About That Border

On Monday Fox News posted an article about a recent arrest of someone who had crossed our southern border illegally.

The article reports:

A “potential terrorist” with links to a number of “Yemeni subjects of interest” was captured in Arizona late last week after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Border Patrol officials announced Monday.

The 21-year-old man was apprehended Thursday night entering the U.S. from Mexico through Yuma, Arizona, according to a tweet from Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem. He appears to have been wearing a jacket emblazoned with an American flag patch and another that stated: “Central Oneida County Volunteer.”

You have to admit it was a great disguise. Thankfully law enforcement saw right through it.

The article continues:

Speaking to Fox News on Monday morning, Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps Chief Thomas Meyers said the man, whose identity has not been released, has no affiliation with the New York-based group. Meyers added that he does not know who the man is or how he acquired one of the jackets, which is outdated from the version the ambulance corps now uses.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Having an open southern border is not good for national security. How many secret terror cells have been smuggled in while the border is open? How long will it be before those cells begin carrying out attacks on Americans?

Things Were Not What We Have Been Told They Were

January 6th will live in infamy. At least if the Democrats in Congress have anything to say about it. However, there are a lot of unanswered questions, unreleased video, mistreatment of prisoners, and other things around the edges of what Congress is trying to do. In case you haven’t noticed, the goal of the Congressional investigation is to make sure that President Trump does not run for office again. They impeached him twice and that didn’t work, so this is one of their last-ditch efforts. The next effort will be all mail-in ballots for the mid-term elections.

Meanwhile, on Monday The American Thinker posted an article about someone who seems to be a central character in the breaching of the Capitol but somehow hasn’t paid any consequences for his actions.

The article reports:

The House’s Soviet-style January 6 committee continues its unsuccessful efforts to tie Donald Trump, people in his administration, Republican congresspeople, and Fox News personalities to the events on that day. What they’re ignoring as they try to destroy their political enemies is those people caught on tape actively encouraging the crowd to breach the Capitol. The most notable of these people is one Ray Epps, but he’s not the only one. The Revolver has an extensive exposé looking not just at Epps, but at others in the crowd who ought to be at the top of the FBI’s dragnet but, somehow, aren’t.

…The Revolver studied all the people who are seen interacting with Epps on the available videos from January 5 and 6. It concludes that these people were operatives trying to entrap people.

The starting point for the analysis is the 12:50 barrier breach that Epps led along with a small team of people. They systematically destroyed all the barriers and “keep out” signage that people traveling from Trump’s speech to the Capitol would reach first.

By doing so, they created a honeypot that would lead people into the Capitol without their realizing they had crossed into illegal territory. Or, as The Revolver says, “the Ray Epps Breach Team thus set up what may amount to the largest legal booby-trap in American history.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire articles in The American Thinker and in The Revolver. It seems that we have some ethically challenged people in Washington who are running things. It is time they were replaced with people who love America and have some sort of moral code.

 

Scaring Us To Death In Order To Maintain Control

On Monday, Townhall posted an article about the Biden administration’s latest statement about the coronavirus. The comment made by White House Wuhan Coronavirus Coordinator Jeff Zients is not only frightening, it is totally misleading.

The article reports:

“We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this,” White House Wuhan Coronavirus Coordinator Jeff Zients said during a recent press briefing. “For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.” 

Merry Christmas.

That statement is totally misleading. Many Americans who have recovered from Covid have natural immunity. Many people who are vaccinated are not only coming down with Covid, they are also spreading the disease. The vaccines may (or may not–the jury is still out) lessen the severity of the symptoms. The vaccine does not prevent the disease or the spread of the disease.

The article at Townhall notes:

The statement from Zients is jarring, and given that vaccinated individuals also spread the disease, his remarks are unscientific. Further, doctors from South Africa and the UK have repeatedly said cases of the latest variant are mild among the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The variant is also not causing hospitals to be overwhelmed.

It is becoming obvious that the Biden White House is not interested in uniting Americans. When they can’t divide us along racial lines, they will divide us along vaccinated and unvaccinated lines. In either case, if we are focused on our differences, we won’t notice that our freedoms are being slowly taken away.

 

 

Our Tax Dollars At Work

Yesterday The Washington Times posted an article about the government spending related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The article reports:

The federal government’s coronavirus spending spree turned out to be a snow job — literally.

One Utah county spent more than $200,000 of its COVID-19 cash to make snow on a hill for sledding.

Auditors said Uintah County bought six snow guns at $20,000 each, along with snowcats and pipes, and paid $3,000 in shipping costs, all authorized by a single county commissioner. Local politicians told the Uintah Basin Standard they were coming up on a deadline to either use the cash or give it back to the state, so they needed a reason to spend. And they decided on snow.

Sen. Joni Ernst on Monday dedicated her December “Squeal Award,” which highlights ridiculous government waste, to Uintah and other state and local governments that found creative Christmas-style ways to waste COVID-19 money.

That includes Connecticut, where West Haven city officials spent federal coronavirus money on Christmas decorations.

The CT Mirror said Christmas wasn’t the only holiday city officials blessed with federal cash. They also rented a 20-person band to march in the Memorial Day parade with $7,000 of Uncle Sam’s money.

The article concludes:

A number of states used money to run tourism campaigns.

Auditors in local governments reported money allocated to holiday ornaments or bonuses to employees, both of which seemed at odds with the intention of the funds.

Ms. Ernst, in her Squeal Award, said at a time when Americans are facing soaring inflation and struggling to buy Christmas presents, it’s unseemly for governments to blow taxpayer dollars on boondoggles.

“There are too many struggling families and small business owners who are desperately trying to survive while untold amounts are being squandered because of inadequate guidance and oversight,” the senator said.

One of the COVID-19 projects Ms. Ernst exposed Monday involved plans by the town of Westfield, New Jersey, to buy 2,000 tote bags emblazoned with “Shop Local, Shop Safe, Shop Westfield.” The point was to encourage people to patronize local businesses struggling amid the pandemic during last year’s Christmas season.

