Connecting The Dots

There is a theory that has been floating around for a while that the reason many deep-state politicians are so concerned about President Trump possibly having classified documents is that those documents relate to bad behavior on the part of the deep state in the Russian Hoax and impeachment trials. Every day that theory becomes more plausible.

On Sunday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article with some very interesting comments by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Chairman Mark Warner.

Here are some of the comments taken from an interview on Face the Nation:

I’ve got bipartisan legislation that would reform the whole classification process. We way overclassify. We, frankly, should have a process in place so that no president or vice president ever takes documents after they leave office.”

MARGARET BRENNAN: I have to pick up where your Republican colleague just left off. Are the Trump and Biden classified documents that were in their personal possession, and not in controlled areas, equally egregious?

MARK WARNER: Well, Margaret, three things quickly. One, the administration took way too long to get us these documents. Two, while Mike and I have a great working relationship, I believe, based on the documents I’ve seen, that there is a difference in terms of the potential abuse that came from the Trump documents. And, third, it’s one of the reasons why I’ve got bipartisan legislation that would reform the whole classification process. We way overclassify. We, frankly, should have a process in place so that no president or vice president ever takes documents after they leave office. That is kind of the lowest common fruit.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article.

The one thing the Senator said that I agree with is that the government does overclassify. Many times things are classified to protect questionable government actions–it has nothing to do with national security.

Something to keep in mind is that a lot of information is going to come out if President Trump stands trial in Georgia. Most of that information will be information on voter fraud that the courts have so far avoided hearing, but it is very possible that other information regarding the deep state may be revealed.

The statements by Senator Mark Warner indicate to me that if someone like President Trump is elected in the future and decides to go after the deep state, the Senator wants to make sure they do not have access to the relevant material. I believe the bill the Senator is proposing is unconstitutional.

Let’s Go Back To Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Speech

The Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s had some really good ideas. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed one of the best ideas of the movement when he said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” (source here) Unfortunately, we have forgotten or deliberately left behind that idea.

On Saturday, The Daily Caller reported:

Wall Street’s top investment banking firms offer career-advancing opportunities to college students, with one catch — applicants are expected to be of certain races and gender identities.

The programs, run by companies that include Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, aim to increase diversity, prioritizing students based on race and gender. They also potentially run afoul of federal civil rights laws, legal experts told the the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Those programs are likely illegal violations of federal civil rights laws including Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and they are ripe for a legal challenge of their blatant discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation,” University of Michigan-Flint professor emeritus Mark Perry, who has filed hundreds of civil rights complaints against colleges, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The companies encourage specific groups to apply, naming racial and gender categories directly in their eligibility criteria, and then attempt to save face by adding statements to clarify applications are still open to all.

The article concludes:

Corporate diversity practices have increasingly been the subject of lawsuits by conservative legal groups. In August, an Atlanta-based investment manager, Fearless Fund, was sued over its grant program for black women. The lawsuit was funded by a nonprofit founded by Edward Blum, the activist behind the Students for Fair Admissions cases that led to the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action.

Separately, a law firm recently removed references to race and sexual orientation in the criteria for its diversity fellowship after it was hit with a lawsuit by Blum’s organization, the American Alliance for Equal Rights.

Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan did not respond to requests for comment.

Let’s get back to what Martin Luther King, Jr., said.

Sinking To The Lowest Common Denominator

Back in the age of dinosaurs, I graduated from a secretarial school that had a strict dress code–dresses or skirts, high heels, hats, gloves, etc. It seems trivial, but because of the professional image of that school, its graduates generally found good jobs and advanced in the corporate world. It used to be understood that people in important jobs dressed appropriately. We have all heard the expression, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” Well, the United States Senate seems to have adopted the motto, “Dress for where you would really rather be.” It appears that the future C-SPAN pictures will include Senators dressed as if they recently visited the clearance section of Wal-Mart.

On Sunday, Fox News reported:

The U.S. Senate will no longer enforce a dress code for members of the upper house elected by those they serve.

“However, others entering the chamber must comply with the dress code. Coats/ties for men. Business attire for women,” tweeted Chad Pergram, Fox News senior congressional correspondent.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quietly sent the directive to the Senate’s sergeant at arms, news website Axios reported.

