From my friends at Townhall:
Monthly Archives: February 2023
When Parents Fight For Their Rights As Parents
On Friday, The Patriot Journal (quoting Fox News) reported the following:
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Florida’s parental rights bill…
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, a judge in Tallahassee, Florida, ruled on Wednesday that students, parents, and teachers didn’t prove that they have legal standing in challenging the law after filing a revised lawsuit.
The article at The Patriot Journal notes:
This is actually the second attempt by leftists; the judge tossed the earlier version last September. Another lawsuit, alleging something similar, was filed in Orlando and also dismissed by the court.
Judge Winsor said the plaintiffs couldn’t show they suffered any harm from the law, and said their claims of harm “are from the law’s existence versus its enforcement.”
The North Carolina Senate has recently passed a Parents’ Bill of Rights. It passed the Senate in a party-line vote–Democrats voted no and Republicans voted yes. It now will go to the North Carolina House.
Parents should be in control of the content of their children’s education. If a child commits a crime, the parents are held responsible. When schools teach children that they are victims and are entitled, bad things happen. When schools sexualize young children, bad things happen. Schools and parents should work together to train the next generation of citizens to have moral values, patriotism and a work ethic. That would go a long way into cleaning up the mess our country currently is in.
Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant
One does wonder what behind-the-scenes were made in order to elect Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House. Many of us were doubtful as to whether Representative McCarthy represented the change we were looking for–the change from Republican broken promises and spinelessness. Well, so far I like what I see.
On Monday, Townhall reported the following:
Back in January, Leah reported on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s declaration that he believed the American people had a right to see all the footage from in and around the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. “I think the public should see what happened on that day,” McCarthy said last month.
…Well, now it’s happening. And despite initial reports at the time saying that there were 14,000 hours of footage from cameras around the Capitol complex set to be released, it turns out there’s more — much more — and Speaker McCarthy is giving it exclusively to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Axios scooped the news Monday morning, reporting that “Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds” and an expectation that “[e]xcerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks.”
Obviously this footage should have been released years ago (at least before the mid-term election), but I am happy to see it being released now. I suspect Tucker Carlson’s television ratings are about to go throught the roof.
The article concludes:
Speaking to Axios, Carlson said “there was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret.” Thanks to Speaker McCarthy and Carlson, it won’t be a secret for long.
“If there was ever a question that’s in the public’s interest to know, it’s what actually happened on January 6,” Carlson added. “By definition, this video will reveal it. It’s impossible for me to understand why any honest person would be bothered by that.”
You can be sure there will be plenty of bothered caterwauling from Democrats and the mainstream media as the footage is released, but it’s little more than the groans of a political system that seems to feel physical pain whenever their narrative setting authority is usurped.
Representative Democracy
By R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D
Feb 20,2023
Representative democracy is a process where the people select representatives to vote for them at a legislative body such as a Congress, Parliament, or a General Assembly. The process only works when the elected officials know the will of the people and vote accordingly. In a pure democracy the people vote directly on issues before the legislature. Let’s examine how representative democracy is working in North Carolina by reviewing the issue of Medicaid expansion.
Medicaid is a failing social program that the socialist Democrats have been pushing to expand for at least the past ten years; initially as a part of Obamacare. Medicaid was created ostensibly to provide healthcare services to people in the lowest income brackets who supposedly could not afford to pay for their own healthcare. Essentially, like most social programs, taxpayers are required to pay for services received by others. A typical transfer of wealth program. Medicaid expansion will add from 600,000 to one million North Carolinians to the Medicaid rolls, greatly increasing the cost of the program. Initially, the funds to do this will come from the federal government money printing (actually your taxes) and will require adding to the already overwhelming federal deficit of $32 trillion and counting. Like all social programs, it will serve as a disincentive to work, increase dependency on the government, move us towards nationalized healthcare and towards socialism. Which is of course, what the socialist Democrat Party wants. No true conservative who loves this country should be for this.
Given these facts, it is understandable why Republican legislators have opposed Medicaid expansion for the past several years in spite of Governor Cooper’s efforts to get it passed. In the spring of last year, the Republican controlled N.C. State Senate did a complete flip-flop and voted to approve expanding Medicaid to the shock and dismay of many Republican voters. The N.C. House of Representatives deferred taking a vote until after the election. Unfortunately, last week the Republican controlled House voted to expand Medicare. I am pleased to announce that our two local Representatives, Steve Tyson and Keith Kidwell voted against Medicaid expansion, as well they should have.
A limited survey I conducted in June 2022 showed that close to 90% of Republican voters were opposed to Medicaid expansion. National surveys have shown that up to 65% of voters are opposed to Medicaid expansion one they learn the reality of its impact. Now it is pretty clear that Republican and other voters do not want Medicaid expanded. If we truly operated as a representative democracy, this information would determine the vote of our elected officials and Medicaid expansion would not pass. Elected representatives who ignore the wishes of their constituents should not be returned to office since they have betrayed our trust. Of course, it is our responsibility to let them know where we stand on the issues through telephone calls, emails, letters or direct contact. Also, they have the responsibility to find out where their constituents stand particularly when they are changing their vote as is the case with Medicaid expansion for most Republican Senators/Representatives. Otherwise, our faith in them is undermined to say the least.
Contact your state Senator and let them know where you stand before it is too late! Let us make sure representative democracy is working in North Carolina.
What An Incredible Coincidence.
