What Are We Teaching Our Children?

On Saturday, BizPacReview posted an article about the teaching of critical race theory in our high schools.

The article reports:

Most high school students reported being taught Critical Race Theory (CRT), according to a City Journal poll released Thursday.

Of the students surveyed between the ages 18 and 20 years old, 90% said they had either been taught or heard about CRT in school, according to the City Journal poll. Approximately 69% said they had at least heard in school that “white people have white privilege” and 57% were taught that “white people have unconscious biases that negatively affect non-white people.”

CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

“The claim that CRT and gender ideology are not being taught or promoted in America’s pre-college public schools is grossly misleading,” the study’s authors Zach Goldberg and Eric Kaufmann wrote. “More than nine in ten of our respondents reported some form of school exposure to at least some CRT-related and critical gender concepts, with the average respondent reporting being taught in class or hearing about from an adult at school more than half of the eight concepts we measured.”

About 62% of the students surveyed said they had been taught that “America is a systemically racist country” and 67% polled said that they were at some point taught that “America is built on stolen land,” according to the poll.

Of the students surveyed, 51% reported hearing that “gender is an identity choice” and does not need to match biological sex, according to the poll. Approximately 53% had heard in school from an educator that “America is a patriarchal society.”

The article notes that approximately 1,505 18- to 20-year-old former high school students were surveyed for the poll between Aug. 18-23. Meanwhile, our students’ test scores have been rapidly falling in recent years. Our students are no longer learning the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic–they are learning falsehoods about their own country and its founding. Not only is this a national security threat because we will not have the advanced technology to defend ourselves if necessary, we will not have young people who understand and love their country and are willing to defend it.

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

The Republican Party has never been known for their unity. The presence of Donald Trump has not helped that problem. Because President Trump and his supporters are a major threat to the status quo in Washington, some Republicans and most Democrats would like to see him and his supporters go away. Some ‘establishment’ Republicans are working hard to see that Trump supporters do not get elected in the mid-terms–even if it means electing Democrats.

On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit reported the following:

The Senate Leadership Fund, a Super PAC aligned with Mitch McConnell, is pulling money from New Hampshire’s Senate race – this is despite the fact polling shows the race close.

Beginning on October 25th, $5.6 million in spending will be slashed from the state.

Yahoo reported:

A Republican super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) confirmed on Friday that it would be withdrawing spending from New Hampshire’s Senate race even as recent polling shows a tight contest.

A spokesperson for the Senate Leadership Fund confirmed to The Hill that it would be slashing $5.6 million from the state beginning on Oct. 25.

“As the cycle comes to a close, we are shifting resources to where they can be most effective to achieve our ultimate goal: winning the majority,” Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law said in a statement.

On Thursday, The Federalist reported:

Seven affiliates of the Alaska Republican Party have now formally slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for his interference in the Alaskan Senate contest against the party-endorsed candidate.

On Wednesday, the Republican Women of Kenai became the latest Alaska Republican group to lambast the Kentucky senator and demanded his own state party censure him. In March last year, the Alaska Republican Party censured Sen. Lisa Murkowski and pledged to support a primary opponent. The party endorsed Kelly Tshibaka four months later. Because Alaska will use ranked-choice voting in its general election in lieu of traditional party primaries, the two Republicans are still embattled in competition.

…Last week, former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Tshibaka, railed against McConnell for spending millions on Murkowski in Alaska while pulling out of Arizona, where the SLF canceled $18 million in planned support for Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters.

The establishment in both parties is not going to go quietly. We might as well get used to that. However, the Republicans seems to have more populist candidates than the Democrats, so the split is more obvious in the Republican Party. Think before you vote–do you want more of the same or do you want representatives who actually represent you. If you want representatives who actually represent you, your answer is not with establishment candidates in either party.

Taking Advantage

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted the following headline:

Pfizer Plans 400% Price Increase for mRNA COVID Jab After CDC Panels Recommend to Include COVID Shots for Children and Adolescents Annual Immunization Schedule

The article reports:

Pfizer announced during an investor call that the company is considering charging between $110 and $130 per dosage for the private market for the COVID shot Comirnaty as government contracts come to an end.

The call was conducted on Thursday to review data on RSV and provide a commercial update on the company’s COVID vaccine. The investor call was uploaded on Thursday at 3:31 PM, hours after CDC panels voted to add the COVID vaccine to the annual immunization schedule for children and adolescents.

The new pricing will go into effect in 2023, most likely during the first quarter.

The article concludes:

The price is not out of line with other vaccines that are provided to adults. It is more than what CVS, for example, charges for a flu shot ($50 or $95), but is less than many other vaccines including Pneumovax 23 ($141), hepatitis ($145), meningitis ($179), shingles ($205) and HPV ($261).

Moderna did not respond immediately to a question about how much it plans to charge for its COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax.

In justifying the price, Pfizer mentioned its “50/50 gross profit split” with BioNTech and the reinvestment cost as the company continues to beef up manufacturing and develop the vaccine as the virus evolves.