So the new dress code only applies to Senators–not staff or visitors.

The article notes:

The change allows Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., to continue to wear his trademark hooded sweatshirts and gym shorts while working for Americans.

Fetterman was previously praised for “turning heads” and “redefining fashion in the stuffy Senate” during his recovery after a six-week stay at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was treated for “clinical depression” and “fitted for hearing aids for hearing loss that had made it harder for him to communicate,” according to an AP story from May.

The senator even found a workaround to the legislative body’s dress code rules by voting from the doorway of the Democrat cloakroom or the side entrance, making sure his vote is recorded before ducking out, per the AP report.

Don’t run for Senator unless you are willing to uphold the dignity of the office. I realize that dignity is often in question, but I believe appearances matter.

The Cover-Up Continues

On Friday, The New York Post posted an article about FBI Special Agent Thomas Sobocinski’s closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. It seems that the Justice Department is working very hard to control what Congress finds out regarding their shielding the Biden family from any consequences regarding the incredible amount of money they received from overseas sources.

The article reports:

A transcript of FBI Special Agent Thomas Sobocinski’s closed-door testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last week, reviewed by The Post, reveals that the Justice Department detailed what Sobocinski could and couldn’t talk about with lawmakers a day before his Sept. 7 interview.

“Specifically, the Department has authorized [Sobocinski] to discuss U.S. Attorney [David] Weiss’ authority, as well as the October 7th, 2022, meeting, subject to some constraints around the ongoing investigation issue,” Sara Zdeb, a deputy assistant attorney general, informed congressional investigators before questioning began, referencing a letter to Sobocinski signed by Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer.

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who supervised the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation for more than three years, claimed in bombshell congressional testimony earlier this year that during the Oct. 7, 2022, meeting between senior-level managers from the IRS, the FBI and the Delaware US Attorney’s Office, Weiss declared that he was not the “deciding official on whether charges are filed” against Hunter and revealed that US Attorney Matthew Graves would not allow him to charge Hunter for tax fraud in DC and said he asked for and was denied special counsel authority from the DOJ. 

The article concludes:

House Judiciary Committee spokesman Russell Dye told The Post that Shapley and fellow IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler “have been wholly consistent throughout their disclosures to Congress, and the only people who haven’t are people like David Weiss, Merrick Garland, and their liberal cronies.”

Attorneys for Shapley said Sobocinski’s testimony was less credible than Shapley’s own contemporaneously documented notes.

“The ‘minutia’ of tax law and the impending expiration of the 2014/2015 charges are the reason the October 7, 2022 meeting was scheduled to begin with, so sounds like SAC Sobociski wasn’t paying attention—while SSA Shapley was taking notes,” tweeted Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, which represents Shapley.

Jason Foster, chairman of the pro-whistleblowing group, wrote, “The only question is how close to perjury others are willing to dance to tow the Garland/Weiss company line—while DOJ-minders watch them testify. ‘Don’t recall’ feels safe when folks are trying to keep their jobs.”

Shapley’s testimony about other aspects of an alleged cover-up in the case has been partially corroborated by Ziegler and by recently retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joe Gordon.

Until the swamp in Washington is drained, influence peddling, money laundering, and insider trading will continue.

What Did You Learn In School Today?

On Friday, BizPacReview posted an article about a recent school assignment given to 5th graders in Plainview, New York.

The article reports:

Conservative commentator Dave Rubin shared a stunning 5th-grade school assignment he said a friend sent to him — the revelation being the latest example of the absurdity going on in public schools today.

“An unknown enemy has launched a nuclear strike on Long Island,” the assignment states.

Students are told they have 20 minutes to get to a local fallout shelter and when they arrive there will be ten other people waiting to get in. The student is then instructed to pick 6 survivors to join them in the shelter.

The choices include a 16-year-old pregnant girl, a police officer with multiple charges of brutality, a 38-year-old retired prostitute, a 75-year-old priest, a 35-year-old sterile female doctor, a lawyer husband and his alcoholic wife, a 31-year-old homosexual architect, a 50-year-old musician once addicted to coke, and a 28-year-old drifter with no apparent skills.

