Unintended Consequences?

Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about some of the unintended consequences of shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline.

The article reports:

MIDLAND, S.D.—“My husband just called me … he just got fired,” said Laurie Cox, her voice trembling ever so slightly as she put on a brave smile. But it was impossible to ignore her now-crestfallen demeanor.

Cox is the owner of a hotel in Midland, a quaint town with a population of about 100. She had just finished talking about how business was booming late last year during which she had befriended people working on the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Workers would return from their shifts from a handful of nearby pump stations to unwind at the hotel since it was just a short drive away. Cox recalls having dinner together with the workers and lively chats night after night, many became close with her pet dog—a cute canine called Heidi.

Her husband, Wallace Cox Jr., was an industrial mechanic who had been setting pumps in Minnesota before he was laid off on Feb. 10. He was also scheduled to work on the Keystone XL pipeline—specifically on pumps in Montana in the upcoming summer.

The hotel’s picturesque scene crumbled almost instantly after President Joe Biden shut down the pipeline on Jan. 20 through an executive order. The cancellation was among one of his first moves as president.

The article also notes:

There are limited opportunities in small rural towns like Midland, Wallace said, as he described the pipeline project as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for extra revenue for all our businesses to accumulate for the future.”

When asked if he had any message for the Biden administration he said he wanted to tell the president to “reconsider his course on the American oil and gas industry.”

The Keystone XL pipeline was a massive project that was expected to generate $3.4 billion in U.S. GDP growth, including millions in state and local tax revenue, according to the U.S. Chamber Global Energy Institute. The pipeline would have generated millions of dollars of economic opportunity for South Dakotans.

Laurie estimates there were at least 100 workers at each pump station when counting all the different kinds of trades involved. Anyone who had rental homes along the route, or who owned hotels were “pretty much full” due to the influx of workers.

It is sad that a President can do this much damage with an executive order. This much power concentrated in one place makes every business in America subject to the whims of the President. What if the President decided to declare in an executive order that ice cream promotes obesity and that all ice cream manufacturing and ice cream parlors have to be shut down immediately? How is that different from shutting down the Keystone XL Pipeline? It’s time for the unions whose members lost their jobs because of this executive order to get their lawyers together and start giving people their jobs back.

Pettiness On Parade

The cancel culture’s attack on President Trump has soared to new heights since he left office. We have reached the point where in some circles it is probably a crime to mention his name in any positive way. This is not only ridiculous, it is not helpful in building unity in America. Half of the country (at least) voted for President Trump. Those in the media might do well to remember that.

Hot Air posted an article today that illustrates how ridiculous things have gotten.

The article reports:

We learned last month that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was cooking up a plan to cancel all of the Trump organization’s contracts with the city. Those contracts involve the operation of a golf course, the carousel in Central Park and two skating rinks. The contracts were set to expire in April anyway, but apparently, the city’s showboating mayor couldn’t wait that long. It was just announced that de Blasio wants the Trump-owned operations shut down and moved out by February 26. (In one week.) That means that operations will end tomorrow to give them time to pack everything up. So any children showing up to go skating this week will find the rinks closed for business.

First we keep the children out of school, then we deny them outdoor recreation, and then we wonder why they might be depressed.

The article continues:

This pathetic move by de Blasio is being done for partisan political reasons and he’s not even trying to hide it. One of his spokespeople said three weeks ago that “Trump has been impeached from operating the ice rink.”

Like a bad dart player who always misses the bullseye, Bill de Blasio has misfired yet again and hit the wrong target. He’s not doing all that much “punishing” of the Trump organization because they were going to be out in less than ten weeks anyway. But in his haste to generate another headline as a hero of the #RESISTANCE, the Mayor shut down the skating operations without having anyone lined up to take over and run them. So the rest of the skating season in Central Park has been “canceled” rather than Donald Trump.

As we discussed here when Bill’s plan was originally announced, Hizzoner has probably set the city up for some legal and financial problems while simultaneously icing out anyone who enjoys skating. Eric Trump had already made it clear that he would be going to court if de Blasio made good on his threat and terminated the contract early.

The Mayor claims that the contracts contain a provision allowing for early cancellation if the contractor is found to be engaged in “illegal activity.” The entire basis for his claim of illegal activity is the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill. But Donald Trump hasn’t been convicted of any crime related to that, nor even charged in a court of law. (Impeachment doesn’t count and he wasn’t convicted in that “court” either.) On top of that, Trump doesn’t personally operate the division of the company that runs the skating rinks. His son does.

The article notes that if Eric Trump sues the city and wins, the taxpayers will be on the hook for the damages. New York City has paid a high price for electing Mayor de Blasio, and it appears that the price is about to go higher.

 

What Failed?

The snow and cold in Texas has been a disaster. That part of the country is simply not prepared for that kind of weather. I’m not even sure that New England, where I spent 45 years, would handle this situation well. Now it’s time to look at why the power went out, the water went out, etc. Admittedly, this was a hundred-year storm, but as those of us who live in hurricane zones know, you have to prepare for the hundred-year storm, regardless of what form it arrives in.

Just the News posted an article today citing some of the statistics that led to the epic failure of the power grid in Texas. There was failure in all areas of energy generation, but some were greater than others. Please follow the link to read the entire article.

The article reports:

A statewide blame game has accompanied the crisis, with numerous industries and commentators alleging that, variously, wind, solar, natural gas and coal failed to meet the surge in heating demand accompanying the cold snap. Yet federal data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicate that, of the state’s major energy sources, wind experienced the sharpest drop-off in energy production

The plunge in temperatures led to both a surge in heating demand and the concomitant power outages. Data from the EIA show that at nearly the exact same time demand was surging and energy grids were buckling, wind energy experienced a catastrophic drop-off: In the evening of Feb. 14, wind in the state was producing just over 9,000 MWh of energy, while 24 hours later it was putting out less than 800 MWh, a roughly 91% decrease in output.

Virtually every other energy industry in the state also saw decreased output over the same time period amid record demand, yet none saw as steep a decrease as did wind power. Natural gas, the state’s largest source of energy, saw a 23% decline in output, as did coal, the second-largest source. Nuclear, which competes with wind for third place, dropped 26%.

Texas has come to rely increasingly on wind power in recent years. The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts said last August that the state’s usage of wind power has “more than quadrupled” since 2009, with wind rising to supply 20% of the state’s total energy needs in 2019. Coal power, meanwhile, declined from 37% of the state’s electricity generation in 2009 to 20% in 2019. 

