Monthly Archives: February 2021

Unanswered Questions

Posted on by

Yesterday Tucker Carlson posted an article at Fox News that asks a lot of questions about the events of January 6th that remain unanswered.

The article notes:

Let’s start with the headline of the day: Five Americans died on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. You’ve heard that, but it doesn’t really tell you very much. It’s the details, as always, that matter. Who were these people and how did they die? That’s how you understand what actually happened.

So with that in mind, here are the facts: Four of the five who died that day were Trump supporters. The fifth was a Capitol Hill police officer who apparently also supported Donald Trump. Why is this relevant? Of course, the political views of the deceased shouldn’t matter, but unfortunately, in this case, they do. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and many other elected Democrats claim the mob was coming for them that day. Yet the only recorded casualties on Jan. 6 were people who voted for Donald Trump.

The first among them was a 34-year-old woman from Georgia called Rosanne Boyland. Authorities initially announced that Boyland died of a “medical emergency”. Later video footage suggested she may have accidentally been trampled by the crowd. We’re still not sure, but that’s the best guess.

The second casualty was 55-year-old Kevin Greeson, who died of heart failure while talking to his wife on a cell phone outside the Capitol. “Kevin had a history of high blood pressure,” his wife later said, “and in the midst of the excitement, suffered a heart attack.”

The third was 50-year-old Benjamin Phillips of Ringtown, Pa. Phillips was a Trump supporter who organized a bus trip to Washington for the rally that day. He died of a stroke on the grounds of the Capitol. There is no evidence that Phillips rioted or was injured by rioters or even went inside the Capitol building.

The fourth person to die, the only one from intentional violence, was 35-year-old Ashli Babbitt, a military veteran from San Diego. Babbitt was wearing a Trump cape when she was shot to death by a Capitol Hill police lieutenant. Babbitt’s death was caught on video, so hers is the best-documented death that took place that day. Yet it is surprising how little we know about it.

Babbitt was shot as she tried to crawl through a broken window into the Speaker’s Lobby within the Capitol, and that’s essentially the extent of what we know. Authorities have refused to release the name of the man who shot her or divulge any details of the investigation they say they’ve done. We may never know exactly why this unnamed Capitol Hill police officer took her life.

According to that officer’s attorney, “There is no way to look at the evidence and think that he is anything but a hero.” Of course, we can’t actually look at that evidence, because they’re withholding it. We can’t even know his identity. Killing an unarmed woman may be justified under certain specific circumstances, but since when is it heroic? When the dead woman has read QAnon websites? Republicans aren’t asking that question.

The last death mentioned is that of Officer Brian Sicknick. The media told us that he was beaten to death with a fire extinguisher. There is some credible evidence that suggests that is not the case. (At this point, it might be a good idea to remember that Trump supporters generally support the police and are not inclined to attack them.)

The article notes:

Just one problem: The story they told was a lie from beginning to end. Officer Sicknick was not beaten to death, with a fire extinguisher or anything else. According to an exhaustive and fascinating new analysis on Revolver News, there’s no evidence that Brian Sicknick was hit with a fire extinguisher at any point on Jan 6. The officer’s body apparently bore no signs of trauma. In fact, on the night of Jan. 6, long after rioters at the Capitol had been arrested or dispersed, Brian Sicknick texted his brother from his office. According to his brother, Sicknick said he’d been “pepper sprayed twice” but was otherwise “in good shape”. Twenty-four hours later, Officer Brian Sicknick was dead.

The riot on January 6th was real. That may be the only thing real about everything that has been reported about that day. When the news is as skewed as this is, it would do us well to take a close look at who gains by the misreporting.

Happy Birthday Abraham Lincoln

Posted on by

I received the following in my email this morning from The Epoch Times. Sometimes we need to remember that failure isn’t permanent.

Abraham Lincoln lost eight elections before becoming the 16th president of the United States. You can find the full record of his life in several historical sources; we’ve gathered these from the book Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield. Here are some of Lincoln’s notable defeats.

    • In 1832, he ran for a seat in the Illinois State Legislature and lost. Two years later, he won and was re-elected three times.
    • In 1838, he aspired to become speaker of the state legislature and lost.
    • In 1840, he sought to become an elector in the Electoral College and lost.
    • In 1843, he ran for the House of Representatives and lost. When he ran again in 1846, he won.
    • In 1854, he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost.
    • In 1856, he sought the vice-presidential nomination at this party’s national convention and got fewer than 100 votes.
    • In 1858, he ran for the U.S. Senate again and lost again.

Finally, he ran for president in 1860, and things turned out far differently for him and for the nation. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Abraham Lincoln kept loyal to his ideals, his beliefs, and his vision for America. What if he had stopped after his first defeat?

Definitely something to think about.

Posted on by

For everyone who believes that the Trump administration only helped the rich, here are the numbers (the chart is from Power Line Blog):

Under President Trump the percentage of poor, lower, and middle middle class people decreased. The percentage of upper middle class and rich increased. People at all economic levels prospered under the Trump administration. The Workforce Participation rate climbed to 63.4 before the coronavirus arrived. Unfortunately the Biden administration’s economic policies will reverse much of these gains.

Pushing Something Through When You Don’t Have The Votes

Posted on by

Yesterday Just the News reported that on Tuesday night the Democrats passed a gradual $15 minimum wage hike in a committee vote.

The article reports:

The increase from $7.25 an hour was part of the House Education and Labor Committee’s budget reconciliation markup for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. In the legislation, the minimum wage would reach $15 in 2025.

The language of the Raise the Wage Act was incorporated into the $170 billion COVID-19 stimulus funding legislation for public schools during the virtual committee markup that began late in the afternoon on Tuesday. The vote on the legislation was 27-21 along party lines. 

