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The Democrats Use The Filibuster Right After Trying To Get Rid Of It!
On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that the Democrats in the Senate used the filibuster to block a bi-partisan bill that would reimpose sanctions on the Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2 from being sent to the House for consideration. There were 55 votes for the bill, but the Democrats used the filibuster to block it. Aren’t these the same people who earlier in the week were calling for the end of the filibuster?
The article reports:
Several Democrats, including Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Catherine Cortez Masto, Mark Kelly and Raphael Warnock, voted alongside Republicans.
“Today, the Senate rebuked Joe Biden’s surrender to Vladimir Putin on Nord Stream 2,” Cruz said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Despite furious White House lobbying, a large bipartisan majority of senators (55-44) once again voted for immediate sanctions on Putin’s pipeline.”
“President Biden should listen to the Senate and to the people and government of Ukraine, and reverse his catastrophic decision to grant Russia waivers from congressionally mandated sanctions,” the statement continued. “Only immediately imposing sanctions can change Putin’s calculation, stop a Ukrainian invasion, and lift the existential threat posed by Nord Stream 2.”
Construction of the pipeline, which travels directly from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, was completed in September 2021, but the German government has yet to give the final green light for the project to come online.
The reason American energy independence is so important both for the national security of America and the well being of Europe is that Russia uses energy as a weapon against Europe during the winter months. If America is energy independent, we can help meet the needs of Europe and lessen the political sway of Moscow over the region. The pipeline needs to be sanctioned, but American needs to up its energy production to make sure Europe is warm this winter.
One Result Of The Supreme Court Ruling On Mandatory Vaccines
Yesterday The Daily Wire reported that General Electric has suspended its vaccine mandate and testing requirements due to the Supreme Court decision on vaccine mandates. After the Court decision, President Biden requested that companies keep the vaccine mandates in effect anyway. I guess General Electric realized the potential lawsuits and loss of employees keeping the mandates would bring.
The article reports:
“The maker of jet engines, wind turbines and medical scanners confirmed the decision Friday via email,” Bloomberg News reported. “GE is the first major company to announce a halt after the court’s decision Thursday to block the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s push to boost Covid-19 vaccinations.”
The article concludes:
“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has chosen to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees at large businesses that were grounded squarely in both science and the law,” Biden said. “This emergency standard allowed employers to require vaccinations or to permit workers to refuse to be vaccinated, so long as they were tested once a week and wore a mask at work: a very modest burden.”
“As a result of the Court’s decision, it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees, and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers during this pandemic by requiring employees to take the simple and effective step of getting vaccinated,” Biden continued. “The Court has ruled that my administration cannot use the authority granted to it by Congress to require this measure, but that does not stop me from using my voice as President to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans’ health and economy. I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up – including one third of Fortune 100 companies – and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.”
Adhering to President Biden’s suggestion will only create more chaos in the supply chain and more lawsuits in the workplace. I suspect a lot of companies realize that. It is a shame that the President either doesn’t realize that or doesn’t care.
An Interesting Perspective
On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal posted an op-ed piece about vaccine mandates. The editorial pointed out some very obvious questions.
The article notes:
Federal courts considering the Biden administration’s vaccination mandates—including the Supreme Court at Friday’s oral argument—have focused on administrative-law issues. The decrees raise constitutional issues as well. But there’s a simpler reason the justices should stay these mandates: the rise of the Omicron variant.
It would be irrational, legally indefensible and contrary to the public interest for government to mandate vaccines absent any evidence that the vaccines are effective in stopping the spread of the pathogen they target. Yet that’s exactly what’s happening here.
Both mandates—from the Health and Human Services Department for healthcare workers and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for large employers in many other industries—were issued Nov. 5. At that time, the Delta variant represented almost all U.S. Covid-19 cases, and both agencies appropriately considered Delta at length and in detail, finding that the vaccines remained effective against it.
Those findings are now obsolete. As of Jan. 1, Omicron represented more than 95% of U.S. Covid cases, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Because some of Omicron’s 50 mutations are known to evade antibody protection, because more than 30 of those mutations are to the spike protein used as an immunogen by the existing vaccines, and because there have been mass Omicron outbreaks in heavily vaccinated populations, scientists are highly uncertain the existing vaccines can stop it from spreading. As the CDC put it on Dec. 20, “we don’t yet know . . . how well available vaccines and medications work against it.”
The article notes that mandating a vaccine to stop the spread of a disease requires evidence that the vaccines will prevent infection or transmission.
The article also notes:
As the World Health Organization puts it, “if mandatory vaccination is considered necessary to interrupt transmission chains and prevent harm to others, there should be sufficient evidence that the vaccine is efficacious in preventing serious infection and/or transmission.” For Omicron, there is as yet no such evidence.
The article concludes:
It is axiomatic in U.S. law that courts don’t uphold agency directives when the agency has entirely failed to consider facts crucial to the problem. In many contexts courts send regulations back to the agency for reconsideration in light of dramatically changed circumstances. If the agency’s action “is not sustainable on the record itself, the proper judicial approach has been to vacate the action and to remand the matter back to the agency for further consideration,” as the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia put it.
Neither HHS nor OSHA ever considered Omicron or said a word about vaccine efficacy against it, for the simple reason that it hadn’t yet been discovered. In these circumstances, longstanding legal principles require the justices to stay the mandates and send them back to the agencies for a fresh look.
It is becoming very obvious that there is a severe lack of common sense among those who are currently supporting vaccine mandates.
Does The Constitution Mean Anything To The Biden Administration?
Yesterday The Conservative Review posted an article about the Biden administration’s reaction to the Supreme Court decision to ban vaccine mandates on private companies of more than 100 people. The administration was obviously not pleased with the decision, but their actions following the decision indicate how little respect they have for the legal system of America.
