Author Archives: granny g

Elections Have Consequences

Posted on by
Reply

Now that the Democrats have taken over the governorship and legislature of Virginia, I wonder if the voters are happy with what they are seeing.

The following list was posted on X:

Look for a massive exodus from the Commonwealth of Virginia–one of the prettiest states in the nation. Virginia is my stop-off place when coming home from New England to North Carolina. With the increase in the hotel tax, I might want to reconsider that. Taxes in Virginia are increasing, and freedom is decreasing for law-abiding citizens. Criminal penalties for robbery are decreasing. Outlawing hand-counting ballots will make it easier to cheat in elections, and expanding ranked-choice voting will simply confuse everyone.

At Some Point, We Have To Deal With Lawlessness

Posted on by
Reply

On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about an escalation of the violence and unrest in Minneapolis.

The article reports:

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking into possible violations stemming from a protest by anti-ICE demonstrators at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18, according to officials.

Footage circulating on social media shows protesters gathering inside Cities Church in St. Paul during a Sunday service, while chanting phrases like “Justice for Renee Good” and “Who needs justice, we need justice.”

Protests against ICE in Minnesota have escalated after a federal agent in Minneapolis fatally shot protester Renee Good, who allegedly drove her SUV toward the officer after being ordered to exit her vehicle during an ICE operation. Federal officials have said the officer opened fire in self-defense.

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said on X that federal officials are investigating protesters for potential violations for allegedly “desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers” during a service at Cities Church.

This is obviously not acceptable behavior.

The article notes:

YouTuber Don Lemon, who livestreamed the protest, said that anti-ICE protesters disrupted a church service at Cities Church following claims that one of the church pastors is serving as acting field office director for ICE in Minnesota.
In his video, Lemon spoke to the church’s lead pastor, Jonathan Parnell, as protesters gathered inside the church. Parnell said that he had requested the protesters to leave but they refused.

“I mean this is unacceptable. It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship,” Parnell told Lemon.

…Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, said that his organization will step in and provide security for the church if local officials fail to take action.

“For protestors to disrupt a Sunday morning worship service this way is absurd. If elected officials won’t contain lawlessness @NAMB_SBC will provide security,” Ezell said on X.

Somehow lost in all of this is the fact that many of the people being deported are not people that you would want living next door to you–there are gang members, sex traffickers, drug dealers, and other criminals. Why do want to keep them here when many of them are a danger to Americans?

We need to find out who is funding these riots and paying the protesters.

The Numbers Just Keep Growing

Posted on by
Reply

On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about the number of people who were enrolled in ObamaCare without their knowledge.

The article reports:

In exchange for gift cards, millions of Americans were unwittingly signed up for Obamacare by brokers who scalped their vital information and enrolled them in plans where premiums were paid by the American people, a research group says.  

“The government was sending massive checks to insurance companies who were making windfall profits on behalf of people who didn’t use any health care,” Brian Blase, president of Paragon Health Institute, a healthcare policy group told Just The News.

A 2021-2022 expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, passed through budget reconciliation, made coverage fully subsidized for individuals claiming incomes in a specific range. Paragon Health Institute investigated and estimated that by 2025, at least 6.4 million more people were enrolled in these zero-premium plans than were actually eligible.

Zero premium means the enrollee did not pay for the plan — it was paid via subsidies funded by taxpayers.

The money went to the insurance companies who never had to deal with claims from people who didn’t know they were signed up!

The article notes:

Many of the enrollees never realized they had coverage because the government paid the full premium directly to insurers, which in turn paid substantial commissions to the enrolling entities. In 2024, 40% of people in fully subsidized plans used no healthcare services at all—2.5 times higher than typical rates—resulting in significant government payments to insurers for largely unused coverage.

Making matters worse, the insurance companies aren’t even providing value, says Blase. “85% of all the [insurance company] revenue now comes from the taxpayer, so they don’t have incentives to offer products that are low-priced, that appeal to patients.”

“Their primary client now is the United States Treasury, and they’re so dependent on the federal government for their revenue source, that’s why insurance companies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying Congress to continue this gravy train of these enhanced Obamacare subsidies.”

The article concludes:

One remedy for Medicaid, as well as other programs, is to shut off the federal spigot. According to Blase, “It’s the essential step. The federal government is bankrolling the fraud, waste and abuse in the states, and as long as states can draw on an open checkbook from Washington, they don’t have incentives to make sure that dollars are appropriately spent.”

Referencing the daycare fraud unfolding in Minnesota, Blase criticized the federal government’s lack of oversight. “We shouldn’t have to rely on amateur investigators going into daycare finding out that there’s no children there. The government has access to this data, they know where there are areas that have seen explosive spending.” 

Blase also sounded the alarm on states like New York and California. In New York, there has been an unprecedented spike in Medicaid-funded home health aides, who are often family members taking care of relatives, which, Blase says, also creates fertile ground for fraud. In California, fraud has found a home within the hospice care industry. 

We need a thorough audit on every dollar the federal government sends to the states and to insurance companies.

Using Climate Change As An Excuse To Build China’s Economy

Posted on by
Reply

I am not saying that China is paying off any American politicians to promote climate change, but after reading the article I am about to summarize, I wonder.