But the bags weren’t actually distributed before Christmas.

Months later, they were discovered in unopened boxes in a warehouse, Ms. Ernst said.

Wasteful spending is neither a Republican nor a Democrat problem–both parties are guilty. We need American voters to keep track of what their representatives vote for and boot out the representatives that support wasteful spending. Inflation is a byproduct of wasteful spending. If we can get spending under control, we at least have a chance of getting inflation under control.

The Emails Tell The Story

On Monday The Federalist posted an article about the politicization of the coronavirus. The article included quotes from emails between National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins. The purpose of the emails was to create an implement the strategy to discredit information about COVID-19 that contradicted their pro-lockdown approach to curbing the virus.

The article reports:

In early October, experts in biostatics, immunology, public health policy, and more signed and released the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) urging health officials to reconsider the dangerous COVID-19 lockdown policies that “will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.” Shortly after its publication, Collins emailed Fauci to orchestrate a “quick and devastating published take down” of the GBD and the doctors promoting it.

The article includes screenshots of messages between Dr. Fauci and Francis Collins discussing how to take down the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD). A smear campaign against those involved in the GBD followed. Wait! I thought science was taking opposite opinions and finding the truth.

The article concludes:

Fauci also has a damning list of COVID-19 sins that he has yet to address or apologize for. In addition to moving the goalposts to suit whatever agenda keeps him on TV and in the good graces of the corporate media, reports released this year indicate that Fauci lied to members of Congress about funding for gain-of-function research, colluded with Big Tech to shut up conservatives who questioned his motives and statements, and even authorized the torture of beagles in the name of “science.” Emails obtained by corrupt members of the media who were unwilling to criticize Fauci also detailed the bureaucrat’s tendency to hide key COVID-19 information such as mask efficacy from the public to protect himself.

Collins’ and Fauci’s demands for compliance continue as the Biden administration struggles to justify its COVID-19 response amid a climbing number of virus-related deaths in the United States. As of Monday, more than 805,000 people in the U.S. had died from COVID-19.

I think it’s time for Dr. Fauci to find another job. Fear mongering to the American people is not going to work at some point.

The Boondoggles In Green Energy

On Friday, The Sun Journal (the local paper in New Bern, North Carolina) posted an article about an electric charging station built in the city.

The article reports:

In October, two electric vehicle (EV) fast charge stations were installed in the Red Bear Parking lot in downtown New Bern.

Each station cost $60,000 not including installation and were funded through the DEQ Volkswagen Emissions Grant the City received in Nov. 2020 for $128,716 total. 

Another $32,826 of in-kind contributions from the City of New Bern funded their installation.

However, travelers and passersby may have noticed their digital screen still saying “unavailable”.

“Since October, staff has been testing and commissioning the equipment as well as working on rate designs. With new technology, there isn’t a lot of comparison out there, so collecting data on utility successes and failures with DC Fast Charging has been a challenge,” said Charles Bauschard, director of public utilities for the City of New Bern. 

The article continues:

The stations are not open for use by consumers visiting New Bern during the popular Beary Merry and Tryon Palace holiday events and will also not be ready by the Bear Drop on New Year’s Eve.

“They are installed in there and ready to be available to the public as soon as we establish the rate that we will charge to customers who want to charge their vehicle,” said Bauschard.

…Bauschard said both stations should be ready for use by the end of January or early February.

Typical prices per kilowatt hour vary widely between pumps, anywhere from $1 to twenty cents per kilowatt hour. Unlike gas prices, EV charge rates do not change daily or weekly.

Plugshare.com reports:

EV Charging in New Bern, North Carolina. The city of New Bern in North Carolina has 36 public charging stations, 5 of which are free EV charging stations. New Bern has a total of 10 DC Fast Chargers, 8 of which are Tesla Superchargers.

If five of the charging stations already in New Bern are free, how much revenue will the city generate from the two it installed? It is possible that New Bern is ahead of the curve, but it is also quite possible that New Bern just funded a $128,716 bridge to nowhere.

I Hate To Be Paranoid, But This Scares Me To Death

On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article about New York State Bill A416, which would provide amazing power to the Governor of New York and members of the administrative state.

The article reports:

In roughly three weeks, the New York state legislature will vote on Bill A416, which will give the New York governor (in this case, the power-mad Kathy Hochul), as well as the governor’s delegates (i.e., New York’s administrative state) the power to indefinitely detain anyone the governor or her agencies deem a “significant threat to public health.” Despite the broad power states have, this violates the Constitution. At a practical level, it should scare the pants off every American.

There is absolutely no doubt that, under our Constitution, the states have powers that the federal government lacks. The federal government is explicitly a creature of very limited powers, while the Tenth Amendment makes it clear that those limited powers not reserved to the federal government belong to the state “or to the people.”

The Tenth Amendment, however, does not mean that states can play the dictator. Indeed, since the Civil War, states have been subject to the same constraints as the federal government when it comes to using its police power over the people within its borders. Thus, the second sentence in the Fourteenth Amendment states explicitly that

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Among the privileges Americans have is a pivotal one in the Fifth Amendment assuring us that “No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law….” That deprivation is precisely what New York state contemplates.

The article notes:

No matter the language in the bill, given that the New York governor has the uncontested power to declare a health emergency, people are at risk. If you’re wondering what that looks like, look to Victoria, in Australia. There, people are locked up in concentration camps for the mere suspicion of having COVID.

And again, it cannot be said often enough that this is a disease with an average mortality rate hovering around 1% (a rate that could be even lower if people were allowed treatment with Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine early in their diagnosis). By way of contrast, this is not AIDS, which entered the West with a 100% mortality rate but never resulted in such a draconian response.

If we don’t wake up and stand up quickly, we will lose our freedom and our country.

The Perfect Comeback

I am not ready to say that Senator Manchin has killed the Build Back Better Bill. That remains to be seen. He has at least killed it until after Christmas. However, President Biden does not seem to be dealing with the possibility that the bill might be dead.

On Friday, Red State posted an article about a statement released by the White House regarding the Build Back Better Bill.

