Monthly Archives: December 2020

There Has Been More Than One Smoking Gun

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The mainstream media has finally decided to report on some of the corruption in the Biden family.

On Friday, NBC News reported the following:

Hunter Biden’s former business partner sent him an email in 2017 saying he did not disclose on his tax returns $400,000 in income from the Ukrainian natural gas company where he sat on the board, according to a copy of the email obtained by NBC News.

The message from Eric Schwerin, then president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, says Hunter Biden would need to “amend” his 2014 returns to reflect the “unreported” income, according to the copy of the email.

“In 2014 you joined the Burisma board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported Burisma income,” says the email dated Jan. 16, 2017.

The email goes on to note that Hunter Biden, who is now the subject of a federal tax probe, netted more than $1.2 million for the year. The earnings include the $400,000 from Burisma as well as income from Rosemont Seneca Advisors and a legal firm.

The article also notes:

There’s no indication that his work for the Burisma national gas company is part of the investigation, but the email obtained by NBC News raises fresh questions about Hunter Biden’s tax affairs.

His lawyer, George Mesires, did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Biden transition team declined to comment when sent a list of questions, including whether Hunter Biden amended his 2014 returns.

NBC News could not independently verify whether the email is authentic and unaltered, but provided with a copy of the email, the spokesperson did not dispute its authenticity.

NBC News made multiple attempts to reach Schwerin, but he did not respond to the requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.

The article concludes:

In a 2019 interview with ABC News, he acknowledged that he was likely given the board seat because of his last name and said joining Burisma was “poor judgment.”

Biden stopped working with the company in 2019, NBC News has previously reported.

“In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part,” Hunter Biden said in the ABC News interview.

He added that he knows he “did nothing wrong at all.”

Joining the board may have been poor judgement, but somehow I don’t think he is going to return the $400,000.

 

Seems A Little Odd

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Breitbart is reporting today on the very successful voter registration campaign that is currently going on in Georgia.

The article reports:

Community organizer and 2016 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Democrats were going to win the two U.S. Senate seats up in Georgia’s January runoff election.

Republican incumbents Sens. David Perdue (R-GA) and Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) are facing off against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively.

…Abrams said, “Democrats are prepared to win this election. This is the first runoff where we have the level of investment and engagement that it takes to win a runoff. We know from the numbers we are in a good place. 1.2 million absentee ballots have been requested thus far, and just to put that into context, 1.3 million were requested for all of the general election. Of that 1.2 million, 85,000 of those applications are from voters who does not vote in the general election and disproportionately between 18 and 29 and disproportionately people of color. That signals that we understand that we may need to make a plan to vote and deliver this election.”

It’s interesting that 85,000 of those absentee ballot applications are from people who did not vote in the general election. That seems odd to me. Why have these people suddenly decided to vote, and why did they decide to vote with absentee ballots? I hate to be cynical, but because the largest amount of election fraud takes place in mail-in ballots and absentee ballots, I am more than a little suspicious. Hopefully, the people receiving the requests for the ballots will check the addresses on them to make sure they are legitimate. Right now we have a problem in this country with election fraud. I fear that the runoff election in Georgia may prove to be a further illustration of the election fraud problem.

Voting With Your Feet

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California is a beautiful state. As a teenager I remember being enthralled by the Beach Boys and the lifestyle they talked about–beautiful beaches and surfing most of the year. At that point I was not smart enough to realize what the water temperature is along most of the California coast. At any rate, for a long time California was a very desirable place to live. Now–not so much. Taxes, the high cost of living, the homeless problem, crime issues, and generally poor leadership by the state politicians have taken a toll on the desirability of making California your home.

Yesterday Fox Business reported the following:

The smart money may be sticking together and sticking it to California.

Oracle is joining Tesla and Hewlett Packard Enterprise in moving some operations to Texas, detailing the move in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Friday.

“Oracle is implementing a more flexible employee work location policy and has changed its Corporate Headquarters from Redwood City, California to Austin, Texas. We believe these moves best position Oracle for growth and provide our personnel with more flexibility about where and how they work. Depending on their role, this means that many of our employees can choose their office location as well as continue to work from home part-time or all of the time. In addition, we will continue to support major hubs for Oracle around the world, including those in the United States such as redwood City, Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlando and Burlington, among others, and we expect to add other locations over time. By implementing a more modern approach to work, we expect to further improve our employees’ quality of life and quality of output” the SEC filing noted.

While the move signals working remotely is here to stay, it also signals more corporations could be becoming disillusioned with California.

The article notes that earlier this month, Hewlett Packard Enterprise also announced it was moving its headquarters to Houston. Tesla is also moving. The high taxes and bad government in California are driving businesses out of the state. This will result in a loss of tax revenue, tax increases for people and businesses who remain in the state, and eventual bankruptcy for the state. Unfortunately, depending on who controls Congress, the rest of the country may be asked to pay for the mistakes of California.

 

It’s Not Over Yet

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There are some real questions about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Witnesses have signed affidavits about transporting ballots from one state to another, about seeing mail-in ballots being processed that had never been folded, and about seeing Republican observers being barred from observing. There are a lot of questions, and there seem to be very few answers.