The article reports:
President Joe Biden said Thursday that he will continue pushing private businesses to “do the right thing … and institute vaccination requirements” shortly after the Supreme Court blocked his vaccine-or-testing rule.
Biden, in a statement issued shortly after the court’s opinion, noted that “it is now up to States and individual employers to determine whether to make their workplaces as safe as possible for employees.” The Supreme Court blocked Biden’s 2021 rule, which required private businesses with 100+ employees to require workers to be vaccinated or test weekly, in a 6-3 vote.
The president called his knocked-down rule requiring employees to be vaccinated a “simple and effective step” against the pandemic. He took a defiant tone in his response to the ruling, noting that while his administration can’t “require the measure,” he can still use his “voice as President” for advocacy.
“The Court has ruled that my administration cannot use the authority granted to it by Congress to require this measure, but that does not stop me from using my voice as President to advocate for employers to do the right thing to protect Americans’ health and economy,” Biden said. “I call on business leaders to immediately join those who have already stepped up – including one third of Fortune 100 companies – and institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.”
You could fertilize your garden with this statement.
The article concludes:
While the president vowed to continue pressuring businesses to comply with the vaccine or testing rule, he also commended the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to reinstate his vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. This policy, also announced in 2021, requires any health care worker operating out of a facility that receives Medicaid and Medicare funding to be vaccinated, minus those who qualify for religious and medical exemptions.
Biden said the Supreme Court’s decision on this mandate “will save lives,” and he promised enforcement of the rule.
“It will cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities. We will enforce it,” Biden declared.
The government will now force people to inject something into their bodies that they do not want to inject. How is that compatible with freedom?
Is It Possible To Restore Trust In The FBI?
Yesterday The American Thinker posted an article highlighting how the FBI has broken its relationship with the American public.
The article notes:
All large organizations suffer from the occasional presence of bad actors. The FBI is no exception. But it managed to retain a good relationship with the public in spite of its flaws because it was still solving rather than creating crimes.
But something fundamentally changed in the last five years. The Comey clown car arrived in the center ring and unloaded under the spotlight. As the public watched the comedy of James “The Cardinal” Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page, searching for phantom Russian colluders under the bed, while actual Russian colluders cheered them on, we knew we needed to take a closer look. The examination has been shocking.
The “Midyear Exam,” the bureau’s name for the Hillary Clinton email investigation, was a farce. No subpoenas were issued, central figures were given immunity without cooperation, evidence was destroyed by the FBI, and then the attorney general had a clandestine meeting with “Slick Willy” Clinton — the husband of the target. Surprise: No charges were filed. “The Cardinal” Comey held a press conference and announced that even though Hillary had broken numerous laws, she didn’t mean it, so he was giving her a pass. It must have been an accident that an email server, containing classified documents, appeared in her bathroom — with a support staff.
“Crossfire Hurricane” was the investigation into alleged Trump collusion with Russia to steal an election. Within a couple of months, the bureau knew that the whole thing was a hoax created by Hillary, yet the investigation continued for three years — eventually transitioning into a special counsel investigation. Peter Strzok called “Crossfire Hurricane” the bureau’s insurance policy — against a Trump presidency. It was a good way to show off for his mistress, Lisa Page — a rabid anti-Trump FBI lawyer.
The “Midyear Exam” was a cover-up, and “Crossfire Hurricane” was a setup. Both were exposed by the clown show the FBI put on. Now the public is paying attention. Conspiracies that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago seem entirely plausible now.
The article concludes:
The FBI will cease being the “plumbers” (the nickname for Nixon’s henchmen) for the Democrats and become the enemy of both parties. Then either it or America will die. A free people cannot coexist with a secret police force, using investigations for purposes other than law enforcement. The contest will be epic.
A recent Zogby poll found that by 46 to 31 percent, members of the public think their sheriff’s department has more legal authority than the FBI. Obviously, the legal authority of the bureau is not subject to opinion. It is defined by statute. But there’s an important message in that poll. We are self-governed. Legal authority, without moral authority, equals no authority — at least not over free people.
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. We currently have a problem in the Department of Justice, and the FBI is only a small part of that problem. When anyone who disagrees with the Democrats is at risk of being investigated for being a domestic terrorist, we have entered the world of totalitarian governments. That is not a place I want to be.
Is A Refusal To Answer An Answer?
There are many Americans who believe that a lot of what we saw on January 6th was a false flag operation. The fact that no one can explain why President Trump’s request for the National Guard was denied adds to that suspicion. The fact that Roy Epps mysteriously disappeared from the FBI’s Most Wanted List after being seen on video telling people to go into the Capitol also adds to that suspicion. A Congressional Hearing on Tuesday added further fuel to the suspicion that January 6th was a set-up.
The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article on Tuesday about the Congressional Hearing. The article reports:
An FBI agent refused to give answers on Tuesday as to who Ray Epps is and whether any agents or informants participated in any capacity in the January 6 Capitol riot.
Senator Ted Cruz demanded to know the level of involvement, if any, the agency had in the deadly attack last year and wanted to know more about an ex-Marine accused of being an FBI plant sent to help incite the events last year.
‘How many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of January 6th?’ Cruz asked the FBI’s Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch Jill Sanborn during a hearing on domestic violence threats on Tuesday.
‘Sir, I’m sure you can appreciate that I can’t go into the specifics of sources and methods –’ Sanborn began, but was cut off but Cruz re-asking the same question.
‘I can’t answer that,’ said Sanborn, who joined the hearing virtually.
‘Did any FBI agents or confidential informants commit crimes of violence on January 6?’ Cruz pushed.
‘I can’t answer that.’
‘Did any FBI agents or FBI informants actively encourage and incite crimes of violence on January 6?’ the Texas Republican senator asked.