The Democrats admit that the only way to get this through in by the budget reconciliation process:

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders told reporters on Wednesday that Democrats are including the gradual $15 minimum wage hike in Biden’s stimulus plan because they do not have 60 votes in the Senate to pass it.

“We’re not going to get the 60 votes we need and the only way we’re going to do it with 50 votes is through reconciliation,” he said.

The use of budget reconciliation allows Democrats to pass Biden’s stimulus plan without GOP votes in the Senate. 

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office recently projected that a gradual $15 minimum wage in Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package would result in 1.4 million workers losing their jobs.

Has it occurred to the Democrats that if the measure won’t pass it might be because  it is a bad idea?

The Tide Is Slowly Turning

Posted on by

The last election showed a number of Americans moving away from the radicalism of the current Democrat party to what has become a more inclusive Republican party. Although the establishment Republicans do not approve of President Trump, he is responsible for the new diversity in the party. Meanwhile, the establishment Republicans are working very hard to shoot themselves int he foot.

Yesterday The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following:

More than a hundred former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to former President Donald Trump, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party, four people involved in the discussions told Reuters.

The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved say.

More than 120 of them held a Zoom call last Friday to discuss the breakaway group, which would run on a platform of ‘principled conservatism,’ including adherence to the Constitution and the rule of law – ideas those involved say have been trashed by Trump.

Most of the leadership of the Republican party is not conservative and never have been. They are part of the deep state that allows lobbyists to write the laws, supports endless wars overseas, supports more government regulation, and generally overtaxes and overspends. This is an attempt to go back to the uni-party status quo. If it works, it will be the end of the Republican party.

Meanwhile, The Daily Caller posted an article yesterday from Bryan Dean Wright, a Former CIA Officer. The article explains why left the Democrat party.

Here are a few excerpts from the article:

For years, Democrats like me have watched with increasing alarm as our own political leaders and activists – from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to media outlets like MSNBC – have used an endless stream of hateful, violent and ultimately un-American rhetoric that has resulted in billions of dollars in economic damage and given birth to a violent national movement. 

…In all, over 700 federal, state and local law enforcement officers sustained injuries in violence perpetrated by Leftist rioters. That includes retired St. Louis police Captain David Dorn, who died defending the city he loved from those encouraged by the Democrat Party’s incitement.

To be clear, the list of victims of Leftist hatred and violence is only set to grow.

In the past several months, Democrats have stepped up an already audacious smear campaign against the Republican Party in an effort to target conservatives.

The article concludes:

Despite the Leftist narrative accusing the GOP of being racist, misogynistic or homophobic, the Republican Party attracted the most diverse coalition of voters since 1960. Diving into the numbers, Trump added more Black, Latino, Asian and gay voters to the conservative populist movement than any other president or nominee in the party’s recent history.

And no matter what one thinks of Trump the person, the message and populism he advocated for resonates with voters. It was and remains unapologetically America First, anti-war and pro-worker, focused on merit-based opportunity, judicial reform, strong borders and an unwavering commitment to law and order. To state the obvious, the Trump coalition came up short in 2020. But the vision of an America that lives up to our national motto – “Out of Many, One” – did not.

So this Democrat will take the same sensible step as others before me. It’s time to leave the hateful, violent and un-American Democrat Party.

The populist GOP is my new political home.

Please follow the link above to read the entire Daily Caller article. It illustrates how people who are paying attention are reacting to what is happening in America.

Why They Fear Him

Posted on by

American right now is not working the way the Founding Fathers intended. The elite group currently running our government has been doing things their way for a long time. We are living in a country where Middle Class Americans enter Congress as ‘public servants’ and become millionaires in a few years.

The problem of political corruption is not new. Here are a few examples from the past fifty years or so:

Abscam–Eight politicians were convicted–1980

Post Office Scandal–1996

Keating Five Scandal–1989

There are many more examples–insider trading, Agenda 21, lobbyists writing laws, various sex scandals, etc. Washington has not been an example of morality and ethics for quite some time. It has been a long time since Congressmen were ‘public servants.’ There are some exceptions, but not enough to wield any real power. There is also the question of whether or not the phones of Congress have been bugged for years by the ‘deep state’ for persuasion purposes.

Along comes a second generation American with a strong work ethic who is wealthy enough not to be for sale and loud enough to break through the media narrative. President Trump, oddly enough, gave voice to many average Americans. If average Americans wake up to the corruption in our government and vote out the corrupt politicians, some of those politicians may lose their wealth, influence, and power. For many of those politicians, that is a scary thought.

So the elite politicians need to destroy President Trump and demoralize his supporters. Why his supporters? Because many of his supporters no longer believe what the media is telling them. If they begin to run for office and speak out, they are as much of a threat as President Trump. With the rise of the alternative media, many voters are doing their own research and thinking for themselves. Many voters are beginning to flight back against the assaults on traditional values.

President Trump is still a major threat to the status quo in Washington, D.C., but the real threat is Americans who are awake and aware of the fact that Washington as it currently operates does not represent them. That is the reason the establishment fears President Trump.

 

Making Progress Two Weeks At A Time

Posted on by

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported:

A federal judge in Texas extended the suspension of President Joe Biden’s 100-day moratorium on deportations until Feb. 23.

U.S. District Court Judge Drew Tipton in the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday ruled that the federal government cannot make immigration enforcement changes without consulting Texas. As a result, he extended the temporary restraining order by another 14 days, asserting that the state of Texas would face more harm than the federal government if the extension wasn’t granted.

