Monthly Archives: November 2021

Sad News For America

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The Epoch Times is reporting that yesterday the House of Representatives voted to pass a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Unfortunately, thirteen Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill. Oddly enough, six progressive Democrats—members of the “Squad”—voted against the measure. Evidently the squad has grown–there used to be only four members. Now Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri, and Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York, have joined the group.

The article reports:

The final vote was 228-206, with 13 Republicans joining Democrats in support of the bill. The Republicans were Reps. John Katko (R-N.Y.), Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Tom Reed (R-N.Y.), Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Don Young (R-Alaska), Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Fred Upon (R-Mich.), Don Bacon (R-Nebr.), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Penn.), and David McKinley (R-W.Va.)

…House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had sought to hold votes on both bills on Friday but was forced to postpone the vote on the Build Back Better bill, after some moderate Democrats said they wanted a least 72 hours to review the text of the bill, and to review the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) scores on the spending bill to understand the “true cost of the legislation.” They also wanted the Senate to confirm it would not make changes to the bill in the interim period.

The New York Post reports:

In an effort to get the entire Democratic caucus on board, the legislation was further amended on Thursday to change provisions pertaining to drug pricing and the state and local tax deduction (SALT) — a priority for members that represent high-tax states like New York and New Jersey. 

Under the latest version of the Build Back Better legislation, the SALT cap would increase from $10,000 to $80,00 through 2030 before returning to $10,000 in 2031.

Drug pricing language was also altered to provide an extra year before Medicare is permitted to negotiate prices on biologics once those drugs hit the market.

The bipartisan infrastructure measure — negotiated by a group of 22 bipartisan lawmakers led by Sinema and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) — includes $550 billion in new spending, with $110 billion set to be allocated toward roads, bridges and other projects; $65 billion toward broadband, $66 billion to be spent on passenger and freight rail, $55 billion for water infrastructure, $39.2 billion for public transit, $47.2 billion for resiliency purposes, $7.5 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure and $21 billion to address pollution. 

Note that of the $1.2 trillion spent, only $110 billion goes toward roads, bridges and other projects.

Make no mistake about it, the change in the SALT cap is a tax cut for the rich in Democrat states where taxes are high due to reckless spending. It will cut the amount of revenue coming into the treasury and reward the states that voted for Joe Biden. It causes states with lower taxes to essentially subsidize the higher tax states.

We all remember a reasonable infrastructure bill that was suggested during the Trump administration that Speaker Pelosi refused to pass because she didn’t want President Trump to get credit for it. Now we have a pork-laden bill that includes things that no rational person would call infrastructure. We need to elect people who will be fiscally responsible and put patriotism over party.

The Latest Version Of The Budget Bill

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Yesterday Townhall posted an article about the latest version of the budget bill the Democrats are trying to pass.

The article reports:

New items in the latest budget include prescription drug price-setting by the federal government that’s all but certain to reduce private investment in new lifesaving drugs and spends $500 million in taxpayer dollars to hire new agents for the Department of Justice’s tax division to prosecute Americans in criminal and civil court.

It also cut a previously included a provision to prohibit loans, grants, and funding from going to projects using forced labor in China, meaning the current version of the budget bill would allow taxpayer dollars to fund Uyghur Muslim slave labor.

Reappearing in Pelosi’s latest iteration of the Build Back Better budget bill is a new tax on nicotine which, if passed, would be another strike against President Biden’s promise that Americans who make less than $400,000 per year wouldn’t see a penny more in taxes.

Pelosi also brought back a tax credit for journalists, a $500 million fund for schools of medicine that prioritizes racial and other demographic factors, and the bill institutionalizes divisive language to depict Americans as racist and oppressive by claiming minorities are “denied a full opportunity” at life in America.

Here is a list of some of the things included in the bill:

  • $2.5 billion in taxpayer funding for leftist environmentalists to advance “tree equity.”
  • $900 tax credits for Americans who make less than $150,000 annually and buy an electric bike.
  • $2.5 billion for “community based violence intervention initiatives” that could undermine Americans’ Second Amendment rights without due process.
  • $10 billion for “environmental justice” credits to colleges and universities to push Green New Deal policies.
  • $250 million to procure “culturally appropriate foods” for school lunches.
  • $3 billion in taxpayer funding for “environmental and climate justice block grants.”
  • $80 billion to hire an additional 87,000 IRS agents.

