Monthly Archives: August 2022

Good News?

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I was very unhappy when Senator Manchin signed on to the Inflation Recovery Act. I was not necessarily surprised, as he has caved in the past when his vote was critical. However, it seems as if there might be a silver lining to this atrocious bill. Please follow the link to the bill to read the Associated Press’ comments on the legislation.

On Sunday, Hot Air reported the following:

Some of the Democrats who have been spiking the ball in the end zone after the passage of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” probably didn’t read all of the finer details in the bill. They’ve been celebrating its passage along with Joe Biden as the “biggest climate legislation” to ever be passed. They have also been grudgingly thanking West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin for getting the bill over the finish line. But it turns out that Manchin snuck in a few items that haven’t drawn many headlines yet and the climate warriors aren’t going to be very happy about them. While there were billions of dollars for wind and solar energy incentives in the bill, there were also provisions to bolster the oil and gas industry and keep it viable for quite some time to come. And previously stalled permits for drilling both on federal lands and offshore are about to be back on track. (Associated Press)

The article notes:

The most amusing part of this story is perhaps not the underlying news about new oil and gas leases, but the language the AP reporter chose to employ. After the CBO report came out, along with multiple analyses from economists, they’ve basically given up on calling the recent legislation the “Inflation Reduction Act.” In the title of the article, they simply call it the “climate bill.” They then go on to call it the “climate measure.” You have to dig down to the third paragraph before they bother mentioning the actual name of the bill as it was crafted.

The article concludes:

The oil and gas industry clearly saw this coming and they had been preparing. Despite the CEO of Chevron predicting earlier this year that no new oil refineries might ever be built in the United States again thanks to Joe Biden, we learned in recent weeks that Meridian Energy Group has received approval and is moving forward on construction of a new refinery in North Dakota. Two other previously shuttered refineries are undergoing refurbishment and will reopen later this year.

Don’t get me wrong, here. There are still plenty of awful things in this “climate bill.” But these additions lashing renewables and fossil fuels together have at least brought us a few significant steps closer to the “all of the above” energy policy that America needs to survive into the next century.

There may actually be a silver lining to this monstrosity.

 

An Interesting Billboard Campaign

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On Saturday, PJ Media posted an article about a billboard campaign sponsored by a group named Citizens for Sanity. The billboards point out some of the more radical things that the political left is promoting.

The article reports:

The initial billboard slogans point to some of the worst ideas on the radical Left:

    • “Protect Pregnant Men from Climate Discrimination.”
    • “Open the jails. Open the borders. Close the schools. Vote progressive in November.”
    • “Violent criminals deserve our compassion and respect. This fall, stand strong for progressive values.”

The group also launched a six-figure ad campaign addressing the controversy over boys playing girls in sports leagues if they identify as female.

The article notes:

…Politico immediately spoke out against the ad, chastizing Republicans for noticing:

The blitz underscores the increasing focus on the right on gender issues, with some conservatives looking to make it a centerpiece of political campaigns. Transgender women have been allowed to compete in women’s categories in the Olympics since 2003 and the NCAA since 2010. In 2020, Idaho became the first state to enact transgender athlete restrictions. Since then, more than half a dozen states, including Mississippi, Montana, Florida, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama, have barred transgender girls and women from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity.

The article concludes:

The time for pulling punches is over. The Democrats’ policies are pro-scarcity and anti-human. The carbon footprint they want to eliminate belongs to the average voter. Joe Biden’s stated policy is to end fossil fuels. What does that mean to the average American? Is the GOP willing to cut off the green funding dollars to the EPA and Bureau of Land Management until they begin to issue permits? Can they stomach the mean words the New York Times will write about them when the shutdown looms? They had better be able to.

The Equality Act is another example. Just like the Inflation Reduction Act, it sounds nice. The Equality Act allows a male to enter any female space, apply for any women’s scholarship, play in girls’ and women’s sports, and take any employment or business opportunity earmarked for women. It legally erases gender distinctions. It has already passed a Democrat-run House. Can the GOP commit to shutting off funding to the Department of Education until they stop trying to ram radical gender theory into every K-12 school? Polling in Florida and the last gubernatorial race in Virginia should show that such a move would enjoy broad support.

Being less crazy than the Democrats is not enough. Republicans need to make a clear bargain for America that sets clear expectations about what they can accomplish even with a Democrat in the White House. In November, voters hand elected officials political power. It is past time that Republicans get comfortable using it to reverse the direction of the nation, not just slow the slide into insanity.

Hopefully a lot of Americans are waking up to the idea that the current Democrat party is not the party of the fifties and sixties. They are attempting to remake the things that have made America thrive–the family, the church, education, marriage, etc.

It’s Different When It Happens In Your Own Backyard

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Democrats in blue states have strongly supported President Biden’s lack of security on the southern border. They have frequently stated that America is a nation of immigrants while somehow neglecting to mention that the immigrants who built America came here legally to help build a nation–they were givers–not takers. Some mayors and governors have proudly claimed that their states or cities would be sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. Well, some of the chickens have recently come home to roost.

On Sunday, The New York Post reported the following:

Hundreds of migrants — at least some bussed to the Big Apple by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — lined up outside Lincoln Hospital in The Bronx on Sunday to get healthcare coverage, food and other items including school supplies and free phones.

The event, organized by the city hospital system, was billed as a “resource and family fun day” for the migrants and their children, many of whom have come to New York City in droves in recent weeks.

“I came to New York about three days ago. I am a welder, and I am looking for work here,” Venezuelan refugee Adrian Medina, 32, said through a translator.

I wonder how the unions who supported the Mayor feel about illegal immigrants willing to work jobs for less money.