The article concludes:

The natural gas losses could also be partly explained by wind production having plummeted so steeply in the initial cold snap and remained at low levels in subsequent days while natural gas rates remained relatively elevated. With natural gas producing so much more KWh relative to other fuels, it stands to reason that its role now in ongoing outages would likewise be disproportionately large.

A 30-day review of energy production in Texas shows that, while natural gas and wind energy were at times neck-and-neck in production rates throughout January and into mid-February, natural gas production skyrocketed following the cold snap while wind plummeted. 

Natural gas energy output in Texas hit a high on Feb. 15 before declining sharply in the following days, yet it still remained over 400% higher than it was on Feb. 7, compared to an overall 83% decrease in wind output.

The lesson here is that green energy always needs good back-up.

Learning From Statistics

The two-week lockdown of the economy to flatten the curve of the coronavirus has now lasted almost a year. In some cases when the lockdown was lifted, the cases spiked, and the lockdown was reinstated. However, in other cases, when the lockdown ended quickly, there was no spike in the number of cases.

Yesterday The Federalist posted an article about the success of Florida in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. The article contains a number of graphs, so I strongly suggest you follow the link to read the entire article.

Here are a few highlights from the article:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis started lifting lockdown restrictions back in May, allowing stores and restaurants to begin reopening in all but three counties in South Florida. The stay-at-home order also ended at the beginning of May. Unlike New York and California, Florida never tried to bar people from going to religious services.

At the end of September, DeSantis lifted all remaining statewide COVID-19 restrictions. Traveling back and forth from COVID-conscientious Northern Virginia to Florida, I could notice a difference. In Florida, kids were going to school, wedding parties were throwing receptions, young people were studying at coffee shops, and families were taking Christmas pictures downtown on the square.

…Since April, Florida’s unemployment rate has remained better than New York’s and California’s.

Schools in Florida are open too, and have been since August. My brother goes to one of them. I’ve seen kids playing at recess.

Amid all this, Florida ranks 33rd in pediatric cases per capita, better than California, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The state of New York has not released its numbers on pediatric cases.

…Not only is Florida’s economy enduring the effects of COVID-19 much better than locked-down states, its death rates are below the national average. At the beginning of February, the Heritage Foundation reported that Florida’s death rate was 123.3 per 100,000 residents — a tragic number, but below the national average of 132 people per 100,000.

Florida’s experience is consistent with epidemiological experience and research, as the infectious disease experts who authored the Great Barrington Declaration pointed out last October: “Basic epidemiological theory indicates that lockdowns do not reduce the total number of cases in the long run and have never in history led to the eradication of a disease.  At best, lockdowns delay the increase of cases for a finite period and at great cost. ”

This is also consistent with recent, peer-reviewed research done on COVID spread in different countries that finds lockdowns and their severity have no ultimate effect. Numerous other recent studies make this conclusion.

Florida was also below the national average rise in total deaths per capita, which would include deaths caused by lockdowns in other states. As early as July, CDC Director Robert Redfield said of young people: “We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID.”

Nationally, there was a 16.9 percent increase in total deaths, regardless of cause. Florida’s increase was lower at 14.8 percent. Meanwhile, New York saw a 30.1 percent spike and California’s deaths increased by 18.6 percent.

If the states are considered laboratories to experiment with programs to see if they are successful, the rest of the nation should be following the example of Florida. That would be ‘following the science’ or at least ‘following the statistics.’

Television Is A Powerful Tool–It Is Being Used Skillfully By The Political Left

Yesterday Real Clear Politics posted an article alerting its readers to the indoctrination in the coming television season. Entertainment  is going political.

The article reports:

Last week, the Biden administration promised gun control groups that it will soon roll out a massive push for limits on firearm purchases and other measures. President Biden reiterated that promise on Sunday. And the television networks aren’t waiting to lay the groundwork for this effort.

CBS is in a full-court press for gun control on its evening entertainment television shows. The bad guys are always white supremacists who use machine guns — supposedly AR-15s — to commit mass public shootings. Criminals in Mexico supposedly get machine guns from the United States. A father’s desire to protect his family only leads to tragedy when his daughter gets into the gun safe and uses the weapon in a mass public shooting. And guns in the home pose a danger for children. Gun registration is necessary for solving crime.

Does anyone actually believe that criminals will register their guns?

The article also notes:

NBC isn’t to be left out, showing a woman who tried but failed to use a gun to protect herself. Instead, her gun was taken from her and used to kill a police officer. The lesson is that owning a gun will only bring you grief.

And that’s just in the first six weeks of the year. Every show gives an inaccurate impression about firearms, thereby helping in this push for gun restrictions.

…“Magnum PI” has an episode where a 12-year-old steals his father’s gun from a bedside table and accidentally shoots his 10-year-old brother. The message is that parents should be afraid of having guns in the home. But, in 2019, there were 37 accidental gun deaths among children under 11 years of age in the entire country. Most of those deaths involve shots fired by adult males, typically in their mid- to late-20s, who also have criminal records and are very likely to be drug addicts or alcoholics. With 43.8 million children under 11, the probability of a young child getting ahold of a gun and accidentally shooting another child is incredibly small. 

The article concludes:

The lessons from these entertainment shows are clear. Don’t try to use a gun for protection, and it’s better to not even think of owning one. Also, the biggest danger in present-day America is white racists with machine guns. Gun control advocates know Americans won’t accept more gun control if given accurate information. It is bad enough that news programs provide only one side of this debate. But when Americans just want to be entertained, they still can’t escape lies about gun ownership.

A friend once remarked to me that everything you see on television is there for a reason. At the time I thought he was paranoid. Now I think he may have been right.

Welcome To The New American Economy

Breitbart is reporting the following today:

New weekly jobless claims unexpectedly rose by 13,000 to 861,000 in the week that ended February 13, the Department of Labor said Thursday.

Economists had expected claims to fall to 768,00 from the 793,000 initially reported for the prior week. The previous week’s figure was revised up by 55,000 to 848,000.

…Jobless claims—which are a proxy for layoffs—remain at extremely high levels. Prior to the pandemic, the highest level of claims was 695,000 hit in October of 1982. In March of 2009, at the depths of the financial crisis recession, jobless claims peaked at 665,000.

Even when the economy is creating a lot of demand for workers, many businesses will shed employees as they adjust to market conditions. But in a high-pressure labor market, those employees quickly find jobs and many never show up on the employment rolls. What appears to be happening now is that many workers who lose their jobs cannot quickly find replacement work and are forced to apply for benefits.