I am not convinced that the risk of the vaccine for children outweighs the risk of getting COVID-19. This is an experimental vaccine, and I question the wisdom of making it mandatory. Parents and their doctors should have the right to decide whether or not to give their children this vaccine. There is no evidence that the vaccine prevents the disease or that it lessens the severity of the disease. The vaccine has only been approved for emergency use, so how does the CDC have the authority to include it in children’s vaccine schedules? I am sure we will  hear more about this. Meanwhile, think carefully before you give your child the vaccine. There is a lot of evidence that it may do more harm than good.

How To Lie With Statistics

On Friday, The New York Post posted an article about President Biden’s claim that he has lowered the deficit. When you examine the actual facts, the claim is false and based on a very misleading analysis of the financial data.

The article reports:

How should a president respond to running a $1.4 trillion budget deficit — 40% higher than before the pandemic — and adding trillions more to 10-year deficits?

If you are President Biden, you take a victory lap touting your “historic deficit reduction.”

In a remarkable feat of gaslighting, the president held a press conference Friday bragging about directing the “largest one-year [deficit] drop in American history.” But Biden did nothing to reduce the deficit. In fact, his policies have added a deluge of red ink.

Between 2017 and 2019, the budget deficit averaged $810 billion annually. The pandemic then put millions of people out of work and brought trillions of dollars in temporary federal benefits, pushing deficits past $3 trillion in 2020 and $2 trillion in 2021. As the pandemic receded, however, the expiration of this temporary spending was scheduled to return deficits to the pre-pandemic levels of $900 billion to $1 trillion for the next six years. Instead, Biden’s spending pushed up the 2022 deficit to $1.4 trillion — $400 billion higher than the baseline and far above pre-pandemic levels. And this was despite shattering peacetime records for tax revenues.

This is the political equivalent of the wife that comes home from a shopping trip and tells him that she saved hundreds of dollars. Well, according to the sales prices, she did save hundreds of dollars, but how much did she spend?

The article concludes:

And while Biden and Democrats brag about reducing annual deficits from Trump’s levels, they rarely mention that half of his legislative costs arose from emergency pandemic bills that were drafted and passed by congressional Democrats. It is disingenuous for Democrats to take credit for massive pandemic aid and later dismiss those costs as “Republican deficits” while also treating those costs’ scheduled expiration as courageous deficit reduction while engaging in their own spending spree.

Then again, the same White House refused to acknowledge any role in gas prices surging an extra $2.33 per gallon but demands credit when prices dip $1 from that peak.

A good statistician can make the numbers show anything he wants them to. Evidently there is a good statistician somewhere on President Biden’s staff.

Retribution For Speaking Out

On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about a father who complained about a male in his high school daughter’s locker room.

The article reports:

Remember earlier this month when the news broke about a Vermont high school allowing a biologically male student to use the girl’s locker room? Well, there has been a new and disturbing development in this saga. A father who works at the school was suspended for speaking out against the policy after his daughter was made uncomfortable by the male student.

The situation began when the Daily Signal reported that two girls who are members of the Randolph High School’s volleyball team asked the boy, who identifies as a girl, to leave the locker room after he made an inappropriate comment. The school responded by essentially banning girls from the girl’s locker room to cater to the male student’s delusion about his gender identity as it launched an investigation into the matter.

But they were not investigating the conflict. Instead, they are “launching a harassment investigation” into the girls who complained rather than the 14-year-old boy who chose to use their locker room. The Daily Signal spoke with parents whose children attend the school. Predictably, they were outraged that the school would prioritize the biological male over their daughters.

“We allowed a child who is biologically the opposite sex, male, go in a locker room where biologically girls were getting fully changed,” one of the girls’ mothers said. “The biological child was not changing and sat in the back and watched girls getting changed. That made girls feel uncomfortable, made girls feel violated and not protected.”

“When parents and kids went to the school principals they were told it was a law—nothing they could do about it,” she continued. “The law gives them room to protect all and they did not.”

The article continues:

But now, the school is taking further action to defend this practice. The Daily Signal reported that Travis Allen, who coaches girl’s soccer at Randolph Union Middle School, was suspended for speaking out about the matter:

Travis Allen has been suspended without pay from his job as the Randolph Union Middle School girls soccer coach, Orange Southwest School District Superintendent Layne Millington said in a Tuesday letter. His suspension follows a Daily Signal report highlighting his daughter’s discomfort at a biological male using her locker room while she was changing.

The superintendent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal, said that Allen was being punished because he “misgendered a transgender student in our district.”

Biological males do not belong in a high school girls’ locker room–particularly when they are just sitting there watching and not changing! Every parent of a daughter needs to speak up about this. Schools may have to create separate spaces for transgender students, but that is a small price to pay for protecting our daughters.

Federalism Works

On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about Arizona’s efforts to secure its border.

The article reports:

Arizona GOP Gov. Doug Ducey reportedly will not comply with a Biden administration request to remove rail containers put along its southern border to fill gaps in the U.S.-Mexico wall and stop the flow of illegal migration.

The Interior Department in a letter last week asked that the double-stacked containers be removed and that no new ones be added. It also stated some are on the edge of an American Indian reservation and that the federal government either has a contract to fill the gaps or plans to do so, and that the containers are in the way of those projects.