Sanborn repeated the same answer for a third time.
Cruz then said that President Biden needs to answer questions about the FBI’s supposed role in January 6.
‘Unfortunately, under Joe Biden we have seen an incredibly partisan Department of Justice,’ Cruz said. ‘And both the Department of Justice and the FBI have an arrogance that they are not accountable to anyone, that they can stonewall.’
So much for the transparency of the Biden administration.
Forgetting The Past While Criticizing The Present
On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about President Biden’s remarks in Georgia about the voting bill currently before the Senate. In that speech, the President referred to those who oppose the voting bill as being similar to segregationists. First of all, the bill has nothing to do with race. The issue that the Democrats find so appealing in the bill is that it would outlaw voter id requirements in all states. That’s not segregation–everyone in America has an equal opportunity to obtain an id or some sort.
The article reports:
Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, would effectively nationalize election laws by restoring a legal provision allowing the Justice Department to challenge state laws as discriminatory. The bills would also mandate extensive early voting and absentee ballot provision, as well as prohibit bans on ballot-harvesting. Neither bill is supported by Republicans, leading Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to call for the elimination of the filibuster to pass them.
Both former senators had defended the filibuster throughout their careers in the upper chamber.
“Every senator, Democrat, Republican and Independent, will have to declare where they stand. Not just for the moment but for the ages,” Biden claimed of the two proposals.
“History has never been kind to those who’ve sided with voter suppression over voters’ rights, and it will be even less kind for those who side with election subversion. So I ask every elected official in America, how do you want to be remembered? Consequential moments in history, they present a choice. Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? The side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? The side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”
Isn’t that interesting that President Biden would say that those who oppose his agenda are segregationists. President Biden was one of the speakers at the funeral of Robert Byrd of West Virginia. According to thoughtco.com, in the early 1940s, Byrd formed a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia.
The article at thoughtco also notes:
In a 1944 letter to segregationist Mississippi Senator Theodore G. Bilbo, Byrd wrote,
“I shall never fight in the armed forces with a Negro by my side. Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds.”
As late as 1946, Byrd wrote to the Klan’s Grand Wizard: “The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation.”
I am being a little unfair here because times have changed. However, the fact that President Biden would accuse those who oppose an unconstitutional federalization of elections of being racist after his support of someone who obviously was racist is a bit much.
Fighting Bad Federal Policies
On Wednesday, Breitbart reported that Representative Mo Brooks has introduced a bill that would allow cities and states to refuse the federal government’s attempts to resettle illegal aliens in their communities.
The article reports:
The “Local Control Act” essentially adds what the congressman’s office described as a “new section” to the Immigration and Nationality Act, which would specifically require the federal officials, including the Secretary of Homeland Security “in consultation with” the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Attorney General, to notify the governor of a state prior to settling the illegal aliens in that specific state. What is more, the measure empowers the governor to stop the settlement altogether.
The article concludes:
Brooks’ measure coincides with data released by the Department of Homeland security, which shows that the Feds lost track of over 50,000 migrants released by the agency last year, as they were required to report to ICE once arriving to their desired U.S. location but failed to do so.
As Breitbart News reported:
The federal disclosure covers the period between March and August 2021. Of more than 270,000 migrants released by DHS, roughly 104,000 were placed in the NTR system which trusts the migrant to voluntarily report to ICE at their intended U.S. destination to begin the deportation process.
The DHS report issued in response to an inquiry by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) notes more than 50,000 migrants — greater than half of those released under NTRs —failed to make formal contact with ICE.
In an exclusive report by Breitbart Texas, the policy change relying on the honor system of self-reporting to ICE went into effect in March 2021. Data released by DHS only addresses the first six months of the procedure in place.
During the first eight days of the new year alone, agents along the southwest border apprehended over 19,000 migrants, as Breitbart News detailed.
If the federal government will not do its job, the states will have to take action. Illegal immigration is expensive, and it is not fair to ask communities and states to shoulder the burden of illegal activity. There is no vetting, and communities have no idea who is coming into their areas.
This Is All Very Confusing
On Sunday, Hot Air reported that Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania swim team, recently lost the 100-meter freestyle race to another transgender swimmer. Okay, fair is fair. That seems logical. However the story gets a little weird after that.
The article quotes an Outkick article:
Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who had been crushing her competition since joining the women’s swim team after three years swimming as a biological male, met her match Saturday in the 100-meter freestyle during a tri-meet with Yale and Dartmouth.
Thomas won the 200-meter and 500-meter races at Penn’s final home meet of the season, but she finished sixth in the 100-meter where Yale’s Iszac Henig, a transgender swimmer who is in the process of transitioning from female to male, crushed Thomas. Henig finished the 100 in 49.57 while Thomas touched the wall in 52.84.
“I wasn’t prepared for that. Everything is messed up. I can’t wrap my head around this. The NCAA needs to do something about this. They need to put science into the decision and discussion,” a Penn swim parent told The Daily Mail.
The article at Hot Air concludes:
Not all of the irony has been removed from the story, however. What this really means is that trans swimmer Thomas was beaten by an actual woman, so how well would Thomas do against the guys? This is a subject we touched on when the story first emerged last month. Thomas may be setting records for the University of Pennsylvania and for these specific meets, but all of the times posted thus far are still slower than the current NCAA women’s division records for those events. And they are laughably far behind the men’s division records. And now, even with the distinct biological advantage that Thomas enjoys, the swimmer has been defeated in multiple events by an actual female.
That doesn’t remove all of the injustice from the situation, of course. There are still plenty of other legitimate female college athletes who are being bumped down the charts. As the linked article indicates, one parent of a female Penn swimmer was once again calling for the NCAA to “put science into the decision and discussion.” We already saw one collegiate swimming official end her career in protest over what’s been going on. Sadly, the NCAA has clearly drunk deeply from the new chalice of wokeness and they aren’t likely to voluntarily embark on a return to sanity any time soon.
