Why Are The Names Always The Same?

On February 15th, The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Biden campaign paid nearly $20,000 to Neustar Information Services, the cybersecurity firm at the center of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, in 2020 for accounting and compliance work,

The article reports:

The campaign paid Neustar Information Services in 2020 for accounting and compliance work, according to Federal Election Commission records. According to Durham, Neustar’s chief technology officer, Rodney Joffe, accessed sensitive web traffic data that the company maintained on behalf of the White House executive office in order to collect “derogatory” information about Donald Trump. Joffe allegedly provided the information to Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who in turn gave it to the CIA during a meeting in February 2017. Durham charged Sussmann in September with lying to the FBI about his investigation of Trump.

The Biden campaign’s payments raise questions about whether Joffe continued snooping on Trump in the most recent election. The Biden and Clinton campaigns are the only two presidential committees to have ever paid Neustar, according to Federal Election Commission records. Biden’s campaign paid Neustar $18,819 on Sept. 29, 2020, the records show. The Clinton campaign paid the firm $3,000 in May 2015 for mobile phone services. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee paid $3,000 to Neustar in 2017. Neustar executives and staffers contributed $17,906 to Biden’s campaign, FEC records show.

The article concludes:

Joffe began helping the Clinton campaign in mid-2016 after he found what he claimed was suspicious Internet chatter between the servers of Russia’s Alfa Bank and Trump’s real estate company, the Trump Organization. Sussmann shared Joffe’s findings with journalists and then-FBI general counsel James Baker. Sussmann is accused of lying to Baker during a Sept. 19, 2016, meeting by denying that he was investigating Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

According to Durham, Clinton campaign lawyers told campaign officials, including Jake Sullivan, about the Alfa Bank claims. Sullivan later joined the Biden campaign and currently serves as national security adviser. His wife is counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who oversees the Durham probe and has final say over a release of a report of the investigation.

Federal investigators have debunked Joffe’s allegations of secret channels of communication between Trump and Russia. The Justice Department inspector general said the FBI determined by February 2017 that there was no basis to the Alfa-Trump allegation. Durham said in his court filing on Friday that his investigators found “no support” for the information Sussmann gave the CIA.

The swamp that is the deep state runs deep and wide.

How To Restore The American Economy

On Friday, The Daily Signal posted an article listing three basic ways to restore the American economy.

The article reports:

1) Make the 2017 tax cuts permanent: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been one of the most successful pieces of legislation in recent years. Despite that, many of its critical provisions are set to expire in 2025 if Congress does not act soon.

For most Americans, the most important aspect of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that is set to retire is the individual income-tax cuts. That provision cut taxes for 80% of Americans, saving individuals an estimated $1,400 annually, with lower- and middle-income Americans benefiting the most.

If Congress lets this provision of the act expire, middle-class families are likely to pay over $1,000 more in taxes annually.

2) Eliminate special tariffs: Politicians continually peddle the falsehood that tariffs help working-class Americans, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Tariffs are an inherently regressive form of tax that places an undue burden on lower- and middle-income families.

Since 2018, Americans have paid more than $280 million in extra taxes to buy washing machines and washing machine parts from abroad. That has directly contributed to the steep rise in prices of laundry equipment, which was up 7.9% year-over-year in January.

Unfortunately, that was not the only sector negatively affected by tariffs. Americans have paid more than $12 billion in tariffs on imports of aluminum and steel since 2018.

Steel and aluminum are crucial inputs for countless manufactured goods, but the automotive industry has been one of the hardest hit. The price of new vehicles rose more than 12% year-over-year in January.

3) End the war on conventional fuels: The damaging effects of bad policy might not be more obvious in any other area of the economy than in the energy sector.

Energy prices rose nearly 27% year-over-year in January, based on the Consumer Price Index, with gasoline and natural gas rising 40% and 23.9%, respectively.

Washington’s war on conventional fuels is clearly contributing to the rapid increase in prices of basic sources of energy that Americans use every day to heat their homes and get to work.

Not only has Washington made it harder to transport fuel (for example, by canceling or slow-walking new pipeline construction), but it has also made it more difficult and expensive to produce natural gas, coal, and oil here in the United States, creating an avoidable reliance on foreign imports.

The administration has proposed or issued new regulations burdening nearly every aspect of conventional energy markets, from financing to consumer use.

Other holdover policies—some decades or even a century old—are increasing costs and inefficiency in energy markets. For example, unnecessary regulations and mandates have increased the costs of gasoline and have put economic pressure on refineries, some of which have had to close or downsize.

Please follow the link to the article for further information.

One Of Many Reasons For The Price Of Gas At The Pump

On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that America is projected to become a net importer of crude oil in 2022. In 2020, America exported more oil than it imported for the first time in several decades.

The article reports:

“In 2021, the United States returned to importing more petroleum (which includes crude oil, refined petroleum products, and other liquids) than it exports following its historic shift to being a net exporter of petroleum in 2020,” the EIA (Energy Information Administration) said. “According to our February 2022 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), we expect net crude oil imports to increase, making the United States a net importer of petroleum in 2022.”

“Historically, the United States has been a net importer of petroleum,” the EIA report continued. (RELATED: ‘Reckless Decision’: Biden Administration Adds Climate Roadblocks For Future Pipelines, Energy Projects)

The U.S. was a net exporter of oil in 2020 because demand for the commodity declined as coronavirus spread and nations shut down, according to the EIA. However, exports increased and imports decreased rapidly beginning in 2016 and accelerated under the Trump administration, the data showed.

The article concludes:

However, the U.S. became a net exporter of total energy in 2019, factoring in both coal and natural gas trade. (RELATED: Biden Administration Defies Court Ruling Again, Opts Against Holding Oil Drilling Sales)

“At a time of energy uncertainty in the world, the U.S. natural gas and oil industry is producing at levels that have helped cushion domestic markets and American consumers against global supply disruptions that once would have put severe pressure on our economy here at home,” American Petroleum Institute chief economist Dean Foreman wrote in 2019.

Former President Donald Trump pursued an aggressive energy agenda, promoting domestic fossil fuel production. The Trump administration approved multiple pipelines, ended the previous coal leasing moratorium and opened up more federal lands for oil and gas leasing.

President Joe Biden, though, has taken the opposite approach, nixing the Keystone XL pipeline, ditching an oil drilling project in Alaska, staying silent on a court ruling that prohibited a massive offshore drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico and making it harder for utilities to gain approval for natural gas projects.