“The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States,” reads the letter from the agency’s Bureau of Reclamation. “That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”

In response, Ducey spokesman C.J. Karamargin said Wednesday: “They want us to take down shipping containers and leave gaps open for who knows how long so they can put up what sounds like a chain link fence.”

The article concludes:

“Arizona has had enough,” Ducey said at the time, amid calls for the administration to stop the flow of illegal border crossings. “We can’t wait any longer.

“For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border,” the statement continued. “Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess. Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises.”

It is quite possible that considering the people presently in control in Washington, states may have to take action individually to avoid the crisis of illegal immigration that has come to our southern border. The federal government is supposed to secure our borders, but when they fail, the states have no choice but to take action.

Not Surprising, But Not Good News

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation at a speech outside Downing Street Thursday after just six weeks in office. This is sad. There is so much she could have accomplished had she had the proper allies.

The article reports:

Truss won the Conservative Party’s vote after her predecessor, Boris Johnson, likewise resigned following several defections from within his own party. Truss’s own records include the resignations of two ministers and a tax plan that sent markets tanking as the country struggles with 40-year cost of living high, according to the BBC.

“I recognize… given the situation I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” Truss said, according to the BBC.

…Truss noted that she arrived in office during a period of “great economic and international instability,” including an international energy crunch that has hit the U.K. particularly hard and a raging war in Ukraine that is wreaking havoc on the continent, according to the BBC.

She campaigned on implementing largest tax cuts in 50 years are part of a strategy to spur economic growth while keeping government spending up, but the expected revenue loss — £45 billion ($49 billion) in anticipated revenue over five years, as of Sept. 23 — sent the British pound plummeting to historic lows lowest against the dollar.

This is not good news for either Britain or freedom-loving people all over the world. Britain needs a successful conservative leader. There are forces at work to bring Britain back into the European Union, and I suspect that they are not playing nicely. Also, as populism moves through Europe, it threatens the World Economic Forum and their dreams for a new world order. Britain was seemingly ready to join the countries that are standing up for their citizens. The people of Britain voted her into office; the politicians forced her out.

 

The Government Needs To Follow Its Own Laws

In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act.

This is the summary of that bill from Congress.gov:

Passed House amended (12/05/2017)

Taylor Force Act

(Sec. 4) This bill prohibits certain FY2018-FY2023 economic support assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (PA) from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and any successor or affiliated organizations:

    • are taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under their jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former Army officer Taylor Force;
    • have revoked any law, decree, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation for imprisoned individuals that uses the sentence or incarceration period to determine compensation;
    • have terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been fairly tried and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual; and
    • are publicly condemning such acts of violence and are investigating such acts.

This assistance limitation shall not apply to: (1) the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, (2) wastewater projects, and (3) children’s vaccination projects.

Withheld funds shall remain available for up to two years before being reallocated.

(Sec. 5) The bill prescribes initial and annual reporting requirements.

On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon reported:

The Palestinian government is still paying imprisoned terrorists stipends and inciting violence against Israel, even as the Biden administration provides nearly half a billion dollars in American taxpayer funds to the government, according to a non-public State Department report recently furnished to Congress.

The Palestinian Authority, which committed to stop these acts to receive new tranches of U.S. aid money, “continued payments to Palestinian prisoners who had committed acts of terrorism, as well as the families of so-called ‘martyrs’ who died while committing acts of terrorism,” according to the report, a copy of which was reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. Official Palestinian government media organizations and social media accounts also “broadcast or published content praising or celebrating acts of violence.”

Please follow the link to read the entire article.

In 2018 I posted the following picture of a Palestinian kindergarten class learning to be suicide bombers. Unfortunately, things have not changed.

Does North Carolina Need Medical Marijuana

In the past, my objection to medical marijuana has been based on the abuses I have seen in other states. Before California legalized recreational use of marijuana and after California legalized medical marijuana, the last four or five pages on the newspapers in California were filled with advertisements from doctors who were willing to prescribe marijuana for pretty much anything from dandruff to a hangnail. The medical marijuana clinics were simply supporting the recreational uses by placing a very thin veneer over the recreational use of the drug. Now, some other problems with marijuana are coming to light. Even as we learn that marijuana has some valid medical uses, we need to look at the downside of legalizing medical marijuana.

On Wednesday, The Carolina Journal posted an article that contained some warnings about legalizing medical marijuana.

The article reports:

Dr. Christian Thurstone, director of behavioral health at Denver Health and professor of psychiatry at University of Colorado, held a media event in October warning North Carolinians not to repeat Colorado’s mistakes surrounding medical marijuana. He was invited to speak by the Triangle Christian Medical and Dental Associations in reaction to N.C. Senate Bill 711, the N.C. Compassionate Care Act.

The bill passed the state Senate 36-7 on third reading in June but did not move in the state House before session ended. A similar bill is likely to be introduced next session and could be considered in 2023.

Thurstone spoke for about 45 minutes and then gave those attending a chance to ask questions.

