Category Archives: Uncategorized

Junk Food Is Becoming Healthier Under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.!

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On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about PepsiCo’s reaction to President Trump’s statement that Coca-Cola will be switching to cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. I am not saying that soda is healthy, but sugar is healthier than high fructose corn syrup. You take your victories where you can!

The article reports:

PepsiCo’s top executive indicated on July 17 that the company may switch Pepsi’s sweetener from high-fructose corn syrup to sugar, one day after President Donald Trump said Coca-Cola would soon be making the change.

“Same journey that we have in foods, we’re following in beverages. This is a consumer-centric strategy. We’re following the consumer,” Ramon Laguarta, PepsiCo’s CEO, told investors on a call after being asked about Trump’s announcement.

“If the consumer is telling us that they prefer products that have sugar and they prefer products that have natural ingredients, we will give the consumer products that have sugar and have natural ingredients. So, this is a journey of following the consumer, trying to be a little bit maybe one step ahead of the consumer, but not too many steps. And it applies to both beverages and food.”

The article notes:

Laguarta’s announcement came during a call in which executives said that PepsiCo will relaunch its Lay’s and Tostitos brands later this year to highlight that they contain no artificial colors or flavors.

“We’re trying to elevate the real food perception of Lay’s. If you think about the simplest and most natural snack, it is a potato chip; it’s a potato, it’s oil, and it’s a little bit of salt—the most simple, no artificial ingredients,” Laguarta said.

The company also said it was expanding the use of avocado and olive oil across its brands, rather than the canola or soybean oil it uses. Some health influencers, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have promoted removing seed oils from food.

America may soon become the land of healthy junk food!

Bringing Americans Home

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On Friday, Fox News reported that ten Americans have been released from custody in Venezuela and are headed home to America.

The article reports:

Ten Americans are returning to the U.S. after being released from custody in Venezuela, the Secretary of State said on Friday. 

“Thanks to President [Donald] Trump’s leadership and commitment to the American people, the United States welcomes home ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “Until today, more Americans were wrongfully held in Venezuela than any other country in the world. It is unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed U.S. nationals under highly questionable circumstances and without proper due process. Every wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and back in our homeland.”

Rubio also thanked the State Department, inter-agency partners, and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

The article continues:

He (Secretary of State Marco Rubio) said the U.S. also welcomes the “release of Venezuelan political prisoners and detainees that were also released from Venezuelan prisons. The Trump Administration continues to support the restoration of democracy in Venezuela. The regime’s use of unjust detention as a tool of political repression must end. We reiterate our call for the unconditional release of remaining unjustly and arbitrarily detained political prisoners and foreign nationals.”

The release is part of a prisoner swap in which Bukele agreed to release hundreds of Venezuelans being held in a maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, in return for Salvadoran prisoners being held in Venezuela. 

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was elected as President of El Salvador in 2019. He has transformed the country–drastically reducing the crime rate and the homicide rate. His cooperation with President Trump has helped make America safer and his own country safer.

A Definite Step In The Right Direction

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On Thursday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about Health and Human Services using the rule-making process to prevent the federal government from directly funding sex-altering procedures on minors. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), National Review currently fund these procedures.

The article quotes The National Review:

The Department of Health and Human Services will soon begin the rule-making process to prohibit the federal government from directly funding sex-trait modifications for minors through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), National Review has learned.

The White House is in “the final stage of review for a new rule that would make it a condition of hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid that they not provide sex trait modifications to minors,” according to an administration official. The prohibition will apply to hospitals that provide puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-transition surgeries to minors.

The groundbreaking decision by the White House to use the power of the executive to ban federally funded gender-transition services for minors follows an unsuccessful attempt by congressional Republicans to ban federal funding for such practices through the budget reconciliation process. The Senate parliamentarian ruled that the legislative language included in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” did not clear the Byrd rule, prompting GOP lawmakers to spike the language from the final bill that passed earlier this month.

The article explains the significance of using the rules process for this item:

How do we know this will happen? Using the rules process practically ensures it. Most administrations make the mistake of skipping over these steps in haste to make their point, but courts take the Administrative Procedure Act very seriously. An executive order does not overcome the APA in matters such as these. The use of the rulemaking process will slow this down, but it will also ensure that the changes will be legally bulletproof, or as bulletproof as activist district courts allow them to be. 

The article concludes:

…If providers are defrauding Medicare and Medicaid to get paid directly for pediatric sex-change therapies, their CMS funding can stop immediately. HHS has the authority to enforce its rules by suspending or excluding providers engaged in fraud from federal repayments, and the DoJ can and often does take up those cases on a criminal basis as well. 

The best part of this will be the rethinking it will require. The UK has already cut its support for pediatric sex-change therapies after the Cass Review determined that puberty blockers did nothing to address pediatric gender dysphoria while essentially sterilizing children. Another major study on the issue here in the US got suppressed last year for allegedly coming to the same conclusion. Both HHS and the DoJ are already investigating several cases of detransitioners who claim now to have gotten pressured into life-changing surgeries and therapies by providers who also receive CMS funding.

HHS sent a warning signal in May over the lack of sound scientific or medical evidence for pediatric sex-change therapies. This is just the next shoe dropping on radicalized providers pushing fad medicine and maiming children for virtue signaling. It won’t be the last. 

This is child abuse and needs to be stopped. Cutting off the federal funding is a good first step in that direction.

