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Some Good News
On Friday, American Military News reported that the United States Marshals Service (USMS), with the help of state and local agencies, located 225 endangered missing children during a 10-week operation in states across the nation.
The article reports:
Operation We Will Find You is a nationwide effort to locate missing children, according to a USMS press release. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children supported the recovery of 169 children and the safe location of 56 children.
The USMS said it referred 28 cases to law enforcement due to suspected criminal activity, including drugs and weapons, sex trafficking and sex offender violations.
“The U.S. Marshals Service is fully committed to the important mission of protecting the American people, especially our most vulnerable population – our children,” Ronald Davis, Director of the Marshals Service, said in a statement. “The results of this operation underscore that commitment, but also highlight the necessity of these critical efforts. Our continued success can only be achieved through our collaboration with state and local law enforcement agencies, and partnership with NCMEC. Together, the USMS and NCMEC have recovered over 3,100 missing children since the passage of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act in 2015.”
The operation was held in Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, Michigan, Washington, Florida, California, Ohio, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ten of the children located were found in Mexico, the USMS said.
The article concludes:
The USMS said the missing children located during Operation We Will Find You involved “high-risk factors” including victimization of child sex trafficking, child exploitation, sexual abuse, physical abuse and medical or mental health conditions.
Thank God for the dedication of the people who took part in this operation.
The Move Toward Global Government
There are a number of possible paths toward one-world government. One path is through the climate-change propaganda and another is through the threat of another global pandemic. On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) began a series of meetings which detailed their plan for one-world government. The only good news in the quest for one-world government is the hope that the various organizations vying to control that government will eliminate each other in their quest for power.
Prophecy News Watch posted an article about the WHO meeting.
The article reports:
On Sunday, the WHO kicked off its annual 10-day World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, described as the “decision-making body of WHO.” Concerns over the WHO’s actions have been steadily building since the beginning of the pandemic, when observers noted that the WHO’s deference to China arguably worsened the spread of COVID.
In addition, observers are also pointing out that the Biden administration is working to enable the organization to “centralize authority not just for pandemics, but for any health emergency in the hands of the director-general.”
Now, says Bachmann (former congresswoman Michele Bachmann), the current World Health Assembly is poised to increase the WHO’s mandate over the health care decisions of sovereign nations.
“There’s a dual track process that they’re following,” she explained during an on the ground report from Geneva on Monday’s edition of “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “One is through a global pandemic treaty that they’re calling an ‘accord.’ The second is through a package of about 300 amendments to the international health rules. Both lead to the same result. Both lead to the creation of a platform for global governance through health care. And it is a web that locks us in … the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”
As Bachmann went on to observe, the potentially massive ramifications of the decisions being made at the World Health Assembly are happening with surprisingly little fanfare.
“There were no members of Congress here,” she pointed out. “I was actually shocked because this has been a big issue that a lot of their constituents have rightfully been very concerned about. … There was no American press here. So how would anyone even know what was going on unless they tuned in and they watched for themselves?”
We need to keep in mind that many of the rules imposed during the Covid pandemic were not only unconstitutional, they allowed a dramatic increase in mail-in voting–the voting method most likely to be impacted by fraud. Please follow the link to read the entire article. America needs to stand up for its sovereignty.
More Questions For The Federal Bureau Of Investigation
On Thursday, The Federalist posted an article about the pipe bombs found at the Democrat National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021.
The article reports:
The FBI is continuing to stonewall congressional oversight of the agency’s investigation into a pair of pipe bombs found at the Democrat National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on Jan. 6, 2021.
On Wednesday, House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee re-upped demands for a comprehensive briefing on the two-year-old case over which the FBI has refused transparency.
…Earlier this month, an FBI whistleblower told the Washington Times the FBI identified the vehicle the suspect entered shortly after planting the bombs but has not pursued the individual.
“The FBI had surveillance video that showed the person entering a car with a visible license plate after exiting a Metro stop in Northern Virginia,” the Times reported.
Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent who worked on the case, told the paper that the agency “tied whoever the person was that dropped the bombs with [surveillance] cameras all the way through the train and getting into a car with that license plate.” Seraphin also told the Washington Times that the two bombs were inoperable.
It is interesting to me that the two bombs were inoperable.
The more we know about January 6th, the more it looks like a false-flag operation. There were some people who behaved badly, but many of them were the people who were supposed to be upholding the law. It also should be noted that the events of January 6th prevented the questioning of the electoral votes in the presidential election. Based on what we now know, that was probably the purpose of the operation. Also remember that even since Speaker McCarthy supposedly released the video tapes of January 6th, we have seen very little of those tapes. Also note that the person who aired those tapes was fired. There is a lot about January 6th that just doesn’t add up.