The article reports:

Neither the media nor Joe Biden seems to be able to deal with the simple fact that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has always been clear that he had issues with the Build Back Better (BBB) bill, from various provisions to the price tag of the whole monstrosity.

As we noted earlier, the AP chastised Manchin, claiming he was the “single senator” standing in the way of the Biden Administration’s grand plans. How to have bias and untruth there, all wrapped up in a fake news package. Then CNN analyst Kirsten Powers suggested it would be better for Joe Biden if Manchin left the Democrats so that Biden wouldn’t be blamed for not uniting all the Democrats — a truly strange take, and not ultimately helpful to the Democrats.

But the worst reaction was that of Joe Biden himself. The BBB imploded after the CBO score came in and laid out how much the true cost of the bill would be with all the social programs properly scored out over 10 years. It wasn’t even close to the number that Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had been pitching of around $1.75 trillion. Manchin said that was “very sobering,” and the reports were that he and Biden were far apart. That’s what resulted in the BBB being put off and essentially killed.

Now, Biden has released a statement where he mentions Manchin three times and falsely claims that Manchin had agreed with him on a number.

The article quotes some of President Biden’s statement:

‘In these discussions, Senator Manchin has reiterated his support for Build Back Better funding at the level of the framework plan I announced in September,’ he said.

‘I believe that we will bridge our differences and advance the Build Back Better plan, even in the face of fierce Republican opposition.’

The article also quotes Senator Manchin’s response:

Manchin is a very genteel fellow, but his response to Biden’s statement, for him, seemed perturbed. “The president put out a statement. It’s his statement, not mine,” Manchin said. That’s probably as close as Manchin will politely come to calling Joe Biden a liar. It also is a comment as to where they are at this point — which is not anywhere close to an agreement.

Let’s hope Senator Manchin continues to hold his ground as the media and the Democrats trash him for doing the right thing.

What Is The Role Of The Government In Marriage And Divorce?

The dilemma I am about to share has not yet been reported in America, but I suspect it is only a matter of time. This story takes place in Denmark. Therefore, I share this article as food for thought as to how much power the government should have over marriage and divorce.

On Thursday, Front Page Magazine reported the following:

One of the many appalling challenges that have confronted Western European authorities since mass Muslim immigration began several decades ago is the arrival of adult – often elderly – men with underaged girls whom they identify as their wives.

Such marriages, of course, are not just permitted but encouraged under Islam. Muslims are taught to look in all things, big and small, to the example of their prophet, and they all know that one of the treasures of Muhammed’s harem – often described as his most beloved wife – was Aisha, whom he wed when she was six and deflowered when she was nine.

Needless to say, the pedofile alliances that are ubiquitous in the Islamic world – and legally sanctioned (or tacitly accepted) in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and elsewhere – are invariably arranged and forced on girls by their parents. They’re also usually cousin marriages. The BBC’s website provides a helpful whitewash – I mean, justification – of such unions: “Arranged marriages ensure that Muslim marriages are based on compatibility rather than lustful feelings.” Yes, because there’s nothing more compatible than a 70-year-old husband and an eight-year-old wife. At least you can be pretty sure that the little girl isn’t feeling a hell of a lot of lust.

The article continues:

Støjberg’s (Inger Støjberg – a Liberal Party member of Parliament who was then serving as Minister of Immigration, Integration, and Housing in Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s center-right government) initiatives, then, offended media hacks and ivory-tower buffoons. But they also made her a national heroine, and arguably the most popular politician in Denmark.

Now, confronted with the child-bride issue, Støjberg didn’t disappoint. At first she decided to offer the girls – 23 in all – the option of divorce. Then, realizing that many of the girls, if offered a choice, would likely be under immense family pressure to stay with their “husbands,” she ordered that all of them – except for five who were between the ages of 15 and 17 – be severed at once from their so-called spouses and granted instant divorces. Between February 10 and March 18, eighteen “couples” were separated.

But Støjberg’s swift action on child brides landed her in hot water. Immigration officials and other government bureaucrats maintained that she had no power to end marriages, even if they involved minors. The European Convention on Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child were both cited – not, mind you, in favor of saving girls from statutory rape, but in favor of allowing child molesters to keep on molesting.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. A heroine has gone to prison to protect children.

There are two sides to this story–balancing the protection of children and the rights of the government. I don’t ever want the government telling anyone they have to get a divorce, but I don’t want pedophilia allowed either.

I think we are going to have to look carefully at our immigration policies to see if we will permit these pedofile alliances to continue when immigrants enter the country. America has rules regarding pedophilia and the protection of children. Many of the Arab cultures do not. If people want to come to America, I think they need to follow our rules. However, I don’t want to give the government the right to demand a divorce.

Setting Up A Supreme Court Case

Before I go into the details of this Appeals Court ruling on vaccine mandates, I want to mention a few things about how our government is supposed to work.

The Tenth Amendment states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The vaccine mandates in question are not delegated to the federal government in the Constitution, nor has Congress passed any laws regarding the vaccine mandates. So the mandates are not law. Who in the government is making these mandates? Are the people making the mandates elected officials? Where do they get their right to make laws or mandates? If they are President Biden’s mandates, the President does not have the authority to make laws. OSHA does not have the authority to make laws. Does the federal government have the right to interfere in the business of a private company without a law being passed? Does a company have the right to know the health records of its employees?

Meanwhile, on Friday, Just the News reported the following:

A federal appeals court on Friday night reinstated President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private companies with more than 100 workers, reversing lower court rulings and setting up a likely showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration had the authority to Impose the mandate due to take effect Jan. 4.

“Given OSHA’s clear and exercised authority to regulate viruses, OSHA necessarily has the authority to regulate infectious diseases that are not unique to the workplace,” the court conckuddd in its majority opinion.

Within an hour of the decision, the small business group Job Creators Network filed an appeal to the high court, saying the appeals judges “irresponsibly upheld an illegal rule.”

“This mandate adds an incredible burden on small business owners who are still suffering negative effects of the pandemic,” the group said. “This mandate will make it even harder for small business owners to find and keep employees.”