The Epoch Times posted an article today about President Trump’s next legal move to challenge the election after the Supreme Court refused to hear the case brought by Texas and nineteen other states.

The article reports:

President Donald Trump’s legal team is planning on filing retooled lawsuits, his lawyer said Saturday.

“We move immediately, seamlessly, to plan B, which is to bring lawsuits now in each one of the states. We had them ready. They’re just a version of the one that was brought in the Supreme Court. So last night, the president made the decision,” Rudy Giuliani said during an appearance on “War Room: Pandemic.”

Texas filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan, alleging the elections there were run contrary to the Constitution. The nation’s top court rejected the suit late Friday.

Trump’s team is going to file suits or has already filed in the four states as well as Arizona and Nevada. The suits will incorporate allegations in the complaint filed by Texas.

“If the state doesn’t have standing, surely the president of the United States has standing. And certainly the electors in the states have standing. So they will be bringing those very cases right in those courts, starting today,” Giuliani said. “And let’s see what excuse they can try to use to avoid having a hearing on that.”

Courts have been using the matter of standing to dodge facing the facts, he alleged, adding, “Nobody wants to face the reality that this election was stolen.”

On November 27th, The Spectator posted an article about the anomalies in this presidential election. Please follow the link to the article and read the list. It provides a lot of food for thought.

The article at The Epoch Times notes:

According to certified counts in Georgia and the other five battleground states where election results are contested, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden beat Trump. Trump won all but Nevada in 2016. Biden’s team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

I am sure we are not done with this yet. It is frustrating to be still dealing with an election a month later, but if there was voter fraud (and I believe there was), ignoring it would have serious consequences for our republic.

When Your Priorities Are Unconstitutional

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On Wednesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about some of the things Joe Biden would prioritize should he take office in January. It is no surprise to find gun control high up on that list.

The article reports:

Joe Biden plans to move quickly against guns, adding the issue to his list of first executive orders, according to his top policy aide.

Stef Feldman, the national policy director of Biden’s presidential campaign, included the Democrat’s gun plan in a list of initial executive actions set to be unleashed after Inauguration Day.

Speaking in a Zoom briefing hosted by Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, she said that Biden is planning to “make big, bold changes through executive action, not just on policing and climate like we talked about previously, but in healthcare and education on gun violence, on a range of issues.”

She added that “there’s really a lot you can do through guidance and executive action.”

It’s a pretty safe bet that if he does take executive action against guns, a case objecting to the order will find its way to the Supreme Court. This may be one of many reasons the Democrats plan to pack the court with more liberal justices.

The article concludes:

During the campaign, Biden won the endorsement of former candidate Beto O’Rourke, who famously promised to grab everyone’s AR-15.

While he calls his plan one aimed at ending “gun violence,” most of Biden’s ideas amount to limiting what people can buy or have. For example, he wants to end the sale of AR-15-style firearms (the most popular in the nation), regulate those that people already have, and limit the size of magazines those guns use.

Just for the record, the AR-15 is the most popular gun in the nation, but it does not have a history of being the weapon most used to commit a crime. So why are the Democrats so focused on the AR-15? Well, it’s scary looking. If you don’t know anything about guns, it is really scary looking. The fact that it’s scary looking means that it can be used to get the camel’s nose under the tent and begin to take away the gun rights of Americans. If you are familiar with world history, taking guns away from law-abiding citizens never ends well. A Biden administration would not bring freedom and prosperity to America. His ideas on gun control are only one illustration of that.

This May Be The First Step Toward Justice For The McCloskeys

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PJ Media is reporting the following today:

A St. Louis judge, citing “improper fundraising emails” has removed Soros-backed Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner from a gun case involving two residents who protected their property from Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.

The couple. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, were indicted on one count each of unlawful use of a weapon for pointing guns at protestors on June 28 when a crowd marched down Portland Place, a private street in the Central West End. They were also charged with tampering with physical evidence, a felony.

We can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that Ms. Gardner is not the brightest bulb in the room. Gardner sent out two fundraising emails mentioning the criticisms of her office made by President Donald Trump and Governor Mike Parson, saying they were “fighting for the two who pointed guns at citizens during the Black Lives Matter protests.”

How dumb was that? Circuit Judge Thomas Clark II said she “raised the appearance” that she “initiated a criminal prosecution for political purposes” and promptly disqualified her.

The article notes:

The McCloskeys’ lawyers had filed a motion earlier to have Gardner disqualified because it was painfully obvious she was using the incident to bolster her credentials as a liberal crusader. It should also be noted that nine protesters were charged with trespassing as a result of the incident. The charges were later dropped by Gardner.

So some of the same people who had been rampaging through the city burning and looting trespass on private property and the owner may go to jail for defending himself while the trespassers go free?

As I have previously stated, this saga would have ended very differently had the McCloskeys not decided to defend themselves and their property. Elections have consequences, and St. Louis has paid the price for electing a judge backed by George Soros.