The article concludes:

At least some of the migrants had been bussed to New York City by Texas’s Republican governor, who has raged about what he calls Dem President Joe Biden’s out-of-control lax border policies, while also targeting Democratic city mayors.

The migrants crossed the Mexico border into Texas illegally, then said they were seeking asylum, which allows them to legally stay in the US while their cases wind through the courts.

MetroPlusHealth said it was offering at least temporary healthcare coverage for the migrants at Sunday’s event.

The line to get into the event on the hospital’s Great Lawn stretched down the block.

Migrants were also provided library cards and back-to-school supplies for their kids.

City Hall estimates more than 4,000 migrants have arrived in the city in recent weeks.

The city Department of Homeless Services on Friday asked Big Apple hotels to help find 5,000 rooms to house newcomers — on top of a previous request of 600.

New York City is getting a taste of what Texas and Arizona have been dealing with since President Biden took office.

Did Anyone Ever Believe This Was Objective?

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On Saturday, The Daily Caller reported that the January 6th Committee has entered a new level of biased investigating.

The article reports:

  • The committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot hired a consultant who may have a major “conflict of interest,” watchdogs told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
  • The Jan. 6 Committee is investigating security failures by the House Sergeant-at-Arms (SAA) in connection with the Capitol riot — and its consultant Brian Young is married to House Deputy SAA Kim E. Campbell.
  • “Young needs to come clean about what he is doing for the J6 Committee,” Tom Jones, executive director of the American Accountability Foundation, told the DCNF. “There is no way a husband can give an independent and objective assessment of his wife’s performance.”

Wow. Let’s ask the fox to investigate security in the hen house.

The article concludes:

“If it is true that he communicated with his wife about a matter involving her office, this is Ethics Conflicts 101,” Michael Chamberlain, director of the watchdog Protect the Public’s Trust, told the DCNF. “The reason ethics laws were enacted in the first place was to prevent precisely this type of conflict of interest from impacting government activities.”

“It also raises the question of how he was even allowed to be in the position where this type of conflict could exist,” said Chamberlain. “Why would those in charge of such a high profile and controversial committee jeopardize the credibility of their investigation like this? It certainly does not add to the committee’s already questionable efforts.”

The Jan. 6 Committee did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the House SAA office, Campbell or Young. Polar Solutions did not respond.

In case you have forgotten, the refusal of Speaker Pelosi to allow the minority to choose their representatives on that committee was a first. It ended any pretense of impartiality. Unfortunately this may well set a precedent for future investigations if the Republicans take Congress. Remember it was a decision by Senator Harry Reid to change the rules for confirming Supreme Court judges that allowed President Trump to appoint three relatively conservative justices to the Supreme Court. Speaker Pelosi’s actions regarding the January 6th Committee may also backfire.

Elliot Ness Is Spinning In His Grave

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Remember when the FBI were the good guys? Remember the TV series about the FBI going after Al Capone? Somehow in recent years, the FBI has lost its way.

On Friday, The Blaze reported the following:

On August 17, Former FBI Special Agent Robert Cessario signed a plea agreement, admitting to having paid a business to permanently erase data from his hard drive so that forensic examiners could not analyze its contents. The data he had wiped was considered relevant to former state Sen. Jon Woods’ corruption trial (R-Ark.). Woods was convicted of mail and wire fraud in 2018, having received kickbacks for directing funds to Ecclesia College in Springdale.

Cessario admitted in the plea deal that he had erased the contents of the hard drive knowing that the court had ordered the computer be submitted to an FBI forensics examiner in Little Rock. His stated intention was to make “the contents of the computer’s hard unavailable for forensic examination.”

The former FBI special agent also stated that he knew “the contents of the hard drive were relevant to an official proceeding, that is, Cause No. 5:17-CR-50010, United States v. Woods et al.”

Just curious–did anyone raid his house?

The article notes:

Court documents indicate that Cessario’s texts revealed his bias ahead of the trial. In one text, he told Shane Wilkinson, former Arkansas Rep. Micah Neal’s counsel, that the trial would be “hilarious.” In another, he claimed that Woods was a “true narcissist.”

Extra to the perception of bias and the destruction of evidence, there was also a potential conflict of interest related to the trial involving the FBI special agent.

Cessario, who attended and conducted part of an interview of Woods on November 11, 2015, not only knew Woods’ attorney W.H. Taylor, Esq., but had been represented by Taylor. A year prior, Taylor acted on Cessario’s behalf in divorce proceedings.

Taylor is said to have instructed his new client, Woods, to meet with Cessario on numerous occasions without a legal representative present.

I am really concerned about the state of our country. I hope there are enough honest people left in our judiciary and Justice Department to turn things around. Right now I see American on a rapid road to becoming a banana republic.

What Racism?

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At some point the media needs to come to grips with the fact that identifying people and categorizing people according to the color of their skin is racism. It doesn’t matter what race you are dealing with, we need to remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Job applications, college applications, and employment decisions should be considered on the basis of qualifications–not race. Evidently there are still a lot of people walking around that don’t understand that.

On Saturday, Red State posted an article about a recent decision by the Minnesota Public Schools.

The article quotes the new policy:

Starting with the Spring 2023 Budget Tie-Out Cycle, if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the District shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.”

The article notes:

Following the decision, constitutional lawyer Hans Bader wrote an op-ed, as noted by my colleague, which states:

“It is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. When it comes to termination (as opposed to hiring or promotion under an affirmative-action plan), an employer can’t racially discriminate even against whites. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1996 that an school district can’t consider race even as a tie-breaker, in deciding who to lay off, even to promote diversity, because that (a) unduly trammels the white teacher’s rights — even affirmative action plans are supposed to be mild and not unduly trammel someone’s rights, and getting fired as opposed to being denied a promotion unduly trammels someone’s rights — and (b) putting that aside, the school district couldn’t consider race to promote diversity when black people weren’t seriously underrepresented in its workforce as a whole. That ruling was Taxman v. Board of Education of Piscataway, 91 F.3d 1547 (3d Cir. 1996).”