The U.S. has approximately 38.2 billion barrels of crude oil reserves, according to the EIA.

For security reasons, diplomatic reasons, and economic reasons, America needs to be energy independent. The Biden administration has worked hard to make sure we are not energy independent. Although I realize that President Biden will never be impeached (due to political reasons and the fact that Kamala Harris is his Vice-President), President Biden’s handling of energy policy in America is an impeachable offense.

What Is The Relationship Between These Two Stories?

On January 18th, Reuters posted an article reporting that President Biden will extend the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The national emergency would have expired on March 1.

The article reports:

The emergency would have been automatically terminated unless, within 90 days prior to the anniversary date of its declaration, the president sent a notice to the Congress stating it is to continue beyond the anniversary date.

Biden’s step to extend the emergency comes even as a slew of local leaders in the United States are dialing back pandemic restrictions as the Omicron wave ebbs. read more

The governors of New York and Massachusetts announced last week that they would end certain mask mandates in their states, following similar moves by New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Delaware and Oregon.

U.S. health officials said earlier this week they were preparing for the next phase of the pandemic as Omicron-related cases decline.

On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

Joe Biden informed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that he intends to extend the federal National Emergency declaration beyond its termination date in March. [STATUTE HERE]

By statute the State of a National Emergency expires one year after initial declaration. That meant the COVID National Emergency declaration was scheduled to end March 1st.  However, the statute allows the extension if the executive office informs the legislative branch within the 90-day window prior to expiration.

Biden informed Nancy Pelosi today of his intent to extend the National Emergency.  Both the House and Senate will now have to schedule a vote to support the extension [SEE HERE]:

It is encouraging to me that Congress has to vote on the extension. It is possible that the emergency declaration will be used against any American truckers protesting vaccine mandates (as in Canada), but it is also possible that the declaration will be used to justify extensive mail in voting in the mid-term election.

Townhall reported the following on Wednesday:

Weeks ahead of the state’s March 1 primary, local election officials in Texas are sending mail-in ballots back to thousands of voters who had turned them in, citing issues with ID requirements created by the state’s controversial new voting law.

In Harris County — Texas’ largest county, which is home to Houston — election officials said they’d received 6,548 mail-in ballots as of Saturday and had returned almost 2,500 — nearly 38% — for correction because of an incorrect ID.

That’s a far higher rejection rate than is typical.

[…]

Voting for the March 1 primary that is currently underway in Texas is the first big election held in the state since Senate Bill 1, a GOP-backed law that introduced sweeping changes to the Texas election code, went into effect.

[…]

Sam Taylor, assistant secretary of state for communications, says a Texas voter who is already registered can update their registration online — even after the registration deadline — on a new website the state created to make sure it has all the IDs the voter uses.

“You are not changing anything by adding information to your voter registration record, you are just making it more complete,” he says. “So that doesn’t start the clock over in terms of whether or not you were registered by the deadline for the March primary.”

Now stop and think about what is happening in Texas for a moment. Texas has put in place laws that will help protect the integrity of mail-in ballots. Many other states have not. If America is in a state of emergency, can that state of emergency be used to justify universal mail-in ballots? If you were a Democrat looking at the polls, would you be looking for a way to win?

On April 10, 2020, The Wall Street Journal reported:

‘Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” That quote isn’t from President Trump, who criticized mail-in voting this week after Wisconsin Democrats tried and failed to change an election at the last minute into an exclusively mail-in affair. It’s the conclusion of the bipartisan 2005 report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

Concerns about vote-buying have a long history in the U.S. They helped drive the move to the secret ballot, which U.S. states adopted between 1888 and 1950. Secret ballots made it harder for vote buyers to monitor which candidates sellers actually voted for. Vote-buying had been pervasive; my research with Larry Kenny at the University of Florida has found that voter turnout fell by about 8% to 12% after states adopted the secret ballot.

Please follow the links to all the articles mentioned to get the complete picture.

 

Is This A Logical Outcome?

Peaceful protest is part of the American culture. Unfortunately in recent years, protesters have forgotten the peaceful part.  We had problems in the sixties and the seventies when the Capitol Building was bombed by Barack Obama’s friend Bill Ayers and various other buildings were bombed. We had problems in 2020 when cities were burned to the ground. But overall, we have generally managed to keep our protests peaceful. However, we might want to look at what our more violent protests have taught our children.

On Friday, The Federalist posted an article about Quintez Brown, a 21-year-old Black Lives Matter activist.

The article reports:

Quintez Brown, a 21-year-old Black Lives Matter activist, allegedly marched into the office of Louisville, Ky., mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg on Valentine’s Day and opened fire, sending a bullet through Greenberg’s clothing before fleeing the scene. Despite the story’s shock value, corporate media can’t be bothered to do much reporting on the story — and we all know exactly why.

Despite Brown’s history as a BLM activist and his flirtation with black nationalism on social media, most media outlets have shrugged off his motive for the shooting with a “who knows?” or even tried to pin it on Republicans. Brown was also a vocal gun-control advocate and was interviewed by Joy Reid on MSNBC at an anti-gun march in 2018.

The article continues:

The Las Vegas Sun completely whitewashed Brown’s far-left associations, asininely writing that “While there’s been no indication yet that the activist had ties to any right-wing organizations, the shooting comes amid a rise in threats against politicians fueled by increasingly violent rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans.” After backlash, the Sun tweaked the sentence to admit, “[I]t’s been reported that the activist was involved in the Black Lives Matter and gun-safety movements” — but still followed the line with the original sentence in its entirety rather than issuing a correction.

ABC simply called Brown a “social justice activist,” and after the local BLM chapter helped bail him out, David Muir vaguely referred to the group as a “community organization.”

My first question is, “What is an anti-gun advocate doing with a gun?” Again, please notice that this murder was attempted to be used by the media to smear people who hold conservative beliefs.

 

Tyranny Expands When It Is Not Stopped

I have no idea what the eventual fate of the protesting truck drivers in Canada will be. I can only hope that some law enforcement and some banks will not comply with the illegal emergency actions that are planned. I can only hope.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Review posted an article about some of the extreme actions that government is taking.

The article reports:

Canadian parents who bring their children to demonstrations the government considers to be “unlawful” can now face thousands of dollars in fines or jail time, CBC News reported.

The new power reportedly comes after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act this week, granting itself exceptional measures to address the country’s ongoing Freedom Convoy trucker protests. It marked the first time the act has been invoked since its passage in 1988.