Equal Justice Under The Law?
On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported that the Department of Justice has dropped all charges against Sai Varshith Kandula, 19, of Chesterfield, Missouri, who attempted to crash a U-Haul truck through the security perimeter of the White House.
The article reports:
Oddly, during the event the Capitol Police never called the bomb squad, never moved the crowd or media back away from the truck, and simply opened the vehicle and started placing the contents -including a swastika flag- on the ground for the media to photograph. The entire event, including the way the authorities handled the truck, was seriously sketchy.
Kandula was then federally charged with threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict harm on a president, vice president or family member, assault with a dangerous weapon, reckless operation of a motor vehicle, destruction of federal property, and trespassing, according to U.S. Park Police. However, yesterday the DOJ dropped all the charges except depredation of federal property.
Considering that J6 attendees have been charged and locked up for simply parading around the Capitol Hill building, the contrast of the way the authorities are handling Sai Varshith Kandula is rather stark.
Initial reports accused Mr. Kandula of being a white supremacist, but that narrative was dropped as soon as his picture was published. This whole incident seems really odd–particularly the part about dropping most of the charges. People who make threats to the President generally go to jail, particularly if they have taken any action relating to the threat.
The War Against Americans
On Wednesday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at American Greatness detailing how the political left has escalated the war on everyday Americans. The article cites numerous examples.
The article notes:
Special-counsel John Durham just issued his final report on wrongdoing within the FBI, CIA, and the Department of Justice.
The summary confirms that our premier investigatory and intelligence agencies interfered in the 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.
Directors and high-ranking FBI officials lied under oath. They misled Congress. They altered court documents and deceived federal judges.
…The FBI contracted Twitter to suppress news stories. It kept the Hunter Biden laptop under wraps, even as former intelligence officials flat out lied it was likely “Russian disinformation.” That was a blatant effort to aid the 2020 Biden campaign.
The IRS just conceded whistleblowers were correct and the agency fired its entire multiyear audit team responsible for investigating Hunter Biden’s purported tax irregularities.
The agency claimed it was ordered to do so by the Department of Justice, headed by Biden’s appointee Merrick Garland.
California is facing a crushing $32 billion deficit. Yet it flirts with an $800 billion-dollar “reparations” payout to the state’s black residents.
…Chicago, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis—all outside Florida—have the highest black murder rates in the nation.
Florida in contrast, with a black population of 3.3 million, has the second largest number of black businesses in the nation. The chairman of the NAACP’s board of directors is himself a Florida resident!
Black Lives Matter has just announced it lost millions of dollars in investments and ran up huge deficits.
The culprit was its former corrupt leadership.
The article also notes:
In almost every American city and town, biological males, with enormous advantages in size and musculoskeletal mass, routinely win women’s sporting competitions.
They are systematically destroying decades of progress that sought to ensure parity between men and women’s sports.
Corporate America has joined this cultural revolution hysteria. Companies are apparently now hellbent on destroying their brands, profits, and net worth.
Under pressure from the LGBTQ activists, the Los Angeles Dodgers reinvited the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” to celebrate Pride night at Dodger Stadium.
Catholics and Christians had objected to the invitation because the group’s notoriety hinges on its sexualized and often pornographic mockery of Catholic ritual, the Holy Trinity, and Christian faith.
The supposedly courageous group would never dare extend its street-theater blasphemy to other religious groups such as Muslims or Hindus.
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. As Americans, we have been asleep, and we are paying a price for it. No one involved in the government interference in the past two presidential elections is sitting in jail. Meanwhile, people who simply walked through the Capitol on January 6th have not yet had their day in court. We are losing our nation.
This Could Get Very Interesting
On Wednesday, Fox News posted the following headline:
GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna seeks $16 million fine against Adam Schiff for ‘lies’ about Trump-Russia collusion
The fine is roughly half the cost of the Trump-Russia probe, which found no collusion
If there are supposed to be consequences for lying to Congress, shouldn’t there be consequences if Congressmen lie to Congress?
The article reports:
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced a resolution that would fine Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., $16 million for his claims that former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Luna says that amount is about half of the cost of the federal investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, which was debunked by special counsel reports from both Robert Mueller and John Durham.
“The GOP Conference agrees that Adam Schiff has betrayed the trust of the American people, purposely abused positions of extreme authority, lied continuously, and as such, must be held to account,” Luna said. “Accordingly, the resolution requires Rep. Schiff to pay a $16 million dollar fine, half of the cost American taxpayers were forced to pay for the Russia hoax investigation.”
…Luna’s resolution said as chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Schiff had a position of “extreme trust” that gave him access to sensitive information not available to other members, but Schiff “abused this trust” by citing evidence of collusion that later special counsel reports showed did not exist.
