Rightwinggranny is adding some guest writers to the website this year. The opinions expressed by these writers are not necessarily the opinions of rightwinggranny.
Fighting Absurdity With Absurdity
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On Saturday, The Dallas Express posted an article about two basketball players who have asked to be included in the 2027 Women’s National Basketball Association draft. The two players are Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White, both retired National Basketball League players.
The article reports:
A second former NBA player has declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft.
Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have announced plans to pursue the 2027 WNBA Draft, arguing that the league’s current eligibility rules do not clearly define who qualifies as a “woman” or establish a specific “transgender” eligibility standard.
Royce White was the first to publicly declare his intentions. On August 4, 2026, the former NBA player posted on X: “I’m now transgender. I’m going to pursue a career in the WNBA… I identify as a sometimes identifying trans woman. I wish to be treated fairly and don’t want to be discriminated against. This is a serious pursuit. I realize after 35 years, I’m actually a woman.”
Three days later, on August 7, Enes Kanter Freedom posted a detailed video announcement formally declaring himself a WNBA prospect for the 2027 draft, stating he had reviewed the league’s eligibility guidelines on self-identification and inclusion.
White then expanded on his earlier comments that same day in an interview with Fox News Digital, noting that he had already made his declaration first.
“How you gonna pass up on a 6-foot-8, 270-pound point forward?” White told Fox News/Outkick Sports.
Freedom is 6-foot-10 and listed at 250 pounds during his career, while White is listed at 6-foot-8 and over 260 pounds.
The article concludes:
The declarations come during an ongoing WNBA debate over “transgender” participation in women’s sports that intensified after Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham publicly opposed allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports in July.
“I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think with that love is truth, being honest. And I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men,” Cunningham told ESPN.
Freedom and White have framed their moves as tests of consistency with stated inclusion principles rather than formal entries into the league.
The 2027 WNBA Draft is scheduled for April. White has indicated possible legal action if denied participation based on identity. Formal eligibility determinations would occur closer to the draft process.
Stay tuned.
Protecting The President Is A Priority
Every President serves with the risk of assassination. President Trump, however, seems to have weathered a few more attempts that usual. The Secret Service is doing their job, and recently in Turkey the Secret Service did something out of a James Bond movie.
On August 11, The New York Post reported:
New details are emerging about President Trump’s great escape from Ankara last month with the revelation that he was smuggled off Air Force One by a Turkish airport catering truck to board a different military jet.
Trump’s exit from the annual NATO conference — within reach of Iranian missiles — already stoked weeks of intrigue over his purported use of an older version of Air Force One instead of the luxurious Qatar-gifted aircraft on which he arrived.
Trump actually used a third plane in an elaborate ruse that fooled not only Iran, but also the traveling press pool and some members of the president’s own staff.
…It’s unclear which other officials joined Trump in the truck, though he’s typically accompanied by a doctor and staffers designated to maintain contact with the military and White House chief of staff’s office.
The fresh reporting raised new questions, including whether there was a specific threat to Trump’s life, rather than a vague concern involving the Iran conflict.
The White House has not denied the Washington Post’s account, which cited two sources, including at least one US official.
The article concludes:
Hours before his stealth relocation to the third plane, Trump spoke about Iranian leaders wanting to kill him. That week, funeral processions for the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei featured banners threatening to kill the US president.
When a New York Post reporter asked Trump at a news conference in Ankara whether he was ditching the new plane due to threats from Iran, the president responded that “I’m number one on the kill list” for the Islamic Republic, but declined to elaborate further.
When another journalist pressed Trump on his publicly stated plane swap, the president insisted he sent the Qatari jet out of Turkey “so the soldiers can see it, because it’s truly magnificent.”
The deception — and its revelation — are incredibly rare if not unprecedented.
Then-President Bill Clinton similarly used Air Force One as a decoy in 2000 during a high-risk trip to Pakistan, but at least some reporters were aware ahead of time and the ploy was revealed publicly upon arrival.
Notice he left the reporters on the original plane. Hmmm.
It Just Gets Uglier
I remember how hopeful I was when Jeff Sessions was chosen to be President Trump’s Attorney General. I also remember how disappointed I was when he recused himself from the Russian collusion probes. Well, we now might have the answer as to why that happened.
On Monday, Just The News reported:
The FBI opened a probe into sitting Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2017 for potentially making false statements to Congress about Russian contacts even though he had already updated the disputed testimony, newly declassified documents show.
The evidence to support the probe — codenamed MARCH TOLL and opened one day after FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Donald Trump — was a weeks-old letter from Democrats and an article from a liberal news site, the memos show.
The bureau’s investigative files into the Sessions matter were declassified by President Donald Trump and made public Monday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force.
The investigation was predicated on evidence contained in a March 20, 2017, letter to Comey from two Democrat senators on the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Al Franken of Minnesota.
The senators argued that Sessions made false statements in his confirmation hearing earlier that year when he testified about communications with members of the Russian government.
A Trump administration official told reporters the timing of the investigation raises concerns because it was opened right after Comey’s firing and more than a month and a half after the Democratic senators wrote to the FBI.