The View From The Lair

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Tar Baby

Some of you may be of such tender years as to be unfamiliar with the term “Tar Baby.” For those of us who have reached sufficient maturity (i.e. old) and especially from that region of the country south of Richmond, you might remember “Tales of Uncle Remus” or the movie version “Song of the South.” “Song” was Disney’s pean to systemic stereotypical racism, according to modern progressives (yes, I know, redundant.)

The Tar Baby (to remind those of us who are forgetful) was a trap, a dummy, made of tar and turpentine to look like a person. The purpose was to catch Br’er Rabbit. Which it did. The sticky tar captured his paws as he attempted to administer punishment for disrespect. So, the harder he tried to escape, the harder the trap held him.

The legacy of Jeffrey Epstein seems to have become PDJT’s “Tar Baby.” I have hard time believing that Merrick Garland and Chris Wray are smart enough to have done it on purpose, though possible. To me, the more likely result is that they simply allowed all the noise and shouting about Epstein to overwhelm the conservative base until the new administration had to respond. Which they did.

But did AG Bondi and FBI Direct Patel, plus FBIAD Bongino make their declarations before carefully examining the actual evidence? Bongino said he saw the jail video. And agreed that it had to be suicide. Now the released video has been demonstrated to have been edited. Did Dan see the edited video or the original? Who authorized the editing? And did the editing hide the evidence? Is the Deep State still at work within the FBI?

AG Bondi said she had “lists of names.” But what were those names? Simply people whom Epstein had associated with? Which would include Bill “Slick Willy” Clinton, Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and many others, many MAY have had nefarious dealings, many did not. Apparently, Prince Andrew did. Slick Willy is certainly a suspect. There are photos of a young Donald Trump with him. Not good optics.

Epstein was described as a “financier” with no evidence that he had any ability of the sort. So where did he get his substantial wealth? Blackmailing wealthy “associates”? As a cut out between Israel and the CIA?

Epstein was a pedophile; truly a despicable piece of human debris. Obviously, a liar. But to mention people that had been seen with him as being on an “Epstein list” would certainly taint those people with guilt by association. While not criminally liable, civil suits would certainly arise without significant disputation of any associative guilt.

He was quite clever as well as slimy. POTUS promised to reveal all the information that was legally possible, without revealing key investigative details. Now he says just “fuhgeddaboudit.” And the trap is holding.

The base feels abandoned on this promise. Never mind all the promises kept, it just takes one to disrupt the trust. Transparency is required, though with DJT’s pre-presidency reputation as a playboy, transparency may be close to, or simply, impossible.

PDJT is human, after all. He has changed A LOT over the years. And still the best president of the last two centuries.

But he is in a sticky situation.

ciao,

The Snark

Should We Trust The Experts? 

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

We are frequently told “The experts say….” with the implication that we should trust the so-called “experts” who know better than we do. The question is, “How is that working out?” Logically, it seems to make sense to trust the opinion of those people who theoretically know more about a topic than we do. This is especially true in our increasingly complex and technical society.

A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, United States v. Skrmetti, refuted the argument raised by the plaintiffs (advocates for transgender altering medication and surgery on children) that lawmakers in Tennessee should go along with the experts when writing legislation and making law. In the 6 to 3 majority opinion, the judges ruled that the legislators in Tennessee had the right to enact a law abolishing gender-altering medication and surgery, regardless of the opinion of so-called experts such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association. According to the court, the common-sense wisdom of the people should take precedence over groups of experts. This was a decision of historic importance since it reasserted the principle of government by the people– not by some elite group.

Looking back over the recent past reveals numerous instances where the experts have been proven to be wrong. A far reaching and dramatic example is the experts who have been claiming that the earth’s climate will undergo devastating, irreversible warming if we do not cease burning fossil fuels. Turns out that all these predictions were founded on unproven data and mere speculation about the future. Computer models were used by the environmental extremists rather than verifiable scientific facts. Nevertheless, a large percentage of the expert worshipers went along, forcing us to demolish the greatest most economical source of energy in favor of expensive, unreliable solar and wind power generation.

A more mundane example was the expert’s war on the consumption of eggs that started in the late 1970s. We were told that eating eggs would raise deadly cholesterol causing an epidemic of heart disease. The fact that no definitive scientific proof existed at the time to validate this warning did not seem to matter to the experts. They knew what was best for us, and like a bunch of sheep, many of us just followed along. Recent evidence appears to show that not only does eating eggs not increase the risk of heart attacks, it may actually reduce the levels of LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol. I have not heard any of the experts apologize for the misinformation about eating eggs.

There are many other examples of the experts being wrong which lead to the question of why? How can this be the case? One factor is that many experts are not merely accumulators of facts, but already have a bias towards one side of an issue. Funding of research is frequently provided by organizations and corporations that stand to benefit from a particular outcome. For example, millions of Americans are taking statin medications to lower cholesterol and hopefully reduce the likelihood of a heart attack. The evidence for this is not as definitive as most of us would like, but the prescribing of statins certainly helps Big Pharma.

It is past time to listen to the advice of experts with a healthy level of skepticism. Wisdom is not a function of the number of degrees a person has accumulated. We must take upon ourselves the ultimate responsibility for decisions that affect our lives and not rely solely on experts. Fortunately, we live in an era where a great deal of information is readily available on the internet. We must trust our own judgement and weigh the facts and the sources of the information. We should have the courage to stand up to such absurd notions that a child can alter their gender despite the genetic differences imposed by nature. Of course, public education and universities staffed with extreme Leftists are a major source of much of the indoctrination we see in our society. This influence must be counter balanced by reasoned conservative staff and teachers to provide a balanced perspective. The common sense of the people must be allowed to manifest itself and not be controlled by over deference to the experts.