“By repeatedly telling these falsehoods, Representative Schiff purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people,” the resolution said. It noted that Schiff “lent credibility” to the Steele dossier, supported a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Trump aide Carter Page, and publicly accused Page of being a Russian collaborator.
“Representative Schiff exploited his positions on HPSCI to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes,” it said. “Representative Schiff used his position and access to sensitive information to instigate a fraudulently based investigation, which he then used to amass political gain and fundraising dollars.”
I believe that there are a number of people who should be in jail for misusing the Justice Department for political purposes, but that has been going on since J. Edgar Hoover. However, the people who kept the hoax going and covered up the hoax should pay a price.
Grooming Our Children
In 2021, Gallop posted the following chart:
Right now in the American media culture, there is a push to accept non-traditional lifestyles as desirable. I don’t believe many Americans understand the end result of this effort.
In December 2021, Census.gov reported:
The year 2021 is the first time since 1937 that the U.S. population grew by fewer than one million people, featuring the lowest numeric growth since at least 1900, when the Census Bureau began annual population estimates.
Apart from the last few years, when population growth slowed to historically low levels, the slowest rate of growth in the 20th century was from 1918-1919 amid the influenza pandemic and World War I.
What these two charts tell us is that unless the current numbers change, the population of America will not grow in the future. Meanwhile, media efforts continue to move our children toward non-traditional sexual roles.
On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported:
A nonbinary robot on the cartoon series “Transformers: Earth Spark” has generated a heated debate on social media with the controversy spilling over to national TV talk shows.
In a recent episode of the cartoon, Nightshade—the name of the androgynous automaton—tells a teenage girl it encounters that its preferred pronouns are “they/them.”
The girl, who is donning a purse with rainbow-colored handles and gender affirming pins, reveals that she is nonbinary too.
…In episode eight of season five of of Netflix’s “Ridley Jones,” Fred, the main character—a child bison—comes out as nonbinary to his grandmother.
The show, which is aimed at preschoolers, was canceled in March shortly after the episode aired.
In 2021, in celebration of Pride month, Hulu introduced a non-binary character in its Madagascar: A Little Wild, a spinoff of the popular movie franchise.
Odee, the character, has both zebra and giraffe attributes and consequently decides he is non binary. The cartoon saw its last episode last June, ending just before Pride month.
The article at The Epoch Times concludes:
Lori Clark, a Texas mom, told The Epoch Times, she almost “fell out of her shoes” when she happened to be walking by the television while her son was watching one of his favorite shows “Gecko’s Garage” and saw two mommy trucks in a romantic scene.
The Moonbug Entertainment cartoon, which is aimed at toddlers, is about fixing trucks and cars. The two lesbian trucks are the mothers of a character called Baby Truck.
“They are sleeping this stuff right under the parent’s nose,” said Clark, who no longer allows her son to watch the cartoon.
I used to love watching Roadrunner cartoons on Saturday morning as a child. Now I don’t think I would let a child watch anything unless I was sitting there. There is a reason that the chart above shows such an increase in non-traditional sexual roles for Generation Z–they have been and are being programmed. That is not good for them, and it is not good for America.
Thank God For Mama Bears
Right now in America I am grateful for parents who are paying attention to what some people in our society are trying to do to their children.
On Wednesday, The Daily Wire posted an article about the backlash that has occurred since Target stores’ Pride Collection which prominently displayed bathing suits for children with Gender Dysphoria.
The article reports:
Target made “emergency” calls last week to managers and senior directors at the store after the company faced backlash for its Pride collection, which included “tuck-friendly” female swimwear and other products, according to a source inside the company.
The calls were to direct some stores to make their Pride products display less prominent in order to avoid a “Bud Light situation,” a Target insider told Fox News.
“We were given 36 hours, told to take all of our Pride stuff, the entire section, and move it into a section that’s a third the size. From the front of the store to the back of the store, you can’t have anything on mannequins and no large signage,” the insider reportedly said.
“We call our customers ‘guests,’ there is outrage on their part. This year, it is just exponentially more than any other year,” the source added. “I think given the current situation with Bud Light, the company is terrified of a Bud Light situation.”
The article concludes:
In response to the controversy, Target announced that it has also removed some products from its stores, which reportedly include a sweater that read “cure transphobia not trans people” and a “too queer for here” tote bag.
“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said on Tuesday. ”Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.”
Gender dysphoria is a disease. It can also be a phase children go through and grow out of. We need to treat it as a disease or a phase–not encourage it. What happens when the children who have been chemically or surgically altered in some way get older and find out that they are not capable of having children because of decisions they were encouraged to make before they were mature enough to make them?