The article notes:
Sessions sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6 to supplement his prior testimony, confirming that he did, in fact, meet with the Russian ambassador twice during the campaign season, but that his answer, “I didn’t have–did not have communications with the Russians […]” was truthful because Franken asked about a “continuing exchange of information during the campaign” between agents of the campaign and the Russian government.
“I did not mention communications I had had with the Russian Ambassador over the years because the question did not ask about them,” Sessions wrote in the letter.
…However, the FBI did not act on the letter until the day after President Trump fired FBI Director Comey, citing a Justice Department belief that Comey mishandled the Hillary Clinton email investigation. The department’s own independent Inspector General would later conclude that Comey “violated long-standing department practice and protocol” with his conduct in the Clinton case.
The FBI’s opening memo shows that the investigation into Sessions was first opened at the FBI’s Washington Field Office at the direction of headquarters solely predicated on the March 20 letter from Sens. Leahy and Franken. The file also noted that Comey notified then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on April 28 that the case would be opened.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. I believe this explains a lot about the behavior of Jeff Sessions. It also may explain how the Democrats have turned so many of the Republicans in Congress into spineless weenies. If someone threatens you with being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), you tend to do what they request.
Posted by my friends at Townhall:
Challenging Absurdity With Absurdity
The WNBA has had some challenges lately. Two recent articles at The Gateway Pundit have reported on some of those challenges.
On August 7th, The Gateway Pundit reported:
A former NBA player has set the internet ablaze after issuing the ultimate challenge to the ultra-woke WNBA’s self-proclaimed tolerance and inclusion policies to the trans community: announcing he will join the league in the coming months.
Enes Kanter Freedom, a Turkish player who played for five NBA franchises over his 11-year career, went viral on Friday after announcing he would identify as female and declare for the 2027 WNBA Draft.
He told America that he and his lawyers knew he was ‘qualified’ to participate after a careful review of the WNBA’s self-identification requirements.
Kanter Freedom added that his intention was “not to mock, make fun of, or disrespect any community or personal choices.” All he wants is for the current rules “to be applied equally to everyone.”
On August 8th, The Gateway Pundit reported:
The league is launching task-force meetings and “listening sessions” as two former NBA players demand to know whether its women-only eligibility rule is based on sex or self-identification.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has rushed out a memo to teams nationwide on Friday after former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declared themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft by identifying as women.
In the memo, obtained by the Associated Press, Engelbert tried to walk a tightrope, admitting the issue of transgender (biological male) participation will keep drawing “significant attention” while labeling it a “complex and nuanced topic.”
Engelbert wrote that the league will “always approach this topic thoughtfully, respectfully, and in alignment with the longstanding values of our league.”
I realize that it would totally ruin the league, but I would love to see what would happen if Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White actually played in a WNBA game.
Meanwhile, let’s just admit the obvious–there are differences between men and women, and some of those differences result in more athletic ability and stamina for men. There are exceptions, but they are rare.
Pouring Money Into Something Without Ever Addressing The Root Problem
On August 10, The New York Post posted at article about the causes of death among New York City’s homeless population. The fact that almost half of the deaths among the homeless were alcohol or drug related shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The article reports:
Almost half of the deaths of New York City’s homeless population were tied to drugs and alcohol, an eye-opening new report found.
Some 285 of the 634 homeless residents who died in a one-year stretch from 2024-25 lost their lives because of drug addiction, overdoses or alcoholism, the Departments of Health and Social Services/Homeless Services said in its 2026 report.
The analysis, which covers documented deaths from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, includes deaths in temporary shelters as well as on the streets, in subways, abandoned properties or while in an acquaintance’s home.
…Authors of the report said the numbers are likely undercounted due to difficulties tracking thousands of migrants served by other agencies operating temporary encampments during the border crisis at the Mexican border.
“Some of the tens of thousands of new migrants provided shelter by H+H [Health+Hospitals], HPD [Housing Preservation and Development] and New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) could have died and not be identified as homeless decedents since DOHMH did not receive data from these agencies for matching,” the report said.
The top five leading causes of death in FY25 were drug-related (40% or 251), heart disease (12% or 78), accidents excluding drug overdose (9% or 60), alcohol misuse/dependence (5% or 34), and cancer (4% or 23).
The article notes:
The report found a positive trend.
The number of deaths among persons experiencing homelessness dropped by nearly 18%, from 770 in the prior 2024 fiscal year to 634 in FY 2025.
Drug-related deaths remained the leading cause of death among the homeless population, consistent with prior city and national trends.
Drug-related deaths plummeted 28%, from 348 (45% of the total) in FY 2024 to 251 (40%) in FY 2025.
That drop might have a lot to do with the border security policies instituted by President Trump.
Homelessness is not always related to poverty or the cost of housing. There are much deeper issues, including mental illness. To blame homelessness on the cost of housing is naive at best. To blindly provide hotels for the homeless does not solve the long-term problem. In some cases it does not even provide a workable temporary solution.
Until a successful program is developed that includes getting off drugs, finding gainful employment, and providing mental health services, the homeless are going to be with us.