The article continues:

Despite the backlash this blatantly racist policy has received, it was recently defended by the president and vice president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. On Friday, in an appearance on ABC, Greta Callahan, president of the teachers’ union, said:

“This contract language was something that we are, first of all, extremely proud of for achieving but it also doesn’t go far enough … We need to support and retain our educators, especially those who are underrepresented, and this language does one tiny, minuscule step towards that but doesn’t solve the real crisis we’re in right now.”

If a particular group of people are underrepresented, maybe you should look into the cause rather than use racism to try to correct the problem. Have you worked to improve schools in neighborhoods where the underrepresented people live? Have you set up mentoring programs to encourage underrepresented people to become teachers? What have you done to improve the overall quality of education for all students?

The policy of firing teachers based on their race is a losing idea for everyone. If downsizing has to happen, fire the teachers that are not getting the job done–whatever color they are.

 

Reining In The FBI

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This is a post by a guest author, R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

Authoritarian governments that limit people’s freedom all have police forces that ensure the compliance of their citizens and keep them in power.  The Romans had the Pretorian Guard, the Nazi’s the Gestapo, and the Soviet Union the KGB.  Alarmingly, it is increasingly apparent that the FBI has morphed into an enforcement arm of the Democrat party/Biden administration.   The Founding Fathers, wisely, did not authorized a federal law enforcement agency in the Constitution.   Let’s examine how we got in this situation and what we can do to reverse it.

        The FBI was originally established in 1908 as a small group (30) of special “investigators” to assist the Department of Justice in prosecuting federal crimes that involved crossing state lines.  As all government agencies do, the bureau not only grew in size but greatly expanded their authority and redefined their role over the years.   By the early 1920’s they began gathering and keeping information on private citizens who were not actually charged with crimes other than their political ideology was unacceptable to the government.   The FBI’s most renowned director J. Edgar Hoover, began keeping information that eventually reached over 450,000 files on people suspected of communist leanings.  A good proportion of these people were deported if they were not citizens.  Few were ever actually charged or given the opportunity to defend themselves in court.  In the 1950s the FBI began gathering similar files on homosexuals in the government and later even non-government employees.  In the 1960s the focus was on civil rights sympathizers and leaders such as the Reverend  M.L.King.   Politicians feared what might be in the FBI files on them.  In the course of gathering this illicit information, the FBI frequently used illegal wire-tapping and abused their subpoena and search authority.   Recently, they issued a subpoena to the newspaper USA Today requiring them to turn over a list of all people who logged in to read a specific article on their website.   

There are many other recent example of the weaponization of the FBI especially as related to President Donald Trump and his associates including the impeachment hoaxes, charging General Flynn, and most recently the totally unjustified and unprecedented  raid on Mar-a Lago.    One of the worst instances was when the FBI in order to protect the identity of one of their informers, allowed false witness testimony at a trial that resulted in four men receiving life sentences.  Two served over 30 years and two died in prison.  A court eventually awarded the victims/families over $100 million in damages.  Still trust the FBI?

So what do we do about it?   Here are my recommendations: (1) Repeal the Patriot Act that greatly expanded the authority of the FBI; (2) Terminate the law enforcement authority of the FBI.  All subpoenas, warrants, searches should be handled by the local Sheriff’s departments.   Sheriffs are the only elected law enforcement officials and therefore accountable directly for their actions to the people. (3)  An elected state official or panel should be given the authority to monitor all FBI activities in their state and report to the state legislature.  (4) It should no longer be a crime to “lie” to the FBI.  This has been abused to entrap people and is a violation of the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. 

There may be other effective actions, but this would be a good start.

Interesting, But Don’t Expect Anything Earthshaking

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On Thursday, Just the News reported that U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart has given he Justice Department one week to deliver a redacted copy of the affidavit used to justify the FBI’s unprecedented search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

The article reports:

U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart also said at the hearing on that matter that he will decide after the department has completed its redactions whether he wants to make his own.

Reinhart, who approved the warrant for the FBI’s raid last week, also said that if the media or the government object to his proposed redactions, they can file an appeal and that the affidavit will remain sealed during any appeals.

The government argued that unsealing the affidavit would “provide a roadmap” of the ongoing investigation. Prosecutor Jay Bratt said the country is in a “volatile” state and releasing the names of those involved in the probe may “chill” other witnesses. 

“This is not a precedent we want to set,” he said.

Reinhart at the hearing also unsealed more minor documents containing general information, according to NPR.

The Justice Department also argued that redacting the affidavit would leave no substantive information to release and pointed out the search and release of the warrant last week had already resulted in death threats against FBI agents.

I admit that this sounds as if some people might actually be held accountable for using the FBI and Department of Justice for political purposes. However, don’t get your hopes up. We believed in Mueller (for a while), we believed in Barr (for a while), and we believed in Durham (for a while). The deep state has many ways of protecting itself, and there is no reason to believe that protection is weakened. I suspect that when we see the affideavit it will have many redactions (or at least enough to hide what actually happened).

Is Anyone Surprised?

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When the CHIPS Act passed, the Biden administration said that it would lead to “more than $1 million construction jobs alone over the next 6 years building semiconductor factories in America.” On Friday, Townhall posted an article detailing the actual facts.