This makes my head hurt.
Irony At Its Best
Remember the uproar when President Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord? Do you also remember that after that withdrawal America was successful in lowering its greenhouse gas emissions (part of that was due to the pandemic, and part of that was due to an increased reliance on natural gas)? Well, President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office rejoining the Paris Climate Accord. So how is that working out?
On Monday, Just the News reported:
A new report finds U.S. carbon emissions increased at a faster rate than the overall U.S. economy in 2021 largely due to a jump in coal use.
Analysts anticipated a significant rebound in emissions in 2021, following the anomalous pandemic year that was 2020. However, according to the report from nonpartisan climate consulting firm the Rhodium Group, growth still managed to outpace expectations, which presents a challenge to the Biden administration’s oft-stated goal of cutting fossil fuel emissions, from 2005, in half by 2030.
Despite significant rebounds, U.S. emission rates in 2021 were still 5% below what they were during the pre-pandemic year of 2019. The report indicates that the single largest source of emissions was from the transportation sector, spurred primarily by an increase in demand for consumer goods that keep freight trucks on the roads.
The second leading cause of emissions, the electric power sector, saw a “sharp rise” in coal generation – the first annual increase since 2014.
The Rhodium Group explains that, in part, coal mounted a comeback because of market conditions. Natural gas prices doubled their 2020 rate because of lower production levels brought about by the pandemic. However, according to the report, for the first time, renewable energy sources comprised 20% of U.S. electricity generation in 2021.
Even the European Union is waking up to the fact that green energy is not the total solution to carbon emissions (see article here). Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel and its increased use will definitely reduce carbon emissions. Nuclear energy with the proper safety precautions is also useful in lowering America’s carbon footprint.
It is ironic that the President who withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord was more successful in curbing America’s carbon emissions than the President who rejoined the Accord.
The Logic Of This Escapes Me
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article quoting Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus.
The article reports:
Speaking during remarks to a J.P. Morgan healthcare conference this week, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla openly stated current vaccines the company developed for Wuhan coronavirus offer “limited, if any” protection against contracting current variants of the disease. He then encouraged booster shots.
If two shots offer questionable protection, why in the world would anyone want to get a booster shot? What are you boosting?
The article also notes:
The statement from Bourla comes as the Biden administration continues to justify vaccine mandates for federal workers, contractors and private businesses. The Supreme Court heard arguments about President Biden’s mandates for private companies and medical workers last week. A ruling is expected soon on the constitutionality of the mandates.
A number of people who have pointed out the waning efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccines, which Bourla touted last year as being “100 percent” effective against contracting or transmitting the virus, have been banned by social media companies.
One of the problems with this entire discussion is the omission of natural immunity. In April 2021, Denver Channel 7 reported the following:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 35% of all Americans have been infected with COVID-19 over the last year.
From February 2020 to March 2021, the CDC estimates 114.6 million Americans were infected with COVID-19, 97.1 million had symptomatic illnesses and 5.6 million were hospitalized with COVID-19.
How many more have had Covid since then and have natural immunity? Just for the record, I had Covid in November 2020 and a very recent blood test showed that I still had antibodies. I think it’s time to consider natural immunity when we discuss the coronavirus and the vaccines.
Good News From Texas
On January 5th, One America News posted an article about a new COVID-19 vaccine.
The article reports:
Texas scientists rolled out a new COVID-19 vaccine, saying it’s patent-free and can be produced by any manufacturer in any country. The vaccine, called Corbevax, was developed by the Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine.
It has successfully passed human trials as safe and effective. The new treatment is based off protein-based technology that has been used in other vaccines for decades and it does not use MRNA.
India has already authorized production of 100 million doses per month of the new vaccine. Meanwhile, Texas scientists say not-for-profit vaccines will help defeat COVID-19 quicker.
…The Corbevax vaccine was found to be at least 80 percent efficient against the Delta strain and it’s said to be as effective as other vaccines against Omicron.
This is great news. There are some questions about the risk involved in MRNA vaccines. It is also evident that the money from big pharma has been involved in some of the decisions regarding vaccines and treatments for Covid-19. Since there is no patent on this vaccine, it will be interesting to see what happens. The first thing to watch for is how widely the discovery is reported in the mainstream media.
The Cost Of The Open Border
On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the amount of fentanyl coming across our southern border.
The article reports:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has reported a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl seized in south Texas ports during fiscal year 2021.
Border agents at eight ports of entry extending from Brownsville to Del Rio said that between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, they seized 87,652 pounds of narcotics that would have commanded a combined estimated street value of $786 million, CBP reported on Jan. 5.
Of this, 41,713 pounds was marijuana, 8,592 pounds was cocaine, 33,777 pounds was methamphetamine, 1,215 pounds was heroin, and 588 pounds was fentanyl. That’s a 1,066 percent increase in fentanyl seizures, as well as a 98 percent increase in cocaine seizures, from the year prior.
They also reported having seized $10.4 million in unreported currency, 463 weapons—up 21 percent from FY 2020—and 84,863 rounds of ammunition.
The eight ports of entry comprise the Laredo Field Office. The CBP officers at these ports of entry also noted that in FY 2021, more than 20,701 non-U.S. citizens were inadmissible to the United States due to violations of immigration law.
Randy J. Howe, the Laredo Field Office’s director of field operations, said in a statement that despite significantly less traffic due to travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “the drug and contraband threat remained the same.”
“Our significant gains in fentanyl and cocaine seizures underscore the deadly nature of the contraband we encounter, the need to utilize Personal Protective Equipment to protect our officers and our continued resolve to carry out our vital border security mission,” he said.