Sometimes Neutrality Isn’t Neutral

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The New York Post is reporting today that Attorney General William Barr purposely hid the fact that there were two federal investigations into Hunter Biden from the public prior to the election. I kind of understand this–he didn’t want to be accused of influencing the election, but wasn’t he influencing the election by withholding the information?

The article reports:

One of the investigations was made public this week, when the 50-year-old son of President-elect Joe Biden disclosed on Wednesday that he was being probed for possible tax fraud.

Hunter Biden is also implicated in a broader international financial investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, two people familiar with the case told the Journal. That probe has been going on for at least a year. Hunter Biden, however, was never a specific target for criminal prosecution, according to the Journal.

Barr is said to have been aware of the federal scrutiny — which dates back to 2018 — into Hunter Biden since before the spring. But how and when he first learned of the probes isn’t clear.

To be honest, I really don’t care what Hunter Biden did or didn’t do. I am more concerned about the emails that seem to indicate that Joe Biden as Vice-President financially profited from Hunter Biden’s influence peddling.

The article concludes:

Investigators worked to make sure news of the investigations didn’t become public before the presidential election, as per Justice Department guidelines that prohibit activity that could influence a political race.

President Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly urged the AG to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens.

On Thursday night, Trump railed against the timing, tweeting, “Why didn’t the Fake News Media, the FBI and the DOJ report the Biden matter BEFORE the Election.”

Any American voter who understood where to look for accurate reporting knew before the election that Hunter Biden needed to be investigated. The people who depend on the mainstream media probably would not have been influenced by learning the truth.

Will Common Sense Arrive?

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Yesterday The Epoch Times reported the following:

Lawmakers are asking Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives to remove Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from a powerful committee after his alleged ties to a Chinese spy were reported this week.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday night wondered whether Democratic congressional leaders were aware of Swalwell’s reported links to Fang Fang, a Chinese spy.

“Remember what Swalwell said. He accused the president of everything that he did, by lying to the American public and sitting on the Intel Committee,” McCarthy said on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”

“Not only should he be removed from the Intel, he should be removed from Congress as well.”

Swalwell, a onetime Democratic presidential candidate, sits on the House Intelligence Committee, raising concerns about whether he’s compromised because of the alleged links to the spy.

Requests for comment sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) weren’t immediately returned. Swalwell staffers didn’t return an email or pick up the phone.

The article notes:

A Pelosi spokesperson said in a statement to news outlets, “The Speaker has full confidence in Congressman Swalwell’s service in the Congress and on the Intelligence Committee.”

The article concludes:

“As a Member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep Swalwell has access to highly classified national security material. Swalwell has been compromised by at least one China Communist Party operative. He must be removed from HPSCI immediately,” Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) added.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the Senate Judiciary chairman, said the report “Shows extremely bad judgement and rank hypocrisy on the part of Congressman Swalwell who led the charge in the Russia Hoax and impeachment.”

It also showed a “double standard” in defensive briefings from the FBI, which allegedly gave one to Swalwell about Fang but neglected to give one about President Donald Trump regarding Russia, Graham asserted.

“Democrats get defensive briefings when there are concerns about foreign influence, but when it came to President @realDonaldTrump they used a counter-intelligence investigation to spy on his campaign,” he wrote in a tweet.

At best we can say the Swalwell exercised very bad judgement in his personal conduct. This is the man who repeatedly accused President Trump of being a Russian agent. Doesn’t that sound like something China might encourage an American political leader to say in order to take the focus off of their own espionage activities? Knowingly or unknowingly, Swalwell has been spouting Chinese propaganda in recent years. Shouldn’t he be held accountable?

Insight Into The Radical Left

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Radical Son is a book by David Horowitz that I read many years ago. There is now a new edition with an updated preface by David Horowitz. Yesterday John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the updated preface. Please follow the link to read the entire article. It provides a lot of insight into the thinking of the radical political left.

The article contains the entire preface. I am simply posting the last part here in the hopes that you will read it in its entirety at Power Line Blog:

In his narrative, Forbes makes clear that he regards the inconveniences he suffered as a result of his crimes as an injustice to him. He exhibits no remorse for his victims and no appreciation for the short jail time he spent for plotting the assassination of Crystal Gray or killing his friend, or for the cold-blooded, botched execution attempt which ruined the life of the ambulance driver, Nelson Malloy, who tried to help him. The fantasy of the “revolution” he served by committing violent crimes, mainly against vulnerable black people who were not political, remains for Forbes a source of inordinate pride. Equally revealing is his continuing adoration for the criminal who recruited him to the Panthers when he was sixteen, made him a gangster, murdered an eighteen-year-old black woman, and ordered him to assassinate another.

Flores Forbes’s story is emblematic of what America’s political culture has become. His title today is Associate Vice President of Strategic Planning and Program Implementation at Columbia University, where he is a pillar of the academic community. Meanwhile, those of us who worked to bring the criminal reality of the “revolutionary” charade to light are persona non-grata among administrators and faculty at Columbia, which happens to be my own alma mater.