On Sunday, Doug Ross posted an article on Substack titled, “Infographic: How the West’s Climate Crusade Built China’s Empire.” Please follow the link to read the entire article. I will summarize some of it here.

The article reports:

While Western nations debated carbon targets and paid citizens not to use energy, China executed a dual strategy: scaling renewable manufacturing to meet Western demand while building coal-fired baseload power to fuel that very production. Today, China controls 29% of global manufacturing output (up from 6% in 2000), produces over 80% of the world’s solar panels and 70% of its batteries, and has constructed more coal capacity in two decades than the entire Western world possesses.

…The West created unprecedented demand for green technology through subsidies, mandates, and moral urgency—then watched as China captured the entire supply chain to meet that demand. Today, China produces over 80% of the world’s solar panels, controls 97% of solar wafer production, manufactures 75% of all lithium-ion batteries, and builds 70% of wind turbine components. In 2024 alone, China installed 356 GW of wind and solar capacity—4.5 times what the entire European Union added and roughly equivalent to America’s total installed base. The International Energy Agency confirms China’s dominance across all stages of solar manufacturing “exceeds 80%.”

Western nations subsidized consumer adoption of green technology while China captured producer economics. The result: massive wealth transfer from Western consumers and taxpayers to Chinese manufacturers, with global competitors now described as facing an “unassailable” disadvantage.

The article concludes:

The data tells an uncomfortable story: the West’s climate policies, whatever their intentions, triggered the largest voluntary transfer of industrial capacity in human history. China didn’t conquer Western manufacturing—the West dismantled it through higher energy costs, regulatory complexity, and ideological rigidity, while China offered a cheap alternative.

With 29% of global manufacturing, 80%+ of solar production, 75% of battery capacity, and a coal fleet larger than the entire Western world’s, China has converted the energy transition into a strategic windfall. The path forward requires honest assessment: if carbon dioxide is a “pollutant”, the West cannot depend on supply chains controlled by nations still expanding coal power. Until Western policymakers reconcile climate ambition with industrial reality, the transfer will continue—one shuttered factory at a time.

Where were our representatives who were supposed to be looking out for us?

Greenland Does Not Necessarily Love Denmark

Posted on by
Reply

On Friday, The New York Post posted an article about how some of the residents of Greenland feel about Denmark.

The article reports:

Native Greenlander Amarok Petersen was 27 years old when she learned the gut-wrenching truth about why she couldn’t have children — and that Denmark was to blame. 

Suffering from severe uterine problems, a medical doctor discovered an IUD birth control device in her body that she didn’t know she had. 

Danish doctors had implanted it when she was just 13 as part of a population control program for thousands of native Greenlandic girls and women. 

“I will never have children,” Petersen told The Post, with tears of anger and sorrow welling in her eyes. “That choice was taken from me.”

While the government of Denmark officially apologized last year for decades of forced sterilization of Indigenous women and girls, the horrific mistreatment has cast a long shadow on the island that has become the center of an international ownership fight.

…“The Danes don’t see us as humans,” Petersen said at a local Inuit restaurant overlooking Nuuk’s famous fjords. “They think we’re too expensive, too small a population. But they take our land, our children, our lives and expect thanks.”

Even in adulthood, medical decisions were made without Petersen’s consent. Plagued with problems after the IUD, she had repeated surgeries for unexplained pain. It wasn’t until years later that doctors informed her that her fallopian tubes had been removed in one of the operations in the early 2000s.

Her family also suffered under Denmark’s so-called “Little Danes experiment,” in which Greenlandic children were forcibly sent to Denmark for adoption or institutional care — often permanently separated from their families, she said.

The program, which ran from the 1950s through the 1970s, was part of Denmark’s broader effort to assimilate Greenlandic children, often without parental consent.

It happened to her mother’s brother, Petersen said. Other relatives were subjected to medical experimentation, she added.

…Denmark announced in December compensation for victims of forced sterilization, but Petersen called the payments another insult. The women are being offered about $46,000 in reparations.

The article concludes:

While Greenlanders are divided on the timing and logistics of independence, many agree on one thing: the current system is unsustainable.

Petersen does not see Trump as a savior — but she does see his interest as an opportunity.

“At least he challenges Denmark’s control,” she said. “That conversation was never allowed before.”

For her, independence is not about choosing between Denmark and the US — it is about finally being treated as human beings with the right to decide.

“We are only 55,000 people,” Petersen said. “If someone truly cared, this would already be fixed.”

Instead, she said, Greenland remains spoken for — but rarely listened to.

“They talk about our land,” she said. “They just never talk to us.”

The current situation in Greenland is a disgrace. The humane thing to do would be for America to come in and introduce the free market, stabilize the security, help the citizens get back on their feet economically, and leave a substantial security force there, but let the people be free.

This Might Be Part Of The Problem

Posted on by
Reply

On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article illustrating part of the reason for the crime problem in America.

The article reports:

A Democrat judge has released a Chicago man with 57 prior arrests after he pleaded guilty to using a metal bar to smash a man’s jaw in a sneak attack.

The suspect, Pierre Thorne, 32, was charged after a December 8, 2022, attack on a 53-year-old man in Chicago’s downtown Loop area. Thorne reportedly used a metal pipe to attack the man from behind, CWBChicago reported.