Somehow President Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency don’t seem too interested in the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. At least they were not all that interested until President Trump said that he would visit the area.
On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:
The announcement by President Trump with his intent to visit East Palestine next Wednesday, followed moments later by a reversal announcement from FEMA stating they will now offer support to East Palestine, do not seem coincidental.
The Biden administration, including the EPA, FEMA and Transporation Secretary, was likely very worried about the optics of getting blasted by President Trump very visibly next week for their lack of urgency and concern. Moments after Trump announces his visit, FEMA reverses their prior denial of aid. lol
On Friday, wkyc reported:
Just hours after saying he “[did] not expect” members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be in East Palestine, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine now confirms the government entity will, in fact, be sending a crew to assist with the aftermath of the train derailment in the village.
In a joint statement released Friday night, DeWine and FEMA Regional Administrator Thomas C. Sivak said the agency would deploy a Regional Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) to Columbiana County starting Saturday, along with a senior response official. The workers will “support ongoing operations, including incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long-term recovery needs.”
The article at wkyc concludes:
It is unknown what changed in the time since those remarks, but the governor did confirm he would “preemptively file a document with FEMA to preserve our rights in case we need their assistance in the future.” DeWine has not declared the crash aftermath to be a federal disaster, perhaps because of concerns doing that could shield the Norfolk Southern Railway from liability.
“Let’s say, for example, the railroad stops paying, for whatever reason,” DeWine said Friday of filing the paper. “We’re still going to go after the railroad, but we want to make sure that there will be support for people if that support does, in fact, stop from the railroad.”
The wreckage from the freight train led to the release of multiple potentially toxic materials both into the air and into waterways. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has continued to say both the air and municipal drinking water are safe, with DeWine adding that a chemical plume in the Ohio River has since completely dissipated.
Some of us don’t think that the reason for the change is unknown.
The American Employment Situation Under The Biden Administration
It’s hard enough for the average family to deal with the current level of inflation, but there is another factor working against Americans looking for good jobs.
On Friday, Breitbart posted the following headline: “Biden’s Labor Market: 1.9M Fewer Americans Working, 2M Foreign Workers Funneled into U.S. Jobs.”
That is not good news for American workers.
The article reports:
At the end of 2022, 1.9 million fewer Americans were working than in 2019 before the Chinese coronavirus pandemic while President Joe Biden’s administration has funneled two million additional foreign workers into United States jobs.
A new analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) shows that in the fourth quarter of 2022, close to two million fewer native-born Americans were working in jobs compared to the same time in 2019 while two million foreign-born workers have been added to the workforce compared to the same time period.
The thing to keep in mind here is that nothing happens in America without the approval of the uni-party. The uni-party is made up of corporate Republicans looking for cheap labor and Democrats looking for future voters. Bringing in foreign workers who will work for less and who may eventually become citizens satisfies both groups. Does anyone actually believe that if members of Congress wanted to solve the problem of people being imported to take American jobs that it wouldn’t be solved by now? It’s to the uni-party’s advantage to continue with open borders and an immigration policy that benefits those in both parties who want to maintain profits with cheap labor or maintain power with new voters.
The article notesL’
There has been a decades-long decline in the labor force participation rate of the U.S.-born of working-age (16 to 64), from 77.3 percent in 2000 to 73.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. [Emphasis added]
…
If the labor force participation rate for the working-age U.S.-born in the fourth quarter of 2022 was what it had been in the fourth quarter of 2000, then 6.4 million more people would be in the labor force. [Emphasis added]
We need to close the southern and northern borders, create a sane immigration policy, and protect American jobs. We were on that path with President Trump. I would like to get back on that path.
Is Anyone Surprised?
Stacey Abrams has turned losing an election into a profitable venture. When she is not writing steamy romance novels, she is generally creating havoc in the State of Georgia.
On Thursday, The Washington Examiner reported:
Experts are calling for an investigation into a Stacey Abrams-founded charity over a large financial discrepancy.
The New Georgia Project, a minority-focused democracy advocacy group founded in 2013, was run by Nse Ufot, hand-picked by Abrams, until she was fired in October. The group filed its 2021 Form 990 financial disclosure three months later, when the form was two months overdue, an investigation by the Washington Free Beacon found. The group reported a $533,846 consulting payment and $67,500 grant to an obscure charity called the Black Male Initiative, run by Ufot’s brother. However, the group claims it never received any such payment.
The group provided its Internal Revenue Service filings to the outlet, which show $0 in consulting fees and just $255,000 from all sources.
The article concludes:
“New Georgia Project’s recent tax returns leave so many questions, it’s difficult to know where to even begin trying to understand these important documents,” Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of the charity watchdog Americans for Public Trust, told the outlet. “Filing a fraudulent return with the IRS carries hefty penalties, and any evidence of financial malfeasance should be taken seriously.”
The New Georgia Project has played a leading role in Abrams’s attempts to turn Georgia blue by mobilizing minority voters.
“New Georgia Project is a nonpartisan effort to register, civically engage, and build power with the New Georgia Majority — the large and growing population of Black, brown, young, and other historically marginalized voters in the Peach State,” its website reads.
The New Georgia Project has a noble cause. Voter registration is important. I might emphasize that working to register all voters is a good idea. I wonder if they are registering voters in both Republican and Democrat areas.
A wise man once said, ” Be careful what charities you give your money to.” I suspect in the case of the New Georgia Project that is good advice.