From my friends at Townhall:
About Those Electric School Buses…
On Wednesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education’s experience with electric school buses. First of all, I would like to note that most of the people who are knowledgeable about electric cars (or buses) say that they do not operate at their full capacity in cold temperatures. The decision by the Board of Education to buy electric school buses in Michigan’s climate is questionable at best.
The article reports:
Michigan’s fourth-largest school district is having “significant” performance issues with its expensive electric buses, issues that come after the Biden administration spent $1 billion to “transform America’s school bus fleet” with electric models.
During an April 19 presentation to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education, the district’s environmental sustainability director, Emile Lauzzana, highlighted a number of issues with the district’s electric bus fleet. Those buses, Lauzzana said, have “a lot of downtime and performance issues” and aren’t “fully on the road,” despite the fact that they are “approximately five times more expensive than regular buses.” The infrastructure upgrades required to use the buses, meanwhile, were “originally estimated to be only about $50,000” but “ended up being more like $200,000,” according to Lauzzana. “I have a number of colleagues in different states who are facing similar challenges,” the district official lamented. “For the school bus market, it’s been challenging for us.”
…Just months before Lauzzana’s admission, President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency announced it awarded nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds to “transform America’s school bus fleet” with “over 2,400 clean school buses that will accelerate the transition to zero emission vehicles.” But problems with electric buses occurred long before the agency’s announcement.
Electric bus company Proterra, which the Biden administration has lauded as “pretty amazing,” saw Philadelphia remove 25 of its buses from the roads in 2020 due to structural problems. Those buses cost the city $24 million. Another Southern California city waited months in 2021 to repair nearly a dozen buses from its electric fleet, more than a third of which were out of service at the time. Ann Arbor Public Schools’ electric buses also use Proterra batteries and drivetrain technology.
Do all school districts have environmental sustainability directors? That might be part of the problem.
We are at a point in time when our government does not have the best interests of Americans at heart. The decision to go to electric vehicles does not benefit Americans–it benefits the Chinese companies that supply the computer parts and rare earth materials for the batteries. If Americans were smart, they would simply boycott electric vehicles and tell the government to go pound sand.
If you are interested in further information on the problem, please follow the link above.
Money Talks
On Monday, Newsbusters posted an article about some of the money flowing into the Associated Press from groups that promote environmental extremism.
The article reports:
The Associated Press has been running wild with leftist climate change propaganda while being paid millions by eco-extremist organizations. And yet AP still has the audacity to pretend it’s engaging in objective reporting.
MRC Business analysts found that from Feb. 15, 2022 through Feb. 15, 2023, The Associated Press (AP) pushed climate change alarmism and promoted woke environmental, social, governance (ESG) efforts across 64 climate-related stories after the legacy outlet received an $8 million grant from leftist nonprofit organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium (the activist organization of News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s estranged son and climate activist James Murdoch), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation (Walmart) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
AP announced Feb. 15, 2022, that it would “significantly expand its climate coverage” with the goal to “infuse” the media landscape with climate journalism backed solely by private interest groups. AP called the new development a “sweeping climate journalism initiative” and claimed in its press release that it would retain “complete editorial control of all content.” AP also claims on its “About Us” page that it is in the business of “unbiased news,” which is little more than a pathetic joke. The so-called “journalism” AP has been doing on climate involves behaving like the de facto mouthpiece for its major left-wing donors who have an obsession with pushing apocalyptic climate narratives on the internet.
The article also notes:
The Rockefeller Foundation’s history in supporting causes fixated on overpopulation is a case in point why AP’s monetary tie to the organization is extremely problematic. One Jan. 5, 2022, Rockefeller Archive blog ridiculously stated that “Issues of family planning and concerns over population growth have long interested the Rockefeller family and their philanthropies. But deciding how to give funding, and to which aspects of the ‘population problem,’ has not always come easily.” The article included a 1967 statement doom mongering about overpopulation from late Rockefeller Foundation president J. George Harrar:
It is doubtful whether there is any problem in the world more threatening in its implications than uncontrolled population growth. Its effects are already, either directly or indirectly, touching the lives of almost every man, woman, and child.
MRC Business previously reported in October 2021 how Murdoch in particular was already heavily invested in a climate reporting hub at AP. MRC Business analyzed that Murdoch’s Quadrivium gave a whopping $14,250,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) between 2013 and 2019. EDF is a left-wing “nonprofit environmental group known for its advocacy for public policies concerning global warming and a left-wing political agenda,” according to Influence Watch.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is frightening to think that money controls what we read that is supposed to be objective news, but unfortunately that is not a new idea for most of us.
Passing The Buck
On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about the claim by IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel that the Department of Justice made the decision to purge an IRS whistleblower from the DOJ’s probe into Hunter Biden. I doubt we will ever know the truth about what actually happened in this instance, but it makes for an interesting story.