Thurstone’s main criticisms were that SB 711 allows marijuana in any form for patients, including powerful food products; allows marijuana as a treatment for too many conditions; allows for more than one caregiver to handle the drug; spreads distribution throughout the state, so counties don’t have the option of opting out like they do in Colorado; permits distributors to own more than one center, which led to commercialization of the marijuana business elsewhere; and allows those under 18 to receive marijuana if they have a signature from guardian without specifying safeguards to prevent forgery of signatures.

He said, “This bill is about creating an industry,” and is less about creating a compassionate new form of treatment available.

…Thurstone went through a number of slides showing data about the immediate but temporary bump in those under 18 using marijuana after their bill passed and the more sustained increase of those 18-25 using marijuana (which is now at 32% compared to 23% in the U.S. overall).

Later he spoke about the boom in new powerful products like gummies and drinks that were legally available and advertised. Many of these products and strains have 20-30% THC, which is 10 times stronger than traditional marijuana which had 2% or 3% THC.

The “concerns” section of the speech was subtitled “cars and kids,” as those were the two main areas he said N.C. should keep in mind. For cars, he mentioned a spike in traffic accidents where the driver tested positive for marijuana, rising from 9% in 2009 to 21% in 2019 in Colorado. And despite jokes that high drivers are better because they drive slower, he said the evidence shows they have twice the risk of car accidents, due to difficulty staying in lane, slower reaction times, more weaving, and worse attention and distractibility scores.

Medical marijuana is not compassionate. It creates more problems than it solves. The explosion of vape shops in the state in recent years has as much to do with the increase in vaping as it does the idea that when marijuana becomes legal for medical use (and then for recreational use, which will follow), the shops will already be in place.

Make no mistake–medical marijuana will follow a path very similar to Oxycontin–it may begin well, but it will not end well.

Revealing The Problems In America’s Justice System

On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about the verdict in the trial of Igor Danchenko.

The article reports:

A key source for the salacious and discredited Trump-Russia dossier was acquitted by a federal jury Tuesday, in a case that nevertheless produced several bombshells about the FBI’s handling of its probe into the 45th president’s 2016 campaign.

The Virginia panel cleared Igor Danchenko of four counts of lying to the bureau following approximately 10 hours of deliberation across two days after the case judge dropped a fifth count against him last week.

The verdict was the second acquittal at trial in a case brought by special counsel John Durham in connection with the conduct of the FBI counterintelligence probe nicknamed “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Despite Danchenko’s acquittal, the trial produced a series of revelations about the FBI — including testimony from a bureau analyst that it had offered Christopher Steele, the former MI6 spy who compiled the dossier, $1 million in October 2016 to make its outrageous claims against Trump stick.

Court documents filed by Durham last month also indicated the FBI employed Danchenko as a paid confidential source for more than three-and-a-half years — hiring him even as he was being investigated for his role in compiling the dossier.

If he was the source for dossier and the dossier was discredited, how is he not guilty of lying?

The article notes:

The trial also revealed that Helson and other agents did no due diligence on Danchenko’s background when a simple check would have revealed suspicions of his role in Steele’s project.

“Don’t feel bad for the FBI agents,” Durham told the jury on Monday during closing arguments. “There are things that they didn’t do that they quite clearly should have done.”

Trump White House veterans lamented the verdict, with former White House press secretary Sean Spicer calling it “unbelievably disappointing.”

“We’ve been waiting and waiting and told to hold our breath, there’s more coming — just be patient, be patient,” Spicer said on his Newsmax show “Spicer & Co.” “This is — I don’t even think disappointing does justice to how bad this is.”

Ric Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, argued in a tweet that the verdict doesn’t exonerate the government officials who pushed falsehoods about alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

“Danchenko and the FBI both lied in and about the Steele dossier,” Grenell wrote. “They made outlandish claims that never materialized. A jury saying that Danchenko didn’t lie doesn’t clear up how the lies were pushed by our government.”

The article explains the charge and the acquittal:

The case against Danchenko turned on a phone call he claimed to receive from someone he believed was Sergei Millian, a Belarusian-American businessman, who was purportedly in touch with people connected to Trump and told Danchenko about a false conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Prosecutors said phone records showed no evidence of a call between Danchenko and Millian and that Danchenko had no reason to believe Millian, a Trump supporter he’d never met, was suddenly going to be willing to provide disparaging information about Trump to a stranger.

Is there anyone honest in Washington?

The Conservative Treehouse posted an article explaining why the Durham investigation is not going to find anyone guilty of anything–the investigation is simply there to cover for the previous misdeeds of the deep state.

Poison Clothes???

On October 14th, The Epoch Times posted an article about chemicals found in athletic clothing. This is disturbing–physical exercise (which includes appropriate attire) is supposed to be good for you.

The article reports:

Sports bras and athletic shirts made by some of the major global sports brands were found to contain dangerous levels of the estrogen-mimicking chemical bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, posing a considerable risk to people’s health, according to legal notices sent by the Center for Environmental Health (CEH).

