Author Archives: granny g

Good News For America

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On Saturday, Just the News posted an article about a recent announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The article reports:

Butterfly pea flower extract, Galdieria extract blue, and calcium phosphate have now received approval or expanded approval for use in a variety of snacks and beverages, the latest step forward in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s plan to substitute synthetic dyes.

“For too long, our food system has relied on synthetic, petroleum-based dyes that offer no nutritional value and pose unnecessary health risks,” Kennedy said in a statement. “We’re removing these dyes and approving safe, natural alternatives – to protect families and support healthier choices.”

In April, the FDA and HHS announced a phaseout timeline for petroleum-based food additives – which are correlated with several health problems in children – and promised to accelerate the approval process of natural alternatives to assist the transition.

The American food industry has until the end of 2025 to remove Green No. 3, Red No. 40, Yellow No. 5, Yellow No. 6, Blue No. 1 and Blue No. 2 from their products, as The Center Square reported.

A website called foodbabe.com has a few pictures showing labels of American foods and the labels of those same foods in other countries. There are a lot of ingredients in American foods that are banned in other countries.

Here are two examples:

I consider ketchup one of the basic food groups. It is available locally with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. However, generally speaking, the stuff you get in restaurants is the high fructose corn syrup variety.

The article at Just the News concludes:

Calcium phosphate, a natural compound found in bones and teeth, is now approved for use of white colorant in ready-to-eat chicken products, white candy melts, doughnut sugar, and sugar for coated candies.

“On April 22, I said the FDA would soon approve several new color additives and would accelerate our review of others,” FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said Friday. “FDA staff have been moving quickly to expedite the publication of these decisions, underscoring our serious intent to transition away from petroleum-based dyes in the food supply and provide new colors from natural sources.”

I am looking forward to having to read fewer labels when I shop!

Oddly Enough, War Is Supposed To Have Rules

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According to Britannica:

The development of the Geneva Conventions was closely associated with the Red Cross, whose founder, Henri Dunant, initiated international negotiations that produced the Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded in Time of War in 1864.

…Because some belligerents in World War II had abused the principles contained in earlier conventions, an International Red Cross conference in Stockholm in 1948 extended and codified the existing provisions. The conference developed four conventions, which were approved in Geneva on August 12, 1949: (1) the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field, (2) the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea, (3) the Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and (4) the Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

These are supposed to be “the rules of war.” Hamas does not follow them, and humanitarian groups choose to overlook that fact.

On Friday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about an investigation, conducted by the Henry Jackson Society’s Centre for the New Middle East.

The article reports:

The United Nations and its network of international NGOs have systematically whitewashed Hamas’s reliance on human shields in Gaza, sweeping aside mountains of evidence revealing how the terror group intentionally places civilians in harm’s way to maximize bloodshed, a new report finds.

The first-of-its-kind investigation, conducted by the Henry Jackson Society’s Centre for the New Middle East, presents “the ‘missing chapter’ in all the U.N. and NGO reports” issued since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Its authors reveal in detail how the terror group transformed civilian residences and infrastructure into military outposts, all while evading international scrutiny.

The article cites incidents such as placing mines among children’s toys and storing rockets in a child’s bed. Hamas has also reportedly hidden entrances to their tunnels in children’s bedrooms. The terrorist group has long been known to use civilians as shields. That is what makes it so difficult for Israel to fight Hamas without killing civilians.

The article notes:

Hamas members have admitted the terror group’s attitude toward civilian casualties in Gaza. The day after Oct. 7, for instance, Hamas official Ali Baraka told Russia Today TV that “the Israelis are known to love life. We, on the other hand, sacrifice ourselves. We consider our dead to be martyrs.”

Terrorists’ admissions of their own tactics have not prompted the U.N. to acknowledge them. In one notable display noted in the Henry Jackson Society compilation, a U.N. official said “word count” prevented the international body from noting Hamas’s reliance on human shields in a June 2024 report on “Children and Armed Conflict.”

…High-profile human rights organizations that work alongside the U.N. have also downplayed—or outright ignored—Hamas’s intentional endangerment of civilians.

One such group, Amnesty International—known for its hostility to Israel—released a December 2024 report accusing the Jewish state of perpetrating a genocide in Gaza. The 296-page report, You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza, barely mentions Hamas’s battlefield tactics, the Henry Jackson Society’s analysis shows.

Much like the ICJ’s filing, Amnesty International “deliberately omits any discussion of Hamas’s extensive tunnel network,” mentioning them only in the context of Israeli military operations.

A 2024 report from Human Rights Watch contained similar accusations of genocide without any discussion of Hamas’s tactics.

There are a lot of causes for the irrational anti-Semitism that is rampant around the world right now. A media that fails to report the truth is one of them.

Searching For Relevance

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It’s rather sad when people who should have left the spotlight years ago suddenly pop up and say ridiculous things, but it seems to happen frequently. Recently Al Sharpton spoke out against President Trump’s plan to grant asylum to refugees from South Africa who are in danger of being murdered for their farms. I understand that racism has been a problem in South Africa for a long time, but that does not justify murdering people because they own farms that have been in their family for generations. Unfortunately, the way the current laws in that country are written, penalties for murdering farmers are rare and lenient. The government of the country is essentially destroying any semblance of justice within the country.

On May 11, Red State reported:

In January 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed South Africa’s Expropriation Act 13 of 2024. It allows expropriation (seizure) of land without compensation. The law mandates “just and equitable” compensation in most cases, with judicial oversight for disputes. 

Ahh, “equitable.” As we’ve learned all too well, for the Democrat Party, “equity” — along with “inclusion” — doesn’t mean to the left what it means to the rest of us, or what it means in the dictionary.