…In addition to the shattered jaw, the victim lost several teeth, suffered multiple facial fractures, had damage to his nose, lacerations to his face and scalp, and an abrasion to his left eye. The victim also required several constructive surgeries, but his face is permanently disfigured.

Investigators tracked the attacker using surveillance footage in the area leading the Chicago Police to identify Thorne as the chief suspect in the case.

Prosecutors noted that Thorne had a long arrest record and had been arrested and released 57 times by the time he reached 30 years of age. He also had several misdemeanor convictions, many of which were for violent attacks.

The article concludes:

Thorne has now pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated battery causing great bodily harm in the pipe attack case. Despite this, he will serve no prison time.

Left-wing Cook County Circuit Judge Joanne Rosado sentenced him to four years in prison, but because he was handed a 752-day credit for time served and given a 50 percent sentence reduction, he will be set free to wreck havoc in the city once again.

Do you want this man walking around free in your city?

Civil Disobedience vs. Lawful Protest

Posted on by

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Note that the law states that we have the right to assemble peaceably and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Peaceably assembling does not include blocking law enforcement from doing their job. Americans also have the right to petition the government. We also have the right to un-elect the people making laws we don’t like. We don’t have the right to break the law to make our point.

Civil disobedience has been part of American history from the beginning. However, those choosing to engage in civil disobedience should be ready to pay a price for their actions. Martin Luther King, Jr., was in jail in 1963 for protesting segregation. He was right, but he was still in jail. I know many people who went to jail during the peak of the right-to-life movement. I believe they were right, but they also went to jail. If you are willing to engage in civil disobedience, you need to be prepared to suffer the consequences. If you attempt to run over an officer of the law, you need to understand that your actions will have consequences.

There is an argument out there that illegal immigration is not a major crime. However, if someone comes here illegally, do you expect them to respect the other laws of the country? How many people here illegally are working without having money withheld from their wages (as Americans do) and sending that money back home? That’s another law being broken.

The Center for Immigration Studies reports that:

About 54 percent of Somali-headed households in Minnesota receive food stamps, and 73 percent of Somali households have at least one member on Medicaid. The comparable figures for native households are 7 percent and 18 percent.

This is not sustainable.

It’s time to let U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) do their job and send people who are here illegally back to their home countries. We also need to fix our immigration protocol so that they can apply to come here legally. We can’t turn the countries they are fleeing into functioning republics, but we can encourage the people coming here illegally to work toward creating a more successful country where they live.

This Is How The System Works

Posted on by

As the fraud in Minnesota unfolds, one of the questions I have is who wrote the grants, who signed the grants, and who approved the grants. Well, I think we now have a clue as to how all of this was allowed to happen.

On Friday, The Daily Signal reported:

A new report in Minnesota highlights how a former bureaucrat involved in granting a church millions of dollars later went to work as a consultant for the church.

The audit also says that the church failed to provide necessary reporting for hundreds of thousands of dollars of state funding.

Both the church and the former bureaucrat deny any wrongdoing, and gave their side of the story to The Daily Signal.

According to the report, issued by the Office of the Legislative Auditor last week, a grantee—later identified as Zion Baptist Church in North Minneapolis—”could not provide us detailed invoices or program participant data to support a payment of $672,647.78″ from the Department of Human Services’ Bureau of Health Administration “for a single month of work.”

Zion Baptist Church contracted with 14 subcontractors, two of which the legislative auditor visited. The church reportedly paid $40,000 to each of the subcontractors, without specifying rates per service unit.

Those subcontractors failed to show who they served with the money they received. One of them said “the grantee told them they did not need to keep detailed participant records.”

Finally, the grant manager “who approved the $672,647.78 payment left DHS a few days after approving it and later started to provide consulting services to the grantee,” the report stated.

The article notes:

Department of Human Services staff raised serious concerns about subcontractors during the grant period, but supervisors directed them “not to pursue further questioning,” and approved a grant extension.

The whistleblower said key questions remain, such as the justification for avoiding a competitive process for the grant, whether DHS performed due diligence on the subcontractors, whether subcontractors were for-profit entities, and why staff concerns were not pursued.

The whistleblower also listed four grants that Zion Baptist Church received, two of which were sole source (without competition) and together totaled more than $3 million.

“Is Zion some great place?” the whistleblower asked, noting the multi-million-dollar sole-source grants. One one contract of more than $1.4 million, the church “did just a bad job performance” and the state “cancelled it early.”

This smells more than a little fishy to me!

This Is Going To Be A Problem

Posted on by

On Friday, The Center Square reported the following:

New York City lost nearly 5,000 businesses early last year as employers closed their doors or left for other low-tax states, according to a new report.

The analysis comes as newly elected Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushes to hike business taxes to foot the bill for his agenda.

The report, released Thursday by the Economic Development Corporation, showed more than 3,500 new businesses opened their doors in New York City during the second quarter of the fiscal year but that was offset by a loss of about 8,400 employers. That’s the weakest quarter for business formation since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report’s authors said.

The corporation’s report is the latest to highlight New York City’s shrinking business sector with employers looking to other low-tax states as Albany piles on new regulations and costs.

It also comes as Mamdani seeks to draw up support for higher taxes to pay for plans for universal childcare, tuition free college and free bus service in the city.