There were a few things the Democrats should have learned from their election losses on Tuesday. I guess they didn’t learn them.

 

Shenanigans In New Jersey

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New Jersey elections have never been known for their integrity, but sometimes it defies the imagination. Yesterday The Western Journal posted an article about some recent election shenanigans in New Jersey.

The article reports:

After the chaos of the 2020 election and subsequent months of controversy and scrutiny over election integrity, you would think every local election office in the nation would be doing its best to maintain full transparency and conduct elections without error.

Apparently, officials in Essex County, New Jersey, didn’t seem to think so.

Currently, an investigation is ongoing to determine why a “poll worker error” led to 56 districts within the county not counting their votes on time after poll workers in several cities shut down 56 voting machines without them first being counted, according to News 12 The Bronx.

Essex County Clerk Christopher Durkin has made it clear that the machines are currently locked safely away.

Sure they are.

The article continues:

“Those machines are at the polling places right now,” Durkin said according to News 12 The Bronx.

“Those machines have to be brought back to the warehouse. A judge will issue an order for us to open those machines, retrieve the results and post those results.”

“We need to compile a list of the results that are missing, then need to schedule a hearing in front of a judge and then the judge issued the order and then we’re able to go and retrieve those results.”

Now, we should make this clear up front: None of this will change the results of the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

However, the truck drive set to become Senate President might do well to be worried.

The article states that there is no evidence to prove that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The fact is that there is evidence. To say otherwise is fake news. However, the conclusion of the article below is correct.

The article concludes:

That being said, we saw numerous smaller, localized examples of election fraud and various irregularities in the vote.

There is no doubt that American elections could and should be more secure. Don’t let Democrats or leftists tell you any different.

If the counties that have been called into question in both the 2020 election and elections since then had simply been transparent with the public and taken the time and effort to shore up their processes, there wouldn’t be a problem.

Unfortunately, too many county election officials can’t be counted on to actually do their jobs.

Moving Away From Peace

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The Center for Security Policy posted an article today about a recent foreign affairs decision by the Biden administration.

The article reports:

Is the Biden Administration holding Egypt aid hostage in exchange for freeing a bloodthirsty Muslim Brotherhood leader?

The Biden Administration is currently withholding $130 million in security and counterterrorism assistance to the Egyptian government, unless 16 unnamed prisoners, among whom may be included a virulent anti-Semitic jihadist cleric, are released from Egyptian prisons.

That was the reveal in a recent floor speech by Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this week. Cruz has been locked in a rhetorical battle with the Biden Administration for weeks in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, centered around nominee Barbara Leaf, currently proposed for state department assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs. Cruz has sought to force answers to questions about the conditioning of Egyptian security aid on the release of the unnamed prisoners.

“Not a single name. None of them. Congress doesn’t get to know who those 16 people are,” Cruz said during the speech, which featured a large poster board blow up of Leaf’s 1000-word response to Cruz’s questionnaire, “The answer from Ms. Leaf to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is, not to put too fine a point on, go jump in a lake.”

Cruz called the Biden Administration’s action “extortion” and wondered aloud about the nature of the prisoner list, noting that the list of names is available to Congress in a classified form, but one that remains hidden from the public.

There seems to be some information about who the prisoners are in a recent Senate report:

One possible clue as to the identity of these prisoners may be language buried within a recent Senate appropriation report, which calls on the secretary of state to consider conditioning aid on the treatment of Egyptian prisoners Ola al-Qaradawi, Hosam Khalaf, Salah Soltan, Abdelrahman Tarek, and Mohamed El-Baqer. Cruz noted that it is currently unknown who was responsible for the insertion of those names into the appropriations report.

Soltan’s is by far the most interesting name, as he is a well-known Muslim Brotherhood cleric and Hamas supporter. Soltan played a key role in leading U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations during his time in United States and has a long record of issuing blood-curdling anti-Semitic calls for violence. He is also known for praising Osama bin Laden, and even being an associate of the late Al Qaeda ideologue Anwar al-Awlaki.

Soltan is currently in an Egyptian prison convicted of incitement to murder. He was formerly a U.S. resident, but his application for naturalization was denied after Soltan appeared at a Hamas rally in Turkey.

This is the kind of thing that happened when Barack Obama was President and spoke in Egypt. He brought members of the Muslim Brotherhood into the country from exile and seated them in the front row. He planted the seeds for the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, which was later overthrown.