…Turns out, 5th-grade health teacher Mandy Bieder was “removed from the classroom” this week at Howard B. Mattlin Middle School, located in Plainville, N.Y., after giving the questionnaire to her students, according to News 12 Long Island.

Not only is the assignment inappropriate, but the descriptions of the people are inappropriate. The assignment is encouraging the children to judge people according to their sex life, their now irrelevant past, and other inappropriate things. Also note the specifics that are mentioned–the police officer is charged with brutality, the lawyer has an alcoholic wife, and the architect is homosexual. How is it appropriate for a 5th grader to be asked to judge the worth of people based on that information? I would also note that if the child is supposed to figure out what is best to continue the human race, this is not the best group of options. What are we teaching our children about the value of life? Do different lives have different values? Isn’t that how Hitler started? Why not have them read Animal Farm and see how that philosophy ends?

Is This An Acceptable Statement?

On Saturday, Zero Hedge posted an article about a recent statement by President Biden. This is a statement the White House immediately tried to revise.

The article reports:

In another humiliating gaffe, the 80-year-old Biden suggested that black and hispanic workers don’t have high school diplomas.

“We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, the workers without high school diplomas,” he said in televised remarks.

…The White House, of course, went into damage control mode – doctoring the official transcript to read something Biden never said, and claiming that there was supposed to be the word “and” separating the minority groups and veterans, from ‘those without high school diplomas.’

“We’ve seen record lows in unemployment particularly — and I’ve focused on this my whole career — particularly for African Americans and Hispanic workers and veterans, you know, and the workers without high school diplomas,” reads the official transcript.

Blacks, hispanics, veterans, and possibly those without high school diplomas took offense, and general mockery ensued.

The article includes the following chart:

An apology is needed.

The House Of Representatives Did Something Good For American Consumers

On Friday, Just the News reported that the House of Representatives has passed H.R.1435.

This is the main part of the bill according to Congress.gov:

Basically this bill prevents the government from passing a law that would prohibit Americans from purchasing gas-powered vehicles. The bill is called the “Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act.”

All of the Democrats who voted cast votes against the bill. All of the Republicans who voted cast votes for the bill. I guess the Democrats only support choice when it comes to abortion.

 

Ken Paxton Has Been Acquitted

Ken Paxton’s actual crime was defeating a Bush in a primary election; however, that was not listed among the crimes he was charged with.

According to a National Pulse article posted September 16th:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been acquitted of all 16 charges against him, following an impeachment campaign leveled against him by establishment Republicans who partnered with left-wing “impeachment managers” to try and remove the pro-Trump figure.

Texas state senators voted Saturday morning to acquit Paxton on 16 articles, including “disregard of official duty”, as well as “misapplication of public resources”, “constitutional bribery”, “false statements in official records”, “conspiracy and attempted conspiracy”, “dereliction of duty”, “unfitness for office”, and “abuse of public trust”. 

Paxton was not present for the verdict, and his wife, Senator Angela Paxton, was prohibited from voting.

Four original articles were held in abeyance, with the Senate dismissing them in a vote conducted after the acquittal.

The National Pulse previously reported on how impeachment managers had tried to hide evidence from Paxton, so as to stymie his defense. After our report, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick imposed a discovery order on the state’s House of Representatives, demanding they reveal they basis for the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

This is Attorney General Paxton’s statement about the acquittal:

Some Important Information On The Covid Booster

On Thursday, Dr. Marty Makary and Tracy Beth Hoeg wrote an article for The New York Post about the new Covid booster. Dr. Makary is a health care expert at Johns Hopkins University.

The article reports:

Pfizer’s version, approved this week as well, also has zero efficacy data and has not been tested on humans at all. We only have data about antibody production from 10 mice.

The FDA, or Moderna (frankly, it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes), should disclose what happened to the patient who took the new vaccine and had a complication that required medical attention.

The public has a right to know.

The last time the Biden administration approved and recommended a novel COVID bivalent booster, last fall, with no human-outcomes data, it was an epic fail.

Only 17% of Americans took it (and some of those were forced to do so by their employer or school).