How many workers in the energy sector have lost their jobs because of the Executive Orders signed by President Biden? How many workers in areas that support energy sector jobs have lost their jobs since January 20th? These high unemployment numbers may be partially a result of the coronavirus, but they are more than likely related to the Executive Orders and the economic policies of the Biden administration. Unfortunately we can expect more high unemployment unless the Biden administration changes its policies.

The Cancel Culture Is Alive And Well

Lawyers are paid to represent people. Sometimes as public defenders they are asked to represent horrible people–terrorists, murderers, rapists, etc. Most Americans understand that. However, the cancel culture doesn’t care.

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported that David Schoen, one of the lawyers who represented President Trump during the impeachment trial, has been suspended from a civil rights lawyer email discussion list and has had a civil rights course he was planning to teach at a law school canceled. I don’t even think that lawyers who have defended terrorists have been treated this badly.

The article reports:

“I was hoping to teach a civil rights course at a law school in the fall. We’ve been in talks about it, kind of planning it out. I wrote to them and I said, ‘I want you to know, I’m gonna be representing Donald Trump in the impeachment case. I don’t know if that impacts on your decision at all,’” David Schoen, one of the three attorneys who argued before the Senate, told The Epoch Times.

“And they said, you know, they appreciated my writing and, frankly, it would make some students and faculty uncomfortable, so I couldn’t do it.

“That was sad for me because I really want to go more and more into teaching. I like doing that,” Schoen said.

Schoen, an Alabama-based lawyer recognized for his civil rights litigation, declined to name the school that canceled his course. He likewise declined to name the legal organization behind the email list that suspended him.

“They actually spent 48 hours discussing this with their board and so on. And they decided that they needed to suspend me from the list,” Schoen said. “It’s a very important one to me. It’s very prominent civil rights lawyers and fine people.”

The article concludes:

Schoen received the Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 1995 for his civil rights work. The ABA handbook says (pdf) he was “recognized for his enormous contribution to bringing about change in schools, prisons, jails, foster care, police departments, and election ballot access in the South.”

The Senate acquitted Trump of the charge that he incited the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6. Schoen said he spoke to the president after the acquittal. He said the president was “very upbeat, very gratified.”

During the trial, Schoen spoke to Trump two or three times per day. He said the president was always “very gracious,” “very supportive,” and “very much appreciated the presentations I made.”

Days after the acquittal, a top House Democrat and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sued Trump over the Capitol breach, accusing the president of planning a conspiracy to attack the Capitol. Schoen said the lawsuit is “political theater.”

“I don’t think there’s any merit to it. I think it’s an abuse of the statute that it’s based on. And I think it’s just going to lead to further divisiveness,” he said.

It is unfortunate that neither the school nor the email discussion group had the courage to stand up for what is right.

Is This Part Of The Search For Unity?

The following bill was recently introduced into the House of Representatives:

117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 484

 To prohibit the use of Federal funds for the commemoration of certain 
               former Presidents, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 25, 2021

Ms. Sanchez (for herself, Ms. Schakowsky, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Danny K. 
Davis of Illinois, Mr. Carson, Ms. Escobar, Ms. Lee of California, Mr. 
 Blumenauer, Mrs. Hayes, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Lowenthal, Ms. 
Williams of Georgia, and Ms. Chu) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and in addition 
    to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Natural 
 Resources, Armed Services, and Veterans' Affairs, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
  of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee 
                               concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the use of Federal funds for the commemoration of certain 
               former Presidents, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``No Glory for Hate Act''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL FUNDS RESTRICTION ON COMMEMORATING CERTAIN FORMER 
              PRESIDENTS.

    Notwithstanding section 3102 of title 40, United States Code, no 
Federal funds may be used to--
            (1) create or display any symbol, monument, or statue 
        commemorating any former President that has been twice 
        impeached by the House of Representatives on or before the date 
        of enactment of this Act or has been convicted of a State or 
        Federal crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity 
        as President of the United States on Federal public land, 
        including any highway, park, subway, Federal building, military 
        installation, street, or other Federal property; or
            (2) name, designate, or redesignate a Federal building or 
        Federal land after, or in commemoration of, any former 
        President that has been twice impeached by the House of 
        Representatives on or before the date of enactment of this Act 
        or has been convicted of a State or Federal crime relating to 
        actions taken in an official capacity as President of the 
        United States.

SEC. 3. RESTRICTION OF FEDERAL FUNDS FOR PROPERTY BEARING THE NAME OF 
              CERTAIN FORMER PRESIDENTS.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds or 
other Federal financial assistance may be provided to a State, 
political subdivision thereof, or entity if any such funds or financial 
assistance will be used for the benefit of any building, land, 
structure, installation, or any other property that bears the name, or 
is named or designated in commemoration of, any former President that 
has been twice impeached by the House of Representatives on or before 
the date of enactment of this Act or has been convicted of a State or 
Federal crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity as 
President of the United States.

SEC. 4. FORMER PRESIDENTS ACT RESTRICTION.

    Notwithstanding any provision of the Act entitled ``An Act to 
provide retirement, clerical assistants, and free mailing privileges to 
former Presidents of the United States, and for other purposes'', 
approved August 25, 1958 (3 U.S.C. 102 note; commonly known as the 
``Former Presidents Act of 1958''), any former President that has been 
twice impeached by the House of Representatives on or before the date 
of enactment of this Act or has been convicted of a State or Federal 
crime relating to actions taken in an official capacity as President of 
the United States is not entitled to receive any benefit, other than 
Secret Service protection, under such Act.

SEC. 5. PROHIBITION OF BURIAL OF CERTAIN FORMER PRESIDENTS.

    Section 7722(a) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(3) In carrying out paragraphs (1) and (2), the Secretary of 
Defense shall not approve a determination of eligibility for interment 
or inurnment in Arlington National Cemetery made by the Secretary of 
the Army that permits the interment or inurnment in Arlington National 
Cemetery of any former President that has been twice impeached by the 
House of Representatives on or before the date of enactment of this Act 
or has been convicted of a State or Federal crime relating to actions 
taken in an official capacity as President of the United States.''.
                                 <all>

 

Will the pettiness every stop? This is just spiteful and stupid.

About That Unity Thing

Yesterday Bloomberg posted a very interesting article about bipartisanship. Despite President Biden’s claim that he seeks unity, there seems to be very little unity in Washington these days. I should mention that bipartisanship is not a requirement. The Democrats control the White House and the House of Representatives and essentially the Senate. There is no requirement that they work with Republicans. However, the article points out that the Republicans are not solely responsible for the lack of bipartisanship.

The article notes:

During the Obama years, Democrats cited incidents like this one to cast Republicans in a bad light. Obama and several other Democrats also complained bitterly that Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had announced at the start of his first term that his top priority was preventing a second one. Democrats said they tried again and again to meet Republicans halfway on health care, too, and were rebuffed.