Exactly What Does The Big Beautiful Bill Do To Medicaid?

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On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the impact of the Big Beautiful Bill on Medicaid.

The article reports:

Signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, the GOP’s sweeping tax and spending package projects over $1 trillion in savings from Medicaid reforms. While Democrats have portrayed the changes as an unprecedented assault on the health care system, they ignore the explosive surge in Medicaid spending over the past decade and mischaracterize reforms that mainly target a widely exploited funding loophole and nonworking, able-bodied enrollees.

“What we’re seeing from the left and special interest groups are blanket fear-based arguments against the proposal,” Nina Owcharenko Schaefer, director of the Center for Health and Welfare Policy at the Heritage Foundation, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These are just common-sense changes that tighten up the existing structure of the Medicaid program, weed out fraud, waste and abuse, and help the system function better.”

The article explain one way the Medicaid system is exploited:

Just a day before the bill’s passage, a rural hospital in Nebraska announced that it would be shutting down, citing “anticipated federal budget cuts to Medicaid.” Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont warned it would be the “first of many hospitals to close” because of the “horrific cuts.”

Yet, many of the key reforms — including the crackdown on “provider taxes,” which critics describe as a gimmick used by states to inflate Medicaid costs and extract more federal dollars — will not take effect until 2028.

The federal government matches a portion of each state’s Medicaid expenditures. To maximize this match, many states tax hospitals and other healthcare providers, then return that money to them as Medicaid payments, creating the appearance of higher state Medicaid spending.

“Provider taxes are basically funding gimmicks and legalized money laundering that allow states to scheme federal taxpayers into footing the bill for bailouts to hospitals,” said Dublois.

The article concludes:

Democrats such as New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have claimed that work requirements “will result in millions of Americans losing health care coverage and getting sicker due to bureaucratic paperwork requirements,” while some corporate media outlets have argued states would struggle to build systems to track compliance.

However, with implementation still years away, Dublois said states have a “lengthy runway to get this done,” adding that “[Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services] provides guidance to those states well in advance of when those work requirements need to be implemented, and there will be CMS grant funds available to states to help implement them.”

State Medicaid agency data obtained by the FGA through Freedom of Information Act requests reveal that 62% of non-elderly, able-bodied individuals on Medicaid did not work. Additionally, the American Enterprise Institute found in May that Medicaid recipients who do not work spend 4.2 hours per day — or 125 hours a month — watching TV and playing video games, more than 50% above the 80-hour work requirement.

“It’s the common-sense parts of the bill that are hard for liberals to argue against, so they don’t want to look at what’s actually in the bill,” said Schaefer. “A lot of the fearmongering out there is saying, ‘We just want the status quo to run as is. Let’s keep our heads in the sand and let’s not worry that we’re spending a trillion dollars on a program that is supposed to be for very low-income people.’”

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I believe that people who are able to work and do not have small children should be required to work in order to receive government benefits. The rest of us are required to work to pay those benefits.

At Least They Broke Ground

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Sixteen years ago, California and the federal government began funding a plan for high-speed rail that was to run from San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim via the Central Valley. The state did actually break ground for the project, but in sixteen years, not one inch of track has been laid. The project was going to take until the end of the century to complete at a cost of $130 billion. 

On Wednesday, Fox Business reported:

California’s embattled high-speed rail project suffered a major setback after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the termination of $4 billion in unspent federal funding by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA).

Citing 16 years of failure, no completed high-speed track, and escalating costs, Duffy declared the project, dubbed the “train to nowhere,” a mismanaged and over-budget “boondoggle.”

“This is California’s fault. Governor Newsom and the complicit Democrats have enabled this waste for years. Federal dollars are not a blank check – they come with a promise to deliver results,” Duffy said in a statement.

The announcement followed months of scrutiny after a comprehensive compliance review, plus failed attempts by the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) to address serious project deficiencies.

The article quotes President Trump:

“This boondoggle, led by the incompetent Governor of California, Gavin Newscum, has cost Taxpayers Hundreds of Billions of Dollars, and we have received NOTHING in return except Cost Overruns. The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will,” Trump continued.

“This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED. Thanks to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, not a SINGLE penny in Federal Dollars will go towards this Newscum SCAM ever again. This was an ill-conceived and unnecessary project, and a total waste of Taxpayer money — But no more!”

The article concludes:

In addition to canceling $4 billion in unspent federal funds to CHSRA, Duffy directed FRA to review other obligated and unobligated grants related to the CHSRA project.

The 300-page damning report, released back in June, examined the project and found delays, missed deadlines, mismanagement, waste, skyrocketing costs, budget shortfalls and overrepresentation of projected ridership. 

Other key findings revealed that the project faced ongoing — and likely increasing — contractor cost overruns due to delays and that the CHSRA failed to finalize contracts for its high-speed trainsets on time.

The project was initially touted as a two-phase visionary system connecting Los Angeles to San Francisco, and later north to Sacramento, and south to San Diego.

The report states that despite the money already plowed into the project, there is a $7 billion funding gap to complete a subset of the first phase in the Central Valley from Merced to Bakersfield, known as the Early Operating Segment (EOS).

Since the project’s inception, it has been dramatically reduced from an 800-mile segment to a 171-mile segment. 

The federal government is not good at building infrastructure projects at a reasonable cost. I remember the “big dig” in Boston.

 

This Is Not Surprising

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Money does not totally control elections, but it can easily make a difference. If money could buy the Presidency, Hillary Clinton would have been elected in 2016. According to The Financial Times, Kamala Harris spent $1.9 billion on her 2024 campaign (in just a few months) and President Trump spent $1.6 billion in 2024. Again, money was not the determining factor. However, it can make a difference.