Mamdani’s plans call for increasing the state’s top corporate tax rate by about half, up to 11.5% from its current maximum of 7.25%, which has caused concerns among New York City’s business community. If approved, that would match the highest corporate rate in the nation next door in New Jersey. He’s also called for “wealth” tax and a $30 per hour minimum wage for the city.

His ideas will seriously damage the City’s economy.

The article concludes:

In 2023, New York’s effective state business tax rate was 5.9%, making it the ninth-highest in the nation, the report’s authors noted. The state also ranks poorly for individual income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. It has the fourth highest percentage of housing-burdened households in the country, with 38.6% of households spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Those factors have contributed to outmigration, with New York losing more domestic taxpayers than any other state from 2020 to 2022, according to the report, as residents fled to New Jersey, Florida, and other low-tax states.

The independent businessman is the backbone of the American economy. People who are self-employed don’t work a 40-hour week. People who are self-employed and successful work an 80-hour week. Logically, why would you stay in a state that takes a large percentage of what you work so hard for when you can move to a state with less regulation and lower taxes? That is what has happened in the past, and if Mayor Mamdani implements his policies, we will see more businesses leave New York City.

This Shouldn’t Be A Surprise

Posted on by

On Thursday, Townhall posted an article about Cea Weaver, director of the New York City Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, and her plans for New York City. The Founding Fathers are not turning over in their graves–they are spinning like tops!

The article reports:

Communists have always, invariably, hated the middle class. That’s why their policies destroy the middle class; they need the impoverished masses, over whom they can rule, and the wealthy class (of which they’re a part). Everyone else is an obstacle to their communist agenda.

…”I think that the United States public policy has done a really, really good job of pitting cash-poor homeowners and working class homeowners and middle class homeowners against renters,” Weaver said. “And we need to figure out how to navigate that as organizers. It’s really quite diffiuclt, right? Because, yes, Blackstone is a bigger and worse target than like, Mrs. Smith who owns 15 buildings, but Mrs. Smith who owns 15 buildings still, like, kind of stucks and has a lot more stability than renters. And there’s more of them than there are of the Blackstones.

“So it’s just like this challenging dynamic that white middle-class homeowners are a huge problem for a renter-justice movement,” Weaver added.

She’s intentionally conflating two things: the ownership of rental properties and homeownership. Weaver hates both, of course, so conflating the two is part of her agenda.

The article concludes:

Thankfully, the Constitution prevents the outright seizure of property, but as we’ve seen with civil asset forfeiture and all that, there are ways for the government to get around those pesky Constitutional rights.

Has Weaver’s mother sold her $1.6 million Tennessee home yet? Has Weaver herself moved out of Crown Heights after complaining about gentrification?

The answer to both of those questions is no, and that’s what we should tell Weaver: No. You’re not getting our property.

Another great example of “do as I say, not as I do!”

When The Principle Of Supply And Demand Hurt Consumers

Posted on by

On Friday, Zero Hedge posted an article that partially explains the abrupt rise in residential electric bills. Part of the rise is due to the green energy policies of the Biden administration, which moved toward more expensive sources of energy, but a major part of the problem is the rise in the use of electricity by data centers.

The article reports:

Back in August, when the American population was just waking up to the dire consequences the exponentially growing army of data centers spawned across the country was having on residential electricity bills, we said that the chart of US CPI would soon become the most popular (not in a good way) chart in the financial realm.

This is the chart:

The article continues:

Turns out we were right.

And while Trump obviously can not pull a communist rabbit out of his hat, and centrally plan the entire US power grid, what he can do is precisely what he is about to announce.

According to Bloomberg, Trump and the governors of several US Northeastern states agreed to push for an emergency wholesale electricity auction that would compel technology companies to effectively fund new power plants, effectively putting a cap for residential power prices at the expense of hyperscalers and data centers. Which, come to think of it, we also proposed back in October.

The article concludes:

Trump’s initiative will deliver another benefit: the effort has the potential to help PJM tackle a significant roadblock: improving the accuracy of its forecasts for demand growth. With tech giants paying for the power plants they need, the approach could weed out speculative projects that have skewed demand growth projections, something we discussed earlier.

As Bloomberg notes, the involvement of Democratic governors – including Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro and Maryland’s Wes Moore – is seen by the Trump administration as helping to anchor the effort, since state policies have driven recent changes in the power mix, including the retirement of coal and gas plants. The initiative is also seen aiding hyperscalers by ensuring reliable power supply, and it could be a model for other parts of the country, the White House official said.

Governors are committing to implement and assign these costs to the data centers, ensuring the price of these new power plants doesn’t land on the average household, the White House official said.

PJM’s auctions have emerged as a political flashpoint in the national debate about affordability after prices reached record levels in 2024. Although Pennsylvania’s Shapiro struck a deal with PJM to cap prices in future auctions, costs hit new highs in two subsequent sales. In fact, had it not been for an implicit cap in the latest auction, residential prices would have been 60% higher (see “Inside The PJM Auction Report, Something Crazy: Without Price Controls, Electricity Bills Would Explode“.) 

The most recent auction, in December, also fell 6.6 gigawatts short of supplies, which PJM blamed on the frenzy to build massive data centers. PJM is now being asked to extend the price cap for auctions held through this year, the White House official said.