From my friends at Power Line Blog:
Good News For Freedom
On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that a federal judge has ruled that the State of Vermont must reimburse parents who were denied state tuition benefits because they sent their children to religious schools.
The article reports:
Under the settlement, the state is prohibited from continuing to deny parents access to tuition based on a school’s “religious status, affiliation, beliefs, exercise, or activities,” and residents of districts that previously denied funds on this basis must be reimbursed. District Judge Christina Reiss cited the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer in Carson v. Makin, a case that similarly found Maine could not exclude religious schools from its tuition program without violating First Amendment religious liberty protections.
Vermont’s town tuitioning program, like Maine’s, exists to help educate children in rural areas where public schools may not exist or cover all grade levels. Where the district has no available option in a town, it pays to send students to a private or public school of the parent’s choice.
The Constitution states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The Founding Fathers wanted to prevent the establishment of a ‘state’ religion. Refusing to reimburse parents in a state reimbursement program because they choose to send their children to a religious school has nothing to do with establishing a ‘state’ religion–it is discrimination against religious people and is not allowed in the Constitution.
The article notes:
“Carson v. Makin made clear that the government cannot deny or restrict benefits to people based on religion,” Institute for Justice Attorney David Hodges told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Now that the question of Vermont’s tuitioning program has been settled, I am unaware of any state that is unconstitutionally restricting educational benefits in the same manner as Vermont.”
On Sept. 13, 2022, the Vermont Secretary of Education sent a letter to district superintendents instructing them that they can no longer deny tuition to religious schools “that meet educational quality standards” in light of the Carson v. Makin decision.
Religious schools are free to teach consistent moral values. Some of our public schools are reluctant to teach moral values. This ruling is good news for children and parents in Vermont.
Let’s Fix This Before We Increase Medicaid
On Thursday, NC Political News reported the following:
Nonprofit hospital executives enriched themselves while fueling a crisis of health care affordability in North Carolina. A new analysis of hospital data finds that nonprofit hospital CEOs doubled their paychecks in less than five years — a fraction of the time previously thought. Existing research had gravely underestimated the growth of wage inequity across nonprofit hospitals.
State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, invited researchers from the North Carolina State Health Plan for Teachers and State Employees, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy to study executive compensation across North Carolina’s nine largest hospital systems, including Atrium, Mission, Novant, UNC, Vidant, Duke, Cone, WakeMed and Wake Forest Baptist Health, as well as the Midwest system Advocate Aurora Health that merged with Atrium Health.
“This is the biggest transfer of wealth in our generation, and it’s being financed disproportionately on the backs of sick, low- and fixed-income people,” said Treasurer Folwell. “These nonprofit hospital executives have lost their mission. They are supposed to make people better, not make themselves richer.”
When North Carolina hospitals paid $1.75 billion to their top executives, chief executive officers (CEO) captured almost 20% of that pay from 2010 to 2021. Researchers also found troubling trends in hospital executive compensation during the pandemic. Frontline workers gained national recognition for their work caring for patients, but nurse and physician wages have risen far more slowly than executive pay over the past decade. Despite pleading poverty and taking $1.5 billion in taxpayer-funded COVID relief, the majority of hospital top executives did not cut their own paychecks in 2020.
I don’t ever support wage-and-price controls, but it seems as if there are a number of people whose wages have increased dramatically in recent years for no apparent reason.
The article also notes:
While hospital executives enjoyed huge raises, workers’ wages have remained largely flat over the past decade. Rising health care costs are eroding families’ upward mobility. The average worker now loses 20% of a paycheck to health care costs, and one in five North Carolinians is in debt collections for medical bills. State employees must work one week out of every month just to pay the family premium.
“This report is a wake-up call to anyone who sits on the board of a nonprofit hospital,” said Dr. Vivian Ho, James A. Baker III Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice University. “Executives are being handsomely rewarded for earning high profits and burdening North Carolinians with medical debt, rather than guaranteeing affordable care to hard-working families that form the backbone of the economy.”
If a non-profit hospital has that much money to spend, they should use it to cut costs for its patients, which in turn will cut costs for people with medical insurance, which will give people more disposable income, which will result in economic growth for everyone. That way everyone wins.
I Couldn’t Make This Up If I Tried
On Thursday, Aviation Week reported the following:
A small, globe-trotting balloon declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on Feb. 15 has emerged as a candidate to explain one of the three mystery objects shot down by four heat-seeking missiles launched by U.S. Air Force fighters since Feb. 10.
The club—the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade (NIBBB)—is not pointing fingers yet.
But the circumstantial evidence is at least intriguing. The club’s silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon” reported its last position on Feb. 10 at 38,910 ft. off the west coast of Alaska, and a popular forecasting tool—the HYSPLIT model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—projected the cylindrically shaped object would be floating high over the central part of the Yukon Territory on Feb. 11. That is the same day a Lockheed Martin F-22 shot down an unidentified object of a similar description and altitude in the same general area.
There are suspicions among other prominent members of the small, pico-ballooning enthusiasts’ community, which combines ham radio and high-altitude ballooning into a single, relatively affordable hobby.
“I tried contacting our military and the FBI—and just got the runaround—to try to enlighten them on what a lot of these things probably are. And they’re going to look not too intelligent to be shooting them down,” says Ron Meadows, the founder of Scientific Balloon Solutions (SBS), a Silicon Valley company that makes purpose-built pico balloons for hobbyists, educators and scientists.