On July 13th, The American Thinker posted an article about some of the money behind the New York City mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani.

The article reports:

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry has uncovered an interesting fact about leftist mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani:

BREAKING: Alex Soros has funneled $24 mil to the NYC mayoral campaign of Muslim Zohran Mamdani thru his fundraising arm Working Families,which means Soros’ wife HUMA ABEDIN,whose parents are Muslim Brotherhood, “will control the mayor of NY,” a lawyer investigating Abedin told me

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) July 12, 2025

 The article also notes:

The New York Post reported something similar:

Socialist Zohran Mamdani has declared billionaires shouldn’t exist, but it’s unlikely he’d be the front-runner to become the Big Apple’s next mayor if it wasn’t for one — far-left kingmaker George Soros, financial records reviewed by The Post show.

…

 … in less than a decade, Soros’ ultra-woke grant-making network Open Society Foundation has indirectly funneled a combined $37 million to the Working Families Party and at least other nine left-wing groups whose endorsements and get-out-the-vote groundwork played a pivotal role in helping Mamdani upset ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary, the foundation’s records show.

The article concludes:

Sperry notes the additional detail that Huma Abedin, who must be viewing control of the New York City mayor’s office with irony given that she almost had it when she was married to Anthony Weiner, and now sees it within reach again, has ties to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, as does Mamdani himself. That’s an ugly twist, if not the center of the plot.

In addition, Fox News notes that 70% of Mamdani’s support comes from not just Soros, but the Hollywood elites, the Silicon Valley elite and other usual suspects well outside the purview of New York City.

It’s a grotesque picture. What indeed is the real agenda here, other than complete and total power of the kind the Soviets could only dream of?

One can only hope that as news like this gets out, the New York public isn’t going to fall for it. Chicago did, Los Angeles did — but is New York a little smarter?

Time will tell, but obviously, some loathed moneybags are propping this ignorant socialist clown upward. In San Diego, news of a woke district attorney candidate’s involvement with Soros did sink such a candidacy. Forewarned is forearmed.

One can only hope that this sunlight will see the same response from New York’s voters.

The results of this election will probably have a noticeable impact of the population of New York City after the election.

Sanity Returns To The Auto Industry

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Electric cars may be a good idea if you live in a city with a temperate climate, but they are a problem if you live in a place with very cold winters or if you plan a long trip. Cold weather significantly impacts the life of the battery, and a long trip in an electric vehicle requires planning based on where the car chargers are and whether they are fast-charging or slow-charging. There may be a future for electric cars, but I believe some more tweaking of the technology is necessary. Ultimately, the free market should determine the success or failure of electric cars–not the government.

On Tuesday, Breitbart reported:

General Motors has announced plans to expand production of gas-powered vehicles and SUVs in Michigan as well as the manufacturing of pickup trucks.

The Detroit-based auto manufacturer said in a statement on Tuesday that it will “begin production of the Cadillac Escalade, as well as the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra light duty pickups at Orion Assembly in early 2027 to help meet continued strong customer demand.”

According to CNBC, the Escalade is produced in Arlington, Texas, while the Silverado and Sierra trucks are made at an assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which will continue to produce the vehicles.

The article concludes:

While GM has seen a surge in EV sales recently, overall customer demand for EVs have not met expectations.

“For years, the automotive industry has been in a state of EV euphoria. Automakers trotted out optimistic sales forecasts for electric models and announced ambitious targets for EV growth. Wall Street boosted valuations for legacy automakers and startup entrants alike, based in part on their visions for an EV future,” CNBC reported.

“Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford Motor and General Motors to Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans,” it added.

Why I Would Never Retire In Rhode Island

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Rhode Island is a beautiful state. My husband was stationed there in the late 1960’s, and I fell in love with the state. However, I would never retire there. Partially because of the taxes, but more importantly because of some of the insanity of the state’ politics.

On Wednesday, David Strom at Hot Air reported:

ICE apprehended a known MS 13 gang member with a history of trafficking fentanyl, and Rhode Island politicians exploded in rage that they did so.

The perp, Ivan Rene Mendoza-Meza, had benefited from the catch-and-release policies that are so prevalent these days–after all, you wouldn’t want ICE to be able to deport dangerous criminals, right?–so ICE was forced to track him down and apprehend him.

They did, and all hell broke loose. Providence politicians insanely held a press conference vowing to track down any evidence that Providence police might be involved, and promised to get to the bottom of this potential scandal.

The last thing you want is the police helping arrest a known gang member who is selling poison to the public. It’s Nazism to do that!

Ensuring that he couldn’t get outflanked on the left, a Rhode Island State Representative (State Representative Enrique Sanchez of Providence HD-9) went on a crusade (is it racist to say “crusade?”) against ICE. They were oppressing a “neighbor” of his constituents. They “kidnapped” him! 

The article concludes:

It’s not only striking that these politicians would hop in front of the cameras to express outrage that a violent criminal who poisons children was arrested, but that they can be certain that their constituents will applaud them for doing so.

This is the power of Critical Theory brainwashing.

Rhode Island is a beautiful state in need of some serous reforming to keep its children and its citizens safe.

The Fight For Fiscal Sanity

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On Tuesday, The New York Post reported the following:

Vice President JD Vance cast two tie-breaking votes in the Senate Tuesday to move forward a $9.4 billion rescissions package — which would rip federal funding from PBS and NPR — in the upper chamber. 