With President Joe Biden in the White House, Democrats are saying that the Republicans’ behavior then justifies ignoring them now: There’s no point wasting time trying to negotiate with them.

The incidents didn’t actually happen, though, or at least didn’t happen the way Obama related them. Before he met with House Republicans in January 2009, House Democrats had already introduced a stimulus bill without any of their input, and Republicans had already made public statements of opposition. In his meeting with the Republicans, Obama reportedly said he was open to changing the bill; the Republicans then voted against the unchanged bill; and Boehner issued a statement saying he would still like to work with Obama on the issue.

McConnell’s remark, meanwhile, was made well into Obama’s term, right before the midterm elections of 2010. He said in the same breath that he would work with Obama if he moderated the way the previous Democratic president, Bill Clinton, had: “I don’t want the president to fail; I want him to change.”

Part of the problem right not is that we really don’t know who is making the decisions in the White House.

The article concludes:

Republicans and Democrats worked together to pass a large Covid-relief bill last spring, and did it again just a few weeks ago. The second one was passed after Biden had won the election and the Electoral College had met. Republicans knew that any positive effect it had would buoy Biden politically, and did it anyway.

There’s no moral or constitutional obligation for Democrats to bargain with the Republicans. Obama came into office with large Democratic majorities in Congress, and had the votes he needed to pass the stimulus and his health-care bill without Republicans.

Maybe they will have the votes they need in Congress this time, too. It would be nice, though, if they would stop pretending that they have no other choice.

If you are going to talk about unity, it would be nice if you did something to promote it.

Did He Mean To Say That?

Hot Air posted an article today about a recent comment made by President Biden.

The article notes:

By this point in the day, surely somebody on Joe Biden’s staff is suggesting that maybe town halls and public speaking appearances really aren’t such a great idea for the new President. The list of zingers from last night’s CNN town hall just keeps on coming, with none of them painting Uncle Joe in a very good light. During this exchange with Anderson Cooper, Biden is attempting to explain some of the problems being encountered while trying to get everyone vaccinated. One issue is the online registration process to request a vaccine. There have clearly been problems with some of the registration systems, but what prompted Biden to suddenly veer off the script and say that minorities, in particular, can’t figure the system out is a total mystery.

I realize that there is still a great deal of poverty in America. However, I also believe that the definition of poverty has changed over the years. At least 90 percent of Americans under the age of 40 are very conversant with electronics, the Internet, working their way through a website, playing video games, etc. Aside from the racial connotations of this ignorant remark, I think the remark also indicates a lack of knowledge of American culture and society. Yes, there are senior citizens (not only in poverty areas) who struggle with the Internet, but that is not a racial issue. Unfortunately, President Biden framed the issue in racial terms. That was not necessary.

The article continues:

The other portion is, a lot of people don’t know how to register. Not everybody in the community, in the Hispanic and African-American community particularly, and in rural areas that are distant or inner-city districts, know how to use, know how to get online to determine how to get in line for that COVID vaccination at the Walgreens.”

Do we really need to say it for the umpteenth time here today? Can you imagine the response if Donald Trump had ever said that? Or any Republican, really. The cries of racism would be echoing from the ceilings of every newsroom in the country. Aren’t statements like that pretty much defined as being racist or did all of those rules go out the window on January 20th?

Perhaps even more amazing was the way Anderson Cooper was willing to stand there on stage, nodding his head and acting as if this was the most normal thing in the world. I’ve had CNN on (muted) all morning while working and unless I missed it, none of their talking heads have brought this up for criticism or discussion. I think we’ve gone to the other side of the rainbow, Dorthy.

For a President who claims to be focused on the ‘systematic racism in America’, this was truly an ignorant remark.

Unintended Consequences

Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about one of the unintended consequences of canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline. The cancellation is evidently having a large negative impact on at least one rural electric company.

The article reports:

MURDO, S.D.—For more than a decade, Jeff Birkeland had been waiting expectantly in the hope that the Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline would finally materialize and bring with it a much-needed boost to his rural community. His dreams were dashed overnight.

Birkeland is the CEO of West Central Electric Cooperative, which is located in Murdo, a small city in South Dakota with a population of less than 1,000. TransCanada, now known as TC Energy, the firm that commissioned the KXL pipeline, first approached his company back in 2008.

In 2011, he signed a contract with TC Energy to build a transmission line and two substations that would serve power along the KXL route. West Central Electric was meant to start producing power for pump stations along the XL route as early as November 2011, before the pipeline was put on hold.

In March 2019, then-President Donald Trump granted TC Energy a presidential permit to construct and operate the XL pipeline. Biden revoked that permit via executive order in one of his first moves as president.

“It basically shut a lot of what we were doing down overnight,” Birkeland told The Epoch Times. “We’re out $90 million, that’s what that means to us.”

Electric co-ops are private companies that deliver electricity to their customers, also known as members. Rural electric cooperatives serve 56 percent of the nation and account for about 12 percent of total electricity sales in the United States, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

There are multiple co-ops in the area that range in size in terms of employees and areas they cover. West Central Electric has more than 3,671 members and covers more than 7,000 square miles, and Birkeland said the cancellation of the project hits small rural communities like Murdo especially hard.

The article concludes:

Keeping electricity rates down is key for co-ops, since these companies serve “92 percent of persistent-poverty counties in America,” according to the association. The opportunity that the pipeline would have provided would have been a “key pillar” to reducing the company’s electricity rates, Birkeland said.

“The larger revenue base you have, you get to spread your expenses out,” he said. “That’s just simple economics. It makes your rates lower. When the administration talks about wanting to create new jobs—here it is.”

There are also countless other local businesses in Murdo, as well as in nearby towns and cities, that had spent money to juice up their businesses in response to the construction of the KXL pipeline. Now, their money and their investments have gone down the drain, Birkeland said.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is not fair to American businesses that a new administration can come into power in Washington and simply shut down an ongoing construction project, particularly by Executive Order. I hope that some of the court cases against this Executive Order are successful.

This Really Does Not Seem Smart

Every day the news tells us how many people are hospitalized or have died from the coronavirus. We are told to wear masks, social distance, stay home, avoid family gatherings, get the vaccine, and generally avoid anything that may involve having fun. Small businesses are being destroyed as rich corporations prosper. Restaurants are going out of business. Some small businesses will never reopen. With all of this going on, we should at least be able to expect some common sense from our government. Nope.