The ruling came after several challenges from GOP-led states and conservative and business groups were consolidated before the Cincinnati-based 6th circuit.

The article continues:

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge told The Associated Press she would immediately appeal to the Supreme Court.

“The Sixth Circuit’s decision is extremely disappointing for Arkansans because it will force them to get the shot or lose their jobs,” she said.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, tweeted he was confident the mandate would be blocked by the justices.

“We will go immediately to the Supreme Court- the highest court in the land- to fight this unconstitutional and illegal mandate,” he said. “The law must be followed and federal abuse of power stopped.”

Stay tuned.

Bowing To Public Pressure

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported that even as an appeals court upheld vaccine mandates, private companies are dropping employee vaccine mandates.

The article reports:

More and more businesses in recent days have walked back previous rules mandating COVID-19 vaccine sas a condition for employment in a bid to keep workers.

Earlier this week, Amtrak—a quasi-public corporation—became the latest to rescind its vaccine requirement amid concerns about staff shortages and cut service in January. In a memo sent to staff that was obtained by The Epoch Times, Amtrak CEO William Flynn said the company would do away with the mandate that would have given employees until Jan. 4 to get fully vaccinated or go on unpaid leave.

About 500 out of more than 17,000 Amtrak workers remain unvaccinated, according to the memo. Still, the sudden loss of that many workers would have caused service disruptions, Flynn suggested, while noting that Amtrak was acting in accordance with recent court orders handed down against President Joe Biden’s sweeping vaccine mandates.

Several hospitals and healthcare systems have similarly rescinded vaccine mandates for employees and cited labor issues that were triggered by the new requirements. In early December, Florida’s AdventHealth announced the end of its vaccine requirement for some 83,000 workers, also citing the several recent court injunctions against federal mandates.

“Due to recent decisions by the federal courts to block the [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] vaccine mandate, we are suspending all vaccination requirements of our COVID-19 vaccination policy,” AdventHealth Chief Clinical Officer Neil Finkler said in a letter to staff. The move came after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services confirmed to The Epoch Times that the agency suspended enforcement following two court orders several weeks ago.

Public pressure works. Any medical procedure has risks. It is up to individuals to weigh risk and benefit. Somehow those in our government seem to have overlooked the risk part. They have also chosen to overlook natural immunity. It’s time Americans began retaking control of their lives.

I Really Love This Idea

On Thursday, The New York Sun posted an editorial by Larry Kudlow about the Federal Reserve.

The editorial states:

Can we please get a Federal Reserve with a backbone? Here are a couple thoughts on today’s wussy Fed announcement that it is going to move faster on tapering bond purchases and there might be three little bitty rate hikes next year. And, oh yeah, Jay Powell told the press conference he was confident inflation would drop to two percent by the end of next year.

Wanna bet? On that bet, I’m taking the under. Know who the best inflation forecaster in the country is? Senator Manchin. Numero uno. I don’t even know if he talks to economists, but since last winter when the $2 trillion Democrat so-called relief package was implemented, Joe Manchin has been warning about inflation.

That’s why he has argued consistently all year that President Biden’s big government socialist bill should be paused until inflation is clearly falling. Which it is not. CPI up 7 percent, PPI up 10 percent, and today we got another whopper, with an 11.7 percent rise in import prices. How about that?

Joe Manchin, by the way, in his original memo to Senator Schumer, called last summer for the end of quantitative easing.

Mr. Manchin makes me feel proud to be a former Democrat, as were both of my presidential bosses — Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

The editorial continues:

Finally, I have another idea for a new Fed chairman if Joe Manchin won’t take the job. How about Elon Musk? Time Magazine’s man of the year. How can I say such an outrageous thing? Several reasons. I worked with him several times in the White house and he’s very smart and savvy.

The mere fact that socialist Senator Warren is attacking him for not paying his “fair share” of taxes is by itself a fabulous endorsement of Mr. Musk’s philosophy, business prowess.

Am I saying anybody Mrs. Warren opposes gets my stamp of approval? Yes. I’m tired of her left-wing progressive woke whining. And her desires to tax and regulate anything that moves in business and the economy.

Meanwhile, Mr. Musk, who’s the biggest E-V car seller in the country, has said publicly he does not want E-V auto or battery subsidies from the federal government. Indeed, he has come out against the entire reckless tax, spend, and regulate Biden policies.

Unlike GM and the unionist car-makers, Mr. Musk is non-union and will not put his nose into the public trough.

My kind of guy. I doubt if he ever talks to economists. That’s probably why he’s such a good conservative, libertarian thinker.

And incidentally, Mr. Musk has been selling about $3 billion worth of stock at the prevailing capitalist gains tax rate of 23.8%. The Musk stock sale would generate $714 million of revenues to the federal government.

Mr. Kudlow also notes that the Federal Reserve is continuing Quantitative Easing, the practice of buying up the debt and pumping up the money supply, at a time when inflation is rapidly increasing. We need someone at the Federal Reserve that will put the brakes on that practice so that we can being to rein in inflation.

A Professional Stating The Obvious

Despite being part of the Trump administration, Dr. Ben Carson is not a political animal. He tends to speak his mind regardless of the political winds. On Thursday, The Epoch Times posted an article about his views on the coronavirus pandemic.

The article notes:

“We’ve been having tunnel vision” dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ben Carson told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” program.

“Let’s throw the politics out. We could solve this problem pretty quickly,” he stated in an interview that will premiere on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. New York time.

…“Let’s look around the world at things that work. Let’s look at the fact that on the western coast of Africa, there’s almost no COVID. And let’s ask ourselves, why is that? And then you see, it’s because they take antimalarials, particularly hydroxychloroquine. Let’s study that. Let’s see what’s going on there.

“Let’s listen to these physician groups who’ve had incredible success with ivermectin. Let’s look at the results with monoclonal antibodies. Let’s look at all of these things. Let’s put them all in our armamentarium so that we don’t have a one-size-fits-all system.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) at one time had authorized hydroxychloroquine for treating certain COVID-19 patients but quickly revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) in June 2020, claiming no data showed its effectiveness.