And this travesty is not confined to one Ivy League school. There are academic tributes and shrines to Panther gangsters at UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, the Smithsonian, and numerous similar institutions across the country. This is a pretty fair measure of the Left’s institutional ascendance in America in the wake of the mayhem its radical activists have created and the atrocities they have committed.

Radical Son was written as a witness to the dark undercurrents of American politics and to their enduring power in the nation’s life. It has definitely had an impact. Whether the revelations contained in its narrative can seriously affect the course of this history is unlikely. But as long as the book has open-minded readers, the possibility exists that new generations will be able to put together these lessons with others, and perhaps affect the outcome. Or maybe just one individual will have been affected by this book in such a way as to avoid experiences as painful as I had to endure. That would be sufficient reward for the ordeals of writing it.

In case you are unaware, David Horowitz grew up in New York as a ‘red diaper baby.’ That was the name given to the children of members of the Communist party in America. His parents were school teachers. Let that sink in. His indoctrination into radical political beliefs at home was probably not a lot different than the indoctrination his parents’ students received. I strongly recommend reading Radical Son to understand how the radical left thinks and what their goals are. It is eye-opening.

 

The Broken Windows Theory And How It Applies To The Current Political Climate

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According to Psychology Today:

The broken windows theory states that visible signs of disorder and misbehavior in an environment encourage further disorder and misbehavior, leading to serious crimes. The principle was developed to explain the decay of neighborhoods, but it is often applied to work and educational environments.

Carroll Quigley once wrote:

The Carroll Quigley quote explains why the election of Donald Trump in 2016 was such a problem for the uni-party in Washington, D.C. The broken windows theory explains some of what has happened to our political rhetoric in the past four years.

The disorder and misbehavior began when Donald Trump came down the escalator and announced that he was running for President. That was the root.

On January 21, 2017, during the Women’s March protesting the election of President Trump, Madonna stated that she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” Later she claimed that was simply a metaphor. There was a time when that statement would have alerted the Secret Service.

In 2017 Kathy Griffin posted a picture of herself holding what appeared to be the severed head of President Trump. Again, in another time the Secret Service would have been called.

In 2017 a Trump look-alike was stabbed to death in a New York City Shakespeare in the Park production. Again, where was the Secret Service?

In the past, the Secret Service would have been called in these incidents simply to make clear that this is unacceptable behavior. Instead, a large section of Americans accepted it as routine.

In June of 2018, Maxine Waters stated, “Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up. And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents.” Again, there was no penalty for this statement.

In June of 2018, Sarah Sanders was asked to leave a restaurant because she was a member of the Trump administration. When did this become acceptable?

The most recent example of unacceptable rhetoric comes from Michigan Democratic State Rep. Cynthia Johnson. Representative Johnson recently stated, “So this is just a warning to you Trumpers. Be careful, walk lightly, we ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough. And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right, be in order, make them pay,” Her current term of office ends on December 31, 2020. She has been removed from her committee assignments. However, since she only has three more weeks to serve, that seems a rather lame response.

So now that the broken windows crowd has eliminated political civility, what do we do to remedy the situation? The first thing we need to do is recognize that the current mainstream media is a combination of lies and cover-ups. Those lies and those cover-ups need to be exposed and there need to be consequences for the liars. There are already some consequences for those lies–viewer are migrating to NewsMax in droves from Fox News after having migrated in droves to Fox News from CNN and MSNBC. While we are at it, we need equal enforcement of our laws. Why are the people who violated the civil rights of many of the people in the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team still walking around free? Why did Hillary Clinton walk free after doing something multiple times that a submarine sailor got put in jail for doing once? Why is lying to Congress okay if you are a Democrat?

America can go back to being the civil society many of us grew up in. It just takes being willing to stand up and fight when statements are made that cross the line of civility. We need to stop the broken windows before we have total disorder.

This Explains A Lot

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Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail posted an article about one of the causes of the rise of sea level in Greenland.

The article reports:

Melting of ice in central Greenland is being accelerated by the heat of molten rocks rising from the core–mantle boundary, adding to sea-level rise, a study has found.

Researchers from Japan mapped out the extent and branches of the so-called ‘Greenland plume’ — the rising flow of molten rock ascending beneath the island.

Geothermal activity is abundant in the North Atlantic region. Iceland and the Norwegian island of Jan Mayen have active volcanoes with their own mantle plumes.

Iceland gets its electricity from the geothermal energy underneath the island and by using dams to capture glacial meltwater. Because energy is abundant and cheap there, it is one of the major places in the world where aluminum is made.

The article includes the following illustration:

The article concludes:

With their initial study complete, the researchers are hoping to examine the thermal process in greater detail.

‘This study revealed the larger picture, so examining the plumes at a more localized level will reveal more information,’ said Professor Toyokuni.

The full findings of the study were published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Solid Earth. 

When you put something warm under ice, the ice melts. That is not man-made global warming. The existence of the molten rocks explains a lot.