When Politics Ruins Sports
The Women’s National Basketball Association has received a fairly significant amount of viewership this year as opposed to other years. Two of the reasons are Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham. Both are excellent players who have made news for reasons other than their play. Caitlin Clark has had a target on her back since she entered the league, and Sophie Cunningham has at time operated as Caitlin’s enforcer and at other times spoken out against men in women’s sports.
On August 9th, The Daily Caller reported:
A WNBA player torched by referees for a violent foul turned to social media and pointed at race.
Chicago Sky guard DiJonai Carrington drew a flagrant 2 and an ejection Saturday for a hard foul on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, then posted the words “WHITE PRIVILEGE” on her Threads account and tagged the Fever.
The foul landed late in the first quarter of a game Indiana won 90-86. Cunningham was out ahead of the pack on a fast-break layup when Carrington chased her down and struck her across the face and neck, dropping her to the floor as the shot fell, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Officials initially assessed a flagrant 1, then upgraded it after review, citing windup, impact and follow-through on the play.
Cunningham rejected any suggestion that race played a part. “I think the league is taking care of that. This has nothing to do with race. Last year, I did the same thing and I got kicked out. And I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason even to play that card,” she said, according to ESPN.
When you commit a foul in a game, you should be called on it. Your race should not come into play (it didn’t in this situation). Playing the race card is ridiculous. What Carrington is asking for is not having a foul called when one is committed because she is black. That is racism.
I think there is more soap opera in the current WNBA than there is on daytime television.
Todd Blanche Has Been Confirmed As Attorney General
On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported that Todd Blanche has been confirmed as Attorney General.
The article reports:
The Senate confirmed Todd Blanche as Attorney General early Saturday, permanently placing President Donald Trump’s former personal criminal defense attorney in charge of the Justice Department. Critics argued the transfer of authority was an unprecedented conflict of interest; the administration’s allies insisted it was a straightforward exercise of presidential appointment power.
Blanche was confirmed 50-49. Senators. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined every Democrat in opposing the nomination. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was absent due to his ongoing health issues.
Blanche has served as acting Attorney General since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April. Before that, he was Deputy Attorney General, confirmed in March without any Republican defections. His latest confirmation was considerably more difficult.
Republicans raised concerns on three fronts: the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files; a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, established as part of a settlement of Trump’s lawsuit over his tax returns, that critics feared would compensate January 6 defendants; and an IRS immunity provision shielding Trump and his family from future audits, a measure with no clear statutory basis that drew objections from tax law practitioners across the political spectrum.
First of all, the two biggest problems in the first Trump administration were the constant lawfare against President Trump and the fact that not all of his cabinet members were people he could trust. I am totally in favor of this appointment because a President deserves an Attorney General who will not stab him in the back.
The article concludes:
Blanche joined Trump’s legal team in 2023, leaving a partnership at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. He represented Trump in the hush-money trial, helped win the Supreme Court’s landmark presidential immunity ruling, and secured dismissal of the classified-documents indictment in Florida. Trump later tapped him as Deputy Attorney General, saying he would fix a justice system “broken” by years of political weaponization.
As Attorney General, Blanche now holds permanent authority over an institution he has already spent months reshaping. The confirmation changes little operationally, as he has been running the department since April, but it removes the political vulnerability of acting status and gives him a freer hand. Whether the written assurances he made to secure Republican votes constrain him in practice, or whether they dissolve the moment the Senate leaves town for recess, is the question that will define his tenure.
Getting History Right
On July 28, RealClearPolitics posted an article about some new signs the National Park Service hung at the President’s House Site in Independence Park, where George Washington lived as president while Philadelphia was the nation’s capital.
The article reports:
The site’s previous exhibit, opened during the Obama administration, was spurred by leftist activists like the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. As ATAC (pronounced “attack”) said in an amicus brief filed in federal court, it “embedded” itself in the site’s “development.” ATAC has sponsored “Anti-July Fourth Day” events, while its founder, Michael Coard, says that “July Fourth is a celebration of … rapes, castrations, lynchings, and enslavement,” and those who celebrate it are “traitors” who “embrace whiteness” and “the 1776 birth of the racist American nation.”
…The new signs suffer under no such illusions. Instead, in the words of Third Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hardiman, “These new panels are full of historical context.”
But Americans should judge for themselves.
The old signs described Washington’s actions as “deplorable,” “profoundly disturbing,” and as having “mocked the nation’s pretense to be a beacon of liberty.” The new signs observe that Washington “often expressed discomfort” with slavery and “a desire to see it abolished,” yet “as a Virginia plantation owner, his wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.” They note that he “signed legislation that both upheld and limited slavery,” including banning it in the Northwest Territory (the current Midwest). They highlight that he “helped draft the Fairfax Resolves at Mount Vernon,” calling for putting “an entire Stop” to the “wicked” slave trade. They observe, “Among all of the Founders, Washington carried out the largest manumission of enslaved people” through his will.