The FDA hasn’t approved or issued an EUA for ivermectin to treat COVID-19, citing the same reasons.

Using hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients has been highly controversial. Some studies show, and some doctors claim, that hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin can effectively treat COVID-19 patients. A vaccine confidence insight report (pdf) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labeled such claims as misinformation or disinformation.

“COVID is a virus. Viruses mutate. That’s what they do. And they will continue to mutate,” Carson said.

Carson pointed out that fortunately, most of the time, viruses become a little weaker with each mutation.

The article concludes:

“We have a situation where you have the government advocating that children be vaccinated, even though the risk for death for a child with COVID is 0.025 percent, essentially the same as it is for seasonal flu. You don’t see us doing all this every year for seasonal flu,” Carson stated.

“The risk of mortality for a healthy child is approaching zero, and yet we’re saying do this without knowing what the long-term risks are?” he said. “And why would you subject an innocent child to a lifetime of unknown risk? It just makes absolutely no sense.

“We need to have faith in our government. We need to have faith in our health care systems. And by injecting politics into it, I think we have put ourselves behind the eight ball. It’s going to take a while to reestablish that trust,” he said.

“Why not learn how to look at what’s logical and what makes sense? And why not encourage discussion of those things, rather than everybody getting their respective corners and shooting hand grenades at each other?”

The way out is real leadership, he said.

“The only path is strong leadership. We don’t have that.”

As I have previously stated, “How many of our CDC officials and government officials own stock in pharmaceutical companies?”

An Ordinary Citizen Would Be Arrested For This

Falsifying evidence is a criminal offense. We are about to find out whether the laws actually do apply to the people in Congress.

On Wednesday, The Western Journal reported the following:

It’s amazing to me that California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff is not in jail. This lawmaker has played it fast and loose, first during the Trump/Russia collusion investigation, which put him on the map, and next in the House impeachment inquiry of former President Donald Trump. There is no line this unethical, truth-challenged, repellent snake won’t cross in the name of politics.

The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported on Wednesday that Schiff was up to his old tricks at Monday night’s hearing of the Jan. 6 Committee. According to Davis, Schiff “claimed to have proof” that Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican, texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows “to instruct former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.”

Davis claims that Schiff misrepresented “the substance of the text message and its source.” Schiff “even doctored original text messages, which were obtained and reviewed by The Federalist in their entirety.”

The article explains the changes Representative Schiff made to the text messages:

Davis (The Federalist’s Sean Davis) explains that in addition to lying about “substance” and the “source” of the text, Schiff “even doctored the message and graphic that he displayed on screen during his statement. The full text message, which was forwarded to Meadows from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on the evening of Monday, Jan. 5, was significantly longer than what Schiff read and put on screen, but Schiff erased significant portions of the text and added punctuation where there was none to give the impression that Jordan himself was tersely directing Meadows to give orders to Pence on how to handle the electoral vote certification.”

Davis continues: “The original text was written by Washington attorney and former Department of Defense Inspector General Joseph Schmitz and included an attachment of a four-page draft Word document drafted by Schmitz that detailed Schmitz’s legal reasoning for suggesting that Pence had the constitutional authority to object to the certification of electoral votes submitted by a handful of states. The piece that Schmitz had sent to Jordan was published at the website everylegal.vote the next day and even included the same ‘DISCUSSION DRAFT’ heading and timestamp on the document that Schmitz sent to Jordan.”

He explains that Schmitz sent this text to Jordan “on the evening of Jan. 5, including the Word document as an attachment. Schmitz then texted to Jordan a three-paragraph summary of his Word document, which Schiff sliced and diced and then attributed to Jordan.”

Would anyone like to wager on how much of the above chicanery will be reported by the mainstream media?

The Incestuous Swamp

On December 10th, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article which may explain why we are not hearing an awful lot from the Durham investigation.

The article reports:

A top adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing calls to recuse herself from the Justice Department’s investigation of the Trump-Russia probe, which has looked into the actions of her husband, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Margaret Goodlander serves as counsel to Garland, who oversees Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation. Garland has oversight of Durham’s budget, the scope of the investigation, and the release of a report Durham is believed to be writing. Sullivan, who married Goodlander in 2015, has been referenced in Durham’s indictment of a cybersecurity lawyer who worked for the Clinton campaign. While there is no indication that Durham is targeting Sullivan, the national security adviser could be a witness for the investigation given that he was a foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Durham’s report could also reveal embarrassing details about Sullivan’s work on the campaign to dig up dirt on Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia.

A spokesman for the Justice Department said Goodlander “has no role in Mr. Durham’s investigation,” but it is unclear whether she has formally recused herself from the matter or whether the Durham probe is outside her Justice Department portfolio. Fox News reported that Goodlander advises Garland on antitrust and international issues.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and the watchdog group Empower Oversight say Goodlander should be formally recused from the Durham investigation to maintain public trust in the probe.

Maybe I’m missing something, but if your husband is under investigation by the Justice Department, you shouldn’t be working for the Justice Department.

The article concludes:

According to the indictment, Sussmann’s (indicted cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann) former Perkins Coie partner, Marc Elias, in September 2016 briefed Sullivan and others on the Clinton team about his firm’s efforts to investigate the Alfa Bank data. Sullivan days before the election issued a statement that cited the Alfa-Trump allegations as evidence of collusion. It was unknown at the time that the Clinton campaign was investigating the Alfa Bank issue. The FBI later determined that there was no nefarious link between the bank and Trump.

Elias was the attorney who hired Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier. Durham indicted the primary source for the dossier, Igor Danchenko, on charges that Danchenko lied to the FBI about the identity of his sources. Dancheko allegedly lied by saying that a longtime Democratic operative, Charles Dolan, was not one of his sources.

Grassley and Empower Oversight have pressed the Justice Department over the recusal of another official, Susan Hennessey, who has pushed the false claim that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. Hennessey, who serves in the national security division, last year criticized Durham’s investigation, calling it “partisan silliness.”

