari Lake is a former news anchor running for governor of Arizona as a Republican. She made national news last year when she resigned from her position at Fox 10 News in Phoenix after 22 years. In a two-and-a-half-minute video, Lake articulated her frustration with the journalism profession. She noted the lack of viewpoint diversity and talked about getting handed content that she viewed as slanted or incomplete. Her comments on the industry should have been a warning to her former colleagues. Lake knows how the sausage is made and will not get tripped up easily. The CNN Sex Party Comes To An End. [Scroll down] An all-staff meeting the day after Uncle Fester's ouster left everyone in shock, or so they've said. It's unclear you an "open secret" that has been happening for years snuck up on anyone. There aren't many companies in the country, especially left-wing companies, that allow someone in power to date subordinates, let alone have affairs with them. So what were the CNN teleprompter readers upset about? New leadership. Under Jeff Zucker, it was pretty clear the fraternization rules were viewed more as suggestions. [...] The end of the orgy isn't what upset CNN staff, it was something even worse... for people with no scruples or talent — they are terrified that their next boss might want some accountability. Our Elite is No Elite At All. Our current idea of ostensible elites could be defined by noting their money and influence. But money alone — even in the huge sums now found on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley — is not the only elite criterion. Donald Trump is a billionaire with much influence and lives accordingly. Yet few of our "elite" would consider him a kindred soul. Ditto Elon Musk. He is the richest man in the world. But the elite mostly despise and ostracize him. Birth itself has given way somewhat to insider influence and professional parentage. You may be a fifth-generation scion with a name such as Mellon, Vanderbilt, or Rockefeller, but if your dad was not an ambassador, your mom not a VP at CBS, your sibling not a Harvard professor or Google executive, you have fallen out of the elite. Covid has been used as an excuse for all kinds of things, none of them good. Democrats Are Tanking. How Has Chuck Schumer Escaped Blame? As the Democrats' political fortunes worsen, recriminations abound. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain seems to be the latest target, while centrist Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continue to come under relentless attack. President Biden takes a daily pounding, and news that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will run for another term has produced headlines like this one in Axios: "Pelosi is the GOP's 2022 Bogeywoman." It seems strange, then, that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, whose fingers are all over the mess the party is in, isn't taking more heat. Last week Politico Playbook reported that Schumer has created tension among his colleagues that has largely remained inside the tent and that no senator has articulated publicly. It's Time for America to Leave NATO and for Europe to Resolve Their Internal Disputes. The United States should have begun the process of severing military commitments with Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. After all, protecting Europe and thus the United States against Soviet aggression was the primary purpose of NATO. But an irrational fear of a non-existent nation and its former satellites still persists and has been conferred on its much smaller and less formidable successor, Russia. Together with the compulsive need to defend a prosperous continent these two pillars still form the basis of American military planning and international policy. The divorce process should have been accelerated in 1993 when the anti-democratic European Union comprising 27 European countries and unified economic, social and security policies came into being. The combined population of these nations is 33% larger and their overall annual Gross National Product is second only to the United States. Since 1993 Europe has been more than capable of defending itself. Texas Remains in Peril. It has been one year since the devastating blackouts in Texas, so it's time to examine whether Texas is in danger of repeating the disaster. Winterization was one of the issues raised as a cause of the blackouts. The adequacy of winterization plans for natural gas power plants won't be known until after September 2022, when a statewide mapping of the electric supply chain is completed. It's also unclear whether natural gas pipeline pumping stations have been added to the critical infrastructure list. Not being on that list resulted in electricity being cut to pumping stations last year, which cut the supply of natural gas to power plants. Tucker Carlson has some very unexpected people watching his show. Monday through Friday, Tucker Carlson is my daily indulgence. I like that he tackles issues other major media types, even the conservatives, shy away from. [...] Whether or not you agree with Tucker, you're going to learn something watching him. Even Democrats must realize there's nothing to be had from the networks that cried "Russia, Russia, Russia" for so many years. Additionally, Biden's failures as president are so abysmal and obvious that people are going to go looking for someone who explains the implosion of their world. Whether they liked Trump or not, they must realize that, during the first three years of his administration, life was great and getting greater. After only one year of Biden, life is bad and getting worse. Rachel Maddow won't tell them the truth; Tucker will. Protests From Out of Nowhere. After months of uninterrupted growth in state power, what we are now witnessing in the disputes rocking the Australian Open, Spotify, Marvel and the trucking world are spontaneous meeting engagements in the culture wars. It's like a chain reaction of angry people setting off other angry people. The singular thing about this development is that it would have been impossible six months ago. A psychological barrier has been breached and a taboo has fallen. The potential of this to create a cascade is considerable. The world's elite: Tone-deaf, willfully ignorant, or malicious? [Scroll down] As an easy example, take Mark Zuckerberg buying up property on Kauai by badgering and suing his way to forcing Hawaiian residents to give up land that's been in their families for over a century. He's created a veritable fortress of separateness, in the middle of paradise, just so his family can occasionally vacation there. The man bought 1,400 acres, beachfront, ranch land, etc. Of course, the family has bestowed some of their largesse on the natives to placate them. In fact, they donated $900,000 to the effort to get everyone vaccinated. Talk about doubling down! The problem with these rich, elite, and not-of-our world people is that they are prideful and bullheaded. If they see something a certain way, it must be so. If they view the world myopically — and their equally rich, equally out of touch amigos see it that same way — they can't understand what our little problem might be with their view. The Most Dangerous Time. [Scroll down] The illegal government, empowered by a stolen election, which tipped the Senate from Republican + 2 to even up, allowing Kamala Harris to be the tie-breaker on all of these spending bills that already have and will continue to drive inflation to Venezuelan heights also allows for someone like Hillary Clinton to be named to the Supreme Court. This is why voting is still important and voting in 2022, if that happens, is more important than ever. Getting people out of the senate is more important than getting them into the senate, but backing someone who understands that the strength of the Republican Party in 2022 is due solely to a strong nationalist sentiment is vital. Those who just want to be establishment senators are as much the enemy of the people as communists. All of it didn't start with the pandemic that allowed for easily forged mail-in ballots, it started way before the stolen election. It started when we let communists on local school boards and election offices and it will have to get fixed there, if it is to be fixed at all. The Most Impressive Communist-Crusher You've Never Heard Of. I first saw Olavo de Carvalho years ago on a program called Update Brazil, which covered the global fight against communism. The video is gone now, the whole channel purged by YouTube. The host was Allan dos Santos, an excellent anti-communist journalist who is now being persecuted and blacklisted by Brazil's far-left Supreme Court. Also on the show were the brilliant American analysts, Jeff Nyquist and Diana West. The fourth person was the only one I didn't recognize. An old and playful Brazilian man. He seemed quirky. Maybe a blogger and friend of Allan's. It was actually Olavo de Carvalho, who was something of a national hero and incredibly accomplished. I just couldn't tell it from his polite and humble demeanor. [...] Since then, I have studied Olavo's work, getting it translated into English, and learned something of his career. In my opinion, he was maybe the most brilliant and interesting thinker we had in the world. Virginia Republican Goes Off On Democrats In EPIC Rant: 'Enough!' Republican State Rep. Nick Freitas of Virginia has had enough of Democrats accusing anyone who opposes them of racism and sexism. During a floor speech this week, he went after Democrats for this and his speech was so amazing that it got applause afterwards. Other Republicans should study this speech. Wrong War, Wrong Enemy. In the aftermath of the humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, America faces the looming possibility of fighting two major wars at opposite ends of the Eurasian continent simultaneously: one against Russia over Ukraine and another against China over Taiwan. Given our current disarray, the United States is in no position to fight a two-front war. Accordingly, it is our best policy to avoid conflict in both regions. The United States has no vital interests to defend In Ukraine. Should the Russians seize it, they will merely occupy a region that has been Russian since the days of Catherine the Great. I Hope Neil Young Will Remember, Spotify Don't Need Him Around Anyhow. On Tuesday, Neil Young gave streaming service Spotify an ultimatum. "I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform," he told them. "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both." Well, Spotify chose Joe Rogan. According to a report from Wall Street Journal, the streaming giant is "in the process of removing Neil Young's music" from the platform. Spotify sides with Joe Rogan, will remove Neil Young's music after ultimatum. The predictable conclusion to yesterday's standoff. Rogan's the most influential podcaster in America, Young's a legend who hasn't been musically relevant for decades. Oh, and Spotify paid $100 million for the rights to stream one of them. Guess which one they were less inclined to alienate. An ultimatum from Taylor Swift or Beyonce to Spotify to yank Rogan's anti-vax episodes from the platform would have been an interesting conundrum for the company. An ultimatum from Neil Young was a curiosity. The Editor says... Donald Trump For Speaker Of The House. In 1994, after Republicans took the House for the first time in 40 years, there was no question as to who would be elected Speaker — Newt Gingrich. Since his petty ouster over the 1998 mid-terms, Republicans have been saddled with one disastrous Speaker after another. Bob Livingston was next but never got the gavel because of an affair he'd had. Dennis Hastert was next, worthless as Speaker and an embarrassment after. John Boehner cried his way into the gavel, and didn't do much beyond smoking and drinking his way through his tenure. Then it was Paul Ryan, who looked at taking the job as a "favor" for the party. [...] It's unclear as to whether or not Trump wants to be president again, but what is clear is he wants to be a player. Speaker of the House would make him the ultimate player. The Republican legislative agenda would move because of him. It's Still Timely And Necessary To Get The 2020 Election Right. The election can be overturned. Not that I imagine there's sufficient internal fortitude among Republicans to do so but, ideally, they should make the attempt. But how? The Constitution doesn't address anything remotely close to reversing a fraudulently achieved election. That's true, but then it also says nothing about the right to abortion, the government providing welfare payments to citizens (or non-citizens), government control of healthcare, the imposition of CAFE standards, or collective bargaining rules. Indeed, there is much that goes on in government that is not in the Constitution. In 1803, Thomas Jefferson worried that the Constitution did not give him the power to make the Louisiana Purchase, but today all or part of 15 states exist because of it. Like John Marshall's judicial review doctrine, which you won't find anywhere in the Constitution, things don't exist until they do. In this case, in states where fraud is proven or where voting laws were enacted unconstitutionally, the legislatures should withdraw their Electoral College votes and recast them based on accurate and lawful counting of the votes. It's true there's no existing Constitutional mechanism to facilitate that remedy, and the likelihood of a Democrat-controlled Congress doing anything to further it is less likely than a healthy college student dying of COVID, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. Remember when the Great Reset was a conspiracy theory? Yes, like many conspiracy theories of the past two years, this one is slowly being rolled out by our global leaders as just simple reality. No longer a conspiracy theory. Just real. And they're not being shy about it. They like the idea of refurbishing the global economy to be more "fair," as they like to say. Yet still, the big fact checkers continue to use their favorite term for conservatives who oppose the Great Reset: they call us "conspiracy theorists." How can they still get away with using this term when we all clearly see a rollout of the Great Reset happening right in front of our eyes? 'Red-Handed' Contains 1,093 Endnotes, No Unnamed Sources. The soon-to-be-released bombshell book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by nonpartisan investigative bestselling author Peter Schweizer contains 1,093 endnotes totaling 81 pages of source material, Breitbart News has learned. Furthermore, the highly anticipated book relies on zero unnamed sources, making its findings — which Sean Hannity said are "going to be massive" — easier for federal law enforcement and U.S. intelligence services to track down. Indeed, Schweizer's bestselling book Clinton Cash sparked an FBI investigation into the Clinton Foundation. Schweizer, who is the president of the nonpartisan Government Accountability Institute (GAI) and a Breitbart News senior contributor, spent over a year conducting the research for Red-Handed with his team of forensic investigators, according to publishing giant HarperCollins. Kyrsten Sinema's courage, Washington hypocrisy and the politics of rage. In Shakespeare's "Othello," the character Iago famously declared that "men in rage strike those that wish them best." It was a warning that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) now understands all too well. Both Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) have refused to be bullied into changing the filibuster rule — a rule that forces the parties into dialogue and compromise. Sinema supports the voting rights legislation but sees this move as endangering any chance of national healing and resolution. She stated on the Senate floor that "we have but one democracy. We can only survive, we can only keep her, if we do so together." That deeply felt speech was met with vile, threatening attacks. It appears that, in a nation addicted to rage, even those seeking an intervention can become the casualties of our political distemper. Must-see video: In the Dutch Parliament, speaking truth to power. As with other European Union countries, the Dutch government has been reveling in the power COVID bestowed on it. In response, the Netherlands has seen huge and violent protests against those draconian strictures. I'm betting that some of those protesters were among the people who voted for Gideon van Meijeren, a young man newly elected to the Dutch Parliament. This young man, during his first appearance on the floor, managed in just two minutes to completely humiliate Prime Minister Mark Rutte. [Video clip] If we are to emerge from this attempt by the world's totalitarians (an amalgam of billionaires, millionaires, and leftists) to weaponize COVID and wokeness to end the democratic republics that have held sway for more than 200 years, and to reinstate the totalitarianism that has been the world's norm for most of humankind, the only way to do it is to push back: Refuse to be silenced, ridicule these self-styled "elite," speak the truth whenever and wherever you can, and just say "no," as Martin Luther King and Gandhi both did (and that's true regardless of how one feels about their politics). Watch for war. What do tyrants do when their ship is sinking or, more accurately, when they realize that their house of cards will not hold up? They divert their populace by starting a war — or at least allowing one to happen. War isn't simply a way of diverting attention, either. The very fact of a war emergency makes it far easier to erode or negate whatever civil liberties still exist. Think: Patriot Act. Currently, war beckons in two places: the Russian-European border and the South China Sea and Taiwan. I'm not saying that either Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping is an aggrieved party. Both could conceivably become the Hitlers of the 21st century. But ask yourself if the floundering, self-immolating Biden-Harris administration might not rejoice at the gargantuan pass it would get if Americans — including especially conservative Americans — must focus on a foreign enemy. Gone would be the rightful concerns about vaccine madness, dementia, runaway inflation, Big Tech/Mass Media fascism, corrupt education unions, failing Democrat cities, ginned up racial hatred, attacks on the Second Amendment, the federalization of elections, a corrupt FBI and DOJ, election fraud, the Russia Hoax, parental rights and school boards, an open southern border, and on and on. Biden (and Harris, if there's room) will wrap themselves snugly in the flag and all will be forgiven. For a time. Biden's Empty-Shelf America Is A Country Boris Yeltsin Wouldn't Recognize. [Scroll down] We admit: The supply chain breakdown is global. It can't be fully pinned on President Joe Biden and his party. But poor public policies advanced (and protected, in the case of productivity-killing union work rules) by Democrats and private-sector policies driven by big-government pressure have left U.S. retailers looking like Moscow's GUM department store failing to serve its "grim customers" in the Soviet era. Too many "incessant experiments" in the form of generous "rescue" spending that have stripped some of their incentive to work; lockdowns which bit big chunks out of the economy; and vaccine mandates and unrelenting pandemic fearmongering that have created labor shortages across multiple industries within the supply chain. Biden declared "problem solved" three days before Christmas when he said "Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty." Yet here we are well into 2022, and store shelves are looking worse than a Christmas stripped of its ornaments and tossed on the curb in the middle of January. Have Americans become a people who no longer deserve their Constitution? "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people." Only moral and religious people? Who said that about the Constitution? Someone who would know: John Adams, America's first vice president and second president, who served on the First Continental Congress and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. Adams went on to say immediately thereafter, "It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." In other words, it's "wholly inadequate to the government of" an immoral and godless people. Sadly, in 2022 there's no shortage of those in America. Temporary Empty Shelves Are Not a Supply Chain Crisis, It Is Important to Understand the Difference. Unfortunately, there is a lot of wrong information being discussed and shared. Even reputable regional media are giving inaccurate information, making wrong interpretations, and generally getting the explanations wrong. [...] All of these #BidensEmptyShelves assumptions, which are being heightened by increased attention and social media, are leading to confusion. An empty retail shelf or case for a 24, 36 to 48-hour period is not, I repeat, NOT, part of a systemic supply chain disruption. Those are mostly location and regional specific out of stock situations caused by localized events, weather and employee shortages. What Issue Was Really at the Heart of the Civil War, and is it Relevant Today? Most Americans today have a romanticized (and extraordinarily narrow) historical understanding of the conflict that we call the Civil War. In their imaginations, it goes something like this: With passions inflamed by a moral renaissance in the North regarding the institution of slavery in the South, the two sides decided to go to war over the issue. In the end, the evil South was righteously razed by the armies of the North, and thus, slavery was ended, and the former slaves made American citizens, as Abraham Lincoln intended. If you think this an unfair caricature of the extent of the average American's knowledge on the subject, I'd wager you haven't spoken to many people under 50 about the subject. Outstanding Summary of the Dangers We Face. Excellent summary of the State of the State by Mark Levin in two parts. [Video clips] Savage Dad Berates 'Beta' School Board With Perfect Comedic Timing. This might be the best school board video you've seen yet. There's no information on where this took place but it really doesn't matter. It could be Anytown USA, with the growing frustration parents feel with school boards locking them out of meetings or having them arrested falsely or claiming that parents are "terrorists" who need FBI investigations. This man has had enough and his speech is so good, I'll even transcribe it for those of you who can't listen. [...] The whole audience is responding to this like a stand-up act and they're not laughing at the dad, they're laughing at the board. It's a riot. It's also worth noting that ridicule is a potent weapon against these boards that are puffed up with their own importance. The Four Horsemen of the Left's Artificial Apocalypse. These last twenty-five years of technological development have made it possible for humans to trade goods and services, knowledge, security, spiritual connection, and entertainment without consulting politicians, bureaucrats, pop stars, or corporate boards of directors. When you see this reality for what it truly is — nothing short of a technologically enabled revolution for human freedom and independence — it becomes obvious why those with power today have embraced authoritarianism and totalitarianism wherever we look. They have everything to lose and nothing to gain from our rising liberation. Their tyranny is their only salvation. In other words, the powers that be are all deeply afraid. Ted Cruz May Have Just Destroyed His Entire Political Career With One Bonehead Move. Ted Cruz, who ingratiated himself back into the MAGA movement, after behaving like the sorest loser in town, has just found himself on the outs again after he made a big bonehead move. While speaking about January 6th, Ted Cruz adopted the same exact tone and narrative the left has been pushing, complete with calling the folks who were at the Capitol "terrorists." What on earth was Ted thinking? Nobody at the Capitol was charged with terrorism. Report: Fentanyl is Leading Cause of Death in Americans Ages 18-45. The leading cause of death amongst Americans ages 18-45 is the deadly drug fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Because of the Biden administration's backwards priorities, a large percentage of Americans have never even heard of the drug. "We are in the worst overdose crisis we've ever been in in the United States," said Lisa Raville, executive director of the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver. "In a magical world there would be no drugs, but we live here." The Editor says... The Flow of Money Creates a Path to One World Government. [Scroll down] America does not need to surrender her wealth, her potential wealth, our Constitutional system, or our nation-state. We are not Europe. We do not want to dispose of the foundations of our moral roots and end up as soulless atheists imprisoned in nihilism and drowning in dependence. George Washington warned us about this; so did Dwight Eisenhower and many others. We the People urgently need to demand a comprehensive plan from our public servants to re-establish the prosperity of our nation, stabilize and reduce our national debt, and establish a strong enough military defense to buy us time to get our national financial house in order. One important component of this defense is rebuilding and strengthening a strong moral core in the American people and encouraging authentic education in history, civics, philosophy, and economics. The Truth You Never Learned about Watergate. A review of The Nixon Conspiracy: Watergate and the Plot to Remove the President, by Geoff Shepard. [...] When you read this book, you don't have to be reminded that Watergate looks like dress rehearsal or an opening act for the events of 2015 to 2021. Linguistic Weaponry and the Rhetorical Mechanics of "Let's Go Brandon!" For those who are unfamiliar with the phrase, "Let's Go, Brandon!" has become a rallying cry for those opposed to Biden and his agenda. Only a few months after the inauguration, as the nation sat in stunned awe of the new administration's remarkable ineptitude, crowds across the nation began impromptu chants of "[...] Joe Biden" at public events. Personally, I use very little profanity and I still hold to the old idea that even if you can't respect a particular President, some respect is owed to the office. But over the course of decades, the left has worked aggressively to normalize the practice of telling the President to [get lost] (when he isn't a Democrat). Their victory was consolidated when Trump's ascendancy brought with it a 4-year tsunami of vulgarity from leftists of all stripes, bravely "speaking truth to power" by inexplicably telling others to do to Trump what Stormy Daniels did. But only months after Trump's exit, leftists lamented the new norm they created: they were aghast at Americans' lack of decorum in speaking of the President. Wherever calls of "[...] Joe Biden" arose, there were efforts undertaken to distract from them, avoid broadcasting them, or otherwise silence them. Then, in the aftermath of an October auto race, as the victor Brandon Brown was interviewed on a television broadcast, the crowd began the familiar chorus of "[...] Joe Biden." In a predictable effort to redirect attention from Biden's failure to the matter at hand, the interviewer said "And you can hear the chants from the crowd: 'Let's Go, Brandon!" In that moment, a meme was born. Don't reinstate the ban on US crude oil exports. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm recently put an end to speculation about whether an oil export ban could succeed. She clearly stated at a meeting with the National Petroleum Council, "We are not considering reinstating the ban on exports. I've heard you loud and clear, and so has the White House." This is welcome news for the U.S. energy industry, but the secretary also urged producers to get their "rig counts up" and "take advantage of the leases that you have," sending mixed signals from the administration to industry. Just What is Education For? [Scroll down] Senator, I have a question. Just why are we sending all our children to labor in government child-custodial facilities — er, schools — throughout their childhood? Just why is it that we have banned children from working for money and anathematized it as "child labor?" Just what is it that is so vitally important that kids can only get it from school? Apart from getting the noble and progressive regime narrative? Back in the day, in 1913, in "Why Children Work" schools inspector Helen Todd found that working children preferred to work rather than go to school. See, the kids reported that their employers treated them much better than the teachers at school. That hasn't changed. Just What is Education For? [Scroll down] Senator, I have a question. Just why are we sending all our children to labor in government child-custodial facilities — er, schools — throughout their childhood? Just why is it that we have banned children from working for money and anathematized it as "child labor?" Just what is it that is so vitally important that kids can only get it from school? Apart from getting the noble and progressive regime narrative? Back in the day, in 1913, in "Why Children Work" schools inspector Helen Todd found that working children preferred to work rather than go to school. See, the kids reported that their employers treated them much better than the teachers at school. That hasn't changed. Recall, Remove & Replace Every Last Soros Prosecutor. Last year, our nation experienced the largest increase in murder in American history and the largest number of drug overdose deaths ever recorded. This carnage continues today and is not distributed equally. Instead, it is concentrated in cities and localities where radical, left-wing, George Soros progressives have captured state and district attorney offices. These legal arsonists condemn our rule of law as "systemically racist" and have not simply abused prosecutorial discretion, they have embraced prosecutorial nullification. As a result, a contagion of crime has infected virtually every neighborhood under their charge. Soros prosecutors refuse to enforce laws against shoplifting, drug trafficking, and entire categories of felonies and misdemeanors. In Chicago, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx allows theft under $1,000 to go unpunished. In Manhattan, District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. refuses to enforce laws against prostitution. In Baltimore, State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby has unilaterally declared the war on drugs "over" and is refusing to criminally charge drug dealers in the middle of the worst drug crisis in American history. For a time, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon even stopped enforcing laws against disturbing the peace, resisting arrest, and making criminal threats. Archbishop Vigano's startling warning to the American people. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò is a noteworthy maverick within the Catholic Church hierarchy. He retired as Papal Nuncio to the United States in 2016 and has exposed what he sees as great scandals within his Church. This lengthy Wikipedia entry provides background. The Archbishop has issued a Christmas letter to the United States that is unusually blunt about what he sees as a conspiracy underlying the handling of COVID. The letter was originally published in Gateway Pundit, but is presented here for readers' convenience. The Hole in the Heart of RFK Jr.'s Extraordinary Book. Before getting to the "hole" in RFK Jr.'s new book, I would like to say that his brutal smackdown of the Dr. Anthony Fauci - Bill Gates vaccine oligarchy, The Real Anthony Fauci, is arguably the century's most important book, and a page-turner on top of that. Buy it. Read it. If you choose not to, avoid holiday arguments with anyone who has. You will lose. The book has real heart. The Fed has just two jobs, and climate policy isn't one of them. The Federal Reserve Bank, the central bank of the United States, is supposedly guided in all of its actions by what is known as its "dual mandate." By law, it is charged with maintaining price stability throughout the economy and with maximizing employment. Sometimes, these two goals are difficult to reconcile with one another. In recent years, there has been some talk in Congress of changing this and giving the Fed only the single mandate of price stability. Whatever the merits of that proposal, though, it is a far cry from what the central bank now finds itself doing, angling to issue dubious guidance for the financial system about climate change and its potential effects.