As has been said by people much smarter than I, this is not the purpose of the Emergencies Act. The Act was not designed simply to quell views opposed to the ruling class.

The article concludes:

In a notice issued Wednesday, Ottowa police told protesters, “You must leave the area now. Anyone blocking streets, or assisting others in the blocking streets, are committing a criminal offence and you may be arrested.”

“You must immediately cease further unlawful activity or you will face charges,” the notice added.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino similarly commented, “To those who may be thinking to come to Ottawa this weekend — don’t. At best, the residents of the city have made it clear that this is not the time. And at worst, you may be tying yourself to dangerous criminal activity.”

While announcing the invocation of the Emergencies Act on Monday, Trudeau noted that the military would not be called in to disperse the crowds but said the nation’s police would be granted greater power to impose fines and imprisonment on those engaging in “illegal and dangerous activities.”

“This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions,” he said.

The protesters are not the ones undermining confidence in Canada’s institutions–the runaway tyranny of the government is doing that.

The Courage To Stand Up And Be Heard

Yesterday a cousin posted on my Facebook page that he would never buy Levi’s again. I wondered what in the world he was talking about, but wasn’t concerned because I don’t wear Levi’s. When I heard his reason, I wished I wore Levi’s so that I could not wear them anymore.

Jennifer Sey is an accomplished lady. Her biography includes being a 17-year-old gymnast, the reigning national champion in 1986, and going to the Soviet Union. She was smart enough to bring 10 pairs of Levi’s 501s with her. She eventually became brand president of Levi Strauss & Co. Jennifer is a lady who speaks her mind. She recently resigned her position with Levi Strauss & Co. so that she could continue to speak her mind.

Substack posted her story on Monday.

The article reports:

In 2008, when I was a vice president of marketing, I published a memoir about my time as an elite gymnast that focused on the dark side of the sport, specifically the degradation of children. The gymnastics community threatened me with legal action and violence. Former competitors, teammates, and coaches dismissed my story as that of a bitter loser just trying to make a buck. They called me a grifter and a liar. But Levi’s stood by me. More than that: they embraced me as a hero. 

Things changed when Covid hit. Early on in the pandemic, I publicly questioned whether schools had to be shut down. This didn’t seem at all controversial to me. I felt—and still do—that the draconian policies would cause the most harm to those least at risk, and the burden would fall heaviest on disadvantaged kids in public schools, who need the safety and routine of school the most. 

I wrote op-eds, appeared on local news shows, attended meetings with the mayor’s office, organized rallies and pleaded on social media to get the schools open. I was condemned for speaking out. This time, I was called a racist—a strange accusation given that I have two black sons—a eugenicist, and a QAnon conspiracy theorist.

In the summer of 2020, I finally got the call. “You know when you speak, you speak on behalf of the company,” our head of corporate communications told me, urging me to pipe down. I responded: “My title is not in my Twitter bio. I’m speaking as a public school mom of four kids.” 

When Jennifer began speaking out against school closings due to Covid, pressure from the company became more intense.

The article reports:

Then, in October 2020, when it was clear public schools were not going to open that fall, I proposed to the company leadership that we weigh in on the topic of school closures in our city, San Francisco. We often take a stand on political issues that impact our employees; we’ve spoken out on gay rights, voting rights, gun safety, and more. 

The response this time was different. “We don’t weigh in on hyper-local issues like this,” I was told. “There’s also a lot of potential negatives if we speak up strongly, starting with the numerous execs who have kids in private schools in the city.”

I refused to stop talking. I kept calling out hypocritical and unproven policies, I met with the mayor’s office, and eventually uprooted my entire life in California—I’d lived there for over 30 years—and moved my family to Denver so that my kindergartner could finally experience real school. We were able to secure a spot for him in a dual-language immersion Spanish-English public school like the one he was supposed to be attending in San Francisco.   

National media picked up on our story, and I was asked to go on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox News. That appearance was the last straw. The comments from Levi’s employees picked up—about me being anti-science; about me being anti-fat (I’d retweeted a study showing a correlation between obesity and poor health outcomes); about me being anti-trans (I’d tweeted that we shouldn’t ditch Mother’s Day for Birthing People’s Day because it left out adoptive and step moms); and about me being racist, because San Francisco’s public school system was filled with black and brown kids, and, apparently, I didn’t care if they died. They also castigated me for my husband’s Covid views—as if I, as his wife, were responsible for the things he said on social media.

All this drama took place at our regular town halls—a companywide meeting I had looked forward to but now dreaded. 

The article notes:

In the last month, the CEO told me that it was “untenable” for me to stay. I was offered a $1 million severance package, but I knew I’d have to sign a nondisclosure agreement about why I’d been pushed out.

The money would be very nice. But I just can’t do it. Sorry, Levi’s.

The article concludes:

I’ll always wear my old 501s. But today I’m trading in my job at Levi’s. In return, I get to keep my voice.

That’s called courage.

An Informative Article From A Guest Writer

The following article is written by Alan Harrop. Alan was born in New York City raised on Long Island.  He has a BA from the State University of New York @Stony Brook, and a MA and Ph.D in Clinical Psychology from N.C. State University. Alan spent four years in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He taught at East Carolina University, and was Chief Psychologist and Mental Health Services for the N.C. Department of Correction. He also spent several years in private practice.

Transgender Instruction = Child Abuse

Written by R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The incorporation of transgender instructional material in the schools of this country is a relatively new phenomenon that has nothing to do with traditional academic subjects. As such, it deserves careful examination.

The first question to ask is why and by whom? The Left is noted for introducing issues that are contrary to traditional Western values Transgender instruction threatens the foundation of the traditional family which is the basis for Western civilization and substitutes the values of the state. Those advocating this instruction are either those who want to normalize previously defined abnormal behavior or weaken the authority of parents over their children.

Prior to 2012, the incidence of gender dysphoria (dissatisfaction with one’s biological sex) was about .01% of children. Usually young boys. Seventy percent (70%) of these cases resolved themselves without professional intervention. The effort at that time was to help the child accept their biological sex. Since that time, the number of cases of gender dysphoria has increased by over 1,000% in the U.S. and over 4,000% in the United Kingdom and the vast majority of cases is with teenage girls. Since there is no biological, hormonal, or genetic basis for this change it appears to be due to socialization. This typically occurs in groups manifesting social contagion not individual motivation. Parents may not be informed.