The article reports:
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Congress the Justice Department (DOJ) made the decision to purge an IRS whistleblower from the DOJ’s probe into Hunter Biden, according to a letter sent to House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO).
Werfel’s letter on May 17 responded to Smith’s May 16 inquiry about concerns that a high-ranking IRS agent faced retaliation for raising red flags about alleged political interference in the tax probe of Hunter Biden.
Werfel said the decision to remove a whistleblower from the tax investigation was at the DOJ’s direction, confirming what a second IRS whistleblower alleged Monday.
The article concludes:
The new whistleblower claimed leadership excluded his team from the case after it learned of “longstanding concerns” about the handling of the probe. The concerns allegedly angered a redacted “U.S. Attorney for the District…”
David Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, a Trump administration appointee, is the lead prosecutor in the case.
The whistleblower also alleged the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s office are responsible for his team’s removal from the probe.
In March, Garland told Congress that Weiss has the autonomy to recommend changes. Yet Biden’s attorney general also admitted he has the sole authority to sign off on the charges.
Even in a case as obvious as Hunter Biden and his laptop, the people who are supposed to enforce the law are not doing their job. The current level of corruption at all levels of our government is stunning.
Someone Stepped Forward To Solve The Problem
On Monday, The Daily Wire reported that the child who had been denied a kidney transplant at Duke University Hospital because she was not vaccinated for Covid-19 will now be receiving a kidney transplant at another hospital.
The article reports:
The teen has a genetic kidney disorder that requires a transplant, but her family said last year that Duke was refusing to put Yulia on the kidney wait list because she is unvaccinated against COVID. Notably, the family says Yulia has already recovered from the virus.
…The Daily Wire reported last year that a phone call, the recording of which was obtained by journalist Alex Berenson, revealed a Duke health official telling the Hicks family that Yulia must get vaccinated against COVID before she could become a candidate for the kidney transplant.
“I can’t require you to do anything. I can recommend these things, but if you don’t follow our recommendations, then Yulia can’t be a transplant candidate here,” the Duke Health kidney specialist reportedly said.
“Being unvaccinated to the CDC recommended vaccinations based on her age is part of that,” the kidney specialist allegedly added.
Her family said Yulia has already contracted COVID and recovered, but doctors told them Yulia’s natural immunity was not enough, according to the recorded call.
“The virus has continued to mutate and so the natural immunity is not as good as if you had natural immunity plus vaccination,” one doctor said on the call.
Chrissy Hicks told The Daily Wire that Yulia was headed to the hospital on Monday morning for a pre-operational consultation. The surgery is scheduled for Thursday.
I don’t know about you, but I know a lot of vaccinated people who have been sick with Covid-19. Right now most of the cases I am aware of are people who are vaccinated–not the unvaccinated. Unfortunately, many of the people who have been vaccinated and many of the people who have recovered from Covid-19 have had the disease multiple times. The good news is that people who are currently getting the disease don’t seem to be as sick as people who caught the original virus. At some point, doctors might have to admit that the vaccine has not proven effective in preventing the disease.
The Firing Of A New York City College Professor
On Tuesday, The New York Post reported that the Manhattan college professor who threatened a Post reporter with a machete has been fired. Really??!
The article reports:
Shellyne Rodriguez was sacked by Hunter College just hours after the adjunct professor was caught on camera holding the blade to the veteran reporter’s neck while threatening to “chop” him up outside her Bronx apartment.
“Hunter College strongly condemns the unacceptable actions of Shellyne Rodriguez and has taken immediate action,” school spokesman Vince Dimiceli told The Post.
“Rodriguez has been relieved of her duties at Hunter College effective immediately, and will not be returning to teach at the school.”
The unhinged art professor wielded the machete and spewed the menacing remarks after the veteran Postie approached her regarding a viral video that showed her flipping out on pro-life students at Hunter College earlier this month.
If this person is representative of the people teaching our children in school, we are in serious trouble.
Ford Cars Will Still Have AM Radios
On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article about Ford Motor Company and their reversal of the decision not to put AM Radios in their cars next year.
The article reports:
The Ford Motor Company on Tuesday announced that it would not eliminate AM radio from nearly all of its new vehicles amid considerable pushback from lawmakers and consumers.
“After speaking with policy leaders about the importance of AM broadcast radio as a part of the emergency alert system, we’ve decided to include it on all 2024 [Ford] & [Lincoln] vehicles,” wrote CEO Jim Farley on Twitter. “For any owners of Ford EVs without AM broadcast capability, we’ll offer a software update.”
“Customers can currently listen to AM radio content in a variety of ways in our vehicles – including via streaming – and we will continue to innovate to deliver even better in-vehicle entertainment and emergency notification options in the future,” he continued. “Thanks to our product development and manufacturing teams for their quick response to make this change for our customers.”