I have nothing to add.
When The Chickens Come Home To Roost
When the chickens come home to roost, deny, deny, deny. That is how James Clapper is handling the charges that the letter signed by 51 retired intelligence community leaders influenced the election.
On Thursday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:
In case anyone is wondering who was responsible for the idea that the Hunter Biden laptop story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assures us it was not the 51 retired intelligence community leaders who penned the letter which said it was. Instead, it was the media who mischaracterized their words.
Clapper’s signature topped the list of prominent former government officials willing to stake their reputations on the infamous letter that was written to sow doubt about a story that, if it had not been suppressed, could arguably have changed the result of the 2020 presidential election.
One of the major problems with that statement is that in August on 2017, James Clapper was hired by CNN as a national security analyst. He was the media he is accusing of mischaracterizing his words.
The article notes:
Specifically, Clapper, who is best known for lying to Congress in 2013 about the National Security Agency’s collection of Americans’ telephone records and for his role in perpetuating the Russian collusion hoax, blamed Politico for “deliberately distorting” their letter in an October 2020 piece titled , “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
“There was message distortion. All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation,” Clapper told Washington Post “fact checker” Glenn Kessler. “Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five.”
Paragraph five is indeed a disclaimer. It states : “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
But if Clapper felt the letter had been deliberately distorted, he certainly had ample opportunity to clear things up. After leaving office at the end of the Obama administration, Clapper became a political analyst for CNN, giving him a major media platform from which to do so. Yet he remained silent — even as leftist pundits and congressional Democrats spread the lie that the Hunter Biden laptop story had been planted by Russia.
It’s amazing how many things go on in Washington that no one is responsible for. It’s like there are invisible people in that city that are there simply to create havoc!
Was This Part Of The Problem?
On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern train derailed near East Palestine, Ohio The train was carrying toxic chemicals. The officials in charge chose to burn off some of those chemicals to keep the train cars involved from exploding. No people were killed in the accident. There are reports of fish dying from the pollution and other animals dying. So what happened?
In October 2021, Freight Waves posted an article titled, “The perils of precision scheduled railroading.” Precision Scheduled Railroading is a practice put in place to increase the efficiency of the railroad (and increase their profits).
The article reports:
But the unions representing craft employees and train and engine crews — the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, SMART-TD, Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, among others — generally have been skeptical of PSR, in large part because the operational model also seeks to cut costs, and one way to cut costs is to reduce employee headcount. Since 2016, the yearly average of those employed by the U.S. operations of the Class I railroads has fallen roughly 25%, according to data submitted to the Surface Transportation Board.
Many of the employees that were cut were involved in various types of safety inspections. The remaining employees have had to deal with increased work loads that may have ultimately contributed to safety issues.
The article includes the following anecdote:
As a signal maintainer, Randy conducts monthly and quarterly inspections of the signals at railroad crossings and at other areas within his assigned territory. The inspections involve adhering to standards developed by the FRA.
When Randy first started, the railroad treated him and his colleagues well.
“Everything was great. I really can’t say enough good things about how they treated us in the beginning,” Randy said.
Things started to change when his railroad implemented PSR, according to Randy. One of the biggest changes has been the declining number of employees working for the railroad, coupled with greater responsibilities for each remaining worker. The territory that each signal maintainer was responsible for grew, while the managers overseeing the work of the signal maintainers are also responsible for ensuring that a greater amount of territory is being properly inspected, according to Randy.
Another change is PSR’s impact on the timing of the inspections, according to Randy. Because the trains run on a fixed schedule, the dispatchers are reluctant to give the signal maintainers the time they need to conduct a thorough inspection because they don’t want to delay the trains. Meanwhile, the signal maintainers feel pressure to get all their inspections completed, Randy said.
“When you stretch them thin, in my eyes … a lot of those maintainers are going up to those gates and saying, ‘It was working fine the last time. Let me just write the paperwork up.’ Because you just ain’t got time to get it all done,” Randy said. “We all know that things aren’t getting done.”
Randy believes that the railroads will start to hire more employees again because they need more crews to ensure that tracks and the network are functioning well.
“I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt, railroads that are running PSR — it’s just a matter of time before the track is in such disrepair that they just don’t have a choice but to hire more people and start going back. … Me personally, I just see PSR as a temporary thing because it just can’t work,” Randy said. When a train that weighs 20,000 tons is running across the rail, “it’s going to break stuff eventually.”
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. I realize that some of this may simply be union gripes because the union members did not feel that they got a big enough cut of the increased profits, but it does sound as if there are some serious safety issues that are not being adequately addressed.
From my friends at Townhall:
Parents’ Voices Do Make A Difference
On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about an Idaho school board policy that was canceled because of objections from the community.
The article reports:
An Idaho school board canceled any further action on a proposed policy that would allow the use of bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of gender identity rather than biological sex, following community uproar.
Caldwell School Board put its gender identity policy on hold on Monday after community backlash caused a previous meeting to abruptly end. The pause comes as Idaho’s Senate Education Committee introduced legislation that would require Idaho students to use bathrooms and locker rooms on the basis of biological sex, according to KTVB 7.
The also notes:
In January, the school board proposed the policy which advises teachers to call students by their preferred pronouns. The school board shut down the meeting early after those protesting the policy failed to listen to the board’s warnings regarding conduct.
“It is always okay to have concerns, especially when regarding the safety of your child,” a Caldwell student said at the January meeting. “But, it is also unfair to ignore the concerns of others, including the children that policy that 3281 was written for.”