The usual progress is a girl, age 11-13, usually pre-puberty learns about gender being a choice rather than determined at birth. Visiting social media sites, encouragement by friends and accepted by school officials furthers the process. Usually these are girls who are not well socially adjusted, have doubts about their physical attractiveness and are from unstable families. They may be referred by the school to counselors who encourage gender exploration. This may lead to the prescribing of puberty delaying drugs (Lupron) and subsequently to taking hormones that produce secondary sex characteristics. Removal of breasts may occur as the process continues.

Attempting to change to another sex is fraught will difficulties. Hormones prevent normal genital development which is usually permanent. Incidence of depression, anxiety , and self-mutilation is higher for transgenders as is the 20 fold increased incidence of suicide. Not able to lead a normal life they do not have families, raise children or have normal spousal relationships. A teen is not capable of making a decision of this magnitude and in most cases would not even consider it without exposure to school based transgender instruction as well as internet sources.

How to stop this? Parents should be fully informed and required to opt in to any such instruction not just opt out. Better still, state legislatures should pass laws (as in Florida) banning the teaching of transgender material in the public schools.

What Happens At The Border Effects All Of Us

On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article that illustrates how the crisis at America’s southern border effects all of us.

The article reports:

Think you live too far from the Mexican border to be hurt by the chaos there?

Bloomfield is a picturesque village in central Connecticut, 3,500 miles from the Mexican border. But illegal drugs flowing across that border nearly killed a 16-year-old student at Bloomfield High School two weeks ago. He tried marijuana, not knowing it was laced with fentanyl. Police rushed to the school nurse’s office and administered two doses of Narcan just in time to save him.

Responding to the surge in teen overdoses, Connecticut’s Gov. Ned Lamont is asking, “How did this happen? How is there more fentanyl on the streets than ever before?” Look south, Governor.

Hidalgo County, Texas, Sheriff J.E. Guerra, who operates on the frontlines of the border war, explained that he’s not worried drugs will impact his community. “The drugs go further north,” he said.

Drug thugs cross the border disguised as needy migrants or even unaccompanied minors. Once across, they’re provided bus and airplane tickets to destinations across the U.S. In some cases, charities — largely taxpayer-funded — pay for the tickets, and hand the border crossers cellphones and other items as they start their journeys north.

Other times, “Biden Air” flies migrants stealthily at night into places like Westchester County airport, close to the Connecticut border.

Once far north of the border, drug thugs are invading middle schools and high schools and killing our teens.

Unfortunately we are in a place where every child and every young adult needs to be told, “Don’t take any drug or any pill that is not from a bottle that has your name and a doctor’s prescription number on it!” Fentanyl is coming into America in record amounts because of the lack of security at our southern border. Recreational drug use is now Russian Roulette with your life.

Is The Biden Administration Required To Follow The Law?

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s ability to ignore laws that they don’t like.

The article reports:

The Biden administration missed another deadline to hold quarterly onshore oil drilling lease sales after a federal court ruled it was legally required to do so.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) defied the June 2021 court ruling which ordered the administration to halt its ban on new oil and gas leases, the Western Energy Alliance — a fossil fuel industry group that challenged the ban — said Wednesday. In August 2021, the DOI vowed to publish notices of competitive sales in December and hold a lease sale 45 days later, two promises it failed to keep, in court filings.

“President Biden just told the American people he’ll work like the devil to lower prices at the gas pump. But the lack of progress on federal lease sales means he’s not trying very hard,” Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement. “The department continues to miss deadlines, drag its feet, and ignore a judge’s ruling to hold sales.”

The article concludes:

President Joe Biden has pushed an aggressive anti-fossil fuel agenda since taking office, nixing the Keystone XL pipeline, ditching an oil drilling project in Alaska and staying silent on a court ruling that prohibited a massive offshore drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico. The White House has appealed to Middle Eastern and Russian energy producers for more oil and natural gas production.

Still, Biden promised Tuesday that he would “work like the devil” to ensure gasoline prices declined.

“The oil and natural gas on federal public lands belong to the American people and could help the nation lower energy prices,” Sgamma said. “Instead, the president lobbies Russia and OPEC to boost their production while constraining American producers. As a result, gas prices remain high and the president makes empty promises.”

DOI official Laura Daniel-Davis said that oil and gas leases were ongoing during a Senate hearing on Feb. 8, an assertion Sgamma characterized as “flat out incorrect.” Sgamma noted that there hasn’t been a single onshore lease sale since Biden took office and it remains unclear whether there will be any in the future.

However, the DOI defended its actions, saying that it will continue to comply with court orders.

“We continue to comply with the injunction entered in Louisiana v Biden and are reviewing recent orders from the district courts in Louisiana,” DOI spokesperson Melissa Schwartz told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “We do not have any updates as to timing of the next steps in the process.”

Elections have consequences. Do you remember when gas hit $4 a gallon during the Obama administration and President Obama said he didn’t think the high price was a bad thing–he just felt that the price climbed that high too quickly? We have a similar situation in the Biden administration. Saying you want to bring down gasoline prices and then limiting drilling in America does not make sense.

This Would Be Funny If It Were Not So Serious

On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted the following headline:

Russian Military Drills Conclude, Troop Withdrawal Begins, White House Proclaims the Stunning Strength and Brilliant Strategic Thinking of Joe Biden Averted Thermonuclear War

The article reports:

The previously planned Russian training exercises [Announcement Here] have been completed in Belarus – close to neighboring Ukraine. Today those troops began returning to their places of regular deployment as reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow.

As a result, the Biden manufactured ‘wag the dog‘ scenario, a fabricated ‘Russia invading Ukraine‘ premise by the White House, U.S. Dept of State, Pentagon and intelligence apparatus, needs to come to an end quickly.

After pretending that Russia was going to invade Ukraine in an effort to manufacture a political win out of thin air, Joe Biden will declare today he saved the world.

The article concludes:

Yes, you can thank me in the comments section for saving Ukraine from the United States CIA construct and averting war. [ LOL ] But seriously, that inflated sense of CTH importance is less silly than Biden’s claims today. That’s how stupid this entire thing has been.

Yes, the White House is exactly that desperate.

The press is capable of creating the threat of war and capable of eliminating the threat of war (giving credit where they choose). That is what we have just witnessed.

 

When The Public Gets Involved

On Wednesday, The New York Post reported that a special election in San Francisco resulted in the recall of three members of the city’s school board.

The article reports:

Three members of San Francisco’s school board were ousted Tuesday in the wake of widespread backlash over the slow reopening of schools shut down by COVID-19 and a controversial plan to rename dozens of school sites.