While the statement of principles being signed Friday isn’t a binding legal document, administration officials have discussed the plan with a host of stakeholders, from PJM executives and state officials, to utilities, power-plant developers, Wall Street and the hyperscalers building these data centers, the official said.

I don’t claim to understand all of this, but I do know that in recent months my electric bill has increased significantly.

Good News On The Economy

Posted on by

On Thursday, The Western Journal posted an article about the December jobs numbers.

The article reports:

The top economist at the Heritage Foundation made a compelling case for why President Donald Trump’s jobs numbers are better than the headline figure indicates.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that a total of 50,000 jobs were added to the economy in December. That’s a holding-steady number. Given the country’s population, it takes upward of 50,000 new jobs to keep the unemployment rate about constant.

Such was true last month when the unemployment rate dropped slightly, by 0.1 percent to 4.4 percent.

The Heritage Foundation’s chief economist, E.J. Antoni, pointed out in a piece for Townhall.com that if you look a little deeper at U.S. employment, there’s some very encouraging information, especially for those holding down multiple jobs to make ends meet.

He highlighted the discrepancy between the 50,000 news jobs figure and the survey of households’ total, finding that the number of people employed in the country jumped by 232,000.

“There’s an explanation for this difference if we dig further into the report, and it indicates a very positive development in the labor market,” Antoni argued.

“The number of multiple jobholders plunged by 444,000 last month, the second-largest drop since the government-imposed Covid lockdowns. Simultaneously in December, the number of part-time jobs declined by 740,000 while full-time employment shot up by 890,000,” he added.

The article notes:

But, Antoni noted, “All the net job growth in 2025 came from the productive private sector, while government jobs declined, due entirely to federal layoffs. It’s a positive development, but it drags down the headline jobs number.”

The BLS reported that federal employment is down 277,000 from January of last year.

Biden presided over a nearly 6 percent increase in the size of the full-time federal workforce during his tenure, with the total cresting 3 million in September 2024 for the first time since 1990, according to USA Facts.

The current number of federal employees is 2.744 million, the lowest since late 2014.

Finally, under Trump, people’s real income is going up, since wage increases are outpacing inflation.

Trump told the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday, “After real wages plummeted by $3,000 under Sleepy Joe Biden, real wages are up by $1,300 in less than one year under President Trump.”

Inflation is a major tax on all Americans. Just bringing inflation down to manageable levels increases affordability.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Posted on by

The level of fraud in government programs is astonishing. Every day we read about another scandal involving the government’s ‘safety net.’ Many of us are wondering how much of our tax dollars are funding fraud rather than a ‘safety net.’

On Wednesday, The Federalist reported:

The ongoing scandal regarding Minnesota’s welfare-industrial complex demonstrates the extent to which government-created graft has “hidden” in front of the nation’s noses for not just years but decades. Another report released just before Christmas illustrates the depths of those fraudulent payments.

Last summer, I wrote here about a report by Louisiana’s legislative auditor highlighting nearly $10 million in Medicaid payments that state made on behalf of deceased beneficiaries between February 2019 and last March. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most recent report shows that this type of government waste and abuse — or, depending on one’s perspective, fraud by insurance companies, who receive payments for “covering” dead people — occurs with regularity nationwide.

The report came from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) and covered payments made to Medicaid managed care organizations from July 2021 through June 2022. The report arises because in most (but not all) cases, state Medicaid agencies do not directly administer benefits (i.e., pay doctors and hospitals who treat beneficiaries). Instead, they contract with managed care organizations and pay insurers a capitated (i.e., per-person) amount every month for that coverage. That dynamic represents a clear opportunity for fraud: If no one reports the beneficiary as deceased, the insurer will get paid to “cover” that person indefinitely.

The article notes:

A footnote in the report demonstrated how this type of abuse is a choice that states consciously make. OIG noted that “Connecticut, Maine, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming had no capitation payments with a service date after the month of the enrollee’s death.” In other words, these six states all imposed proper safeguards to ensure that Medicaid dollars did not go to dead beneficiaries, while 35 other states did not, leading to the improper payments. (The remaining states did not have significant amounts of capitated payments to managed care organizations and therefore would not face this type of fraud.)

It’s time for all states to put in place laws that protect taxpayer money. The government should not be paying money to dead people!

The Quiet Impact Of Deportations

Posted on by

On Thursday, Zero Hedge posted an article about one of the less-mentioned results of deporting illegal aliens.

The article reports:

Democrats entered 2026 confident they could make “affordability” the rallying cry that would win back suburban voters and propel them back into the majority. But an inconvenient political twist has upended that plan: Donald Trump is the one actually delivering on affordability – and doing it in ways his opponents are almost certain to despise.

The foundation of this shift is the administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigration. ICE deportations under Trump have sharply reduced the number of illegal migrants in the country – which, according to the White House – is easing the enormous housing demand that exploded under Joe Biden thanks to his open borders policies. 

In short, rents and home prices in many major metro areas are becoming more affordable. Though we would of course note that correlation is not necessarily causation.

It’s called the law of supply and demand. If there are more people than houses available, the price of housing goes up. If there are more houses available than people who want them, the price goes down.