In the wake of South Africa’s Expropriation Act, the Trump administration announced plans to bring more than 50 white Afrikaners to the United States, starting on Monday, saying they are “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

Senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller told reporters on Friday:

What’s happening in South Africa fits the textbook definition of why the refugee program was created. This is persecution based on a protected characteristic — in this case, race. This is race-based persecution.

Unfortunate to Al Sharpton, race-based persecution only matters when it is in one direction.

Red State reports:

Sharpton promptly and predictably trotted out his special kind of willfull ignorance over the administration’s plan, absurdly contrasting it with President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” of “the worst of the worst” illegal aliens — most of whom easily crossed the Southern Border during Joe Biden’s disastrous presidency — who had committed violent crimes in their respective countries or origin, including murder, rape, and child molestation.

…The white Afrikaners applied for asylum and Trump granted it, Al. 

Is the difference between people who legally apply for asylum based on valid reasons and people who illegally enter the U.S. really that hard to understand? No. Add in proven past criminal actions and convictions, and Sharpton looks even worse, if that’s even possible.

Mr. Sharpton, it is time to leave the stage.

Why The Palestinians Cannot Have Their Own State

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On Thursday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about a recent poll taken in the “West Bank.” The poll is disturbing to say the least.

The article reports:

Most Palestinians in West Bank support mass-murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israelis by Hamas-led terrorists on October 7, 2023, a latest poll shows.

“59% of Palestinians polled in the “West Bank” still think that Hamas’ made the “correct decision” to torture, rape, burn alive, murder, and kidnap hundreds of hostages—even including children,” the media watchdog Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) observed, citing the poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

Having learned nothing from the October 7 massacre and its aftermath, nearly 80 percent of all Palestinians were opposed to the dismantling of Hamas as a terrorist fighting force, poll numbers show. “77% of Palestinians overall (and 85% of Palestinians in the PA-controlled “West Bank”!) “oppose the disarmament of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to stop the war on Gaza,” the media watchdog added.

…The poll results should not come as a surprise if one recalls how thousands of Palestinians flocked to greet Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 as they rode back on their pick-up trucks after massacring and raping Israeli men, women and children —  brandishing their weapons and parading their captives.

The macabre display was not limited to Hamas-ruled Gaza; the Palestinian Authority-run West Bank witnessed hideous celebrations on the streets and in schools over the mass-murder of around 1,200 Israelis.

The article concludes:

The poll also showed that nearly half of Gaza’s residents would prefer to leave the Hamas-infested enclave. The mainstream media was outraged when President Donald Trump in February suggested relocating large number of Gazans to neighboring Arab states for the post-war reconsecration of the enclave to take place.

“Almost half of Gazans may be willing to apply to Israel to help them leave to other countries, according to a survey released Tuesday,” The Times of Israel reported. “The poll (…) showed that for the first time since the Gaza war was sparked by the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, more Gazans thought Israel rather than Hamas would emerge victorious, though a plurality thought the war would end in a stalemate.”

Why would you form a nation of people who have so little regard for human life and the rules of civilization?

When The Rule Of Law Fails

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On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about President Trump’s policy of relocating African farmers who are being threatened and who are losing their farms to violence to America.

The article reports:

In a move that’s stirring the pot in global diplomacy—but receiving high praise from conservatives, nationalists, and realists alike—President Donald Trump’s administration is officially moving forward with plans to resettle increasingly racially persecuted white South Africans, specifically Afrikaners, in the United States.

The first group of refugees is expected to arrive in the United States any day now, The New York Times reports, citing several leaked government memos.

While the globalist media squawks, conservatives across the U.S. and Europe are hailing the move as a long-overdue response to the violent racial persecution of an ethnic minority left to fend for itself in a crumbling, post-apartheid South Africa. The victims? White farmers—the very backbone of South Africa’s food supply, many of whom trace their ancestry back to Dutch and French settlers.

“These people are being systematically targeted,” President Trump said, slamming the South African government’s land expropriation without compensation policies. “They’re not just being pushed off their land—they’re being erased from the future of their country.”

The land in South Africa is largely owned by the descendants of the Dutch and French settlers. They have not always treated the black Africans well. I get that. However, in the past few years, black Africans have been killing the owners of farms and their families and simply stealing their farms. The laws support the taking of an individual’s land without compensation under the guise of “public interest.” Somehow the “public interest” seems only to apply to taking farms away from white farmers. Needless to say, the white farmers are ready to leave the country and begin again.

The article notes:

But here’s what the mainstream press won’t tell you: interest in Trump’s offer has exploded. The U.S. Embassy in Pretoria confirmed it’s received a list of nearly 70,000 white South Africans expressing interest in the program. That list, passed along by the South African Chamber of Commerce in the U.S., doesn’t even include formal applications—just desperate families searching for hope.

This is a true humanitarian effort.

Truth?:  Not a Leftist/Marxist Value

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

When I read the works of Karl Marx and his co-author, Frederick Engels, I find it readily apparent that they did not value truth. Moreover, using falsehoods to bolster their communist propaganda was part of their strategy to obtain and hold political power. This is always true for authoritarian governments. For Instance, the Nazis believed that if you repeat a lie often enough and long enough, the people will believe it. This is the reason government-owned media is dangerous to freedom. President Trump’s recent defunding of National Public Radio (NPR) was a crucial step in getting government propaganda and media control out of our lives. Let NPR compete in the free market place of ideas and use their own funding.