'When science mixes with politics, all we get is politics'. I just finished reading an article on the Big Think website titled, "When science mixes with politics, all we get is politics," by Professor Marcelo Gleiser, theoretical physicst, Dartmouth College. I mistakenly thought that the commentary would decry the misuse of science by politicians, but no. Instead, it decries the mistrust that we, the unwashed masses, have developed for the science establishment in recent years. Unwittingly, the eminent professor gives us yet more reasons to regard science insiders with skepticism. He does what so many of his colleagues do, which is to equate science itself, with the institutions that purport to advance science. To question politicized scientists, then, is supposedly unscientific. More Woke Companies to Avoid: List #3. Companies across the country, and indeed from around the world, aggressively work against conservative ideals and openly display their disdain for our values. They often do so while simultaneously taking our money as we willingly play along. It's time we stopped. We find these companies in virtually every industry, and in all sizes, shapes, and colors. In a great and free country like these United States, these companies enjoy our freedom of speech, and they have every right to say and act how they see fit; within reason. Similarly, we also have the freedom to choose with whom we spend our money, and it's time we avoided spending it with these in-your-face wokesters. Wag the dog: Escape: How to Evade Trackers and Tracking Dogs. I wanted to share with you a few tips on evasion and how to avoid enemy capture when you are being searched for by canines and professional trackers. As a kid, I used to track deer through the swamp. Little did I know that what I was doing was preparing myself to be a human tracker as an adult. [...] A dog can be a great friend but it can also be used against you. Dogs can be trained to track you for lengthy distances. This is why evasion tactics are covered in the SERE training. In the field application, tracker dogs are used while the trainees employ the survival skills of navigation, and how to get water, food, and warmth as they track their way through the wilderness. Proper timing is also a key factor since it's not just about survival but also about evasion. Beating dogs in their tracking is not an easy task unlike what you might have seen in Hollywood films. The dogs don't bark; they only run as they sniff and the only time the canines bark is when you are on sight. At this point, evading is quite tricky since your hideout is already revealed. The Fed Doesn't Cause Inflation. Though the Federal Reserve, having added an unprecedented $8 trillion to bank reserves the last 15 years, certainly abetted borrowers by greatly depressing interest rates, it is not the culprit in actually spending or circulating the reserves or money created. The Fed clearly has manipulated bank reserves, distorting financial markets and calculations and depriving savers of just returns. Yet, the decision to lend remains with the banker and the decision to borrow remains with the individual, firm, and government. Sensing Biden Inflation Weakness China Hits U.S. Supply Lines With Shipping Cargo Quarantine. When you are at war, you target the enemy supply lines. A cunning move by the smart Panda targets Joe Biden's domestic inflation vulnerability. Beijing can see Joe Biden under internal political attack caused by massive domestic inflation. China also knows Biden is weak strategically, handcuffed by the leftist demand for climate change / energy policy, and Beijing can see the administration trying to deflect from the consequences of their economic and energy policy. After the U.S-China summit, used by cunning panda to size up the potential for backlash, anything China can do to further gain dominant position is now just a matter of easy chess moves on the board of dependency. American government poised to unleash "Angel of Death" smallpox bioweapon to create perpetual crisis. Billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates is already signaling the arrival of his next plandemic, which appears to involve the intentional release of a smallpox bioweapon. The mainstream media has been littered as of late with stories about mysterious smallpox "vials" and other things related to smallpox. We also reported about eight years ago that the federal government was stockpiling smallpox "vaccines" for some reason. Just the other day, a worker at a laboratory outside of Philadelphia supposedly stumbled upon about 15 vials of smallpox ... something inside of a refrigerator. The FBI and other federal agencies reportedly intervened and are conducting an "investigation." Then, the Daily Mail (U.K.) reported on a warning from Gates, who claims that "terrorists" are planning to unleash a smallpox bioweapon. This, according to Gates, requires that governments spend billions of dollars to "prevent future pandemics." The Fight for Civic Nationalism. In the fullness of time, the past year may be looked upon as the year the future of America was decided in courtrooms. The Rittenhouse trial is the latest big court case to expose the massive cultural rift in the country. The Derek Chauvin trial in the summer was another example. There is the ongoing civil suit over the Charlottesville protests three years ago and the current Ahmaud Arbery murder trial. What all of these cases and some others have in common is they are tests of the civic nationalist theory of politics. Civic nationalism is the argument that a country can be organized around a set of ideas, rather than people and land. The citizens, rather than connected by blood and history, are connected by ideas. In the case of America, the organizing ideas are in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Civic nationalism, to a great degree, is a reaction to the internationalism of Western ruling elites who are post-national. The post-nationalists want to eliminate borders and the national sovereignty. In their place will be international organizations, corporate agreements, and the administrative state. Civic nationalism is an effort to confront this old enemy of civilization with a nationalism free of past baggage. Power Shortages and Russia. Currently, there are concerns about power shortages in China, Europe and the U.S. The Chinese economy is being held back by power shortages. People in the UK are worried about increased power bills and a possible food shortage this winter. In Germany, their power plants are short of natural gas and coal and they are hoping for a mild winter. All this reminds one of the various arguments in the U.S. about Russia trying to influence our elections. These concerns remind U.S. that Russia benefits from power shortages and shortages of oil and natural gas. Vladimir Putin is a smart man. Putin puts himself and Russia first and everything he does is to promote himself and Russia. Putin, as a former head of the KGB, is an expert at misinformation and manipulating public opinion, usually without leaving tracks. The largest and most important sector of the Russian economy is the production and export of oil and natural gas. Putin is always looking for ways to improve Russia's leverage in economics and geopolitics that comes from being one of the leading providers of fossil fuels. One of the biggest threats to his position was/is a growing, thriving U.S. fossil fuel industry. Whenever the U.S. moves from being a net importer of fossil fuels to being a net exporter of fossil fuels that is bad for the Russian economy. Putin knows this. With All Eyes on Hillary in Russian Collusion Hoax, What About Obama? During the Senate Watergate hearings that eventually brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon, Republican Sen. Howard Baker (Tenn.) asked a question that would live in infamy: "What did the president know, and when did he know it?" Now, nearly 50 years later, the question again begs to be asked. This time, about a different president: What did Barack Obama know, and when did he know it? As RedState reported late last week, Special Counsel for the Justice Department John Durham's indictment of Igor Danchenko, the principal source for the bogus Steele dossier used by the FBI as a basis for the Trump-Russia "collusion" investigation, further illustrates that Durham has his sights set on the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Hardly a shock, although the irony is beautiful: In an attempt to frame Donald Trump for colluding with Russia, Hillary, in effect, colluded with Russia. But what about Obama? De Blasio's insane ban on propane heaters will crush NYC's dining scene. The cranks suing the city to end outdoor street dining over issues like noise and garbage can save their dough on legal fees, because City Hall is about to do the job for them. Last month, the FDNY, backed by Mayor de Blasio, irrationally banned the use of propane heaters at outdoor restaurants. (Are any of the actions by the worst mayor in Big Apple history not irrational?) The ban will likely spell the end for thousands of places that relied on extra money from outdoor seating to help make up for last year's catastrophic losses caused by the pandemic. Never mind that propane tanks used by thousands of Big Apple eateries caused exactly zero accidents last winter. Never mind that they're legal in most other large US cities. Never mind that they're allowed on our food trucks and food carts — including several on Park Place just outside City Hall, within blast range of the mayor's office. Despite all that, New York's Bravest proclaim that propane heaters "pose a high risk of death and injury." Their concern for public safety is rich when several thousand firefighters continue to refuse the COVID vaccine, thus endangering everyone they meet and forcing the shutdowns of some firehouses. Military's Misplaced Focus: COVID and Climate Change Could Cost Us the Next War. As China tests new military technologies and brazenly encroaches on Taiwanese airspace, the United States employs its fighting forces to battle COVID and take on climate change. In his testimony before the Armed Services Committee in March, Navy Admiral Philip Davidson noted that "The Indo-Pacific accounts for 60 percent of the world's current Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and contributes more than two-thirds to the present global economic growth," further citing the trade and investment in the region as "vital" to U.S. security and prosperity. Admiral Philips described the threat posed by China's growing regional influence and briefed leaders on the measures needed to project a "combat credible deterrence." The Department of Defense should look to support the development of needed technologies and weapons as well as measures to improve combat readiness. Instead, it remains unnecessarily focused on climate change as a grand part of national strategy. The End of Science. Rebecca West writes, in The New Meaning of Treason, that a lot of our scientists during World War 2 were communists. There are several reasons this is important, but the first is that they immediately leaked our research on atomic bombs to Stalin. They honestly believed in a "global scientific community" — that science knows no political boundaries, and that the world would be better if scientists shared all their information with each other. Somehow this would usher in an age of peace and plenty, and scientific know-how would mean food for the poor and an end to oppression. So they gave the bomb to the Soviets. To the people who used technology to keep millions in chains and torture them and starve them to death. These days, American scientists are doing the same thing, helping abusive husbands track their wives in Saudi Arabia and helping the Chinese develop social surveillance systems and biological weapons. The scientists tell you how to do something and fail to understand or care why we shouldn't do it. Or maybe it's the money. The extraordinary power of 'Let's Go Brandon'. The great thing about it is that it's not "in your face." Despite the Washington Post trying to argue that the phrase, with its allusion to "Eff Joe Biden," is as offensive as the years of obscenities and death wishes that leftists hurled at Bush and Trump, the fact remains that, outside of political junky circles, most Democrats haven't yet grokked to the meaning behind "Let's Go Brandon." It's the conservative secret handshake. Absurdity of the Day: The Worst Use of the "It's COVID" Excuse Keeps JFK Assassination Documents From Public View. Nominal president Joe Biden on Friday [10/22/2021] resorted to the worst use yet of the "it's because of COVID" canard that now runs rampant across our society as the go-to excuse for every form of failure to perform. 58 years after the event took place at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Biden signed an order delaying yet again the release of more than 440,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of John F. Kennedy on the flimsy excuse that several federal agencies involved have been unable to perform appropriate reviews due to the negative impacts of the COVID pandemic. Now, let's review the timeline [...]: John F. Kennedy was killed as the results of multiple shots fired at him from multiple directions in a crossfire in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963. Again, that's 58 long years ago. COVID, meanwhile, has impacted our society for about a year and a half at this point. Thus, every one of the agencies in question — including the CIA, FBI and other federal intelligence agencies — had well over 56 years to conduct appropriate reviews of the records in question before anyone even knew what COVID means. What have they been doing all of that time, other than executing the longest coverup of a crime in American history? Liberal Repellant: How to Keep Your Red State Red. I was talking to my sister from Greenville, South Carolina the other day and she was telling me, once again, about how all the Liberals (read Socialists, Communists, Progressives, Woke Libtards, or just Democrats in general) are moving to Greenville from up north and bringing their values (or lack thereof) with them. She was decrying their habit of driving around with one hand on the horn, ready to blow it at you or anyone else who even slightly gets in their way or simply draws their attention. And noting how as soon as they move into your neighborhood they get on the NextDoor app and start complaining about anything and everything they don't like about living in the South, never stopping once to think about the fact that if they dislike it so much, they could move back to where they came from. A separation, if we can keep it. [Scroll down] The Constitution also separates the three branches of government, with each having unique powers specifically defined in the Constitution. For most of our history, the separate branches used aggressive self-protection to maintain and enforce their powers. The Executive and Judicial branches could not legislate. Congress was not a court. The president was the Commander and Chief but only Congress could declare war. Defined separations were the order of the day. There were many more. The Founders further secured these separations with the different ways our leaders were elected. The President would be selected by a system in which electors representing each state would have a proportional vote. The House of Representatives would be the house of the people and elected by them directly from defined geographical districts. The Senate was a body selected by the state legislatures. The election process was to be defined by state legislatures and only state legislatures, another defined separation. If we had maintained this designed separation, we would not be on the precipice of secession or civil war. California ports, key to [the] U.S. supply chain, [are] among [the] world's least efficient. Southern California's Los Angeles and Long Beach ports handle the most ocean cargo of any ports in the United States, but are some of the least efficient in the world, according to a ranking by the World Bank and IHS Markit. In a review of 351 container ports around the globe, Los Angeles was ranked 328, behind Tanzania's Dar es Salaam and Alaska's Dutch Harbor. The adjacent port of Long Beach came in even lower, at 333, behind Turkey's Nemrut Bay and Kenya's Mombasa, the groups said in their inaugural Container Port Performance Index published in May. The total number of ships waiting to unload outside the two adjacent ports hit a new all-time record of 100 on Monday. Americans' purchases of imported goods have jumped to levels the U.S. supply chain infrastructure can't handle, causing delivery delays and snarls. Hilarity Abounds: New National Parks Woke 'Equity Language Guide'. If the National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) has its way, America's national parks will soon abound with "wokeness." America's leading parks nonprofit has released a guide on how to speak in woke terms — a veritable "Wokeness for Dummies" — including tips like no longer using the term "Americans" to describe Americans and making sure the term "white" is lowercase while "Black" is capitalized. [...] According to the guide, it can be "an important factor to someone's identity and culture" and encourages parks professionals to "recognize religious and cultural traditions other than those that typically dominate the U.S. media landscape (usually Christian holidays)." Why I'm shocked. It's okay to recognize religious and cultural traditions (you know, like Christmas and Easter and stuff). Oh — wait — other than Christian religious and cultural traditions. Living In A Potemkin World. I never thought I would experience the dystopian "fictional" nightmare Orwell laid out in his 1949 novel. Seventy-two years later and his warning about a totalitarian society, where mass surveillance, repressive measures against dissenters, mind control through government indoctrination and propaganda designed to convince the masses lies are truth, fake is real and the narrative can be manipulated to achieve the desired outcome of those in power, have come to fruition. Everything is fake. I don't believe anything I'm told by the government, the media, medical "experts", politicians, military leadership, bankers, corporate executives, religious leaders, financial professionals, and anyone selling themselves as an authority on any subject matter. We are truly living in times of mass deception, mass delusion, and mass willful ignorance. Texas Governor Candidate Don Huffines Pledges to Arrest Federal Agents Persecuting Parents in Justice Department CRT Probe. Texas Governor candidate Don Huffines is pledging to arrest federal agents that usurp the rights of parents who oppose the instruction of anti-white critical race theory in public schools, responding to an announcement on the part of Biden's Justice Department that it had begun a federal probe into opposition to CRT in schools. Huffines made the pledge in a statement Wednesday [10/13/2021]. [...] Huffines is challenging incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who has courted dissatisfaction among Texas conservatives for lockdown orders and falsely smearing free speech social media network Gab as "anti-semitic" at the direction of the Anti-Defamation League, a left-wing extremist group. The Editor says... Dems own Biden failures: They'll run but they can't hide from policy fiascos. As the natural consequences of bad public policy continue their inevitable assault on the American economy, Democrats with national ambitions are going to be increasingly reluctant to let voters pin Joe Biden's tail on their donkey. This may help explain why the president is not getting a lot of help, even from his own inner circle. We aren't getting the plans we were promised. Instead, we're getting thin smoke and faded mirrors that aren't fooling anyone. Joe Biden may be aging and confused, but what's the excuse for Vice President Harris' failure to address the border crisis, Secretary Buttigieg's failure to contain the shipping crisis, or Secretary Blinken's failure to bring Americans home from a war zone? Worldwide survey has politicians as least-trusted profession. The world appears to agree on one thing. Politicians are the least trusted profession on the planet, according to a massive Ipsos "Global Trustworthiness Index" poll of 19,570 adults conducted in 28 countries. On average, only 10% of the respondents felt that politicians were "trustworthy." That negative finding ranged from a low of 3% in Argentina to a high of 19% in Malaysia. The U.S. was just about in the middle with 9% of respondents saying they trusted politicians — a finding shared with respondents in Poland, Italy, South Korea and Mexico. Politicians had some company at the rock bottom of the poll, which has been conducted since 2018. "Government ministers" are trusted by 14%, advertising executives by 15%, and journalists by 23%. Why Shortages Are Permanent: Global Supply Shortages Make Fantastic Financial Sense. Global corporations didn't go to all the effort to establish quasi-monopolies and cartels for our convenience — they did it to ensure reliably large profits from control and scarcity. Not all scarcities are artificial, i.e. the result of cartels limiting supply to keep prices high; many scarcities are real, and many of these scarcities can be traced back to the stripping out of redundancy / multiple suppliers of industrial essentials to streamline efficiency and eliminate competition. Recall that competition and abundance are anathema to profits. Wide open competition and structural abundance are the least conducive setting for generating reliably ample profits, while quasi-monopolies and cartels that control scarce supplies are the ideal profit-generating machines. The incentives to expand the number of suppliers, i.e. increase competition, are effectively zero. America's corporations spent $11 trillion buying back their own stocks over the past decade; that's equal to the combined GDP of Japan, Germany and Italy. If adding new suppliers to the global supply chain were profitable, some of that $11 trillion would have exploited those vast profits. Pie in the sky: The Editor says... Politics in the Case of Col. Scheller. We all witnessed the events beginning with the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban followed by the chaotic noncombatant evacuation operation from Kabul's airport. It was a sad commentary on President Joe Biden's judgment because had he accepted the advice of his military chain of command (keep at least 2,500 service members in Afghanistan to stiffen the backbone of that government and security forces) this fiasco would not have happened. However, because Biden was evidently in a hurry to exit the Central Asian country (likely for crass political reasons), he rushed the exit process and a catastrophic situation emerged: the Taliban, our enemy of two decades, took over the country, now it will host a new wave of terrorism for years to come and the U.S. left Afghanistan with its tail tucked and lost international credibility. Just as that embarrassing situation emerged a Marine lieutenant colonel, Stuart Scheller Jr., at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina posted a public video on a social media website expressing criticism of senior military officials for their handling of the withdrawal and demanding they be held accountable. His superior officers immediately relieved him of command and then incarcerated and placed him in pretrial confinement. Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Is The Billy Mitchell Of The 21st Century. [Scroll down] Mitchell's undoing came in September 1925 when a Navy dirigible, the USS Shenandoah, crashed during a severe thunderstorm killing 14 men. The airship had been ordered aloft as a public relations gesture during a period of severe weather over the protestations of its own Captain. Mitchell offered his opinion on this and other incidents that had previously occurred: "These terrible accidents are the direct results of incompetency, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the National Defense by the War and Navy Departments." This was the last straw for the army. He was charged with insubordination, court-martialed, convicted, and suspended from duty for five years without pay. The Wrong Man Is In The Brig — Put Biden On Trial. U.S. Marine Lieutenant-Colonel Stuart Scheller is in the brig — a military jail at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. More specifically, Scheller is in pre-trial confinement. That means he is being held behind bars pending a military court-martial. Scheller was up until recently a Marine battalion commander. He was relieved of his command following a series of public statements he made chastising military leadership for the manifest incompetence shown during the Afghan withdrawal that led directly to the deaths of 13 Marines. After his relief Scheller announced he would resign from the service and continued to speak out — in apparent violation of direct orders to stop discussing his concerns publicly. In one video, posted on September 16th, Scheller stated his intention to charge Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr., head of U.S. Central Command, with dereliction of duty. The Most Dangerous Man In America. Four-star General Mark A. Milley, 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces, is a walking answer to the unasked question, "What if Jim Mattis were fat and dumb?" With his fellow four-star and President Trump's first secretary of defense, Milley shares a powerful but muted arrogance, a strong but less than rabid hawkishness, a clear political ambition that nonetheless defies immediate identification, and the obvious desire to be seen as a 21st-century warrior-scholar. He does not share with Mattis the requisite intelligence to uphold these delusions of soldier-sagehood, nor the basic capacities required to competently lead men and fight wars. McAuliffe and Democrats try to ignore their past election trutherism. Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe faces a tougher-than-expected race for his old job against GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin. So, he has resorted to a tactic Democrats love to lean on now: painting their opponents as election deniers. But McAuliffe, like many in the Democratic Party, can't erase his own track record as an election truther. McAuliffe has tried to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump's denial of the results of the 2020 presidential election. But McAuliffe has spent nearly two decades claiming the 2000 presidential election was stolen from Democrat Al Gore, arguing the Supreme Court tampered with the results. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, McAuliffe delivered a quote indistinguishable from Trump: "We actually won the last presidential election, folks, they stole the last presidential election." Afghanistan: What Comes of Limited War. The recent disaster in Afghanistan, however spectacular, was part of a pattern, the pattern of failed American interventions since the Second World War. Previous misadventures might not have entailed needless bungling of the kind just displayed over a few days to an astonished world. No one expected the withdrawal of military forces before civilians, in such hasty neglect that vast quantities of armaments were abandoned to the enemy and American and allied Afghan civilians left to their fate. [...] And yet this failed mission is really the last element of a series. Since the 1950s, America has intervened in defense of other nations under attack (South Korea and South Vietnam), or to liberate a nation recently conquered or seized by coup (Kuwait, Grenada), or to change or provide relief from an existing regime (Iraq, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Libya). Have You Noticed Modern Presidential Assassins Have One Thing in Common? Have you noticed only beauty queens and criminals seem to have middle names? Sara Jane, as we called her in the months ahead, was a West Virginia native who gave up her nursing studies and, over the years, five husbands. Turns out, she was also a leftie. You may have noticed California has a surfeit of them, still. Like many folks who get in big trouble, they're typically already on authorities' radar. [...] Later, Moore expressed regret. She got life anyway which, as you may have noticed in modern America, doesn't really mean life. It means about 30 years. On Dec. 31, 2007, at age 77, Federal Inmate No. 04851-180 was released. In 2019, she was jailed for six months for failing to inform her parole officer of a foreign trip. She was the first prominent would-be presidential assassin totally released. It seems like Americans, or at least some of their appointed officials and boards, are in a forgiving mood. If events proceed as expected, three more will soon have their liberties restored — Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, Sirhan Sirhan, and John Hinckley. Repeal the 17th Amendment. [Scroll down] But the more fundamental point is that repeal of the 17th Amendment would return us to the structure of federalism devised by the Founders to limit federal power and preserve our liberty. The current U.S. Senate elected pursuant to the 17th Amendment has 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats and 2 independents who vote with the Democrats. The Vice-President is a Democrat who can vote to break a tie. According to Americans for Tax Reform, Republicans control 30 state legislatures in states with a combined population of 185,164,412, while Democrats control 18 state legislatures in states with a combined population of 133,888,565. Under the system originally devised by the Founders, the U.S. Senate would be overwhelmingly Republican — with at least 60 GOP senators. The Founders made the amendment process difficult, and rightly so. Should the Republicans takeover the House and Senate in 2022, repealing the 17th Amendment should but probably won't be a priority. Politics and the Politicization of the US Military. Americans traditionally have been wary of a large permanent military establishment, believing it to be a threat to democratic institutions. This attitude goes all the way back to the Founding Fathers who deliberately kept the army small, preferring to rely on local militia in case of an emergency. This was done to prevent the army from being used to repress the rights of any individual state during the long and ongoing battle over the issue of states' rights; the echoes of which still reverberate to this very day. The past nine months' events show how wise this attitude was. The Deep Optimism Manifesto. The world is far better off than most people think. By moving a billion people from poverty to the middle class, we have automatically moved more subsistence farmers into homes with electricity, gas stoves, and mobile phones. By focusing on long-run economic growth, we automatically solve our environmental problems. We will end this century with many fewer poor people than we started. Bush and Milley Have Chosen Obama's False History of America. It has been the project of the political left for quite some time to convince Americans that there is nothing exceptional about their country. To "fundamentally transform" a culture, you must first poison the roots of what has already been growing. So for a century, Marxists have disparaged American history as steeped in genocide, imperialism, and avarice. They have exploited the imagery of virtue and vice to convince moral people that their nation rose from immorality. This has reached its logical apex with the historically illiterate 1619 Project, supported by elite news publications and academic institutions, reimagining America's birth as bathed not in liberty, but rather enslavement. Killing American history is not just a matter of destroying our collective identity as Americans, but also the vehicle for undermining notions of personal freedom. We Need to Talk about Pakistan. An examination of the history of Pakistan reveals several disturbing consistencies. In Pakistan, few 'elected leaders' ever complete their tenure in office. These 'leaders' are either executed or jailed after Pakistan's deep state stages a coup. The more fortunate manage to bribe their way out in exchange for being 'exiled' to a foreign country, where they live in great luxury. Occasionally, army generals from the deep state who led coups to become leaders themselves become victims of a coup led by other factions. If the deep state does not eliminate them, the Islamists supported by factions in the deep state conduct an assassination. The Pakistani deep state consists of the armed forces, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and the judiciary. The deep state in Pakistan has ruthlessly used iron-fist tactics at regular intervals, to serve as severe warnings to 'elected' leaders who presume that their elected office gives them a license to develop a mind of their own. The knowledge that they can be summarily dethroned or even eliminated perennially looms over every elected leader in Pakistan. Hence, they operate with the utmost caution, never daring to disturb 'equilibrium' as determined by the deep state. Why I don't have faith in John Durham. [Scroll down] In the waning days of the second Bush presidency, the attorney general assigned Durham to investigate the destruction of tapes of interrogations at Gitmo. No charges were filed. The final report remains sealed. Eric Holder assigned him to look at the actual interrogations. Same result. No charges. After a couple of years looking into the use of the FBI to spy on Donald Trump and the Russiagate hoax, he got a minor conviction of one lawyer and has now indicted Michael Sussmann, a partner at Perkins Coie who has since left the firm. Compare and contrast that to the speed with which the FBI set-up and forced General Flynn to cop a plea. Sussmann is a safe catch. He is big enough to close the case. He will keep his trap shut. We joke about Arkancide but it is real and Sussmann ain't stupid. Neither is John Durham. 