Yesterday Breitbart reported the following:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is not requiring all border crossers to get tested for the Chinese coronavirus before releasing them into the United States, the agency confirmed to Breitbart News.

A DHS spokesperson responded to a question from Breitbart News about whether President Joe Biden supported mandatory coronavirus testing for border crossers released into the U.S. interior.

“As Customs and Border Protection always has, it adjusts resources as needed to meet the demand at the border and regularly screens individuals for signs of health issues when they are encountered, including COVID-19,” the spokesperson told Breitbart News. “Anyone who shows signs of illness receives the appropriate medical treatment.”

The response confirms that untested border crossers are continuing to be released into the U.S. interior as long as they are not exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

On the other hand, DHS officials have said that migrants enrolled in the now-defunct Remain in Mexico program, set to be released into the U.S. interior this month, will have to undergo coronavirus testing. Internal communications reviewed by Breitbart News, though, show no mentions of this requirement.

“Individuals processed through this program will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the United States,” the administration confirmed.

Most border crossers apprehended and released at the southern border also appear to enjoy a less stringent testing standard that even foreign travelers to the U.S. experience.

Shortly after he was inaugurated, President Joe Biden signed an executive order requiring foreign travelers to the U.S. “to the extent feasible” to produce a negative test for the coronavirus prior to entry and to either isolate or quarantine themselves for several days after they arrive.

This week, Breitbart News reported that 25,600 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program are to be released into communities in El Paso and Brownsville, Texas, and San Diego, California. The mass release effort comes after Biden ended the program despite its effectiveness in drastically reducing asylum fraud.

If we are currently in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic as the government continually tells us, these policies not only do not make sense, they put Americans at risk.

This Shouldn’t Have Surprised Anyone Who Was Paying Attention

There is a uni-party in Washington. It allows people who choose to be part of the uni-party to arrive in Washington as Middle Class Americans and become millionaires very quickly without actually building a business or selling a product. I don’t know if we will ever be able to end its reign. Sometimes it is even difficult to figure out which politicians are members of the uni-party. Eventually, however, they reveal themselves. Usually those in the uni-party are consistent is supporting the uni-party rather than the American people.

Yesterday The Federalist posted an article about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his long-time relationship with the uni-party.

The article notes:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell “got a load off his chest” with his speech closing out Friday’s second failed impeachment attempt against former President Donald Trump. “Unfortunately,” however, “he [also] put a load on the back of Republicans. That speech you will see in 2022 campaigns.”

Who’s responsible for that quote? It might surprise some it wasn’t Donald Trump Jr. or Rep. Matt Gaetz — it was Sen. Lindsey Graham, a moderate, hawkish Republican not up for re-election for six whole years.

So why would Mitch McConnell do something that would hurt Republicans? Because his power does not change whether Republicans are in the majority or the minority.

The article continues:

…So what’s all behind this? After four years of yelling “MAGA!” while pushing his own classic, corporate Republican policies, McConnell had hoped to rid himself and his conference of the conservative populist nationalism the former president had championed and go back to the way things were. He wants a return to promising to tackle illegal immigration before winking at corporate America that nothing will change. He wants to raise money on fighting the abortion of our infants while comfortably lifting nary a finger. He wants to shrug and change the subject when asked about men dominating women’s sports and using women’s bathrooms. He wants fewer taxes and more wars. Hell, he wants someone to blame for the Republican losses in the Georgia special election, and with them the loss of his seat at the head of the Senate.

Instead, his push to impeach ended with rebuke from his own conference. Angry and embarrassed, he blamed his own colleagues as well as the former president, performing a 20-minute attack ad for the left to use on Republicans for the next election cycle and beyond.

The article concludes:

…The second impeachment trial was the final act in years of Democrats trying to usurp the former president and isolate and ostracize his supporters. After January’s shocking $8.3 million post-election fundraising haul — driven largely by small gifts averaging $32 a person — the decline of corporate and PAC influence in favor of base voters’ influence is starkly visible. Corporate politicians like McConnell don’t like this shift because it makes them responsible to that base, so this year, instead of trying to lead a changing party, he stamped his approval on Democrats’ attacks on it.

Far from over, as so many in power would prefer, the lines of the populist conservative fight for the Republican Party and the country are more clearly and publicly drawn than ever before. When they eventually take back the Senate as the pendulum of voter anger inevitably swings back against the current Washington rulers, Senate Republicans would do well to remember the opening months of 2021 — and remember Mitch McConnell.

Until the American voters remove the uni-party from Washington, we will not see immigration reform, lower taxes, less spending, or government that is responsive to the American people. We are responsible for the government we have.

There Will Be No Consequences, But The Truth Does Matter

Slowly but surely, documents from the Russian Hoax are being declassified. These documents tell a story that is very different from the one told to Congress by the people involved. Unfortunately, most of the bureaucrats who lied under oath to Congress will probably never be held accountable for their lies.

Yesterday Just the News posted an article about a recent document that was declassified.

The article reports:

The very day in January 2017 that then-FBI Director James Comey signed a FISA surveillance warrant application declaring content from Christopher Steele’s dossier had been “verified,” he wrote President Obama’s outgoing intelligence community chief with a very different assessment of the British spy’s intelligence on Russia collusion, a newly released memo shows.

“We are not able to sufficiently corroborate the reporting,” Comey wrote in a Jan. 12, 2017 email to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper that was declassified and made public through an open records lawsuit by the Southeastern Legal Foundation.

The memo recounts an internal debate inside the U.S. intelligence community during one of the most delicate moments in the FBI’s then six-month old Crossfire Hurricane probe.

CIA officials had already informed Comey’s FBI that the target of the FISA warrant, Carter Page, wasn’t a Russian spy but rather an asset helping U.S. intelligence. The bureau had received warnings about Steele and the reliability of his source network, including that it might have been compromised by Russian disinformation. Agents had also just recommended on Jan. 4, 2017 shutting down the probe’s inquiry into incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lack of evidence.

The FBI had been warned the previous summer that Hillary Clinton’s campaign may have planted the false Russia collusion story as a way to “vilify” Trump and distract from her email scandal, and agents were about to interview Steele’s primary sub-source, who would discount much of the information in the dossier attributed to him as bar talk and unconfirmed rumor not worthy of official intelligence.

The article concludes:

The FBI also failed to disclose to the FISA judge that the source known as Person 1 was under a separate counterintelligence investigation by the FBI, the IG report footnotes show.

In fact on Jan. 12, 2017, the very day Comey signed the FISA and engaged with Clapper, the FBI had received clear warnings in a report that some of Steele’s dossier information about Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was “part of a Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate U.S. foreign relations,” according to another declassified footnote from the IG report.