The Senate deadlocked, 50-50, on two procedural votes to start debate on the multibillion-dollar spending clawback package before Vance’s votes advanced the measure requested by the White House. 

Three Republicans — Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) — joined all Democrats in opposition to the bill. 

The article includes this statement:

Collins defended her “no” vote by arguing that OMB didn’t provide senators with details about what programs would be scrapped as a result of the clawback.

How many times has Collins voted on a bill without knowing exactly what is in it?

The article notes:

The Maine Republican also described the cuts to public broadcasters as “excessive” and expressed concern that PBS viewers would lose access to “popular programs like ‘Antiques Road Show’ and ‘Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.’”

“I share the frustration with the biased reporting by NPR, and I would support defunding it,” Collins continued. “Nevertheless, local TV and radio stations continue to provide important coverage.”

She noted that CPB funding in Maine supports the state’s emergency alert network and allows high school basketball games to air on television.

PBS should be required to stand on its own just as other broadcasters are. They have no official commercials, but they fund raise and name sponsors. Frankly, if they had had any copyright lawyers worth their salt in the early days of Sesame Street, they would have been set for life on Tickle-Me Elmo.

The article concludes:

The Senate now has at least 10 hours to debate the measure before amendments are voted on and a final vote takes place.

The House, which passed the measure 214-212 in June, would then need to consider the changes the Senate makes to the bill.

The Latest Inflation Numbers

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When reading statistics about anything, remember that a good statistician can make numbers say anything he wants them to say. With that in mind, I think the June inflation numbers look really good.

On Tuesday, CNBC reported:

  • The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of goods and services costs, increased 0.3% on the month, putting the 12-month inflation rate at 2.7%, in line with expectations.
  • Core inflation picked up 0.2% on the month, with the annual rate moving to 2.9%, with the annual rate in line with estimates.
  • While the evidence in June was mixed on how much influence tariffs had over prices, there were signs that the duties are having an impact. Apparel and home furnishing prices rose, though vehicle prices fell.

…Excluding volatile food and energy prices, core inflation picked up 0.2% on the month, with the annual rate moving to 2.9%, with the annual rate in line with estimates. The monthly level was slightly below the outlook for a 0.3% gain.

Inflation in June 2022 was 9.1 percent, but began going down slowly after that. Somehow, though, even when the rate of inflation comes down, the price of everything does not go back to where it started.

The article concludes:

Amid the previously muted inflation ratings, Trump has been urging the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, which it has not done since December. The president has insisted that tariffs are not aggravating inflation, and has contended that the Fed’s refusal to ease is raising the costs the U.S. has to pay on its burgeoning debt and deficit problem.

Central bankers, led by Chair Jerome Powell, have refused to budge. They insist that the U.S. economy is in a strong enough position now that the Fed can afford to wait to see the impact tariffs will have on inflation. Trump in turn has called on Powell to resign and is certain to name someone else to the job when the chair’s term expires in May 2026.

Markets expect the Fed to stay on hold when it meets at the end of July and then cut by a quarter percentage point in September.

The Federal Reserve was established in 1913 for the purpose of concentrating America’s wealth in the New York City Banks (yes, I know that wasn’t what you were told). It needs to go away. For further information, see The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin.

It’s Not Easy Being Green

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Theoretically, green energy is a great idea. Wind is free; the sun is free. However, the quest for practical, dependable green energy bears a resemblance to the quest for a perpetual motion machine. In theory, it’s a great idea. It practice, it needs work.

On Monday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

Around the world, the unreliability of the new power-generating technologies and the unwise rush towards ‘net-zero’ goals are leading the countries most invested in these ruinous policies into deep power supply troubles.

After blackouts in Spain, Portugal and parts of France two months ago, now it’s the ultra-liberal kingdom of the Netherlands that is reaping the electricity shortage that they sowed with their woke agenda.

It arose today that the Dutch are now rationing electricity.

The article quotes The U.K. Daily Mail:

“More than 11,900 businesses are stuck in a queue for access to the network, alongside public buildings including hospitals, schools and fire stations.”

The present crisis comes as the Dutch concentrate efforts ‘to cut carbon emissions’.

“After shutting down production at the massive Groningen gas field last year, the Dutch government has pushed a fast transition to electric heating, solar power and battery storage.”

The national grid did not grow to demand, creating widespread bottlenecks, and increasing costs.

“Officials estimate €200 billion will be needed by 2040 to expand grid capacity. Electricity prices are already among the highest in Western Europe, and Dutch households face yearly tariff increases of up to 4.7 percent for at least the next decade.”

The world runs on fossil fuel. It can run very efficiently on fossil fuel. In fact, if you look at what goes into the manufacturing of some of the green energy infrastructure, fossil fuel in many cases has a smaller carbon footprint and does less damage to the environment. However, in an effort to be trendy, many governments have pushed green energy. Now their citizens are paying the price.

Slowly Getting Judicial Confirmations Done

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On July 10th, The New York Post posted an article about Whitney Hermandorfer, the first of President Trump’s judicial appointments to be confirmed this term.

The article reports:

The Senate on Thursday cleared the way to confirm the first judicial appointment of President Trump’s second term, marking a slower tempo than at the same point of both his first term and that of President Joe Biden’s.

By a 51-43 party-line vote, the Senate moved to conclude debate on Whitney Hermandorfer’s nod for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, teeing up an expected vote next week.

At this stage of Trump’s first term, the Senate had already confirmed two court nominees — Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and Sixth Circuit Judge Amul Thapar.

By next week, that figure will shoot up to three, including US District of Idaho Judge David Nye, who was confirmed in July of 2017.