Not foreseeing such weak public support for the booster last year, the Biden administration had prepaid pharma $4.9 billion for 171 million doses — many of which were tossed in the wastebasket.

Now it is making the same mistake.

Two weeks ago, the Biden administration upped its orders for the pediatric version of the new COVID vaccines from 14.5 million doses at $1.3 billion to 20 million doses for $1.7 billion, which is more than four times as many pediatric doses as were used last year.

There clearly seems to be a special push this time to give it to children — the same group European regulators are not supporting.

In fact, the original Moderna vaccine was banned in parts of Europe for people under age 30.

European doctors are not alone.

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine-mandate supporter and FDA adviser from the University of Pennsylvania, told The Atlantic this week that he’s not going to take the new COVID vaccine.

He didn’t take the bivalent booster last fall either, despite being 72 years old.

While he disagreed with Jha on the booster, he recently confessed, “Yes, he was wrong, but you know you can’t say that exactly.”

Yes, you can.

The article also notes:

Unlike influenza, COVID-19 is constantly circulating, so there is ample opportunity to run a trial; indeed, Moderna already ran a randomized trial.

Its trial of just 50 people began four months ago and oddly only reported 14-day side effects.

Why didn’t it enroll more people in its trial? Why didn’t it report three-month effectiveness and do a proper trial?

Conducting a placebo-controlled trial in people during this time would not only yield useful information; it would enable further study of those subjects three and six months from now, when a winter surge may occur.

Let’s be honest: Follow-up studies of COVID vaccines in general have revealed a disappointing truth — mild efficacy against infection is transient, lasting just a few months.

Perhaps Pfizer and Moderna knew the FDA regulatory process was greased for them and they didn’t have to.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Our government is not doing us any favors by encouraging Covid booster shots.

News From The Oversight Committee

The House of Representatives Oversight Committee released a blog post detailing some of the evidence they have regarding President Biden’s involvement in his family’s financial schemes.

Here are just a few examples:

1) In July 2023, former Biden business associate Devon Archer described how Joe Biden was “The Brand” and was used to send “signals” of power, access, and influence to enrich the Biden family from foreign sources.

2) Devon Archer alone was aware of at least 20 times in which then-Vice President Biden spoke on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates. Democrats would have Americans believe that these phone calls with then-Vice President Biden were simply to discuss the weather.

3) In February 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden dined with oligarchs from Russia and Kazakhstan who funneled millions of dollars to Hunter Biden and his business associates.

4) In April 2015, then-Vice President Biden dined with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates, including Ukrainian Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky. Burisma was then being investigated by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin for corruption.

5) Then-Vice President Biden had coffee with Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associate, Jonathan Li of BHR, in Beijing and wrote a college letter of recommendation for his daughter.

6) In 2015, then-Vice President Biden hosted Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and other business associates at the official residence of the Vice President. The topic of discussion was filling the top seat at the United Nations. The Kazakhstani government official who wanted the U.N. position attended both dinners at Café Milano with then-Vice President Biden.

7) Using the pseudonym “Robert L. Peters,” Vice President Biden was informed by his staff of a call in 2016 with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. Copied on that official email? Hunter Biden, who was sitting on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma.

Please follow the link above to the article to see the entire list.

The thing that should be mentioned is that these actions took place while Joe Biden was Vice-President. I am not sure how that will impact his impeachment. However, to me, the real crime of President Biden is his refusal to secure the southern border. That is a violation of his Oath of Office and is impeachable. Whether or not that will become part of the procedure remains to be seen.

The Real Data vs. What We Have Been Told

On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted the following headline:

If economic growth seems too good to be true, that’s because it is

I would revise that headline slightly to “If economic growth is so good, why do people seem to be struggling financially?”

The article reports:

Perhaps the most notorious example this year has been the jobs numbers published by the Biden administration. Consider the newly released August jobs report. While the economy added 187,000 jobs last month, previous months were revised down by 110,000 jobs. That means 59% of the employment growth last month was jobs we thought we already had.

In fact, every monthly employment report this year has been revised down, meaning the economy has been adding fewer jobs than initially believed. Worse, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its semiannual benchmark revisions showing jobs were overestimated by more than 300,000.