News About The Vaccine

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Just the News posted an article today reporting the following:

Regulators in the United Kingdom are encouraging people with a serious history of allergic reactions to avoid taking the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, following significant reactions in two people who took the shot on Tuesday.

The National Health Service (NHS) of England confirmed Wednesday that two care-providers who received the shot on Tuesday suffered bad anaphylactoid reactions. Both are expected to make a full recovery. The two individuals reportedly had histories of serious allergic reactions.

The article notes that there have been few incidents of an adverse reaction to the vaccine:

“In the pivotal phase three clinical trial, this vaccine was generally well tolerated with no serious safety concerns reported by the independent Data Monitoring Committee. The trial has enrolled over 44,000 participants to date, over 42,000 of whom have received a second vaccination,” she continued.

The article concludes:

Dr. June Raine, the Chief executive of the MHRA said it is clear from the “extensive clinical trials” run on the vaccine, that the allergic reactions of these two individuals are not a “feature” of the drug. However, “if we need to strengthen our advice now that we have had this experience in the vulnerable populations … we will get that advice to the field immediately,” she said.

I understand the reasons to fast-track this vaccine, but we need to make sure that it is safe. It has become obvious that the death rate from the coronavirus is not significantly higher than the death rate from the seasonal flu. There is no point in giving people a vaccine that will do more harm than the disease.

What’s Next For Iran?

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Yesterday Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog posted an article about what is happening in Iran.

The article reports:

In the mid-1980s, I asked a retired French diplomat whether he thought the Iranian regime would be overthrown within the next ten to fifteen years. It seemed plausible to me that the mullahs, who seemed to be ruining the country, would lose power by the end of the century.

The retired French diplomat had grown up in Iran, served France there among other countries, and maintained strong connections with and affection for Iranians. He knew the country and its people as well as anyone I was likely to encounter.

His view was that there would be no overthrow of the regime in the foreseeable future. He told me that Iranians tend to be passive followers, and therefore not prone to rebel.

He attributed the 1979 revolution to lack of resolve by the Shah and lack of support from the U.S. The mullahs, he was sure, would be more resolute, and thus would likely retain power for years.

More than 40 years after the revolution and at least 35 years after my conversation with the retired diplomat, the mullahs are still in power. There is talk, however, that their days are numbered.

They might well be. Whether passive or not by nature, Iranians are protesting in fairly large numbers. And even the retired French diplomat didn’t say the regime would hold power forever.

The article notes that the recent assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakzhirzadeh might be a sign that the regime is losing power.

The article quotes a New York Daily News article from early December written by Ray Takeyh, an Iranian-American, who is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations:

First, it has often been suggested that no matter how unpopular the Islamist regime has become over the years, it is firmly in control of the country given its overlapping and omniscient intelligence services. Now, this widely accepted truism has to be called into question. In recent years, Iran’s nuclear installations have been sabotaged, its scientists killed and its secrets stolen.

Moreover, the country has been rocked by a series of demonstrations that its intelligence organs did not anticipate. To say the least, the Islamic Republic today suffers from persistent intelligence failure, an ominous sign for a regime that rules through fear.

…The second worrisome aspect for the Iranian regime has to be the probable collaboration of its own elites with a foreign power. These killings could not have taken place unless many in the system were so disenchanted with Islamist rule that they were willing to provide critical information to an adversary.

A regime is in trouble not only when its populace grows disenchanted but when important segments of its elite give up on the system. If those who are the chief beneficiaries of the system don’t believe in it, then who does? The Islamic Republic has long suffered from brain drain as its best and brightest have often chosen to leave the country, but now, it seems, even those who have stayed behind are starting to crack.

The article at Power Line Blog concludes:

Takeyh acknowledges that Iran’s current leaders are “made of tougher stuff than the Shah and his generals” and that therefore “The Islamic Republic may endure.” That’s probably how I would bet. But maybe I’m unduly influenced by the words of that retired French diplomat all those years ago.

How In The World Is This Constitutional?

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Newsmax is reporting the following today:

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan appears to have given outside groups permission to file legal briefs again in the case involving Michael Flynn – despite President Donald Trump granting the former national security adviser a pardon.

The Justice Department has requested the case be “immediately dismissed.” But, according to the Washington Examiner, the judge’s latest action indicates he may stall on dismissing it.

The judge’s docket showed more than a dozen groups, who had previously filed friend-of-the court papers, submitting briefs in the wake of the pardon Monday.

 I feel like I have wandered into a Victor Hugo novel. I am amazed at the arrogance of this judge. He needs to be impeached.

UPDATE: Sara Carter is reporting today that Judge Sullivan has dismissed the case.

The article at her website includes a copy of Judge Sullivan’s opinion supporting both the Flynn investigation and Crossfire Hurricane. This judge is not objectively administering justice. He does need to be impeached,

 

 

This Should Make Every Small Business Owner In America Furious

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On Friday, Townhall posted an article about some recent comments by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi about the stimulus bill that has been held up in Congress for months.

The article reports:

When asked by CNN reporter Manu Raju if it was a “mistake” to wait months for a concerted effort to pass a clean COVID relief bill, Pelosi got defensive.