School board president Gabriela López, vice president Faauuga Moliga and commissioner Alison Collins were all stripped of their positions during a special election, according to tallies by the San Francisco Department of Elections.

Furious parents launched the recall effort in January 2021 after arguing the school board was pushing progressive politics instead of acting in the best interests of children amid the pandemic.

“The city of San Francisco has risen up and said this is not acceptable to put our kids last,” said Siva Raj, a father of two who helped launch the recall effort.

The article notes:

Board of Supervisors president Shamann Walton had slammed the recall effort as being pushed by “closet Republicans and most certainly folks with conservative values in San Francisco, even if they weren’t registered Republicans,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

But parents among the around 100 supporters gathered in the Mission District on Tuesday insisted that support came from all walks of life.

“We wanted to show the diversity of the community behind this recall. I knew they were going to say, ‘Oh, isn’t it just a bunch of Republicans?’ and I’m like, do I look like a Republican?” David Thompson, a parent dressed in head-to-toe rainbow drag who called his persona “Gaybraham Lincoln,” told the outlet.

The school board has seven members, all Democrats, but those three were the only ones eligible to be recalled. The replacements for the three ousted members will be named by Breed (San Francisco Mayor London Breed).

Mayor Breed supported the recall effort. Parents and voters got involved and made the changes they felt were needed. Parents and voters can do that anywhere.

 

Unintended Consequences

On Monday, PJ Media posted an article about the results of the 2017 tax placed on Soda in Seattle.

The article reports:

Once again Seattle lawmakers have shown their pre-existing vulnerability to social contagion with predictably embarrassing results. Like nearly every cockamamie scheme cooked up by their fellow travelers on the West Coast, Messed Coast, almost all have backfired spectacularly. And each promulgator has a deadly comorbidity – Leftism.

…In 2015, Berkeley, Calif.—of course—became the first city in the entire United States of America to put an extra tax on evil sugary drinks because we’re all too fat and it was their job to make sure we got more fiber in our diets, wore Birkenstocks, and stopped eating prime cuts of tasty moo moos.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire faux “Republican” who became New York City mayor, picked up the idea to “save” his subjects and ramrodded through this dumb idea while wagging his reproving forefinger.

It wasn’t long after – 2017 to be exact – that Seattle’s child molester mayor, Ed Murray, thought to himself, “How do I get more money to spend for pet projects, change the subject, and screw the taxpayers while attempting to look virtuous? Aha! Eureka! Soda tax!” The Berkeley bad idea was all over his Googly machine, so he took out his crayon, crossed out the city name, and barked at his aide to “get me rewrite!” The vote was 7-1 and – voila!– Seattle became another victim.

Now comes judgment day for the people who always yammer on about negative externalities but conveniently forget that part about unintended consequences.

A study after the tax was levied found out that people in Seattle had switched from drinking soda to drinking beer–140 calories versus  roughly 200 calories (almost double the calories for an IPA).

The article continues:

The study found that after “the implementation of the Seattle SBT [dumb soda tax], there was a sustained increase in the volume sold of beer in Seattle relative to the comparison site of Portland, reflected in a 5% and 7% increase in the respective one- and two-year post-tax periods.”

It looks as if beer sales supplanted not only sugary drinks in sales but wine too. Apparently, those chicks got a look at the prices and calorie counts of Hillary’s favorite Chardonnay and gave up their wine spritzers for beer!

“The result in this study of a significant sustained increase in volume sold of beer following the implementation of the Seattle SBT suggests that SSBs and beer are substitutes,” the study concludes.

Increasing taxes on anything is never a good thing!

If This Stands, It Sets A Dangerous Precedent

On Tuesday, The Washington Times reported that the families of nine victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have successfully sued Remington Arms for $73 million. According to The Associated Press, the gun used in the attack was the Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle, manufactured by Remington Arms.

The article reports:

“This victory should serve as a wake-up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up. For the gun industry, it’s time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it. For the insurance and banking industries, it’s time to recognize the financial cost of underwriting companies that elevate profit by escalating risk. Our hope is that this victory will be the first boulder in the avalanche that forces that change,” Mr. Koskoff added.

…The families pointed to one of the company’s advertisements that showed the rifle with the phrase, “Consider Your Man Card Reissued,” according to AP.

The gun company had argued that their marketing had nothing to do with the shooting and that federal law gave the gun industry immunity. But the Connecticut Supreme Court allowed the case to proceed under state law.

The article concludes with some legal opinions on the case:

Kenneth Abraham, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said it’s uncommon for settlements to include the release of company documents and for gun manufacturers to be held liable in situations like the Sandy Hook massacre. 

“This is unusual. It may well provide a basis for suits against firearms manufacturers in similar situations in the future,” Mr. Abraham said. 

Nora Freeman Engstrom, a law professor at Stanford University, said that while the multimillion-dollar settlement is notable, the fact that company information will be shared is important. 

“Many scholars believe that the greatest benefit of public health litigation is the information such litigation can bring to light. Information is critical, as it can help regulators regulate, and it can steer consumers to safer, not shoddier, goods,” she said. “This litigation could end up being important, not just for the precedent it set but for the information it unearthed.”

But Timothy D. Lytton, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, warned that lawsuits like this are still a long shot until the Supreme Court weighs in on the matter. 

“This is not a floodgate story. This is a maintaining momentum story,” Mr. Lytton said, referring to lawyers who bring claims against gunmakers. “These lawsuits are still a long shot.”

To me, this is the equivalent of a family killed by a drunk driver speeding in a sports car suing the car manufacturer. The car is not the problem–the person operating the car is the problem. In the case of Sandy Hook, the gun was not the problem–the person using the gun was the problem. However, this is a legal settlement within the State of Connecticut, so hopefully it will end there.

Someone To Watch – For Various Reasons

Tulsi Gabbard served as the U.S. representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district from 2013 to 2021. She is the first female combat veteran elected to Congress. She ran for President in 2020. It is quite possible that she will do that again in 2024. Representative Gabbard is a Democrat, but she does not always tow the Democrat line.  I would describe her as a liberal Democrat with common sense and the ability to think for herself rather than follow the crowd.

On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about one of Tulsi Gabbard’s recent statements.

The article reports:

As reported over the weekend, Special Counsel John Durham confirmed the Clinton campaign hired a technology company to infiltrate servers at Trump Tower and while President Donald Trump was in the White House. In other words, they were spying. 

Former Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is sounding that alarm about true threats to American democracy and where they are coming from. 