The old signs essentially ignored the Civil War’s existence, even omitting it from a “Slavery Timeline.” As the new signs note, Abraham Lincoln said that most Americans, like the founders, viewed slavery as “a vast moral evil.” But it “took Lincoln and a bloody Civil War to finish the work that the Founders had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for all.”
The article concludes:
No one can reasonably say that the new signs neglect slavery, or lack nuance. For example, the signs note that slaves living there were at times “able to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets.” ATAC’s Coard finds this claim particularly objectionable, yet it’s true: Washington biographer Ron Chernow writes in “Washington: A Life” that slaves at the house enjoyed “a modicum of freedom to roam the city,” citing financial records: “Household accounts for June 1792 disclose expense money doled out for ‘Austin, Hercules & Oney to go to the play.’”
In truth, it is the woke left that eschews complexity in its telling of America’s history. By embracing nuance and accuracy at the President’s House Site, the Trump administration has done the American public – and George Washington – a great service.
Yes, slavery is part of America’s past as it was part of most nations at that time. Yes, slavery is wrong, and it would have been nice for the U.S. Constitution to have outlawed it, but that would have prevented the U.S. Constitution from ever becoming the law of the land. Our past is not perfect, but we need to work toward a more perfect future.
From my friends at Townhall:
When Judges Get Political
On Friday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about a recent judge’s decision regarding the ballroom President Trump is constructing at the White House.
The article reports:
In an earlier era, improving the East Wing of the White House by adding an underground secure area and an above-ground facility large enough to host significant international social events, and that includes bathrooms–something now lacking when such events take place in tents on the White House lawn–might have been uncontroversial. But Democrats fanatically oppose anything the Trump administration attempts to do, so they have tried to halt construction of the East Wing ballroom.
Today a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Trump administration to cease all construction of the ballroom, while allowing construction of the secure underground area to go ahead. You can read the Court’s opinions here. The majority opinion was written by Patricia Millett, an Obama appointee, and Bradley Garcia, a Biden appointee. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, dissented.
The majority opinion goes on just about forever, 101 pages, but doesn’t seem particularly persuasive. The threshold issue is standing. The plaintiff in the case is the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but that organization has nothing to do with the White House grounds, which are under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. The Trust claims to have standing to sue because it has a member who occasionally walks past the White House and thinks she will consider the new ballroom to be aesthetically unpleasant. This strikes me as just about the weakest possible reed on which to hang a standing claim.
The article concludes:
Past presidents have made various repairs and improvements to the White House without specific Congressional authorization, but the majority dismisses these instances as “anomalies.” One imagines that in past eras–that is, eras not dominated by the Democratic Party’s insane hatred of Donald Trump–much-needed improvements to the White House grounds would have proceeded by consensus. But these days, there is no consensus on anything, and everything is a federal case.
The Supreme Court will have the opportunity to resolve this dispute, if it chooses to do so. Meanwhile, construction of the ballroom will stand idle and potentially exposed to the elements.
Hopefully this case will get to the U.S. Supreme Court quickly before the structure of the exposed building succumbs to black mold and other consequences of being left exposed.
Numbers You Probably Aren’t Hearing In The News
On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about some of the economic numbers President Trump cited in a recent speech in Nevada. He is reciting those numbers because the majority of the press is ignoring them.
The article reports:
President Donald Trump touted the results of his economic policies in Las Vegas on Wednesday, including 40,000 new jobs for Nevadans since his second term began.
Trump highlighted his administration’s economic wins in the Silver State and nationally while delivering remarks at Red Rock Casino.
…“Here in Nevada, we’ve created over 40,000 new jobs and lifted nearly 100,000 Nevadans off of food stamps,” he said. ” And they don’t want to be on food stamps, because they’ve got new jobs. They’ve got jobs. They don’t need food stamps.”
He then noted that more Americans are working now than ever before.
“Last month, inflation dropped at the fastest rate it’s dropped in many years, and… so the biggest thing for this whole thing: more Americans are working in the United States right now than at any point in the history of our country,” he added.
…Trump also touted his No Tax on Tips policy, which became law through the One Big Beautiful Bill, where workers, beginning this past April, can deduct up to $25,000 of their tipped income. The policy is particularly beneficial in the Silver State, where many work as waiters, waitresses, bartenders, and in other tipped professions.
…No Tax on Tips was one of several novel tax policies Trump and Congressional Republicans created in the One Big Beautiful Bill. Others include an up to $12,500 deduction for overtime pay, a tax deduction of up to $10,000 for interest paid on loans for cars assembled in the United States, and Social Security deductions for certain seniors.
One family, in which all members benefited from aspects of the One Big Beautiful Bill, joined Trump on stage. Sandra, a waitress, and her husband Brad, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officer, saved thousands thanks to No Tax on Tips and overtime, while their children each have Trump Accounts, which were also established in the legislation.
Elections really do matter. A waitress and a police officer are not rich. Both are very valuable to American society. The tax cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill helped average Americans–they did not go to the rich as the Democrats have claimed. Voting for a Democrat right now is taking a financial risk!