Between the downward adjustments for the monthly data and the semiannual benchmark, the number of jobs has been revised down by almost 700,000. That’s 30% of the jobs initially estimated to have been added this year. Adding insult to injury, government jobs were revised upward with the semiannual benchmark.

To be clear, jobs data are normally revised, and occasionally, several months in a row will be revised in the same direction, sometimes heavily. But this year stands out because so many of the statistics have consistently turned out to be worse than initially estimated.

Other labor market indicators have followed this pattern. The number of job openings, a proxy for labor demand, has not only fallen over the last several months but previous levels were also revised down. The latest estimate shows job openings are now 2 million below the initial figure for the start of the year.

And the problem goes beyond the labor sector to the general economy. The revised estimate for gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year removed an eighth of the previously estimated growth, falling from 2.4% to 2.1%. Investment and business income, in particular, are in bad shape.

The media in America has brought us to the point where we have a choice either to believe what we see or what we are being told. We are told that Bidenomics is working and that we are all better off under President Biden. What we see tells a different story. It is our choice as to whether or not we believe our eyes or what we are being told.

Always Follow The Money

If green energy is so good for the planet, how come it is killing whales and enslaving children in Africa? Seems like a fair question.

On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about a new proposed green energy project.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden wants to shrink a Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary meant to protect endangered whales in order to accommodate offshore wind energy factories—one of them owned by a major Democratic donor.

What a coincidence.

The article continues:

The Biden administration late last month proposed cutting about 1,400 square miles of ocean and coastline from an Indian tribe’s proposed national marine sanctuary to make room for wind turbine infrastructure. One of these factories would belong to Invenergy, whose founder and CEO Michael Polsky has given more than $400,000 to Democrats since 2016. His company shelled out $2.4 million to lobby the White House, federal agencies, and Congress this year.

The proposal reflects a conflict between efforts to fight climate change and those to preserve natural habitats. The Biden administration’s proposal would benefit green energy companies and generate renewable energy, but environmental groups have sounded the alarm on such projects noting that they kill birds and whales—the very wildlife that the marine sanctuary seeks to preserve. The proposal also reflects the green energy industry’s status as a major player in the Democratic Party. Biden has invested billions of taxpayer dollars into renewable energy projects backed by liberal billionaires, enriching them in the process.

Polsky’s major contributions from the past several years include a total of $72,000 to the House Democrats’ campaign committee in 2020 and 2022, and $35,500 to the Democratic National Committee in 2016—the same year he poured $75,000 into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Polsky has also donated to Republicans and Invenergy’s political campaign committee, but of the roughly $500,000 he has contributed to political causes since 2016, more than $400,000 has gone to Democrats according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

Sorry, green energy is a scam. Until the government gets out of the way and allows the free market to sort out the science, green energy will be a very expensive and political boondoggle. The current technology in green energy is reminiscent of the search for a perpetual motion machine. We haven’t found one yet.

If You Repeat A Lie…

Joseph Goebbels once said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Those of you who are still relying on the mainstream media for your news need to read that again.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a White House memo instructing the news media on how they should report on the impeachment inquiry begun by the House of Representatives.

Below is just a sample of the memo:

Where was all this concern for evidence when President Trump was impeached?

The article concludes:

The White House giving instructions to the media only serves to make any media reporting look even more like “fake news.”  Then again, constructing chaos in order to perpetuate the goals of the radicals is a typical Alinsky play.

Create as much confusion as possible, label everything as disinformation, funnel all the voters to the places of MSM controlled review.  This appears to be the strategy.

 

Is This The Best Use Of Our Money

There is an old expression, “What you subsidize will increase, what you tax will decrease.” The subject of this article is not subsidization, but it is providing income for a questionable activity. I believe that the payment I am describing will lead to more questionable activity.

On Monday, The Conservative Review reported the following:

President Joe Biden will approve the transfer $6 billion of frozen funds to the government of Iran in a prisoner swap deal, it was confirmed Monday.

The deal would free five Americans being held captive in Iran in exchange for the release of five Iranian citizens being held in the U.S.