BPA—an endocrine disrupting chemical that upsets the body’s functioning through blocking or mimicking hormones—is linked to developmental and health problems mostly for young children. For adults, studies have found that high levels of the chemical results in heart problems, while experts have connected BPA to obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and other ailments, with more research pending for definitive conclusions.

The CEH has sent legal notices to Athleta, PINK, Asics, The North Face, Brooks, All in Motion, Nike, and FILA regarding sports bras, and The North Face, Brooks, Mizuno, Athleta, New Balance, and Reebok for its activewear shirt collection. Testing conducted on branded clothing showed that individual wearers were exposed to 22 times the safe limit as permitted under California law.

“Studies have shown that BPA can be absorbed through skin and end up in the bloodstream after handling receipt paper for seconds or a few minutes at a time. Sports bras and athletic shirts are worn for hours at a time, and you are meant to sweat in them, so it is concerning to be finding such high levels of BPA in our clothing,” said Kaya Allan Sugerman, director of the Illegal Toxic Threats Program at CEH.

Investigations by the agency have discovered BPA in polyester-based clothing with spandex, including socks made for infants.

The article concludes:

The CEH has called for the athletic clothing brands to reformulate their offerings without the BPA, giving them 60 days to remedy the violation before the agency files a complaint.

BPA is also found in some plastic water bottles. Always read the label before you buy a water bottle.

Voting Wisely

This is a post from Alan Harrop, Ph.D

We all realize by now, that this election is not only critical but in many ways is a turning point in American history. That is not an exaggeration. The first question to ask is should I bother to vote? I think Ronald Reagan said it best when he said “ We are one election away from losing our freedoms”. Maintaining freedom requires all patriots to exercise the right to vote. We also have a duty to not only those who died to guarantee the freedoms we enjoy, but a sacred responsibility to future generations to ensure that they enjoy and benefit from the freedoms that we inherited. Look into the face of your children and/or grandchildren and ask yourself the question: “Have I done everything I can possibly do to protect their freedoms?”

Now, assuming you plan to vote, the question becomes who do I vote for? Again, Ronald Reagan had a way of getting to the heart of the issue when he said during his debate with Jimmy Carter: “Ask yourself one simple question, are you better off today than you were four (or two) years ago?” Very succinct and meaningful. Another question that gets to the heart of the matter is do you believe the country is heading in the right or wrong direction? Ask yourself these two questions and you will know what to do.

Answering the question of whether you are better off now than two years ago addresses economic disasters that have befallen us all like higher fuel prices, food prices, mortgage rates. credit card interest and loan rates. The decline in the stock market has been devastating to 401Ks and retirement savings. Two questions should be asked: who is responsible and who is likely to be able to fix it? Biden’s decision to shut down energy production and supply in favor of wind/solar, history will show to have been one of the worst decisions by any president Not only has the Biden administration caused the worst inflation in forty years but they keep lying to us about whether it is a problem. How can you fix a problem when you deny the problem even exists? Increasing crime, open borders, and FBI overreach must also be stopped. No question about it, Americans are substantially worse off now that two years ago.

How about the question of whether America is heading in the right or wrong direction? There are primarily two forms of government: Republics with free enterprise or Communism with government control. The countries that have achieved the highest standard of living for their citizens are all republics with free enterprise as America has been for over 250 years. No communist/socialist government has ever succeeded. They all resort to totalitarianism to control their people such as Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela and China. The Democrat Party leaders are taking this country towards Communism. Period. No doubt about it.

So, you must decide, do I want to keep the most successful form of government and freedom in the history of the world or do I want this country to descend into Communism? Your choice.

Now, do not let yourself be diverted by things such as personal characteristics or minor disagreements with specific candidates. There are no perfect candidates. They all have flaws just like the rest of us. The only important question is where do they stand on the main issues that will preserve our country or will their actions result ultimately in the destruction of this country. WE MUST NOT COMMIT SOCIETAL SUICIDE.

You know what to do, now let’s get out and vote and win this fight to save America.

Preparing For Emergencies

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is one of many items America has to keep us safe in times of emergency. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has been very quick to tap into that reserve to lover gasoline prices and save Americans money at their local gas statios

However, actions have consequences.

On September 7th, Forbes reported:

What is the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)? What are the implications of depleting the SPR, which the U.S. has been doing now since 2016? Further, what has been the impact of the rapid drawdown of the SPR that has taken place this year? Let’s discuss.

In December 1975, with memories of gas lines fresh on the minds of Americans as a result of the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, Congress established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The law was designed “to reduce the impact of severe energy supply interruptions” such as that caused by the embargo.

Over time the U.S. government began to fill the reserve. At its high point in 2010, the level reach 726.6 million barrels. Since December 1984, the level has never been lower than 450 million barrels — until now.

That is disturbing.

The article includes the following chart:

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, NewsMax reported:

The United States plans to release an additional 10 million to 15 million barrels of oil from the country’s emergency stockpile in a bid to balance markets and keep gasoline prices from climbing, a Bloomberg reporter tweeted late on Monday.

The White House also plans to replenish the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve, the tweet said.