The Federal Bureau Of Investigation As A Political Force
On Wednesday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the recent revelations about Russiagate. There really should be some people who were in our government during the first Trump administration (and slightly before) that should be sitting in a jail cell.
The article reports:
For a number of years, perhaps continuing to the present, the FBI was a covert arm of the Democratic Party. This is a huge scandal, the depths of which have not yet been plumbed. Today more emails were released by the federal government, showing that in 2017, while Donald Trump was president, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Trump–the person to whom the FBI reports–was a Russian agent.
The question is absurd on its face. The whole “Russia” claim came from the fake Steele dossier that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. By the time the 2017 investigation was opened, the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was a fraud.
Moreover, the most important thing any U.S. president can do to help the Russians is to suppress production of American oil and gas, as Barack Obama did. The most important thing any U.S. president can do to hurt the Russians is to promote production of American oil and gas, as President Trump did. The idea of Trump as “Russian agent” was idiotic from the start.
The article includes links to the documents that authorized the investigation into President Trump and various X posts that provide further information. Please follow the link to read the entire article.
The article concludes:
I continue to think that the FBI is capable of doing good work, as it did in the Minnesota fraud investigation. But the extent of the partisan corruption that has come to light in recent years requires that we re-think both the structure of that agency and the scope of its powers.
Good idea.
Washington Continues To Ignore The Voters
It’s bad enough that 80 percent of Americans support the SAVE Act, and the Republican Congress can’t seem to get it passed, but Congress is not the only group in Washington that is ignoring the will of the voters.
On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported:
As voters head into the midterm elections, they’ll be looking at how the GOP has delivered on its mandates, especially its clear directive on immigration.
Voters elected President Donald Trump on a platform centered on large-scale removals of illegal immigrants and an end to the Biden-era open border policies. The influx of millions of illegal immigrants placed significant strain on almost every aspect of American lives, from housing to jobs. The electorate rejected this and demanded a fundamental reversal. Instead, Congress and members of the Trump administration consistently push for moderation rather than the much-needed intensity of the original agenda.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Markwayne Mullin has disappointed large segments of the president’s political base. While he publicly affirms support for the voter mandate of mass deportations, his operational decisions reveal a more restrained approach.
The Daily Caller notes:
It’s been two years since Trump came back into office. Members of his own administration have said that at least 20 million illegal immigrants came in under the Biden years. Even if the administration’s claim that 3 million illegal immigrants have been removed either by deportation or self-deportation since 2025 is correct, that number is not nearly enough to make a difference in relieving the hardship Americans face because of their presence.
Additionally, if Republicans fail to maintain control of Congress after the midterm elections, the number of removals will be significantly hindered by an oppositional Democratic Party. Knowing that the base is begging for action, one would assume that elected Republicans would be doing everything in their power to show voters that they are working to deliver on their promise for mass deportations. Instead, Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis, among others, continues to advance legislation that would create legal pathways to residency for illegal immigrants.
Washington truly is a swamp. Unless we manage to remove the rotting bureaucracy, we will never see forward progress on immigration, the budget deficits, or any of the other issues Americans care about.
The Important Numbers That Are Not Being Reported
On Monday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about some important economic data that is not being widely reported.
The article reports:
What we can take away from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index on manufacturing [Data Here]: overall, the U.S. manufacturing sector is continuing to expand significantly. The current index of 55.6 percent in July is 2.3 percentage points above the June figure and the highest reading since May 2022 (55.9 percent), when we were trying to recover from the COVID-19 shutdowns and supply chain problems.
…Overall, companies wanting to make products in the United States are expanding the manufacturing sector. However, they are running into a problem when trying to source the component goods and/or raw materials. The resource goods they need are constantly in a status of flux and the prices are unstable.
For large companies their supply chain management can deal with the short inventory issue through various sourcing networks using multiple suppliers. However, for smaller companies this is frustrating.
The manufacturing system is a network of complex suppliers who make component materials needed for the core product. In order to get really successful, the smaller manufacturing component goods need to start up inside the USA just like the larger companies who are producing a finished product.
This is why even during a manufacturing surge we end up importing a lot of goods on the front end of the transition. Absent a domestic supplier, industrial component products are heavily imported in order to manufacture the finished durable good.
It takes time, well, technically its never been tried – so, no one is sure, but it takes time for all of the component manufacturing to establish inside the USA in order to feed the component parts to the various manufacturers who depend on the sub-sourcing. This is the period we are in at the moment, and prices are fluctuating as people try to get their arms around costs here and abroad.
When the free market is allowed to be free, it creates growth and prosperity. Putting a businessman in the White House is what was needed to start moving America back to the free market instead of crony capitalism. Think carefully when you vote in November. Your economic future depends on it.
This Is NOT The Way To Solve The Problem
On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about the Biden administration’s strategy to track the fentanyl shipments that were coming into America and bring a bigger criminal case against traffickers.
The article reports:
A third whistleblower came forward about a Biden-era operation involving alleged massive shipments of fentanyl into the United States that federal agents were told to track and not seize.