Let’s face the facts. We have been consistently lied to by the Leftist/Marxists that are increasing moving to control the Democrat Party. The most glaring and dangerous example is their hiding Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and reassuring the public that “…he is sharp as a tack.” Some of his own party are now admitting that they lied to the people, and in reality, we do not know who was actually running the Biden administration. There are two books, one co-authored by Jake Tapper titled “Original Sin,” that are due to be released any day now that reportedly reveal evidence of Biden’s decline and the efforts to cover it up. Given the immense power of the president (including the nuclear war codes), one could argue that this amounted to treason since a presidential administration supposedly run by an incompetent president but in reality run by unelected staff members, is usurpation of presidential power and authority. The use of an autopen device, makes it almost, if not actually, impossible to confirm whether the president actually signed and approved a document or presidential order.

Now if this were an isolated situation it would be bad enough. But the Leftist/Marxists consistently attempted to mislead the American people. For example, Alajandro Mayorkas, Biden’s secretary of homeland security, consistently lied to Congress and the American people when he testified under oath, that the borders were secure. Biden also lied when he said that he did not have the power to address run away illegal border crossings without Congress passing new laws. This lie was revealed when president Trump essentially closed the borders within the first 60 days in office. Another example was the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act, which not only increased inflation to record 40-year highs, but actually funded useless green energy projects, enriching their supporters and actually raising utility costs. Passing legislation that is not open to the public is another example. Remember what Nancy Pelosi said when asked about the contents of a bill, “We must first pass it before you can find out what is in it.” Another Leftist/Marxist lie was their labelling destructive gender-alteration procedures of children and calling it “gender-affirming care.” It is exactly the opposite. These are not the actions of true representatives of our free Republic. They are straight out of the Marxist playbook.

Is there any indication that the Democrat Leftist/Marxists have learned their lesson and are repentant? The answer is a resounding “No!” There has been recent evidence that the Democrats may attempt to run senator Bernie Sanders and/or Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for president in 2028. An examination of their philosophies show that they are both affirmed Leftist/Marxists. But of course that fact is hidden from the American public by labelling them as “progressives.” The original Progressive Party was founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. As a true America first patriot, he would roll over in his grave if he knew that the Leftist/Marxists are now calling themselves progressives.

The bottom line is this. Never believe what the Leftist/Marxists are telling you; assume the opposite is true. The Democrat party should be honest and rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party. At least that would be an honest start.

How To Secretly Influence An Election

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Email is a powerful weapon in campaigns. Along with texting, it is a good fundraising tool in a world where elections cost to much and fundraising is important.

On Thursday, a website called Amuse posted an article explaining how Big Tech can quietly tip the scales in an election.

The article reports:

In an age obsessed with equity, a certain form of discrimination thrives unchallenged: algorithmic bias against conservative speech. While the platforms most frequently scrutinized are social media giants, the more insidious, less visible battleground is email. Long relied upon by Republican candidates, conservative advocacy groups, and grassroots organizers, email has become the new frontier where Big Tech quietly tips the scales.

To many, this claim might appear paranoid. After all, isn’t a spam filter simply a neutral tool designed to protect users from Nigerian princes and unsolicited coupons? That would be comforting if it were true. But the evidence, painstakingly compiled over multiple election cycles, paints a picture that is not only credible but damning.

The most rigorous academic investigation to date comes from a team at North Carolina State University. In a peer-reviewed study analyzing over 318,000 campaign emails sent during the 2020 U.S. election, the researchers created hundreds of fresh accounts across Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, subscribing equally to Republican and Democratic mailing lists. Their finding was straightforward and alarming: Gmail, the most widely used email service on earth, flagged as spam nearly 77% of emails sent by Republican campaigns. In contrast, just under 10% of Democratic emails were filtered. The disparity wasn’t marginal. It was systematic, and it worsened the closer the calendar crept to Election Day.

This sort of differential treatment might be defensible if it could be accounted for by differences in content, formatting, or compliance. It cannot. The researchers controlled for those variables. They found that the political affiliation of the sender, rather than any objective feature of the email, was the primary predictor of whether it would land in the inbox or the spam folder.

Of course, Gmail is not the only offender. Outlook displayed a reverse skew in the same 2020 study, filtering a larger percentage of left-wing emails. Yahoo, while appearing more balanced in 2020, swung hard in the opposite direction by 2024. According to a 2024 study conducted by EmailToolTester, Yahoo flagged 22.3% of Republican emails as spam compared to only 6.3% of Democratic ones. AOL, now under the same corporate umbrella as Yahoo, filtered 32.5% of Republican emails while sparing all but 10.3% of their Democratic counterparts. In practical terms, this meant that conservative organizations faced triple the barrier in reaching their audiences compared to liberal ones.

Blocking political emails is wrong regardless of which political party does it. We need someone to oversee our techies to make sure this will not happen in the future.

Another Award Bites The Dust

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I am old enough to remember when the Pulitzer Prize meant something. In recent years it has been given to news outlets for being part of the Russia hoax with no intention of returning it after the hoax was revealed. I didn’t think it could go lower, but it has.

On May 6th, The Federalist reported:

On Monday The Washington Post announced that it won a Pulitzer Prize in the breaking news category for its coverage of the July 13, 2024, attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

The “coverage” in question?

That Trump was “taken away after loud noises at rally,” according to a July 13 headline.

According to the Post’s self-congratulatory write-up on its award, WaPo’s “live-updates file” — from which the aforementioned headline came — earned the paper what was once journalism’s top honor, the Pulitzer.

“The Post’s first report from Butler published almost immediately, at 6:21 p.m., in a live-updates file,” the article reads. “The source of the loud noises was not immediately clear.”

But they weren’t just “loud noises.” They were gunshots that ripped through Trump’s ear and killed firefighter and father Corey Comperatore, who died shielding his family from the assassin’s bullet. In fact, the Post knew the gravity of the situation because it published that headline with the featured photo showing blood pouring down the side of Trump’s face.