The article reports:

After signing the CHIPS Act into law earlier this month, which aims to increase domestic chip production, President Biden claimed it would lead to “more than $1 million construction jobs alone over the next 6 years building semiconductor factories in America.” It turns out, that figure is completely wrong.

A White House official said it was a “mix up,” but this number was not something Biden said off-script. He said it in official remarks while signing the bill, then tweeted the statement from his official Twitter account.

Does anyone believe President Biden has control over his Twitter account? That is a scary thought!

The article quotes The Washington Post:

When we dug into the report, moreover, we could not find any reference to 1 million construction jobs being created. Instead, the report predicted such an investment — roughly equivalent to the Chips Act — would create “an average of 185,000 temporary jobs annually throughout the U.S. economy from 2021 to 2026.”

Six times 185,000 adds up to more than 1 million. But note that these are not all construction jobs. In fact, few are construction jobs.

“The statement about 1 million construction jobs is not accurate,” said Sarah Ravi, a spokeswoman for the association. She directed us to a chart in the report that indicated that a $50 billion investment would create an additional 6,200 construction jobs. (The Washington Post)

The Washington Post gave the claim “four Pinocchios.” It was not a slip-up–it was made up to make the bill look good.

Elections Have Consequences

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It is no secret that George Soros has poured a lot of money into American elections over the years. It is also no secret that a lot of that money has gone into the state and city offices such as mayor, governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. We are now seeing the consequences of the money poured into those elections. When the head of law enforcement in a state or city chooses not to enforce the law, bad things happen.

On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article about what is happening in Portland, Oregon.

The article reports:

Families in Democrat-run Portland are fleeing the city due to out-of-control homelessness and crime, according to a report.

Homeless camps across the Peninsula Crossing Trail in North Portland — located approximately eight miles from downtown — have changed what once was a desirable neighborhood into an unsafe area, causing some longtime residents to either leave or consider it.

“It’s the first time in a long time that we’ve actually seriously thought about moving,” Greg Dilkes, who has lived in North Portland for thirty years, told KGW 8.

The uptick in crime has also caused local residents to feel unsafe even when doing simple activities such as walking, the local news outlet noted.

“Every day if you go from one end of the street to the other, you’re confronting some very difficult situations, people in really dire straits,” said Mark Smith, whose backyard is next to a homeless encampment.

“For Sale” signs have become a common sight in the North Portland neighborhood, as one resident told the local news outlet they know of three families that have left due to the rampant homelessness.

The article concludes:

The growing homeless problem has recently forced Starbucks to shut down some of its locations in the City of Roses, along with other Democrat-run American cities, due to rampant crime and homelessness, Breitbart News reported.

Starbucks CEO Howard Shultz blamed city and state leaders for the closure, saying they “have abdicated their responsibility in fighting crime.”

Portland experienced a massive spike in its homicide rate from 2019 to 2021, recording a 207 percent increase. During that same timeframe, frequent ANTIFA riots were also occurring in the downtown area.

Elections have consequences. Please remember that in November.

A New Level Of Spin

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On Friday, Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air about the recent decline in gasoline prices. The article illustrates the spin the mainstream media is trying to put on the current price of gasoline. Although some of us a grateful for the recent decline in prices, most of us are also aware that gasoline prices averaged $2.379/gallon on January 21, 2021 (source here).

The article reports:

Nevertheless, CNN’s Chris Isidore wants us to celebrate the $100 per month “raise” we’re all getting at the pump, courtesy of The Most Beneficent Majesty of Joe Biden:

Next time you stop at a gas station, think of it as a $100-a-month tax cut. Or a maybe $100-a-month raise.

The steady drop in gas prices over the last few months has turned into an unexpected form of economic stimulus, coming at a time when the Federal Reserve is trying to cool the economy and battle rising prices with higher interest rates.

Since hitting a record of $5.02 a gallon on June 14, the national average price for regular gas is down $1.10, or 22%, to $3.92, according to AAA. That average has now fallen for 67 consecutive days.

Since the typical US household uses about 90 gallons of gas a month, the $1.10 drop in prices equals a savings of $98.82.

You can believe that after the mid-term elections the Biden administration will not care what the cost of gasoline is. It will probably rise back up to $4.00 a gallon or more and then magically decrease to about $3.50 just before the 2024 election. That is how things work in Washington.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

Furthermore, the price didn’t drop because the Biden administration brought massive new supplies into the market. The prices dropped due to a fall in demand for gasoline as it got too expensive for American consumers to use on vacations and other non-essential travel. That indicates an economic contraction on the way, not a pay raise.

This argument gets almost obscene when we consider what’s happened to Americans’ disposable income over the Biden presidency and the inflationary wave Biden created. For five straight quarters, real disposable personal income — adjusted for inflation — has fallen in a compounding series of buying-power setbacks for Americans. As I wrote the week before last:

In fact, with the exception of the massive sugar high of Biden’s American Rescue Plan stimulus, real disposable personal income — which is adjusted for inflation — has been in negative territory throughout Biden’s presidency. Those numbers are comparisons to the previous quarter, too, which means that this has a compounding effect. The most recent read of -0.5% on real disposable income is not from a baseline but shows a decline from the previous quarter’s -7.8%, which was a decline from the previous quarter, and so on.

In other words, Q2’s -0.5% wasn’t an improvement. It merely showed that the rate of decline slowed, but that real disposable personal income was still declining.

That’s what CNN has the cojones to describe as a pay “raise” in its economic “analysis.” It’s breathtaking in its intellectual dishonesty.

This is only one example of what we should expect to see as we enter the political silly season.

The Open Border Threatens Our Children

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The amount of fentanyl coming across our porous southern border is enough to kill millions of Americans. Now there is a new variant of fentanyl that could easily be used to kill our children.