The U.S. Justice Department is conducting an internal probe of the operation that critics say likely led to numerous deaths. The most recent whistleblower complaint details a November 2022 fentanyl delivery from Arizona to New Mexico where Drug Enforcement Administration agents were told to monitor the shipment but not arrest anyone.
“Agents believe the courier made a minimum of at least five large deliveries over the following months, each time bringing 50,000-100,000 fentanyl pills and 20-40 pounds of methamphetamine per trip,” the complaint says. “The DEA did not arrest the courier until June 2023; at that time, agents found him with 19 kilograms of methamphetamine and 7 kilograms of fentanyl.” According to the DEA, as few as 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size and tolerance, and 1 kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people.
The new complaint also notes that during a training session, one DEA agent dismissed concerns about the operation, saying, “We walk fentanyl,” but adding that federal prosecutors were aware of it.
The complaint comes after the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General interviewed two other whistleblowers—former DEA Special Agent David Howell and financial investigator Kevin Small, who worked as a contractor for the DEA’s Albuquerque office—on Friday and Monday, respectively.
The article explains the theory behind the actions:
Howell was the first to blow the whistle on the operation, alleging that the DEA allowed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills into New Mexico because Justice Department prosecutors wanted to track the shipments and bring a bigger criminal case against traffickers. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alex Uballez oversaw the program, Howell said. Uballez publicly defended the operation, telling The Associated Press it saved lives, was key to intelligence gathering on drug traffickers, and that “the bigger fish are worth catching.”
I don’t think that the people who lost loved ones because of fentanyl would agree with that strategy.
Becoming Supply Chain Independent In The Modern World
On Tuesday, David Blackmon posted an article at Substack about America expanding its production of rare earth metals.
The article reports:
The United States is finally starting to dig itself out of a rare earth metals hole it spent decades digging. The effort got a boost on July 29, when Energy Fuels announced that construction has begun on a commercial-scale expansion at its White Mesa Mill in Utah. The expansion of the only fully licensed and operating conventional uranium processing facility in the United States, will enable the plant to produce heavy rare earth oxides at meaningful volumes. This key event, along with other developments in the U.S. and allied nations like Australia, represent concrete steps toward breaking China’s chokehold on the materials that power everything from electric vehicle motors and humanoid robots to advanced weapons systems and data centers.
Heavy rare earths are the severe pinch point in current Western permanent magnet supply chains. These elements give high-performance magnets the coercivity and heat resistance needed for smaller, lighter, and more powerful motors. Energy Fuels already has commercial capacity for up to 1,000 tons per year of separated neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, the lighter rare earths that form the bulk of most magnets. The new circuits will add roughly 20 tons of terbium, 120 tons of dysprosium, 140 tons of samarium, 20 tons of europium, and 140 tons of gadolinium annually, with terbium and dysprosium online by the end of 2027 and the rest by the end of 2028.
This is one of those articles I don’t claim to understand. However, I remember what it was like trying to buy a car in 2022. Because Covid had so totally disrupted the supply chain, the wait time for some cars was ridiculous, and there were surcharges on the purchase of almost all cars. America not only needs to be energy independent, we need to be rare earth independent, drug independent, and self sufficient in every way possible. Trade with other countries is fine–depending on other countries that may not have our best interests at heart for things that are essential to our survival is not fine.
ID To Buy Groceries But Not To Vote
On Monday, Red State posted an article about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed grocery stores. Initially the grocery stores were to require identification to prove you were a New York resident, but evidently that has changed (possibly due to public reaction–needing an ID to buy groceries but not to vote was a bridge too far).
On Monday, The New York Post reported:
Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s promised city-owned grocery stores won’t require ID from shoppers, his administration confirmed Monday — allowing non-New Yorkers to take advantage of the discounted goods.
The five planned taxpayer-subsidized stores — which are set to sell a “core basket of goods” at 30% below retail prices — will offer a free, voluntary membership card program, though documents show it will not require a residency check.
Mamdani administration officials revealed the membership program last week when facing questions from reporters about how they’d stop bad actors from buying in bulk and taking advantage of the deals on offer.
Red State notes:
Now, if you’re like Marty McFly and you’re saying “I’ve seen this one, this is classic!” that’s because government-run stores used to be a thing.
Way back in the Soviet Union. If you missed that one because you went to a government-run school, you’re in luck.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev provided an iconic moment in Cold War history when his first encounter with an American grocery store was a jolting experience.
That’s because communist-run grocery stores were nearly barren of basic foodstuffs due to the inability of the state planners to manage supply and demand.
A few years later, this scene was recreated when Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov toured a San Francisco Safeway.
We could place bets on how long it will take the city-run grocery store to fail and how much it will eventually cost New York City taxpayers. The sad part of this is that the prices in the store will undercut the local merchants and drive them out of business. Eventually there will be no grocery stores in New York City. Unfortunately, Mayor Mamdani does not understand or chooses not to understand the free market.
From my friends at The Patriot Post:
The Supreme Court Upholds Consequences For Terrorism
On Tuesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about a recent U.S. Supreme Court action that ruled in favor of holding terrorists accountable.