”The irreparable harm that would accrue to Texas if an extension of the [temporary restraining order] is not granted before consideration of its motion for a preliminary injunction is more substantial than any harm incurred by the defendants,” wrote Tipton in his ruling, adding that his ruling will give parties more time to “provide for a more fulsome record” to assist the court in “adjudicating Texas’s motion for a preliminary injunction.”

This is the information on the lawsuit that has resulted in the suspension:

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued the Biden administration over its order to pause some deportations, asserting that the White House would violate its agreement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S.-Mexico border security, and instead requires 180 days’ notice to change immigration policy.

“On its first day in office, the Biden Administration cast aside congressionally enacted immigration laws and suspended the removal of illegal aliens whose removal is compelled by those very laws. In doing so, it ignored basic constitutional principles and violated its written pledge to work cooperatively with the State of Texas to address shared immigration enforcement concerns,” Paxton’s lawsuit said. “This unlawful reversal will cause Texas immediate and irreparable harm if it is not enjoined.”

So why is a secure border important? Well, Mexico has a high rate of the coronavirus–if Americans are being told to wear masks, socially distance, and get the vaccine, why are we letting unmasked, unvaccinated groups of illegals potentially create a ‘super-spreader’ event? Why are we letting the cartels bring drugs and human trafficking victims across the border unchecked? Why are we allowing potential terrorists into the country without being screened? The Biden administration’s immigration policy is not only a threat to the safety and security of Americans, it will also result in higher unemployment for Americans. We need more states to sue and more judges to stand up for the rule of law.

Allowing The Trojan Horse Inside The Gates

Posted on by

Yesterday The Daily Caller reported the following:

The Biden administration quietly withdrew a rule proposed by the Trump administration that would have required American schools and universities to disclose their partnerships with Confucius Institutes, which some U.S. officials allege are front groups for Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

The Trump administration submitted a proposed rule to the Department of Homeland Security on Dec. 31, 2020, entitled “Establishing Requirement for Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certified Schools to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms.”

Around 500 K-12 schools and 65 colleges in the U.S. have partnerships with the Confucius Institute U.S. Center, a U.S.-based affiliate of the Beijing-based Confucius Institute Headquarters. The institute, also known as Hanban, is affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education.

The rule was withdrawn on January 26th.

The article concludes:

In August, the Trump administration labeled the Confucius Institutes U.S. Center a “foreign mission” of the Chinese Communist Party, a designation typically used for foreign embassies and consulates.

The Foreign Missions Act applies to entities that are “substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government.”

Trump administration officials said that the Chinese government used the Confucius Institutes as part of its propaganda and influence efforts in the U.S.

Sec. of State Mike Pompeo, who spearheaded many of the Trump administration’s China initiatives, said on Aug. 13 that the Confucius Institute was “an entity controlled by the PRC that advances Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms.”

The Confucius Institute U.S. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

One Congressman recently stated that it was going to take 20 years to purge
America of domestic terrorists (such as Trump supporters). Isn’t it an incredible coincidence that it will take about 20 years to brainwash the younger generation into ideas compatible with the values of Chinese communism?

Thank You, Representative Biggs

Posted on by

Since 9/11, air travel in America has been a bit of a pain in the neck–particularly if you are singled out for further scrutiny. There are a lot of elderly grandmothers that have been subjected to unnecessary screening so that screeners can’t be charged with profiling. Air travel isn’t as much fun when you have to take off your shoes and take your computer out of its case, etc. Some of those security precautions may actually be useful, but I suspect that some of them are simply for show. Well, things have the potential of getting worse. Representative Biggs is seeking to prevent that from happening.

Sara Carter reported the following yesterday:

Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs introduced legislation Monday preventing Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg  from imposing Covid-19 testing mandates on air carriers for domestic flights, according to a press release.

Buttigieg revealed during an ‘Axios on HBO’ interview this past week that the Biden administration is evaluating a requirement that would make all passengers take a COVID test proving they’re negative before boarding any domestic and international flights in the United States. 

“It is outrageous that the Biden administration is contemplating new regulations or guidelines to require passengers to undergo COVID-19 testing before domestic air travel,” said Biggs. He has has been outspoken on the extraordinary measures that have infringed on American freedoms during the coronavirus lockdowns.

“This is another unscientific, bureaucratic action designed to control Americans’ lives and increase dependence on government,” he said. “Further, such a mandate would devastate the airline industry and destroy massive sectors of our recovering economy.”

Biggs noted that he fly’s “domestically regularly each month, and I observe the efforts of the airlines to make each passenger safe. The Biden administration should listen to the airline executives and heed the science of healthy air travel. This misguided idea should not become implemented policy under any circumstances.”

Meanwhile we have people pouring over our southern border coming from a country (Mexico) that has the highest coronavirus fatality rate of the 20 countries most affected by the coronavirus (see article here). There is something basically illogical about putting an extra restriction on air travelers while letting the virus invade the country through a porous border.

Policies Have Consequences

Posted on by

So far the Biden administration has not been kind to American workers. If you work in the energy sector of the economy, you are in danger of losing your job–if you haven’t lost it already. Now there is another policy idea that will increase unemployment in America.

CNBC reported the following yesterday:

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, as President Joe Biden has proposed, would cost 1.4 million jobs over the next four years while lifting 900,000 people out of poverty, according to a Congressional Budget Office report Monday.

The impact on the employment rolls is slightly higher than the 1.3 million employment estimate from a 2019 report from the CBO, a nonpartisan agency that provides budgetary analysis to Congress.

The number has been disputed by employment advocates who cite the benefits from the raise and say businesses will be able to handle the costs.

Biden has acknowledged that the plan to phase in the new federal wage floor likely won’t make it through the $1.9 trillion spending plan he is pushing through Congress, though he remains committed to the increase.