Yet, the Post still went with — and won an award for — that angle. Two days later, the paper’s Paul Farhi defended the media’s coverage that deliberately downplayed the horrific event, saying media outlets “reported cautiously about what had occurred” since “it wasn’t immediately clear what was unfolding.”

If you saw President Trump being rushed off the stage, then you saw the picture of the President with blood running down his face. How stupid does the Washington Post think Americans are?

The View From The Lair

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Replacing RINOS

What is wrong about Thom Tillis (R_INO-NC)? Yes, that is a rhetorical question. I have neither the column inches nor bandwidth to answer that question. Likely not the years left, either. What is right about Thom Tillis (R-INONC)? Actually…nothing. What is Left about Thom Tillis (R-INONC)? Pretty much everything. Remember when he was in the NC Legislature and he left to run for the US Senate? A lot of us thought that perhaps by shuffling him off to D.C. that his lousy efforts would be diluted by real conservatives. WTF were we smoking?

That’s like the people in Georgia promoting Jimmy “Peanut” Carter to be president to get him out of the state. I was there at that time. See how that worked out?

Thom (R-INO-NC) is a product of the NCGOP Good Ol’ Boys network. Remember Robin Hayes? I happened to be in Greensboro when the NC GOP convention censured Tillis for supporting the immigration bill. Voting to impeach PDJT wasn’t a welcome move, either.

To misquote the late, great Henny Youngman, when talking about RINO’s, “Take Thom Tillis. PLEASE!” (If you are too young to remember Henny Youngman, go to YouTube.com. While you’re there, look up “Who’s on first.” I’ll wait. When you catch your breath from laughing, come back.)

So, what is Thom up to now? He is blocking the approval of Ed Martin for DC District prosecutor. Martin is reputed to be the best pick for that position in our lifetime. The reason for his objection? Martin supported the defendants in the Jan.6 prosecutions. Remember them? When FBI informants helped to herd people into the Capitol while the Capitol Police waved them in?

Tillis was happy when grandmothers stepped into the building, gabbed a quick selfie them stepped out, and then were sentenced to prison. Without habeas corpus. In solitary confinement. When people were prosecuted for their cell phone was identified as being in the vicinity were arrested.

Trespassing in a Federal Building? 10 years to life ought to be sufficient.

So now what can we do? Well, guess who’s coming up for re-election next year? Yep, Good Ole’ Thom. He’s already sending out emails trying to demonstrate how conservative he is. Right.

Here’s the rub. Most Republicans don’t pay attention to the primaries. And that’s what kicks our butts. I didn’t have anything against Mark Robinson, other than I didn’t think he could win the general election. And he couldn’t. Primaries are the MOST important part of the election process. THAT’s how AOC was elected (besides the fact she was in NYC.) We need to pay attention, support a conservative candidate that can win the general election then work like HELL to see that he/she wins. It’s OUR country. We need to act like we care. We have a President who does care, who fights for us and need all the support he can get. That’s OUR job. The next election started last November 6th.

Remember, you can’t accomplish anything sitting on your butt.

ciao,

The Snark

One Of Many Problems With Government Spending

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On Tuesday, Red State posted an article that might explain how some of the government’s run-away spending comes to pass.

The article reports:

I didn’t have an opportunity to watch Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s testimony before the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee oversight hearing live. But looking back over some of the key moments, one was particularly jaw-dropping:

According to Bessent, over one-third of the 1.5 billion payments issued by the Treasury Department in the past year cannot be traced back to a corresponding appropriation. That’s 500 million payments (not dollars — individual disbursements) that cannot readily be matched for auditing or accountability purposes. 

The article concludes:

Of course we’re drowning in debt: We’ve got elected representatives who spend like drunken sailors — enabled by a Treasury Department intent on shoveling money out the door willy-nilly. Thank God President Trump and DOGE and grown-ups like Sec. Bessent are at least attempting to bring some order and accountability to bear.

Every day gives us another reason to be glad that we elected a businessman instead of a politician to be President. The government has gone so far from good business practices that it is amazing we have not yet gone completely broke. The payments that cannot be traced back to a corresponding appropriation like add up to billions of dollars. It’s time to spend taxpayers’ money wisely. Obviously that is not happening right now.

Disturbing Actions By The Biden Administration

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On Tuesday, Just the News reported the following:

The Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement four years ago to target Americans engaged in “concerning non-criminal behavior” in the name of fighting domestic terrorism, with a specific eye on those serving in the military, owning firearms, or spreading what officials considered to be “xenophobic” disinformation, according to newly declassified documents.

The stunning breadth of the mandate was disclosed when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently released a fully unredacted version of the prior administration’s “Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism.”

The June 2021 memo exposed for the first time the law enforcement and intelligence framework that led the FBI to monitor and probe conservative Catholics and parents who protested against some school board policies and justified Homeland Security to engage in censorship or debanking of Americans the administration considered to be potential enemies of the state.

The directives provided to the Justice Department and FBI by the National Security Council, which developed the memo, said the agencies should “drive…executive and legislative action” to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, rein in “ghost guns,” monitor active-duty service members for possible terrorism recruitment and “mitigate xenophobia and bias.”

They weren’t looking for enemies of the state–they were looking for people who simply disagreed with the policies of the Biden administration. Why wasn’t there someone in the FBI that exposed this at the time? Where were the people who take an oath to uphold the Constitution?

The article notes:

Legal experts and lawmakers told Just the News on Tuesday they were deeply concerned the Biden-era memo substantially lowered the standard to “concerning” behavior instead of criminality, potentially jeopardizing civil liberties and giving license to weaponize police powers against Americans who had different views than the governing administration on issues like the Second Amendment and COVID-19.

The article concludes:

One whistleblower, agent Garrett O’Boyle, testified that the bureau issued guidance in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade to investigate pro-life groups for threats against the Supreme Court, even though, at the time, it was pro-choice groups that were protesting — sometimes disturbingly — outside conservative justices’ and their families’ homes. 