The article continues:

Meanwhile Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who played a major role in the development of the false Russia narrative against the Trump campaign, is still working in his post at the White House. The White House press team is refusing to comment on the situation.

When asked about the fake Russia narrative, Deputy White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre referred the press to the Department of Justice. I am sure the current Department of Justice is totally on board with an honest investigation of RussiaGate. Right!

Homeschoolers, Pay Attention

On Sunday, The Daily Signal posted an article about a proposed law in Maryland.

The article reports:

If we have learned anything about left-wing cultural revolutionaries over the past few years and decades, it’s that they insist that all conform to their view of “diversity.”

All are welcome, except for those who disagree.

That’s why it’s so troubling to see government authorities rope in, and attempt to control, people attempting to maintain their independence.

Maryland Delegate Sheila Ruth, a Baltimore County Democrat, recently proposed legislation in the Maryland House of Delegates that would create a deeply worrisome “advisory council” to watch over and gather data on homeschool families.

The 16-seat council would be staffed by four political appointees, four government officials, and eight members of the homeschool community. It would “gather information on the needs of homeschool parents and homeschool umbrella schools,” and would effectively sweep homeschool parents under the wing of a government agency.

This is precisely the sort of thing many homeschool parents wanted to avoid when they chose that path for their children in the first place.

The article notes:

The advisory council—whatever its current stated intent—could easily be used to browbeat homeschool families.

“They’ll pass more restrictive rules on us and say, ‘It was suggested by homeschooling families themselves! We have a council!’ (That they chose.),” Mandel wrote.

The Home School Legal Defense Association, a legal support group for homeschoolers based in neighboring Virginia, also warned about the potential for abuse by the proposed advisory board.

“This bill would create a quasi-official source for information on homeschooling, which would, in turn, minimize the effectiveness of grassroots homeschool groups and individual advocates,” HSLDA noted in a statement.

Homeschooling has thrived for decades without government assistance. Instead of creating a new bureaucratic entity to gather information on the needs of homeschool programs, HSLDA encourages government entities and actors to respect homeschooling programs by preserving liberty and avoiding unnecessary regulation.

The legislation was so worrisome that a group of members of the Maryland General Assembly called for the bill to be withdrawn.

The article concludes:

An agency constructed to “gather information” and staffed by political appointees could quickly turn into a governmental hammer to bludgeon homeschool parents into looping their children into the cult of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It should be no surprise that this effort comes as parents around the country have begun to protest the curriculums and policies of public schools, both for their embrace of critical race theory—or whatever they want to call its associated ideas—and absurdly restrictive COVID-19 policies.

The left’s attitude is that they have an inherent right to indoctrinate your children. Any attempt to stop them from doing so, from within the public school system or from without, is treated as illegitimate.

That’s why what’s happening in Maryland is so concerning and a sign of things to come.

They want you and your family to comply with the cultural revolution that’s sweeping our institutions. They won’t let you go. They don’t want you to have a choice until all your choices are the same.

This is a law that needs to be buried permanently.

Changing The Meaning Of Words

The political left has been challenged in finding a way to deal with the Freedom Convoy in Canada. So far they have not successfully managed a political narrative to make authoritarianism look good and the truckers look bad. So they continue to try.

On Monday, Townhall posted an article about one attempt by the political left is attempting to regain the narrative in the truckers’ strike.

The article reports:

I guess we should have expected this to happen. COVID is over. The pandemic is over. The arsenal to combat it or deal with its symptoms is substantial. It’s endemic. Natural immunity is a real thing. It has a 99-plus percent survival rate. It’s time to end ALL the mandates. No more masks. No insane and creepy obsession with penetrating the masses with the COVID vaccine. Enough. The truckers in Canada get it. They were cleared off the Ambassador Bridge during the Super Bowl yesterday, but they’re still honking in Ottawa. 

In the US, there’s a freedom convoy revving up here as well. The destination being Washington DC. This is about freedom and civil rights. The Left cannot manufacture anymore COVID panic porn. We’re all desensitized. We’re also sick of it. Most if not all the panic scenarios never came to fruition. Most if not all the so-called advice was science fiction. So, with no place to go, the Left says the quiet part out loud regarding their true agenda. They’re attacking freedom. It’s their new “F” word.

The CBC reports:

For many, freedom is a malleable term — one that’s open to interpretation.

That flexibility, in part, has fuelled its growth among certain groups, said Barbara Perry, director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at the Oshawa-based Ontario Tech University.

“It is a term that has resonated…. You can define it and understand it and sort of manipulate it in a way that makes sense to you and is useful to you, depending on your perspective,” she told Cross Country Checkup.

It’s also a term that has thrived among far-right groups, said Perry, one of a number of experts who say the presence of far-right groups in Canada is growing.

[…]

Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, says the way many protesters frame their calls for freedom renders the word meaningless — and what they’re really asking for is a shift in government policy that could potentially have a negative impact on others.

“When they’re yelling they care so much about their freedom, they’re taking freedoms away from other people who don’t have the same kind of agency and choice that they do,” he said.

[…]

To see the word freedom bandied about as part of these protests points to a broader circulation of what Elisabeth Anker calls “violent” forms of freedom. 

“Freedom is a slippery concept,” said Anker, an associate professor of political science at George Washington University and author of Ugly Freedoms, which examines the history of how freedom, as a concept, has been used in American society.

“On the far right, [individual freedom] is often translated into somebody who refuses to be bound by norms of equality, treating all people equally or norms to remedy inequality, whether that’s trying to remedy racial discrimination or gender discrimination.”

So I guess freedom is only good when it’s a leftist concept. Freedom for those on the far right is evidently a really bad idea.

Discrimination Based On Race Used To Be Illegal

On Sunday, Paul Mirengoff at Power Line Blog posted an article about a new program at Princeton University.

The article reports:

Last week, Princeton freshmen received an email regarding Morgan Stanley’s Freshman Enhancement Program. That program “is designed to help diverse rising sophomores in college gain a better understanding of the various businesses and career paths Morgan Stanley provides.”

If selected for the program, rising sophomores “will participate in a hybrid program consisting of virtual learning and an in-person component.” They will also receive what Morgan Stanley describes as “valuable training, as well as opportunities to network with each other and learn from Morgan Stanley professionals across our divisions.” And they “will have the opportunity to interview for the 2023 Sophomore Summer Analyst Programs for the specific track they are in.”