Grassley said Garland has stonewalled his requests for information about Hennessey and other Justice Department officials’ conflicts of interest.

“I’ve raised concerns about potential conflicts of several Biden Justice Department officials and can’t get a straight answer from the attorney general,” he told the Free Beacon.

The Free Beacon was once a client of Fusion GPS. All of the work Fusion GPS performed for the Free Beacon was based on public sources, and none of the work product appeared in the Steele dossier. For more information, see here.

The swamp is deeper and has more entangled vines than most of us ever imagined.

 

Concerning Numbers

On Wednesday WND posted an article about a study of the number of deaths caused by the Covid vaccine.

The article reports:

The CDC’s latest count of deaths attributed to COVID-19 vaccines is nearly 20,000, but a study by researchers at Columbia University estimates the actual number is 20 times higher.

The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, or VAERS, reports 19,886 deaths, 102,857 hospitalizations and a total of 946,461 adverse events due to COVID-19 vaccines through Dec. 3.

The article notes:

The Columbia researchers method of estimating underreporting was to use the regional variation in vaccination rates to predict all-cause mortality and non-COVID deaths in subsequent time periods, based on two independent, publicly available datasets from the U.S. and Europe.

They found that more than six weeks after injection, vaccination had a negative correlation with mortality. But within five weeks of injection, vaccination predicted all-cause mortality in nearly every age group, with an “age-related temporal pattern consistent with the U.S. vaccine rollout.”

Comparing the study’s estimated vaccine fatality rate with the CDC-reported rate, the researchers concluded VAERS deaths are underreported by a factor of 20, which is “consistent with known VAERS under-ascertainment bias.”

The article notes the impact of some of the research and the reluctance of Pfizer to release all of the information about the vaccine and some of the problems caused by it:

Files obtained from the Food and Drug Administration in November through a Freedom of Information lawsuit recorded 158,893 adverse events from the Pfizer vaccine in the first two and a half months of distribution, including 25,957 incidents of “nervous system disorders.”

The lawsuit was filed by a group called Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, comprised of more than 30 professors and scientists from universities including Yale, Harvard, UCLA and Brown. As WND reported, in court papers filed in December, the FDA proposed that it be given 55 years to release all 329,000 pages of documents related to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine requested by the group. The FDA has now modified that request, asking a judge for a delay of 75 years.

I am beginning to wonder how many of our government health officials own stock in the companies that are manufacturing the vaccines.

It Will Be Interesting To See If This Winds Up In The Courts

If you stand back and look closely, you will see than in America we are creating two separate groups of people with separate rights–the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. This is very evident in an article posted at The Patriot Daily Wire on Wednesday.

The article reports:

Kroger will no longer provide paid sick leave for unvaccinated workers who come down with COVID-19 unless local jurisdictions require them to do so. The company will also add a $50 monthly surcharge to company health plans for unvaccinated managers and non-union employees.

The Cincinnati-based grocery chain is one of the largest employers in the United States with almost half a million full-time and part-time employees. Kroger has made a decision to tighten pandemic-related policies for its workers at a time when businesses across the country face uncertainty over federal vaccination mandates. In November, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a requirement that employers with 100 or more workers enforce vaccinatation mandates or test its employees weekly for COVID-19. This order is to take effect by January 4. Since that time, though, the Biden administration has received unfavorable rulings in courts over the question of the constitutionalty of such an order.

Kroger is taking a carrot and stick approach to encourage its employees to get vaccinated. When vaccines became available and essential personnel, like grocery store workers, were asked to get vaccinated, Kroger responded by offering an incentive to its employees. The company paid $100 to each employee who got vaccinated. In May, Kroger CEO said the monetary incentive was available to all employees.

What if you have an adverse reaction to the vaccine? Will they cover all related medical expenses?

The article concludes:

A giant retailer like Kroger may have the resources to be able to roll the dice and keep its mandate in place as the courts sort it all out. Smaller businesses with over 100 employees probably don’t at this time, coming off a pandemic and labor and supply chain disruptions. The healthcare industry commonly suffers from shortages, nurses for example, so it isn’t surprising that they are hesitant to do anything that might worsen staffing problems.

I hate to see the government interfering in the private business of companies, but it seems to me that if sick leave is part of the employment package, it can’t be denied because of a refusal to get a vaccine. This creates two sets of standards for employees.

Our freedom seems to be under attack from both the private and government sectors.

Disconcerting At Best

On Tuesday, Trending Politics posted an article about a statement from Dr. Fauci about vaccines that is far from comforting.

This is the statement:

“This would not be the first time, if it happened, that a vaccine that looked good in initial safety actually made people worse,” Fauci said. “There was the history of the Respiratory Syncitial Virus vaccine in children, which paradoxically made the children worse.”

The article continues:

“In the late 1960s, children in Washington, DC received an RSV vaccine in which the virus was inactivated with formalin,” Reuters reported. “Eighty percent of the children given the shot were hospitalized with severe respiratory disease, and two died. Many scientists had thought the formalin was responsible for the vaccine’s problems, but the chemical has been used safely in other vaccines.”

“The problem, they report this month in the journal Nature Medicine, was that the children’s antibodies were not binding strongly enough to the inactivated virus to produce a protective immune response,” the report noted. “Instead, the antibodies were dragging the dead virus with them, triggering a massive attack by other arms of the immune system.”

It should be noted that in 2019, the NIH admitted that “we are still lacking a safe and effective RSV vaccine.” But it somehow developed a “safe and effective” Covid-19 vaccine in a matter of months?

As noted before, the American public has no way of knowing if the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was rigorously tested, because the FDA refuses to fully release the documents for 75 years. A “whistleblower” on the inside of Pfizer’s clinical trials has documented many alleged serious issues, including “falsifying data.”

The phenomenon that Dr. Fauci is alluding to, “leaky vaccines,” has been well-documented. A Penn State University study showed that “leaky” vaccines can cause viruses to become lethal for the unvaccinated.