The CBO report estimates that the employment reduction would happen by 2025 and come as employers cut payroll to compensate for the increased costs.

Along with the reduction in employment, the federal budget deficit would increase by $54 billion over the next 10 years, a fairly negligible level considering the fiscal 2020 shortfall totaled more than $3 trillion.

There are a few facts being left out in this discussion. The minimum wage exists to allow new unskilled workers to enter the workplace. It exists for high school students looking for part-time jobs. It allows new unskilled workers to learn some basic skills that are applicable in any job–showing up on time, dressing appropriately, being reliable, taking responsibility, etc. Jobs that pay the minimum wage are not supposed to be career jobs–the people in those jobs are expected to increase their marketable skills and move up the employment ladder. Raising the minimum wage will result in a lot of high school students not being able to get jobs and learn the skills they need to succeed in the business world. Although raising the minimum wage sounds like a wonderful idea, the consequences will not be wonderful.

This Is Not Good News

Posted on by

The energy independence America achieved during the Trump administration had a lot of impact internationally. It allowed America to make decisions based on our own interests rather than worrying about whether a decision would affect our supply of oil. It gave us leverage with countries that were importing our oil and natural gas. It also helped some countries reduce their dependence on countries that would use their oil supply to coerce their government into bad decisions. Unfortunately with the change of administration, we are moving back to the place where we will not have the influence or security we had as an energy independent country.

Yesterday The Daily Wire reported the following:

Gazprom, a majority-state owned Russian energy company, resumed work in laying pipeline in Danish waters over the weekend after the project was halted during the Trump-era over the threat of sanctions.

“The pipelay vessel Fortuna has started pipelay works on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in Denmark’s Exclusive Economic Zone today, following the start of works in the construction corridor there on 24 January and successful completion of sea trials,” a Nord Stream 2 spokesperson said via email.

This pipeline will have a serious impact on international affairs:

“Construction of the pipeline is mostly complete but around 120 km is left to be laid in Danish waters as well as 30 km in German waters, before it makes landfall at the northern German coastal town of Lubmin, near Greifswald,” Reuters reported. “The United States has long said the pipeline will increase Russian leverage over Europe and will bypass Ukraine, depriving Kyiv of lucrative transit fees. The United States is also keen to sell its sea-borne liquefied natural gas to European countries.”

The news generated backlash for the Biden administration after they canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline during Biden’s first week in office, which killed the jobs of many of Americans.

Meanwhile American pipeline workers are unemployed. One thing to remember here is that America has cut its carbon emissions in recent years (largely through fracking and the use of natural gas). It is folly to believe that drastic cuts that cripple our economy will actually make a difference in the earth’s climate when other countries are not cutting their emissions. The science is questionable to begin with–do we actually have the power to change the earth’s climate? I doubt it. I am in favor of clean air and clean water, but I am not in favor of crippling our economy for unproven science.

Has Anyone Actually Thought This Through?

Posted on by

On January 30, 2021, a website called Deseret News posted an article about the ‘solar waste’ involved in green energy.

The article notes:

Although countries are feverishly looking to install wind and solar farms to wean themselves off carbon-based, or so-called “dirty” energy, few countries, operators and the industry itself have yet to fully tackle the long-term consequences of how to dispose of these systems, which have their own environmental hazards like toxic metals, oil, fiberglass and other material.

A briefing paper released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency predicts these startling global numbers for countries by 2050 just for solar waste:

    • United States, 10 million tons.
    • Germany, 3 million tons.
    • China, 20 million tons.
    • Japan, 7.5 million tons.
    • India, 7.5 million tons.

Solar arrays have a life cycle of about 30 years, but the rapid adoption of solar in the United States and elsewhere has the problem of disposal creeping up in the rearview mirror — faster rather than later.

The article also notes the problem with wind power:

Wind power also is taking off as a clean energy resource, but the EPA notes that windmills are the least energy producing and most physically difficult renewable energy waste stream to address.

The sheer size of the windmills and the difficulty of disposing of them at recycling stations led the agency to conclude that each new wind farm is a “towering promise of future wreckage.”

While there is a market for second-hand windmills in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, the tactic of shifting used windmill components to other countries simply delays the waste disposal problem and puts it on the shoulders of countries less equipped to deal with the challenge, it noted.

Like coal mining or other natural resource extraction, certain entities in Utah and elsewhere have addressed the afterlife issues of wind and solar farms by requiring environmental remediation or the posting of a reclamation bond to ensure proper cleanup and disposal.

The article concludes:

There is some innovation playing out, however, with Japan’s Nissan repurposing batteries to power streetlights. In the United States, General Motors is backing up its data center in Michigan with used Chevy Volt batteries.

The EPA notes, however, that these sort of “adaptive reuses” still only delay the time for final disposal of the batteries and the need to deal with materials in the batteries that can cause fires or leach hazardous chemicals.

On the wind power front, GE announced last year it had reached a multiyear agreement with Veolia North America to launch the United States’ first wind blade recycling program, according to an article in Utility Dive.

Nearly 90 % of the blade material, consisting of fiberglass, would be repurposed for cement production, cutting carbon dioxide emissions from that source by 27%.

With the release of its paper, the EPA is calling on researchers, states, industry and other federal agencies to ensure green waste is sustainable from end to end and that gaps in renewable energy waste management are addressed.

“While consumers may purchase renewable energy or renewable energy-based products with good intentions, that does not prevent the unintended adverse environmental consequences of these products,” it said.

It seems that we have not yet solved the problems of green energy. Those problems will be solved in the future, but as of yet green energy is not quite ready for prime time.