Who is included in the “diverse” group that will receive these benefits and advantages? That group includes Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and/or LGBTQ+ freshman undergraduate students in the class of 2025. Everyone else is excluded. In fact, the program description lists membership in one or more of the above-mentioned groups as a “qualification” for the program.

It’s fine, in my view, that Morgan Stanley, Princeton, and other colleges involved in this program want to provide opportunities to students from a diverse set of backgrounds and, in particular, students who come from low-income families. It occurs to me, however, that anyone who’s a freshman at Princeton has a good opportunity to enter the world of investment banking and financial services.

Princeton students from any kind of family and background already have “privileged” status in the job market. It’s far from clear that any of them needs to be “enhanced.”

In any case, excluding students on the basis of their race, ethnicity, and or sexual orientation is problematic and illegal. And that’s what Morgan Stanley’s program does. It makes no pretense of using a “holistic” analysis to identify freshmen who come from low-income families or from other backgrounds (e.g. recent immigrants) that might put them at a disadvantage in seeking employment with Morgan Stanley or other firms in the same field.

In my view, Morgan Stanley, Princeton, and other participating schools are violating federal civil rights statutes through this program. They are probably violating state law, as well.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment because of race, national origin, and sex. That has been expanded to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Excluding white heterosexual males and females from the program is illegal.

There are also other Civil Rights statutes being violated.

The article notes:

Title VI states that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Its ban on discrimination extends, but is not limited to, admissions, recruitment, financial aid, and alike, but also academic programs, student treatment and services, counseling and guidance, discipline, classroom assignment, grading, vocational education, recreation, physical education, athletics, housing and employment.

The Freshman Enhancement Program seems to run afoul of Title VI by discriminating in the distribution of training and employment opportunities.

Title IX is similar to Title XI. It prohibits sex discrimination (including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity) in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The Freshman Enhancement Program expressly discriminates on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Thus, Princeton seems to be violating Title IX.

I hope some of the students who are ineligible for this training program will hire some good lawyers and put an end to this foolishness.

Clamping Down On The Protests

On Monday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to deploy the “Emergencies Act” on Monday, which would allow him to take additional steps to quell the Freedom Convoy protests, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC).

The act has never been used before, CBC reported. The act defines a national emergency as “an urgent and critical situation of a temporary nature that (a) seriously endangers the lives, health or safety of Canadians and is of such proportions or nature as to exceed the capacity or authority of a province to deal with it or (b) seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada.”

Under the act, Trudeau is given the authority “to take special temporary measures that may not be appropriate in normal times.”

The Prime Minister is expected to tell lawmakers of his decision some time on Monday.

The article continues:

Jack Lindsay, an associate professor in the applied disaster and emergency studies department at Brandon University in Manitoba, told CBC that the government must first prove the protest is a national emergency.

“[Trudeau is] basically going to be arguing that these truckers are basically creating a threat to the security of Canada,” Lindsay reportedly said, noting the government is not allowed to take control of police forces.

I don’t know much about Canadian politics, but I don’t see this as a positive move for Prime Minister Trudeau. The truckers have won the hearts of Canadians and Americans, and to end the protest without resolving the underlying issues is probably not a wise move.

Stay tuned.

I Wonder What They Are Protecting

On Saturday, The Epoch Times reported the following:

Top officials at a U.S. federal cybersecurity agency are urging a judge not to authorize at this time the release of a report that analyzes Dominion Voting Systems equipment in Georgia, arguing doing so could assist hackers trying to “undermine election security.”

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was recently provided an unredacted copy of the report, which was prepared by J. Alex Halderman, director of the University of Michigan Center for Computer Security and Society.

The report discusses “potential vulnerabilities in Dominion ImageCast X ballot marking devices,” or electronic voting devices, according to the government.

While CISA supports public disclosure of any vulnerabilities and associated mitigation measures with election equipment, allowing the release of the report at this point “increases the risk that malicious actors may be able to exploit any vulnerabilities and threaten election security,” government lawyers said in a Feb. 10 filing in the case.

The case was brought in 2017 by good-government groups and voters who say the lack of paper ballots undermines the voting process.

U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg, an Obama nominee overseeing the case, was urged by CISA to reject attempts to release a redacted version of Halderman’s report for now.

CISA officials want to review the information in the report and help Dominion resolve the vulnerabilities identified before the report is released. They said they weren’t able to provide a date by which they’ll be finished.

Totenberg must weigh the request against the wishes of Georgia Secretary State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican and one of the defendants, who called in late January for the release to happen immediately.

The article notes that the The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) wants to review the issues and help Dominion resolve those issues. They have stated that they are not able to say how long it will take to complete the work.

How about we release the report and fix the problems before the mid-term elections?

 

Will America See Justice?

The weekend news dump was very interesting this past weekend. Usually weekends are the time the mainstream media reports on things they hope Americans will overlook. That is assuming they are going to report on something at all. The news recently overlooked by the mainstream media  has to do with the Durham investigation. I realize that this investigation involves an old story, but it is a story that needs to be resolved and concluded. So far it has not been.

On Saturday, The Conservative Review reported:

According to a report just filed by Special Counsel John Durham, lawyers for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign paid a technology company to “infiltrate” servers belonging to Trump Tower and the White House in order to fabricate a narrative connecting Donald Trump to Russia.

Durham’s filing focuses on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of Michael Sussman, a former lawyer for the Clinton campaign. Sussman has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. He has pleaded not guilty.

The indictment against Sussman alleges that he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not working “for any client” when he requested a meeting in which he provided the FBI with “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and the Kremlin connected Alfa Bank.

In a section of Durham’s filing titled “Factual background,” it is revealed that Sussman “had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.”

The article concludes:

“Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia,” Durham states, “In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain ‘VIPs,’ referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton Campaign.”

Fox News reports that at Sussman’s trial, Durham will establish that among the ill begotten data foraged by Tech Executive-1 and his associates is the domain name systems (DNS) internet traffic pertaining to “(i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP).”

The former chief investigator of the Trump-Russia probe for the House Intelligence Committee, Kash Patel, said the filing “definitively shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Cole to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia.”

On Saturday, The Conservative Treehouse posted a rather lengthy article about the political spying that was used against the Trump campaign and the Trump White House.

The article reports:

The influence of the Intelligence Branch now reaches into our lives, our personal lives. In the decades before 9/11/01 the intelligence apparatus intersected with government, influenced government, and undoubtedly controlled many institutions with it. The legislative oversight function was weak and growing weaker, but it still existed and could have been used to keep the IC in check. However, after the events of 9/11/01, the short-sighted legislative reactions opened the door to allow the surveillance state to weaponize.