'Nothing Can Stop What is Coming.' What If Nothing is Coming? [Scroll down] Arizona's election audit is dragging on, and "any day now" sufficient evidence of fraud will supposedly be released to overturn that state's election results, triggering similar results in other states. Yet after ten months there is no end in sight, just pleas to be patient and wait. And what if evidence of fraud or outside interference is produced? Then what? The media will ignore it and anyone who dares to discuss it will be labeled a QAnon domestic terrorist and attacked with the ferocity of someone recommending ivermectin for COVID. Will state legislatures decertify their electoral college votes? Will Congress decertify the presidential election? Will the Supreme Court get involved? No, no and no, based on common sense and their past performance. If Junior Officers Had Botched Afghanistan, They'd All Be Fired Right Now. [Scroll down] Who planned the Afghanistan withdrawal? Where within the civilian-military leadership does the buck really stop? Were planners and ground commanders constrained by unreasonable political considerations that increased the risk? If so, did our military leaders inform their civilian superiors of that increased risk? Someone decided to withdraw U.S. military forces before we successfully evacuated American citizens and our Afghan partners. Someone decided the "retrograde operation" should be conducted during the summer "fighting season" in Afghanistan while the Taliban was expanding their control across the country. Someone decided relying on the Taliban for security around the airport was a good idea. Someone believed the Afghan army could stand up to the Taliban after U.S. air support and U.S. operational intelligence networks were withdrawn. Someone thought the will of the Afghan government was sufficient even when told otherwise by the Afghan president. The Democrats Hypocrisy Caught On A Cell Phone Video Before The MSM Camera Crew Went On Air During The 9/11 Ceremony. Joe and Jill Biden first visited Ground Zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood before the attack. Biden was also joined by former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at Ground Zero. It was really strange that only the Democrat Presidents were at Ground Zero yesterday, and Bush, who was actually the president when 9/11 happened, appears to have been shunned, and put out in a field in PA to give a speech that no one even saw, instead of at Ground Zero in Manhattan, while Clinton who had nothing to do with 9/11 was at the WTC, and Obama. Not to mention, Trump was not at the service either. Keeping the National Flag at Half-Mast Indefinitely a Crass Political Move. Elections will always bring about new and unexpected wedge issues during the campaign. I don't think anybody could have predicted that the status of the Canadian flag on federal buildings would come into play though. The decision to fly a national flag at half-mast is not one to be taken lightly. It is an expression of collective sorrow on the part of a nation. There are well-established federal protocols for when the national flag is to be lowered and for how long. The flag is lowered upon the deaths of senior members of the British royal family, former prime ministers, governor generals, and other people whose passing is considered to be of national significance. The prime minister has the discretionary ability to have the flag lowered for unique tragedies as well. Few Canadians felt that it was inappropriate to lower the national flag in response to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves deemed to belong to children at the sites of former residential schools. When the flags came down on May 30, however, nobody realized that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had bizarrely ordered the lowering to last for an indefinite period. As we approach the four-month mark with our national flags at half-mast, Canadians are beginning to ask when the flags will be going back up. The Editor says... 9/11 memorials are a reminder of how far the country has fallen. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11 Saturday night, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, his NYPD commissioner of the day, Bernie Kerik, members of SEAL Team Six that killed Osama bin Laden, and other veterans of the war on terror gathered at Cipriani Wall Street for a night of bittersweet memories. [...] Nasty trolls on Twitter who were not at Cipriani described the speech as a drunken rant. They couldn't have been more wrong, but it shows the depths to which haters will stoop to besmirch what was a beautiful night for the heroes of 9/11 just blocks from "the first battleground in the last 20-year war on terror," as [Bernie] Kerik put it. Feelings were raw just two weeks after President Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. The city that said it would never forget its 9/11 heroes had spent 18 months demonizing the NYPD. And Nancy Pelosi had taken Giuliani's usual spot in the front row at the Ground Zero memorial Saturday morning, a sign of the disrespect now heaped on the former mayor. What was the divisive House speaker from San Francisco doing on hallowed ground, anyway? China is in deep trouble and bound to get worse. Is China the next superpower? Is the media's depiction of the country as a ten-foot giant really accurate? That's dubious. For all its bluster on the global stage, China is a giant in trouble. Here are some of the reasons we know: Perhaps the biggest problem in China is its erstwhile "one child" policy, which created many single, self-absorbed adults with poor social skills and an entitlement mindset that included no great desire to marry young and bear the financial burden of offspring. China switched to a two-child policy and recently revised it to allow three children per family. But it's too little, too late. The best result is that in about 20 years, the Chinese population will probably be more than halved anyway, instead of something worse, and the elderly will be a great burden on their single offspring and the economy. The curious case of the missing resignations. One of the strangest things about the Afghanistan debacle is that in spite of extraordinarily harsh criticism worldwide, nobody has resigned, and nobody has been fired. Many assume that this is so because the failure is President Biden's, but in thinking this, they are simply wrong. Consciousness of failure is only one of many reasons for resignations from high government positions. Do Your Duty as an American and Do Not Comply. We live in a time where politicians seem to believe that they are the ultimate authority in the United States and that with a wave of their hand and a scratch of their pen, they can enact unassailable dictates that you have to follow. This is so far from the truth that you could fit a solar system between them. There are many laws in the land, with different states containing different laws to follow. But, the supreme laws are the ones enshrined in the Constitution. If any laws are issued that conflict with this supreme law of the land, then those laws are invalid and do not have to be followed. This isn't just the opinion of a freedom-loving American with a penchant for bucking authority, it's also the opinion of the Supreme Court. 20 Years after 9/11 — Are We Better Off? When the hijacked planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that first 9/11, the Taliban were in control of Afghanistan and providing sanctuary for al-Qaida. Today, the Taliban are in control of Afghanistan and providing sanctuary to al-Qaida. What then did our longest war accomplish? The Afghan army and government we stood up and sustained for decades has collapsed. The U.S. military has withdrawn. U.S. citizens and thousands of Afghans who fought alongside us have been left behind. Biden's shameful Afghanistan disaster has made America look weak, spineless, cowardly, and disloyal. This Saturday is the 20th anniversary of 9/11, one of the darkest days in American history. To mark the occasion, President Biden will travel to Ground Zero in New York where the Twin Towers were destroyed, to Virginia where a plane was flown into the Pentagon, and to a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania where Flight United 93 also crashed after an on-air battle between terrorists and hero passengers. This would be a sombre enough experience for any American President given that nearly 3,000 people were killed on that infamous day back in 2001 which represented a terrible failure of US intelligence. Mediocrity Reigns. [Scroll down] Another mediocrity involved in the Afghan debacle is General Milley. He is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. People may remember him from his appearance in front of Congress earlier in the summer. He was kitted out like a third-world dictator with a chestful of ribbons and medals. The general spent his time fighting back tears as he told the congressional committee of his struggle with white rage. Milley, another product of New England, is a Princeton man, where he graduated with a degree in politics. Then it was a master's in international relations from Columbia and then another master's from the Naval War College. His military career has mostly been about avoiding any real danger and making sure the people above him are happy with his personal service. National Review and Other NeverTrump Mags Sold Out for Google Cash. Most Americans who identify as conservative share a slate of views: They want a secure border and a massive reduction of immigration, an end to foreign wars, and the halt of critical race theory and LGBT indoctrination in schools. Such Americans believe there is sufficient evidence to prove the 2020 election was stolen; they feel the mainstream media exaggerates the threat of COVID-19 (which they hold to have been released by China) in order to justify vaccine mandates and other freedom-restricting policies. They are tired of the "racism," "hate speech," and "bigotry" being slung to attack anyone holding views once considered the norm in this country, and, as a result, are sick of political correctness. Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom Urgently Need The Politics of COVID as a Tool For Distraction. Biden's inflation is crushing the middle-class. Gas prices are intentionally skyrocketing. Obama Term-3 policies are destroying jobs and the working class. The southern border is in crisis; widespread illegal immigration is alarming. Biden's Afghanistan strategy was/is [very bad] (by design). Thirteen U.S. service members were killed by JoeBama policy. Leftist promoted wokeism as a social engineering tool is running amok. Schools are a battleground between parents and Obama's union orcs. Joe Biden himself is a hot mess of incompetence and dementia on a scale they can no longer keep hidden. And the poll numbers for Biden overall are showing it. The JoeBama crew must bury all of it by weaponizing the use of COVID-19 fear. There is no other issue large enough to protect the JoeBama agenda without using COVID. COVID-19 is the only political tool with the outcome to keep all other purposeful crises under control. That urgent narrative is what's behind this little soundbite segment from the professional media proletariat. [Video clip] Joe Biden and the Consequences of Lost Global Trust. All societies are based on trust. It doesn't matter how the society is organized. It could be a democracy, king and country, or even a totalitarian dictatorship. What matters is that the people of that society have trust in their system and in their leadership. Without that trust there is chaos. The imbecilic way we withdrew from Afghanistan has created a monumental crisis, not just domestically, but for the entire world. Everywhere now, within and without, trust in United States has been irretrievably lost. We are now at a pivot in time around which all of history is in rotation. As a result of the stupendous incompetence of the Biden administration the world will never be the same. What makes the world go around? [Thread reader] While the media keeps you fixated on J6, Covid, and how it's always Trump's fault, you might want to ask about these things. The Biden admin is run by all the same people as the Obama admin. [...] In order to understand what happened in the span of 1 week, when Biden pulled out of Afghanistan & Pelosi rammed through the $3.5 [trillion] budget which is the Green New Deal, you have to look back in time. Remember the GND, forces the US on EV's which run on lithium batteries. In 2011, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, worked on the Silk Road Initiative. It connects China to many countries & helps them become #1 super power through trade. It also grows the economies of Afghanistan, Pakistan & more enemies to the US. [...] While the US military was involved in conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq, our gov (US taxpayers) also paid for the geological surveys of in Afghanistan and found over $1 [trillion] in rare earth minerals, including lithium, which is needed to make batteries that are needed for EV's. Something Is Wrong with America's Top Commanders. Recently the Office of Naval Intelligence, in reaction to the Kabul news, warned all its active duty and retired service members that they must not criticize their Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden. The office correctly cited prohibitions found in the Uniform Code of Military Justice barring any disrespect shown to senior government leadership. That is true. And indeed, the U.S. Marine Corps just relieved from active duty a lieutenant colonel who posted a video accurately blaming the military and civilian leadership for the Afghanistan nightmare. But until January 20, retired top brass had constantly smeared their elected commander-in-chief with impunity. Recently retired General Michael Hayden retweeted a horrific slur that unvaccinated Trump supporters should be put on planes back to Afghanistan where they presumably would be left to die. Hayden earlier had compared Trump's border facilities to the German death camps. Other generals and admirals in 2020 variously called their president an emulator of Nazi tactics, a veritable Mussolini, a liar, and deserving to be removed from office sooner than later. None of these retired politicized four-stars faced the sort of repercussions that the Office of Naval Intelligence just warned about. Afghanistan fiasco may have been the result of blackmail. Why would our military commanders willingly give up Bagram, a strategic airport built by the Russians, and why would they willingly leave $85 billion in military hardware behind? Why would they leave thousands of Americans stranded behind enemy lines while providing the Taliban a "kill list" of those Americans left behind? Unlike previous withdrawals, where it is customary upon withdrawal to first evacuate our citizens, and then destroy the equipment and blow up the bases, we did the opposite. We did not evacuate our citizens. We did not destroy the equipment. And we did not blow up the bases. We have learned that the Biden administration cut off all communication with the anti-Taliban resistance group, the National Front. Although Ali Nazar, head of foreign relations for the group, has said he "tried to reach out," there has been no response from the Biden administration. Glenn Beck recently reported that his mission to rescue Afghan Christians has been blocked by our State Department and the White House, and he fears that they may be burned alive or crucified by the Taliban. Are we to believe that our military leadership, led by four-star generals, is so naïve and incompetent? Highly unlikely! The Afghan War Isn't Over Until We Rescue All Those Left Behind. In what can only be called a shocking lack of self-awareness, President Joe Biden this week bragged about his "extraordinary success" in Afghanistan. Now his handlers and the Democratic Party are urging Americans and, of course, the media to "move on." But there is no moving on from his botched departure from Kabul, whose ill effects will be felt by Americans for decades. Far from a success, the "evacuation" was in fact an ill-planned, incompetently executed, chaotic dash to cram as many human beings as possible onto planes and transport them away from Kabul. The new talking point is that "only" 100 or so Americans may have been left behind, despite Biden's explicit promise that none would be. The media, which for several days seemed actually to be doing their job, are now falling in line with the new White House-Democratic Party spin. Afghanistan is now a yesterday story. In Afghanistan, we've opened the gates of hell. The Afghanistan fiasco is the worst strategic blunder since 1938: the year that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain waved around a copy of the Munich Agreement and proclaimed "peace in our time." Chamberlain's failure to understand the enemy gave Germany the space it needed to invade Poland — the event that marked the start of World War II. Chamberlain resigned in 1940 when his political support evaporated. Winston Churchill assumed power, ultimately snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. President Joe Biden's debacle will have no such savior; the Islamic jihad isn't that kind of war. Instead of getting us out of Afghanistan, and bringing peace in our time, he's opened the gates of hell. In one disastrous and grossly ill-conceived strategic move, Biden has armed and empowered the Taliban and elated every Muslim fanatic from Morocco to Mindanao. Is Our Military Woke, Broke or Both? The fall of Kabul is not the end, as Joe Biden seems to think, of the Afghanistan nightmare. It is the beginning of a never-ending bad dream. Biden and the Pentagon have managed to birth a new terrorist haven, destroy much of U.S. strategic deterrence, and alienate our allies and much of the country. In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 servicemen, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise. We were told that the terrorist victors share similar goals to ours in a hasty American retreat from Kabul. We were reminded that Afghan refugees (unlike U.S. soldiers) will not be forced to be vaccinated on arrival. Such statements are either untrue or absurd. [...] The Pentagon needs to stop virtue signaling about diversity days, culturally sensitive food for Afghan refugees, and rooting out supposed white conspiracists. Instead, can it just explain why the Bagram Air Base was abandoned by night? Why suddenly are the terrorist Taliban our supposed "partners" in organizing our surrender and escape? [The] U.S. [is] In More Trouble Than At Any Time In Its History. Candidate Joe Biden said last October that we were nearing the "most important election of our lifetime." He was right. What made it so crucial was keeping him out of the White House. President Joe Biden is visibly exhausted. His mental decline that began long before the 2020 election appears to have now gone straight over a cliff. The first seven months of his term have depleted him so thoroughly that the toll taken by eight years of the modern presidency look mild in comparison. His errors and poor judgment continue and compound. Never in possession of an abundance of sound thinking, he's been drained of what little wisdom he ever had. And he's only going to get worse. Biden's record of failure is well-documented. He's been a train wreck in progress for decades. Just added to his resume of misery is the ongoing catastrophe in Afghanistan where Americans have been murdered and abandoned; historic inflation that threatens economic growth; a workforce that feels work is optional; dire conditions in which businesses can't find enough workers; an open wound on our southern border; and a greenlighting of terrorism both in the U.S. and abroad. Cui Bono? Who Benefits From the Afghanistan Withdrawal? If some policy benefits your country most, you should, within moral bounds, pursue it. If your enemies benefit most, you should avoid it. I'd be curious to learn what answer proponents of America leaving Afghanistan — conservative or liberal — would give to the question, "Cui bono?" I can say that until this moment, I have not read or heard a single cogent argument from proponents of American withdrawal as to how exactly it benefits America. "Twenty years is too long," or its variant, "we have to end these endless wars," the most commonly offered argument for withdrawal, has nothing to do with benefiting America. It is an emotional sentiment, not a rational argument. The withdrawal has already cost us in a single day more service members' lives than we lost on any one day in Afghanistan since June 2014, seven years ago. Good Leadership Leads by Example, Not by Coercion. It is not a good indicator when troops must be reminded that they are not allowed to speak critically about the military's civilian leadership. It is not a good sign when a USMC Lieutenant Colonel feels compelled by the horrible events in Afghanistan to speak out publicly and risk ending what has otherwise been a successful career of faithful, war-time military service. [...] Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier, USAF, and Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller, USMC, can now be listed among those patriots who have pledged their "lives, fortunes, and sacred honor" to the American citizenry and those core values that have defined their military service. Why has speaking the truth, and doing so with the service branch's best long-term interest in mind, become a career-ending decision? It is curious, isn't it? None of these "reminders" were issued while President Trump held office. Then, there were no prohibitions against an active-duty military member's "disrespect" to "government officials." No, those people (for example, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman) were "whistleblowers" with only the highest conceivable, most earnest, and most honorable of intentions to save the Republic from the bad orange man. General HR McMaster Reveals Deep State's "Coded Language" While Responding to Afghanistan Terror Attack. There is only one fitting response to last week's heart-wrenching suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul: America must get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, and stay out, for good. Nothing good has come of America's involvement in Afghanistan, and nothing more will come out of it, except more flag-draped coffins. Sickeningly, the US security state responded to last Thursday's attack with a borderline glee. Sadly, ISIS-Khorasan's (ISIS-K) gruesome attack served the forever-war lobby perfectly, as it used the tragedy to launch a final Hail Mary bid to prolong America's interminable, objective-free crusade in Southwest Asia. In the process, the globalist war lobby revealed one of the most cynical, sinister components of a playbook it has run for two decades — a playbook that capitalizes on public ignorance to conflate wildly different groups and oversell totally unproven claims in the service of perpetuating endless warfare. These reports out of Kabul are too awful to believe. American troops are due to leave Afghanistan on Tuesday, even though uncounted Americans are stuck in the country. And by stuck, it appears that our American government is deliberately denying them access to Kabul airport. This isn't a wild rumor. Instead, it comes from two eminently reliable reporters (Lara Logan and Emily Miller) and from Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL. [...] At this point, there are only two conclusions that can be drawn from what's happening in Afghanistan, beginning with Biden's decision to jettison Trump's careful plan and continuing through to the present day: (1) Everyone in the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon is so incompetent that a roomful of drunk kindergarteners could have handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan better than they have, or (2) What we're witnessing is deliberate. I can believe that of Biden, who is a Chinese puppet. That the Pentagon brass would engage in this conduct means that they too are on the Chinese payroll which is a very distressing thought. Alternatively, it's deliberate because these people have been so steeped in America-hatred that they are willingly sabotaging America to destroy it. They are the contents of the Trojan Horse. Is Afghanistan the Next Killing Field? America's abrupt withdrawal from Afghanistan portends a humanitarian disaster of unknown proportions. [...] The term "killing fields" refers to the disastrous power vacuum created in Cambodia in the 1970s. That vacuum was filled by Pol Pot, communist leader of the Khmer Rouge regime. He rapidly put in a plan that included the arrest and butchering of those he suspected of connections hostile to his regime. A quarter of the Cambodian people — more than a million — died, either by execution or lack of medical care and food. A similar power vacuum has been created by the Biden administration's deliberate policy of abandoning Americans left behind in Afghanistan. Those who have assisted America in any way are also without recourse. Further, a vast supply of military equipment is being left behind, armaments that will assuredly be used by the Taliban and their allies against Americans and their sympathizers. The fatal failure of Gen. Mark A. Milley over closing Bagram Air Base. Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, must go. President Biden claims that the military advised him to close Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and instead use Kabul's airport to evacuate Americans. They were the ones who said the Afghan army would hold, that the pullout would go smoothly. If Biden is telling the truth, this disaster is on Milley's watch. Or Biden is lying (the more likely scenario, based on what sources inside the administration are saying) and Milley failed to do his duty and push back against a commander-in-chief who is making deadly decisions. Either way, he is derelict in his duty — and must either take responsibility for what went wrong or tell Americans the truth about their president. The military brass may regret firing Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller. Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller was fired for speaking the truth about the fact that the top brass in the Pentagon never pay for their bad decisions, even as the ordinary men and women get no quarter for their errors. As soon as he's free, Scheller intends to change that two-tiered system. In fact, we've been watching unfold for some time in America a two-tiered justice system. In the civilian world, one tier, the higher one, is for leftists and the other, the lower one, is for conservatives. It started in politics. We've all noticed that Republicans who err got fired. Meanwhile, leftists who violated the law (e.g., Hillary) never got fired. The only exception was the #MeToo movement, which was obviously targeted at Trump but instead did nothing more than destroy a handful of prominent, but sleazy, leftists. Biden, despite a credible sexual assault charge and a compulsive need to paw and sniff little girls, was untouched. The Declaration 2.0 (Revised). [Scroll down] The history of the present POTUS is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has usurped the nation's highest office, and because of his mental unfitness for that office, is the puppet of an illegitimate and hidden Cabal that has destroyed the bonds of trust most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden our Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them, and hath meanwhile ignored restraints issued by coequal branches of government not under his direct political control. He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. To survive, we must fire them all. The last Democrat president to surrender like this was Jefferson Davis. The survival of America depends on firing them all. The good, the bad, and the indifferent must all go because we must send a clear signal to the mediocrities running the military and the Department of State. The message must be failure gets you canned. We failed 20 years ago to do so, and it cost us dearly. 