“Not all vaccines prevent infection,” PSU noted. “Some, known as leaky vaccines, prolong host survival or reduce disease symptoms without preventing viral replication and transmission. Although leaky vaccines provide anti-disease benefits to vaccinated individuals, new research by CIDD’s Andrew Read, David Kennedy and colleagues at the Avian Oncogenic Virus Group in the United Kingdom, and The University of New England in Australia, has demonstrated that leaky vaccines can make the situation for unvaccinated individuals worse.”

How in the world can anyone justify a vaccine mandate if they are aware of the problems with the vaccine?

In July 2021, Deseret News posted the following:

Israel — the poster child for COVID-19 vaccination and the first country to reach herd immunity — has seen a recent rise in cases. Recently, most of the people testing positive are vaccinated, reported The Washington Post.

The trend has brought a slew of questions about the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and the implications of new strains for future outbreaks. While these trends initially seem like cause for vaccine skepticism, a closer look at Israel’s current outbreaks shows that vaccines are effective and working — even against the delta variant.

No. If people are getting sick, the vaccines are NOT working. People may be getting less sick, but if they are still getting sick and still spreading the virus, maybe the vaccine is not working as well as it should.

The article also includes the following:

The people who are not testing positive in the current outbreak are those who have had COVID-19 previously and recovered. These people account for 9% of Israel’s population but less than 1% of recent infections, according to Kovler’s analysis. This has brought new questions about whether natural infections are more protective against the delta variant than vaccinations — but the answer is not yet certain.

Yet, America does not consider natural immunity in its vaccine mandates. Europe does.

A Law Without Enforcement Isn’t Really A Law

On Wednesday, Business Insider posted an article which might partially explain how people who enter Congress as middle-class Americans seem to become millionaires very quickly.

The article reports:

Congress and top Capitol Hill staff have violated the STOCK Act hundreds of times. But the consequences are minimal, inconsistent, and not recorded publicly.

So we have no idea who is doing insider trading.

The article continues:

Congress has a spotty and inconsistent method for collecting fines from members and top staffers who break a federal law designed to stop insider trading and conflicts of interest, an Insider investigation found. 

Insider’s investigation of financial disclosures found that 49 members of Congress and at least 182 of the highest-paid Capitol Hill staffers were late in filing their stock trades during 2020 and 2021.

Lawmakers and senior congressional staffers who blow past the deadlines established by the 2012 Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act are supposed to pay a late fee of $200 the first time. Increasingly higher fines follow if they continue to be late — potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars in extreme cases.

But accountability and transparency are decidedly lacking. 

No public records exist indicating whether these officials ever paid the fines. Congressional ethics staff wouldn’t confirm the existence of nonpublic ledgers tracking how many officials paid fines for violating the STOCK Act. And 19 lawmakers wouldn’t answer questions from Insider about whether they’d paid a penalty. Ten other lawmakers said they’d paid their fines, but they declined to provide proof, such as a receipt or canceled check. 

The article concludes:

“If you are a member of Congress, you have this duty to not take advantage of information you learned because of your job,” said Gellasch (Tyler Gellasch, a fellow at the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke University School of Law), who previously served as congressional staffer to former Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, of Michigan, and helped draft the STOCK Act.

Virginia Canter, the chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Congress’ laissez-faire approach to the STOCK Act “sends the message that they are held to a lesser standard than other government employees, and that they are above the law.”

Canter called lawmakers’ stock-trading habits “an accident waiting to happen.” Their difficulties complying with the transparency and accountability provisions in the STOCK Act underscored why members shouldn’t trade individual stocks, she added.

Spanberger agreed: “We have regulations, we have rules, we have standards for a reason. And not enforcing them or abiding by them creates fertile ground for people to behave improperly.”

Global Warming Did Not Cause The Tornadoes

Before I write this article, I would like to ask anyone who feels as if they would like to help the victims of the awful tornadoes that ripped through our country this weekend to consider donating to either Samaritan’s Purse or Operation Blessing. Both of those organizations have very low administrative costs and will stay on the scene as long as necessary. When hurricane Florence hit New Bern, both organizations were staged outside the range of the hurricane in preparation, arrived on the scene almost immediately, and stayed long after other organizations had left. I strongly recommend both of them.

On Monday, The Blaze posted an article about the tornadoes. The article features the research of Meteorologist Joe Bastardi. One of the things that I truly appreciate about Mr. Bastardi is that he views weather in the context of cycles. Because of that, his long-range weather predictions tend to be much more accurate than most of what you see on television.

The article reports:

When a reporter asked Biden on Saturday whether climate change contributed to the deadly tornadoes, Biden pointed to climate change allegedly increasing the intensity of storms.

“All I know is that the intensity of the weather across the board has some impacts as a consequence of the warming of the planet and climate change,” Biden said. “The specific impact on these specific storms, I can’t say at this point.”

“I’m going to be asking the EPA and others to take a look at that,” Biden continued. “But the fact is that we all know everything is more intense when the climate is warming. Everything. And obviously, it has some impact here, but I can’t give you a quantitative read on that.”

The reason he can’t give us a quantitative read is that what he is saying is simply not true.

The article continues:

How did Bastardi respond?

The famed meteorologist accused Biden of weaponizing tornados and shared data showing that severe weather this year has not been as severe compared to previous years.

“Clueless Joe Biden In action again with his weaponization of Tornados. 1) Violent tornadoes not increasing. 2) this year tornados, hail and wind all together near-record low,” Bastardi said. “Mindless media should do their dang job and call him on it, I called Trump out on Dorian jibberish.”

The data Bastardi included, coming from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, directly contradicts claims from Biden and Criswell that severe weather is more intense because of climate change.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Mr. Bastardi includes graphs and further information to make his point.

The article notes:

Climate change hawks love to exploit isolated weather events to promote a certain narrative about the climate. However, climate, by its very definition, describes observable patterns of weather over long periods of time — not isolated events.