Meanwhile, former President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats had already wrangled through 14 judges at this stage of 2021.

The Democrats have decided to fight President Trump’s agenda through the courts and are probably going to drag their feet in confirming the President’s judicial nominees. This is one of many reasons that the Republicans need to gain Congressional seats in the mid-term elections.

The article notes:

In the past, confirmations used to be more cumbersome because they had to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster from the minority party. In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the nuclear option to eliminate that in most instances.

Republicans won back the Senate the following year.

Reconfiguring the ideological composition of the judiciary has been a key goal of administrations from both political parties. But the GOP-led Senate has been busy with other priorities as well.

Harry Reid was warned that using the nuclear option would come back to bite him in the future. It did. The Democrats were so used to being in the majority that they couldn’t envision losing that majority.

It’s Time To Make The Cuts

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The amount of fraud and waste discovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is amazing. It’s time to see the waste they discovered removed. If you found termites in your basement, you would call an exterminator. Somehow not all of Congress wants to deal with the termites!

On Monday, The Daily Caller reported:

Speaker Mike Johnson is putting pressure on Senate Republicans to pass President Donald Trump’s rescissions package.

Johnson told reporters Monday that clawing back just $9 billion in funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid should be an easy vote for Republican senators. The speaker’s remarks come as several GOP senators have said they oppose some of the proposed cuts and signaled they will vote against the rescissions request if the package is not amended.

If the Congress wants to remain in Republican hands, they need to respect the wishes of the voters and cut!

The article concludes:

Collins and other GOP senators, including Lisa Murkowski of Alsaka and Mike Rounds of South Dakota, have expressed concerns about the potential impact of cuts to public broadcasting programs for rural areas in the respective states.

“I hope you feel the urgency that I’m trying to express on behalf of the people in rural Alaska and I think in many parts of rural America where this is their lifeline,” Murkowski told White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought during an appropriations hearing in June.

The White House and congressional leadership have countered that the proposed cuts are necessary to begin making headway on the country’s $37 trillion national debt.

“This is supposed to be the lower hanging fruit,” Johnson continued. “As usual, I asked them [the Senate] not to modify our work.”

Trump has said that he will not take kindly to the Senate weakening cuts to public broadcasting within the rescissions package.

“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Rescissions Bill,” Trump wrote Thursday on the social media platform Truth Social. “Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement.”

If Public Broadcasting were an unbiased network supplying unbiased news and programming to Americans, it might be worth funding. But that is not what it is. Also, it is time we got back to funding the things that the Constitution tells the federal government to fund and defunding everything else. That would surely balance the federal budget quickly!

The Story Keeps Changing

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I thought former President Biden said he approved all of the pardons that were signed by autopen. Now he is saying something different.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Former President Joe Biden admitted to the New York Times that he did not individually sign off on each of the pardons issued via his autopen signature to batches of criminals at the end of his term, though he reportedly delineated criteria to staff.

…Per the outlet, Biden approved standards to give out categorical pardons to criminals in his final months in office, but staff ultimately ran a final list of names that supposedly met the criteria through the autopen, though it had been revised after Biden delineated the requirements:

Mr. Biden did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people, he and aides confirmed. Rather, after extensive discussion of different possible criteria, he signed off on the standards he wanted to be used to determine which convicts would qualify for a reduction in sentence.

Even after Mr. Biden made that decision, one former aide said, the Bureau of Prisons kept providing additional information about specific inmates, resulting in small changes to the list. Rather than ask Mr. Biden to keep signing revised versions, his staff waited and then ran the final version through the autopen, which they saw as a routine procedure, the aide said.

Citing emails reviewed among the Biden team, the Times noted that then-White House staff secretary Stefanie Feldman was in charge of the autopen.

The article concludes:

In one instance, on January 19, the day before Biden left office, emails show that Zients personally gave his own sign-off on a last-minute draft summary minutes after receiving an email seeking its approval, according to the Times.

“…Mr. Zients hit ‘reply all’ and wrote, ‘I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all of the following pardons,’” according to the email.

The major revelations come as questions continue to mount about Biden’s cognitive acuity during his presidency, as well as the legitimacy of the pardons signed via autopen.

Is this even legal?

Making Hot Fudge Sundaes Healthier

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I love hot fudge sundaes–preferably with whipped cream, nuts, and a cherry. It looks like some upcoming changes in ice cream manufacturing will make my hot fudge sundae more healthy (at least a little more). There have already been changes in how the cherry on top of the sundae is colored–many manufacturers of cherries use red dye No. 3, which they must discontinue using by Jan. 15, 2027

On Monday, Investing.com reported:

U.S. ice cream makers are reportedly looking to eliminate several artificial colors from their products by 2028, a push following Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stance to remove artificial additives from food.

This is part of Kennedy Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) initiative to eliminate six petroleum-based food dyes by 2026, aiming to replace them with natural alternatives.

According to a Bloomberg report, citing the International Dairy Foods Association, a group of 40 producers, collectively responsible for more than 90% of the ice cream sold in the U.S. by volume, have pledged to remove synthetic colors voluntarily.

Several publicly traded U.S. companies produce ice cream, such as Unilever (LON:ULVR) (UL), which owns household names like Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, and Talenti; General Mills (NYSE:GIS) which operates Häagen-Dazs in the U.S.; and Nestlé, through its Froneri joint venture, manages brands like Dreyer’s and Edy’s.

Obviously, ice cream is not going to become a health food, but this is definitely a move in the right direction. It is encouraging to me to see America taking steps to remove questionable substances from our food supply. I may not agree with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on everything, but I think he has the right idea about cleaning up America’s food supply.