The article concludes:

Falling rents, rising wages, and higher labor participation are giving younger voters something they’ve struggled to find for years: a sense of stability. Lower immigration is also contributing to reduced crime and drug deaths, further tying economic security to Trump’s immigration policies.

And then there’s the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the administration believes will play a huge role in giving Americans the relief they’ve been craving. The legislation aims to lock in lower individual and corporate tax rates, expand full business expensing, and let voters see more of their paychecks. The administration describes it as a direct strike on the cost-of-living crisis.

Other key provisions include higher SALT deduction caps for homeowners, no tax on tips and overtime, and a modest expansion of charitable deductions. Seniors will also see new tax breaks on Social Security income. Buyers of U.S.-made vehicles would get fresh incentives. Each piece will show that while Democrats talk the talk on “affordability” the GOP walks the walk.

Democrats built their midterm plans around the assumption that they could own the affordability issue. Trump is instead redefining it on his terms: fewer migrants competing for jobs and housing, stronger wages, cheaper rents, and more disposable income. Republicans hope that by the time voters head to the polls, “affordability” may no longer be a Democratic talking point. And it might just work.

Illegal aliens working ‘under the table’ drive American wages down, and illegal aliens drive rents and house prices up. At some point the unions and others who support Democrat policies are going to realize that they are hurting themselves.

Wrong Again!

Posted on by

How many times do the experts have to be wrong before we ignore them? Remember the predictions that the Trump tariffs would add to inflation? Well, the numbers tell a different story.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the December price information on Tuesday 1/13/26 [DATA HERE].  Overall, the topline inflation number is moderate at 2.7% much lower than economists projected.

However, that’s not the only important element.  To get an understanding of the impact from tariffs to imported consumer goods, you can look at TABLE-2 [DATA HERE].  As you skim the categories we import the most, electronics, television, sporting goods, apparel, shoes, tools, furniture, etc. what you will note is that the prices are stable with negligible inflation impact noted.

What this means is that tariffs are not creating any upward price pressure on the imported good.  The December ’25 imported good prices are stable despite massive tariffs applied in the second and third quarter of 2025.  As expected, based on history from 2018/2019, the exporting nation (and company) are absorbing most of the wholesale price increased due to tariffs.

The imported goods are reaching the consumer with no substantively changed price.  Some domestically generated goods (food and housing) are still driving the overall inflation number, particularly in the year-over-year calculation, but no substantive price pressure is coming from the import sector.

Export dependent nations are squeezing their own productivity, their governments are subsidizing the critical industries, and the tariffs are being absorbed before the products leave the docks.   This is the USA “rust belt” in reverse.  The same scenario played out in the USA for decades as domestic manufacturers tried to retain U.S. industry.  Now the foreign countries are experiencing their own economic squeeze.

This is part of the inflation table:

The article concludes:

Having gaslit the American electorate over the issues of Joe Biden’s economic/energy policy which created record inflation, the same media who ran cover for Joe Biden then switched during the Trump administration to calling the subsequent high costs an “affordability” crisis.

In essence, Biden’s economic, energy and monetary policies drove 2021/2022 inflation to record levels, this made all prices rise massively. Those high prices are now the “affordability problem” all U.S. consumers are dealing with.

When will we learn not to pay attention to the ‘experts’?

Bringing Back Common-Sense Guidelines

Posted on by

On Monday, Breitbart posted an article reporting that President Trump has cancelled a Biden-era rule requiring banks to ignore immigration status for loan applications.

The article reports:

On Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Justice Department eliminated the Biden guidelines that ordered lenders not to consider immigration status when evaluating loan and credit applications, a rule that had major implications for mortgages, credit cards, and auto loans, Bloomberg reported.

The Biden administration maintained that considering immigration status would violate anti-racism laws that ensure equal and fair lending practices.

The Biden era rules were intended to help anchor illegal and temporary visa workers into Americans’ communities, for example, by providing funds for homes, autos, and apartment leases.

But the Trump administration now says the rule went too far and was inappropriate and that considering immigration and residency status does not violate the 1974 Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

The article notes:

Biden’s rules raised many complaints when they were announced in 2023. One came from then-Ohio senator and now-Vice President JD Vance, who, when Biden made the change, said that considering immigration status as part of the loan vetting process is “nothing short of common sense.”

“A borrower’s likelihood of repayment significantly falls if there is no guarantee that they will be residing in the same community, let alone the same country or legal system,” said a Senate letter Vance, along with “every other Republican on the Senate Banking Committee,” signed in November of 2023.

“Financial institutions are right to be concerned that they may never see a return on loans issued to illegal immigrants,” then-Sen. Vance said in a press release.” If someone is deported to their home country, how is a bank in Ohio supposed recoup the loan it was forced to issue? The federal government should be cracking down on illegal immigration — not encouraging more of it.”

American citizenship should have value attached to it. Treating people who are here illegally as citizens undermines the value of citizenship. If I break into your house, I am not automatically part of your family. I have no problem with legal immigration, but people who break the law to come here are not citizens.

Moving Forward To Secure America

Posted on by

On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the Muslim Brotherhood.

The article reports:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the first official set of Muslim Brotherhood chapters that are designated as “global terrorist” organizations. The first set will not come as a big surprise: Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood were chased out of the country by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over a decade ago. The Jordanian chapter is similarly aligned and was previously targeted by King Abdullah. The Lebanese faction is not as well known, but their support for Hamas is well understood.