9/11 resulted in no firings. Instead of dismissing the people in charge of an intelligence community that failed the nation, Bush 43 appointed a 9/11 commission, which included many of the people responsible for the 9/11 whiff. The commission was a bipartisan [sham] and coverup. After months of interviews, it concluded that the FBI and CIA had "not well served" Presidents Clinton and Bush. Disney's Shame. We have come a long way from Walt Disney, in the wrong direction. The phenomenon of woke capitalism is hard to understand, but it seems clear that companies will not stop promoting leftism until they feel pain at the bottom line. I encourage you to contact the companies involved here, express your disgust, and where appropriate, take your business elsewhere. The Biden Administration Should Just Knock Off the Press Briefings Until They Get the Story Straight. If the last week is an example of the adults being in charge, we should all pine for the guy who fired off mean tweets and sent the Ayatollah's favorite terrorist home in a tiny box. The Biden administration press briefings from the Pentagon and White House today upended any messages CENTCOM or President Biden conveyed yesterday. Perhaps we are witnessing peak incompetence. Or maybe lying all the time is getting confusing. This morning Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby had a bizarre exchange with Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin. Griffin asked Kirby how the administration was confident the Taliban had no role in the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport. She inquired if General Kenneth McKenzie ruled out this possibility because the U.S. is dependent on them for security at the facility. Twenty-five minutes to infamy. On what was arguably the worst day of Joe Biden's presidency, he was scheduled to address America and the world at 5 P.M. on August 26, 2021. We'd been told earlier that day that the president and commander-in-chief was going to address the bomb that killed Marines and a Navy corpsman in Kabul. Biden was 25 minutes late. That delay is not trivial. It has direct consequences on an ever-present 24/7 strategic threat that Russia, China, and North Korea pose to America. All three have "ready now" ICBMs with multiple warheads aimed at targets in the continental United States. I know this because I was President Reagan's principal director of mobilization planning and requirements in the Pentagon at the height of the Cold War. [...] It may appear to be just a typical Biden trivial time-delay moment. However, the entire American strategic deterrence posture, especially during the Cold War, was measured in thirty minutes. That was the time of flight for incoming missiles to destroy us. Today, I suspect the time is even shorter. Regardless, the fundamental building block to make sure we would never be attacked was competent, determined presidential leadership with the "football" launch codes to unleash hell on our enemies. If anything leads Russia, China, or North Korea to believe strongly that President Biden is not mentally together — and his 25-minute delay may have proven that — America is in even greater danger than we thought. Trump: Biden Handling of Afghanistan : 'Dumbest Move' Ever Made Perhaps in the History of Our Country. As the U.S. casualty count is trending in the wrong direction in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden is taking heat from all sides for the handling of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Central Asian nation. During an appearance on FNC's "Hannity" on Thursday, former President Donald Trump, Biden's predecessor, called the move by the Biden administration to withdraw military forces before evacuating non-military personnel the "dumbest move" in perhaps the history of the country. Biden Turns Afghanistan Into A Slaughterhouse, Taliban Into A Military Superpower. A day after at least 13 U.S. soldiers were killed at the Kabul airport, it's still unclear how many Americans will be abandoned in Afghanistan by the Biden administration. What we do know, though, is that most of the U.S. weaponry in the country will not be recovered. It's as if Joe Biden himself was the military procurement chief for the Taliban. Until Thursday [8/26/2021], there had been no U.S. combat casualties in Afghanistan since February of last year. But a bloodbath that the entire world outside of the White House saw coming arrived, and it became the deadliest day in the country for American troops since 2011, when — yes, that's right — Biden was vice president. Homicide bombers and gunmen, reportedly from that brood of terrorist vipers called the Islamic State, killed at least 60 Afghans in addition to the American servicemen, and wounded more than 140. These horrific deaths and dismemberments are squarely on Biden, who rejected military leaders' advice, has resorted to blaming the victims, and once again demonstrated that he has miserable, if not depraved, foreign-policy instincts. If You Think Afghanistan Is a Disaster You're Missing the Big Picture. Get Ready to Be Told It Is the New Berlin Airlift. While most of the world looks on in horror at the epic incompetence of Joe Biden and his sycophants in creating and carrying out a once-in-a-generation tragedy in Kabul, the foundation is being laid to convert this goat-rope into a major Biden political success. The first hint that that came to my attention was from Politico's Alex Thompson. He observes that White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain retweeted a comment from a Twitter user with 257 followers. Sometimes there really is a conspiracy to theorize about. It has been claimed that the phrase "conspiracy theory" was invented by the government to discourage the questioning of official explanations for important events, especially the JFK assassination. Whether that was the real origin of the phrase or not, it is clear that the charge is plainly being used for that purpose: to dissuade any alternatives to the party narrative for major occurrences such as election fraud and the origin of the Wuhan virus. The more we find out about the most significant events of today, especially the virus, the more we see a gigantic, long-term, sophisticated, and extremely disciplined coordination. With newly released emails, knowing the real authors and background of major studies, previous strategy papers, and videos outside the mainstream until now, the wargaming of pandemics, the financial support of agencies, laboratories and studies, and the timeline of the vaccines and related patents, the enormous COVID conspiracy is coming into view. There is so much organized intrigue now; how could anyone believe there aren't any conspiracies? Hey Dems: What Price Your Deep State Pals Now? The U.S. has 17 — seventeen — intelligence agencies. Do you think that helped or hindered in the runup to the Afghanistan debacle? The Deep State and Afghanistan. What if some people who pull strings were so angry about our Afghan exit that they said, "Okay, you want a withdrawal? We'll give you a withdrawal you'll never forget." [...] [Lara] Logan's claim is that the U.S., insofar as worldly entities go, is practically omniscient and omnipotent. Our National Security Agency (NSA) watches continuously like an all-seeing eye and "is known as the crown jewel of intelligence collection in the world," as Logan puts it. "There isn't a digital signature in existence that they don't collect and store and analyze and have algorithms and everything else to sort through," she continued, expressing that there's no way the intel agencies "missed this" (what would transpire). Logan also "posited that the NGIA [National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency], which controls government satellites and other resources, has been watching the Taliban taking control of abandoned U.S. military equipment; bringing it back east into Pakistan," writes Fox News. Chaos on the Ground, Collapse at the Top. The failure of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, though great, is of comparatively minor importance when compared to the manifest collapse of the Washington intelligence, diplomatic, and military institutions on which national and Western security depend. This transformed what was potentially a local debacle into a strategic crisis of the first order. The fact that no senior official was fired and the administration insists on characterizing obvious ineptitude as resolute excellence underlines, rather than belies, their delusional character. But it fools no one except a dwindling number of media hacks. We see you Joe — and so do the Taliban, the NATO allies, and, worst of all, America's most dangerous foes. Thus self-blindfolded, Biden's Washington stumbles toward three crises: the August 31 troop evacuation deadline set by the Taliban; the forthcoming meeting demanded by major allies; and the inevitable challenge from China. In Afghanistan, the fix is in. Americans are trapped in Afghanistan with diminishing chances of escape, our military is essentially trapped at Kabul airport, tens of thousands of Afghan citizens have been getting on flights that will see them end up in America, sharia and all, and the Taliban is on its usual murderous rampage. The worst thing of all, according to Lara Logan, is that we're being told there's nothing to be done... and that's a lie. [Tweet] The question, of course, is why we're being fed this lie saying that Afghanistan must collapse and America must take in tens of thousands of people who completely believe in sharia law. Chaos and Confusion in Kabul. Either Joe Biden, his advisors, and our military are woefully ill-informed, or they are purposefully lying to the public about the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. Either way, Americans of all political views should be aghast. First, the fact that the administration has told U.S. citizens to leave the Kabul airport and "shelter in place" — effectively, "go somewhere else" — or move to neighboring provinces or other locations without safe escort is simply inexcusable. I am among the scores of private citizens and ad-hoc organizations trying to help rescue our colleagues in Afghanistan. We have known for days not only that rapidly deteriorating security has been a continuous problem outside the airport but also that the Taliban has been targeting people who are waiting outside with beatings and burning of documents. They are also conducting door-to-door searches in neighborhoods looking for American supporters and perceived opponents. Dead Superpower Walking. The War on Terror began with men plunging to their deaths from the highest floors of skyscrapers hit by airplanes; it ended with men plunging to their deaths from the undercarriage of a US airplane taking off from what's left of "Hamid Karzai International Airport" (the signs will be coming down even as you read this). [...] The United States is dead as a global power because of this kind of indestructible stupidity. [...] Meanwhile, back at the palace in Kabul, the Taliban commander giving a victory speech is Gholam Ruhani, released from Gitmo (under Bush) because he said his "only wish" was to return to Afghanistan to (per the Department of Defense documents published, natch, in a London newspaper) "assist his father, who is sick, in operating the family appliance store in Kabul". I don't know what appliances they sell at Ruhani & Son over at 237b Sword of the Infidel Slayer Street, but evidently they're enough to take out the global superpower. On social media, the wags are having great sport with Joe Biden's recent taunt that no American needs an AR-15, because, if you want to defeat the mighty US government, you're gonna need fighter jets and nukes. Who Exactly is Being Evacuated from Afghanistan? The US military is certainly evacuating "people" but why are only 15 percent of evacuees Americans? Who are the other 85 percent? Obviously not Americans. The Daily Mail is more specific, "Hero airmen reveal they flew 823 Afghans out of Kabul including 183 kids after scrapping red tape to cram record number of people on C-17 jet." Any Americans or just Afghans? They went on, "The US has removed 9,000 people since Sunday but only around 1,000 of those are US citizens." It seems Americans are not high on Biden's evacuation priority list. The Drossy Touch of Joe Biden. Almost everything Joe Biden has touched since entering office has turned to dross. None of his blame-gaming, none of his distortions, none of his fantasies and unreality can mask that truth. Seven months ago, Afghanistan was relatively quiet — with about 10,000 vestigial NATO troops, including 2,500 Americans, anchored by the Bagram Airfield. They were able to provide air superiority for the coalition and Afghan national army. With air power, NATO forces, if and when they so wished, could have very slowly and gradually withdrawn all its remnant troops — but only after a prior departure of all American and European civilians, coalition contractors, and allied Afghans. The transient calm abruptly imploded as soon as Joe Biden recklessly yanked all U.S. troops out in a matter of days. Many left in the dead of night, leaving no one to protect contractors, dependents, diplomats, and Afghan allies. In Biden's world, civilians protect the last Western enclave while soldiers flee. The Editor says... Back to the Past for America's Freight? In a typical year, freight trains in the United States move about 1.7 billion tons on over 140,000 miles of track. The massive tonnage hauled by freight rail every year means that most American consumers own goods transported on freight trains. Yet, despite the importance of freight rail to American consumers and the broader economy, the Biden administration has proposed several potential changes that could undermine the profitability of freight rail companies and enhance government control of the industry. Given the importance of freight rail, any government intervention could have catastrophic effects for consumers. Policymakers only need to look at the history of freight rail in the United States to understand why increasing government control of freight rail could be profoundly damaging. This should have been done a week ago: The Editor says... The Drooling Class. In one fell swoop, the administration left billions of dollars of military equipment in the hands of the barbarous anti-American Taliban; broke the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance by bugging out without warning to its members who were in Afghanistan in support of our mission there; left as many as 50,000 Americans and tens of thousands more of our Afghan allies to the not so tender mercies of the enemy; and on Friday Biden lied about it all. It's not that most of us wanted this Afghan Mission Impossible to continue forever. It's just that there's a right way to do it. President Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had a well-conceived plan. It included preconditions on the Taliban and the removal of all U.S. military equipment and civilians before any group withdrawal. Dear President Biden,. I wouldn't normally write. Watching your policy agenda fail is something I enjoy, but this isn't policy, this is lives. [...] First, you are Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces of this country, and this country has the strongest military in the history of the planet. There is literally no reason to cower in fear of a band of luddite zealots. You shouldn't have pulled out our troops before bringing out our civilians and Afghan allies, nor should you have closed Bagram Air Base, but you have to know that by now. If you don't, you should resign immediately as you are beyond incompetent and an active danger to the people of this country. Since Hamid Karzai Airport is so small compared to Bagram, our ability to get people out is severely limited. Send troops to retake Bagram. This will speed up the process and make supplying people on the ground easier. I know there is risk in retaking anything, we could upset the Taliban. But here's how you do it. You tell them we are doing it, that we're going back to Bagram, and if any of their fighters so much as jaywalk in front of our personnel going there, every single one of them our troops come across will be killed and we will bomb the absolute hell out of every single place they are from the air, particularly their leadership. Aftermath of an Afghanistan Debacle. In Afghanistan, the mission failure appears complete. The trillion-dollar project to plant Western democracy in a Muslim nation historically fabled for driving out imperial intruders has crashed and burned after 20 years, and the Taliban are suddenly back in power. After investing scores of billions in training and arming a force of 350,000 Afghani troops, the U.S. could not stand up an army and a government that could survive our departure. And the final U.S. departure from Hamid Karzai International Airport may become, like JFK's Bay of Pigs, a synonym for American debacle. Nor is the failure ours alone. Many of our principal allies were heavily invested. The British are now attempting to bring their people out of Kabul under the same conditions as ours. Three and a Half more Years of Biden-Harris. The takeaways from Afghanistan, which were the takeaways from Vietnam, are 1) We can't fight other people's wars for them; 2) we can't social-engineer backward countries into being card-carrying members of the "community of civilized nations" (a dwindling club as-is); and 3) we must rediscover this truth: A country exists to safeguard and promote its national interests. A nation isn't a philanthropy, a police force, or both. America doesn't exist to police and/or "transform" the world. Note: All material below was once located on an overflow page, but has now been rejoined with the main page. US general tells British special forces: Stop rescuing people in Kabul, you're making us look bad. I understand that the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division has told the commander of the British special forces at the Kabul airport to cease operations beyond the airport perimeter. Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue has told his British Army counterpart, a high-ranking field-grade officer of the British army's 22nd Special Air Service Regiment, that British operations were embarrassing the United States military in the absence of similar U.S. military operations. I understand that the British officer firmly rejected the request. After the Debacle: Six Concrete Steps to Restore U.S. Credibility. The indelible images from Kabul this week have done serious damage to U.S. credibility abroad. The Chinese Communist Party media mouthpiece, the Global Times, has already used the chaos in Afghanistan to warn Taiwan that the United States cannot be counted on to come to its aid when China eventually attacks the island. There will be ample time to assess how things went so wrong so quickly for the Biden administration in this still-unfolding crisis. We fully support our diplomats and troops as they execute their mission to evacuate U.S. citizens, allied diplomats, and the United States' Afghan friends over the coming days and weeks. Rather than get drawn into a political blame game over the harrowing scenes the world is watching on TV, we believe it is far more important for the United States to immediately take steps to shore up its alliances and diplomatic standing, especially in the Indo-Pacific region. Fortunately, there are efforts that can be undertaken without delay to reassert U.S. leadership. Biden Can't Escape Blame for Afghanistan Fiasco. The American-nurtured Afghan military of the last 20 years that had suffered thousands of prior casualties evaporated in a few hours in the encirclement of Kabul. Enlistees apparently calculated that their own meager chances with the premodern Taliban were still better than fighting as a dependency of the postmodern United States — despite its powerful diversity training programs. Forces more powerful than the Taliban, in places far more strategic, will now leverage an ideologically driven but predictably incompetent administration, a woke Pentagon and politically weaponized intelligence communities. Why not, when President Joe Biden trashes both American frackers and the Saudis — only to beg the Kingdom to rush to export more of its hated oil before the U.S. midterms? [...] And why not, when our own military jousts with the windmills of "white supremacy" as Afghans fall from U.S. military jets in fatal desperation to reach such a supposedly racist nation? Fire the military and intelligence bigs who bungled Afghanistan — now. There are many lessons to learn from the disastrous US pullout from Afghanistan, but there is one that we should take home right now: Failure must be punished. The United States has been in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. It has been obvious for the last few years that we would be leaving soon. Former President Donald Trump wanted to leave Afghanistan, but the generals managed to slow him down and wait him out. Instead of making plans, they stonewalled. When President Joe Biden ordered them to get out, there wasn't a lot of time for planning, but they managed to get what they did wrong. US forces fled Bagram under cover of darkness, with no warning to anyone. (But botched even that, turning off the lights as they left, which gave looters free rein for many hours before Afghan officials showed up.) 6 Reasons China, Not Just Taliban, Benefits from US Exit From Afghanistan. [Scroll down] China now could have access to oil, copper, and rare earth minerals in Afghanistan, experts say. The communist regime also will want infrastructure, roads, and railways to access mining areas. The connection would be part of China's "Belt and Road Initiative," a multi-trillion-dollar strategy of investing abroad to gain influence over other countries. "China benefits immensely" from the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, said Marco Rimanelli, a professor of political science and international security at Saint Leo University in Florida. "By expanding the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese are using a form of predatory capitalism by making nations completely dependent on China," Rimanelli told The Daily Signal. "Once a country is unable to pay back its debts, China tries to extract political concessions." China has used this model to gain leverage in Africa and in Latin America, often in smaller countries with extensive natural resources. Lara Logan confirms what we feared about Afghanistan. Biden's pullout from Afghanistan has been the worst managed event in American history. With Saigon as an example, the administration knew exactly how bad it would be. There's a lot of finger-pointing going on now but, at bottom, people are wondering if the unconditional Taliban takeover, including the trapped Americans, is a deliberate policy. On Tucker Carlson's Wednesday show, Lara Logan said, "Yes, it is. This was what the government wanted." [...] [Unlike Japan,] We never flattened Afghanistan. Instead, we imposed ourselves on top of a medieval Islamic country, including the whole LGBTQ+ madness. It worked for those already geared to Western values and those looking to take American money. The Afghan military, many members of which were brave fighters, clearly would never be ready to lose their training wheels — with our military being the training wheels. Some of you may remember this video, which embodies problems of both culture and competency: [Video clip] Assabiya Wins Every Time. Democrats and Republicans are right to blame each other for the fall of Kabul. It's a loss for America's bipartisan foreign policy establishment as a whole. For nearly two decades Washington sent thousands of Americans to their deaths and spent trillions of taxpayer dollars to wage a strategically pointless war. And because both sides of the political divide should be held accountable, military as well as civilian officials, too, it is unlikely that anyone ever will be. Since everyone is to blame, holding anyone accountable implicates everyone. The reality is that America lost its war in Afghanistan more than a decade ago, roughly around the time when CIA officers began bribing aging warlords with Viagra. The Americans knew all about the young boys the tribal leaders kept in their camps; because the sex drug helped Afghan elders rape more boys more often, they were beholden to America's clandestine service. Losing Afghanistan then is the least of it. When you choose to adopt a foreign cohort's cultural habits, customs for which the elders of your own tribe would ostracize and perhaps kill you, you have lost your civilization. Yet military strategists, political pundits, foreign correspondents, and even historians will spend the next several decades wondering how a gang of rough Pashtun tribesmen galvanized by a fundamentalist version of Islam managed to defeat the most advanced military in the world. Afghanistan's Tragic Collapse And The Death Of U.S. Influence. It's one thing to lose a war intentionally, quite another to botch it so badly that it damages our relations around the world. But thanks to the epic ineptitude of the Biden administration, our military leaders and dysfunctional intelligence agencies, that's exactly what has happened. The news couldn't be more depressing. Our president's response was, no joke, a strongly worded letter to the Taliban from our United Nations ambassador. At the same time, our own State Department informed U.S. citizens now stuck in the capital of Kabul that they should make their way to Karzai Airport if they can, but that the U.S. can't guarantee their safety. Even as the horrible images of the Taliban's takeover come tumbling in over social media and news sites, the harm to the U.S. and its global reputation has been significant. The Taliban has already started killing people, including a woman for not wearing a burka, while making up more comprehensive death lists of those who will be summarily murdered once it takes total control. If You Live in Taiwan, Time to Worry. Taiwan needs to worry about American reliability. Unlike Afghanistan, where the United States had committed its forces for two decades, Taiwan has no U.S. forces and no assurance that the United States will come to their defense if attacked by China. The United States has a bad habit of walking out on its allies and friends. The list is long. It includes Vietnam and Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Iran. In all of those cases, one way or another, the United States, for its own reasons, took a hike. Obama pulled U.S. troops from Iraq, opening the door to Iran. While the United States has a few thousand soldiers still in Iraq in training and advisory capacities, they're under siege and it's unlikely the United States will protect them. In fact, President Joe Biden has said the United States will end combat missions in Iraq by the end of 2021. Unless U.S. troops are pulled out in the middle of the night, as they were in Afghanistan, they'll quite possibly have to shoot themselves out while exiting. The 'Thank You for Your Service' Red Pill. One thing we need to examine is our dogmatic praise of the military and its members. For the last 80 years, since the great shift to the post-World War II order, the military has become a hallmark of the American regime. But this was not always the case. Praising a professional military, especially a massive, standing army in times of peace, would have been antithetical to American virtue to most Americans living during the first 150 years of our history. During the founding, for instance, professional soldiers were seen for what they are: mercenaries. We debated some after establishing our regime about if and how much we needed some small portion of a professional cadre of soldiers, but I have never come across a founder who did not see professional soldiers essentially as scum. Ours was to be a republic, and republics cannot use mercenary armies. The hallmark of the American military was the citizen-soldier — the direct opposite of the professional. The logic is simple. There is something less than admirable about someone who would fight and kill for a living. The very center of all US problems is the rejection of Christianity. Christianity has always been hand in hand with the greatest empires. The abandonment of Christianity has always led to the collapse of any nation or people or family or person who abandons it. This is an axiom. [...] Christianity itself is the most difficult way of life to live. Any other religion is far, far easier, because they don't require of the faithful what Christ does: everything. Many people use "Christianity" as a brand to justify their own existence and behavior. Look at Imposter Joe, for example. He claims to be a "devout Roman Catholic", yet he supports gay marriage, abortion anytime anywhere, and acts like a pedophile at times. He is false. He probably doesn't think he is false, and many who prefer him because of political (not religious) reasons will participate in perpetuating the delusion. But "by [his] fruits", we see he is no follower of Christ, he is instead, a hijacker of Christ, using the Lord's good name to get ahead politically among seculars. The Pandemic Gave Americans A Taste Of Government 'Help' And They Didn't Like It. It's fair to say Americans, especially the pre-revolution colonists, have always had a healthy skepticism of government. What's frightening is some days we seem dangerously close to losing the unique quality that separates this country from every other. The Washington Examiner's Byron York posted last week in his Daily Memo some interesting data that tells us a lot about Americans' attitudes about their government. He tracked a long-term Fox News survey in which respondents are asked which message they would send the government if they had the chance: "lend me a hand" or "leave me alone." Over the course of the last decade, only in August 2020 did a majority (57%) say it would ask for government help. In that same poll, 36% said "leave me alone." This year, however, the numbers were flipped — 47% said "leave me alone" while 44% still wanted aid. Our Ridiculous Way of Fighting Wars. As we look at the disgraceful coda of the Global War on Terror and the tens of thousands of our countrymen who have been maimed or killed with scant results, it is clear to all but few (sadly, those few seem to occupy a lot of Defense Department jobs and think tank posts), there must be a better way to fight our wars. If we look to history, and even demands from the anti-war Left, we might find a better way forward. [...] Which "victory" was more decisive: World War II or Vietnam? Are we to believe that timelines are beneficial to every type of work (construction, budgets, school testing, sports), but when it comes to deploying our military efforts that is the one thing that somehow needs zero accountability for how long it takes? Tucker Carlson: We must hold someone accountable for what is happening in Afghanistan. There's a pattern, if you look around for a moment, you may notice things that add up: gas lines, inflation, spiraling crime, collapsing cities. If you're over 40, it could look familiar. It's the 1970s, but without the free speech and Brezhnev running our government and, as if it could get more perfect, now we may have another fall of Saigon. Remember the fall of Saigon? If you were watching television in April of 1975, April 30th, you remember it well. It was the single most humiliating day in the history of the United States abroad. American officials fleeing in terror as a peasant army swept through the capital city, desperate civilians clinging to the struts of helicopters as they took off from the roof of the U.S. embassy. It was a complete disaster. It was a total ignominious defeat. We'd spent more than a decade in Vietnam and in the end, we lost. So no matter how you felt about that war, it was painful to see it happen and nobody wants to see it again. Last month, Joe Biden promised we never will see it again. Why Everything We Thought About Drugs Was Wrong. Over the last 20 years the U.S. liberalized drug laws. During that time, deaths from illicit drugs rose from 17,000 to 93,000. Two and a half times more people die from illicit drug use than from car accidents; five times more die from drugs than homicide. Many of those people are homeless and die alone in the hotel rooms and apartment units given away as part of the harm reduction-based "Housing First" approach to homelessness. Others are children found dead by their parents on the floors of their rooms. Many progressives today say the problem is that we didn't go far enough, and to some extent they are right. A big factor behind rising drug deaths has been the contamination of cocaine, heroin, and counterfeit prescription opioids with fentanyl. Others say that concerns over rising drug deaths are misplaced, and that alcohol and tobacco kill more people than illicit drugs. But drug deaths were rising in the U.S. long before the arrival of fentanyl, and most of the people who die from tobacco and alcohol do so in old age, not instantly, like they do when they are poisoned or overdose. Of the nearly 90,000 people in the U.S. who die of alcohol-related causes annually, just 2,200 die immediately from acute alcohol poisoning. Accountability for Afghanistan. It is probably too much to expect that there will be accountability for the debacle in Afghanistan — we have a Democratic president, after all. But we can still hope. We can turn to the foreign press for their perspectives on what is happening. France24 posted this video of chaos at Kabul's airport: [Video clip] [...] One country that isn't withdrawing its people is Russia. They expect to get along just fine with the Taliban. My scooter was stolen last week.