Amazing Perspective!

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On Sunday, The American Thinker posted an article about America’s destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The article reports:

Something called the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons has won a Nobel Peace Prize for its opposition to the existence of nuclear weapons.

Its slogan is, “We must eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us.”

Good plan. So, ICAN (what happened to the ‘W?’) must have applauded the Trump administration’s recent beatdown of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, right?

I mean, the U.S. used non-nuclear bombs to (hopefully) prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons, at least for a while.

Nope. ICAN denied that Iran was developing nuclear weapons and blamed America for refusing to give up its nuclear weapons. Much as it also condemned Israel for striking Iran’s nuclear-development facilities.

Americans would be speaking Russian and/or Chinese now if we had surrendered/destroyed our nuclear weapons, and Israel might not exist.

Not to be outdone, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW?), which helped found ICAN, also condemned Israel and urged it to create “a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone.”

The article concludes:

Iran’s nuclear weapons program was dealt a significant setback at the very least. And the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is too upset to admit it.

Wow.

It seems clear that the International Campaign to Abolish Reason and Sanity has been successful.

What would happen if the Middle East were free of nuclear weapons? Does anyone actually believe that Israel would exist if it were not assumed that it has nuclear weapons? I don’t think Israel has ever officially admitted that it has nuclear weapons. It doesn’t have to–just the idea that it might has been enough to provide some degree of safety for the country. Israel lives in a really bad neighborhood. Any weapon they need to keep their country from being overrun is okay with me.

About The Epstein Files

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Jeffrey Epstein was originally investigated in Florida in 2005 after a parent reported him for abusing her daughter. He pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 of two crimes. There was a plea deal, and he served 13 months. He was arrested again in July 2019, and was found dead in his jail cell in August 2019. In 2021, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty of child sex trafficking and is currently serving a twenty-year sentence in a Florida prison.

During the presidential campaign of 2024, Americans were led to believe that the names of those involved in the activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell would be made public and those people would be brought to justice. Obviously, that has not happened. Is that important?

Well, maybe. The chances of anyone else going to jail are slim to none—actual proof that would stand up in a court of law is probably non-existent. There is also the matter of the statute of limitations. There may be some reasons to keep the names secret—not necessarily good reasons—but reasons.

If major political figures from America and other countries were involved in activities that were both illegal and awful, they obviously don’t want their names made public. They might be willing to cooperate with the current administration in exchange for their privacy. It is also possible that some may have been offered the deal of retiring quietly at a future date if they will cooperate with certain administrative goals. I am not saying this is true or good—I am saying this is possible.

At the present time, our government is corrupt. It is corrupt in both political parties. The only way to clean it up is to shrink the size of the bureaucracy that currently runs the government and elect people who are currently not in the government. Both of those things are easier said than done.

I doubt we will ever know exactly what went on in Epstein Island or who was involved, but I believe that those who were involved in nefarious activities will in some way eventually pay a price.

Failure to Assimilate: Creating Patriots

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.  

 We have a serious problem in this country which should no longer be ignored. That problem is the number of people in this country that not only do not love what America stands for, but, are hell-bent and determined to undo what we have built over the past and soon to be 250 years.

A recent poll reported that 49% of Democrats believe in the American way compared to 92% of Republicans. Quite a disparity. The two political parties could hardly be further apart on their love of this country. This was not always the case. In his inaugural address, Democrat President John F. Kennedy specifically called upon Americans to do what they could to support the American way of life. What does Barack Hussein Obama do? He goes on a world tour apologizing for America. In the 1980s, Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill met regularly and was friends with Republican Ronald Reagan deliberating on ways to move America forward on key issues. I cannot imagine Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer or Democrat Congressman Hakeem Jeffries working with President Trump in  a similar manner.

The question that needs answering is why so many members of the Democrat Party are moving so dramatically to the Left. In my opinion, there are at least two major reasons.

Number One is the influx of so many immigrants into this country over the past sixty years or so. Any country can only absorb a limited number of immigrants and still hope to maintain its political and cultural traditions, values, and beliefs. Not only does the number of immigrants matter, but also their country of origin. This country was built primarily on immigrants from Europe, most of whom shared Judeo/Christian values, and were more easily assimilated than immigrants from other countries with dramatically different values and traditions. The immigrants from countries that do not share our values increasingly make up a large portion of immigrants, especially illegals. Concern over the high number of immigrants resulted in Congress passing a law limiting the number of immigrants and actually establishing a series of quotas for each country. That law was in effect until Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored a bill that was passed and signed by Democrat President Lyndon Johnson that essentially removed immigration restrictions. The result has been a flood of immigrants, many illegals, that do not share our values and traditions. Sadly, President Reagan, who wanted to deport all illegal immigrants as President Eisenhower did in the 1950s, allowed himself to be talked out of deportation. We must not allow that to happen again. All persons here illegally should be removed.

The consequence of the no restriction immigration has been the move away from traditional America as we have known it and the election of people like Barack Obama, Kamela Harris, Illian Omar, and Alexandra Ocasio Cortez who bring leftist ideas with them. The recent nomination of Marxist Zohran Mandani for Democrat candidate for mayor of New York is another scary example.

Number Two is the failure of our public schools to teach the basic values and principles that made America great. We are no longer producing reliable patriots that love and respect this country. This is especially true in Democrat controlled cities and areas. Patriots are not born, they are made. The failure in this regard is most obvious in many universities where left leaning administrators and professors predominate. Polls consistently show that over 90% of college professors vote Democrat and conservative Republicans can scarcely be found on university campuses. President Trump’s efforts to remove federal funding of National Public Radio, a major leftist controlled media source, is long overdue.