An unsecured southern border is a national security threat because we have no idea who is crossing the border and a national health issue–because of the coronavirus and because of the Americans who have died because of fentanyl use.
The article concludes:
China is “the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States,” the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said in its 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment report (pdf).
A record number of Americans—more than 100,000—died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and fentanyl was involved in almost two-thirds of those deaths, making it the largest cause of overdose deaths in the United States.
Overall, during fiscal year 2021, CBP confiscated a total of 11,200 pounds of fentanyl—up from 2,150 pounds the year prior, signifying a 521 percent increase.
It should also be noted that some of the deaths from fentanyl have been because someone took a pill they believed to be Oxycontin or some other pain killer that had been laced with fentanyl. The lesson to all Americans should be that you should never take a pill unless it is from a pharmacist and in a bottle that has your name on it.
When The Laws Of Physics Get In The Way
On Sunday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the problems with the government’s push toward green energy. The main problem is the laws of physics. Those laws are unavoidable and unbreakable.
The article quotes Isaac Orr at American Experiment:
It is a well-understood phenomenon that wind generation in the Midwest essentially disappears when the mercury dips below -22° F. Electricity generation from wind turbines drops under these circumstances because wind turbines are programmed to automatically shut off when the temperatures get this cold to prevent them from breaking.
The article at American Experiment includes the following graph:
The article at Power Line Blog concludes:
The basic point here is that wind energy shows up only sporadically and unpredictably, and tends to disappear when it is needed the most. The worst time for a blackout is when the mercury is at -20, as it was yesterday where I live. Note where electricity was actually coming from in the chart above: coal, the dark brown line, was the principal source, while natural gas, the light brown line, is only slightly behind. These are the sources that liberals want to do away with. Wind was flighty; sometimes it worked, but often it didn’t. Is that how you want your light switches to operate? And if you can find solar energy on this chart, a technology in which many billions of dollars have been invested, your eyes are sharper than mine.
On energy, we are in a race against time. We need to inform voters before the lavishly-funded “green” energy lobby destroys our electrical grid and our economy, at great profit to them but at ruinous loss to the rest of us.
Please read the article posted in 2014 to see what happened when Spain decided to rely strictly on green energy. Recently the European Union seems to have had a small awakening regarding the perils of relying solely on green energy (article here).
What Are The Real Numbers?
On Friday, Fox News posted an article about hospitalizations for Covid in New York State. It turns out that the numbers being reported include people admitted to the hospital for a problem unrelated to Covid who test positive for Covid.
The article reports:
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released data Friday breaking down COVID-19 hospitalizations by those who were admitted due to the virus and those who were admitted for other reasons but were found to have the illness.
Included in the data was a chart showing “how many hospitalized individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted for COVID-19/COVID-19 complications and how many were admitted for non-COVID-19 conditions.”
This is a screenshot of the chart:
The article concludes:
Hochul’s administration recently faced backlash after revealing that it will prioritize non-White people in the distribution of COVID-19 treatments in short supply.
New York’s Department of Health released a document detailing its plan to distribute the treatments, such as monoclonal antibody treatment and antiviral pills.
The plan includes a section on eligibility for the scarce antiviral pills that people must meet to receive the treatment, including a line stating a person needs to have “a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness.”
This is the breakdown of the vaccinated and unvaccinated in New York City (article here):
As of December 13, 2021, CDC reported that race/ethnicity was known for 70% of people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among this group, nearly two thirds were White (58%), 10% were Black, 19% were Hispanic, 6% were Asian, 1% were American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and <1% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI), while 6% reported multiple or other race. White people make up a smaller share of people who have received at least one dose (58%) and people who have recently received a vaccination (50%) compared to their share of the total population (61%). The same pattern is observed among Black people, who make up 10% of people who have received at least one dose and 11% of those recently vaccinated, compared to 12% of the population. In contrast, Hispanic people make up a larger share of vaccinated people (19%) and people who recently received a vaccination (23%) compared to their share of the total population (17%). The share of vaccinated people who are Asian is proportionate to their share of the total population (both 6%), while they make up a higher share (9%) of people initiating vaccination in the last 14 days.
It’s interesting to me that New York State is giving some minorities priority in Covid treatment when some minorities seem to be the most reluctant to get vaccinated. I guess some minorities are not included in the move to deny medical treatment to the unvaccinated.
A Definite Step In The Wrong Direction
New York City has a new mayor. It was hoped that Mayor Eric Adams would change the direction of the city–the city is not the safe, wonderful tourist attraction it has been in the past. Unfortunately, one of Mayor Adams’ first steps is in the wrong direction. The Western Journal posted an article on Sunday about a recent decision by Mayor Adams.
The article reports:
American citizenship is no longer required to vote in New York City’s local elections.
Mayor Eric Adams said Saturday he supports a plan to allow non-citizens to vote in Big Apple municipal contests, saying it was the “best choice,” according to the New York Post.
The bill was passed by the City Council last month and took effect Sunday because neither Adams nor former Mayor Bill DeBlasio vetoed it, according to The New York Times.
About 800,000 people who are not U.S. citizens can now vote for New York City mayor, council races, and local ballot propositions. Although the law is aimed at legal citizens, it also allows gives the vote to participants in the Deferred Action for Childhoods Arrivals program — who were brought to the U.S. illegally as young children.
At the moment, the law does not apply to state and local elections.
The article notes:
New York City’s board of elections must develop rules to implement the plan by July, with it taking effect in the 2023 round of local elections, the Guardian reported.
There is a lawsuit that has been filed. I believe this law is unconstitutional. Hopefully, the judges who hear the case will follow the constitution in making their decision.