NewsMax reported on Wednesday:

Sheriff’s deputies in Multnomah County, Oregon, recently executed a search warrant at an apartment in Northeast Portland and seized four grams of the “dangerous and more potent” multi-colored “rainbow” fentanyl powder, which could especially threaten children, the office said in a press release.

In addition to the powder, which deputies are concerned children could believe is candy or a toy, officers also recovered 800 pills of fentanyl, heroin, meth, body armor, guns, and $5,000 in cash, police said.

“We are partnering with Multnomah County health departments to sound the alarm,” Multnomah County Special Investigative Unit Sgt. Matt Ferguson said in a news release. “The public needs to be aware of the rising use of powdered fentanyl. We believe this is going to be the new trend seen on the streets of Portland.”

The article concludes:

The CDC reports that as many as 150 die from a fentanyl overdose in the country each day, and it is almost impossible to tell if other drugs are laced with it unless you have a test strip to see if it is present.

The powdered “rainbow” variety was also found by Monterey, California, police in July, and is believed to be coming up from Mexico.

In a post on social media, that police department advised parents to talk to their children about the potential dangers that even a small dose could mean.

“Sadly, we are now seeing Fentanyl in rainbow/candy coloring,” the post from July 9 said. “We encourage parents to speak with their children about the dangers of this deadly drug. Just one use can be fatal.”

An open southern border is a threat to every American.

Defunding Public Schools

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On Wednesday, The Raleigh News & Observer reported that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey celebrated the law providing universal school vouchers passed by the Arizona legislature in June. Needless to say, the teachers’ union and parents who are unaware of what our schools are teaching are up in arms.

The article reports:

Ducey touted the signature bill he signed in July that gives all Arizona parents the ability to take state money that would go to their local public school and instead use it for private school tuition or other education costs. The governor had a ceremonial signing at a central Phoenix Christian school that already gets large benefits from the state’s tax credit donation programs and existing school voucher program. But he celebrated the new universal voucher expansion, which has been a key goal during his eight years in office. A similar law with enrollment caps that passed in 2017 was rejected by 2/3 of the state’s voters the following year, but Ducey did not stop his voucher expansion plans.

Keep in mind the political leanings of the source I am using.

The article concludes:

Lewis (Beth Lewis, executive director of Save Our Schools Arizona) and other public school advocates say vouchers take money from an already underfunded public school system, while proponents herald the program as letting parents choose the best education for their children. Lewis contends the new voucher law could take away more than the new school funding lawmakers added this year, which neared $1 billion in ongoing and one-time cash. Under the new law, an estimated 60,000 private students and about 38,000 being homeschooled would immediately be eligible to take up to $7,000 per year. Some of this currently get vouchers and many already get money from groups like School Tuition Organizations that funnel tax credits to students. All 1.1 million students who attend traditional district and charter schools would also qualify to leave their public schools and get money to go to private schools. About a third already qualify, but only about 12,000 students statewide now use the system.

There is no reason the public schools shouldn’t compete on an even playing field. For too long they have been top heavy and inefficient–not to mention the garbage they are teaching our children. Academic achievement has declined in recent years in America, and I believe that healthy competition will bring it back. If the public schools start actually teaching our children reading, writing, and arithmetic, the students may return. Until that happens, parents should not be forced to put their children in failing schools. Make public schools earn their students.

 

Some Good News

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Review reported:

On Monday, the FBI announced that it had located 84 underage victims of child sex trafficking and 37 missing children during a nationwide sex trafficking operation conducted this month. Of the minor victims rescued, the average age was 15.5, and the youngest victim was 11 years old. The FBI also located 141 adult victims of human trafficking.

“Operation Cross Country,” the nationwide enforcement campaign, was an FBI-led operation that partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and state, local, and federal agencies to initiate 391 operations across the nation during the first two weeks of August.

“The initiative really just takes a concentrated period of time where we’re just focused on the problem of child sex trafficking,” said FBI Section Chief Jose Perez. “What we do is we sit down with our local partners and our task forces and identify certain areas where we know sex trafficking is prevalent, and we’ll dedicate resources and efforts to identify and remove victims from those areas.”

The article concludes:

According to the NCMEC, runaway children make up the majority of missing minor cases reported to the non-profit. In 2021, the organization worked with authorities, families, and child welfare on 27,733 missing children cases. It reported that 19% of children who ran away from social services were likely victims of sex trafficking.

Cases of missing children are not required to be reported to the NCMEC. However, cases of missing children from social services care must be reported to the non-profit.

President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Michelle DeLaune said, “The success of Operation Cross County reinforces what NCMEC sees every day. Children are being bought and sold for sex in communities across the country by traffickers, gangs, and even family members.”

Our open southern border is an invitation for the cartels to engage in trafficking the minors they are illegally bringing into the country. Enforcing that border would help in the war against human trafficking.

We Have Reached Peak Insanity

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported that U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart will hold a hearing regarding the unsealing of the search warrant affidavit. Is it appropriate for the Magistrate who issued the search warrant to determine whether or not anyone can see the affidavit related to it? Are we supposed to overlook the fact that this Magistrate is loosely connected to Jeffrey Epstein? Those are just two of the questions I have about this case.

The article reports:

Reinhart will hold the hearing on Aug. 18 in the West Palm Beach Division, according to Fox News. The judge will opine whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) must unseal the search warrant materials for the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, which likely include the search warrant affidavit. The DOJ is expected to argue to keep the document sealed, the New York Post reported.

…The DOJ adamantly opposes the release of the search warrant affidavit, which would include testimony from federal agents justifying the raid and information about witnesses. Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez argued making the affidavit public would risk “the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security.”