So, what is to be done? First we need to return to restricted immigration with quotas. It worked before, and can work again. President Trump has shown what strong leadership can do to stop illegal immigration, but we must stop the rogue federal judges who continue to try to block him at every turn. Second, we must insist that universities receiving federal funds demonstrate that their administrative and teaching staff include equivalent numbers of conservatives. Allowing the Left to control our universities must be stopped. Now, these measures will require courage on the part of our elected officials, let’s hope they take this problem seriously and do something about it.

Tap Dancing Around The Issue

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The Democrat Party has always prided itself on having a ‘big tent.’ That has become something of a problem lately as they deal with New York City mayoral race and its leading candidate.

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported:

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani’s refusal to condemn chants of “globalize the intifada” made at the pro-Hamas protests he has frequently defended as a New York state assemblyman and candidate for New York City mayor continues to cause headaches for Democratic Party leaders and further widen existing fissures on the issue of Israel.

As Legal Insurrection reported, the latest example comes courtesy of DNC Chairman Ken Martin, who in a PBS interview earlier this week tapdanced around the subject when asked about it.

Instead of criticizing the Democratic NYC mayoral nominee, Martin cheerfully suggested that the Democratic Party was a “big tent” and welcomed all kinds of people and views, which apparently includes death chants with which he and others might merely disagree:

There’s no candidate in this party that I agree 100% of the time with, to be honest with you. There’s things that I don’t agree with Mamdani that he said.

But at the end of the day, I always believe, as a Democratic Party chair in Minnesota for the last 14 years, and now the chair of the DNC, that you win through addition, you win by bringing people into your coalition.

You even welcome someone who repeats the “globalize the intifada” slogan. Wow. That might make for a somewhat violent big tent.

The article also notes:

Sooo, if you’re keeping score at home, Mamdani can rap about supporting a Hamas terror-funding group, be a member of an extremist political party that doesn’t believe in Israel’s right to exist, be a part of the antisemitic BDS movement, and refuse to condemn death to Jews chants… and still be welcomed with open arms into the modern Democratic Party.

Wow.

A Positive Decision

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On Saturday, Breitbart reported that a federal appeals court has thrown out the agreement that would have allowed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plead guilty in a deal sparing him the risk of execution for al-Qaida’s 2001 attacks. The deal that was thrown out was negotiated over two years and approved by military prosecutors and the Pentagon’s senior official for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a year ago, stipulated life sentences without parole for Mohammed and two co-defendants. Frankly, I am somewhat surprised by the fact that the defendants are still alive. Is the goal to allow them to die of old age in Guantanamo?

The article reports:

Mohammed is accused of developing and directing the plot to crash hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Another of the hijacked planes flew into a field in Pennsylvania.

The men also would have been obligated to answer any lingering questions that families of the victims have about the attacks.

But then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repudiated the deal, saying a decision on the death penalty in an attack as grave as Sept. 11 should only be made by the defense secretary.

Attorneys for the defendants had argued that the agreement was already legally in effect and that Austin, who served under President Joe Biden, acted too late to try to throw it out. A military judge at Guantanamo and a military appeals panel agreed with the defense lawyers.

But, by a 2-1 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found Austin acted within his authority and faulted the military judge’s ruling.

That is probably the only time I have agreed and will ever agree with Lloyd Austin.

It is time for the trials on those responsible for September 11 to end and the sentences be carried out.

 

The Terrorists In Our Midst

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On Thursday, The Independent Journal Review posted an article about the arrest of Rene Saul Escobar Ochoa, an MS-13 gang member, in Omaha, Nebraska.

The article reports:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested the high-ranking MS-13 gang member in Omaha, Nebraska, according to the agency. The individual, whom the administration has yet to identify, is a Salvadoran illegal migrant wanted in his home country for the murder of five different people and listed as one of El Salvador’s “top 100 most wanted” criminals. 

In addition to the aggravated homicide of five victims, the high-ranking gangbanger is accused of attempted aggravated homicide, deprivation of liberty and terrorist organization affiliation, according to ICE.

Arrested alongside the MS-13 kingpin was his associate, Rene Saul Escobar Ochoa, also a member of the gang and living in the U.S. unlawfully, according to the agency. Ochoa allegedly ordered fellow MS-13 members to carry out a number of crimes, including multiple homicides, drug trafficking, imprisonment and extortion.

The article concludes:

“When ICE agents move in to make an arrest, it is extremely important that the public not interfere,” ICE acting Director Todd Lyons stated. “The misinformation, and sometimes blatant lies, being spread around the country could result in someone stepping into a federal operation and suddenly finding themselves face-to-face with a killer who has nothing to lose.”

“Our ICE officers and agents are protecting your neighborhoods, even when you don’t know the threat is there, so either support them or get out of the way,” Lyons continued.

On July 4, nearly a dozen violent assailants, equipped with tactical gear and weapons, allegedly ambushed an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas, resulting in one local police officer getting shot in the neck after they unloaded rounds of bullets at agents. On that same day, several rioters allegedly attacked federal agents at an ICE facility in Portland, Oregon.

Part of the violence we are seeing against ICE is the result of our government allowing Antifa and similar groups to engage in violent protests for years without consequences. How many people died in the summer of 2020? How many businesses were destroyed during that summer? How many people were actually charged with a crime? We are at a place now where the home-grown terrorists are attempting to prevent the deportation of the imported terrorists.