I Guess It Just Depends On How You Look At It

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Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article that highlighted something odd the President did after the Virginia election.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden refused to take any ownership in his party getting blown out in Virginia’s elections on Tuesday night when asked about the matter during a press conference on Wednesday, and he suggested that it was going to be harder to win moving forward because Donald Trump is not on the ballot.

Biden did not dispute the outcome of the elections, saying that “we all have an obligation to accept the legitimacy of these elections.”

“I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today,” Biden said, referring to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, who lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin. “He got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat ever has gotten. We brought out every Democrat [inaudible] there was. More votes than ever has been cast for a Democratic incumbent — I mean, not incumbent — a Democrat running for governor. And no governor in Virginia has ever won when he is of the same — where he or she is the same party as the sitting president.”

The statement about the legitimacy of the elections leads me to wonder if the Democrats were willing to give up Virginia in order to cover up their cheating in New Jersey. There are already stories coming out of New Jersey about voting machines that would not let people vote for the Republican candidate.

The idea that it is going to be harder to win moving forward because Donald Trump is not on the ballot is interesting. Frankly, I don’t think Donald Trump is the problem. It is becoming more obvious that whether you like him or not, Donald Trump’s policies worked–the economy grew, the middle class grew, wages were higher, and gasoline prices and inflation were lower. Also, our borders were secure. None of those things are currently true. As the rising gasoline and food prices begin to impact American families, Donald Trump may be the least of the Democrat party’s worries.

Just When I Thought John Durham’s Picture Belonged On A Milk Carton

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The New York Post is reporting today that Igor Danchenko has been arrested and accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The article reports:

A Russian analyst who was the key source behind the shady “Steele dossier” about former President Donald Trump was arrested in Virginia on Thursday as part of an ongoing special counsel investigation, the Justice Department said.

Igor Danchenko, 43, is accused of lying to the FBI when questioned about his work compiling the wild allegations about Russia and Trump ahead of his victorious 2016 presidential election, according to a grand jury indictment unsealed Thursday.

The shady analyst is now the third person to face charges in special counsel John Durham’s probe into the origins of the Russia investigation, which Trump has long insisted was a witch hunt.

The problem is that many Americans believe the Steele dossier was factual and many mainstream media outlets have not yet admitted it wasn’t.

The article notes:

Many of his other allegations, such as the claim that Trump lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague to meet Russian intel operatives, have been subsequently disproven.

According to the indictment, the FBI interviewed Danchenko several times between January and November 2017 to determine if information contained in the dossier was true.

Danchenko allegedly lied to federal investigators about his sources for the dubious intel on at least five different dates during that time, the court document states.

For instance, the feds say Danchenko falsely claimed never to have spoken to a certain unnamed PR executive — who was also a longtime Democratic party operative — about any of the allegations in the report. 

But Danchenko actually used the exec as an anonymous source for one or more of the claims contained in the dossier, according to the indictment.

It will be interesting to see how far this investigation goes before it is shut down for one reason or another. The people most in danger from the investigation are the Clintons, and the fact that Terry McAuliffe lost the election in Virginia this week may be a sign that the power the Clintons wield in the Democrat party is waning. I suspect that the Bidens have no love for the Clintons, but they may want to see the investigation shut down before it does serious damage to the Democrat party.

Stay tuned.

Turning A Blind Eye When Convenient

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Yesterday Townhall posted an article about the protest in Washington that few Americans have heard about. It seems odd that few Americans have heard about the protest since 78 people were arrested for obstructing traffic and three of them were charged with assault of a police officer.

The article reports:

Leftists will point to the support for Donald Trump as the right having violated the contract and that, having done so, gave them no choice but to respond with militant resistance. The right will say that five years of violence seems like a bit of an overreaction to a guy whose biggest crime was mean tweets.

And there’s no better example of this than the way the media covers right- vs. left-wing activism. A group of people waving American flags – or parents at a school board meeting! – are labeled domestic terrorists while rioters burning down buildings enjoy the Orwellian label “peaceful protesters.” 

The hypocrisy has been sickening to watch over the last five years. 

The most recent example is the far-left group’s unprecedented five-day protest in DC last week – directly attacking the Line 3 & DAPL through Minnesota. To give their violence the air of legitimacy, the group has fatuously titled their “direct action” the People vs. Fossil Fuels, even though state courts have rightfully ruled in favor of the energy- and job-producing pipeline. 