More Politics Inside The Department Of Justice
On Sunday, Zero Hedge reported that the Department of Justice has stated that it will not withdraw a controversial memo used to activate the FBI Counterterrorism Division to investigate parents voicing their opposition to a variety of topics – primarily mask and vaccine mandates, and teaching critical race theory. Very questionable people are streaming across our southern border, and the Department of Justice is worried about parents who oppose mask and vaccine mandates and critical race theory. That is not only unbelievable–it’s dangerous to the security of our nation.
The article reports:
This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed the pre-Christmas response – stating:
“[I]n December we asked why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was getting involved in parents expressing their concerns at school board meetings. Now, just to be crystal clear, there’s no excuse for real threats or acts of violence at school board meetings, but if there are such threats, these should be handled at the local level and the Attorney General should withdraw his memo that started this whole thing.
“Well, a couple days before Christmas, the Justice Department responded to us with just a one-page letter.
“In that letter, DOJ had nothing to say about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was involved in local school-board matters. DOJ just said, ‘We’re not going to withdraw the memo.’ So, the Feds may be keeping track of school board meetings—even if it creates a horrible chilling effect. And, of course the FBI looking over your shoulder would have a chilling effect. Next week the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on domestic terrorism. I hope we’re going to be focusing on the serious threats facing our country—and I hope no one thinks the focus is on our nation’s parents.”
The article also notes:
According to a public statement by Grassley regarding the one-page letter:
“The Department of Justice owes the American people a better answer than just a one-page letter that says nothing about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division is involved in local school-board matters. Now more than ever, parents should be their kids’ strongest and best advocates. They have the God-given right to do so. And the Justice Department ought to be doing everything it can to protect that right, not scare them out of exercising that right. Attorney General Garland should withdraw his memo. And he should take Congress’s oversight, and concern for the rights of parents, more seriously.”
Saturday night I watched the movie “The Lives of Others.” It is a foreign film with subtitles about life in East Germany under the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. The movie was made in 2006. It is on Amazon Prime. If you haven’t yet seen it, I strongly recommend it–it gives a glance into what life is like when justice is political.
The Real Reason Behind The Awful Jobs Report
“Experts” predicted that the Biden administration would see 400,000 new jobs created in December. The actual number was 199,000. The good news is that the Workforce Participation Rate did not drop. It is holding steady at 61.9. That’s not a great number, but at least it is holding steady.
On Friday, Breitbart noted:
The jobless rates for whites fell half a percentage point to 3.2 percent, while the rate for blacks rose from 6.7 percent to 7.1 percent, according to data released by the Labor Department on Friday.
On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article detailing some of the reasons for the low jobs number. It’s not the coronavirus as President Biden claims.
The article reports:
Keep in mind, the November jobs report showed a decline in retail jobs of 29,000, and this report shows that despite November & December being the largest shopping months for holidays, the retail sector jobs were nonexistent.
The issue is what we have discussed here for months, inflation.
The job quits and JOLT turnover reports from last week showed massive numbers of employees quitting their jobs. In part this is pressure from the vaccine mandate (more on that later). However, in the majority what we are seeing is employment decisions based on inflation hitting the labor market.
Additionally, the current BLS report does not have the Omicron “winter of death” employment impact within it. That impact will come in the January report, and it will not be good. But let’s get down to reconciling December jobs data with reality on the ground.
Inflation is chewing up income amid the workforce. This is not debatable, and this is reflected in every opinion poll and economic statistic that has surfaced for the past six months. The BLS report somewhat surprised people in the 0.6% wage gains, and average wage increases are now 4.7% year over year. That should be a good thing. However, inflation at 20 to 50+% on energy, fuel, gasoline and food means a 4.7% growth in wages is a pittance.
Unfortunately, the article does not conclude with good news:
We have a looming problem that does not reconcile with 3.9% unemployment. The pundits are perplexed.
The confusion is because NO ECONOMIC data has ever shown this level of inflation in such a short period of time. There are no models. There is no experience in this situation. This is not like the 1970’s where oil prices were the direct and primary cause. This is different, because we are experiencing shortages and price increases specifically due to policy.
Energy policy is killing us (oil and natural gas prices). Legislative policy is killing us (spending and bailouts). Monetary policy is killing us (cheap lending, quantitative easing, devaluation). All of this is causing massive inflation at a level we have never seen in history, and it’s on everything.
Then we throw in a vaccine mandate, and perpetual fear of a virus that hits both the demand side and the employment side simultaneously…. and, well, here you go. The disruptions inside the economy are like deep cuts, thousands of them, and they are not accidental.
Many, if not most, of these disruptions are being done at the altar of climate change and the Green New Deal.
COVID-19 mitigation and mandates only make this worse.
The disruptions in the supply chain are a direct result of policy. Now, we have to prepare for inflation AND shortages. This will not get better in 2022.
Prepare your family accordingly. I believe those of you reading this article represent the people best prepared for what is about to happen.
Prepare for the worst, pray for the best.
Gradually The Truth Is Coming Out
In December, I posted two articles about the treatment of Victoria White on January 6th (here and here). Some of the video footage from the West Terrace tunnel of the U.S. Capitol that has been released shows a very different picture of what happened on January 6th than what we have been told. Recently The Epoch Times posted an article about one question posed by that video.
The article reports:
Newly released video from the West Terrace tunnel of the U.S. Capitol provides more details on the collapse, beating, and death of Rosanne Boyland on Jan. 6, 2021.
A three-hour video unsealed in late December in a Jan. 6 federal criminal case shows the 34-year-old President Donald Trump supporter entered the tunnel, was pushed back out, fell, and was struck by police before her lifeless body was dragged into the Capitol.
Boyland’s sister and a New York attorney question the District of Columbia medical examiner’s finding that Boyland died of an overdose of a prescription medication she took for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Boyland, from Kennesaw, Ga., traveled to Washington D.C. for the Save America rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. She is seen on video entering the Capitol tunnel, walking next to conservative activist Philip Anderson. Bystanders continue filing in toward the double doors leading into the Capitol.