This Could Get Very Interesting

Posted on by

WND reported yesterday that lawmakers in North Dakota are proposing a law allowing the state to ignore presidential executive orders if they don’t meet constitutional muster. Actually all states should do that!

The Tenth Amendment states:

Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.

The article reports:

House Bill 1164, introduced for the 2021 session, says the “legislative management may review any executive order issued by the president of the United States which has not been affirmed by a vote of the Congress of the United States and signed into law as prescribed by the Constitution of the United States and recommend to the attorney general and the governor that the executive order be further reviewed.”

It also allows for a review of an executive order by the attorney general “to determine the constitutionality of the order and whether the state should seek an exemption from the application of the order or seek to have the order declared to be an unconstitutional exercise of legislative authority by the president.”

It states that “political subdivision” can implement such an order “that restricts a person’s rights or that the attorney general determines to be unconstitutional under subsection 1 and which relates to: a. pandemics or other health emergencies; b. the regulation of natural resources, including coal and oil; c. the regulation of the agriculture industry; d. the use of land; 3. The regulation of the financial sector… or; f. the regulation of the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.”

The article mentions that a bill has also been introduced to deal with unconstitutional laws passed by Congress. The article also notes that South Dakota lawmakers are working on a similar law.

If these laws are passed, I suspect that other states with Republican legislatures might pass similar laws. If that occurs, we will again see a divide between the prosperity of states run by Republicans and states run by Democrats–a divide we have seen during the coronavirus epidemic and how it was handled in various states.

This Has Not Been Widely Reported

Posted on by

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported the following:

The claim often repeated by the mainstream media, social-media content moderators, and fact-checkers that lawsuits filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign and Republicans were universally dismissed by the courts is untrue, according to a new analysis.

The findings do not necessarily suggest that if the lawsuits had all been decided before Joe Biden was certified as the official winner of the presidential election by Congress on Jan. 7 that former President Trump would have won the hotly contested election.

Nor would they necessarily have affected many of the Electoral College votes won by Biden in the disputed battleground states. Some of the legal victories took place in states like Colorado and Iowa where the popular vote counts for the respective winners of those states –Biden in Colorado and Trump in Iowa— were not close.

Of the 22 cases that have been heard by the courts and decided on their merits, Trump and Republicans have prevailed in 15, according to citizen journalist John Droz Jr., a physicist and environmental advocate in Morehead City, N.C.

This means Trump has won two-thirds of the cases fully adjudicated by the courts.

It’s interesting that the cases the courts have refused to hear (thus refusing to review the evidence) are the cases in the states where things were done that impacted the outcome of the election.

The article concludes:

Droz noted that only three lawsuits addressed voting machine inaccuracies.

“One of these was dismissed (due to jurisdiction), one was ruled against (although no discovery was granted), and one is still open (discovery was granted).”

“The likely explanation for so few cases in these two areas is that legally proving fraud or voting machine manipulations are very time-consuming processes, that require substantial investigative work and documentation. There simply wasn’t enough time to do this prior to key points in the process (like the Electoral College).”

“Our view is that the public needs to be much better educated regarding the election integrity issue—and having a more accurate understanding of the lawsuit component is a key part of that,” Droz wrote, explaining the purpose of his report.

Please follow the link to the article to read the details on some of the cases that have already been won. Unfortunately even if it can be proven that there was significant cheating by the Democrats in the election, I have no idea what a reasonable solution would be.

The Obvious Question

Posted on by

Yesterday John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog titled, “Who’s Crazy?”

The article notes:

Democrats are busily trying to portray Republicans as crazy extremists and conspiracy theorists. Marjorie Greene is the latest target of this campaign, and of course the Dems continue to milk the January 6 D.C. mini-riot for all it is worth, and more. (Meanwhile, they have no interest in what would seem to be the real story, the inexplicable breakdown of security at the Capitol. And, contrary to the Democrats’ usual practice, the identity of the officer who shot and killed an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, is a closely guarded secret.)

But where do we look for maximum craziness? How about Maxine Waters, who says that President Trump “should be charged with premeditated murder” (of whom?) because he was involved in “advance planning about the invasion” at the Capitol. Talk about a conspiracy theory! But Waters’ claims aren’t much crazier than those of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who asserted that Ted Cruz was trying to get her killed.

There was a time when making such reckless, extreme, and–to say the least!–unsupported claims about one’s political opponents would have been considered far out of bounds by pretty much everyone. No longer.

It’s time those Democrats who are accusing President Trump of inciting violence look in the mirror. Some of the insanity and lack of civility coming from Democrats in recent years in appalling. It’s time the Democrat party takes responsibility for the statements and actions of their member.

Losing Our Rights As Communities

Posted on by

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about one of President Biden’s recent executive orders. The order removes the authority of states and local communities to reject the drop-off of refugees into their towns and communities.

The article explains why some people might want to drop-off refugees without the consent of the local community:

In essence, former President Donald Trump’s policy (Executive Order 13888 of September 2019) gave state and local governments a say in whether they have the capacity to provide refugees a pathway to become self-sufficient and successfully integrate into American society.

Biden’s new executive order (EO) indicated that the federal government would consult with American communities across the country about refugees’ resettlement.

The president’s “Executive Order on Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration” noted:

Through the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), the Federal Government, cooperating with private partners and American citizens in communities across the country, demonstrates the generosity and core values of our Nation, while benefiting from the many contributions that refugees make to our country.

However, with the stroke of a pen Thursday, Biden revoked Trump’s Executive Order 13888 that enhanced state and local involvement in refugees’ resettlement within their jurisdiction.