The article quotes the Secretary of State website:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio – Today, as a first step in support of President Trump’s commitment to eliminate the capabilities and operations of Muslim Brotherhood chapters that pose a threat to the United States as described in Executive Order 14362, the United States is imposing terrorist designations against the Lebanese, Jordanian, and Egyptian chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Department of State is designating the Lebanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), and the group’s leader Muhammad Fawzi Taqqosh as an SDGT. Concurrently, the Department of the Treasury is designating the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood as SDGTs for providing material support to Hamas.

These designations reflect the opening actions of an ongoing, sustained effort to thwart Muslim Brotherhood chapters’ violence and destabilization wherever it occurs. The United States will use all available tools to deprive these Muslim Brotherhood chapters of the resources to engage in or support terrorism.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt was responsible for the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981. President Sadat had signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. His assassination was the Muslim Brotherhood’s response to his signing of that treaty.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been active in America for at least 35 years. Their plan for America was revealed in An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America a document which was part of the government exhibits during the Holy Land Foundation Trial. Please use the search engine on this site for further details. All chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood (and their unindicted co-conspirators named in the Holy Land Foundation trial) operating in America need to be declared as terrorist organizations.

Good News For America’s Veterans

Posted on by

On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about the changes the Trump administration is bringing to the Veterans Administration.

The article reports:

Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins is touting significant reforms in serving America’s veterans, arguing the Trump administration is reversing Biden-era trends by increasing visits while reducing backlogs and wait times.

Collins spoke exclusively to Just The News, No Noise television show Friday and said, “It is simply that the veteran comes first at the VA.

“We put back the only reason for us to exist. We put back at the very focus of what we do, is a veteran walking through the door or making a phone call or making an inquiry. And so, when you take a bureaucratic organization that for the lot of its time and energy has been spent on how does it treat itself instead of how did it treat its customer, then you have a way to start making great progress,” he added.

The improvements have come quickly in many areas that were suffering prior to Collins taking over the department.

The backlog of veterans waiting for VA benefits has decreased more than 49% (and up to 57% in later reports) since January 20, 2025, following a 24% increase during the Biden Administration.

The progress, officials say, stems from enhanced processing efficiency, with the VA achieving an all-time fiscal-year high by processing three million disability compensation and pension claims by September 30, 2025 — surpassing the previous record set in FY 2024.

The article concludes:

As of last spring, many Washingtonians were still working from home, despite the Covid-19 pandemic being long over. However, under Collins’ leadership, tens of thousands of VA employees have returned to in-office work to improve teamwork and service delivery. The department has terminated union contracts for most bargaining unit employees, redirecting millions in previously wasteful union spending back to veteran services.

The VA has also ended DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives at the department, reversing Biden-era policies and halting more than $14 million in related spending. Additionally, the department is phasing out treatment for gender dysphoria, described as a commonsense reform.

Putting a businessman in the White House is good for everyone.

Freedom Is Expensive

Posted on by

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence paid a high price for America’s freedom. Five of them were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.  (source here)

Many Americans paid a heavy price for America’s freedom. Now Iranians are fighting for their freedom and already paying a heavy price.

On January 13th, Townhall reported:

Iranian security forces have begun killing civilians not even involved in the country’s mass protests, according to witness accounts, as the country’s officially reported death toll surpassed 2,000 on Tuesday.

However, even that number has been eclipsed, according to the Editorial Board of Iran International, which says the death toll has risen to over 12,000, with the vast majority of those taking place last Thursday and Friday.

…Accounts began emerging late on Monday, after citizens were finally able to make international calls. The country had cracked down on most major forms of communication, including the internet and most international traffic, but then selectively restored and allowed limited channels of communication. Several Iranians were able to contact the foreign press.

According to a witness, Iranian security forces on motorcycles were seen opening fire on protesters in the city of Fardis, just outside the capital city of Tehran. Others have reportedly been operating from unmarked vehicles, patrolling alleys and murdering local residents, including people not involved in the protests.

One woman told the press that the worst of the slaughter occurred on Friday in Tehran.

“Security forces only killed and killed and killed. Seeing it with my own eyes made me so unwell that I completely lost morale. Friday was a bloody day,” she said. “In war, both sides have weapons. Here, people only chant and get killed. It is a one-sided war.”

I don’t know if the resistance in Iran has the leadership or the strength to stop the killing and remove the thugs from power. I hope they do. I also hope that Israel and America have undercover people in Iran helping and working toward freedom for the people of Iran.

Seeking Justice For Harmful Medical Procedures

Posted on by

On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about three lawsuits brought by young adults who were encouraged to have transgender medical procedures as teenagers. There have been many of these lawsuits filed, but they have either been dismissed or resolved by arbitration. These three cases are looking for a verdict.

The article reports:

One case in New York, scheduled to go to trial this week, involves a then 16-year-old girl who thought she was a male and underwent a double mastectomy in December 2019, according to court documents. She has since detransitioned.

The case, Fox Varian vs. Kenneth Einhorn et. al, was filed in the Westchester County Supreme Court in 2023 against the teenager’s therapist and doctor and the medical facilities involved.