The violent rioters laid siege to the Department of the Interior’s headquarters, demanding that Biden declare a “climate change national emergency” and end all government projects that use fossil fuels. They attempted to “occupy” the building, clashed with law enforcement, and sent security personnel to the emergency room. (All while doubtless tweeting about how wonderfully tolerant they are.) 

All told, 78 people were arrested for obstructing traffic and three of them were charged with assault of a police officer. Many more were doubtless guilty of similar crimes and slipped through the cracks.

As far of the so-called progressive left’s cultural terrorism, they vandalized the Andrew Jackson statue outside of the White House. (One imagines the vandals don’t know about how the Cherokee Indians owned black slaves before the founder of the Democrat Party sent them on the Trail of Tears, but facts are immaterial at this point.) 

The article concludes:

Furthermore, the Cult of the Woke’s article of faith that pipelines are inherently evil is wrong in every way. Pipeline infrastructure is handled ethically and with as little environmental impact as possible. Transporting fuel via pipeline is greener than with trucks and safer than with ships. And if we’re going to provide for all the social programs that the violent left demands, how will we pay for them if we cripple our commercial base? 

This level of violence by radical leftists can’t be tolerated, and the hypocrisy from our failing fourth estate can’t be forgiven. Our social contract has been fundamentally violated, and if this level of urban warfare continues, then we won’t have a society at all. 

The Democrat party began its downhill slide when it chose to ignore the riots of 2020. Ordinary Americans did not want to see their towns burned down without any police intervention. If elections in the future are honest, they will reflect the fact that most Americans want to live in an orderly society with their property rights protected by the police.

Spin Instead Of Solutions

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I am not a big fan of the current gasoline prices. I doubt anyone is. How in the world did we go from being energy independent to sky-high gasoline prices? Well, it might have started with the shutdown of the Keystone XL Pipeline on day one of the Biden administration.

Yesterday The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s current excuse for high gasoline prices.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden claimed Tuesday that gas prices have skyrocketed due to Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) refusing to “pump more oil.”

Biden delivered his remarks during the United Nations climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was asked to comment on when Americans could expect to see everyday prices come down, including those of gas.

When America was energy independent, we didn’t have to worry about the output of Russia or OPEC.

The article notes:

Despite his decisions to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and impose a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing and drilling permits for U.S. lands and waters, the president has accused OPEC of being unwilling to significantly ramp up their production of oil to combat rising gasoline prices.

“[T]he idea that Russia and Saudi Arabia and other major producers are not going to pump more oil so people can have gasoline to get to and from work, for example, is not right,” Biden said Sunday at the G20 summit.

Many OPEC members have shunned Biden’s pleas, arguing that they shouldn’t produce oil at a faster rate due to the uncertainties associated with the pandemic, according to Al Jazeera.

U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report mid-October, forecasting that American households could see their energy expenditures go up as high as 54% compared to the winter of 2021.

Gasoline prices are not going down until American voters wake up and remove the current administration (and their congressional allies) from power. We can begin in 2022 by voting for conservatives for Congress and continue by re-electing President Trump in 2024. If you want to see gasoline prices go back down, that is the solution.

Does Your Government Work For You?

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Yesterday The Washington Times posted an article about President Biden’s $1.75 trillion expansion of the federal safety net.

The article reports:

An analysis by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, estimates that President Biden’s $1.75 trillion expansion of the federal safety net could kill more than 103,000 jobs over the next decade and add $750 billion to the federal deficit.

The estimate is based on a thorough analysis of the White House’s spending “framework” and the corresponding 1,684-page bill text released by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. Experts from the Tax Foundation say the proposal would fall far short of White House promises.

“We estimate that the House bill would reduce long-run economic output by nearly 0.4% and eliminate about 103,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the United States,” the experts wrote. “It would also reduce average after-tax incomes for the top 80 percent of taxpayers over the long run.”

It should be shouted everywhere that according to a CNBC article posted in August 2021, more than 100 million U.S. households, or 61% of all taxpayers, paid no federal income taxes last year, according to a report from the Tax Policy Center. Think about that for a minute. If you are not paying taxes, why should you care how much the government is spending or how much the government is planning to raise taxes? This is not a good situation.

The article at The Washington Times concludes:

Mr. Biden is backing a 5% “wealth tax” on those with adjusted gross income above $10 million. The figure jumps to 8% on adjusted gross income over $25 million.