The article continues:

Breitbart’s Neil Munro pointed out that Trump’s refugee policy from September 2019 gave states, cities, counties, and towns the legal power to stop groups from dumping foreign refugees into their communities, adding:

The policy will allow residents to block the stealthy efforts by refugee resettlement groups to direct new refugees into communities which are selected by local elites. This refugee dumping is usually done at the request of local employers, such as slaughterhouses, that want new workers to replace ones who quit because of low wages, harsh conditions, and health hazards.

During the Trump-era, Munro noted, refugee resettlement groups were forced to lay off workers amid the reduced inflow of refugees and federal funding.

Those groups denounced the former president’s refugee policy.

There is another part of this story that is often overlooked.

In March 2020, Breitbart reported:

Research by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) finds that each refugee resettled in the U.S. cost American taxpayers anywhere on average between $60,000 and $133,000 over the course of a lifetime.

…Refugee resettlement costs American taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, according to the latest research. Over the course of five years, an estimated 16 percent of all refugees admitted will need housing assistance paid for by taxpayers.

At a time when Americans are reeling from the economic impact of the coronavirus, we cannot afford to stretch our resources any further. It is time to focus on those people living in America who are here legally and have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus. Unfortunately this latest executive order from President Biden will result in more Americans losing their jobs to lower-paid workers. This executive order is another attack on the working class of America.

Has America Become A Banana Republic?

Posted on by

In Friday Issues & Insights posted an article titled, “Biden’s Banana Republic.” That seems a rather harsh charge until you begin to look at some of the things that have happened in the past weeks.

The article notes some of the things the Democrats have recently done that are moving America into the direction of a banana republic:

    • How the Democrats want to turn the economy into one that’s “operated as a private commercial enterprise for the exclusive profit of the ruling class.”
    • The Democrats’ retribution-filled, Reichstag-fire response to the breach of the U.S. Capitol by a group made up mostly of odd characters and some everyday Americans who got overheated and were shocked by their own behavior, all of them apparently unarmed.
    • How a summer of real riots was tacitly, and at times, overtly supported by Biden’s party.
    • The second impeachment of Trump that is not an attempt to seek justice but a campaign to prevent him from running again for president and marginalizing his supporters.
    • The lies about the promise of unity.
    • Phony charges against political opponents designed to dehumanize them. See: “Biden accused Trump of being a mass murderer, of killing hundreds of thousands of coronavirus patients because he ‘did nothing’ to fight the virus.”
    • Government by executive command rather than through proper legislative channels.
    • Shutting down politically unfavorable businesses. See: Biden’s Keystone XL pipeline decision.
    • The leader of a national government deciding alone what the property role of that government is. See: “Biden Proclaims ‘Racial Equity’ as Goal ‘Of the Whole of Government.’ ”

Elections have consequences. It’s time to make sure our 2022 congressional election is an honest election and to remove those politicians who are a threat to our freedoms from office.

The Real Numbers From New York

Posted on by

The New York Post posted an article today about the actual number of coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in the state.

The article reports:

The state Department of Health quietly updated its chart of nursing-home deaths to include those who died at hospitals as well as in the facilities. The update added more than 4,000 deaths to the state tally as of Thursday.

The Upper East Side Rehabilitation and Nursing Center had 29 deaths at the home, and another 51 in a hospital.

Information for the Bronxcare Special Care Center had previously showed only eight COVID-19 deaths. But there were 20 additional deaths in the hospital, according to the new data.

At the Boropark Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, an additional 41 people died in the hospital on top of 32 at the home.

The article notes:

The state Department of Health had refused for months to provide the information until it was forced to by a judge Thursday.

Acting Albany Supreme Court Justice Kimberly O’Connor blasted the DOH for claiming it could not produce the data, and ordered the stats released within five days. The Empire Center for Public Policy had sought the information under a Freedom of Information Law request.

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released the total number of nursing home deaths on Jan. 28, putting the figure at 12,743 with the hospital fatalities, instead of 8,740. The disclosure came after Attorney General Letitia James produced a damning report saying the number of deaths could be as much as 50 percent higher than officials claimed.

The state has been criticized for early directives that mandated ill-equipped and understaffed nursing homes accept COVID-19 patients, knowing the elderly population was most at risk for the virus.

It is obscene that the courts had to be called into action to get this data. The number of nursing home deaths in New York was covered up to protect the reputation of Governor Cuomo. Now the facts are out, and it is up to the residents of the state to decide in the next election whether he will remain Governor. It is criminal that with a hospital ship, a hospital set up in Central Park, and the Javits Center equipped to handle coronavirus patients, patients were sent into nursing homes where the most vulnerable lived.

A Very Useful Shiny Object

Posted on by

Magicians use sleight of hand to distract from what they are doing. They also use shiny objects to keep your eyes away from the secrets of their magic. We are currently watching the Democrat party use a shiny object to keep Americans from asking questions about losing their freedoms and about the double standard in the mainstream media.  Last summer’s riots and destruction were treated very differently in the press than the attack on the Capital was treated. We should also note the contrast between how the media handled the takeover of the Wisconsin capitol in 2011 and the January 6th riot in Washington. In the search for ‘domestic terrorists’ the Democrats are choosing to ignore many things. They are ignoring the fact that people leaving the White House grounds last summer after President Trump’s acceptance speech for the Republican nomination were harassed. One man was knocked to the ground. They are ignoring the riots last summer that, according to Breitbart, could reach $2 billion in insurance claims.

With all of the focus on domestic terrorism—purging our military, violating the civil rights of people who attended the Washington, D.C. rally on January 6th, accusing President Trump of fomenting insurrection, etc., we have also shut down any discussion of problems with the voting in the last election. Yesterday it was reported that Maricopa County in Arizona has refused to turn over election equipment and ballots from the November general election to the Arizona Senate. Mike Lindell, during an appearance on Newsmax, was stopped from making comments on election fraud in 2020. Yesterday I posted an article about a mathematician who states that the election results in some counties are mathematically impossible.