…”First Joe Biden used 9/11 as an excuse to flee Afghanistan. Now he desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Shameful,” said Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“It’s ridiculous for US to be blackmailed into paying $6B for hostages which will help indirectly finance the number 1 foreign policy of Iran: terrorism Last time it was $1.7B traded for hostages next time it will probably be $10B the price keeps going up & up,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Israel has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists because it encourages more terrorism. America needs a policy of not negotiating with kidnappers because it encourages more kidnapping! This is money we do not have being given to people who want to destroy us. In what world does that make sense?

I wish I could post this every day to remind people that what we are seeing is not new. Carroll Quigley was born in 1910 and died in 1977.

Carroll Quigley’s biography can be found at Discovery Publisher.

His biography includes the following:

Quigley was born in Boston and attended Harvard University, where he studied history and earned B.A, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. He taught at Princeton University, and then at Harvard, and then at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from 1941 to 1976.

From 1941 until 1972, he taught a two-semester course at Georgetown on the development of civilizations. According to his obituary in The Washington Star, many alumni of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service asserted that this was “the most influential course in their undergraduate careers”.

In addition to his academic work, Quigley served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Navy, the Smithsonian Institution, and the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration in the 1950s. He was also a book reviewer for The Washington Star, and a contributor and editorial board member of Current History. Quigley said of himself that he was a conservative defending the liberal tradition of the West. He was an early and fierce critic of the Vietnam War, and he opposed the activities of the military-industrial complex.

Quigley retired from Georgetown in June 1976 and died the following year.

The quote above perfectly describes our current political situation.

No Direct Evidence

One of the things to watch when listening to either the mainstream media or democrat politicians is the words they use. Controlling the vocabulary can control the spin. One of the phrases we can expect to hear in the coming days is “no direct evidence.”

On Tuesday, Townhall posted the following headline:

There’s Been a Narrative Shift on Joe Biden’s Business Dealings

The article reports:

“Since January, House Republicans have uncovered an overwhelming amount of evidence showing President Joe Biden lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes. Bank records, suspicious activity reports, emails, texts, and witness testimony reveal Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ around the world to enrich the Bidens. And, thanks to two brave IRS whistleblowers, we know that the Justice Department – which has been sitting on much of this evidence – has prevented career investigators from pursuing information that could have led to Joe Biden,” McCarthy released in a statement Tuesday afternoon with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. 

“Based on the evidence, we support the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The House Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means, will continue to work to follow the facts to ensure President Biden is held accountable for abusing public office for his family’s financial gain. The American people demand and deserve answers, transparency, and accountability for this blatant abuse of public office,” they continued. 

…Now, Democrats and their allies in the media are attempting to change the definition of “evidence.”

The article includes the following tweet:

…We’re getting close to an admission Joe Biden was in business with his son, but that it was legitimate and not corrupt (it was).

Expect to hear the term ‘no direct evidence’ repeated endlessly in the mainstream media in the coming days.

What Did You Get Done This Week?

On Wednesday, The Federalist  posted an article about the federal budget discussions. Personally, I am not opposed to a government shutdown. During the rather drawn-out election of Kevin McCarthy, one of the things that was discussed (and I thought agreed to) was a return to the budget process requiring individual votes on the 12 appropriations bills that make up what’s known as the “omnibus package. This supposedly would be the end of the omnibus packages and the threat of government shutdowns.

On March 10, 2022, I posted the following:

Someone asked the website Quora when the last federal budget was passed using the conventional budget process.

The website posted the following answer:

Usually a President’s first year in Office is under the previous President’s budget. However knowing that Barack Obama was winning, the Congressional Democrats used Continuing Resolution to push the budget forward. With Obama in Office, they passed the full budget in April 2009. I think since then we have only operated in a world of continuing resolutions and an omnibus budget. After gaining the control of the congress in 2014, Republican promised to return to regular order and it hasn’t happened yet.

To answer your question, the 2007–08 budget was probably the last regular budget passed.

The Federalist reports:

While we gleefully await the federal government’s bankruptcy at the end of the month, here’s my favorite Elon Musk quote: “What did you get done this week?”

Every Republican in Congress should have to answer that question to the American taxpayer (you and me) before even thinking about giving another cent to Ukraine, the Pentagon, the DOJ, Health and Human Services, and every other department that is, at best, useless, and at worst, packed with paper pushers overtly harassing the people who pay their outsized salaries (you and me).