Somehow I just don’t believe them.

The article concludes:

Attorney General Merrick Garland, who personally approved the raid, said at a press conference recently that FBI agents could be subject to increased threats as a result of the search.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has requested the DOJ provide updates detailing the process of the search, which documents the FBI found, and how their release would impact national security.

Reinhart signed off on the search warrant that allowed the FBI to raid Mar-a-Lago. Reinhart, however, has ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the Miami Herald reported. Reinhart quit his job as a U.S. attorney in 2008 and went to work for Epstein, according to the report. Reinhart was in private practice for 10 years before becoming a federal magistrate in 2018.

I heard a comment on the radio today that said generally the people pushing for transparency are the good guys. I suspect that is true in this case.

Alaska’s Senate Race

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On Tuesday, Alaska and Wyoming had primary elections.

In Wyoming, Fox News posted the following totals:

It seems clear that the people of Wyoming did not feel that Liz Cheney was representing them adequately. Harriet Hageman was endorsed by President Trump and obviously did very well.

In Alaska the results are more complicated.

Fox News provides the numbers:

These are the results of the primary, but both Lisa Murkowski and Kelly Tshibaka will advance to the general election for Senate along with two other candidates yet to be determined.

President Trump has an impressive record in endorsing candidates. I wouldn’t count Kelly Tshibaka out in the general election.

Fox News reports:

Of the seven Republican senators who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the Capitol riot, only Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is running in 2022. 

She faces a host of primary challengers, and Trump has long worked to deny her a spot on the ballot. However, changes to Alaska’s voting method could help Murkowski stay in the race. Alaska eliminated party primaries following a 2020 referendum, and implemented a ranked-choice system where the top four vote-getters in a non-partisan primary will advance to the general election. 

The new voting system also means it could be days or weeks before final results are known in some races.

It should be noted that Lisa Murkowski and her staff worked very hard to get that new voting system put in place–it is probably the only chance she had of staying in the Senate race. This is one election to watch closely in November.

 

 

The Inflation Reduction Act

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The Inflation Reduction Act has passed through Congress and will undoubtedly be signed into law by President Biden by the time you read this. So what exactly does this law do? Well, for starters it does not reduce inflation and it will not impact the climate. However, it will help China’s economy (they dominate the green energy field) and it will let Democrats celebrate that they passed something through Congress. It will also raise the cost of living for all Americans in the form of increased energy costs and some tax increases.

On Monday, The New York Post reported:

An analysis by the CBO estimates those earning less than $400,000 — the group on which Biden promised not to raise taxes — will pay an estimated $20 billion more in taxes over the next decade as a result of the Democrat-pushed $740 billion package, which also sets aside $80 billion to hire 87,000 IRS agents.

The bill has yet to be scored in its entirety by the CBO — which typically gives each piece of legislation a price tag before it is voted on — but the agency scored the impact of the IRS expansion on middle-class taxpayers on Aug. 12 after a provision from Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) sought to exempt those making under $400,000 from increased IRS scrutiny.

Crapo’s proposed amendment would have kept those taxpayers from being targeted by the new IRS hires, but his provision was shot down 51-50 in the bill passed by the Senate last week.

On Monday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog reported the following:

Democrats quickly gave up on the Inflation Reduction Act, since they couldn’t sell the idea that another $700+ billion in deficit spending would somehow reduce inflation. So now it is alleged to be a climate control act, instead.

But the bill won’t affect the climate any more than it would have reduced inflation. Even if you assume the UN’s inflated estimate of the impact of CO2 emissions on global warming, the bill’s impact is nil:

[W]e get somewhere between 0.028 and 0.0009°F reduction in temperature by 2100 for about 400 billion dollars in climate spending contained in the bill.

But the oceans will stop rising! Which, by the way, they have been doing for the last 15,000 or so years.

The article at Power Line Blog concludes:

So the Democrats’ prize legislation is an exercise in futility. Unless, of course, you are one of the many Democratic Party constituents who will be cashing the checks that add up to more than $700 billion, with a little over half ostensibly going to benefit the climate.

The purpose here is to buy votes, obviously, and the Democratic Party press is ecstatic over the idea that Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer finally have a “win” to brag about. But I wonder. I haven’t seen much evidence that the Democrats’ deficit spending extravaganzas are especially popular outside the precincts of those who cash the checks. (And, by the way, the number one beneficiary of this particular $700 billion will be the Communist Chinese, who dominate “green” energy.) My guess is that most Americans have caught on to the Democrats’ game, and understand that this legislation will no more dictate the Earth’s climate than it will bring our crippling inflation under control.

That’s where we are, folks.

Where Is The Transparency?

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On Monday, The Hill reported the following:

The Justice Department on Monday told a federal judge that releasing the law enforcement affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for former President Trump’s home would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.

Federal prosecutors submitted a court filing opposing any efforts to unseal the document laying out probable cause for the search. The filing came just days after they agreed to release a copy of the warrant itself as well as a receipt listing the materials that were seized during the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

“The affidavit supporting the search warrant presents a very different set of considerations,” the filing reads. “There remain compelling reasons, including to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security, that support keeping the affidavit sealed.”

Prosecutors typically submit affidavits from law enforcement officials when seeking a judge’s authorization for a search warrant. These documents are meant to provide an overview of evidence collected during an investigation that would support the probable cause needed to obtain a warrant under the Fourth Amendment.

The court filing submitted Monday — which was signed by Jay Bratt, the head of the DOJ’s counterintelligence office, and Juan Antonio Gonzalez, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida — argued that disclosing the affidavit used to secure the Mar-a-Lago warrant would cause “significant and irreparable damage to this ongoing criminal investigation.”