The company had not originally planned to include AM radio in most of its new vehicles and had cited research indicating that less than 5% of in-car listening came from AM stations. The decision generated significant backlash from right-leaning pundits and lawmakers.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle noted that AM radio is a key component in the U.S. Emergency Alert System, with Wisconsin GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher and New Jersey Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer urging Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell to assert the importance of maintaining AM radio in vehicles. Talk radio host John Catsimatidis and former Vice President Mike Pence also teamed up to create a public service announcement in support of AM radio.
AM Radio is also the home of a lot of conservative talk shows. There is a possibility that the company may have been under pressure to eliminate AM Radio as part of the continuing effort to squelch conservative speech.
Times Have Changed And We Have Lost Our Sense Of Humor
I was never a Monty Python fan, but I have to admit that some of the skits in their movies were funny. Some were controversial, but also very funny. On Monday, Steven Hayward at Power Line Blog posted an article about plans to create a stage musical based on The Life of Brian. However, there is a problem.
The skit below is the problem:
I think the skit is not only funny, it is very timely. The movie was made in 1979, but the above scene totally captures where we are today.
The article at Power Line Blog reports:
Well guess what? There is a stage musical version of Life of Brian in development, largely because of the success of “Spamalot,” the stage musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And guess which scene the producers have said must be cut out? Of course you don’t need to guess at all:
Cleese, 83, the prime mover in the revival, said: ‘I think Life Of Brian is our best film. We are going to do it in London in the second half of next year and I’ve changed certain things.’
One exchange which has had to come out is the discussion between People’s Front of Judea members Stan (played by Idle) and Reg (Cleese). Stan says that he wants to be known as Loretta and to have babies. ‘It’s every man’s right to have babies if you want them,’ says Stan. Reg counters: ‘But — you can’t have babies.’ At which Stan responds: ‘Don’t you oppress me.’
Cleese told an audience at his one-man show last week that when the scene (co-written with the late Graham Chapman) was performed at a read-through for the new show in New York last year, doubts emerged. ‘At the end, I said to the American actors: ‘What do you think?’ And they said: ‘We love the script, but you can’t do that stuff about Loretta nowadays.’
‘So here you have something there’s never been a complaint about in 40 years, that I’ve heard of, and now all of a sudden we can’t do it because it’ll offend people. What is one supposed to make of that? But I think there were a lot of things that were actually, in some strange way, predictive of what was actually going to happen later.’
We have lost our sense of humor.
The Challenge Of Passing A Common-Sense Bill In The North Carolina Legislature
In North Carolina, we all remember Covid–the lockdowns, the school closings, the church closings, the vaccine mandates, etc., but we need also to remember that a lot of those things were the result of Executive Orders by Governor Roy Cooper. Unfortunately there was no check on those Executive Orders and they never seemed to expire. There is an effort to change that–House Bill 169.
House Bill 169 states:
In plain English, this bill reins in the powers of the Governor, brings the Council of State into the process, and limits the time an Executive Order can be in place unless the General Assembly concurs.
This is a good bill. Unfortunately, according to ncleg.gov, the bill has been in committee since February:
Ref to the Com on Judiciary 1, if favorable, State Government, if favorable, Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House on 2/23/2023
It’s time to call your Representative and get this bill moved out of committee and voted on.
Solving the Debt Crisis
Author: R, Alan Harrop
The current debt default discussion is a good time for us to take an honest look at the extent of the problem. Here goes. The total federal debt in 1993 was 4.3 trillion dollars, today, thirty years later the debt is 32 trillion dollars. That is a 744% increase. It amounts to $91,430 for every man, woman and child. However, since only about 150 million people pay federal taxes, it amounts to $213,000 per taxpayer. I strongly suspect that your income and net worth has not increased 744% in the past 30 years. If you took the national debt of 32 trillion dollars and stacked them up, the stack would be 2,584 thousand miles high or 11 one-way trips to the moon. Clearly, this is unsustainable.
The question is, what do we do about it. As Reagan once said: “The federal government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.” Assuming our elected leaders are serious about stopping this reckless spending (which is questionable at best), here are some things that can be done: (1) Reduce the budget of all federal agencies by 5% a year, exempting the Department of Defense. (2) Eliminate the federal Department of Education, which has a budget of $87 billion dollars. This agency was started during the Carter administration and is not needed, since the states have constitutional authority over education. (3) Reduce the budget of the FBI by 50% and refuse to fund their request to fund a new headquarters that would be larger than the current Pentagon. This should include removing arresting authority (started in 1934) from the FBI and returning it to a strictly investigative body with arresting authority remaining with local law enforcement. (4) Eliminate granting welfare, and other social programs to illegal aliens. They broke the law to get here and should be identified and returned to their country of origin. Illegal aliens currently cost the taxpayers $151 billion each year, and that number is growing exponentially. (5) Implement a strict work requirement for any healthy person who is currently receiving welfare payments. Too many people are staying home and refusing to take available jobs. According to the Heritage Foundation, the average family of four receives over $70,000 in total welfare payments per year. (6) Stop weaponizing non-law enforcement federal agencies such as the IRS, State Department, Dept of Commerce, etc.