Thus, if climate change were truly driving more intense weather, such a phenomenon would be observable over a substantial period of time. But as Colorado University professor Roger Pielke Jr. pointed out on Sunday, the U.S. government’s own data shows that tornados, for example, are becoming less common in the U.S.

“According to data from the U.S. National Weather Service from 2000 to 2020 only four of the strongest category of tornadoes were observed (which are labelled as F/EF5 tornadoes) In comparison, from 1954 to 1974 36 (!) such powerful tornadoes were observed,” Pielke explained. “Our research on tornado damage in the United States over many decades shows a decline that is suggestive of an actual decline in tornado incidence.”

Pielke also highlighted an important point to consider when politicians and those with an agenda begin blaming climate change for weather disasters.

Fear paves the way for more government control. If we have learned nothing else in the past two years, we should have learned that.

Change Is Coming

I am not yet ready to go on the record to say that Republicans will sweep the House and the Senate next year. I have no idea how well the election will be run and what rules will be followed. However, I can say that if I were a Democrat, I would be worried.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a run-off school board election in Houston, Texas.

The article reports:

It’s a start. In run-off elections for Houston ISD board trustees, two conservatives defeated their incumbent Democrat opponents. National politics look to have influenced voters as they rejected hot button issues like Critical Race Theory and face mask mandates in Houston public schools. Both conservative candidates used the issues on the campaign trail.

There has not been conservative representation on the HISD school board since 2019. It is a nine-member board so clearly, two conservatives are in the minority. It is good news to simply have them on the board. This looks to be another bad sign for Democrats as the midterm elections next November loom in the background. Frustrated voters are not only in blue states like Virginia but also in blue cities like Houston. HISD is the largest public school system in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. It is crucial for conservatives to have representation on the school board.

The elections are not supposed to be partisan but everyone knows which party the candidates are associated with during the campaigns. Local Democrats, including County Judge Lina Hidalgo, endorsed candidates in the run-off elections. These races are like the mayor’s race or the county judge’s race – they, too, are supposed to be non-partisan but party affiliations are clear. Typically the HISD trustee run-off elections don’t get a large turn-out and that was the case Saturday. One Republican won by less than 100 votes.

This is a wake-up call to parents out there–turnout matters. The race was decided by less than 100 votes. If you care about your children’s education, please get involved. Your involvement can make a difference in the education of your child and other children in your town or city.

The article concludes:

School board elections aren’t exciting, as a rule. Now, however, with the controversy of CRT in the forefront and pandemic mandates, many parents and grandparents are getting involved. The importance of school board decisions is no longer being overlooked. If a deep blue city like Houston can see those results, it bodes well for other places, too. It’s a start.

Common Sense Arrives In New York

On Monday, The New York Post reported that Nassau County (NY) Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman will not be enforcing Governor Kathy Hochul’s new statewide mask-or-vaccine mandate when he takes office on January 1.

The article reports:

“Come January 1st, my administration will move Nassau forward with a common sense approach that acknowledges the facts, science and progress made by our residents while also protecting businesses and jobs from any further damage created by government mandates,” Blakeman, a Republican, said in a statement on Monday.

“Nassau County is not in crisis, and should not be painted with the same broad brush as the rest of the state. Ninety-seven percent of adults in Nassau County have received at least their first dose of the vaccine and Nassau hospitals have adequate capacity to handle existing demand.”

A spokesperson for outgoing Democratic County Executive Laura Curran said the county will “continue responding to complaints” until she’s out of office on Dec. 31.

On Monday, WND posted an article about the effectiveness of the measures that countries and states have taken against the Covid virus.

The article at WND states:

A former adviser to the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has compiled a list of more than 400 studies showing that COVID-19 lockdowns, shelter-in-place policies, school closures, masks and mask mandates have failed to curb virus transmission or reduce deaths.

“These restrictive policies were ineffective and devastating failures, causing immense harm especially to the poorer and vulnerable within societies,” wrote Dr. Paul Alexander for the Brownstone Institute in an article in which he lists the studies.

Alexander said that while nearly all governments have attempted compulsory measures to control the virus, the research shows that no government can claim they have had a “discernible impact” on “virus trajectories.”

A study published in January 2021, for example, reported “in the framework of this analysis, there is no evidence that more restrictive nonpharmaceutical interventions (‘lockdowns’) contributed substantially to bending the curve of new cases in England, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, or the United States in early 2020.”

“We’ve known this for a very long time now,” Alexander said, “but governments continue to double down, causing misery upon people with ramifications that will likely take decades or more to repair.”

Obviously, the measures being pushed in New York, California, and some other states are not based on the current information. It is good to see some of our elected officials reacting to the science rather than using the virus as an opportunity to grab more governmental power.

Da*n The Consumer And Full Speed Ahead

On Sunday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the impact of some of the Biden administration’s regulations on American consumers.

The article reports:

At a time when the Biden administration is panicking in an attempt to keep energy prices down, the House has slapped a “fee” on methane that is being called a “stealth tax” on natural gas and everyone who uses it.

The House bill results in an “escalating tax on methane emissions by oil and gas producers,” a new op-ed in the Wall Street Journal points out. The tax will hit $1,500 per ton by 2025 and the fee is supposed to be a contribution to recent promises made in Glasgow to curb methane emissions.

The cost of the fee will obviously get passed along to the consumer, which will then result in even higher energy prices than consumers are already struggling with. 180 million  Americans use natural gas to hear their homes, the report says.

The article concludes:

The WSJ op-ed board calls it a “regressive tax” and says that “Department of Energy notes the average energy burden for low-income families is three times higher than for more affluent households”.

The methane tax “exposes the contradiction at the heart of Democratic climate policy” and clearly violates President Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 per year, the op-ed argues.

The op-ed concludes by arguing that once the methane tax is in place, it’ll be easy to raise over time. Combined with new methane regulations, it’ll continue to raise costs and introduce inefficiencies for producers.

The methane tax is “targeted, punitive and can be linked to higher consumer energy bills,” the op-ed concludes.

We are headed into a cold, dark winter brought to you by the Biden administration’s misguided energy policies.