Because the community said ‘no’, the policy was put on the back burner. There is no promise that the policy will not come out in the future, but for now, common sense rules the day. All of us have to learn to stand up against our school boards and other community leaders who are advocating for things that pose a risk to our children. I don’t want to see any child bullied or made fun of, but I also don’t want to see children harmed by rules put in place by well-meaning school boards who did not consider the consequences of those rules.
When Common Sense Takes A Vacation
On Tuesday, Fox News reported the following:
Los Angeles, California city officials announced a new public safety initiative which implements yoga, meditation and healing circles to homeless communities as an alternative form of unarmed policing. The initiative’s launch cost the city of Los Angeles $2.2 million in city funding.
If only homelessness and crime were so simple that they could be ended by yoga, meditation, and healing circles. Homelessness is generally related to mental illness and/or drug addiction. Until we are able to get to the root of either or both of these problems, homelessness will exist. It should also be noted that a person who is addicted to drugs will not be successful in a rehabilitation program until he decides he is willing to give up drugs. Other people can’t make that decision for him. The homeless are not as bothered by being homeless as the rest of us are bothered by seeing them homeless.
The article concludes:
Homelessness has become a pressing issue in Los Angeles as local leaders continue to feel pressure to address the matter amid increasing housing costs.
According to a Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) as of Feb. 2022, there are 69,144 homeless people in Los Angeles County. Throughout 2022, the Los Angeles Police Department reported 229,584 crimes, an 11.6% increase from 2021.
There is nothing I can add to this.
Upending National Security For Political Purposes
On Tuesday, The Conservative Review reported that the Biden administration has plans to sell another 26 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The article reports:
The barrels are set to hit the market from April to June, just as fuel prices are predicted to increase due to the summer driving season.
“Biden is front-loading SPR barrels to avoid a summer gasoline price spike,” Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group, told Fox Business Network. “There are growing concerns among the Biden administration that gas prices are headed back to $4 a gallon, and the president is fearful of the political heat he will have to take.”
“By pushing barrels forward from previously announced sales he is robbing Peter to pay Paul but is discouraging future U.S. oil and gas investment,” Flynn added. “There should be some backlash from Republicans who are getting tired of using the SPR for political purposes and creating short-term price relief in exchange for much higher prices down the road.”
This is happening at the same time the Biden administration is restricting oil exploration and drilling in the United States (which would be a much more reasonable way to bring down the price of gasoline).
The article notes:
When Biden took office, there were 638 million barrels in the SPR. As of this month, there are approximately 371.6 million barrels, the lowest amount since December 1983. With the latest announcement to sell another 26 million barrels, inventory will drop to 346 million, the lowest since August 1983.
The House recently passed bills that would restrict future sales of reserve inventory, including preventing the federal government from selling oil reserves to the Chinese government. The Republican majority in the House also passed legislation that would increase production in the United States by requiring the Department of Energy to develop a plan to allocate more federal land for oil and gas leasing prior to initiating a non-emergency drawdown from the SPR.
This is not intelligent American energy policy.
No, The Biden Administration Has Not Stopped Inflation
On Tuesday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the current Consumer Price Index and other aspects of the inflation we are currently dealing with. Please follow the link to read the article as it includes multiple charts showing where we are and where we have been.
The article reports:
Inflation accelerated on a monthly basis.
- CPI increased 0.5%, the most in three months, versus 0.1% in the prior month; on a core basis, it was up 0.4% (versus 0.3%). Both were in line with estimates. On an annual basis, CPI increased 6.4% from the year-ago period versus 6.5% in December, higher than forecasts.
- Aside from the headline numbers, analysts and markets were also looking at the so-called super-core figure, or core services minus housing. It’s a category that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has singled as a must-watch. That showed some easing, increasing at a slower 0.27% pace in the month and 6.2% from the prior year.
- Housing contributed the most to the monthly increase in CPI, making up nearly half the gain. Food, gasoline and natural gas also boosted the monthly figure.
…Policymakers have flagged that the road from here on inflation would be bumpy, with some months and categories showing persistent price pressure, though that the overall trend is down. This report, in addition to a blowout January jobs gain, showed that inflation remains persistent in the US economy, and will need further action from the central bank.
The article includes the following charts:
I can only imagine the struggles of raising a family in this economy.
When Money Controls The News
‘Store-bought’ news is not only a problem in America, it is also a problem in Britain.
On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported the following:
The BBC is defending its decision to create propaganda content for the Chinese state media and commercials for Huawei, according to a Deadline investigation published Monday.
The BBC’s Executive Vice President Sean O’Hara said that the tax-payer funded broadcast service depends on Chinese contracts for funding international journalism, Deadline reported after a detailed investigation into the contracts.
“The commercial income generated from advertising provides vital investment in BBC News, ensuring that we are able to sustain our global network of journalists and continue to bring independent and impartial news to the UK and beyond. I’d like to assure you that it has no influence on our editorial output,” O’Hara said in a memo to British lawmaker Lord David Alton, according to the outlet.
Am I honestly supposed to believe that the fact that China is funding major portions of advertising on the BBC has no impact on their content? That illustrates one of the many reasons this site does not have ads–I don’t ever want to have to choose between someone who buys and ad and an article I want to print.
The article also notes:
Sources at the BBC are “uncomfortable with these relationships” with China. BBC StoryWorks has partnered with at least 18 different Chinese clients, nine of which were affiliated with the CCP.