The Biden administration also has beeen speaking with energy companies as it considers its strategy to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to both push down oil prices for consumers and support longer-term demand for producers, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

If the Biden administration wants to lower gasoline prices, all they have to do is open America to drilling. However, the green energy lobby would no longer support them if they did that. It’s time to do what is right for the American people.

Ignoring The History

On Tuesday, NewsMax reported that Australia has changed its position on recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

The article reports”

Australia has reversed a previous government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

The center-left Labor Party government Cabinet agreed to again recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and reaffirmed that Jerusalem’s status must be resolved in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

Australia remained committed to a two-party solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and “we will not support an approach that undermines this prospect,” Wong said.

A two-state solution is a wonderful idea, but there is a problem.

“PA presents the PLO Charter as currently calling for Israel’s destruction,” by Itamar Marcus and Maurice Hirsch, Palestinian Media Watch, March 16, 2021:

As part of a TV series entitled “Lexicon of the Revolution” official PA TV broadcast a filler about the 1964 Charter of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

While presenting the historical overview of the Charter, the PA chose to cite the Charter’s declarations denying Israel’s right to exist and the PLO’s goal of destroying Israel, even claiming that it is supported by the UN. For example:

“The Palestinian Arab people is the one with the legitimate right to its homeland”

“The 16th clause [of the Charter] states that the liberation of Palestine, from an international perspective, is a defensive operation necessitated by self-defense, as determined by the UN Charter.”

[Official PA TV, Aug. 10, 2018; March 6 (twice) 2021]

This second message is stated both by the narrator and reinforced by a slide on the screen.

Text: “Clause 16 states that the liberation of Palestine, from an international perspective, is a defensive operation necessitated by self-defense, as determined by the UN Charter” alongside the old Fatah logo that includes crossed rifles and the map of “Palestine” that includes all of Israel, together with this text: “Al-Asifa – the Palestinian National Liberation Movement”

What was left out of the PA TV broadcast is just as significant as what was included. Most specifically, there is no reference to the fact that the PA obligated itself to cancel all the clauses of the PLO Charter calling for Israel’s destruction, under the terms of the Oslo Accords.

The narrator’s introductory explanation likewise denies Israel’s right to exist – saying Israel exists on Arab “stolen homeland” and therefore “returning it” is an act of “self-defense”:

It’s hard to form a two-state solution with people who want to annihilate you.

I Approve Of Something The Biden Administration Did!

The Biden administration did something really smart. I don’t know exactly who is responsible, but I am grateful. On Sunday, Hot Air posted the story. I need to say up front that this is one of those articles I do not totally understand, but what I read sounds really good.

The article reports:

I am pretty sure that I have never praised the Biden Administration. I mean, why would I?

Well, I may have found a reason, believe it or not. It seems that the Biden Administration has struck a huge blow against the Chinese tech industry, and it wasn’t even by accident. They did something right, and never let it be said that I am more unfair to liberals than my job naturally requires.

…So here we go, and yes, it is painful to praise Biden, even a little bit. Worse, I have to rely on The New York Times for part of the story, completing my humiliation:

This is the important part of the article:

There are two important aspects of the China/Taiwan tension that are both related to technology:

    • China has become a technology superpower due to America’s reliance on its manufacturing prowess. Almost everything we think of as high-tech has a lot of Chinese manufacturing and components in the end product. Those DJI drones doing the heavy lifting in Ukraine? Chinese.
    • Taiwan is a much more important technology superpower. Almost every high-end microprocessor (the highest up the value chain) is reliant on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is made by TSMC. They blow everybody else away in making chips, including former leader Intel. Over half of the chips in the products you use are manufactured by TSMC.

China doesn’t only want Taiwan territory; if they ran Taiwan they would control many of the most important parts of the tech industry. They aren’t a design or software powerhouse, but the world would still rely on them for high-tech products. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons China remains hesitant to invade Taiwan is the implied strategy of the Taiwanese government to threaten the destruction of TSMC facilities were they to be invaded. This is the so-called “silicon shield.”

The article concludes:

To the extent that I can, which is not much, I have verified this. And that means that it is of medium reliability. Certainly, ASML leaving is a big blow, and the extent of the Biden Administration sanctions is dramatic, the thread itself is more than plausible.

I admit to being shocked that the Biden Administration has chosen this path. It is bold, aggressive, and likely to hurt China badly both economically and militarily. I would have to assume that they have war-gamed the consequences extensively because such a move would not be taken either lightly or without serious consideration.

In this case, unlike the Russia sanctions, the Administration had plenty of time to evaluate the costs and benefits. Without access to the information and analysis they have, I can’t say with certainty that this was precisely the right policy, but it certainly moves us in the direction of achieving the goal of slowing China’s ability to threaten our interests in the Pacific.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally!

Does Congress Live In The Same America As The Rest Of Us?

On Sunday, Red State shared some information about the spending habits of Congressman Eric Swalwell.

The article notes:

Rob Pyers is the Research Director for California Target Book, a group that provides information on congressional and state legislative election campaigns in California. Pyers posted some intriguing information about Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on Twitter that our friends over at Twitchy picked up.