“I’m going to tell you something — don’t characterize what we did before as a mistake, as a preface to your question if you want an answer. That was not a mistake, it was a decision, and it’s taken us to a place where we can do the right thing without other, shall we say, considerations in the legislation that we don’t want. Now, that is it. Now the fact is, I’m very proud of where we are,” Pelosi said.

She went on to say the reason why she wants to pass a bill now is because Joe Biden has been declared the winner of the presidential election and a number of vaccines are being produced.

What sort of logic is this? Small business owners have been suffering for months, and she is holding up a bill until after the presidential election!

The good news here is that the Democrats have lost seats in the House in this past election, and hopefully some Democrats will be willing to work with Republicans to craft legislation that could actually pass the Senate. It is time for the Democrats to put away the ideas that their radical base loves and embrace ideas that everyday Americans love. If you want to see a shining example of a bill that will go nowhere in a sane Congress, just look at HR1, the first bill the Pelosi House passed when the Democrats took over the House. The bill sought to federalize elections, make it more difficult to remove voters from voter rolls after their status had changed. The bill would also limit the ability of states to find duplicate voter registrations.

It’s time to work on bi-partisan legislation that will actually be good for the American people.

 

Headed For The Supreme Court

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The Epoch Times is reporting today that Texas filed an election lawsuit in the U.S. Supreme Court against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The lawsuit alleges that the states unconstitutionally changed election laws, treated voters unequally, and triggered significant voting irregularities by relaxing ballot-integrity measures.

The article reports:

The lawsuit seeks a determination by the court that the four battleground states conducted the 2020 election in violation of the Constitution. Texas is asking the Supreme Court to prohibit the counting of the Electoral College votes cast by the four states. For the states which have already appointed electors, the lawsuit asks the court to direct the state legislatures to appoint new electors in line with the Constitution.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed the challenge on the day of the so-called safe-harbor deadline. The cumulative electoral votes in the four states are enough to determine the outcome of the 2020 election.

“Trust in the integrity of our election processes is sacrosanct and binds our citizenry and the States in this Union together. Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin destroyed that trust and compromised the security and integrity of the 2020 election,” Paxton said in a statement.

“The states violated statutes enacted by their duly elected legislatures, thereby violating the Constitution. By ignoring both state and federal law, these states have not only tainted the integrity of their own citizens’ vote, but of Texas and every other state that held lawful elections,” he added. “Their failure to abide by the rule of law casts a dark shadow of doubt over the outcome of the entire election. We now ask that the Supreme Court step in to correct this egregious error.”

This will be the week that determines who will be sworn in as President next month. This court case is part of the battle for secure and honest elections.

Why Donald Trump Has Literally Been The Bull In The China Shop

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The Conservative Treehouse posted an article today about a segment on the Tucker Carlson show last night discussing America’s relationship with China.

The article includes the following video:

Obviously, the election of President Trump upended this cozy relationship.

The article includes the following:

REMEMBER […] there had to be a point where the value of the second economy (Wall Street) surpassed the value of the first economy (Main Street).

Investments, and the bets therein, expanded outside of the USA. hence, globalist investing…. investing in foreign manufacturing; multinational corporations moved manufacturing outside the U.S. and into Asia (China).

However, a second more consequential aspect happened simultaneously. The politicians became more valuable to the Wall Street team than the Main Street team; and Wall Street had deeper pockets because their economy was now larger.

As a consequence Wall Street started funding political candidates and asking for legislation and trade policies that benefited their, now international, interests.

When Main Street was purchasing the legislative influence the outcomes were -generally speaking- beneficial to Main Street, and by direct attachment those outcomes also benefited the average American inside the real economy.

When Wall Street began purchasing the legislative influence, the outcomes therein became beneficial to Wall Street. Those benefits are detached from improving the livelihoods of main street Americans because the benefits are “global”.

Global financial interests, multinational investment interests -and corporations therein- became the primary filter through which the DC legislative outcomes were considered.

Unfortunately, if Joe Biden becomes President, we will go back to business as usual with China eating our lunch. President Trump is our only hope of remaining the free and prosperous country we are. The corruption is bi-partisan. Americans need to take a closer look at their candidates before they vote to see what the candidate’s connections to China are. China is also a major stakeholder in the mainstream media in America. That explains a lot about what news is reported and what news is not reported. If you haven’t found an alternative source of news yet, it’s time to start seriously looking.

Please follow the link above and read the entire article at The Conservative Treehouse. It explains a lot about how the rules governing our financial institutions have been quietly changed in order to favor Wall Street instead of Main Street and how this has benefited China.

Today In History

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From The American Patriot’s Daily Almanac:

Pearl Harbor
Sunday, December 7, 1941, began as a serene morning at the U.S. Navy base on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The warships of America’s Pacific Fleet rested at anchor. Many sailors were preparing for church or relaxing, and all was quiet at Pearl Harbor.

At about 7:55 a.m. a buzz from the sky broke the calm as a dive-bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan dropped out of the clouds. Seconds later, a swarm of Japanese warplanes followed. Sirens wailed as explosions sounded across the harbor and black smoke poured into the sky.