The Musk quote came in a strikingly similar context. In a text chat, some overpaid Twitter executive lectured him about the “internal distraction” that Musk’s public comments about the company had made after he purchased a large portion of its shares. “Next time we speak, I’d like to provide you perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it [sic] hurting our ability to do work,” the executive said.

“What did you get done this week?” Musk replied.

What makes it so good is that there is no answer to the question. Just some Twitter nerd versed only in talking about “optimization” (meaningless) and “company culture” (zero productivity value) blankly staring in a freeze.

The article concludes:

Members of Biden’s own party are dogging his open-border policies. Health and Human Services melted its own credibility on “science,” then recently flirted with recommending public masking again. The Justice Department is found out over and over again to be hostile toward the rule of law and the will of the people.

Which of the seven heads on this monstrosity is even bothering to smile at me? Why would I care if the federal government is funded when it does nothing for me? What’s worse, it functions in ways that make clear it deeply resents me.

Tell me, Republicans. What did you get done this week?

That’s a really good question.

 

 

Whatever Happened To The First Amendment?

On Monday, Todd Starnes posted an article about a recent school board meeting in Suffolk County, Virginia.

The article reports:

A controversy over prayer has erupted in Suffolk County, Virginia.

The other day a woman concluded her remarks to the school board by attempting to offer a prayer.

The school board chairman interrupted and said prayers were not allowed inside the school board chamber.

Instead of leaving, Angela Kilgore invited those in the audience to join her in a recitation of “The Lord’s Prayer.”

At that point the school board chairman asked law enforcement to clear the room.

He then admonished those who had prayed – accusing them of grandstanding and conduct unbecoming.

As if there is something unseemly about praying for God to bless and protect the students in Suffolk County, Virginia.

…The Founding Freedoms Law Center and First Liberty Institute wrote a letter to the school board reminding them it is against the law to silence a citizen’s prayer.

“In fact, the Constitution prohibits the government from excluding religious expression from a public forum; it certainly does not require such censorship. We ask that the School Board clarify its policy accordingly, and we would be happy to work with the School Board to craft new policy that does not discriminate against religious citizens or violate their constitutional rights.  “When the government encourages diverse expression—say, by creating a forum for debate—the First Amendment prevents it from discriminating against speakers based on their viewpoint.” Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 142 S. Ct. 1583, 1583 (2022),” the law firms said in a joint statement.

The school board is more concerned about someone praying at their meeting than about the pornography in their school libraries. Maybe we need a new school board.

Let The Games Begin

On September 12th, Townhall reported that Republicans were opening an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. This is an awkward situation. The impeachments of President Trump were purely political. There was very little actual information behind them. This time we have a lot of information, but we need to make impeachment look apolitical. I suspect that the Democrats will do everything possible to avoid that happening.

The article reports:

“We have found that President Biden did lie about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings,” McCarthy explained, and “joined on multiple phone calls — and multiple interactions — with Hunter’s business partners,” the Speaker recounted of the evidence already uncovered by House committees.

“Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden’s family members and associates through various shell companies,” McCarthy continued, emphasizing that more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates were flagged in “Suspicious Activity Reports” by U.S. banks.

“Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family,” the Speaker said of revelations that arose from the FBI-generated FD-1023 form the Biden administration attempted to keep hidden from lawmakers and the American people.

“Despite the serious allegations, it appears that the president’s family has been offered special treatment by Biden’s own administration,” McCarthy noted of the kid-glove treatment for Hunter and others privileged to have the Biden name.

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption,” said McCarthy.

“Today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” the House Speaker said of this “logical next step” which “will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts” about President Biden and his family’s activities.

This probably needs to be done, but it is a road filled with minefields. President Biden may actually become a sympathetic character as his slips further into the mental challenges he has exhibited in recent years. There will also be cries of ‘it’s political’ regardless of how much evidence turns up. This is something to follow closely. I don’t want to see either party get away with sweeping any criminal activity that occurred under the rug.

Something To Watch Closely

Today, MSN reported that protesters had taken over Speaker McCarthy’s office and had to be dragged out by police.