“I can’t think of a single time when the middle class has done well but the wealthy haven’t done very well,” Mr. Biden said. “I can think of many times, including now, when the wealthy and the superwealthy do very well and the middle class doesn’t do well.”

Despite the rhetoric, Tax Foundation economists say, the provisions would affect all workers by killing more than 29,000 jobs.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The report was released one day after Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, accused his colleagues of engaging in “budget gimmicks” to hide the true cost of the spending package.

“As more of the real details outlined … what I see are shell games and budget gimmicks that make the real cost of this so-called $1.75 trillion bill estimated to be twice as high,” he said. “That is a recipe for economic crisis. None of us should ever misrepresent to the American people what the real cost of legislation is.”

Actually, the middle class did very well during the Trump administration. Trump administration policies helped increase the number of Americans in the middle class.

Does anyone remember the Luxury Tax of 1990.

On September 10, 2011, The American Enterprise Institute posted the following:

Flashback:Wall Street Journal editorial on January 6, 2003

“Most Americans celebrated as the ball fell in Times Square New Year’s Eve. But for auto dealers this new year is especially sweet. January 1 marked the expiration of the federal luxury tax on cars, the last vestige of the destructive luxury tax package in the infamous 1990 budget deal.

Starting in 1991, Washington levied a 10% luxury tax on cars valued above $30,000, boats above $100,000, jewelry and furs above $10,000 and private planes above $250,000. Democrats like Ted Kennedy and then-Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell crowed publicly about how the rich would finally be paying their fair share and privately about convincing President George H.W. Bush to renounce his “no new taxes” pledge.

But it wasn’t long before even these die-hard class warriors noticed they’d badly missed their mark. The taxes took in $97 million less in their first year than had been projected — for the simple reason that people were buying a lot fewer of these goods. Boat building, a key industry in Messrs. Mitchell and Kennedy’s home states of Maine and Massachusetts, was particularly hard hit. Yacht retailers reported a 77% drop in sales that year, while boat builders estimated layoffs at 25,000. With bipartisan support, all but the car tax was repealed in 1993, and in 1996 Congress voted to phase that out too. January 1 was disappearance day.

The end of any federal tax is such a rarity that it’s well worth celebrating. And the luxury tax lesson of economic damage is worth keeping in mind as politicians begin to wail that President Bush’s new tax proposals aren’t punitive enough on the rich.”

HT: Pete Friedlander

The recession that followed the 1990 luxury tax cost President George H.W. Bush re-election. The Democrats might want to keep that in mind.

 

When The Spin Is Ridiculous

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As soon as it became obvious that Glenn Youngkin was going to be elected Governor of Virginia, the spin began. I heard that the reason Governor Youngkin was elected was because of the racism in the Republican party. Really? They why was Winsome Sears, who happens to be black, elected as the Republican Lt. Governor.

NewsMax posted an article today that illustrates what an amazing lady Winsome Sears is. Among other things, Ms. Sears is the first black woman to be elected as Virginia’s Lt. Governor.

The article reports:

“There are some who want to divide us and we must not let that happen,” Sears said during her celebratory speech after midnight early Wednesday morning, which aired live on Newsmax. “They would like us to believe we are back in 1963 when my father came.

“We can live where we want. We can eat where we want. We own the water fountains. We have had a Black president elected not once, but twice, and here I am: living proof.

“In case you haven’t noticed, I am Black, and I have been Black all my life, but that’s not what this is about.”

Sears is an immigrant, a U.S. Marine, and a Second Amendment supporter who is seen holding a semi-automatic rifle in photos widely shared on social media.

“I’m telling you that what you are looking at is the American dream,” her speech began at Virginia GOP Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s joint campaign celebration.

“When I joined the Marine Corps, I was still a Jamaican, but this country had done so much for me, I was willing, willing to die for this country,” Sears told the crowd, starting a chant of “U.S.A.”

There is also the possibility of the Republicans gaining seats in the House of Delegates. If the Republicans can at least gain enough seats for a tie, the new Governor and Lt. Governor may be able to undo some of the damage done to Virginia in recent years.

Regardless of how you feel about President Trump, his policies worked. Many voters are realizing that after nine months of the Biden administration. At the present time, red states are doing better economically than blue states. At some point voters are going to realize that they need to elect leaders who work for them–not against them. Meanwhile, the mainstream media is working very hard to make sure American voters do not wake up.