O’Boyle said he was tasked with talking to a pro-life informant “about the threats to the Supreme Court,” much to his bewilderment. 

“I was like, why would this person know about those threats? He’s pro-life. Like, he’s not the one going and threatening the Supreme Court Justices,” O’Boyle said. 

In the now-infamous “Catholic Memo,” the FBI detailed plans to develop a source network in conservative and traditional Catholicism, and splinter Catholic Churches over fears that they served as a nexus for the development of extremist ideology. A separate whistleblower provided evidence to Congress that FBI counterterrorism assets were involved in the investigation of parents protesting school policies.

Some of the policies of the Biden administration are concerning; however, the fact that we are just hearing about some of them now is even more concerning.

View From The Lair

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Beyond Belief

Like many people, I have certain consistencies. I get up, feed the cats, start the coffee, start reading my morning list of web sites. A very quick perusal of FoxNews Online to ascertain that another Marxist hasn’t assassinated POTUS, then a list of comics. I like to start the day off with coffee and a chuckle. As soon as I get to the news I’m going to get pissed off, so why not start the day with a smile? I ease into that process with Jeff Childer’s Coffee and Covid (yes, before RightWingGranny. Sorry, Mary.  That’s next because my pissed off process will then begin.) Jeff is a conservative attorney in Florida. I know that is usually an oxymoron, but I actually do know a conservative attorney.

Usually, Jeff can ease me into the tension of the day. Not last Saturday. His lead off was about a covid vaccination study entitled “Twelve-Month All-Cause Mortality after Initial COVID-19 Vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech or mRNA-1273 among Adults Living in Florida.”  I invite you to look it up. You may have to look hard. Jeff includes the credentials and details of the study. The results are astounding.  When filtering for all causes of mortality of those who got the shot (it is obviously NOT a vaccine) they were able to determine that there was a 40% higher chance from dying if you got the Pfizer injection than if you got the Moderna. 40% HIGHER!

Wouldn’t one think that such a finding might inspire a bit of curiosity among the various news organizations? After all, this would seem to be an important bit of news to those who were inspired, cajoled or threatened into getting this opportunity to shorten their life span? If this information could be spun into a stab at PDJT the Marxist news media would screaming this from the rooftops 24/7. But what do we hear? Crickets. Nothing.

I have confessed before that I was briefly a part of this noxious endeavor called “Lame Stream News.” The nausea that this little revelation produces without even the NY Post screaming it from 40 point type is debilitating.

The study gives great detail as to whom is at greater risk. And those over 60 were in the greatest risk of many ways of attaining room temperature. Especially cardiovascular and stroke events. Seeing that I AM in that age group (though so far, no unusual – for me – cardiac events or TIA’s) and that I had two jabs, I can’t say that I am encouraged. I think – think- that I had the Moderna shot. I didn’t save my vaccine card. But while I don’t have (yet) any issues I can correlate to the shots, I certainly do know people who have had devastating results. Such as needing three coronary stents installed within three weeks of the injection with no prior cardiac issues. Or multiple bypasses in the same fashion. This therapy is NOT inexpensive. So, who pays? The insurance companies? Sure. Where do they get their cash? From premiums. Who pays those? I do. You do. If you are on Medicaid, then I do as well as everyone who isn’t on Medicaid.

But who isn’t really paying? Fauci. He’s getting paid. A VERY healthy retirement and royalties from the “research” he was involved in. While a government employee.

HEY ELON! Let’s look into THAT scam a little closer.

Meanwhile. please pass the Pepto Bismol.

ciao,

The Snark

Undermining Property Rights Leads To Poverty

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In 2010, I wrote an article about the relationship between private property rights and the wealth of a country. The conclusion of the article was that enforcing property rights and the rule of law breeds prosperity. We need to remember that as a country.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent series of events in California.

The article reports:

A pair of vacant properties in Hollywood, CA started making news 10 days ago after residents complained a large group of squatters had taken over the homes and were creating a nuisance in the neighborhood.

…The drugs, noise, nudity and criminal behavior were a nuisance but when the police were called out, nothing seemed to change. The squatters would just disappear and then come back when the police were gone. The source of all this activity was another house next door which was receiving money from the city to house the homeless. Some of the homeless would hang out all day on the porch of their free housing and then jump the fence into the abandoned properties at night. But beyond all the nuisance this created, the real danger was the fires.

…Finally, there was enough media attention that L.A. City Councilmember Hugo Soto Martinez issued a statement saying he was working to have the site declared a nuisance.

…So sometime later this month, the city would have held a vote and then eventually taken action to tear the building down. But as it turned out, the homeless squatters beat them to it. Last Thursday the building caught fire again and this time was heavily damaged.

…I can’t prove it but my guess is the city was happy to plod along at its usual pace when this was just a big nuisance for neighbors, but once the building was a danger to the homeless, who might have gone back in after the fire, they acted immediately to tear it down.

The councilman who had promised to have the site declared a nuisance got an earful when he showed up at the site after the fire.

…Meanwhile in Sacramento, just a day after the fire in Hollywood, Democrats voted down a bill which would have made it easier to evict squatters.

Please follow the link above to read the rest of the story. California is going bankrupt. Unfortunately, I suspect the rest of the nation may be forced to bail her out. The inability or unwillingness to protect the property of homeowners who live there is one of many reasons people are leaving the state. As the people who have the money to leave move to other places, there won’t be enough people who are fiscally stable to pay off the taxes and massive state government expenses. The State of California will collapse financially.

Things Are Never As Simple As We Would Like

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On Saturday, WattsUpWithThat posted an article about the sudden growth of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), which gained mass at an unprecedented rate between 2021 and 2023.