The article includes the following Tweets:

The article explains:

“Dem Eric Swalwell, who has submitted the 2nd-highest number of ‘I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency’ proxy letters, spent $250K+ on travel & car service in the 1st 9 months of the year,” Pyers said.

Let me explain to those who may not know what the “proxy letters” are. During the pandemic, the House started offering its members the opportunity to have other members vote for them because of the “ongoing public health emergency.” That might have been understandable when people were freaked out initially in the early days of the pandemic, although I don’t think they ever should have done it. But it’s been more than two years now, kids. Joe Biden has declared the pandemic over. Why is this still on? It’s an excuse for people not to show up to do their job and skip out if they have other things to do. That’s why the Senate doesn’t do it, because it’s ripe for abuse, as we see now.

Case in point: Swalwell. As Pyers observes if there’s such an “emergency” that he can’t show up, why is filing 48 proxy letters, the second-highest number? Why is he spending $250,000 on travel and car expenses? He’s going places. What’s preventing him then from getting into work?

I wrote in January about how he went to the free state of Florida when they were still imposing mask rules in California.

The article concludes:

Swalwell needs to answer up.

Seriously, it gets silly when they do things like this and it means he’s spending money while blowing off the job. They need to eliminate the proxy so we finally have people doing the job they were elected for and are paid to do back again. That has to be something the Republicans do when they take the House back so we can have some accountability again.

I need to mention that I would love to see the Republicans take the House and the Senate back and then act like Republicans. However, I am not counting on a fair election. The only recourse conservatives have is to get out the vote to a degree that cheating will be inconsequential.

This Meme Has Been Removed From Social Media

Because this meme has been removed from social media, I thought it would be appropriate to post it here. The meme appeared at USA Supreme on Monday.

Here is the meme:

The article notes:

First lady Jill Biden was an honorary captain for the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday as the team looked to stay undefeated against NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys in Week 6.

Like several Eagles players and Santa Claus before her, fans of the only unbeaten team left in NFL reportedly booed Biden when she stepped onto Lincoln Financial Field.

Several people in attendance for the Eagles game tweeted about the apparent loud boos she received.

It appears the video of Jill Biden getting booed has been scrubbed from the networks so we will keep looking!

After that Jill Biden talked to Philadelphia 76ers’ center Joel Embiid.

…And that leads us to a meme that’s directed more toward FLOTUS’s husband and the Democrats who support him!

Social media giants also removed the meme from everywhere but we managed to download the meme which could be the most accurate economic depiction of the last few years.

My purpose in posting this article was to remind everyone that if they are relying on the mainstream media or the mainstream social media for their news, they are either not informed or misinformed. Neither is good for the survival of our Republic.

This Was Not An Individual Effort

On Saturday, Michael Flynn posted an editorial in The Western Journal about some of things that are being revealed in the federal trial of Igor Danchenko. Please follow the link to read the entire editorial. I will try to  highlight it, but there is a lot of good information in the piece.

The editorial notes:

The FBI is not alone in this coup perpetrated against our nation.

For years, Americans were force-fed lie after lie by the propaganda press doing the dirty work of the Obama-Biden gang and their half-wit minions at the Department of Justice, FBI and others that caused havoc across our country and sought to destroy lives and families. Mine included.

…Now, Americans learned the FBI offered to pay $1 million of taxpayer money to a foreign spymaster conspiring with the Clinton campaign and others, plotting against America and striking at the heart of democracy and the republic. The extent to which they would go to destroy America had no boundaries.

The editorial concludes:

It matters less to me if these thugs spend the rest of their lives in jail, for this is the most consequential time in our nation’s history, and if we don’t correct the path this country is headed down, we may be seeing the last vestiges of the America our Founders envisioned — a free nation of self-governed citizens emboldened with their God-given rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Thank God the truth has broken through since the Durham trial began. Truth has no fear and will always surface to the top. And there are no more disguises of righteousness for those who seek to dismantle the American way of life. No hiding places, no rocks to climb under — America is informed.

The relentless and brutal attacks on me and my love for God and country will continue, but these are whistles in the wind. They will not deter me from honoring my oath and duty to protect this country from harm or my love for my family — my children and grandchildren — for whom I will give my last breath so that they will live free.

The ongoing trial is giving us a lot of insight into the bad behavior of what is now known as the ‘deep state’ during the Trump administration. General Flynn is correct in stating that the actions of those involved in undermining the Trump administration were also undermining our republic. There need to be some consequences for everyone who was involved.

Bringing A Meme To Life

On Sunday, BizPacReview posted an article about a meme coming to life.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden made a Baskin Robbins run while in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday and broke the internet when, with a mouthful of ice cream, he casually told a reporter that the U.S. “economy is strong as hell” and blamed the rest of the world for inflation.

“I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar. I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Does that make sense?” Biden said.

When asked if he could explain his statement, Biden, while chewing on his waffle cone, stated, “Our economy is strong as hell. Inflation is worldwide. It’s worse off everywhere else than it is in the United States. So, the problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries, not so much ours. It’s worldwide inflation. It’s consequential.”

The comment comes on the heels of the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which revealed that core inflation has reached a new 40-year high.