In other words, Comey’s representations to Clapper and sworn avowals of verification to the FISA court had already been directly undercut by his bureau’s own evidence.

Unfortunately I have no doubt that the illegal surveillance of American citizens is continuing under the Biden administration. Because there were no consequences under the Obama administration for these actions, there really is no incentive to end the illegal behavior.

 

The Cost Of A $15 An Hour Minimum Wage

What would be the cost of waging the minimum wage nationally to $15 an hour? Townhall posted an article today about the consequences.

The article notes five negative consequences of a $15 an hour minimum wage:

It will destroy jobs

According to the Congressional Budge Office upwards of 1.4 million jobs will be lost if the minimum wage goes to $15 an hour. The cost of doing business will increase and the number of jobs will decrease.

It will hurt low-skilled workers

Low-skilled jobs will be the ones being lost, denying low-skilled workers entrance to the work force.

It will cause inflation

When the cost of doing business goes up, the price of the item produced goes up.

The rich will get richer

Bid companies can absorb the additional cost; small businesses probably cannot. This helps big corporations get rid of their competition.

It will hurt red states the most

Generally speaking, red states are well run and have a lower cost of living than blue states. A sudden increase in the minimum wage would skew their economic profile, causing a sharp increase in their cost of living.

The article concludes:

Yes, people are struggling. I’m not denying that. But an oft-hidden fact is that employers are struggling too … to find workers willing to work … and they are adjusting their rates accordingly. Indeed, the average hourly wage has risen from just under $14 per hour in 2000 to over $25 today. If employers could get workers for less, they would. Instead, the MARKET has forced them to gradually raise wages in order to compete with other employers for labor. Working against this, ironically, is Democrat-encouraged immigration, which serves to dampen wage prospects for lower-skilled employees forced to compete with counterparts used to making less than 50 cents on the hour.

If we’re suddenly jumping from $7.25 to $15, it’s hard not to ask why they wouldn’t just go all out and say $20? Hell, why not $30, or even $50? Everyone in America should have the ‘right’ to a six-figure income, right? No? The same problems anyone with an IQ above 60 could see with such a proposal apply just as much at $15. Of course, none of this has ever been about logic, just politics.

We need the people in Congress to study economics.

The Title Sounds So Innocent

The Biden administration has declared war on domestic terror. That sounds good. We really don’t need domestic terrorists roaming around the country. But what do they mean? The Federalist posted an article today that might provide some insight into the coming war on domestic terror.

The article reports:

The Biden administration is planning to use the full force of the federal government in pursuit of a new war. Its target? American citizens.

This countering “domestic violent extremism” effort, declared in the wake of the latest Capitol riot, represents the real-world counterpart to the corporate media rhetoric about the need to “deprogram,” “de-ba’athify,” and drone the Deplorables.

If this is a dangerous political witch hunt masquerading as a national security imperative, it should disturb every American. Half of the country could potentially be ensnared as would-be if not actual terrorists.

In a little-discussed Jan. 22 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted “[the] assault on the Capitol … underscored what we have long known: The rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat.” Consequently, the administration plans a three-part response:

    • Developing a comprehensive threat assessment, coordinated with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on domestic violent extremism.
    • Building “National Security Council capability to focus on countering domestic violent extremism,” including conducting “a policy review effort to determine how the government can share information better about this threat, support efforts to prevent radicalization, disrupt violent extremist networks, and more.”
    • Coordinating “relevant parts of the federal government to enhance and accelerate efforts to address DVE … an NSC-convened process will focus on addressing evolving threats, radicalization, the role of social media, opportunities to improve information sharing, operational responses, and more.”

In short, the Biden administration plans to turn the institutions and tools used to pursue foreign adversaries on “wrong-thinking” Americans. There are several reasons this is so troubling.

The article concludes:

It’s also worth noting who is leading this effort, and his political and policy predilections. As Psaki revealed, Joshua Geltzer will be responsible for the “scoping effort.”

During a September 2019 hearing before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittees on National Security and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the former Obama administration National Security Council official and prolific Trump critic called for adopting a “transnational” approach to countering “violent white supremacy.” This included increased terror organization designations, use of the intelligence capabilities of the “international terrorism”-focused National Counterterrorism Center, and tech companies “policing their platforms to remove not just incitement to violence, but also, the ideological foundations that spawn such violence.”

Geltzer was careful to caveat that creating a “domestic analog to the foreign terrorist organization designation regime” might be unconstitutional and that efforts to counter violent white supremacy “must not be used as an excuse for interfering with the lawful expression of political advocacy.” But it is hard to square these seemingly conflicting statements.

In this charged and hysterical political environment, we should be all the more so concerned about the threats to our liberties, particularly of a national security regime with vastly expanded domestic powers. The first role of government is to protect our lives and liberties. The heavy burden is on our leaders to justify infringements on the latter in service of the former.

Stay tuned.

It’s Time For All Parents To Remove Their Children From Public Schools

I am the product of a public-school education. There were times during that education that teachers attempted to push their political views on their students, but in the 50’s and 60’s that was the exception rather than the rule. Things have changed. Not only are teachers pushing political views, they are pushing totally insane ideas.

On Saturday The Daily Wire reported the following:

The Oregon Department of Education is promoting a program for teachers that seeks to “disman[tle] racism in mathematics,” alleging that focusing on finding the right answer is a symbol of white supremacy.

Lord help us if those who believe that finding the right answer is a symbol of white supremacy become engineers and build buildings and bridges. They could give a whole new meaning to a collapsing society.

The article continues:

Fox News reported that the ODE sent out a newsletter last week that mentions a “Pathway to Math Equity Micro-Course” that will occur on February 21. The course, according to Fox, is designed for middle school teachers to make use of a toolkit for ‘dismantling racism in mathematics.’”

The newsletter encourages teachers to sign up for the training, which the New York Post previously reported includes a section with 14 things associated with “White Supremacy Culture,” including perfectionism, objectivity, and individualism.

Objectivity is described in the workbook accompanying the training as “the belief that there is such a thing as being objective or ‘neutral.’” The program’s toolkit also encourages teachers not to focus on a single correct answer, but to “come up with at least two answers that might solve this problem” and to “Challenge standardized test questions by getting the ‘right’ answer, but justify other answers by unpacking the assumptions that are made in the problem.”

The toolkit also asks instructors to “center ethnomathematics” in multiple ways, one of which is to “identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.”

The inmates are running the asylum. Meanwhile our children are still not allowed to physically go back to school. It’s time for a parents’ revolt.