The article reports:
The Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority lost again at the Supreme Court, this time in their effort to stop a settlement to pay American victims of attacks.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Monday signed an order rejecting an emergency application from the Palestinian authorities to stop a $656 million judgment in favor of Americans killed or wounded in Israel. The victims were injured or killed in attacks in Jerusalem in the early 2000s that killed 33 people and wounded hundreds.
The Palestinian Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority argued in court filings that making the payments to victims and their families would destabilize government services in the West Bank, The Associated Press reported. They also have argued that the cases shouldn’t be allowed in American courts.
The victims and their families have claimed Palestinian agents were either involved in the attacks or incited them.
The first judgment in favor of the victims was awarded in 2015, but it was reversed on appeal when the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals determined that U.S. courts lacked jurisdiction. The Supreme Court initially rejected the plaintiffs’ appeal in 2018.
The plaintiffs then sued under the revised Anti-Terrorism Act, a 1992 law updated in 2019 to allow the victims of the Palestinian attacks to seek damages in federal courts.
This is a valid weapon against terrorism. As long as the Palestinian authority has the money to pay the families of terrorists killed in suicide attacks, the attacks will continue. Unfortunately, the culture of the Palestinian authority encourages those attacks by honoring the people who carry them out. However, sometimes bad things decrease when they begin costing the people who do them serious money.
How To Deal With Fraud Properly
On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about Medicare and Medicaid fraud in Pennsylvania.
The article reports:
The DOJ Fraud Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Pennsylvania Attorney General today announced criminal charges against 19 defendants, including owners and employees of home care companies, for their alleged participation in various fraud schemes involving over four million dollars in claims to Medicare and Medicaid.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General also announced a plea agreement involving the final defendant in a previously-charged 21 defendant case involving over $1.7 million in claims.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and senior federal and state officials hold a press conference announcing a significant health care fraud takedown and a new Anti-Fraud Initiative in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
To emphasize the scope of the fraud in California and New York Dr Oz notes, “the number one job in the entire state is personal care services.”
The Press Release from the Department of Justice notes:
Acting Assistant Chief Miriam Glaser Dauermann, Health Care Fraud Trial Attorneys Paul J. Koob and Carla Jordan-Detamore, and Eastern District of Pennsylvania Health Care Fraud Chief Anthony Scicchitano, Deputy Chief Paul Shapiro, and Counsel to the U.S. Attorney Sara Solow, led and coordinated the cases charged in today’s Takedown, together with the FBI, HHS, DEA, IRS, and state and local law enforcement partners. Trial Attorneys Paul J. Koob and Carla Jordan-Detamore, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Solow, Paul Shapiro, Angella Middleton, Alisa Shver, Jessica Rice and Megan Curran, and Pennsylvania Deputy Attorneys General Benjamin McKenna, Susann Shore, Jonathan Clymer and Jacob Gordin are prosecuting the cases being announced today.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the Fraud Division. The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.
When people start going to jail for their crimes, the level of crime will slowly decrease.
We Used To Have Candidates Who Loved America
On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about Francesca Hong, a candidate for Governor of Wisconsin.
The article reports:
A socialist Dem running for Wisconsin governor became visibly uncomfortable and served up a word salad when asked whether she still stands by her call to “cancel Thanksgiving” because it is “celebrating colonialism.”
At the height of the Covid pandemic, Francesca Hong, who is the frontrunner to become the Democratic nominee in America’s Dairyland, said that the beloved holiday needs to be scrapped, and that America “should have done this in 1621.”
She added: “If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx [sic] and women so be it.”
First of all, let’s take another look at the events surrounding Thanksgiving. The land the Pilgrims settled in had been the territory of the Patuxet Indians, a large tribe that had murdered every white man who had landed on the shores of Massachusetts. Four years before the Pilgrims arrived, the Patuxet tribe had been wiped out by a mysterious plague, killing everyone in the tribe. The neighboring Indians stayed away from the area because they were convinced that some supernatural spirit had killed the Patuxets. Squanto, a member of the tribe who had been sold into slavery, was in Spain or England when his tribe was wiped out. When he got back to Massachusetts and found that his tribe was gone, through a series of events he decided to help the Pilgrims survive in their new land. The Indians and the Pilgrims lived in peace for a number of years. The celebration of Thanksgiving was part of that peace. Unfortunately, that peace did not last, partially due to a cultural problem regarding the purchase of land, but initially there was peace.
The article notes:
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Hong point-blank Monday whether she really believes that, and the democratic socialist uncorked with a bizarre 46-second response in which she made no effort to deny that she still wants to throw out the turkey.
I’m a chef, and one of the first meals that I made that was for the community when i was 16 was a Thanksgiving meal. I always think my hospitality background and owning a restaurant for 7-8 years, that bringing folks around the table to share conversation and build community is always a good thing.
But Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities. So I think there I wanted to make sure people understood there are multiple views, but views can evolve.
And the position I’m running for right now — and I think my background as a chef will actually help me become a better governor that’s able to bring more people to the table.