Journalists have questioned the thought processes behind working with Chinese propaganda companies, such as CGTN, who have previously been accused of creating “perilous” working conditions for British reporters.
The New York Times and The Washington Post have also reaped profits from relationships with Chinese state media and the Communist Party. In one instance, The Washington Post touted China’s Communist Party as a means of bettering the lives of citizens, but made no mention of China’s oppression and genocide against the Uyghur population.
Mainstream media news needs to be viewed skeptically. Even if they report the story, they will leave out the parts that do not fit the desired narrative.
Sunlight Is The Best Disinfectant
On Monday, Hot Air reported that at least temporarily Microsoft has ‘suspended’ the use of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) as a result of The Washington Examiner’s exposing their blacklists.
The article reports:
It’s a win. It might only prove temporary, but it’s still a win for now.
Last week, the Washington Examiner’s Gabe Kaminsky exposed secret blacklists of conservative sites created by the “Global Disinformation Index.” Those blacklists included Hot Air, Townhall, RedState, and Twitchy, and lots of other conservative sites under the ambiguous guise of “disinformation.” No one from GDI or its sponsors ever bothered to contact us to discuss their “assessment,” nor did their reports ever cite any specific data for any of the sites blacklisted, despite a lengthy yet completely data-free discussion of their “methodology.”
…Several House Republicans demanded hearings on GDI in the immediate future. It will fit nicely into the GOP’s efforts to expose the political weaponization of government. It also comes at the same time that the Twitter Files and a lawsuit against Facebook have exposed government efforts to quash and silence dissent and debate on social media platforms. This takes that effort several steps further — attempting to strangle conservative voices even outside of the Big Tech platforms.
The article notes:
Once again, this is why we fight. We knew that we could not rely on Big Tech to provide us easy access to advertisers, but we didn’t know they’d adopt blacklists to cut us off entirely. Our members are what keep us going, and we appreciate them for standing up to the GDIs and the other McCarthyists.
The squeaky wheel gets the oil. The only way to change things is to speak out.
Religious Freedom Under Attack (Only Some Religions)
In January I posted an article about the Detroit suburb of Hamtramck’s all Muslim City Council passing a law to allow the religious sacrifice of animals on private property. Evidently that is part of the Muslim religious tradition. America has laws that would overrule that law, but evidently they are being ignored so that Muslims can practice their religion.
Meanwhile, on February 10th, The Patriot Journal reported the following:
Oh, boy is the FBI having a hard few years. The country’s highest law enforcement agency got a black eye after it was outed in several attempts to sway American politics. That included investigations aimed at slandering Trump and attempts to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story.
But the agency’s only gotten worse under Biden. They raided Trump’s home with 30 armed agents. They went after parents for simply questioning school boards. And now, it seems the bureau has even tried to destroy the religious freedoms of millions of Americans. The FBI is now scrambling to retract a disturbing memo aimed at Catholics.
NewsMax reported the following:
The FBI has renounced a leaked internal memo from its field office in Richmond, Virginia, that warned white supremacists found a home with “radical traditionalist Catholics” who favored the Latin Mass…
“Upon learning of the document, FBI Headquarters quickly began taking action to remove the document from FBI systems and conduct a review of the basis for the document,” the FBI statement continued.
The article at The Patriot Journal continues:
How odd, that an agency that is supposed to be hunting down real criminals is targeting a religious institution. Keep in mind, “white supremacy” isn’t a crime. Acts against people because of their race are crimes, hate crimes. But Democrats have labeled millions of Americans “white supremacists” in order to justify political persecution of them.
The article lists a few takeaways from the incident:
Key Takeaways:
- The FBI scrambled to revoke a memo targeting Catholics as “white supremacists.”
- The memo claimed “radical traditional Catholics” were welcoming white supremacists and should be investigated.
- The agency rushed to remove traces of the document from its systems once it reached the public.
Stay tuned.
This Sounds More Like The Mafia Than Like The Government
On February 10th, Judicial Watch posted an article about the FBI’s handling of the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun being found in a dumpster in Delaware. It should be noted that if Hunter Biden is actually convicted on anything, it should be two gun charges–lying on his permit application and his gun being found in a dumpster.
The article reports:
Judicial Watch announced today that it received 487 pages of records from the United States Secret Service (USSS) related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun, reportedly disposed of in a dumpster in Delaware in October 2018. The records show agency officials discussing media reports of its alleged involvement with one finding it “odd” that the Secret Service was involved in the investigation when Joe and Hunter Biden were not receiving Secret Service protection at the time. Another official responds: “Maybe we were asked for a favor?”
The records show the agency alerted the Biden White House and crafted a public statement insisting it had “no involvement in this alleged incident” and refusing to provide any additional clarification to media inquiries.
Judicial Watch is investigating whether and how the Secret Service intervened for Hunter Biden in an incident involving a gun allegedly owned by him. In September 2022, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records or communications about the reported purchase, possession, and disposal of a firearm owned by Hunter Biden found in a Delaware dumpster in October 2018 (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:22-cv-02841)).
Judicial Watch reported in December 2022 that the Secret Service repeatedly changed its position about whether it is in possession of records related to the investigation of Hunter Biden’s gun.
The article concludes:
In June 2020, U.S. Secret Service records showed that, for the first five and a half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled extensively while receiving a Secret Service protective detail. During the time period of the records provided, Hunter Biden took 411 separate domestic and international flights, including to 29 different foreign countries. He visited China five times.