Don’t Pay Attention To The Battleships

On Friday The Center for Security Policy posted an article about the Biden administration’s relationship with China. Things are not always what they appear to be.

The article reports:

Anyone who has seen a magic show understands the principle of sleight of hand. While the audience is looking one way, the real action is happening elsewhere. There is no real magic involved. It is all a trick.

You can see this technique on display in the actions of the Biden administration right now vis a vis China. Two U.S. carrier battle groups are in the vicinity of the contested South China Sea. Every day their presence is appropriately trumpeted through the mass media outlets that function as the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. The implication is clear. Joe is no Communist lackey. He can get tough with Xi if he has to.

Meanwhile, back home, something very different is happening.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses propaganda and influence operations as a means of projecting its power and weakening its enemies. Chief amongst the targets for these kinds of operations is the United States. These operations are not run on some kind of ad hoc basis. They are coordinated and directed at a national level by the CCP’s United Front Work Department.

The article reminds us that the goals of the United Front system are undermining social cohesion, exacerbating racial tension, and influencing politics. It is designed to destroy China’s enemies from within. Sound familiar?

The article continues:

Chinese “Confucius Institutes” on dozens of U.S. campuses are part of the United Front Work Department. These institutes are present today in some 500 K-12 schools and 65 colleges in the United States. The institutes are staffed by Chinese nationals. They exist to feed students and faculty positive images of Communism and the Chinese Communist Party.

Confucius Institutes are run by the government of China. They are propaganda arms of the CCP operating on our soil and shaping the minds of our young people who then go on to careers in business, academia, and the government. Criticism of the Confucius Institutes in the United States has been appropriately intense in recent years. Many colleges have forced them off-campus.

In its last days, the Trump administration proposed a rule that would have required American schools and universities to disclose their partnerships with Confucius Institutes. China is in the process of rebranding its Confucius Institutes and looking for ways to continue pumping propaganda into the minds of our young people without being detected by American authorities. The rule proposed under President Trump would have gone a long way toward blocking those efforts and illuminating what the CCP was up to.

No more. The Trump proposal was withdrawn from consideration on January 26, 2021. No explanation by the Biden administration was given, but then none was really necessary.

The article cites the relationship between Joe Biden’s Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, and the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement that Joe Biden established in 2018 at the University of Pennsylvania. The Center is largely funded by the Chinese Communist Party and is part of the United Front.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. This does not look good for America.

Why The Paris Climate Accord Won’t Make A Difference

On February 3, 2021, The Voice of America reported the following:

China put 38.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity into operation in 2020, according to new international research, more than three times the amount built elsewhere around the world and potentially undermining its short-term climate goals.

The country won praise last year after President Xi Jinping pledged to make the country “carbon neutral” by 2060. But regulators have since come under fire for failing to properly control the coal power sector, a major source of climate-warming greenhouse gas.

Including decommissions, China’s coal-fired fleet capacity rose by a net 29.8 GW in 2020, even as the rest of the world made cuts of 17.2 GW, according to research released on Wednesday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a U.S. think tank, and the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

“The runaway expansion of coal-fired power is driven by electricity companies’ and local governments’ interest in maximizing investment spending, more than a real need for new capacity,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, CREA lead analyst.

Politifact posted an article on January 20, 2021, explaining China’s part of the Paris Climate accord:

For example, in its 2016 plan, China said that by 2030, it would lower carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60% to 65% compared with 2005 releases. So, while its emissions would rise as its economy grew, they wouldn’t rise as much as they would have if everything worked the way it did in 2005. China said it would aim for carbon dioxide emissions to peak in about 2030.

Meanwhile, America is required to cripple its economy unnecessarily. America has reduced his carbon emissions in recent years. The Paris Accord will not have an impact of worldwide carbon emissions in the immediate future, and is simply a ploy to redistribute wealth. Please note that redistribute wealth means take money from Americans and give to dictators around the world. This is not something we should be part of.

Vendetta

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a vendetta is 1. a blood feud or 2. an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts. I sincerely believe that what we are currently seeing in American politics is a vendetta against President Trump. So what did he do to trigger this vendetta? Let’s take a look back for a minute.

President Trump came into politics as an outsider. The mainstream media treated him as if he were a joke. He had the audacity to win. What happened when he won? First of all he discovered that a lot of Washington insiders took joy in stabbing him in the back. Secondly, he discovered that the intelligence apparatus in America was being used as a political weapon. (That has never been dealt with and probably continues under the Biden administration.) Third, he exposed the Washington swamp and was able to accomplish some noteworthy things in spite of it–energy independence, wage increases at the lower end of the economic spectrum, bringing manufacturing back to America, creating jobs, lowering gas prices, peace treaties in the Middle East, developing the coronavirus vaccine in record time, etc. Because he was successful as an outsider the Washington swamp hates him. They impeached him twice, and his poll numbers are still high. But they are not done yet.

There are two recent headlines those of us who believe the attack on President Trump has been over the top need to pay attention to. An article in Red State posted yesterday reports that the Attorney General in Fulton County, Georgia, is planning the charge President Trump with a crime in relation to a phone call to the Governor of the state. The  headline in yesterday’s Washington Times reports, “Trump properties in New York under investigation: Report.”

The Washington Times article states:

Former President Trump is facing scrutiny from prosecutors in Manhattan over millions of dollars in loans he took out for several properties in New York, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is “investigating financial dealings” involving the Trump properties.

Specifically, the people said prosecutors are looking at loans that were made to Mr. Trump by subsidiaries of the same real-estate investment trust, Ladder Capital Corp., the Journal reported.

On May 9, 2018, The Oxford Eagle posted an article that noted the following:

Lavrentiy Beria, the most ruthless and longest-serving secret police chief in Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia and Eastern Europe, bragged that he could prove criminal conduct on anyone, even the innocent.

“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” was Beria’s infamous boast. He served as deputy premier from 1941 until Stalin’s death in 1953, supervising the expansion of the gulags and other secret detention facilities for political prisoners. He became part of a post-Stalin, short-lived ruling troika until he was executed for treason after Nikita Khrushchev’s coup d’etat in 1953.

Beria targeted “the man” first, then proceeded to find or fabricate a crime. Beria’s modus operandi was to presume the man guilty, and fill in the blanks later. By contrast, under the United States Constitution, there’s a presumption of innocence that emanates from the 5th, 6th, and 14th Amendments, as set forth in Coffin vs. U.S. (1895).

Regardless of how you feel about President Trump, do you want to see the Constitution shredded because the deep state has a vendetta?