The article reports:

A groundbreaking study published in Science China Earth Sciences has unveiled a stunning reversal in the fortunes of the Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS), which gained mass at an unprecedented rate between 2021 and 2023. This marks the first significant ice growth in decades, challenging the prevailing narrative of relentless ice loss and highlighting the complex interplay of natural variability and climate dynamics. Using data from NASA’s GRACE and GRACE-FO satellite gravimetry missions, the findings offer a nuanced perspective on Antarctica’s role in global sea level changes and raise critical questions about the drivers of ice sheet behavior.

The study, led by Dr. Wei Wang and Prof. Yunzhong Shen at Tongji University, reports that the AIS gained mass at a rate of 107.79 ± 74.90 Gt/yr from 2021 to 2023, a dramatic shift from prior decades of decline. As the article states, “From 2002 to 2010, the AIS has experienced a mass loss with a change rate of -73.79 ± 56.27 Gt/yr, which nearly doubled to -142.06 ± 56.12 Gt/yr for the period 2011-2020.” This earlier mass loss, driven primarily by intensified depletion in West Antarctica and parts of East Antarctica’s Wilkes Land-Queen Mary Land (WL-QML) region, contributed significantly to global sea level rise—0.20 ± 0.16 mm/yr from 2002-2010 and 0.39 ± 0.15 mm/yr from 2011-2020. In contrast, the recent ice growth has had a “negative contribution, offsetting global mean sea level rise at a rate of -0.30 ± 0.21 mm/yr” from 2021-2023, effectively slowing the rise of global sea levels.

The turnaround is particularly pronounced in East Antarctica, where four critical glacier basins—Totten, Moscow, Denman, and Vincennes Bay—reversed their mass loss trends. The article notes, “The four key glacier basins in WL-QML region… exhibited mass loss intensification with a rate of 47.64 ± 8.14 Gt/yr during 2011-2020, compared to 2002-2010, with the loss area expanding inland.” Yet, between 2021 and 2023, these basins showed significant mass gains, attributed to “anomalous precipitation accumulation.” This surge in snowfall appears to have counteracted the factors previously driving ice loss, namely surface mass reduction (72.53%) and increased ice discharge (27.47%).

The article concludes:

This development underscores the complexity of Antarctica’s ice system and the pitfalls of oversimplified climate narratives. The interplay of precipitation, potential volcanic influences, and regional variability suggests that short-term fluctuations can significantly alter long-term trends. The unexpected AIS rebound challenges policymakers and researchers to integrate this new data into their understanding of climate dynamics, moving beyond one-size-fits-all assumptions about ice loss and sea level rise.

When the ice melts in a drink, the glass does not overflow. How does melting ice in the ocean raise the water level? I don’t claim to be a scientist or a physicist, and I would love to have someone explain that to me.

We Have Totally Gone Down The Rabbit Hole

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On Friday, Fox News reported the following:

The controversial “60 Minutes” interview at the center of President Trump’s high-stakes lawsuit against CBS News is now an Emmy-nominated program.

The nominations for the 46th News & Documentary Emmy Awards were announced Thursday.

“60 Minutes” landed several nods, most notably in the Outstanding Edited Interview category for its primetime special featuring then-Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Other nominees in that category include CBS’ interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the late Pope Francis, as well as NBC’s interview with Celine Dion and ABC’s interview with Brittney Griner.

…Last fall, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit (it has since been increased to $20 billion) against CBS News and its parent company, Paramount Global, for what he alleged was election interference with how the network handled its Harris interview in the days leading up to the presidential election. 

The lawsuit stems from an exchange Harris had with “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker, who asked her why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn’t “listening” to the Biden administration.

Harris was widely mocked for the “word salad” answer that aired in a preview clip of the interview on “Face the Nation.”

It’s sad that the Emmy Awards are now political. They probably have been for a long time, but this is over the top. The interview was edited because Kamala Harris was a very unlikable candidate who was not good at giving logical answers when she was not scripted. President Trump has a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, but I am beginning to believe that when it does that it is very purposeful. Vice-President Harris simply was not good at making clear, concise statements about her ideas of policies that she would propose, so CBS helped her. I believe that is a problem.

I believe that President Trump’s lawsuit is valid and am somewhat amazed that the Emmy Awards did not consider that in their nomination process.

A Short Note On The Kentucky Derby

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about this year’s Kentucky Derby. The article noted that all of the horses in the Derby were descendants of Secretariat.

The article reports:

Every horse that ran the 151st Kentucky Derby on Saturday in Louisville, Kentucky, is reportedly descended from one American champion.

Pedigrees apparently show those horses are descended from Secretariat, the horse that in 1973 ran the fastest mile-and-a-quarter in the derby’s history, the Louisville Courier Journal reported Saturday.

Looking back six generations of most horses will reportedly show they are descended from a champion such as Secretariat or Northern Dancer, the outlet said.

According to derby contending trainer Whit Beckman, “It’s one of those stats. It’s bound to happen at some point with how much he shows up in every single pedigree. It’s really cool. Very cool.”

Secretariat was a thoroughbred racehorse that became the first in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973, per History.com. According to the site:

In 1974, Secretariat was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 1999, he was the only non-human included among ESPN’s 50 greatest athletes of the century and he became the first thoroughbred to be honored with his own U.S. Postal stamp. Outside the paddock at Belmont Park now stands a statue of Secretariat with both his front feet in the air.

An article in HorseyHooves in June 2023 listed a number of interesting facts about Secretariat.

This is the fact that I thought was the most interesting:

Not only was Secretariat was known for being kind-hearted, but he also had a big heart in the literal sense.