Judicial Watch is also suing the DHS for Secret Service records on Hunter Biden’s travel and security costs, and suing the State Department for messages sent through the SMART (State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolkit) system that mention Hunter Biden.
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. Thank God for Judicial Watch.
Standing Up For What The Bible Says
This is a long article, but it is an important one. This same issue is currently playing out in the churches in America.
On February 10th, the Anglican Church of Uganda posted the following statement:
Good morning, our Media Evangelists, and Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow!
I have invited you here today to update you and, through you, all our Christians here in Uganda about some recent decisions the Church of England has made. I want to explain them very well to all of us and also explain the Church of Uganda’s position.
The Church of England’s Decision
The General Synod of the Church of England (their top governing body, like our Provincial Assembly) sat yesterday and passed several resolutions that are of great concern to us in Uganda. They have decided to allow clergy to preside at Blessings of Same-sex Unions and have approved supplemental prayers and liturgies for such occasions.
The Church of England is very good at making contradictory statements and expecting everyone to believe both can be true at the same time. That’s what they have done with this decision.
On the one hand, they say that the Church of England has not changed its doctrine of marriage, namely that marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman.
On the other hand, they are giving clergy permission to preside at services of Blessing for same-sex unions, especially for gay couples who are already considered “married” by the British government. In other words, a gay couple joined together in a civil marriage would then go to the church to receive prayers of blessing.
The only significant difference between a wedding and a service of “blessing” is the terminology used.
The Church of England insists it is not changing its doctrine of marriage. But, in practice, they are doing precisely that. You may read various articles, opinions, and commentaries on this decision that try to justify its action.
But, what I want you to know is that if it looks like a wedding, and sounds like a wedding… it IS a wedding.
The Church of Uganda’s Position
Now, I want to talk about the position of the Church of Uganda. There have been very many questions about it in light of this terrible decision of the Church of England.
1. First, from the first page of the Bible in the book of Genesis to the last page of the Bible in the book of Revelation, it is clear that God’s design for human flourishing is that we are part of a family – a family that is defined as one man and one woman united in holy matrimony for life and, God willing, a union that produces children. God’s Word has said that the only context for sexual relationships is in the context of a marriage of one man and one woman.
2. Second. Because lifelong, exclusive marriage between one man and one woman is the only context for sexual relationships, the Bible calls any other kind of sexual relationship a sin. Whether it is adultery, or fornication, or polygamy, or homosexual relationships. They are all sin and they all separate us from God.
a. That means sleeping with your girlfriend or your boyfriend before marriage is a sin.
b. That means that if you are married and have a “side dish,” that is a sin.
c. That means that if you take a second or third wife that is a sin.
d. That means if you engage in homosexual or same-sex sexual relationships, that is a sin.
Yes, God can forgive you, but it requires that you come before God, confess that you have done wrong, and make a commitment to change your way of life – in other words, to repent – and walk in God’s ways.
3. Third. When Jesus was questioned about a woman caught in adultery, he told her to “Go, and sin no more.”
There is a lot of sexual sin in Uganda. I know that, and you know that. Nevertheless, we haven’t changed our message. Our message is the message of the Bible, which is, “Go, and sin no more.”
The Church of England, on the other hand, has now departed from the Bible and their new message is the opposite message of the Bible. They are now saying, “Go, and sin some more.”
They are even offering to bless that sin.
That is wrong.
As Church of Uganda we cannot accept that. God cannot bless what He calls sin.
We all know the story of the Uganda Martyrs, how they refused to engage in homosexual sex with their leaders. They stood firm in their Christian faith and were martyred for it. We cannot betray them or our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not betray the Word of God or His ways. The Bible tells us that Jesus alone is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that he is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”
Jesus does not change his mind about what is sinful. Instead, Jesus gives us a way out of a bondage to sin by putting our trust and faith in him as our Saviour and Lord. That’s why it’s possible for us to “Go, and sin no more.”
Important Background
The suicidal path the Church of England has now taken began in the Anglican Communion in 2003 when The Episcopal Church in America consecrated a gay man as a Bishop. As Church of Uganda, we broke fellowship with them at that time, and we have maintained that they are the ones who have left the Anglican faith and, therefore, the Anglican Communion.
In 2008 when the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to discipline The American Episcopal Church for their action, Archbishops from Bible-believing Anglican Provinces around the world organized the first Gafcon conference to bring us together under the Lordship of Christ and the authority of the Bible. Gafcon has always said, “We are not leaving the Anglican Communion; we ARE the Anglican Communion.”
Likewise, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has said the same thing. “We are not leaving the Anglican Communion; we ARE the Anglican Communion.”
The Way Forward
We now want to ask the Church of England, “Do you have the integrity to step out of the Anglican Communion because you have departed from the Anglican faith?” God called you to preach a Gospel of repentance and faith. Instead, you’re like Jonah. You have disobeyed and are running in the opposite direction.
God called the church to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but the Church of England is running to Tarshish and preaching acceptance of sin. There is no way we are walking together.
The Church of England, together with the Episcopal Church in America, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and others – these are the Provinces that have walked away, but we pray for them to repent.
And, if they refuse to repent, then we call on them to have the integrity to form their own Canterbury Communion because what they believe is not Anglicanism and it is not the faith once delivered to the saints.