There are plenty of other places to cut spending, such as grants to various institutions. This represents only a partial list of what could be done and needs to be done before the entire system collapses. No sane individual would run their household budget like the politicians run the federal government. Much of this wasteful spending is initiated and passed to help politicians get re-elected. This is one of the main reasons why there is increasing demand by some for term limits. The Republicans in the House are fighting to at least begin the process of controlling spending. Let’s hope they succeed.
What is long overdue, is an amendment to the Constitution requiring a federal balanced budget. A Convention of States may be the only way this will ever be accomplished.
Do Parents Have Rights?
Under the Biden administration’s policies, there are some real questions as to what the actual rights of parents are.
On Saturday, The Daily Wire posted the following headline:
‘These Are Our Kids, They Belong To All Of Us’: Three Times The Left Trampled On Parental Authority This Past Week Alone
These are the examples cited in the article:
“There are more than 600 pieces of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation out there,” Jean-Pierre said at the GLAAD Media Awards. “A few hundred of them are anti-trans communities, and that matters because we have to call that out. And we’ve never seen this level. It’s historic in the number of pieces of legislation.”
Perhaps the response is “historic” because it seems like the Left is attempting to convince the world that child mutilation is good and changing “genders” is real for the first time in history en masse.
Regardless, Jean-Pierre continued, “I’ve met a lot of parents of trans kids in the past couple of months who have told me these devastating stories, whether they’re in Texas or Oklahoma or wherever they are, saying how they now have to seriously consider leaving their state to protect their child. That’s something that we have to call out and continue to be very clear about. These are kids. These are our kids. They belong to all of us.“ (emphasis added)
If these kids belong to all of us, how come no one ever offered to pay for my kids’ braces?
The article continues with two more examples:
Friday afternoon, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona tweeted, “Teachers know what is best for their kids because they are with them every day. We must trust teachers.” (emphasis added)
And finally:
But let’s check in on one teacher, a member of the public servant class that serves as the supposed voice of wisdom as praised by Cardona. Jenna Barbee, a fifth-grade teacher in Florida’s Hernando County School District, had some thoughts on when parental rights start and end this week.
Florida has a parental rights law that now bans education on gender identity and sexual orientation unless it is related to the curriculum. Barbee recently decided to show a film featuring LGBTQ themes. Parents obviously took umbrage with that — arguing it’s not Barbee’s job to teach that sort of stuff.
“What she’s missing and what these parents are missing is that they’re not in the school system,” Barbee said in response. “These conversations, these doors that she’s talking about, telling me that I’m stripping her rights as a parent — those rights are gone when your child is in the public school system because there are students talking about these things.”
Well, no parental rights end just because their children step into a public school.
Please take your children out of public school–right now it’s not a good place!
Slowly But Surely?
According to a Reuters article posted on May 15th, last year the Biden administration sold 180 million barrels of America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in order to stabilize the oil market and fight the high prices Americans were paying at the pump. The fact that this was done during an election year is purely coincidental.
On May 20th, The Washington Free Beacon reported the following:
President Joe Biden in December began working to replenish the 180 million barrels he sold last year from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Nearly six months later, he still has zero barrels to show for it.
Biden’s Energy Department on Monday announced its intention to purchase up to three million reserve barrels as a “continuation” of the president’s “replenishment strategy.” So far, however, that “strategy” has seen the Democrat fail to purchase a single barrel of reserve oil. The administration first tried to purchase three million reserve barrels in December, when Biden kicked off his “plan to replenish the SPR.” One month later, Biden’s Energy Department revealed it had rejected all offers it received to purchase the oil because those offers “were either too expensive or didn’t meet the required specifications.”
…Facing the “impossible” task of refilling the reserve to its past levels—the stock held 638 million barrels of oil when Biden took office and now holds just 362 million—Biden’s Energy Department is now channeling its replenishment efforts toward a more modest goal. The department in May touted its “significant progress toward replenishment,” citing its role in canceling congressionally mandated sales that would have seen the department sell 140 million reserve barrels between 2024 and 2027. As a result, the department says, the reserve will be effectively replenished by 2027—not because the barrels Biden sold will have been bought back, but rather because the reserve will save barrels thanks to the canceled sales.