I hate to be cynical (but I am getting good at it), but I translated that as ‘give us more time–we are trying to invent some evidence.’ The term ‘ongoing investigation’ is always used when the Justice Department is avoiding transparency.

The article notes:

They argued that revealing sensitive information about the investigation could also affect law enforcement’s ability to secure cooperation from potential witnesses and risk revealing identifying details about any witnesses who are already working with investigators.

This is not the Justice Department of a free country.

Common Sense And Protecting The Second Amendment

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A few weeks ago, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, the Democrats continued their assault The Second Amendment. On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about those hearings.

The article reports:

Smith & Wesson president and CEO Mark Smith released a statement Monday pushing back against House Democrats, noting that “a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home.”

Smith’s statement comes just weeks after Daniel Defense CEO Marty Daniel and Sturm, Ruger, and Co. CEO Christopher Killoy testified before a House Oversight Committee hearing as Democrats criticized firearm makers’ marketing tactics and profits.

Highlights of the hearing included Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asking Ruger to agree not to sell certain types of ammunition, to which Ruger CEO Killoy responded, “We do not sell ammunition.”

At another point in the hearing, Committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) claimed gun manufacturers “sell the weapons of choice to mass murderers.”

But Breitbart News pointed out that gun manufacturers do not sell guns to individuals,  They sell guns to wholesalers and distributors, who, in turn, sell them to federally licensed dealers, who, in turn, sell them to citizens who pass a federal background check.

Mass murderers are not limited in their choice of weapons. Timothy McVeigh used fertilizer. Are we going to ban the purchase of fertilizer?

The article includes a statement by the CEO of Smith & Wesson, Mark Smith:

Smith & Wesson declined the invite to testify before the committee.

However, company CEO Smith released a statement Monday that “politicians and their lobbying partners in the media” have criticized Smith & Wesson for years.

Smith then alluded to Democrats’ anti-police policies, saying, “Some have had the audacity to suggest that after they have vilified, undermined and defunded law enforcement for years, supported prosecutors who refuse to hold criminals accountable for their actions, overseen the decay of our country’s mental health infrastructure, and generally promoted a culture of lawlessness, Smith & Wesson and other firearm manufacturers are somehow responsible for the crime wave that has predictably resulted from these destructive policies.”

The article concludes:

Smith then pointed out that guns do not commit crimes, rather, people do: “To be clear, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never broken into a home, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never assaulted a woman out for a late-night run in the city, a Smith & Wesson firearm has never carjacked an unsuspecting driver stopped at a traffic light.”

The problem isn’t the guns.

Refusing An Impartial Observer?

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On Monday, NewsMax reported that former President Trump’s attorneys requested an independent special master to review records that were seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate.

The article quotes one of the former President’s attorneys, Alina Habba:

“In these types of situations what happens is the attorney handling it will ask that there be an independent special master, which is an attorney that gets appointed to oversee and to make sure everything is done correctly,” Habba said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” explaining that the master would be independent of both Trump’s side and that of the DOJ.”

“It’s a neutral party,” Habba said. “Think of it much like a mediator. They just make sure that the t’s are being crossed, the i’s are being dotted, and there’s no funny business.”

A decision will be made soon, she added, but “optically, it’s a good idea,” said Habba. “I think that you need to look impartial, especially given the negative impact that this has had on the country right now. I would try and look as open to having as much transparency as possible.”

…”Just understand, he was cooperating,” said Habba. “They had been on-premises prior. He had had a subpoena that they coordinated an effort with his team to come in. They told us to lock it up. They locked it up. So why? Why did you need after two months to have this insane raid?”

I believe the FBI had two goals in this raid. The first was to make sure President Trump did not have documents proving the FBI role in RussiaGate. Evidently there are documents that show the FBI continued the investigation after knowing that there was no basis for it. The FBI wanted to put on a political show to end President Trump’s presidency. If former President Trump has those documents and chooses at some time in the future to reveal them, the FBI would lose a lot of credibility. The other reason is to find some way to prevent former President Trump from running for office again. The Democrats are not sure they can cheat enough to beat him again.

Meanwhile, America is easing gently toward become a place where the party in power in Washington can use the FBI and the Department of Justice to target their political enemies. That is not a good thing.

FBI Whistleblowers Have Come Forward

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On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about fourteen whistleblowers who have come forward with information about the politicization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The article reports:

Two months ago, Jordan (Representative Jim Jordan) said that six FBI whistleblowers approached the committee. Two came forward about a memo related to alleged violence and intimidation at school board meetings and four in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in July that whistleblowers had come to his office to provide information, including disclosures relating to investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

“It’s becoming a well-worn trail of agents who say this has got to stop, and thank goodness for them and that American people recognize it, and I believe they’re going to make a big change on Nov. 8,” Jordan said, referring to the midterm elections.

In June, Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray warning that several former FBI officials were coming forward, while alleging the agency is “purging” employees who have conservative views.

…Two months ago, Jordan said that six FBI whistleblowers approached the committee. Two came forward about a memo related to alleged violence and intimidation at school board meetings and four in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in July that whistleblowers had come to his office to provide information, including disclosures relating to investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

“It’s becoming a well-worn trail of agents who say this has got to stop, and thank goodness for them and that American people recognize it, and I believe they’re going to make a big change on Nov. 8,” Jordan said, referring to the midterm elections.

I have said this before–do not count on a Republican wave in November. The media is already censoring conservative speech in preparation for that election, and there is no guarantee that the November election will not have the same sort of shenanigans that the 2020 election had. A number of states that have taken the time to audit the 2020 vote in detail have found major problems with the vote. Hopefully those problems will be fixed by November, but there are no guarantees. Unless we have an honest election, we can expect the corruption in the FBI to continue. There are no guarantees that it will not continue even if the Republicans take Congress. In the past our current Republican Congressional leadership has not shown that they have the courage to clean up the FBI. There is no reason to think that they will do it if they have the majority.