About 2 1/2 minutes later, police begin pushing the crowd backwards. Boyland is seen at one point looking down at her feet as the mass of humanity flows back toward the entrance. Less than two minutes after that, she disappears from view after falling. Police continue to push the crowd out of the tunnel, causing bodies to pile up on the stairs.
…At the lower right edge of the tunnel arch, the video shows a Metropolitan Police Department officer repeatedly striking someone at ground level with a baton or a large stick.
Bodycam footage released in 2021 by the U.S. Department of Justice, and cell-phone videos posted to social media, show that Boyland was hit by a police officer numerous times with what appears to be a small tree branch or walking stick.
The article continues:
The New York attorney who released the three-hour surveillance video repeated his call for a special prosecutor to investigate what went on in the Capitol tunnel.
“My assessment is that yes, she was killed by the police,” Joseph McBride told The Epoch Times.
McBride originally called for a special prosecutor after the three-hour video showed his client, Victoria C. White, was beaten by police in the West Terrace tunnel over a four-minute period on Jan. 6. The violence against White occurred just a few minutes before Boyland entered the tunnel.
“Our relentless pursuit of truth and justice requires a special prosecutor to investigate the brutal beating of Victoria White and killing of Rosanne Boyland, who were both victims of police brutality on January 6th,” McBride said.
Is January 6, 2021, the day that Americans lost their civil rights? It seems that there were a lot of things that were done wrong that day both on the part of Trump supporters and law enforcement. The biggest violation of Americans’ civil rights is the fact that there are political prisoners still held in the Washington, D.C., jail without being charged, allowed bail, or given all of their civil rights. That needs to be shouted from the rooftops every day until someone is our government is held accountable for that situation.
The Revolution In Progress
The December issue of Imprimis (a publication of Hillsdale College) contains an article titled, “What is the Great Reset?” The article relates the history of the Great Reset and what we can expect from future moves to create the Great Reset. Please follow the link to read the entire article, but I will post a few highlights here.
The article notes:
But the idea of the Great Reset goes back much further. It can be traced at least as far back as the inception of the WEF (World Economic Forum), originally founded as the European Management Forum, in 1971. In that same year, Schwab (Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum), an engineer and economist by training, published his first book, Modern Enterprise Management in Mechanical Engineering. It was in this book that Schwab first introduced the concept he would later call “stakeholder capitalism,” arguing “that the management of a modern enterprise must serve not only shareholders but all stakeholders to achieve long-term growth and prosperity.” Schwab and the WEF have promoted the idea of stakeholder capitalism ever since. They can take credit for the stakeholder and public-private partnership rhetoric and policies embraced by governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and international governance bodies worldwide.
The specific phrase “Great Reset” came into general circulation over a decade ago, with the publication of a 2010 book, The Great Reset, by American urban studies scholar Richard Florida. Written in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Florida’s book argued that the 2008 economic crash was the latest in a series of Great Resets—including the Long Depression of the 1870s and the Great Depression of the 1930s—which he defined as periods of paradigm-shifting systemic innovation.
The article concludes:
In my recent book, Google Archipelago, I argued that leftist authoritarianism is the political ideology and modus operandi of what I call Big Digital, which is on the leading edge of a nascent world system. Big Digital is the communications, ideological, and technological arm of an emerging corporate-socialist totalitarianism. The Great Reset is the name that has since been given to the project of establishing this world system.
Just as Schwab and the WEF predicted, the COVID crisis has accelerated the Great Reset. Monopolistic corporations have consolidated their grip on the economy from above, while socialism continues to advance for the rest of us below. In partnership with Big Digital, Big Pharma, the mainstream media, national and international health agencies, and compliant populations, hitherto democratic Western states—think especially of Australia, New Zealand, and Austria—are being transformed into totalitarian regimes modeled after China.
But let me end on a note of hope. Because the goals of the Great Reset depend on the obliteration not only of free markets, but of individual liberty and free will, it is, perhaps ironically, unsustainable. Like earlier attempts at totalitarianism, the Great Reset is doomed to ultimate failure. That doesn’t mean, however, that it won’t, again like those earlier attempts, leave a lot of destruction in its wake—which is all the more reason to oppose it now and with all our might.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. Although the conclusion of the article is optimistic, all Americans need to know what some of those currently in power are planning.
From my friends at Townhall:
The Real “End Game”
On January 6th, Jonathan Turley posted an article about the end game of the Democrats total politicization of the events of January 6, 2021. The article provides insight into what lengths one political party will go to in order to retain power.
The article states:
Below is my column in The Hill on the continued calls to disqualify Republican members of Congress to prevent them from running for reelection. What is maddening is that Democratic groups and commentators are seeking to remove as many as 120 Republicans from the ballots in the name of democracy. It is like burning books in the name of literacy. Yet, on this anniversary of the January 6th riot, members of Congress and Democratic groups want to block voters from reelecting their preferred representatives. Like villages in Vietnam, it appears that some members and activists believe that you have to destroy democracy to save it from itself.
…This week, Democratic lawyer Marc Elias predicted that 2022 would bring a renewed interest in disqualifying Republican members from office based on an obscure Civil War-era provision. Elias — the former Hilary Clinton campaign general counsel — is a well-known figure in Washington who has been prominently featured in the ongoing investigation of Special Counsel John Durham. Elias has founded a self-described “pro-democracy” group that challenges Republican voting laws and pledges to “shape our elections and democratic institutions for years to come.”
In the age of rage, nothing says democracy like preventing people from running for office.