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Where was the US Navy when Iran Took Over the Strait of Hormuz? Neither Congress, nor President Biden, nor even the U.S. Navy has registered interest in the following alarming developments in the Gulf of Arabia, first reported by Israeli intelligence. On Tuesday, August 3, at least six ships off the coast of the UAE in the Gulf of Oman suddenly announced via their Automatic Identification System trackers, nearly simultaneously, that they were "not under command." In other words, they had lost power and could no longer control their steering. Shortly afterward, Britain's maritime trade agency reported a "potential hijack" unfolding off the UAE coast. One of the stricken ships, the Asphalt Princess tanker, was boarded by operatives suspected of being Iranian troops, seized and towed into Iranian waters, and then released the following day. This was not the first attack against a tanker off the UAE in the Gulf of Oman. Iran apparently used one or more armed drones to carry out a deadly tanker attack the previous Thursday against the Mercer Street in those same waters. 'Preppers' Quietly Stock Up for the 'Perfect Storm'. A crippling ice storm that left Travis Maddox and thousands of other Missouri residents without power in 2007 had an "almost apocalyptic feel to it." "No one could move. It just shut the whole region down for two weeks. I wasn't as prepared as I thought," said Maddox, a burly man of 43, sporting a long black beard, T-shirt, cargo pants, and baseball cap, while tending his garden. Those two weeks made Maddox realize that being prepared — "prepping," as it's called today — was the key to a life of self-reliance and personal freedom. As an Eagle Scout, he never forgot the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared. "To me, the ultimate level of prepping is being self-sufficient. You're still being modern, but you're in control," Maddox told The Epoch Times on Aug. 5. British Commentator's Monologue on the Nature of Freedom Will Make You Stand up and Cheer. I've never heard of Neil Oliver before today, but I am now following him on social media and I can count myself as a bonafide fan after reading his Twitter timeline and watching this incredibly moving and salient monologue on the nature of freedom. Oliver is an archeologist and podcaster out of the United Kingdom. [...] But it's not his accent or his smooth, calming tones that are most engaging. Oliver's most recent weekly monologue on freedom and the nature of freedom is a must-watch for everyone, but especially those who believe freedom is a privilege that can only be meted out with the guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen. Oliver's monologue is quite Mike Rowe-esque, and should be shared everywhere. Why Managers Fear a Remote-Work Future. In 2019, Steven Spielberg called for a ban on Oscar eligibility for streaming films, claiming that "movie theaters need to be around forever" and that audiences had to be given "the motion picture theatrical experience" for a movie to be a movie. Spielberg's fury was about not only the threat that streaming posed to the in-person viewing experience but the ways in which the streaming giant Netflix reported theatrical grosses and budgets, despite these not being the ways in which one evaluates whether a movie is good or not. Netflix held firm, saying that it stood for "everyone, everywhere [enjoying] releases at the same time," and for "giving filmmakers more ways to share art." Ultimately, Spielberg balked, and last month his company even signed a deal with Netflix, likely because he now sees the writing on the wall: Modern audiences enjoy watching movies at home. Will China bail out Biden? Renmin University professor Jin Canrong has Washington's attention. The senior director for China at the US National Security Council, Rush Doshi, cited him two dozen times in a new book entitled "The Long Game: China's Grand Strategy to Displace American Order." Professor Jin's warning on Friday [7/30/2021] at the "Observer" website that US inflation might lead to the bankruptcy of the US government will be read carefully in Washington — especially because Jin claims that China can help America out of its economic problems. "The United States is in a state of mental transition," the Chinese academic averred, citing the late Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's five stages of grieving: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. America was in denial three years ago, and shifted to anger, but "some sane people may be ready for the third stage," and "be ready to bargain." Did Karl Marx Really Know What He Was Talking About? [Scroll down] Perhaps Marx's communist economic model reflected how he lived his personal life. To put it bluntly, Karl Marx was a lifelong free-loader, was always in debt, and was constantly begging for money to pay his bills from his mother, his wife's family, and from a generous, rich Friedrich Engels (whose father was a rich industrialist!). So, while Marx was busy attacking the industrialist class, he was living off the money of a rich industrialist, an extraordinary brazen act of hypocrisy by the "leader of the proletariat." Although he lived in poverty in a poor section of London, Marx had a family maid, Helen Demuth, although he really couldn't afford one. In 1851 while Marx's wife was away on the Continent begging for money, Marx impregnated the maid and fathered an illegitimate son, Fredrick Demuth, who Marx never saw and totally abandoned. It gets worse. To cover up Marx's betrayal of his wife, professed principles, and public image, Engels agreed to pose as the father of Marx's illegitimate son and paid off the maid to keep quiet. Slouching Toward Dictatorship. "Progressives" (the quotes flag the falsehood behind the label) are corrupters of reality who think nothing of corrupting even science in order to achieve their goals. Taking no lessons from history and drunk on political power, they move ahead to make the state command every aspect of our lives in the mad obsession to own us. Their contempt for reality punches us with "justice" that kills babies because they happen to be on the wrong side of a mother's abdominal wall. It thumps us with "reasoning" that makes killing a non-human creature a criminal act and killing a human being legitimate because Homo sapiens is not on a list of endangered species. And so it is that the government in an America adulterated by "progress," exercising a power taken from its people by eviscerating the Constitution, has the "authority" to control every aspect of our lives. And that includes everything we own and everything we need to stay alive. Conservatism Is Over: A New Vocabulary for a New Right. [Scroll down] Surveying American life and government in 2021, the failure of American conservatives cannot be denied. What we lost was precisely the vision of American governance and virtues that Benjamin Franklin warned us would be a struggle to maintain. Equality under the law? Despite successes in recognizing the humanity of previously oppressed minority groups, the free market has enabled a crass commodification of legal representation that ensures many Americans must routinely settle for inferior counsel. Another sign of bias in the legal institutions is that informed citizens who aren't lawyers can reliably predict the outcome of key cases merely by learning the number of the circuit court before which they will be argued. But the betrayal of equality under the law isn't only evident in formal court proceedings — it can be seen in things like the increasingly discriminatory affirmative action policies in higher education, or the Biden Administration's overt racial favoritism in allocating COVID relief funds. There's Something Happening Here... There is an undercurrent going on that is felt but not seen at this time. Stills's words expressed great dissatisfaction with the national government, estrangement of government from the discontented, and a sense that the government is ignoring and does not care about the masses. There is a real sense of physical threat by the progressive government against the people. And there is a real arrogance by the powerful government elite that the populist masses, including the patriots, just cannot do anything about progressive abuse of power. A real sense of estrangement, isolation, and unfairness that the outsiders felt in the '60s, is what the patriots (conservatives/Christians/constitutionalists) feel today. There appear to be many events happening all at once and closely linked that give hope. And the people are aware and noticing. Taiwan Is Next, but Should We Care? Taiwan is a small island state (about 24 million inhabitants) in the western Pacific. There, Chinese nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, took refuge following the fall of China to Mao and the Chinese communists in 1949. Since then, Taiwan has remained a contentious issue for Beijing's communist government, which has vowed to "reunite" Taiwan with mainland China either peacefully or through force of arms. But let there be no doubt: Taiwan is one of the brightest lights of freedom and prosperity in the world. Fully democratic, Taiwan routinely holds free and fair elections. Taiwan elected a female (Tsai Ing-wen) as the country's (yes, I will refer to Taiwan as a country!) president in 2016 and remains staunchly anti-communist. President Tsai was reelected in 2020 with a historically strong majority. Taiwan boasts a significant free market economy, producing the 20th-largest GDP globally — incredible for such a small population. And Taiwan's per capita income ranks with that of the United States. What Is to Be Done? Restore Federalism and Elect DeSantis as President. One of the things the Left hates most about the United States of America is that there are 50 of them. A leftist revolution is more easily accomplished in a country in which power is already consolidated in a single place among a small group of people. Despite the vast territory of the Russian empire under the last of the Tsars, Lenin was able to hijack the initial anti-Tsarist revolt and turn it into a Bolshevik seizure of power. Over the course of the centuries, similar things have happened in France, England, and Germany. [...] The system of checks and balances instituted by the Founders cooled the passions as it was designed to do, rejecting the "fierce urgency of now" in favor of gradual change. From 13 east-coast colonies to 50 states, marked by deep regional differences, America weathered the storms of civil war, anarchism, socialism, National Socialism, and communism without succumbing to any of them. But the hammering on the gates of our republican democracy has only grown louder and more insistent. The radical left is going to wish Rush Limbaugh had lived to age 99,
when they see the people who replace him. When 'Woke' is More Sacred than Old Glory. On my desk is a framed political cartoon with the caption: "Burning the American Flag is a form of free speech? Try burning a rainbow flag and see if that too is considered a form of free speech?" You could replace "rainbow flag" with "BLM flag," or even "Antifa flag." The cartoon lances the recent rise in free-speech hypocrisy that promptly abandons the First Amendment and drums up hysterical charges of "hate speech" when certain sacred cows du jour are so much as mildly criticized. In the Left's campaign to "fundamentally transform" America and rid it of soi-disant racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other perceived ills, certain symbols — the American flag, and a panoply of images of western culture — have been isolated as representative of "the white patriarchy," deserving of derision and destruction. Therefore, it has become perfectly acceptable to desecrate them. At the same time, it has become hateful to even give a disapproving look to banners or murals representing the LGBTQ+, militant black groups, or anything remotely leftist. "Woke" symbols are untouchable; free speech [notwithstanding]. Liberals do have more mental health issues. [Elizabeth] Condra offers few opinions as to why liberals have more mental health issues, such as "an unrelenting focus on oppression, verbal violence, and microaggression." And while I do agree with her analysis, I think it's an even deeper issue. Conservatives are inherently more grateful for the country we're born into. It's in the very name we call ourselves: we want to "conserve" our country. Progressives want it to "progress" into something else. Conservatives are more focused on micro-values (improve myself to be the best I can be) and liberals on macro-values (improve society to be the best it can be). The problem with focusing on macro-values is it's a lot harder to change society. I have massive influence over my own disposition and perspectives, but I have little effect on society at large. Conservatives are more logical. As much as I might want to change society into improving, I know that logically I can control only myself and perhaps influence those around me. So I am not depressed when my efforts at producing a "utopia" fail. Conservatives have more traditional values. And, perhaps, those values have been around for centuries because they make a happier society, not just due to the evil "patriarchy." America's 'forever war' is here to stay. America's withdrawal from Afghanistan is already leaving chaos in its wake. The power vacuum will be exploited by the Taliban, Islamic terrorists, Russia and China. The disregard for America's strategic interests and the resulting human calamity could end up matching President Obama's callous dismissal of the ISIS threat. These days, both Republicans and Democrats think blasting a policy of "forever wars" makes for a good line. The refrain may score cheap points with voters, but it also telegraphs to the world that America is increasingly conflict-averse and tired of leading on the world stage. Make no mistake: an increasingly aggressive Communist China waits in the wings to assume that mantle. A brilliant Twitter thread perfectly explains what drives today's conservatives. Darryl Cooper, AKA MartyrMade, is a researcher, writer, and podcaster who has put together one of the most brilliant Twitter threads you will ever read. Over the course of 35 tweets, he examines fact after fact from the last five years to explain why conservatives — the people who used to believe in our government, in law enforcement, in the election process — have become cynical, disillusioned, and prone to accepting conspiracy theories to explain the manifest breakdowns in the American system. Great Thread on How the Election Was Rigged, and How the Nation Was Stolen. [Scroll down] Not a single person has gone to jail. Even Kevin Clinesmith, the fall guy — and no one believes he forged that document without orders from Comey or McCabe or Lisa Page — got community service, and what was, effectively, a one month suspension of his law license. Not a single other person paid any price. And we're supposed to keep believing in the government, huh? We're supposed to keep enlisting in the military? We're supposed to keep obeying the laws? We're supposed to keep believing the FBI and law enforcement? We're supposed to keep returning "guilty" verdicts at trial when the Ruling Class tells us to? Why? The Ruling Class ignores the laws. Does the Biden Administration Understand Inflation? There seems to be a lot of confusion today about inflation. Pick up the paper or follow an internet site and you will read that the inflation rate this year is expected to be 2% or 3%. What they really mean is that prices are expected to rise 2% or 3%. But is that inflation? Inflation is an increase in the money supply. So why is the difference in definition critical? Prices rise because of inflation; they are the result of inflation but they are not inflation, nor are they the cause of inflation. This is important because the government is the only one that can increase the money supply. This is done in a number of ways, but for the moment just think of it as printing more money. That is what countries have done when they ran out of money; they just printed more money until it came to the point where their money was almost worthless, where a wheelbarrow load of money would just barely purchase a loaf of bread. The Costs of Biden's Big Government. The Biden administration submitted its first 10-year budget to Congress last month. The budget projects average annual economic growth for 2023 through 2031, after it's done with all the stimulus spending in 2021-22, of 1.9%. What does 1.9% growth mean? Economist John Cochrane, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution, notes that from 1950 to 2000, the U.S. economy grew at 3.5% per year. Average real income over that period grew from $16,000 per person to $50,000. Suppose instead of 3.5%, growth over that period of time was 2%, asks Cochrane. With average growth of 2% instead of 3.5%, a $16,000 income would have grown over the 50 years to $23,000 rather than $50,000. In recent years, since 2000, average growth has been more sclerotic, in the range of 2%. What's the problem? Too much growth of government, says Cochrane. America's Ruling Class and China's Ruling Class Are More Similar Than You Think. In the oft-cited issues of the day, we discuss censorship in public spaces, corporate and military institutionalized wokeness, Critical Race Theory indoctrination of our youth in publicly-funded government education centers, upending traditional cultural norms, domestic surveillance of political opposition, an election no one is permitted to question, enormous spikes in murders and drug deaths across every major American city coupled with the demonization of law enforcement, a financial sector that is increasingly working against the interests of working and middle-class Americans, and a manufacturing base that has been sold off to our greatest world rival, the People's Republic of China (who bears responsibility for a deadly worldwide pandemic that likely emitted from their dangerous lab experiments in Wuhan). If you dare to speak out about any of the above, you risk ostracism, reputational attacks, career termination, banning from public discourse, removal from payment processors, and in the most extreme cases, prosecution. Why is this happening? Because there is a 1% in America that wields powerful influence over the rest. Why This Veteran Worries Wokeness Is Poisoning Our Military. Jason Beardsley served his country in the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Army Special Forces before taking the helm as executive director of the Association of the United States Navy. Today, he's speaking out to urge military leaders to focus on their primary mission of defending America — not advancing the left's woke agenda. Beardsley recently wrote a commentary for The Daily Signal about the challenges of readiness and morale in the U.S. Navy. "Wokeness is well on its way to poisoning our military, even as it claims the military is moving toward utopia," Beardsley says. He tells The Daily Signal that his own military experience taught him radical ideas like critical race theory have no place in our armed forces. In a cancel culture, anonymity must be a civil right. Anonymity, in ordinary times, is a tough topic to wrestle with. These days, however, it's easy: Dissent, and thus democracy, will only survive in today's culture if anonymity is preserved. That's why the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision striking down California's donor-disclosure law was correct and crucial. In Americans For Prosperity v. Bonta, the court struck down California's law requiring all charities and other nonprofit organizations to disclose their donors. California, in defending its law, was in effect trying to demolish the precedent set in NAACP v. Alabama, in which the court barred Alabama from requiring the NAACP to disclose all of its members. Freedom of association is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution. Supreme Court jurisprudence holds that if a government wants to regulate it, the government needs a compelling interest, and the regulation needs to be narrowly tailored. California's law clearly didn't meet these standards. Is It a Conspiracy Theory to Say All This Racial Discord Is Intentional? What do CRT, the 1619 Project, BLM, and white supremacists have in common? All promote the depraved idea that some Americans are sufficiently different from others not to have a common interest in a unified country, a melting pot of immigrants of all races and ethnicities connected with the binding force of nationalism. The left denounces nationalism repeatedly even though it is the sole force that holds an entity like the United States together. [...] Vladimir Putin, the first suspect who comes to mind, grew up in an empire that stretched from Central Europe to the Pacific Ocean. [...] Putin now looks at the United States to see a multiracial and multi-ethnic nation that is very similar to the former Russian Empire in terms of everything except the binding force of nationalism — the idea that an American is an American regardless of what he looks like or where his ancestors came from. Will EU Christophobia Drive Hungary Out? Respect LBGT rights or get out of the EU, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte instructed Hungary's Viktor Orban at last week's gathering of the European Union in Brussels. According to Reuters, attendees described it as the "most intense personal clash among the bloc's leaders in years." What caused the clash? Hungary just passed a law that bans schools from using materials seen as pro-homosexuality. According to the AP, the new law "prohibits sharing content on homosexuality or sex reassignment to people under 18 in school sex education programs, films or advertisements." Rutte eagerly related details of his confrontation with Orban: "It was really forceful, a deep feeling that this could not be. It was about our values; this is what we stand for." "I said, 'Stop this; you must withdraw the law, and if you don't like that and really say that the European values are not your values, then you must think about whether to remain in the European Union.'" Has the Military Lost Middle America? Traditionalist and conservative America once was the U.S. military's greatest defender. Bipartisan conservatives in Congress ensured generous Pentagon budgets. When generals, active or retired, became controversial, conservative America usually could be counted on to stick with them. Flyover country supported marquee officers such as Gen. Michael Hayden, Gen. James Mattis, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Gen. David Petraeus and a host of others when the media went after them for alleged unethical conduct, financial improprieties, spats with the Obama administration, or accusations of using undue force or hiding torture. When Democrats railed in Congress about the "revolving door" of generals and admirals leaving the Pentagon to land lucrative board memberships with corporate defense contractors, Middle America, rightly or wrongly, mostly yawned. Yet traditional America also assumed its military leaders were largely apolitical and stayed out of politics. China vs. America. There can be little doubt the United States is now in a contest with China over which will be the most important country in the world. In important respects, we are replicating the German challenge to the United Kingdom prior to World War I and the renewed German challenge of the 1930s, or the Soviet challenge for 45 years after World War II. As China grows stronger and bolder, and especially as the United States fumbles its way through periods of great distraction and internal political strife, the Chinese — like Hitler — become more brazen and provoking. What does woke heart surgery look like? As a practicing cardiovascular surgeon for 25 years and member of both organizations, I look with deep regret upon the embrace of woke ideology and obsession with skin color. It will lead, I suspect, to diminished membership appeal and prestige, a distracted focus and mission, and less respect for surgical heritage, in time, in both organizations. The elite surgical leaders, working within academia, have ignored the surgical majority in the ACS who do not support this political dogma or identity politics in general. As a kind of secular religion, woke ideology dictates that a person (in this case, a surgeon or a patient) is considered not as an individual, but rather as a member of a group, a category, based on skin color or sex or both. Woke ideologues reduce all persons in society, it seems, to the simple binary categories of white and non-white skin color, which are defined further as oppressor and victim groups, respectively. A person as an individual becomes irrelevant. The profession of surgery, in my opinion, needs to disregard this harmful ideology, preserve meritocracy, and maintain race and sex neutrality. Should children be required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? The United States flag is a symbol for freedom, and freedom is essential to life. It stands for individual rights, and individual rights are essential in order to pursue happiness. When I pledge to the flag, in my mind I know that I am pledging to the original ideals put forth by the founding fathers: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Therefore, it is logical to say that you're teaching children about the fidelity that the Pledge represents — the fidelity of the concept of individual rights. By reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, Americans promise to be true to these ideals, not to take freedom for granted, and to remember the countless men, women, and children who have given their lives through the centuries so Americans can live peacefully today. When children recite the Pledge, they are given the opportunity to think about their roles as citizens, the founding principles of their country, and may be incentivized to think more about the meaning and significance of the Pledge. America Needs Critical Infrastructure Training. The United States has 16 key critical infrastructure sectors, each one providing a vital service to the country. These include the chemical sector, the communications sector, IT and transportation, to name just four. As the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) warns, the "incapacitation or destruction" of these sectors "would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof." Distressingly, the "incapacitation" or "destruction" of at least one of these key pillars looks increasingly likely. Every 39 seconds, somewhere on the planet, a cyberattack occurs. The United States is now the most targeted country in the world. Last year alone, the United States was the victim of 65,000 ransomware attacks; that's more than one every eight minutes. JoeBamanomics — An Honest Outlook of Inflation and What is Coming. Despite the deflective talking points by the professional financial pundits this massive spike in inflation is entirely predictable due to Biden economic policy and Biden monetary policy. Keep in mind the FED has already said in April they would "support inflation" but that's because while they will not say it openly they know there's no way to stop it. The massive inflation is a direct result of the multinational agenda of the Biden administration; it's a feature not a flaw, and it has nothing whatsoever to do with COVID. Also keep in mind the first group to admit what is to come are banks, specifically Bank of America, because the monetary policy is the cause. This item is presented for what it's worth, with a big grain of salt: General Insists Military's Not Woke, Just Wants to Study 'White Rage'. After claiming to be "personally" offended over accusations the drag queen-loving U.S. military is woke, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley said, "I want to understand white rage, and I'm white." Oh, okay, because that's not woke at all. [...] Okay, just for starters, only an idiot would see skin color as a factor in the January 6 protest in and around the U.S. Capitol (which was mostly peaceful, per the corporate media's own definition) January 6 protest in and around the U.S. Capitol, but here's a question that should put a chill up everyone's spine: Why is the U.S. military brainwashing our troops with the openly racist ideas behind Critical Race Theory that push the wild and wicked claim people with white skin are inherently evil and racist oppressors? I'll tell you what this sounds like to me. Like the U.S. military is studying up on its next enemy, and not to "understand" this enemy. No, to dehumanize this enemy in a way that will justify making war against this enemy. This is exactly what happened at Waco in 1993. Ingraham: Congress should halt military funds after Gen. Milley's support for 'far-left Marxist ideology'. On Wednesday [6/23/2021], Laura Ingraham, host of "The Ingraham Angle," blasted General Mark Milley for propagating a "far-left Marxist racist ideology" in the U.S. military over his support of Critical Race Theory. Milley testified before the House Armed Services Committee and was questioned concerning diversity training and racism within the ranks of the military. He stated that he found recent attacks on the military over those issues "offensive." Milley voiced his support for Critical Race Theory and he blamed the Jan. 6 riot on "white rage." "I do think it's important for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read," stated Milley seemingly insinuating that troops were closed-minded and uneducated. "The fact is, Milley has made his choice," noted Ingraham." And he's chosen to indulge the radical whims of Democrats. He'll do everything they tell him as long as they keep the military-industrial complex flush with cash." A Terrible Day for the Republic: Biden and His Top General Strike at America's Foundations. In testimony before the House Wednesday [6/23/2021], Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked about the military's new emphasis on politics and critical race theory. Milley's testimony is telling in many ways. He didn't deny the military is pushing CRT and its ideas down the ranks. How could he, with so many whistleblowers calling his military out on it? The nation's top general leads in this segment by suggesting that he's merely studying critical race theory and wokeness to understand them as a military leader should study ideas to understand their nature and whether they pose a threat or not. That would be fine, even commendable, if it was true. As Sun Tzu wrote, know your enemy. But then Gen. Milley, America's top soldier, gets within inches of trashing the United States Constitution, which he swore an oath to defend with his life. What will become of the useful idiots? As the Marxist revolution oozes forward, I occasionally wonder what will happen to the useful idiots when the commies seize absolute power in this once great Republic. I believe that most AT readers are familiar with the term, but for those who need a brief refresher, a useful idiot, as defined by Wikipedia, "is a derogatory term for a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically used by the cause's leaders." In my opinion, this definition can be applied to a majority of the young, brainwashed radicals who have no idea about the true history of Marxism...or the real history of their native land that they're working so hard to destroy. The DeSantis doctrine. The term 'Florida man' usually comes loaded with negative connotations, but not if you're talking about Ron DeSantis. The first-term Republican governor's approval ratings have reached 64 percent; a recent poll had him at 55 percent, still high for an unabashed conservative in a swing state. Enterprising apparel companies are already selling 'DeSantis 2024' gear — and a Trafalgar poll of likely contenders (excluding Trump) shows DeSantis leading the pack with 35 percent support among Republican voters. The Florida governor also bested Trump in a straw poll conducted during June's Western Conservative Summit in Denver. Cancel Amazon Prime. Today is Prime Day. [...] The holiday was invented by a corporation in honor of itself, to enrich itself. It has existed for six years and is observed by tens of millions of people worldwide. [...] Prime is Amazon's greatest and most terrifying invention: a product whose value proposition is to help you buy more products. With 200 million subscribers worldwide, it is the second-most-popular subscription service on Earth, poised to overtake Netflix in the not-so-distant future. This popularity is both extremely logical and a little perplexing. When you subscribe to Prime, you're paying to pledge your fealty to a single company's ecosystem — something that consumers once wanted to avoid. You're paying to have your every purchase cataloged — also something consumers aren't wild about, at least in theory — so that Amazon can use that information to sell you, and people like you, more goods. You're paying to become part of a system that is purpose-built to keep you paying, forever, and to keep Amazon growing, forever, [...] Petition to Remove Admiral Michael Gilday as Chief of Naval Operations. Our military is under attack by "anti-racism" activists whose message is that white America is racist. "Critical Race Theory" is the academic discipline that is used to justify the attack. Critical Race Theory is a hateful Marxist fiction that maintains America is evil because the majority of its citizens are white, and that its Constitution is evil because it was written by white people. The agents of this dogma, including those lecturing at the Naval War College, teach that white people — from the Founding Fathers to the 200 million white people in the country today — are oppressors, who are an internal enemy[.] Critical Race Theory began by destroying the moral integrity of colleges and corporations. Now its target is the U.S. Navy. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilday has told the third of a million naval personnel that they should be reading and learning from Ibram X. Kendi, a mediocre, fact-challenged university professor who has become the go-to "anti-racism" expert for America's woke elites. 'Where Are The Admirals? Where Are The Generals? Where Are the Veterans?'. On 17 August 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower prescribed a Code of Conduct for members of the Armed Forces of the United States. The purpose was to inform each service member in a combat unit about their basic responsibilities when engaged in combat or if they were captured by enemy forces. [...] Given the inherent and undeniable virtues of this colorblind, merit-based system based upon shared values, the Armed Forces of the United States travel a pernicious and destructive path if they embrace Critical Race Theory, with its core belief that America and her citizenry are irredeemably racist, along with the tenets of "white supremacy," "whiteness," "white privilege," "white fragility," and "systemic" or "institutional racism." Critical Race Theory does not build up, it tears down. There is nothing aspirational or uplifting about it. And as a springboard to establishing "diversity" as a goal unto itself, as its own concurrent priority, inculcating those values into troops will not equip the military to succeed at its first, and most important goal, which is to fight and win in armed conflict. Candace Owens and Brandon Tatum Are Not Who They Pretend to Be. [Scroll down] I have said it in my past writings. the Black community is not a monolith; there are many shades and structures of the Black community, just as with any other community. It is the political Left and Right that wants to reduce the depth and breadth of our contributions to the nation and the world to a monolithic structure. Just as the Black community is not a monolith, neither is Black conservatism. I enjoy listening to viewpoints among the various aspects of Black conservatism the same as I do hearing the viewpoints among legacy conservatism and the new young cons. Why are the differences accepted in one camp, but impossible to conceptualize in another? What I will focus on is what results from platforming the disingenuous, and we are seeing this disingenuousness in Owens' behavior of late. What results is a loss of credibility, and a rejection of the concepts on which you are supposed to be an authority. This is bad not just Blacks in general, but for conservatism specifically. Woke, Inc: Why I'm blowing the whistle on how corporate America is poisoning society. I used to think corporate bureaucracy was bad because it's inefficient. That's true, but it's not the biggest problem. Rather, there's a new invisible force at work in the highest ranks of corporate America, one far more nefarious. It's the defining scam of our time — one that robs you of not only your money, but your voice and your identity. [...] I'm fed up with corporate America's game of pretending to care about justice in order to make money. It is quietly wreaking havoc on American democracy. It demands that a small group of investors and CEOs determine what's good for society, rather than our democracy at large. This new trend has created a major cultural shift in America. It's not just ruining companies. It's polarizing our politics. It's dividing our country to a breaking point. Worst of all, it's concentrating the power to determine American values in the hands of a small group of capitalists, rather than in the hands of the American citizenry at large, which is where the dialogue about social values belongs. That's not America, but a distortion of it. Leftists are a minority... so why do they keep winning? The truth is, normal, happy, well-adjusted people don't really care about politics — or care only when they are forced to by rioting mobs of looters in their cities. Normal people of any and all colors don't want to tell you their pronouns, chemically castrate their sons with puberty-blocking drugs, or defund the police. They're neither oppressors nor oppressed. They just want to live their lives in peace, attend their kids' soccer or baseball games, and enjoy summer afternoons grilling[.] Therein lies the problem: it turns out that, with a very few exceptions, the absolute worst people on the planet — the kind of people who were hall monitors in high school and enjoy creating and enforcing petty regulations on their fellows — go into politics. These are the entitled few who believe that rules and regulations are for other people, never for themselves — the grifters, tax cheats, and adulterers who run for office instead of working for a living. Critical Race Theory Will Destroy Our Military. As a young Marine Corps first lieutenant assigned to an infantry battalion in the late 1980s, I had charge of the unit transport section of operators, mechanics, and supervisors tasked with taking care of our fleet of combat vehicles. [...] Everything just worked and worked well. Why? Because they were all Marines, wearing the same uniform, supporting the same combat organization, serving the same country. They all had been through the same training. They had to measure up to the same standards. They had to make the same cutoff scores for promotion. They humped the same combat loads, ate the same field rations, fired the same qualifications at the rifle range, suffered the same annual refresher training for proper use of gas masks. They worked the same long hours in hot and sweaty, cold and damp, sunbaked or frigid or windblown field conditions, tolerated the same irritating micromanagement, and enjoyed the same positive leadership interventions from higher headquarters. [...] It was wonderful. I can't help but wonder what it would have been like if each person in that section had been pitted against each other, assessing his fellow Marine's trustworthiness or reliability or capability based on the color of his skin. The case for Congressman Trump. In his article "Will Trump run in 2024? A fascinating clue from Don Jr.," Thomas Lifson sets forth a credible scenario in which Trump is keeping his options open, while a possible presidential successor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, proves his bona fides. If no messy skeletons jump out from DeSantis's closet, he is a dream presidential candidate: brilliant, patriotic, practical, and empathetic. Should that come to pass, Trump would give another gift to America. No Leaders Attended the G7 Summit. [Scroll down] And that brings us to the picture of the G7 leaders on the beach in Cornwall. Nobody who watches the film of these people arriving, coming down the boardwalk carefully spaced, hygienically elbow-bumping in lieu of shaking hands, and finally taking up positions for their photo op — nobody would believe these people are world leaders. Because they aren't. They aren't running the western world. They are run by the people who really are running the western world — people whose names we don't know. The people on the beach in Cornwall are there simply in recognition of the working man's need to see an elected head of state. They are actors. Four Ways I Am Preparing For The Dollar's Collapse. In the era of financial and societal insecurity, I have taken it upon myself to best prepare for the unknown. Will inflation wipe out my savings? Will the price of common goods become unaffordable? Will the effects of Critical Race Theory implode on our shared cultural and societal underpinnings? These are critical questions with serious repercussions if and when the answers come to fruition via the affirmative. In the event there is a massive fallout, whether from inflationary pressures or a collapse of civic coexistence among the alleged classes of the oppressed and oppressors, it is better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. I would prefer I never discharge my firearm, and despite the bland taste, I would much rather dine on soon-to-be-expired cans of beans out of parsimony than out of necessity. However, if catastrophic changes sweep through the country and those items are vital for either short-term or long-term survival, then it is literally the difference between life or death. Social Mobility is a Lot Less Mobile Than We Thought. Inequality is the worst thing in the world. Even my racist neighbor at the top of the hill with his BLM "Equality Hurts No one" yard sign knows that. And we have gubmint programs to the tune of 36 percent of GDP per annum working like mad to un-hurt people from the horrors of inequality. Only, writes Gregory Clark in The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility, all that lovely lucre hasn't made much difference to social inequality. The scions of the elite pretty much stay in the elite. Almost everywhere in the world, from way back. The Coma Before the Storm. [Scroll down] Grandpa Badfinger is a rickety joke, bumping elbows with his younger fellow-incompetents at the G7, wandering about mindlessly chasing moths until his ridiculous wife, with her ridiculous "Dr.", wrangles him back into the hapless pack. You look at this sorry set of leaders of the formerly-free world and the vibe you get is "exhaustion." There's no energy, no drive, no hope. Boris Johnson, formerly a man, explained to a bored UK that that "nations coming out of the pandemic need to 'build back better' in a 'greener,' 'more gender neutral and perhaps a more feminine way.'" Hack clichés are their solution, but these relics have nothing else. They are weak and stupid and they represent a spent elite that cares about nothing except just a little more time holding fast to their uncertain sinecures. Once You Realize The US Government Is An Organized Crime Syndicate, Everything Makes Sense. CDMedia wrote weeks ago that our sources informed us the alleged 'ransomeware' attack on the Colonial Pipeline was not a foreign operation, but likely executed by domestic entities for monetary, or political gain. Some have entertained the thought of internal strife between U.S. government agencies, essential criminal gangs, reaping the benefits of organized money laundering on a massive scale. Now we learn the FBI reportedly seized the millions of Bitcoin paid by Colonial pipeline for the alleged ransom. Was the hack was solved so quickly because there's a power struggle between the FBI and the CIA going on? In that story, did the CIA hack the pipeline and the FBI decide to punish them? In Russia this is common. Different security agencies of the Russian secret services are in regular competition for illicit gains. The FSB regularly takes over businesses to reap ill-gotten profit. Corruption is what the Russian system is built upon. This is what Obama and his minions have brought here. Think about it, if parts of the U.S. government are in bed with the Chinese Communist Party, looking to rape the American people of trillions of dollars, agriculture, energy, and so on, then the entire Russia! Russia! Russia! hoax makes perfect sense. Blame it all on the rival criminal gang! Living With the Limits of Our New Clerisy's Knowledge. [Scroll down] Unfortunately, the new clergy seem too fallible to take on trust. They flip-flop on expert advice and one scientist denounces the other on YouTube. Once things seemed more cut and dried. Once we were at the End of History. Science could predict the future more or less and the public hoped with increasing accuracy. Ever since the 17th century, the expectation was that the scientific revolution would supply the answers. [...] In the coming years, the new clerisy will come forward with even more global solutions, endorsing trillion-dollar multidecade proposals in the fields of climate engineering, genetic alteration, and artificial intelligence. In each case the public will be asked to trust the science — to put all our eggs in the expert basket. Why the government cannot answer the UFO question. The anticipated release of a government report about UFOs (or UAPs) later this month has created a lot of public discussion about what might be included in that report, and perhaps more importantly, what might be excluded. But in the end, the government does not know, nor can it, what the UAPs really are, or are not, because they are a paradox. [...] That paradox is this: any nation (or organization) that possesses the technology to do what the UAPs are reported to do would have in its hands such power, such force, such a threat that no one could oppose it. Yet we see no evidence of any nation wielding such power, an inaction that would be highly implausible were they to have it. Another paradox is that the development and manufacture of such technology would require enormous scientific infrastructure. Fighting Woke Capital. If were trying to define this term and understand what it means, it's rooted in the fact that the biggest businesses, the most powerful institutions, the most powerful banks in this country have aligned themselves against us. Now that is an obvious fact, you see it in a number of ways. A couple of years ago Stacey Abrams said, about a Georgia abortion restriction, that this was a bad bill because it was bad for business. That was the argument of our new corporate, neoliberal class. And she was right. This is something that those of us on the right have to accept. When the big corporations come against you for passing abortion restrictions, when corporations are so desperate for cheap labor that they don't want people to parent children, Stacey Abrams is right to say that abortion restrictions are bad for business. 'Woke' Asset Managers Rip You Off — Using Your Money. If most Americans noticed at all the election of at least two climate-focused dissidents to ExxonMobil's board, they certainly missed the significance. But they may soon notice as ExxonMobil and other companies knuckle under to climate activists, leading to higher energy prices for American consumers. Note the little victory dance by three massive asset managers — BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street — in the Wall Street Journal. Their votes elected dilettante climate activists, who own approximately 0.02% of the oil giant's shares, because "Exxon's yearslong refusal to make board directors available for frank conversations irked investors." Yeah, right. Big Finance pulled the rug out from under Big Oil for one simple reason: To feather its own ample nest, using your money. Biden's 'Made in America' Tax Plan Destroys Any Incentive for Anything to Be 'Made in America'. The United States has spent the last decade-plus destroying most of the reasons to create Intellectual Property (IP) in the United States. This is more than a mite problematic — given we are in the nascent stages of what will increasingly be an Information Economy. Where more and more of what we do will be digital and thus require more and more IP. The US has three branches of government. All three have been actively attacking IP and its creators. The Great Conservative Migration. In fact, my wife and I were part of the migration. We lived for 36 years in American Siberia — otherwise known as Minnesota. Politics in Minnesota has always been dominated by the Democrats. However, in recent years it has taken a decidedly radical turn. When Keith Ellison — former supporter of the Nation of Islam and attorney to cop killers — was elected attorney general, we knew it was time to leave. This anti-Semite, race baiter, and woman abuser was now the state's top law enforcement official. What could possibly go wrong? One year after we left, the George Floyd riots happened. That's what could go wrong. We moved to the small town of Star, Idaho. I call Star the nicest refugee camp in the world. It's a community of new housing subdivisions, wonderful schools (that don't teach Critical Race Theory), numerous churches, and friendly people. It has also doubled in population in the last 10 years — almost entirely from west-coast transplants. The U.S. Military's Love of America: We need to find a way to get our country back. Most of our uniformed service members — and most Americans — believe in the fundamental goodness of our great country. And they want to preserve it. But fighting for what is right means first understanding the truth about what is happening. We have the world's most powerful military and it is an all-voluntary force. We all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. We believe in the sanctity of that oath. All of our civilian and military leaders take the same oath. Today we are confronted with a very serious domestic enemy which, if left unchecked, will threaten our way of life and our ability to remain a beacon of freedom and a leader of the free world. The threat has been allowed to exist in our educational systems over many years and has gained additional support and momentum with recent left-leaning media which shapes public opinion. Joe Biden is the last person in America who will criticize China. The Middle East Dispute Is About Religion, Not Land. If you've seen videos of recent attacks on Jews in New York City, Los Angeles, London and elsewhere, you may have missed a very revealing aspect of those attacks. They were almost always — as they have been for decades — accompanied by curses such as, "[...] the Jews." Now, given that the perpetrators are almost always Muslims — whether immigrants or children of immigrants from an Arab or other Muslim country — two questions present themselves: Why attack American or French or British Jews? And why curse "the Jews"? In other words, given that the recent wars have been between Hamas and Israel, why aren't these attacks outside of Israel on Israelis and Israeli institutions? And why level curses at "the Jews"? The answer is this: The Muslims who seek Israel's destruction do so because Israel is Jewish, not because Israel occupies the West Bank or Gaza. Ridicule is an Important Weapon, Keep Throwing Sand in the Machine. Ridicule is an important weapon. The left is overreacting to sunlight because they know the machinations behind their ideological endeavors are based on fraud. In this brilliant piece of agitprop, the White House situation room looks at the landscape. The Two Uncle Joes. [Scroll down] American military battle readiness, ingenuity, and cunning have been the core of our national defense spanning our entire history, from Steven Decatur and William Tecumseh Sherman to Chester Nimitz and George S. Patton, Jr. Yet today our own politically driven Uncle Joe, with support from his newly appointed military commissars such as DoD Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, appears far less concerned with training and operational readiness than with mindlessly obsessing over the chimeras of right-wing extremism in the ranks and climate change. I can assure Secretary Austin that yes, climate change will be a factor if an American city goes up in a mushroom cloud because our commanders were too busy trying to figure out a policy for how trans officers should be addressed or directing servicemen and women to the cause of saving the earth for Gaia. A million degrees Fahrenheit is most definitely a significant change in climate, Mister Secretary. You got that right! Scott Atlas: The Last Word. The coronavirus pandemic has been a great tragedy, there can be no doubt about that. But it has also exposed profound issues in America that now threaten the very principles of freedom and order that we Americans often take for granted. First, I have been shocked at the enormous power of the government, to unilaterally decree, to simply close businesses and schools by edict, restrict personal movement, mandate behavior, and eliminate our most basic freedoms, without any end and little accountability. Second, I remain surprised at the acceptance by the American people of draconian rules, restrictions, and unprecedented mandates, even those that are arbitrary, destructive, and wholly unscientific. This crisis has also exposed what we all have known existed, but we have tolerated for years: the overt bias of the media, the lack of diverse viewpoints on campuses, the absence of neutrality in big tech controlling social media, and now more visibly than ever, the intrusion of politics into science. Ultimately, the freedom to seek and state the truth is at risk here in the United States. Newsmax Reporter: "Colonial Pipeline "Hacker" Story Doesn't Add Up". When this "Russsian Hacker" pipeline story first broke, I did a piece on how MANY people online didn't buy it. They felt like there was a deeper plot afoot. And now, more folks are saying this — even reporters over at Newsmax. The reason being is because since this so-called "hack" happened, Biden has now caved to Russia in a big way — as a matter of fact, it's so big, that if Trump ever pulled off a move like this, he'd likely be impeached. But suddenly, the party of "Russia boogiemen" no longer cares about "Russia boogiemen." Donald Trump Should Not be the 2024 Republican Candidate. [Scroll down] While the manifestly unconstitutional Civil Service Act creates a lot of headaches, there's one thing that can be done immediately. All "civil servants" who have been employed for longer than, let's say, five years, must be reassigned, preferably to an office at least a thousand miles from their present station. This "stirring" will lead to a mass exodus of federal employees, most of whom should not be replaced. This is crucially important in the DC area. Those people cultivate news and business contacts so they can be enriched when they leave Uncle Sugar's employ. And, as before, all security clearances must be suspended or revoked upon separation from government service. Finally, President DeSantis needs to identify which "Republicans" cry loudest. Their districts, along with those of the most powerful Democrats, should immediately receive "Most Disfavored Nation" status when it comes to government contracts. This is fully legal and will cut the opposition off at the knees. Top Retired Officers Are Right: Biden's Leftism And 'Woke' Military Threaten U.S. Security. The letter was not couched in military jargon or bureaucratese; it was plain-spoken and blunt in its concern about America's course. It starts with a call for protecting our free and fair elections, but then turns toward the ominous political and cultural trends of recent years. No need for a translation: ["]Aside from the election, the current administration has launched a full-blown assault on our constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner, bypassing Congress, with more than 50 executive orders quickly signed, many reversing the previous administration's effective policies and regulations. Moreover, population control actions such as excessive lockdowns, school and business closures, and, most alarming, censorship of written and verbal expression are all direct assaults on our fundamental rights. We must support and hold accountable politicians who will act to counter socialism, Marxism, and Progressivism, support our constitutional republic, and insist on fiscally responsible governing while focusing on all Americans, especially the middle class, not special interest or extremist groups which are used to divide us into warring factions.["] Two Actions [the] US Must Take in [the] Wake of [the] Colonial Pipeline Crisis. After a group of cybercriminals known as DarkSide succeeded in causing massive disruption in the southeast with its ransomware attack on May 7 — which wasn't resolved until Wednesday evening — it became clear that U.S. infrastructure remains at risk. The stakes are extremely high. In our highly interconnected world, cyberattacks against critical infrastructure can leave us highly vulnerable. As we saw with this DarkSide incident, a ransomware attack can cause immense (but fortunately short-term) economic disruption across a large segment of the country. But state-based cyberattacks from countries like China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea could lead to loss of property and even life. This Time Israel Should Finish Off Hamas. It is time to put paid once and for all to the evil terror organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad that have been attacking the heartland of Israel virtually ever since Israel freely gave Gaza to the Palestinians, first to the Palestinian Authority and then to Hamas after they murdered the PA officials in a mini-civil war and took over the territory as a fanatical dictatorship. Every few years Hamas (and their now-billionaire leadership) seizes on something, some issue on the Temple Mount, a neighborhood where, in their view, too many Jews are moving in, and start a missile barrage, aiming to hit as many innocent civilians as possible and ignite the "Arab street." The current barrage, thanks largely to Iran, is the biggest ever, with modern weapons that can reach the entire Jewish state with significant payloads. Biden needs to tell Democrats that Hamas is the bad guy. "Israel has a right to defend itself," Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday [5/13/2021], as America's staunchest Middle East ally faced criticism for its retaliations against rocket attacks by Hamas. It's an anodyne statement from the Biden administration with two problems. First, it fails to state clearly that Israel is defending itself against a terrorist instigator. Second, too many officials in Joe Biden's own party don't actually believe that Hamas is the bad guy here. Before its recent attack on Israelis, Blinken and Biden seem to have laid out a somewhat reasonable strategy: Support the more moderate Palestinian Authority and marginalize Hamas. The Palestinian Authority is corrupt, to be sure. But it at least does not view its political purpose through the lens of maximal Jewish blood. Monopoly: An overview of the Great Reset — Follow the Money. If you've been wondering how the world economy has been hijacked and humanity has been kidnapped by a completely bogus narrative, look no further than this video by Dutch creator, Covid Lie. What she uncovers is that the stock of the world's largest corporations are owned by the same institutional investors. They all own each other. This means that "competing" brands, like Coke and Pepsi aren't really competitors, at all, since their stock is owned by exactly the same investment companies, investment funds, insurance companies, banks and in some cases, governments. This is the case, across all industries. Clean House in 2025. When President DeSantis is sworn in at 12:00 pm on January 20, 2025, he should give a short speech and by 12:10 be firing people. Lots of people. Okay, it might not be the current Florida governor — we do know it's not going to be Gov. Nikki! Haley (R - Establishment) or Kristi! Noem (R-NCAA) — but whoever beats Kamala Harris like a drum needs to come into the Oval Office ready to clear-cut the bureaucracy. Just level it. Every keen observer understands that Donald Trump's first and foremost failure as president was personnel. He did not get it right until the end, and then it was far too late. Are
Americans Becoming Sovietized? Here are 10 symptoms of Sovietism. Ask yourself whether we are headed down this same road to perdition.