This Is What Happens When News People Don’t Check Their Facts

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It’s no secret that the news media is biased against former President Trump. They constantly accuse him of lying and yet can’t provide any proof of their charge. Yet somehow the charge is never withdrawn–even when they are caught in their own lie and it turns out that the President was telling the truth.

On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted one example of fake news accusing President Trump of lying and then having to admit later that the President was telling the truth. Both of the people posting the following Tweets work for CBS News:

How may people saw the second Tweet? There are also reports of files taken that were covered under attorney-client privilege. Those files are protected by law. Does anyone want to venture a guess as to whether they were photographed before they were returned?

 

Sometimes The Insurance Companies Have The Actual Information We Need

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On August 15th, Daniel Horowitz posted an article at The Conservative Review about some interesting numbers from a German insurance company about claims for injuries from the Covid-19 vaccine.

The article reports:

According to data from Techniker Krankenkasse, the largest German medical insurance company, there were a total of 437,593 insurance claims billed under the four diagnostic codes for vaccine injury in 2021. To put those numbers in perspective, the total numbers billed for a vaccine injury code in the two preceding years was 13,777 and 15,044, respectively. As the Daily Skeptic notes, given that TK insures 11 million people, that means 1 in 23, or 4.3%, had a medical treatment billed for vaccine injury. And that assumes all 11 million were vaccinated. The background vaccination rate in Germany is 78%, although most of the unvaccinated are children, so the rate of injury per vaccinated person is likely even higher (5.1%).

Putting aside confounding factors, but just to provide a rough estimate to open your mind to the scope of this problem, a 4.3% clinical level injury rate, if extrapolated for the 223 million vaccinated in the United Sates, would equal approximately 9.6 million injured Americans. While that number sounds unconscionable, remember that this data harmonizes almost perfectly with the Israeli health ministry survey that found a 4.5% rate of neurological side effects just from those who received booster shots (not total doses, which is likely more).

The article also notes that the VAERS data is also in line with these numbers (although the Biden administration has downplayed the accuracy of the VAERS data).

The article concludes:

Neil (the incoming president of the Australian Medical Professionals Society, Christopher Neil) observes the obvious – that the degree of adverse event reporting is sky-high. “To be clear, the TGA has received more Adverse Event reports in 2021 through June 2022 for the COVID-19 vaccines, than they have been seen for all other vaccines in the preceding 50-year period.”

If you just take the data from VAERS and the EudraVigilance system of the European Medicines Agency, there were a total of 76,253 dead and 6,033,218 injured, as of mid-July. That in itself is mind-blowing, but if you adjust for an underreporting factor of 41, that would total nearly 1.9 million deaths and 247 million injuries! Amazingly, yet sickeningly, 247 million injuries would equal 4.6% of all the people jabbed on this third rock from the sun – nearly exactly the extrapolated rate of injury from the German medical billing data!

Some are asking whether Steve Deace and I were overly dramatic in calling this the Fourth Reich and demanding a Nuremberg trial. But as the days pass and the sheer horror of this becomes apparent, the public will want to know why there was no demand to abide by the Nuremberg Code from day one.

I do believe that at some point the lawsuits in America will begin. At that point Pfizer may find itself in a position similar to that of Purdue Pharma in the Oxycontin trial.

Changing The Covid Rules

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Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about some recent changes in the Covid policies of some cruise lines.

The article reports:

Royal Caribbean confirmed that it will allow all passengers, regardless of vaccination status, on its ships in certain locations.

A spokesperson for the company said that, starting Sept. 5, it will drop its COVID-19 vaccine requirements “as long as testing requirements are met.”

“We are collaborating with local governments throughout the Caribbean to align on vaccination requirements for additional itineraries,” the spokesperson told USA Today.

On its website, Royal Caribbean said that now, “COVID-19 vaccination is not required for sailings departing from home ports in California, Louisiana, or Texas.” The company had required guests aged 12 and older to show proof of vaccination before they could get on ships in North America.

Carnival Cruise Lines is also making changes:

Similarly, Carnival Cruise Line is easing COVID-19 testing requirements for vaccinated passengers and allowing unvaccinated people to travel without an exemption.

“Carnival is pleased to announce new guidelines effective for cruises departing on Sept. 6, 2022, or later, which will make it easier for more guests to sail with simplified vaccination and testing guidelines, including no testing for vaccinated guests on sailings less than 16 nights and eliminating the exemption request process for unvaccinated guests, who will only need to show a negative test result at embarkation,” Carnival said in a statement.

The cruise company’s announcement said it will no longer require testing for vaccinated passengers who are on board ships for under 16 nights. Unvaccinated passengers will not have to file requests for an exemption, the firm said, adding that the changes will go into effect next month.

All unvaccinated passengers “are welcome to sail and are no longer required to apply for a vaccine exemption, except for cruises in Australia or on voyages 16 nights and longer,” said the statement.

Passengers who are vaccinated, it added, “must continue to provide evidence of their vaccination status prior to embarkation.”

The article notes that there have been outbreaks on cruises where everyone was vaccinated.

The article concludes:

And despite cruise line-mandated rules that required everyone on board to be vaccinated, there were multiple cases where ships reported that dozens of people on board had contracted COVID-19 this year. That included, for example, a “100 percent vaccinated” Princess Cruises ship that reported a COVID-19 outbreak in March.

The Epoch Times has contacted Royal Caribbean for comment.