After the Patriot Act was triggered, not coincidentally only six weeks after 9/11, a slow and dangerous fuse was lit that ends with the intelligence apparatus being granted a massive amount of power. The problem with assembled power is always what happens when a Machiavellian network takes control over that power and begins the process to weaponize the tools for their own malicious benefit. That is exactly what the installation of Barack Obama was all about.

The Obama network took pre-assembled intelligence weapons we should never have allowed to be created and turned those weapons into tools for his radical and fundamental change. The target was the essential fabric of our nation. Ultimately, this corrupt political process gave power to create the Fourth Branch of Government, the Intelligence Branch. From that perspective the fundamental change was successful.

Last point, they all knew.  Every person in the DC system, regardless of where they are located in their containment silos, knew what had taken place. They all knew.  No one in DC did not know.  This is the very reason why both parties desperately needed to get Andrew Weissmann and Robert Mueller installed.

The 2017 special counsel, under the guise of a Trump-Russia investigation, WAS THE COVER UP plan.  The intent of the special counsel was to protect all the inside and outside agents across all branches who has been working together against Trump throughout his candidacy and into his presidency.  Not a single elected DC politician did not know this was the intent.

Please follow the link above to read the article at The Conservative Treehouse. At the end of the article, the author authorizes a solution.

This Needs To Be Shouted From The Rooftops

The violence in the ‘violent insurrection’ of January 6th was not on the part of the protesters. There were two people (at least) killed by irresponsible actions of the Capitol Police. We have seen the videos of Ashli Babbitt being shot. She was unarmed and posed no threat to the police. Now heavily redacted videos are being released relating to the death of Rosanne Boyland. On Friday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the death of Ronanne Boyland on Friday.

The article reports:

Heavily redacted bodycam videos from the West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021, provide a glimpse into conditions at the time Rosanne Boyland lay unconscious—including the sound of her being beaten with a large wooden stick by police.

Several bodycam videos obtained by The Epoch Times have much of the screen blurred out by authorities, but key audio and video clues back up witness statements and other videos previously released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

A 39-second video clip from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department shows the gloved hand of Officer Lila Morris picking up a long stick that was lying alongside an unconscious Rosanne Boyland, and then striking the prone woman multiple times. The sound of the stick making contact with Boyland’s body is clearly audible.

…Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Ga., died on Jan. 6 after being trampled by a crowd of protesters trying to escape being gassed by police inside the West Terrace tunnel entrance to the U.S. Capitol.

A variety of videos show Boyland struck by a weapon wielded by a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer, later identified as Lila Morris.

The Epoch Times reported on Feb. 10 that the beating of Boyland, who was unconscious at the time, by Morris was deemed to be “objectively reasonable” after an investigation by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau.

Compare the treatment of the January 6th protesters (whose actions were not perfect but not threatening to anyone) to the treatment of the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters from the summer of 2020. The right of protest is protected by our Constitution. The right to burn down cities is not. Which group is being treated more harshly?

A Judge Gets It Right

On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about one of President Joe Biden’s key climate initiative. The initiative declared that there were “social costs” of continued greenhouse gas emissions.

The article reports:

A federal district court in Louisiana halted one of President Joe Biden’s key climate initiatives implemented shortly after he was inaugurated in January 2021.

Judge James Cain, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, concluded that the policy — which declared there were “social costs” of continued greenhouse gas emissions — caused significant harm to Americans, according to his ruling published Friday. The federal judge granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, pausing implementation of the policy.

“Plaintiff States have sufficiently identified the kinds of harms to support injunctive relief,” Cain wrote in his ruling. “Moreover, the Court finds that the Plaintiff States have made a clear showing of an injury-in-fact, and that such injury ‘cannot be undone through monetary remedies.’”

The article concludes:

Biden has pushed renewable energy alternatives, including solar and wind projects, aggressively since taking office in 2021. The White House has outlined plans to ensure the entire U.S. grid is carbon-free by 2035 and the economy reaches net zero emissions by 2050.

The Biden administration has also waged a war on traditional energy production, nixing the Keystone XL pipeline, ditching an oil drilling project in Alaska and confirming it would review the possibility of shutting down a Michigan pipeline supplying much of the Midwest.

Former President Donald Trump nominated Cain to the bench in 2018, and the Senate overwhelmingly confirmed him a year later.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The cure for federal government overreach is a judiciary that has read the U.S. Constitution and is willing to follow it.

Funding Our Enemies

On Saturday, The Associated Press reported:

President Joe Biden signed an order Friday to free $7 billion in Afghan assets now frozen in the U.S., splitting the money between humanitarian aid for poverty-stricken Afghanistan and a fund for Sept. 11 victims still seeking relief for the terror attacks that killed thousands and shocked the world.

No money would immediately be released. But Biden’s order calls for banks to provide $3.5 billion of the frozen amount to a trust fund for distribution through humanitarian groups for Afghan relief and basic needs. The other $3.5 billion would stay in the U.S. to finance payments from lawsuits by U.S. victims of terrorism that are still working their way through the courts.

International funding to Afghanistan was suspended and billions of dollars of the country’s assets abroad, mostly in the United States, were frozen after the Taliban took control of the country in August as the U.S. military withdrew.

The article concludes:

The United Nations last month issued an appeal for nearly $5 billion, its largest ever appeal for one country, estimating that nearly 90% of the country’s 38 million people were surviving below the poverty level of $1.90 a day. The U.N. also warned that upward of 1 million children risked starvation.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday night that it is “encouraged” by Biden’s executive order.

“”It’s also important to reiterate that humanitarian assistance alone will be insufficient to meet the tremendous needs of Afghan women and men and children over the long term, and it is critical that the Afghan economy is able to restart in order for these needs of the Afghan people to be met with a sustainable and meaningful manner,” Dujarric said.

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee, on Wednesday urged release of the funds to prevent famine.

“The humanitarian community did not choose the government, but that is no excuse to punish the people, and there is a middle course — to help the Afghan people without embracing the new government,” Miliband said at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the matter.

I hate to be cynical (but I’m good at it), but does anyone think that the money given to the Taliban will be used to improve the living conditions of the people living in Afghanistan? We only need to look at the Gaza Strip to see how humanitarian aid can be misused to buy weapons and build military infrastructure. All of that money should go to the victims of 9/11 and their families. Why are we funding terrorism?