If they want to take their whole church into the belly of a whale, they are free to do that; we are, after all, autonomous Anglican Provinces. We think it’s a bad idea, but they are free to do it.
But, they are NOT free to drag the whole Anglican Communion with them. The Anglican Communion is NOT an extension of the Church of England.
The Church of England has departed from the Anglican faith and are now false teachers. We fear Jesus’ words for them, “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Rev 2.5b) It’s that serious.
The Church of Uganda has more than 200 members traveling to Kigali in April for the 4th Global Gafcon meeting. We will be there with many Bible-believing Archbishops, Bishops, and Anglicans from all over Africa and the world. These are the ones who have not bowed their knee to Baal. (1 Kings 19.18)
We shall pray, and sit together, and discern the mind of Christ for the way forward. I ask your prayers for wisdom, for, indeed, we need the wisdom of Solomon to know how to faithfully respond to the crisis at hand.
Finally, now that our children are back in school, beware of the well-funded Gay organizations that are recruiting our children into homosexuality. Not only in Kampala, but all over the country. They target our poverty and promise our youth money.
To our youth – if someone invites you to a function and offers you a big transport refund, those are probably bad people. Say “No” to it. And, if you have already been exploited or abused by such groups, please go to your Bishop for prayer, support, and guidance. You will be received with love and compassion.
To our Head Teachers – if an organization is bringing money and resources to your school, or inviting your students to a function, do your research. Make sure you know who they really are.
My fellow Ugandans – we cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God and money. Do not lose your soul because you think you will gain the whole world through the money they offer you. Do not think you can take the money, but not fall into their trap. It’s a lie; you are being exploited with that money.
The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So, just say, “No.”
I am here today to declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”
The House of Bishops is united on this. The Provincial Assembly is united on this – “As for me and the Church of Uganda, we will serve the Lord.”
To God be the glory!
The Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu
Regardless of how you feel about this, it is the Biblical view. It is appropriate that a church uphold the Biblical view of sex and marriage.
On A Lighter Note…
On Sunday, The Epoch Times posted an article about an officer in the Wyandotte Police Department (WPD) who was recently charged with stealing property from another officer. Below is a picture of Officer Ice, who is charged with the crime.
I might add at this point that I think Officer Ice is incredibly handsome.
The article reports:
On Jan. 12, the WDP stated solemnly:
It saddens me to report that a current officer of the Wyandotte Police Department is under investigation for stealing!
The incident happened two days ago at the station. Ofc. Barwig was eating lunch in the breakroom when he was called to assist with a person in the WPD jail. He quickly jumped into service, leaving his half eaten lunch on the table. A short while later Barwig and another officer returned to the breakroom only to find Ofc. Ice leisurely strolling out of the room licking his chops. Barwig’s entire lunch was gone….disappeared, vanished!
Ofc. Ice has invoked his fifth amendment right to remain silent and quite frankly is not cooperating with the investigation. He has a history of rummaging through trash cans that are within his reach. There have been several other accusations of him taking food right from coworker’s hands as they walk by.
WPD will consider our Facebook followers’ opinions on how to proceed with this investigation.
Officer Ice’s situation was updated on January 18 in another post:
Dozens of attorneys have offered to defend Ofc Ice pro-?– o!
We have been threatened with massive protests if we move forward with our investigation and/or charges.
Plus the overall public just doesn’t believe he is guilty. No video has been produced.
That being said Ofc Ice will not face any internal discipline or criminal charges.
Matter of fact one of his local supporters, Lunch Wyandotte, dropped him off a custom made sandwich today because they felt like he wasn’t being fed enough. Side note, they threw the officers a tray of sammies too!
The public has spoken.
Spoken indeed! It turns out, many in the public agree with the decision not to investigate Officer Ice. Some even aired their opinions in the comments section of the WPD’s Facebook post. Here is a sampling of what they had to say.
Expressing lucid legal understanding, Mat Vanella wrote: “Possession is 9/10th of the law. Case dismissed. Defamation case and belly rubs compensation awarded.”
Congratulations to Officer Ice.
The Concept Of Having Skin In The Game
In early America, only men were allowed to vote. The theory behind that was that men were the head of their houses and a man’s vote represented the vote of his family. In many states only property owners could vote because they were considered to have a stake in the decisions made by their elected representatives. Obviously that changed. Obviously that needed to change. How far are we willing to let that change go? Recently the idea of letting 16-year olds vote has become popular among many Democrats. The claim is that it will encourage life-long voters. I am more inclined to think it will create more opportunities for mischief.
On Sunday, The Conservative Review posted an article about another voting discussion–letting non-citizens vote.
The article reports:
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was hit with backlash after making a seemingly elementary and innocuous remark: “Only Americans should vote in American elections.”
The comment was in regard to House Joint Resolution 24, or the “Disapproving the action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022,” which passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.
The resolution seeks to overturn a bill that passed the D.C. Council in October, which opened the local voting process to non-citizens.
The Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act was passed by the D.C. Council in late 2021. The bill gives non-citizens who live in the district the right to vote for the mayor, city council member, attorney general, school board member, and commissioner.
The law was to be reviewed by Congress and then go into effect in March.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) pointed out there were 162 Democrats who voted to allow non-citizens to vote in D.C. elections. All 218 Republicans in the House voted not to let non-citizens vote in D.C. elections. The House voted to overturn the bill by a vote of 260-162.
If you want to vote in an American election, please become an American citizen first.