After Secretariat was euthanized on October 4, 1989, at the age of 19, veterinarian Thomas Swerczek performed a necropsy. Swerczek discovered that Secretariat’s heart weighed between 21-22 pounds, two and a half times bigger than an average horse heart.

“We just stood there in stunned silence. We couldn’t believe it. The heart was perfect. There were no problems with it. It was just this huge engine,” said Dr. Swerczek.

That might have had something to do with his incredible performance on the racetrack.

This Was Totally Predictable

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On Saturday, BizPacReview posted an article about the women’s races at the U.S. Masters Swimming Spring National Championship in Texas. Ana Caldas, age 47, won five races in the 45-49 year-old category, including the 100-yard individual medley, the 50- and 100-yard breaststroke, and the freestyle. Ana Caldas was born a man.

The article reports:

“Ana Caldas, a man pretending to be a woman, recently won ALL FIVE RACES he entered in the WOMEN’S division for the US Masters Swimming Spring National Championship in TX. INSANITY,” the account wrote.

U.S. Masters Swimming also acknowledged the backlash in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“USMS is aware of allegations regarding the eligibility of a swimmer who competed at our Spring National Championship. We have received an eligibility review request and will follow our formal process to make a determination,” their statement read. “USMS exists to empower adults to improve their lives through swimming. The health and fitness benefits of swimming are the primary focus of that mission, but we also strive to create a community that values fairness, competition, and inclusion. In that spirit, USMS has had a longstanding policy on transgender swimmers that was created, and periodically reviewed and updated, by relevant member committees with input from subject matter experts. The policy includes procedures to address questions of eligibility.”

The article notes:

The organization’s eligibility requirements would allow a transgender athlete to participate in the event, provided they follow some stipulations including a “hormonal therapy appropriate for the female gender has been administered continuously and uninterrupted in a verifiable manner for a sufficient length of time, no less than one year, to minimize gender-related advantages in sport competitions” as well as proof of low testosterone levels.

However, this could run into some trouble as in 2023, Texas passed the Save Women’s Sports Act which bars biological male athletes from competing in women’s sports, requiring them to compete as the gender listed on their birth certificate. It is also unlawful to change information on birth certificates, such as switching genders, unless it is to correct a clerical error.

It’s not news that there are some basic biological differences between men and women that would give men an advantage in women’s sports. It’s a shame those in charge are not always willing to admit this.

This Is Wonderful News

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported:

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, President Donald Trump’s director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced the closure of the agency’s last remaining beagle experiment lab over the weekend after former NIH physician Dr. Anthony Fauci’s horrific beagle-testing scandal was exposed.

“It’s very easy, for instance, to cure Alzheimer’s in mice. But those things don’t translate to humans,” Bhattacharya told Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy on Sunday:

…“So we put forward a policy to replace animals in research with technological advances, AI and other tools, that actually translate better to human health.”

When he made the announcement that “We got rid of all of the beagle experiments on NIH campus,” Campus-Duffy said, “Amen.”

NIH confirmed the move on social media, saying it has enacted an “initiative to expand innovative, human-based science while reducing animal use in research, including getting rid of all the beagle experiments on the NIH campus.”

A years-long investigation by medical watchdog group White Coat Waste revealed that the NIH killed over 2,100 beagles in “brutal septic shock experiments” since 1986.

The article concludes:

The Trump administration has been stepping away from animal testing within other agencies as well, with animal rights group PETA praising the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for “helping spare tens of thousands of animals each year.”

There are better ways of gathering information than torturing animals. The experiments carried out on beagles during the time Dr. Fauci was in charge were horrific. I am truly glad to see experiments on animals end. Scientists need to find better ways to collect the information they need.

A Small Sliver Of Our Budget Problems

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This is basically the equivalent of someone stealing the change from your loose change jar, but it is still indicative of the lack of accountability in our government.

On May 4th, Just the News reported the following:

A former State Department senior budget analyst embezzled more than $650,000 from the agency over a two-year time period, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C. said.

Levita Almuete Ferrer, 64, of Montgomery Village, Maryland, pled guilty to embezzling the money between March 2022 and April 2024 while working in the department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol.

“She issued 60 checks payable to herself and three checks payable to another individual with whom she had a personal relationship. She printed and signed each check and then deposited all 63 checks, which totaled $657,347.50, into her personal checking and savings accounts,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

It is disturbing that she seemingly made no effort to hide her crime–that is pretty blatant embezzlement. Even though it was over a two-year period, that amount of money flowing out to a personal account should have been noticed. Do routine audits happen in government agencies? If they don’t, they should. This dishonesty should have easily been picked up by a good auditor.

Not Everyone Supports Women’s Rights

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On May 3rd, The Associated Press reported the following:

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Thousands of supporters of an Islamist group rallied in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday to denounce proposed recommendations for ensuring equal rights, including ones related to property, for mainly Muslim women.

Leaders of the Hefazat-e-Islam group said the proposed legal reforms are contradictory to the Sharia law. More than 20,000 followers of the group rallied near the Dhaka University, some carrying banners and placards reading “Say no to Western laws on our women, rise up Bangladesh.”

The group threatened to organize rallies on May 23 across the country if the government didn’t meet their demands.

Mamunul Haque, a leader of the group, demanded that the interim government’s reforms commission be abolished and its members punished for the proposed changes. He said they hurt “the sentiments of the majority of the people of this country” by labeling the religious laws of inheritance as the main cause of inequality between men and women.

Sharia law provides justification for mistreating women. Sharia law includes such things as honor killings, wife beating, and equal rights for women. There are currently 85 Sharia law courts in Great Britain. Some American states have banned the use of Sharia law in their states, but it is not universally banned, and there is an effort by some pro-Islamist organizations to bring Sharia law to America. Where are the feminists in this battle?