“This cancellation … will allow the SPR to have the same number of barrels in reserve by the end of FY 2027 that it would have had emergency barrels not been sold in 2022,” the department said.
Oil prices sit at $72 a barrel, and the Biden administration hopes to purchase reserve oil at anywhere between $67 to $72 a barrel. Republicans tried to fill the reserve to its capacity in the spring of 2020—when a barrel of oil cost as low as $15—but Senate Democrats blocked the plan, attacking it as a “bailout for big oil.”
Biden went on to sell a historic number of reserve barrels in 2022, when the average price for a gallon of gas exceeded $5 in the United States for the first time ever. Millions of those barrels were sent overseas—Biden even sold nearly one million U.S. reserve barrels to a Chinese state-controlled gas giant, the Free Beacon reported last year, a sale that came as America’s top adversary scrambled to build up its own stockpile of oil.
I can’t help but wonder who advised the Biden administration to sell oil to China when we were tapping our own oil reserves. The use of the SPR for political purposes is a first, and it has left America in a weakened position. It really is time to go back to drilling for American oil and selling that oil to Americans.
Do You Feel That Someone Is Watching You?
On Sunday, Townhall posted an article about the number of warrantless searches on American citizens.
The article reports:
In the fiscal year for the U.S. government that ended in November 2021, the FBI conducted more than 278,000 warrantless searches on U.S. citizens.
The information was unsealed in a FISA court ruling this past week.
So on average, during just that one year, the FBI was carrying out as many as 762 warrantless searches per day. That’s 32 improper searches per hour. That breaks down to a new warrantless search every 2 minutes.
These numbers do not include proper searches that used warrants and carried out the usual function of the bureau.
It also does not include the 3,400,000 times the FBI searched citizens’ data without warrants. That’s 9,315 per day, 388 per hour, and 6.5 per minute.
So in 2021–every two minutes—the FBI conducted a physical search and 13 data searches—illegally—for the entire year.
The same agency we now know tipped off that Hillary Clinton was colluding with Russia to frame Donald Trump and did nothing about it…
The same agency that lied to the FISA court to extend search warrants to surveil people that were later vindicated and cleared…
The same agency that allowed agents to conduct extra-marital relationships (an action that violates the FBI code of conduct) and feverishly work to remove a lawfully elected President…
The same agency that has held the Hunter Biden laptop in its possession has chosen to do zero in enforcement….
The same agency that knew that one political party was attempting to smear, frame, and remove an incoming President and briefed then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice-President Joe Biden as to the plans…
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. Unfortunately there is more.
Our Constitution protects us from unlawful searches:
Fourth Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The people engaged in this unlawful surveillance need to be arrested.
Where Are The Fact-Checkers?
On Friday, Just the News posted an article detailing some of the lies being told about raising the debt ceiling.
The article notes:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office is disputing reports on social media and websites that Republicans are demanding President Biden agree to work requirements on a litany of social services programs in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.
A headline on the website Raw Story declared, “McCarthy demands work requirements on ‘all the programs’ including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and SNAP.”
The story was also retweeted by a former Obama campaign official Jon Cooper.
“Kevin McCarthy is demanding that WORK REQUIREMENTS be added to receive not only Medicaid but also Medicare and Social Security. He doesn’t think Americans have earned their benefits – despite paying into all three programs over the course of their entire working lives,” Cooper wrote in another post Wednesday.
However, House Republicans’ push for work requirements as part of an agreement to raise the nation’s debt limit would apply only to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The article notes:
The plan proposed by McCarthy and other GOP leaders to enforce work-related requirements in these federal benefit programs would not apply to Social Security and Medicare, contrary to information spreading on social media, the speaker’s office confirmed.
The article also notes that most Americans support work-requirements for some federal programs.
The article concludes:
Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz argued that most Americans support work requirements as opposed to issuing benefits without any strings attached.
“An overwhelming majority of Americans support a work requirement for welfare,” Cruz said.
He also suggested that Biden doesn’t support such a requirement but once did.
“You know someone [whom] President Joe Biden ought to listen to? That would be Senator Joe Biden who has previously voted for work requirements for welfare. But now he’s handed the Democrat Party over to the crazy socialist wing of the party that doesn’t want anyone to work,” he said.
Democrats point to analysis from liberal organizations such as The Center for American Progress, which have concluded that work requirements would not work under programs like Medicaid.
Most Americans are generous people who support charity. However, the government bureaucracy has grown so bloated that it is very easy for people to scam the welfare system. When social programs were handled locally, it was easy to tell who was gaming the system and who was not. Now there is a thought in the back of the basic bureaucrat’s mind that says, “If I get everyone off welfare, I will lose my job.” This is not a good business model.