We can’t overturn the results of the election, but there are still many Americans who believe that there was considerable election fraud in the Presidential election of 2020. Putting shiny objects in front of us and trying to limit our rights to free speech are not going to change that belief—in fact it only reinforces it.

It is time for all Americans to wake up to the danger before them. Whether you love or hate Donald Trump, the attacks that are currently going on against his supporters are totally unconstitutional and need to end now. If you feel safe because you didn’t support President Trump, understand that he and his supporters will not be the last target of the recently formed thought police. Eventually they will come for every American who dares to have an original thought.

Is This Acceptable?

Posted on by

The First Amendment reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

There were thousands of people peacefully assembled in Washington, D.C. on January 6th. Unfortunately there were also a few hundred that decided to riot. However, that does not change the fact that those peacefully assembled had the right to be there. Unfortunately, many of those people who were peacefully assembled are facing consequences for simply being there.

Last night Fox News reported the following:

“Tucker Carlson Tonight” has exclusively obtained evidence that Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the country with more than 60 million customers, is actively but secretly engaged in the hunt for extremists in cooperation with the government. Bank of America is, without the knowledge or the consent of its customers, sharing private information with federal law enforcement agencies. Bank of America effectively is acting as an intelligence agency, but they’re not telling you about it.

In the days after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, Bank of America went through its own customers’ financial and transaction records. These were the private records of Americans who had committed no crime; people who, as far as we know, had absolutely nothing to do with what happened at the Capitol. But at the request of federal investigators, Bank of America searched its databases looking for people who fit a specific profile.

Here’s what that profile was: “1. Customers confirmed as transacting, either through bank account debit card or credit card purchases in Washington, D.C. between 1/5 and 1/6. 2. Purchases made for Hotel/Airbnb RSVPs in DC, VA, and MD after 1/6. 3. Any purchase of weapons or at a weapons-related merchant between 1/7 and their upcoming suspected stay in D.C. area around Inauguration Day. 4. Airline related purchases since 1/6.”

The first thing you should notice about that profile is that it’s remarkably broad. Any purchases of anything in Washington, D.C.; any overnight stay anywhere in an area spanning three jurisdictions and hundreds of miles; any purchase not just of legal firearms, but anything bought from a “weapons-related merchant,” T-shirts included; and any airline-related purchases — not just flights to Washington, but flights to anywhere, from Omaha to Thailand. That is an absurdly wide net.

Bank of America identified a total of 211 customers who met these “thresholds of interest.” At that point, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has learned, Bank of America turned over the results of its internal scan to federal authorities, apparently without notifying the customers who were being spied upon. Federal investigators then interviewed at least one of these unsuspecting people. That person, we’ve learned, hadn’t done anything wrong and was cleared.

The article continues:

It’s not even clear that what Bank of America did is even legal. We spoke to a number of lawyers about this, and some of them told us that what Bank of America did might, in fact, not be legal and could, in fact, be challenged in court. One knowledgeable attorney pointed us to 12 U.S.C. 3403. That’s a federal law that allows banks to tip off the feds to any information that “may be relevant to a possible violation of any statute or regulation.”

Now, the Justice Department instructs federal agents to remind banks of that law and, of course, they do so with maximum aggression. But the question is, what legally constitutes information that may be relevant to a possible crime? Does buying a muffin in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 5 make you a potential domestic extremist? 

According to Bank of America, yes. Yes, it does. 

What we need now is a good class-action suit against Bank of America.

 

Freedom Is Under Attack

Posted on by

The following is a Judicial Watch Press Release from January 29th:

Reminiscent of the Obama Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) witch hunt of conservative groups, a U.S. Senator who sits on the committee that oversees the tax agency is pushing it to revoke a student charity’s nonprofit status. The veteran lawmaker, Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, says the conservative student organization, Turning Point USA, should lose its nonprofit rating because it held large events that could help spread COVID-19. In a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig the senator describes the gatherings as “superspreader” events. He specifically mentions a Palm Beach, Florida winter gala at the Mar-a-Lago Club famously owned by former President Donald Trump.

“According to press reports and social media posts, many participants gathered and mingled indoors without wearing masks, in violation of Palm Beach County’s COVID-19 regulations,” Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, writes to the IRS chief. The powerful chamber has oversight over the IRS, among many other government agencies. “In holding these ‘superspreader’ events, Turning Point USA knowingly exposed hundreds of young people and staff working at the events to serious risk of infection,” the letter continues. The legislator asks the IRS to review whether the group, which has more than 250,000 student members, should continue to enjoy its tax-exempt nonprofit status. “Established law has long held that an organization is not eligible for tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) if a purpose of the organization is contrary to public policy or is illegal,” the letter states, reminding the IRS commissioner of a three-part test established to determine whether an organization’s activities are consistent with tax exemption under the code.

The analysis includes determining whether the purpose of the organization is charitable, if activities are not illegal and whether the activities are in furtherance to the group’s exempt purpose and are reasonably related to that purpose. “Turning Point USA’s reckless decision to host potential ‘superspreader’ events, in open violation of local COVID-19 regulations, put children and others at risk, and was clearly contrary to the public good,” the senator tells the IRS commissioner. “Tax-exempt status provides a substantial benefit to charitable organizations and reflects the federal government’s endorsement of an organization’s activities. Organizations that knowingly put in danger minors entrusted to their care should not enjoy the benefits of tax-exempt status. Accordingly, I urge the IRS to review whether it should revoke Turning Point USA’s tax-exempt status.”