The article reports:

Protesters stormed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Congressional office on Tuesday, demanding that he and other House Republicans re-up funding for an AIDs relief program.

Protesters with Housing Works pressed their way into McCarthy’s office and refused to move until Capitol Hill Police arrived and arrested them. The group was demanding a 5-year reauthorization of the PEPFAR global AIDs relief program, which they say has saved “25 million lives.”

…McCarthy’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the incident, but Capitol Police confirmed to Fox News Digital that they arrested seven individuals.

“This morning, multiple individuals were demonstrating inside a House Office Building. After the demonstrators refused to cease demonstrating, USCP then arrested the 4 males and 3 females for Unlawful Entry,” Capitol Police said in a statement.

There are a few things here that need to be noted. The protesters actually came into the Speaker’s office and disobeyed requests to leave. They had to be escorted out and arrested. Contrast that with the way people peacefully paraded through the Capitol on January 6th. Some of the people who did nothing more than walk through and take selfies are facing multiple-year jail terms. It will be interesting to see how the Justice Department treats the people who were actually in the Speaker’s office and refused to leave versus the people who not only walked peacefully through the Capitol but left the Capitol when they were asked to do so.

I have no idea why the Republicans in Congress are too cowardly to stand up for the January 6th political prisoners. Every morning, a Congressman should put a statement in the Congressional Record that the political prisoners are still being held. There should be a reminder on every newscast every night that there are political prisoners in America.

There is a poem all Americans need to remember. Below is a 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

The best-known versions of the confession in English are the edited versions in poetic form that began circulating by the 1950s.[1] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum quotes the following text as one of the many poetic versions of the speech:[2][3]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Bidennomics At Work

On September 12, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Median household incomes peaked at $78,250 in 2019, the year before the pandemic. They declined in 2022 to $74,580, a year that saw inflation soar, undercutting household purchasing power.

“Despite nominal gains, historically high inflation resulted in a decline in real median household income,” said Liana Fox, assistant division chief for economic characteristics in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.

That’s about a $300 a month decrease.

The article continues:

The figures released on Tuesday showed that poverty was flat, with about 11.5% of the population, or 38 million people, below the poverty line, which was $29,678 for a family of four.

The bureau also reported a jump in child poverty by one metric, the supplemental poverty measure, or SPM, from 5.2% to 12.4%. The increase was attributable in large part to the expiration of the temporary expanded child tax credit implemented by Democrats and President Joe Biden as a form of pandemic relief. The SPM, unlike the official poverty measure, includes tax credits in calculating household resources.

The question that needs to be asked in next year’s election is, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Saved For A Purpose

The Battle of la Drang, Vietnam began on November 14, 1965. It was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), as part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War. It is notable for being the first large-scale helicopter air assault and also the first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role.Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire, and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range.  (Source here). Before the Battle of Ia Drang was over, 305 Americans had been killed along with an estimated 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. (Source here).

One of the people involved in the Battle of la Drang was Rick Rescorla.

According to the book WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE…AND YOUNG (published in 1992), the story of the Battle of la Drang:

Rick Rescorla was a platoon leader, Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry. He completed a full tour with Bravo Company in Vietnam and did another year teaching at Officer Candidate School in the States. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. The British-born Rescorla earned a master’s degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. Today (1992) he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City.

That is by no means the end of the story.

On September 10, 2008, I posted an article that included the following:

There was one man who was living in a different world than the rest of us–even on September 10.  His name was Rick Rescorla.  He was the vice president for security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, a brokerage house with 2,700 employees in the World Trade Center in the south tower on floors forty-four through seventy-four and 1,000 employees in Building Five across the plaza.  Because of the foresight of this man, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter lost only six employees in the bombing of the World Trade Center.  His story is told on his website, RickRescorla.com. Unfortunately, Rick Rescorla was killed on September 11, 2001, when he went back into the towers to rescue more people.

As we remember the events of September 11, 2001, we need to remember that God has a plan for all our lives. Because Rick Rescorla survived the Battle of la Drang, he was in the right place to save the lives of many employees at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter years later. Even though the world may seem to be spinning out of control right now, God is still in charge and has a plan for your life.