It May Be That He Is Reading The Tea Leaves

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As of November 1 (according to Real Clear Politics), President Biden’s approval rating is 43 percent approval and 57.1 disapproval. Real Clear Politics also notes that 63.3 percent of Americans believe that America is headed in the wrong direction while 28.8 percent of Americans believe that America is headed in the right direction. It is quite possible that Senator Joe Manchin is well aware of these numbers.

Yesterday The Epoch Times reported the following:

At a press conference Monday afternoon, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) called on the House to stop playing “political games” and to move ahead with a floor vote on the Senate-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Since August, progressives in the House have held the bipartisan infrastructure bill (BIF) hostage in an attempt to compel votes for the reconciliation bill. These progressives have warned that they will not vote for the moderate-preferred infrastructure bill without passage of a budget that progressives find acceptable.

Specifically, these progressives have sought to use the threat to compel Manchin and his colleague Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who were key elements in bipartisan negotiations over the BIF.

But Manchin warned progressives that they would not achieve that result by continuing to hold the bill hostage. Manchin said that he will need more time to go over the new budget deal before agreeing to vote for it, pushing Democrats even further off schedule in passing both bills.

“In all my years of public service, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Manchin fumed. He noted that even after two visits to the U.S. Capitol by President Joe Biden asking House Democrats to support the BIF, there is “still no action.”

The article concludes:

“To be clear, I will not support the reconciliation bill without knowing how the bill will impact our debt and our economy and our country. We won’t know that until we work through the text.”

Until that time comes, Manchin urged the House to move ahead with the infrastructure bill, noting the bill’s rarely-seen bipartisan passage through the Senate. He emphasized again: “Holding that bill hostage is not going to work to get my support [for] what you want.”

Manchin said that he is open to supporting a bill that “helps our country move forward” but is equally open to voting against a bill that “hurts our country.”

“Let’s work together … on getting a sensible reconciliation package that really strengthens our nation, makes us better, and leads the world,” concluded Manchin.

Keep in mind that in the past Senator Manchin has caved to the whims of the Democrats in the Senate. He is not a reliable vote to block the progressives, but the current polls may keep him on the right side of things in this instance.

Politics Above All

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Last June, a young lady attending school in Loudoun County Virginia was sexually assaulted in the ladies’ room by a ‘gender-fluid’ boy wearing a skirt. The school board covered up the assault and transferred the boy to another school in order to avoid conflict with the transgender activists that have become so vocal in our education bureaucracy. Unfortunately the boy assaulted another young lady in his new school. Those incidents and the fact that the first incident was covered up are the reason Scott Smith (whose daughter was assaulted) was so upset during a school board meeting. Mr. Smith was forcibly removed from the meeting and arrested.

The mainstream media’s take on the events was inexcusable.

Yesterday Newsbusters reported the following:

The media is desperately trying to salvage Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s chances in Virginia’s governor’s race, after his alarming comments about parents and education have cost him in the very tight election.

This week, MSNBC went so far as to call Loudoun County Public Schools in VA covering up a sexual assault as a “manufactured” and “made up” controversy.

I wonder how many people who have children in the Loudoun County schools consider this a ‘made-up’ controversy.

The article also notes:

Scarborough (MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough) complained that the first sexual assault by a boy wearing a skirt in the girls’ room happened before the transgender policy was in place, so any anger over it was inconsequential:

“This was a guy that went in and sexually assaulted a girl. There is no controversial bathroom policy regarding trans students. This is just a controversy that you and your column point out that’s just been made-up,” he sneered.

Scarborough insisted again that the school’s transgender policy had nothing to do with the rape. (Does he think that allowing boys into girl’s locker rooms and bathrooms will diminish sexual assaults?):

…Goldberg (New York Times’ columnist Michelle Goldberg) then outright lied about the district’s transgender policy, claiming that if the boy had *really* identified as a girl under the current school policy, he still wouldn’t have had access to the girls’ bathrooms. Not true, as the policy approved in August by the school board plainly states: “All students are entitled to have access to restrooms and locker rooms that are sanitary, safe, and adequate, so that they can comfortably and fully engage in their school programs and activities. Students should be allowed to use the facility that corresponds to their gender identity.”

The article at Newsbusters includes a transcript of the comments made. Basically the fact that a young lady was sexually assaulted is less important than the transgender agenda.