American sailors scrambled to battle stations while the Japanese planes screamed in for the kill. The main targets were several huge battleships moored in the harbor. Antiaircraft guns roared to life, but they did little good. Bombs and torpedoes hit ship after ship: the Arizona, the Oklahoma, the California, the West Virginia, the Utah, the Maryland, the Pennsylvania, the Tennessee, the  Nevada.

Sailors fought to save their ships, their comrades, and their own lives. Much of the California’s crew abandoned ship after flames engulfed its stern. When the captain determined the battleship might be saved, Yeoman Durrell Conner hoisted the American flag from the stern. At the sight of the colors, the sailors returned to fight the fires and keep her afloat.

Despite such heroism, the attack reduced much of the fleet to smoldering wreckage. The Japanese planes disappeared into the sky, leaving 2,400 dead, 1,200 wounded, and 18 ships and more than 300 American planes destroyed or damaged.

News of the disaster left Americans stunned, but not for long. A remark attributed to Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who planned the attack, sums up the result of Pearl Harbor: “I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant and instilled in him a terrible resolve.”

How Is Coronavirus Spread?

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Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about recent research regarding the asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus.

The article reports:

The most recent study from China on the prevalence of infection after a lockdown found no transmission of the CCP virus among people who were in close contact with asymptomatic patients, contradicting the current narrative that asymptomatic transmission plays a major role in the pandemic.

An asymptomatic carrier is someone who has not displayed symptoms after being infected, but may spread the virus to others. This is different from someone who is presymptomatic, meaning the person doesn’t feel or look sick, but eventually shows symptoms later, and does transmit the virus during that presymptomatic phase.

I’m not sure I trust any research coming out of China, but this is a very interesting concept.

The article continues:

The study, published in Nature, identified 300 asymptomatic positive cases through a massive screening program of more than nine million Chinese citizens post-lockdown in Wuhan—where the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus originated—from May 4 to June 1, using PCR tests.

Samples of all the asymptomatic cases were also cultured in the lab and “no viable virus” was found, meaning it cannot transmit a virus. The authors also found that 190 of the 300 asymptomatic samples tested positive for antibodies (IgG and/or IgM), indicating a possible recent COVID-19 infection or the PCR test resulted in a false positive.

The scientists identified and followed 1,174 close contacts of the asymptomatic cases and found that none of the contacts tested positive for COVID-19. They noted, “Compared with symptomatic patients, asymptomatic infected persons generally have low quantity of viral loads and a short duration of viral shedding, which decrease the transmission risk of SARS-CoV-2.”

The article also notes:

The Infectious Diseases Society of America’s most updated guidance on diagnosing, treating, and managing outbreaks during flu season recommends only people with symptoms get tested for influenza.

Sweden, which has not resorted to lockdowns, universal testing of its citizens, or mandated mask-wearing since the pandemic began, doesn’t believe that asymptomatic spread is common. “Based on the experience of COVID-19 and other similar diseases, the assessment is that the spread of infection from people without symptoms accounts for a small proportion,” according to the Swedish Public Health Agency.

This study is very interesting in light of the fact that a vaccine for the coronavirus will be arriving shortly. On December 4th, I posted an article about an interview with Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer Pharmaceutica.

The article at rightwinggranny noted:

With three promising vaccines for COVID-19 in the pipeline, there’s still uncertainty about how effective they will be.

Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer Pharmaceutical – which has applied to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for its vaccine – sat down with CBS’s Lester Holt on “Dateline NBC” for an interview that will air Thursday night.

Holt said: “And then what about the question, Albert, of even though I’ve had the protection, am I still able to transmit it to other people?” according to transcript provided by the network.

“I think this is something that needs to be examined,” Bourla said. “We are not certain about that right now with what we know.”

If the study from China about the asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus is valid, then the vaccine should theoretically stop the pandemic in its tracks. If not, we may be dealing with this virus for a while.

Not Surprising To Anyone Paying Attention

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Just the News posted an article today about some memos recently released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the Burisma Holdings gas company in Ukraine.

The article reports:

The memos — released to Just the News and the conservative Citizens United watchdog under separate Freedom of Information Act lawsuits — show State officials were acutely aware of the sensitivities of rebuffing a pressure campaign carried out by the Ukrainian natural gas firm that had hired then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son.

For instance, the embassy’s deputy economic counselor sent an email two weeks after Donald Trump won the presidency in November 2016 detailing efforts by Burisma’s founder Nikolay Zlochevsky to clear his company of long-pending corruption allegations.

It noted Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner and fellow Burisma board member, Devon Archer, had been indicted in the U.S. on fraud charges, adding to Burisma’s woes in trying to settle its corruption case with the newly installed Ukrainian Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko.

“Despite his ruined name in Ukraine, Zlochevsky is actively campaigning for public rehabilitation, particularly with us,” the State official wrote on Nov. 22, 2016. “He has been sending letters to Ambassadors [Marie] Yovanovitch and [Geoffrey] Pyatt for months asserting his innocence. We have declined to get involved.