And in that stunning moment, Joe Biden brought a months-old meme that has been circling the internet to life.

The article includes the meme:

President Biden is President of America–not of the world. It would be nice if he were concerned about inflation in America.

The article concludes:

So it’s hard to imagine, as more and more Americans are making tough choices between things like food and gas to get to work, what Joe Biden could possibly do to boost anyone’s confidence.

But, as one user on Twitter noted, “They can get him to do and say anything with ice cream.”

I wonder what world our President lives in.

Big Brother In The Doctor’s Office

On Saturday, PJ Media reported:

Vanderbilt’s Pediatric Transgender Clinic practices The Science© by providing “evidence-based, personalized gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse children and adolescents” — a fancy, rambling way to say “transing children.” And now it’s upped its game by inserting “Trans Buddies” into the doctor’s office.

The Trans Buddy Program’s mission statement reads:

“The Trans Buddy Program’s goal is to increase access to care and improve healthcare outcomes for transgender people by providing emotional support to transgender patients during healthcare visits. We emphasize a patient-centered  approach, with the goal of empowering the patient to make informed healthcare decisions. Trans Buddy recognizes the importance of intersectionality to our direct care practice, and we therefore aim to work with people of all identities with compassion and respect.”

…As the linebacker-sized non-binary bouncer in the video explains, their work entails making sure doctors don’t “misgender” patients. “Whether you’re looking for something that’s related to medical transition such as hormone, or something completely unrelated like breaking an arm, or going to an ENT,” she explains, every transgender gets a trans concierge when they visit Vanderbilt University Hospital.

The article notes:

Place yourself in a Vanderbilt University Hospital doctor’s shoes for a moment.

Imagine you’re an orthopedic surgeon who got into the medical game to heal broken bones, which you’ve been doing successfully for decades. You’ve got a wall full of diplomas and awards. You love your work and derive substantial satisfaction from it. In large part, it’s your identity.

You don’t pay a lot of attention to politics. Maybe you vote; maybe you don’t. You probably have no idea that rabid ideologues have slowly infiltrated your hospital in a silent coup d’état. You keep your head down and do your job.

Things run smoothly. Patients come and go. Bones heal.

Then, one day, seemingly apropos of nothing, your supervisor, a fresh millennial with a woke MBA, introduces you to a hulking blue-haired, tatted-up Shrek.

The LGBTQ+++© monster before you, your supervisor explains, has been assigned to your operating room from here on out. Its job is to watch intently from the corner while you work, Big Brother-style, notepad in its lap, waiting for you to subconsciously betray the smallest sign of transphobic hate with an aberrant flick of the wrist or a wrong twitch of the eyebrow so it can have you hauled in front of a medical ethics tribunal and have you brought to justice.

So who is behind this insanity? Well, I know it’s simply a coincidence, but as the abortion industry is winding down, Planned Parenthood is doing a lot of lobbying for the transgender activists. Planned Parenthood is also dispensing hormone blockers and other drugs associated with transgender children. Planned Parenthood has a lot of money and a lot of influence. We need to be paying attention.

Is This The Person We Want In The Senate?

On Friday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, NBC News aired an interview with Mr. Fetterman, who is currently the Lt. Governor of Pennsylvania. Dasha Burns conducted the interview and mentioned that she felt that Mr. Fetterman had difficulty communicating during the small talk before the interview. Her comments were not well received by others in the liberal media. However, her comments are extremely relevant.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Republicans have put up (and even elected) a bevy of awful federal candidates this year and in the recent past, but none of them are any more unfit for office than Democratic Senate nominee John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

With all due sympathy for a man recovering from a stroke, it must be said: Fetterman was a ludicrous candidate even before his stroke, and now he shouldn’t even be in the race. Just a few weeks after his May 13 stroke, it should have been evident that his health was not adequate for one of the top jobs of public service in the world. Only 100 people, out of some 330 million, are given the burden and privilege of being senators. It’s an office that performs a vital function; it’s not a merit badge and shouldn’t be a rehabilitation center.

The article concludes:

Voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere need to take their own responsibilities more seriously. Getting public policy right really does take knowledge, understanding, and, usually, experience. Voters who want to blow off steam, follow cultural cues (which can be easy to fake, by the way), and “send messages,” rather than hiring/electing people with relevant skills and knowledge (not to mention cognition), are elevating to high office people who just can’t do their jobs well.

This isn’t a call for rule by a self-selected elite of supposed experts, but it is an insistence that there is a level of competence below which voters shouldn’t accept a candidate. Fetterman has done absolutely nothing, even when healthy, to show the right abilities or wisdom to be a good senator. Now that he has been victimized by bad health, he shouldn’t be anywhere near that office.

Unless Pennsylvania Democrats want to try the same sort of exotic candidate switch that Georgia Republicans should but won’t do, Fetterman will remain on the ballot. The box by his name, though, certainly should not be checked.

I am not in total agreement with the last statement, but I do believe that Mr. Fetterman needs to go home and recover from the stoke he suffered. He does not belong in Congress. But I do wonder–if he is elected and says that he cannot serve, does Governor Wolf, a Democrat, get to appoint his replacement?