A Very Good Question

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Zero Hedge posted an article today about President Biden’s recent trip to the climate summit.

The article notes:

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso has called for detailed information on the carbon footprint of Joe Biden’s trip to the COP climate Summit in Scotland, labelling it “bloated” and “counterproductive”.

Considering that the climate summit was a mass meeting of private jets, I think that is a valid question. There is also the matter of diesel generators being brought in to power the Teslas (article here). I really think that if those who attended the summit were actually as concerned about global warming and everyone’s carbon footprint, they might make other travel arrangements than they actually did (I know there is such a thing as car-pooling, is there plane-pooling?). The article notes that it would have made sense to hold the summit virtually.

It seems that the attendees to the climate summit decry the carbon footprint of ‘the common man’ while jetting around in private planes and charging Teslas with diesel generators. Seems a little off balance.

An Interesting Piece Of Information

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Sharyl Attkisson posted the following on her website today:

Read the full statement below:

“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working expeditiously to develop an emergency temporary standard that covers employers with 100 or more employees, firm- or company-wide, and provides options for compliance. Covered employers must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose either to get vaccinated or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also requires employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects. On November 1, the Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review of the emergency temporary standard. The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days.

– U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson

This Is Really Not Surprising

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Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about a new NBC news poll.

The article reports:

NBC anchor Chuck Todd debuted a new poll on Sunday’s broadcast of “Meet the Press” which showed 71 percent of Americans believe America is on the wrong track.

Todd said, “We have a brand new NBC news poll out this morning still with some scary news for the Democrats. The overarching message, Americans have lost their confidence in President Joe Biden and their optimism for the country. At least they have right now. Just 22% of adults say we are headed in the right direction. A shocking 71% say we’re on the wrong track and that includes a near majority of Democrats who are saying that.”

…Look at this set of numbers, just 37% say he has the ability to handle a crisis versus a majority who say he does not. Thirty-seven percent also say he’s competent and effective as president. 50% disagree with that description. What’s more, Republicans, believe it or not, have double-digit leads in dealing with border security, inflation, crime, national security, the economy, and, shockingly, on getting things done. Democrats hold generally smaller double-digit leads on dealing with climate change, the coronavirus, education, and abortion. That’s really it right now.”

Americans tend to pay more attention to politics when their pocketbooks are involved. During the Biden administration we have seen prices on things we purchase regularly jump significantly. Gas is one of the major items, but food prices have also markedly increased. The open border and the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan have not helped President Biden’s case. We are watching significant increases in crime and the inability of some of our major cities to maintain adequate police forces. I question the democrat lead on education and the coronavirus–our schools are failing and we have more coronavirus deaths so far this year than we did in all of last year. The Biden administration’s track record is not something to be proud of.

The Rescues Continue

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CBN News posted an article today about an Afghan refugee who joined the American army after the 9/11 attacks.

The article reports:

An Afghan native who came to the U.S. as a refugee days before the 9/11 attacks and later served as a U.S. soldier told Fox News this week he illegally crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan about a month ago to rescue at-risk individuals and family members.

The unnamed former soldier — who spoke on condition of anonymity — said he has rescued at least 30 people from Afghanistan, including Christians and other religious minorities stuck in the midst of the Taliban’s reemergence.

He described himself to Fox as a “proud American soldier” who fought in Afghanistan before leaving due to injuries.

Some of the man’s family members in Afghanistan have faced retribution over the years due to his American military service. Those fears have intensified in the wake of the Taliban’s revival. Despite pleading for help from the U.S. government to keep them safe, he reportedly received no assistance.

In an initial interview with Fox, he said he hadn’t gotten his family members out but had rescued others in need; after the interview, though, he reportedly did successfully rescue his relatives, but challenges remain.

The family is in an unnamed country and could be returned to Afghanistan if they don’t find a permanent solution within 28 days.

The ex-soldier has also faced his own set of troubles, telling the outlet that he was at one point “lashed” by the Taliban after militants caught him.

The article also notes:

“Had they known that I had actually just helped a Catholic family get out, it would have been worse,” he said. “Far worse.”

The Taliban continue their intense crackdown inside Afghanistan, with reports that they are only allowing some girls to return to school, among other restrictions.

Our government has a lot to answer for in its handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Unfortunately, as long as the swamp is in power in Washington, no one will be held accountable.