Founded in 2012, Turning Point USA describes itself as a national student movement dedicated to identifying, organizing, and empowering young people to promote the principles of free markets and limited government. The group’s founder, 27-year-old Charlie Kirk, was the chairman of Students for Trump, which aimed to activate a million new college voters before the 2020 presidential election. In a press release announcing the letter to the IRS, Whitehouse refers to the group as a “right-wing nonprofit” that “promotes far-right ideas to young people around the country.” The document, posted on the senator’s official website, further states that Turning Point USA “has cultivated close ties to President Trump and the Trump family.”

The senator’s push to repeal the conservative charity’s nonprofit status brings back memories of the Obama IRS singling out groups with conservative-sounding terms such as “patriot” and “Tea Party” in their titles when applying for tax-exempt benefits. Judicial Watch launched an investigation and sued for records after an explosive Treasury Inspector General report revealed that in 2010 the IRS began using inappropriate criteria, such as lists of past and future donors, to identify organizations applying for tax-exempt status. The illegal IRS reviews continued for more than 18 months, according to the report, and “delayed processing of targeted groups’ applications” preparing for the 2012 presidential election. The IRS director at the center of the scheme, Lois Lerner, not only broke agency rules—as well as the law—to target conservative organizations she also lied to Congress to cover up the wrongdoing.

Please understand that under the Biden administration there is a real possibility that the government will be used to limit the rights of conservatives. This was done under the Obama administration, and many of the people in that administration are pulling the strings in the Biden administration. We are truly in danger of losing our freedoms.

There Are A Lot Of Attempts To End Any Discussion On This Topic

Posted on by

Unfortunately it seems as if a lot of the Fourth Estate has become a Fifth Column. Even so-called conservative news outlets are refusing to report on some of the irregularities in the 2020 presidential election. If you are wondering why reporting these irregularities might still be relevant, consider the fact that if they are not addressed properly, they will happen again. There are still some valid questions about the election. Joe Biden is our President, and we are not going to change that, but I would assume that most Americans want honest elections in our future.

The Gateway Pundit posted an article today titled, “Renowned Mathematician Edward Solomon Determines the 2020 Election Results at a Precinct Level Are “Impossible” and “Cannot Occur Naturally”.”

The article reports:

Mathematician Edward Solomon looked into the results of the 2020 election at a precinct level and determined they are  “impossible” and “cannot occur naturally.”

The results of the 2020 election are simply not possible.  When looking at the precinct level, mathematician Edward Solomon says computers must have used an algorithm to change the results.

One America News posted the following video (posted on Rumble) explaining the problem:

Again, I don’t think we can change the election at this point, but we should be able to prevent this from happening again.

 

 

The Wrong Solution

Posted on by

The coronavirus has devastated America’s economy. Small businesses have closed while certain large businesses have prospered–Amazon, WalMart, Loews, etc. Many restaurants are holding on by a thread. So how do you undo the damage? There seems to be some disagreement on the answer to that question.

Issues & Insights posted an article today about the stimulus package proposed by the Democrats. Simply put, the proposed package is nothing more than a bunch of goodies unrelated to the coronavirus. The package represents a wish list of spending the Democrats have wanted for years. The Republican attempts at reaching a compromise have been rebuffed.

The article reports:

In rejecting compromise, Biden gave Congress a green light to totally ignore Republican input by passing a stimulus package through reconciliation, not the normal budget process. That will require a simple majority of 51 senators, not a supermajority of 60, to pass.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed this Tuesday, saying: “Joe Biden is totally on board with using reconciliation” to pass the bill.

So, just as with Obamacare, the fix is in on the Democrats’ all-or-nothing bill, loaded with goodies for far-left interest groups, teachers unions and Blue State governors.

But a few points need to be made here, not just about this bill, but about stimulus in general.

First, the economy is already recovering. It grew 33.4% in the third quarter and 4% in the fourth, following 2020’s disastrous 31.4% second quarter plunge. Unemployment peaked a 14.8% last April, but fell to 6.7% in December, far better than any official forecasts.

We’ve already committed $4 trillion in spending on COVID-19 over the past 10 months, but still have an estimated $1 trillion left unspent. Add another $1.9 trillion, and you see that COVID-19 adds to our already massive pile of federal debt, which, at $28 trillion, amounts to well over $200,000 per family.

Such reckless stimulus spending will impoverish the next generation. Yet, the fact is, the pandemic didn’t shut down the economy. Politicians did. Now they’re preening over their own generosity while piling up more debt that you, your kids, your grandkids and your great-grandkids will be paying off for decades to come.

Worse still, much of the Democrats’ “stimulus” bill will actually damage the economy.

The damage to the economy will be in the form of lost jobs due to the increase in the minimum wage. The Democrat plan will also extend unemployment benefits, which historically decreases the incentive for Americans to look for work.

The article also notes:

Helping fiscally troubled states is a huge mistake. Most are Blue States that have spent and taxed their way into trouble, and now want to use the pandemic as a cover for a bailout. It was bad policies by elected officials and bad decisions by voters that got these states into trouble, not the Chinese virus. Bailing out profligate states only encourages more of the same behavior.

And, sure, increased spending on schools sounds great, but that money won’t go to students. It will line greedy teachers unions’ pockets. Meanwhile, education standards and test scores will continue to slide as schools remain closed.

Instead of indiscriminately spending more money on bogus stimulus with checks for all, and irrelevant spending on Democrats’ far-left wish lists, we should target aid to the truly desperate and needy in our economy, those who were blindsided by some states’ destructive lockdowns and are now jobless.

So how do we grow our economy? First of all, we open up the country. Secondly, we do what President Trump did–cut taxes, decrease regulation, follow the rule of law, and protect property rights. Those things will get us back on track.