The Editor says... Federal Reserve turns the dollar into toilet paper. Toilet paper was much on the mind of Americans Wednesday when Boston Federal Reserve chief Eric Rosengren told MarketWatch that today's higher inflation is as temporary as last year's shortage of paper products. The toilet paper they were thinking about, though, was the green stuff in their wallets. Rent asking prices rose an all-time record 17% between the first quarter of 2020 and the first quarter 2021. Home prices rose 12%, used car prices rose 26% and freight costs rose 17%. That's the biggest year-on-year jump on record for rent and used cars, and a near-record for homes and freight. Recent data are even worse; used car prices are up nearly 20% during the first four months of 2021 alone, and gasoline is up 55% during the same period. It Got Serious In A Hurry. This exchange of imaginary money supposedly creates wealth effects that have replaced boring old savings, capital investment, and entrepreneurial activity as drivers of the economy. Asset prices elevate, the government's GDP statistics hum while its inflation statistics slumber, and the rest of the world accepts FDIs for real goods and services. There's even snake oil peddled by PhDs that blesses all this: Modern Monetary Theory. Wealth for all — without boring old work and deferred gratification — is just around the corner. From the dwindling ranks of the reality-bound come those inevitable objections. The key word in fiat debt instruments is debt, which carries an obligation to pay it back sometime in the future. They can't honestly pay back the debt they have now, why are they adding to it? The key word is honestly. The plan is to issue so many FDIs that they depreciate the value of existing ones, making them easier to pay back. None dare call it a swindle. They Were Promised a Socialist Paradise, and Ended Up in 'Hell'. On a bright August morning in 1960, after two days of sailing from Japan, hundreds of passengers rushed on deck as someone shouted, "I see the fatherland!" The ship pulled into Chongjin, a port city in North Korea, where a crowd of people waved paper flowers and sang welcome songs. But Lee Tae-kyung felt something dreadfully amiss in the "paradise" he had been promised. "The people gathered were expressionless," Mr. Lee recalled. "I was only a child of 8, but I knew we were in the wrong place." Mr. Lee's and his family were among 93,000 people who migrated from Japan to North Korea from 1959 to 1984 under a repatriation program sponsored by both governments and their Red Cross societies. When they arrived, they saw destitute villages and people living in poverty, but were forced to stay. Some ended up in prison camps. Talking the Talk on 'Climate Change'. What are we to make of an article by William Hague, a former U.K. Foreign Secretary from 2010 to 2014, that predicts Britain's armed forces may one day be sent into action abroad to safeguard the natural environment from such predators as oil companies and loggers? [...] That prediction is startling from several standpoints. To begin with, it could be read as confirming a frequent left-wing allegation — hitherto hotly denied by the British and other Western governments — that in the two Gulf Wars the West intervened not to prevent Iraqi aggression or to stabilize the Middle East but to get its hands on Arab oil. I don't think that's true, as a matter of fact, but if it is, it's a big admission and a big news story. And it was merely the first of several startling predictions. Our Country Was Founded by Geniuses, but It's Being Run by Idiots. The eminently quotable Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said sometime back: "Our country was founded by geniuses, but it's being run by idiots." I heartily agree, and the problem is not self-correcting. The principles behind the formation of America's government were and are exquisite, but the American government, like all forms of government, is corrupt as [it can be]. This isn't an extraordinary statement. Exquisite things often break, and even the noblest of institutions become distorted over time until the original purposes for their creation are eclipsed (and often contradicted) by the personal motives of the men running those institutions into the ground. This phenomenon is apparent anywhere there is power.
Power back to the people. According to conventionofstates.com, which tracks the progress of resolutions, 15 states have approved calling for a convention of the states to reign in what they believe is out-of-control government. The support of 34 states is needed. Thirty-eight states are required to ratify any proposed amendments. The website says seven states have approved a resolution in one of their legislative chambers and 22 state legislatures will consider doing so this year. The Founders saw state conventions as the ultimate safeguard against government overreach and a necessary workaround should Congress exceed its constitutional authority, which supporters of state conventions believe it has. [...] I have been on the side of the cautious on this issue, but as I see President Biden issuing record numbers of executive orders, bypassing the authority of Congress, and Congress on a spending binge that is driving the debt to record and unsustainable levels, perhaps threatening our very survival, I have come to the conclusion that nothing but a carefully organized and controlled constitutional convention can return power to where the Founders intended it to reside — with the people. The reason government has become so dysfunctional and unwieldy is that it has for too long exceeded the boundaries originally set for it. Using Progressive Means to Restore Liberty. Globalism is the antithesis of nationalism — or should I say, patriotism. CEOs of major corporations act like oligarchs who can do as they please as long as they have government on their side. So, they donate hundreds of millions of dollars either directly or indirectly to the party of government and tilt the electoral process toward their friends in high places. What's more, many of those big corporations have gone woke in an effort to please their Democrat allies. In the aftermath of the recent intervention by much of corporate America into the controversy about Georgia's election law, many conservatives are awakening to the magnitude of this problem. Scores of millions of Americans feel helpless in the face of this overwhelming threat posed to our liberty. If
We Lived in a Perfect World...
Is America Led Today By Anti-Americans? [Scroll down] What other nation has provided the same measures of personal and political freedoms and material blessings for 40 million Black people as has the United States? If people of color are treated "as less than human" in America, as Harris says, why are so many people of color seeking desperately to get across our Southern border to build their future here? What is the real truth about race in America that goes unmentioned in the mainstream media's endless hunt for encounters between Black men and white cops? The main perpetrators of violent crimes against Black Americans — are other Black Americans. Black men, ages 16 to 40, are 3% of the U.S. population but commit roughly a third of America's violent crimes. Defund police, restrict police, remove police and you will get more of what the police prevent — crimes, especially violent crimes, in your community. Archbishop Vigano rips Vatican conference with Fauci, says Holy See 'servant of the New World Order'. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò said an upcoming global health conference at the Vatican — with guests such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, Deepak Chopra and Chelsea Clinton — constitutes "the umpteenth scandalous confirmation" of Pope Francis leading the Catholic Church astray. A new op-ed by the Catholic Church's former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. blasts the pope and his allies within the Church for betraying the faithful by cozying up to "representatives of Big Tech ... a whole slew of abortionists, Malthusians, and globalists known to the general public." "The Holy See has deliberately renounced the supernatural mission of the Church, making itself the servant of the New World Order and Masonic globalism in an antichristic counter-magisterium," the archbishop wrote Tuesday for LifeSite. "The submission of the Cathedra veritatis to the interests of the Masonic elite is manifesting itself in all its evidence, in the deafening silence of the Sacred Pastors and in the bewilderment of the People of God, who have been abandoned to themselves." How Much Ruin Do We Have Left? As Americans know from their own illustrious history, any nation's well-being hinges on only a few factors. Its prosperity, freedom, and overall stability depend on its constitutional and political stability. A secure currency and financial order are also essential, as is a strong military. Perhaps most important is a first-rate inductive educational system. Of course, nothing is possible without general social calm (often dependent on a reverence for the past) and secure borders. The ability to produce or easily acquire food, fuel, and key natural resources ensures a nation's independence and autonomy. Unfortunately, in the last few months, all of those centuries-old reasons to be confident in American strength and resiliency have been put into doubt. How Empires End. [Scroll down] Chances are, future leaders will be just as uninterested in learning from history as past leaders. They will create empires, then destroy them. Even the most informative histories of empire decline, such as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon, will not be of interest to the leaders of empires. They will believe that they are above history and that they, uniquely, will succeed. If there is any value in learning from the above, it is the understanding that leaders will not be dissuaded from their aspirations. They will continue to charge ahead, both literally and figuratively, regardless of objections and revolts from the citizenry. Comedy Is a Dictatorship's First Victim. Humor has always been one of the first targets of a dictatorship. It is no surprise that in America, comedians can no longer function because of rampant political correctness. Thus, according to Mel Brooks, "we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks." Not Dead Yet. Our nation began with an initial declaration of independence and now every law and executive order from this administration is leading us toward dependence — debtor dependence, energy dependence, and government dependence for the begged permission to pursue life, liberty, and happiness. The list of grievances and offenses are staggering and too numerous to mention and if one does, they are censored or banned by the government's confederate oligarchs of Big Tech. It's a depressing situation and the truth of the matter is a sobering one. The diagnostic is that in the predawn darkness of the morning of November 4, 2020, the American Republic flatlined. The nefarious and somewhat dubiously defined Deep State does not want it revived. We've got some work to do. Every Physical Silver Ounce Has Been Sold Up To 1000x. The silver price is today half of the January 1980 level. That was the peak at $50 which silver reached again 31 years later in 2011. But alas, the bullion banks, aided by the BIS (Bank for International Settlement) and central banks have again managed to push it down again and today silver is only $26.10. The current silver price has nothing to do with supply and demand. In a real market the Price of Silver would be substantially higher. In a fake market, the manipulators have no problem to suppress the price by selling virtually unlimited fake paper silver. [...] If a salesman has a demand for 1,000 items of a product of which he possesses the only one available, he will first rub his hands and then perform a victory dance. He knows he will achieve an astronomical price. And that is exactly what would happen in a free silver market. But since the paper silver issuers know that they are dealing with totally clueless buyers who don't understand that there is no silver, they will continue to stuff the gullible buyers with more fake silver. That is, until the buyers wake up and ask for delivery to find out that the silver vaults are empty. Federalism In The Form Of Strong Governors May Be Our Only Hope. I am not a Constitutional Scholar, but it seems to me that absent the specific granting of authority to the federal government, that the states have legal control. Here the author is most exercised by the 17th Amendment (direct election of senators), but the trend has been clear since the War of The Rebellion; the accretion of power by the federal government and the creation of a vast regulatory state by exercise of this power. The Federal Reserve Should Not Finance Insane New Spending. Since the onset of the pandemic, Congress has been spending more money than ever. The pandemic hit when it was already projected that in fiscal 2020 the federal budget deficit would once again top $1 trillion. On October 16, however, USA Facts reported that the 2020 deficit was $3.1 trillion. That's more than twice as much as the previous record of $1.4T set in 2009 in the wake of the financial crisis. On April 12, the Fiscal Times reported that the deficit for just the first six months of fiscal 2021 was $1.7T: "In March alone, the deficit came to nearly $660 billion, driven in large part by $339 billion in pandemic-relief payments to individuals." On top of that, the feds just enacted a $1.9T stimulus bill, and on March 31, Pres. Biden proposed his "infrastructure bill" that will run to $2.3T in new spending, and more new spending is promised. A trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon Americans will be thinking that no one in D.C. cares about the federal deficit anymore, and that the "deficit hawk" is no longer an endangered species but is extinct. Russia Stuff And Our Corrupt Rulers. This is all very depressing to see — the utter mendaciousness of our ruling class: elected representatives of the American people, appointees, the military establishment, the intelligence community, and last but far from least, the media. The corruption is so sweeping that you're left almost breathless. And they're utterly feckless, to boot. Let's start with Gilbert Doctorow [and his article,] Bombast From Washington: Joe Biden's Russia Sanctions. Doctorow first explains that nobody who understands the current shape of the world is taking those sanctions seriously. Putin himself is obviously unfazed. The DC armchair imperialists have crossed a red line, and Putin has responded — as Doctorow explains in a Postscript to his original article: [...] Chauvin: The Case Against the Mob. One of the main arguments being advanced by Eric Nelson, sole attorney for Derek Chauvin in his trial for the murder of George Floyd, is that the hostile crowd itself prevented the officers from attempting to perform CPR in the last minutes of Floyd's life. Even the prosecution's "use of force" experts admitted repeatedly on cross-examination that a hostile crowd would justify Chauvin keeping Floyd restrained until an ambulance arrived. An officer's duty to provide care is overridden by his duty to keep himself, the suspect and the bystanders safe. As was evident from the videos (and admitted to by the bystander witnesses), they were shouting obscenities at the police, threatening them with bodily harm and, in a few instances, had to be held back from rushing the officers. And of course, because of the presence of the angry crowd, the EMTs themselves did not stick around to provide care, but did a "load and scoot," heaving Floyd into the back of the ambulance and driving three blocks to get away from the mob on the street. They didn't even want to work inside an ambulance near this feisty group. As it becomes increasingly obvious that the belligerent onlookers themselves may have gotten George Floyd killed by creating a dangerous situation for the officers, media commentators leap in to do backup work for the prosecutors by sneering at the idea that the officers might have felt threatened by a few rowdy teenagers. The Real Reason for Daunte Wright's Death. Daunte Wright, or at least the life he led, killed Daunte Wright. He wasn't pulled over because he had air fresheners hanging from his rearview mirror. He was pulled over because he had expired tags on his license plate. Then it was noticed that he had air fresheners hanging from his rear view. Then it was noticed he had an outstanding warrant. Then it was noticed he resisted arrest. Then it was noticed he got back in his car and drove away from the police. Which he had done before, as it turned out; Wright had fled from officers in June. The circumstances from which that police encounter arose make for scintillating reading. He was reported to the police for waving a gun around, and when the cops showed up it turned out Wright didn't have a permit for the gun. He ran away. And he was cited and ordered to appear in court. He didn't, which occasioned the warrant for his arrest. That's not all that appears on Wright's record. There was the February arrest for aggravated robbery. There was a disorderly conduct charge arising from a 2019 incident. There was the guilty plea in late 2019 to possession and sale of marijuana. And there was an arrest warrant for armed robbery; [...] In other words, this is someone who chose to be a penny-ante John Dillinger. He ended up with the full ante. Why Does Society Revere Drugged Up Black Criminals? Breonna Taylor. Dijon Kizzee. Jacob Blake. Daniel Prude. Rayshard Brooks. George Floyd. Each name is or has been a rallying cry for both Black Lives Matter and every believer of the manufactured narrative that blacks are oppressed by a white supremacist system and then killed by racist police. Had any of the aforementioned names been born of European descent and followed the same life trajectory, they would have immediately been discarded into oblivion after their unremarkable demise. They would be lucky to even have garnered a footnote in the annals of police interactions. It's not hard to see why. Drugs, violence, and chaos are not the recipe for emulation. However, our culture has chosen to make the deceased, black "victims" our focal point of idolatry, grievance, and remembrance. What other culture has ever sunk to such depths? Understanding How 'Critical Events' Lead to People Getting Killed by Police. Most people would consider the death of George Floyd or Daunte Wright to be a critical incident. They would make that rash assumption because they are "critical" to our political environment. Many pundits and businesses are piling on because the same faulty assumption is applied to voter integrity laws passed in Georgia and under consideration in other states. No one should be rash enough to discount the importance of these events. But the term "critical incident" refers to a completely different concept — one that can inform how we address and prevent such public events. The process of "critical incident analysis" is a method of examining a series of events to identify where a single critical intervention or altered critical choice would have brought the whole "chain of events" to a different conclusion. Daunte Wright's death cries out for such an analysis. How not to get killed when stopped by a cop. I'd like to take a rational look at the confrontations among cops, motorists, and pedestrians. When we see incidents of cops shooting blacks (which are the only shootings the media cover), one thing becomes clear: resisting arrest often ends up with a loss of life. Something else is obvious: when a cop is the one losing his life, it's practically overlooked by the media. When a police officer, whether during a traffic stop or a street stop, is making an arrest, the person being arrested has no right to resist. If that person believes it's an unlawful arrest, he can make that argument at the station house or in a courtroom. However, let's be clear about this: the cop has the legal authority to make the arrest, simply based on the penal law. Moreover, once the officer has uttered the words "you're under arrest," the only right that person has, under the law, is to submit to said arrest. Is A Cultural Revolution Brewing In America? There is a whiff of unease in the air as beneath the cheery veneer of free money for almost everyone, inequality and polarization are rapidly consuming what's left of common ground in America. Though there are many systemic differences between China and the U.S., humans in every nation are all still running Wetware 1.0 and so it is instructive to consider what can be learned from China's Cultural Revolution 1966-1976. China's Cultural Revolution was remarkably different from the Party's military-political victory of 1949. Where the political revolution was managed by the centralized hierarchy of the Communist Party (CCP), the Cultural Revolution quickly morphed from a movement launched by Mao into a decentralized mass movement against all elites, including Party and state elites which had been sacrosanct and untouchable. The Cultural Revolution is not an approved topic in China today, and that alerts us to its importance. Although ostensibly launched by Mao (as part of his 1966 purge of Party rivals), the Cultural Revolution very quickly devolved into a decentralized, semi-chaotic movement of Red Guards, students and other groups who shared ideas and programs but who acted quite independent of the Party's central leadership. It's Time to Call the Bluff of These Woke Corporations, Here's How to Make Them Pay. Yesterday, news broke that somewhere around 100 companies joined a private conference call to discuss how to combat red states that dare have reasonable regulations around voting. This is, of course, all stemming from the lies surrounding Georgia's recent election reform law. [...] Well, let's give them their wish. Mitch McConnell should call up Joe Biden and say he's got a deal on raising the corporate tax rate as long as it's only on the Fortune 500. Leave the small and moderate-sized businesses that are currently being squeezed by these monopolistic behemoths out of it. Let the woke, virtue-signaling among us see what it's really like to live under unfettered, Democrat rule. From American Dream to American Nightmare. Our society has devolved into an oligarchy since The Epic of America was published in 1931, where a powerful few rule over a willfully ignorant many through propaganda, mistruth, fear, and an iron fist. [...] The real questions are why did the American dream turn into an American nightmare and is there a pathway back to the kind of country our forefathers created? There are numerous reasons why the country has fallen far from its original conception as a proud defiant Republic to its current state as a dying empire of depravity, decay, debt, and decadence. The conspiratorial creation of the Federal Reserve and implementation of a Federal income tax in 1913 marked a true destructive turning point for America. These two choices, implemented by greedy bankers and sleazy politicians, put the country on a road to perdition. They centralized the power of money printing and confiscation of our wages at the point of a gun. Guns of April and Global War. In the thirty years since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States has squandered much of its time as the world's sole superpower. Rather than winding down NATO's mission in a post-Soviet world, the West redirected and revitalized the alliance after 9/11 into a global military engagement against "extremism," with the U.S. fortifying its role as the world's policeman. And rather than using the end of the Cold War to balance budgets and fix America's unstable financial footing, the U.S. aggressively burdened itself with new and unsustainable levels of debt. In effect, the U.S. rejected the possibility of multipolar peace, assumed the role of global hegemon, and never saved up for a rainy day. The Left Doesn't Want You to Believe in DeSantis Claus. Is the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination already over? "60 Minutes" seems to think so. They did a dishonest hatchet job on one governor, leaving all the others jealous that the media doesn't think enough of them to try and destroy them before they become Joe Biden's nemesis. That governor is Ron DeSantis of Florida. "60 Minutes" didn't attack Greg Abbott of Texas. They didn't attack Kristi Noem of South Dakota. They didn't attack Doug Ducey of Arizona, or even Brian Kemp of Georgia. "60 Minutes" admitted which Republican fuels its nightmares by attacking Florida Man Ron DeSantis. Governor Ron DeSantis is just 42 years old. He may only be 5-feet-9-inches, but Florida's 46th governor is currently America's wise giant. He's the most popular and the most successful governor in the land. DeSantis is the governor who is calling the shots for all the others. [...] The state's media have been trying to hit him just about every day. They're not targeting him because he's bad. They're targeting him because he's right and he terrifies them and the Democrats. The Hard Road. The current regime in D.C. has some issues, to put it mildly, and its handlers are busy working to shore up its power. Creating a faux internal enemy with the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, H.R. 1 election rigging, gun control, lawless immigration, Puerto Rico and D.C. statehood initiatives and a rash of executive orders are all part of a plan to give the Left unassailable political dominance and implement permanent one-party control. The regime is moving fast, aware that traditional America is disorganized. They realize that this sleeping giant will eventually awake, and they are racing to put in place the cage to contain it before it does. History doesn't always repeat itself, but you can make it rhyme if you try. In 2010, the Tea Party grassroots movement halted the Obama Administration's overt agenda to radically transform America. It wasn't the GOP establishment, the RNC leadership, or the politicians who made the Tea Party the destroyer of utopian fantasies — it was the people. More specifically, it was the little people — the grassroots. The working class, the independent-minded conservatives, and the rowdy not-in-my-house Americans took back the House of Representatives and staved off the Democrats' planned transformation of America in a 2010 version of the spectacle we are seeing today. We need to take the lessons learned from that grassroots Tea Party effort and make them rhyme in the present. The End of an Era, or the Return to an Earlier One? [Scroll down] Now, one of the key factors on everyone's mind with last year's lockdowns, particularly for the kids, is their total isolation with respect to school and after-school activities. These constraints are bubbles within bubbles that utterly inhibit all exposure to the natural world as well as direct personal interactions. Part of that is enforced by an ever-increasing sense of danger in the urban environment where crime and degradation are expanding. Flashing back to mid-20th century and before, kids could be 'feral' without any serious consequences as Mother Nature was steadily upgrading their sense of what being truly alive is all about. If true, I believe there will be a steady shift to more conservative thinking as the autonomy and liberty of those new locations quietly enhances what was once a common denominator across this vast country. The Kind of Leaders Needed to Save America. First and foremost, the movement needs leaders who follow the True North principles of conservatism — principles based on the genius of America's founding and on the many lessons we've learned since; principles that have made this nation exceptional for nearly 250 years. They include the idea that the federal government was created to protect fundamental freedoms and rights such as life, property ownership, freedom of speech and religion, the right to bear arms, and the right to be treated equally under the law. They encompass the concept that the government works for the people, not the other way around, and that taxes should raise the minimum revenue necessary to fund only the constitutionally appropriate functions of government. They also include the notion that the greatest driver of prosperity for all citizens is the free enterprise system. America Must Go Beyond Wishful Thinking About China. Ever since President Richard Nixon's infamous 1972 trip to China, the West has deceived itself into believing that being nice to Red China is a win-win proposition. The policy's underlying reasoning was that opening China up would expose the communist nation to freedom, which would induce its dictators to change and do what is best for the Chinese people. Alas, how wrong the West has been. The wishful thinking revolved around several myths about China. The first myth is that by introducing a free market system into the country, the leadership would gradually adopt a capitalist-like scheme that would be communist in name only. The West has long asserted that the Chinese have abandoned Marxist ideology and embraced world markets. However, the Chinese have never stopped insisting that they are genuinely communist. The more the West claims that China is not communist, the more the Chinese openly say they are. The recent hardline developments of the Xi dictatorship have dashed the hopes of Western optimists. Hong Kong and the persecution of the Catholic Church now offer bitter testimony that nothing has changed. The Fed vs. the Real World. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has made some interesting statements in recent weeks about the Fed's view of inflation. In summary, Chairman Powell has stated that overall inflation remains below the Fed's 2% long-term objective, and that while reopening of the economy could produce price increases later in the year, inflationary pressures from rising prices are likely to be neither large nor persistent. Given the transient nature of these effects, and a long history of deflationary pressures in the U.S. and around the world, Chairman Powell believes that inflation isn't something to worry about. And in any event, Chairman Powell reassures us that the Fed "has the tools to deal with that [inflation]" should it rise above long-term target levels. These statements stand in increasingly sharp contrast to the real world in which ordinary Americans live. How 'It's Covered by Insurance' Wrecks Health Care. A 58-year-old patient came to see me one Monday morning not long ago. He was like so many in his age group — he had spent the weekend getting in a week's worth of exercise. His left knee was sore, and he wanted an MRI. He was not a professional athlete with a huge stake in his physical well-being, and he had not fallen on it or twisted it; it was simply sore from his three-mile jog on Sunday morning. "It's covered by insurance," he told me. Never mind that there was no medical indication to qualify this particular hurt for an MRI. Never mind, too, that he has a $5,000.00 deductible on that policy. Never mind, also, that his knee would very likely heal quickly with the simple intervention of rest, ice, and maybe some physical therapy. Woke Wars: Say the Magic Word! Do you think that last week was Peak Woke? What with Delta's genius CEO Ed Bastian falling into line to criticize Georgia's new election laws, What with MLB pulling the all-star game from Democratic Atlanta, What with Amazon joining in the fun. And then there is the ticklish question of The Dam Busters movie. I probably saw the movie, way back. But did you know that the pilots of 617 Squadron had a black labrador, and its name was... unmentionable? Tell me: is the Woke Capital thing due to Big Business getting bullied around by lefty activist groups threatening to make trouble? Is it CEOs getting a quiet word from Our Nance and Chuck E. Schumer? Is it the wokey ladies in HR? Or is it just Big Business trying to stay out of trouble? The world would really like to know. Where There Is Chaos. We have been diligently working on film production efforts in the midst of an industry meltdown. But that's actually good for a company such as 12 Round Productions. The days of super blockbusters are not economically feasible in a theater industry decimated by Covid restrictions. It is a time of scrambling in the film industry to produce and distribute films with Covid restrictions. Now is the time to get our message out to the masses. This environment forces productions to seek out low and ultra-low budget films for the streaming services. The sort of films that can be made for $500,000 to $5,000,000. The box office for the last week I saw was $28 million across all films for the entire week. Two of those that were moneymakers were legacy animated films. The message to be concluded from that, is that people were taking their children to see films now that the theaters are opening to a greater degree. Who Killed George Floyd? In the death of George Floyd, the State of Minnesota has charged former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin with second-degree murder and former officers Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao with aiding and abetting that murder. But, as will be shown in detail below, the physical, scientific, and electronically recorded evidence in the case overwhelmingly and conclusively proves that these defendants are not guilty of the charges and, in fact, played no material role in bringing about Floyd's death. Instead, the evidence proves that, when he first encountered the police, George Floyd was well on his way to dying from a self-administered drug overdose. Moreover, far from publicly, brazenly, and against their own self-interest slowly and sadistically killing Floyd in broad daylight before civilian witnesses with video cameras, the evidence proves that the defendants exhibited concern for Floyd's condition and twice called for emergency medical services to render aid to him. Strange behavior, indeed, for supposedly brutal law officers allegedly intent on causing him harm. There's No Way to Disprove That George Floyd Died of a Drug Overdose. George Floyd, a violent criminal who had robbed a pregnant woman at gunpoint, and a drug addict, is dead. That much is clear. What is also clear is that George Floyd's death was exploited to incite the massive BLM race riots that killed and wounded many people, destroyed lives, wrecked communities, tore apart a nation, and helped the Democrats take power. The show trial now comes down to a very simple question, a few really, but one of the basic ones is what actually killed George Floyd. How Stupid are American Voters? Very! Perhaps stupid is not the right word. Gullible is not right either. It's really hard to pinpoint the main reason behind the disastrous state of our country but the cold hard fact is that many Americans have fallen for two of the biggest hoaxes perpetrated by the left, the media and corrupt politicians. It's too simple to blame the voters of any particular party when the main culprits are the individuals who just can't be bothered with politics. They don't want to get involved so they don't vote yet they complain when their taxes go up or their civil rights are taken away. American voters have rarely come out in huge numbers on Election Day. But last year for the first time in many decades, millions of people whose eyes had been opened to the hoaxes of covid-19 and global warming went to the polls but the damage had already been done. The left had been planning a coup many years ago because they had control of the mainstream media to spew the politics of fear and envy and of course the stay at home voters allowed the Manchurian candidates to seize the legislatures, city councils and school boards. Pence "Laying Groundwork" For a 2024 Presidential Bid? Two media reports [Here and Here] about former VP Mike Pence considering a potential run for President in 2024 present the most laughable political hypothetical in recent memory. Particularly, and specifically, because even President Trump would likely not include Pence in a short list of people for endorsement. The Editor says... As We Look For Others. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem's recent self-disqualification as a potential leader bids us recall that the public will follow only those who actually lead them by personally defying the oligarchy. Focusing on themselves is the worst thing that they can do. Noem had seemed to be such a leader. [...] When the test came, she failed it. A bill passed overwhelmingly by her legislature would have prohibited biological males from competing on girls' and women's teams. She declared eagerness to sign it. Then, the usual corporate executives threatened South Dakota business with boycotts, and the Chamber of Commerce transmitted the pressure. Her claim to have followed the advice of unnamed "legal experts, legal scholars," was standard responsibility-shifting. The Trump-Hate Coalition Is Crumbling. It is remarkable to see how quickly the unified opinion against former President Trump and for the alleged necessity of removing him from the White House has cracked apart since that goal was achieved. Following the inauguration, there were endless purposeful assurances that the former president would be pursued to the ends of the earth for his iniquity. Even hard-bitten Fox News commentators like Brit Hume felt compelled to toe the line and denounce claims that the election had been rigged as discredited bunkum. Questioning the integrity of the election result was considered tantamount to an attempt to continue the quest for insurrection, and questioning whether Trump had attempted to generate an insurrection was itself a racist offense. The president-elect assured us that the January 6 assault on the Capitol was a white supremacist attack bungled by white supremacist Capitol police. Racism, like treason with Russia four years before, was everywhere. The
Real Five Laws of American Politics. To summarize:
The Seventh Crisis and the Millennials. Over the course of recent decades our country has endured an assault on its institutions, its traditions, and its good and decent people. This relentless assault has driven the country into a grave crisis, causing it to pass through a great gate of history. This crisis will be momentous, consequential, and we will be profoundly changed by it. Our nation has experienced similar existential crises before in the American Revolution, the Civil War and the Great Depression/World War II. Each of these crucibles brought about wide-ranging transformations. As events have accelerated in the past several years, there appears to be little doubt the nation has entered another such crisis. Women should not deliberately be sent into combat. I know I will upset many readers with this column, but I speak from experience. Women should not be combat soldiers on purpose and should not have combat commands, either. This has suddenly become a pressing matter because Biden just nominated women to those positions. I used the phrase "on purpose" because we can't always predict where fighting will occur. Women in the military must, therefore, be trained and equipped to fight as effectively as possible. However, we must not throw them into harm's way as a matter of course. The Nature of Chinese Contempt for Us. Last week in Anchorage, Alaska, Chinese diplomats dressed down Biden Administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Both seem stunned by the Chinese broadsides. Apparently, as elite Americans readily confess to inherent white supremacy and racism — highlighting the complaints of BLM and Antifa — the Chinese are happy to agree that such admittedly toxic Americans should not dare to criticize China's racist policies. Not since newly elected President John Kennedy was humiliated at the Cold War Vienna summit in June 1961 by USSR strongman Nikita Khrushchev have American diplomats been so roughly manhandled by a Communist government. China's defiant provocations are not just verbal. Nor are they aimed only at our high officials. Whenever You Disagree with Liberals, You're a Conspiracy Theorist. The fact is that, unlike Jimmy Carter, Reagan and his advisers, including the formidable Jeane Kirkpatrick, knew who our friends were — and who were our enemies — and he backed this knowledge up with a willingness to use force. That is the only basis for a foreign policy that will ever work. Now, with Joe Biden, we have another Carter-style president who doesn't know friend from enemy and who wouldn't act if he had to. That's just the kind of policy that brings on a confrontation, and one is coming because our enemies, sensing weakness, will press Biden as far as they can. On China, Biden Is an Empty Suit. The Biden administration continues to show itself to be an empty suit on foreign policy. In the wake of the crisis, er, challenges on the southern border, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez called Biden "the migrant president." After President Biden confirmed in an interview that yes, Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "killer," Putin wished Biden good health and challenged Biden to a "basically live ... open, direct discussion." Add China to the list of countries making us a laughingstock. The opening remarks of last week's meeting between the Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan with China's foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi and State Councilor Wang Yi in Alaska clearly reveal that the Biden administration lacks a credible, substantive China policy. There were several key takeaways from that meeting. [...] Taming the Chinese Rare-Earth Tiger. Synonyms for REE include rare-earth metals (REM), rare-earth oxides (REO), and lanthanides. Unless writing technical papers, distinguishing among the various synonyms isn't worth the effort. In general, REE are 17 elements that are critical in our high-tech world. REE are not rare but are typically not found in significant concentrations anywhere in the world. For example, large ore deposits with concentrations above 6% are virtually unknown outside South Africa's closed Steenkampskraal mine. Refining REEs presents its own problems, since the refining process often produces significant amounts of toxic and radioactive waste, like thorium and uranium. The takeaways are (1) feasible mining concentrations of REEs are scarce and (2) refining REEs imposes environmental risks. Don't investigate this. The Washington Post reports that "momentum is stalling amid congressional efforts to swiftly investigate the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol." Good. The Democrats want to use the riot for political purposes. They hope, with assistance from the always-obliging media, to present it as the tip of an insurrectionary iceberg spearheaded by hardcore Trump supporters. To this end, Nancy Pelosi favors a 9/11 style commission. She would like this small riot, in which only a handful of people died, to live in infamy the way the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, in which thousands of American perished, does. But comparing Jan. 6 and 9/11 is absurd on many levels. For purposes of determining the need for a a commission, a key difference is this: It was clear after 9/11 that the U.S. needed to overhaul its approach to combatting the persistent threat of international terrorism. We even created a new cabinet level department for this purpose. Hooray! The Government is Handing out Free Money. If you and your spouse had income of $150,000 or less last year, you are about to receive another windfall from the Federal government. It will be $5,600, counting the free money for your two kids, your wife and you. It doesn't matter that you didn't suffer any income loss this past year. The money is there for you to spend as you please. [...] In addition to the free money, for those that were hurt by being laid off from their job, last May the Federal Government added up to $600 per week on top of the state unemployment compensation. That meant about two thirds of the unemployed Americans were bringing in more money not working than if they were working. [...] You may wonder where the government is getting all this money? It comes from two places: either they borrow it directly from the public with no intention of ever repaying it, or they simply print the money. [...] For more logical and rational citizens something doesn't seem quite right. America can only count on freedom. Watching the childish glee of turn around orders being signed for the sole purpose of reversing successful economic policies is not lost on a now economically educated populace. They see through the foolish names of these vengeful immature policies. Unity be damned in the name of toxic revenge. No mother would let her 5-year-old get away with this slow-motion tantrum we are seeing on the evening news. The information explosion that has driven the world economy to new heights has also filled the air with debris that has clouded our understanding of what brought us to this level of prosperity. [...] Government is damaging our economy as it doles out trillions in the name of help. It is not helping anyone except those having their votes bought with government redistribution of the taxes we pay out of our earnings. We must be reminded that calling this abuse by other names does not change its deadening economic effect. We are not helped by spending tax dollars and labeling them economic help when in truth they are doing economic harm. We saw this for eight years of slow growth using this same shell game. We then saw it reversed for four years when we stopped doing it. These numbers cannot be denied, but they are by our new political masters and their media peanut gallery. Prepping for a Two Week Power Outage. If you're new to preparedness, you may be reading some of the excellent and informative websites out there and feeling quite quite overwhelmed. While many sites recommend a one year supply of food, manual tools, and a bug out lodge in the forest, it's vital to realize that is a long-term goal, not a starting point. A great starting point for someone who is just getting started on a preparedness journey is prepping specifically for a two-week power outage. If you can comfortably survive for two weeks without electricity, you will be in a far better position than most of the people in North America. Our National Destruction Is a Failure of Boundaries. Why do the feds usurp authority from the states, and why do the states demand of the feds, and why do people trespass on someone's right to speak? Why does the Executive Branch make law when the Congress is constitutionally assigned that responsibility? Why are so many boundaries being invaded, and why is trespassing no longer a crime? The answer is obvious. We no longer respect boundaries. We have become that tribal human animal before religion awoke us to the necessity of morality. The whole concept of existentialism rides on the concept of organized and lawful conduct. Some say "social contract." Pick your terminology; say it how you like. The ends are the same. This society is fracturing at an alarming rate. Nothing can turn the tide until boundaries are once again recognized and respected. There is no moral code without them. Time to End the Clock-Changing Madness. The dreaded time has come for Americans to lose one hour of sleep as we "spring forward" to daylight saving time (DST) and move forward our clocks. This adds another nuisance, as it is already difficult for Americans to sleep enough with the constant stress of COVID-19, economic woes, and societal unrest throughout the country. One easy way to improve our sleep is to end this ridiculous ritual, which creates needless headaches and causes the unnecessary aggravation of changing our clocks twice a year. It may have been a good idea when it was implemented in 1918; however, over one century later, it has lost its usefulness. In November, it will be time to "fall back" an hour to standard time. All this clock-changing leads to increased accidents, a higher incidence of heart attacks, a loss of productivity, and pointless confusion for the American people. Is daylight savings time a health hazard? Daylight savings time is upon us. Sunday, March 14 is when we are to turn the clock ahead in order to 'save the daylight.' No need to go into the genesis of this. It suffices to say that what may have been useful way back when has dubious value today. To most people, this fiddling around with the clocks is an inconvenience and an annoyance and leads to a degree of confusion for a day or so. But did you know that a credible case can be made that it is also a health hazard? So says Matthew Walker, professor of neuroscience and psychology at UC Berkeley and director of its Center of Human Sleep Science. Stop Standard Time Madness: We Should Be Saving Daylight All Year Long. It's almost our favorite day of the year: the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, when we can fast-forward our clocks, stop the winter darkness that descends by mid-afternoon, and crawl out of our stuffy homes after dinner into the evening light. Amid Biden's "dark winter" of COVID hell, the act of "springing forward" out of Standard Time is especially welcomed this year. That's why a glorious piece of legislation popping up in the Senate is a bright spot this week — not only because it's bipartisan, but also because it would literally grant daylight to weary Americans. The Sunshine Protection Act would make Daylight Savings Time permanent across the country, putting to bed the absurd practice we continue year after year of switching our clocks around — or not, and accidentally sleeping through church. The Current Balance Sheet of American Democracy. [Scroll down] Now, 85 percent of Americans do not believe their media on political subjects, over 80 percent of Americans disapprove of the performance of the Congress, and approximately 50 percent of Americans believe that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Many of the more vocal spokespeople for the current narrow majority in government purport to believe that President Trump's and his supporters' allegations of the questionable integrity of last presidential election constitute part of an attempt to overthrow the government unlawfully; that this attempt exploded in the invasion and vandalization of the Capitol on January 6, and that it continues. The fact that there are some worrisome irregularities in the voting and counting of votes in a number of the swing states is simply denied. The fact that the Supreme Court in declining to hear a case from the attorney general of Texas and supported by 16 other states that the swing states in question failed to discharge their constitutional duty to assure a fair presidential election, abdicated the coequal status of the judiciary with the legislative and executive branches of government, is ignored. National political media uniformly refer to questions of the integrity of the last presidential election as discredited and debunked. At least 95 percent of the national political media and 100 percent of the social media platforms are opposed to the Republicans, who control most of the states and have half of the Senators and are only a few votes short of half of the Members of the House of Representatives. Kristi Noem for President? Not So Fast. Governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem made headlines in 2020 for keeping her state open during the COVID-19 outbreak and opposing Faucian dictates about masks, stay-at-home orders, and church closures. To this, conservatives applauded — and rightly so. But does holding the line during a pandemic in a state with less than 900 thousand people — about the size of Charlotte, North Carolina — now warrant the frenetic swell of support for Noem among conservatives to be the next vice president or even president? Absolutely not — especially at time when the fight for constitutional conservative values is more important than ever. I Haven't Used Amazon For Almost 3 Months And I Don't Miss It One Bit. My husband and I have been Amazon users for about 15 years. In college, I used it to buy and sell books, rolling the cost of last semester's books I didn't plan to keep into the next semester's set. We became Prime members in July 2017 and delighted in two- and even one-day shipping of everything from diapers to canned goods to dry erase markers to work boots, eliminating the annoyance of running to the store over one or two items. [...] It seemed fun, easy, and exciting. And then it wasn't fun, easy, and exciting any more, because Amazon became evil — and I learned how evil they had really been all along. Using it to indulge my own greed and materialism was one problem. Amazon's use of its market power is another. Both are a big deal. Leftists Start a Pillow Fight with Mike Lindell. Is there an American who doesn't know Lindell? A college dropout and serial entrepreneur, he became addicted to crack cocaine. He lost his home and was divorced. He credits his sobriety to his Christian faith. He's passionate about it, as anyone should be after escaping the talons of the devil. There but for the grace of God goes any of us. He invented his revolutionary pillow in 2004. My pillow is a MyPillow. It costs a lot, but [it does] exactly what it claims. The typical box-store pillow is shot after a year at most. MyPillow soldiers on. Lindell's son is running the company now, though Dad's familiar face still sells the products on TV. His new ambition is politics. [...] With his highly visible support of the Orange Man, the benevolent bedding-peddler with the cross around his neck quickly earned a place on the Public Enemies List of the mainstream media and the radical left. The U.S. Economy Is Rigged. The economy's "riggi |