 

 

Forgetting Our Friends, Empowering Our Enemies

I suspect that at some point in the next six months sanctions on Iran will be dropped and we will enter into a flawed nuclear agreement with Iran. I know President Biden said he would not drop the sanctions, but I suspect that they will be dropped. This creates a problem in our relationship with Israel. Israel has been our most faithful ally in the Middle East and does not deserve to be treated like the red-headed-freckle-faced kid at the family reunion.

Yesterday One America News posted an article about the current situation.

The article reports:

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki denied criticism that claimed the Biden administration intentionally neglected Israel. In a press briefing Friday, Psaki blamed the administration’s brief time in office for the lack of communication between Joe Biden and his Israeli counterpart.

She also would not confirm if Biden plans to reach out to Israel in the near future. Psaki then attempted to assure reporters the lack of communication with Israel’s prime minister was not intentional.

The article concludes:

Meanwhile, an Israeli official took to Twitter earlier this week to urge Biden to contact the “closest ally of the U.S.” He noted Biden called several other ally nations since his time in office, adding now might be the time to communicate with Israel’s prime minister.

Somehow I suspect the Biden administration will treat Israel as badly as the Obama administration did–a lot of the same people are running the show.

When You Don’t Have The Evidence, Make It Up!

I haven’t written a lot about the impeachment farce currently going on in Washington because, frankly, I don’t think it is worth my time. It won’t change anyone’s mind or opinion about Donald Trump, and if the truth is told, it will probably damage the Democrat party. It seems as if the evidence the House Impeachment Managers have been presenting is not all accurate. Videos are edited, quotes are edited, and even Tweets are shown in a way that is misleading.

Just the News posted an article yesterday about one incident.

The article reports:

The author of a tweet introduced by Democrats at the Senate impeachment trial said Thursday her statement “we are bringing the Calvary” was a clear reference to a prayer vigil organized by churchgoers supporting Trump and not a call for military-like violence at the Capitol riot as portrayed by Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Jennifer Lynn Lawrence also said she believes the California Democrat and House impeachment manager falsified her tweet, adding a blue check mark to the version he introduced at the trial suggesting she was a verified Twitter user with more clout when in fact her Twitter account never had a blue check and has never been verified.

“I noticed when they put my tweet on the screen that all of a sudden my tweet had a blue checkmark next to it,” she said during an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. “… This way, if he entered that into congressional testimony, it’s a verified account, and it has, it could be applicable in law. Secondly, he wanted to show that my Twitter account had more gravitas than it actually did. He wanted to show that the president was trying to use me to bring in the cavalry.”

The person who introduced the Tweet as evidence evidently was not up on his/her spelling:

Lawrence, a Christian conservative activist and former Breitbart writer, said her tweet on Jan. 3 carefully chose the religious word “Calvary” — which means a public display of Christ’s crucifixion — as a reference to a prayer vigil they were hosting in Washington, and Swalwell distorted it to convey she was organizing a military cavalry, which is spelled differently and means a military brigade on horses.

That seems like a significant distinction.

The article concudes:

Lawrence’s account was backed up by a Christian church pastor, Brian Gibson, who was accompanying Lawrence and other activists on their trip to Washington at the time she wrote the tweet.

“I was sitting on the bus, and I saw Calvary come through,” Gibson told Just the News. “I went back to them, and specifically said, ‘Hey, guys, you spelt Calvary wrong, right?’ This is what I do for a living. I’m a preacher of the gospel. I’m a theology major, so that jumped off the page at me, and words matter, and I want them to be correct. And she said, ‘No pastor, I meant it. We meant to write Calvary like that. Because we were standing up for God, preaching the gospel. We have you ministers here that are going to be praying and leading people to Christ. And so that’s what that’s what we mean.”

Gibson, a religious freedom advocate, said he believes Swalwell badly served the trial, the country and Lawrence by falsely interpreting her meaning without checking,

“We’ve all learned a lesson in due diligence here, giving someone the benefit of the doubt,” he said. “And I think what we’re seeing, John, is a political witch hunt, where people have not crossed their t’s, dotted their i’s. And it’s the wrong way for some of our highest elected officials in the land to behave themselves. So I’m praying for Jennifer, I’m praying for everybody that has been put in harm’s way by this reckless behavior.”

I suspect the Swalwell was not the only Democrat who bought into the various lies included in the highly edited evidence brought forth in the trial.

Perspective Matters

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about President Biden’s recent call to Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.

The article notes:

Chinese media outlets praised President Joe Biden on Wednesday for what they characterized as a respectful, “positive” call between the head of state and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.

The Xinhua news agency and the Global Times state propaganda newspaper both highlighted the timing – on the eve of the Lunar New Year – as a gesture of goodwill from the new presidential administration. The former expressed hope that, after President Donald Trump’s tenure featured policies designed to contain the influence of the Chinese Communist Party abroad and frequent condemnations of its human rights atrocities, America under Biden would return to the “right track” of policy favorable to Beijing.

I am all in favor of diplomacy and getting along with everyone, but let’s take a look at what the “right track” might be in the eyes of China. On February 9th, The Washington Examiner posted an article with the following headline, “Biden withdraws Trump rule on schools disclosing ties to Chinese state-run Confucius Institutes.” The Biden administration has put the sale of TikTok on hold. The Trump administration was working to sell the company to a majority-owned American company due to national security concerns.

The article at Breitbart notes:

Chinese media coverage of the phone call, the first between the two since Biden became president, contrasted considerably with American mainstream media claims that Biden had “pressured” Xi on issues such as the genocide of the Uyghur people in western Xinjiang or the repression of political dissidents in Hong Kong.

“The Spring Festival is a very important holiday for the Chinese,” Xinhua’s coverage noted. “The telephone conversation between the two heads of state on the eve of the Lunar New Year marks a new starting point for direct communication, symbolizes goodwill, and conforms to the expectations of the Chinese and Americans, as well as those of the wider global community.”

The article concludes:

Mainstream American outlets did not convey in their coverage of the call a sense that Biden had been overly effusive in sharing goodwill or “respect,” as their Chinese counterparts did. The New York Times painted the call as aggressive, leading with the claim that Biden raised “concerns about Beijing’s aggressive policies abroad and human rights abuses at home,” which Chinese outlets largely disregarded. The newspaper nonetheless noted that Biden has “said that he believed he had spent more time with Mr. Xi than he has with any other world leader.”

CNN similarly claimed that Biden “call[ed] China out on a range of issues related to its nefarious use of technology, unfair trade and human rights abuses,” citing unidentified sources within the Biden administration.

NBC News, citing the White House, also led its coverage with an emphasis on Biden mentioning the existence of human rights problems in China.

Somehow I think the media has sold us out.