​The significance of the lawsuit is apparent to attorneys at Fiedler Deutsch, an experienced New York law firm representing the detransitioner in the medical malpractice suit.

​It “may be the first case of its kind in the nation to go to trial,” the firm’s website noted in an April 2025 post titled: “Understanding Detransition Cases: Legal Recourse for Minors Impacted by Gender-Affirming Care.”

​Medical professionals involved in the case are accused of negligence and causing pain, suffering, and mental anguish “of a permanent nature” to the plaintiff, formerly known as Isabella Basile, according to court documents.

​Defendants allegedly failed to inform the teen of “the risks, hazards, and alternatives” involved in the medical procedures she underwent, according to the lawsuit.

​Defendants have denied any wrongdoing, saying in court documents that at the time of surgery, “the plaintiff still identified as a male, was happy without breasts, and did not regret her decision.”

The article notes:

Besides the New York case, two other detransitioner cases are expected to go to trial this year.

​Those include the high-profile California case brought by Chloe Cole against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, doctors, therapists, and others.

​Cole is an outspoken detransitioner and critic of medically transitioning gender dysphoric children. She sued Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and others after surgeons removed both her breasts when she was 15.

​Her case, filed by the Dhillon Law Group, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and the Center for American Liberty, is headed toward trial after California’s Third Appellate District ruled this fall that the case did not have to go to arbitration.

​The lawsuit claims defendants “engaged in fraudulent, oppressive, and malicious conduct by giving her incorrect/false information about suicide risk and by reinforcing her erroneous belief that gender transition services would resolve her mental health issues.”

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The teenagers involved in these lawsuits were not mature enough to make the life-altering decisions they were encouraged to make. I hope they win their lawsuits and that these lawsuits discourage other medical professionals in doing surgery in these cases.

Do We Really Have Equal Justice Under The Law?

Posted on by

Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro served jail time for defying a Congressional subpoena. Bill and Hillary Clinton are about to find out if that same standard applies to them.

On January 13, Fox News reported:

Former President Bill Clinton appears to have defied a congressional subpoena to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday morning.

Clinton was compelled to sit for a sworn closed-door deposition in the House’s bipartisan probe into Jeffrey Epstein, but Fox News Digital did not see him before or after the scheduled 10 a.m. grilling.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., had threatened to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against Clinton if he did not appear Tuesday.

Comer said Tuesday morning, “We will move next week in the House Oversight Committee … to hold Bill Clinton in contempt of Congress.”

The article notes:

The Clintons’ attorneys tore into Comer’s leadership of the investigation, accusing him of violating the Constitution’s separation of powers and trying to obfuscate the search for real information.

“President and Secretary Clinton have already provided the limited information they possess about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to the Committee. They did so proactively and voluntarily, and despite the fact that the Subpoenas are invalid and legally unenforceable, untethered to a valid legislative purpose, unwarranted because they do not seek pertinent information, and an unprecedented infringement on the separation of powers,” the letter said.

“Your continued insistence that the former President and Secretary of State can be compelled to appear before the Committee under these circumstances, however, brings us toward a protracted and unnecessary legal confrontation that distracts from the principal work of the Congress with respect to this matter, which, if conducted sincerely, could help ensure the victims of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell are afforded some measure of justice for the crimes perpetrated against them, however late. But perhaps distraction is the point.”

I believe that the excuse that President Clinton used during the Monica Lewinsky scandal was that he needed to focus on running the country. I expect to hear similar excuses from the Clintons in the near future.

Exactly What Are The Charges Against Federal Reserve Chairman Powell?

Posted on by

There are a few things that need to be pointed out about the investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

First of all:

So exactly what are the charges:

They are listed in a letter from Representative Anna Paulina Luna to Attorney General Pam Bondi (source here):

The two laws Chairman Powell is accused of breaking are 18 U.S.C. § 1621 and 18 U.S.C. § 1001.

This Should Have Been Done Ages Ago

Posted on by

On Monday, Newsmax posted an article about a bill being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban stock trading by members of Congress.

The article reports:

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., on Monday will introduce a bill banning lawmakers from buying individual stocks.

A post from the House Administration Committee on X confirmed the rollout of the “Stop Insider Trading Act,” saying “it’s time we banned lawmakers from trading stocks,” as Republicans move to answer a long-simmering public concern: that members of Congress can use privileged information to pad their portfolios.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Steil drafted the legislation with the backing of House GOP leadership and support spanning party factions, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., as original co-sponsors.

The last time the House tried to do this, they called it the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. Now that Nancy Pelosi is not running for re-election (she was one of the most successful stock traders the market has ever seen), they may be able to pass this.

The article concludes:

The Washington Times reported last month that House Republicans planned to vote early in 2026 on a congressional stock-trading ban after reaching a compromise under which the ban would apply only to lawmakers, not the president or vice president.

“I think we’re going to deliver a really strong product in 2026,” Roy told the outlet.

Roy declined to discuss specifics but said the legislation will include “a lot of elements” of his Restore Trust in Congress Act, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., and 118 others.

The push comes as bipartisan frustrations over congressional trading persist.

Lawmakers in both parties have explored stricter bans in recent years, driven by voter anger over conflicts of interest and weak enforcement.

It is way past time to pass this bill.