“I should note that there were two American members of the Burisma board: Hunter Biden and Devon Archer. Archer was recently indicted in a federal fraud case.”

The article includes a number of links to pdf’s of the documents released.

The article concludes:

“These are explosive documents, and that’s why the State Department hid them from the public until after the election,” Bossie said. “These emails make clear that what’s currently known about the Obama-Biden Administration’s dealings with Burisma and Hunter Biden is just the tip of the iceberg. The appointment of a special counsel is the only way to get to the bottom of this corruption.”

If Joe Biden is inaugurated as President, this corruption will never be investigated and those responsible will never be held accountable.

Moving Forward In The Investigation

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One America News posted an article today reporting that a Michigan judge approved a probe into potential voting machine fraud in the Great Lake State.

The article reports:

The Trump legal team is reviewing Dominion voting machines in Michigan after a state judge issued a decision to allow them to. The order was issued on Friday and it permits forensic photos to be taken from the 22 precinct tabulators in Antrim County.

President Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, praised the decision and said that allowing the forensic review is a “big win for honest elections.”

The article concludes:

Local authorities confirmed the machines in question are the same as the ones that were used in the presidential election on November 3.

The machines were originally brought into question by a voter who claimed ballots were damaged during a recent recount of a marijuana proposal vote.

A similar examination recently occurred in Georgia as President Trump has raised concerns of widespread voter fraud, which rigged the elections.

Stay tuned.

Looking For The Science In This Decision

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Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about Angela Marsden, the owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks. Her restaurant is closed down due to the increased restrictions on businesses in Los Angeles. She has been forced to close down outdoor dining. Meanwhile, a film company working in an nearby area has set up outdoor dining in the same parking lot.

The article reports:

Angela Marsden, the owner of Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, stated that she is no longer allowed to stay open with the new Los Angeles County order prohibiting outdoor dining. She also alleged that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti approved tents and tables being set up for use by a film company. 

“I’m losing everything. Everything I own is being taken away from me,” Marsden said in the video which has gone viral. “And they set up a movie company right next to my outdoor patio … They have not given us money and they have shut us down. We cannot survive. My staff cannot survive.”

There is nothing scientific about the decision to close down Ms. Marsden’s outdoor dining and open up outdoor dining in her parking lot for a film company. This is a blatant example of government overreach. Ms. Marsden’s restaurant could contribute to the spread of the coronavirus, but the film company’s outdoor dining won’t. Where is the science in that?  If working people don’t begin to take back the freedom to work and to run businesses that the government has stolen, we will not survive as a country.

The Lies You Hear…

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Hot Air posted an article today about two of the lies told today on NBC’s Meet the Press by Chuck Todd. He was interviewing Dr. Deborah Birx.

The article reports:

Todd outdid himself Sunday morning, though, when he said that it must be hard for public health officials to get the general public to abide by their recommendations on mitigating the spread of the virus. He clearly blames non-Democrat Americans and President Trump for the pandemic. He declared, “Half the country is not paying attention.” ” President Trump ignores coronavirus.” Fact check: neither of those statements is true.

The fact that Todd thinks half of the country – Trump voters – aren’t even paying attention to the coronavirus pandemic would be laughable if it was not so outright crazy. Everyone is paying attention. People act according to the risks they feel are involved. We can talk about people who do and don’t take the precautions recommended by health care professionals but if someone isn’t wearing a face mask in public, for example, it means they think masks are not useful in stopping the spread of the virus. It does not mean that person is oblivious to the fact that we are living in the time of a pandemic. There are plenty of hypocrites on the Democrat side of the political aisle that are not as vigilant about social distancing and face masks as health professionals would like to see. Look no further than at the halls of Congress where members walk the hallways maskless or stand side by side to talk to each other. Are they not paying attention?

The article notes the impact of President Trump’s policies:

President Trump is now credited with enabling the single most historic vaccine development program ever. Operation Warp Speed’s success is undeniable. The true denial being shown by the Democrat side of the aisle is giving credit to Trump for Operation Warp Speed. He recruited companies to manufacture and distribute PPE and he provided financial assistance to medical companies to produce a vaccine. He’s applied pressure to corporate leaders to work together in both vaccine development and in distribution once they are available. Trump was ridiculed by the left for imposing a travel ban from China and then Europe at the very beginning of the spread of the pandemic into the United States. Joe Biden called him a racist and xenophobe. Trump put Vice-President Mike Pence in charge of a White House coronavirus task force last January which brought in experts who are still working together today. People may argue about the President’s handling of communication or his own decision to mostly not wear face masks but to say he ignores the coronavirus is a lie.

The article concludes:

Vaccines are coming. In the meantime, it is just as wrong for media personalities like Chuck Todd to blame Trump and Trump voters for the coronavirus as it is for Democrat elected officials, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, to blame President Trump personally for coronavirus deaths.

If you are still believing the lies told by the mainstream media, it is not wonder you dislike President Trump. How do you think the vaccine was created so quickly? How do you think the red tape was cut?