Elias and others are suggesting that — rather than defeat Republicans at the polls — Democrats in Congress could disqualify the Republicans for supporting or encouraging the Jan. 6 “insurrection.” Last year, Democratic members called for the disqualification of dozens of Republicans. One, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) demanded the disqualification of the 120 House Republicans — including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R-Calif.) — for simply signing a “Friend of the Court brief” (or amicus brief) in support of an election challenge from Texas.
These members and activists have latched upon the long-dormant provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the “disqualification clause” — which was written after the 39th Congress convened in December 1865 and many members were shocked to see Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, waiting to take a seat with an array of other former Confederate senators and military officers.
The article explains what would happen next if the Democrats attempt this:
The Constitution fortunately demands more than proof by repetition. In this case, it requires an actual rebellion. The clause Democrats are citing was created in reference to a real Civil War in which over 750,000 people died in combat. The confederacy formed a government, an army, a currency, and carried out diplomatic missions.
Conversely, Jan. 6 was a protest that became a riot.
That is not meant to diminish the legitimate outrage over the day. It was reprehensible — but only a “rebellion” in the most rhetorical sense.
More importantly, even if you adopt a dangerously broad definition of “insurrection” or “rebellion,” members of Congress who supported challenging the electoral votes (as Democrats have done in prior years) were exercising constitutionally protected speech.
Moreover, the Democrats cannot simply use their razor-thin majority to disqualify opponents willy-nilly. Punishments like expulsions take two-thirds votes, and any disqualifications can be challenged in the court.
It is frightening that this would even be attempted.
The Tyranny Variant
Because it has been done gradually, most of us have been slow to realize how many of the freedoms we had taken for granted have disappeared in the past two years. I am still hoping to see some of my grandchildren this summer without having everyone in their house go into quarantine because I am visiting from another state. Americans used to travel freely. I keep a mask in my car. I never know when someone will demand that I wear it in order to enter a building. Its effectiveness is questionable, but those in authority choose to ignore that fact. If a friend is in the hospital, I can’t visit them. In some situations I need a Covid test every week if I have not had the vaccine in order to go to work. Some college students, fully vaccinated, need a Covid test to return to school after Christmas break. Will we soon have vaccine passports that can be demanded by any authority at any time? (Papers, please.) Where are the freedoms our Founding Fathers fought for?
On Wednesday, American Greatness posted an article asking the question, “Will We Reach Herd Immunity Against the Tyranny Variant?” That’s a good question.
The article notes:
The good news is that the end of all of the COVID madness is apparently in sight. While low IQ pundits and hosts on MSNBC and CNN were doing their best to whip up one more frenzy of lockdowns and mandates over the “great and terrible” Omicron variant, the truth is Omicron, while highly contagious, is not evenly remotely deadly. It means most people, even the triple vaccinated (technically triple jabbed with a therapeutic medicine, as we don’t actually have a vaccine), multiple booster shots while wearing five masks Karens are probably going to get it—which means we’ll reach herd immunity and be back to normal within a few months.
That’s the good news. The bad news? Once COVID fades into the background, most if not all of our major institutions will still be broken. The CDC and NIH need serious reform. Corporate propagandists will still be around, acting not so much as “news sources” but as outlets for administrative state narratives. Tyrants from the federal to the local level will be looking for the next fear tactic to scare Americans into abdicating more power to the state. Big Tech will still be censoring and shutting down anything it disagrees with as it tramples the Bill of Rights.
The only hope is that enough Americans will have been inoculated after this bout of madness to be immune to, and deeply skeptical of, the next attempt to erode their rights. We will get some inkling of whether that’s the case in the coming elections. If Americans are acquiring a herd immunity to tyranny, look for them to actually demand their supposed representatives look out for and defend their rights.
Have Americans done enough to protect the integrity of our elections in the past year to be able to fight the tyranny variant? I don’t know.
How To Make Voter Fraud Easy
On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about one aspect of the ‘voter rights’ bill the Democrats want to pass. Rather than protecting voting rights, the bill makes it very easy for a fraudulent vote to cancel out the vote of a legitimate voter.
The article reports:
A state “may not deny a voter a ballot or the opportunity to cast it on the grounds that the voter does not possess a current and valid driver’s license number or a social security number,” the proposed bill says.
Voting rules legislation that Democrats are moving forward in the 50-50 Senate would prohibit states from imposing an identification requirement in order to obtain an absentee ballot ahead of an election.
Now why would they do that? Almost any activity involving banking, traveling, buying or selling in America requires an id or a social security number. Try opening a bank account without identification or a social security number. Don’t most Americans have bank accounts?
The article continues:
Phillip Kline, former Kansas attorney general, disagrees with those provisions of the Freedom to Vote Act that would create one-size-fits-all federal rules for absentee and mail-in ballots.
Not requiring ID or Social Security numbers to obtain mail-in ballots could lead to illegal ballot harvesting, Kline argued.
“There are commonsense protections that are placed on an absentee ballot because you do not have trained election officials to make sure that the voter is not misled or coerced or intimidated to vote a certain way and to make sure it was the actual voter who completed the ballot,” he said. “They’re eliminating all of those commonsense protections.”
In the 2020 election cycle, many states cited the coronavirus pandemic as the reason to loosen requirements for obtaining an absentee ballot. Kline said that it was wrong to change election law with regard to mail-in ballots during the pandemic.
“It never made sense to eliminate commonsense protections for the integrity of the election and for the inclusion of everybody in the counting center” or to have “government put their thumb on the scale and turn out certain voters,” Kline said. “It never made sense to do that under COVID or in any election, and now they’re trying to write it into law.
The article concludes:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Tuesday that the Democrat-led Senate would move forward with votes on the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
If the GOP blocks the legislation from advancing, Schumer said, the Democrats would vote on some sort of rule change to allow floor debate on certain pieces of legislation dealing with issues prioritized by Democrats.
This bill is nothing more than license to cheat in future elections. It needs to be stopped.