Oddly enough, Thanksgiving is a time when many charity organizations reach out and make sure that needy families in their communities receive a good meal.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. This lady does not seem to understand or want to celebrate the holidays and traditions that Americans celebrate.
People Saved Thanks To An Armed Citizen
On Monday, Fox News posted an article about the Saturday shooting at an In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho.
The article reports:
Police are still working to determine why a 24-year-old gunman opened fire at a crowded In-N-Out Burger in Twin Falls, Idaho, killing three people and wounding seven others before taking his own life after taking fire from a bystander and an off-duty Idaho state trooper.
Twin Falls Police Chief Matthew Hicks said Sunday that investigators were confident Chad Williams acted alone in Saturday’s attack, but detectives had not yet established a motive or fully traced his movements before the shooting.
“We believe their actions helped drive the suspect away from the scene, preventing further casualties,” Hicks said of an armed citizen and officer who returned fire. “We want to take a moment and commend the actions of the off-duty officer and the citizen, and their heroic action to stop this incident.”
…Authorities said seven people were injured. Two remained in critical condition Sunday, three were listed as stable and two had been treated and released from a hospital.
Officials said both fired at Williams during what authorities described as a chaotic and fast-moving attack, diverting his attention from the restaurant as customers and employees fled.
When an evil person with evil intentions begins shooting innocent people, it may take minutes for the police or other authorities to arrive. An armed civilian population is the quickest way to stop the shooter.
The Government Is Not The Answer–It Is A Major Part Of The Problem!
On Sunday, The Center Square posted an article about the discussion prompted by the closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides.
The article reports:
The closure of seven Save A Lot grocery stores on Chicago’s South and West sides has renewed debate over whether government subsidies can effectively address food access in underserved neighborhoods, with one free-market policy expert arguing the shutdowns highlight the limits of public intervention.
The stores, operated by Yellow Banana, closed after Save A Lot ended its operating agreement with the company, citing financial challenges that included a sharp decline in SNAP purchases.
Chicago had invested $13.5 million to renovate six of the seven locations as part of an effort to expand grocery access in neighborhoods often described as food deserts.
Nicole Huyer, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation, said the closures were “the predictable outcome of bad policy.”
“Dumping millions upon millions of dollars into these stores without addressing the root causes of grocery unaffordability, like city regulations, high taxes, even crime, without addressing those things, just dumping more money into artificially inflating these grocery stores, it’s not going to solve the problem,” Huyer told The Center Square.
So what would it take to keep grocery stores in major cities open? First of all, how does the crime rate in these cities impact the profit margin of the stores? What is the cost of insuring these stores against theft, vandalism, etc.? How does the city treat the criminals who steal from or vandalize these stores? Are the criminals punished enough to keep them off the street and discourage other criminal activity? How would simply dealing with the crime rate in these areas affect the ability of these stores to stay open? What is the tax rate in these cities? What tax incentives might encourage grocery stores to locate in these cities? The only government interventions that might even be remotely helpful in keeping grocery stores in major cities would be better law enforcement, punishment for crimes committed, and possible tax incentives. Simply throwing money at the problem will NOT work.
The article concludes:
She (Nicole Huyer, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation) argued that crime, taxes and regulations can discourage grocery operators from investing in particular neighborhoods.
“Rather than the city going in and having a city-owned or operated grocery store, the first step should be addressing the root causes,” Huyer said. “The government just dumping millions of dollars into a city-run public option isn’t going to really address the problem. You’re just going to waste taxpayer dollars in the process.”
Huyer also cited examples of publicly supported grocery projects in places such as Kansas City and Baldwin, Florida, as evidence that government involvement has struggled to produce lasting success.
The free market works when it is allowed to.
Fighting For Your Religious Freedom
For whatever reason, liberal politicians seem to be intent on going after the Little Sisters of the Poor. In Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania, the Supreme Court in 2020 upheld a federal rule protecting the Little Sisters and other religious groups from the federal government’s contraceptive mandate. But Pennsylvania and New Jersey continued to fight in court to strip the Little Sisters of that protection. Now the Little Sisters of the Poor and another group of Catholic nuns and healthcare providers are being sued by New York State over New York’s assisted suicide law.
On Sunday, Townhall reported:
Back on July 20, Townhall reported that a group of Catholic nuns and healthcare providers in New York had filed suit against the state over its assisted suicide law, one that would force those religious groups to inform patients of “end-of-life options,” including assisted suicide.
The group included the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre and Catholic Health, a network of Long Island hospitals. Now a court has granted them relief from the state’s assisted suicide law, at least temporarily.
The ruling prohibits the state from forcing these Catholics from participating in the assisted suicide law until their lawsuit is heard in court.
The article concludes:
Remember, these nuns take care of the sick and dying without compensation. It is part of their calling and their faith, and the state of New York wants to stop them from doing this—punishing sick and dying people in the process.
We’ll see what happens when the lawsuit has its day in court. It’s possible the courts side with the state, setting up another Supreme Court battle.
The attacks on our freedom of religion should not be taken lightly. These nuns are standing up for all Americans in the effort to preserve what our Founding Fathers created and Americans in multiple generations have died for.