Jurisdiction Matters

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On May 45h, PJ Media reported the following:

When President Trump returned to the White House, he didn’t just get to work cleaning up Joe Biden’s mess—he set his sights on dismantling decades of entrenched bureaucratic bloat, waste, and corruption. With a relentless series of executive orders and policy directives, Trump reignited his mission to drain the swamp—this time with laser precision and zero patience for the status quo.

Predictably, the left went into full-blown panic mode. Liberal legal groups immediately launched a barrage of lawsuits, cherry-picking friendly courts in a shameless attempt to stall Trump’s agenda. They’re terrified of losing control over the bloated regulatory state they’ve used for years to push policies they could never pass through Congress.

But that strategy just hit a major roadblock. In a landmark ruling on Saturday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals handed the Trump administration a decisive legal victory—one that could fundamentally change how activist judges and forum-shopped cases interfere with executive authority. 

“This is a huge victory for President Trump and his Article II powers granted in the United States Constitution. It’s also a victory for US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and VOA,” Kari Lake told Fox News Digital. Lake now serves as a USAGM senior advisor to the Trump administration. “We are eager to accomplish President Trump’s America First agenda which has always been to modernize and make our government efficient while cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Kari Lake told Fox News

The appeals court’s 2-1 ruling Saturday emphasized the judiciary’s deference to executive authority in matters concerning federal employment and contractual decisions.

The court noted that the district court likely lacked jurisdiction to interfere with the administration’s personnel actions and funding decisions, particularly regarding grant agreements with non-federal entities like Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

This ruling  Trump’s March 14 executive order (EO), which aimed to dismantle USAGM operations.

The article at PJ Media concludes:

The significance of this decision extends far beyond these specific cases—it establishes clear jurisdictional parameters that could affect dozens of pending lawsuits against Trump administration policies. While the administration won’t prevail in every case, this ruling suggests courts may need to more carefully consider their jurisdictional authority before issuing sweeping injunctions against executive actions.

The D.C. Circuit Court just handed Trump a game-changing victory that will help him clean house in 2025.

Let’s hope that this is the first of many good decisions by the courts.

Who Are The Migrants Being Arrested?

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On May 2nd, The Daily Caller reported:

During the week marking President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, ICE agents carried out a series of high-profile arrests of migrants with criminal records, according to a document first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Starting the week of his 100-day mark, booking photos of illegal migrants with convictions or pending charges were displayed along the White House north lawn’s perimeter. Throughout the week,ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO made major arrests across the country, with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releasing details and photos of five of their most significant cases.

The article has pictures and brief details of five of the most significant cases:

ERO Detroit arrested Ludwig Ivan Castaneda-Gonzalez, a 33-year-old Mexican national, this week in Holland, Michigan. According to DHS, Castaneda-Gonzalez’s criminal history includes a conviction for criminal sexual conduct involving a person aged 13 to 15, which encompasses all sex offenses under Michigan law.

In Texas, ERO’s Houston team arrested Jesus Arriaga-Gamez, a 61-year-old Mexican citizen, for his record of aggravated sexual assault of a child. While DHS documents did not outline his full criminal history, they confirmed his conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child in Cameron County, Texas.

In the sanctuary city of Los Angeles, ERO agents arrested Christian Robles-Andrade, a 34-year-old Mexican citizen. Robles-Andrade, pictured with tattoos covering his body, is described as an active gang member with ties to the 8th Street Gang and goes by the nickname “Tiny.” According to DHS documents, his criminal history includes a conviction for voluntary manslaughter in Los Angeles.

In another sanctuary city on the East Coast, ERO Boston arrested Mario Alexander Ochoa-Lemus, a 33-year-old citizen of El Salvador. His criminal history includes convictions for rape and abuse of a child, child pornography and witness intimidation in Boston.

…On Thursday, DHS announced the arrest of Kwadwo Boaitey Frimpong, a 32-year-old citizen of Ghana, who was detained by ERO Baltimore on Tuesday. Frimpong entered the U.S. in 2019 on an F-1 visa but has since been convicted on seven counts of possession of child pornography, according to DHS. The agency stated he will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of removal proceedings.

These people entered our country illegally. Is there any logical reason to want to keep them here?

Looking At Some Of The Past History Of Deportations

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It’s no secret that President Trump is not the first President to deport people who are hear illegally. He is, however, the first President to have the courts fight the removal of non-citizens. The idea of the courts granting the rights of American citizens to people who broke the law to enter the country is somewhat illogical.

In December 2023, UCLA Law posted the following:

Data show that tens of thousands of children have been ordered deported, most without legal representation or a fair day in court

…Los Angeles, CA – A damning new report released today by the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law finds that the Biden administration has failed children in immigration court under its watch. Despite taking important steps in its early days, the report details how the administration’s policies have led to grave injustices for children facing immigration court proceedings in the United States, and resulted in tens of thousands of children ordered deported, most without legal representation or a fair day in court. 

Children make up a significant number of those facing removal proceedings. In the first five months of Fiscal Year 2022, almost one third of all new cases in immigration court involved children, including tens of thousands of children under the age of five.  Some of these children are “unaccompanied” because they arrived alone. Others are in proceedings with their families, including on a much-criticized fast-track “Dedicated Docket” for families seeking asylum. 

“While the administration should be lauded for its efforts to provide children and families access to the court system, its failure to ensure legal representation has produced a massive due process crisis,” said Talia Inlender, Deputy Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy (CILP) at the UCLA School of Law. “It should be obvious that immigration court proceedings are far too complex for children to navigate without legal representation, especially when the consequences are so dire. The Biden administration must take swift action to ensure legal representation for all children in immigration court.”

How soon we forget. Please read the entire article. I don’t remember the press being in an outrage at the time.