From my friends at Townhall:
Monthly Archives: June 2023
The Question Of The Day
On Wednesday, Issues & Insights posted an article asking the question, “If Biden’s Economic Plan Is ‘Working,’ Why Are Tax Revenues Plunging?” That is a very good question.
In 2018, Investors.com reported:
Taxes: Critics of the Trump tax cuts said they would blow a hole in the deficit. Yet individual income taxes climbed 6% in the just-ended fiscal year 2018, as the economy grew faster and created more jobs than expected.
The Treasury Department reported this week that individual income tax collections for FY 2018 totaled $1.7 trillion. That’s up $14 billion from fiscal 2017, and an all-time high. And that’s despite the fact that individual income tax rates got a significant cut this year as part of President Donald Trump’s tax reform plan.
Income Taxes After Trump Tax Cuts
True, the first three months of the fiscal year were before the tax cuts kicked in. But if you limit the accounting to this calendar year, individual income tax revenues are up by 5% through September.
Other major sources of revenue climbed as well, as the overall economy revived. FICA tax collections rose by more than 3%. Excise taxes jumped 13%.
As John Kennedy once said (as he lowered taxes), “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats.”
The article at Issues & Insights reports:
President Joe Biden loves to brag about the masterful job he’s doing managing the nation’s economy, as he did on Tuesday when cheering the latest inflation news – which saw food prices up almost 7% from last year – and “our historic economic progress.”
The day before that, the Treasury Department released its monthly financial statement, which shows that the federal deficit for this fiscal year has already topped $1 trillion and that’s a big factor behind this is a sharp reduction in federal tax revenues from last year.
Wait, you say. If the economy is “strong” and “historic” as Biden claims, why are revenues cratering and deficits exploding?
Or, as the Washington Times put it: “Uncle Sam’s income has plummeted this year, sending the federal deficit spiraling deeper into the red than analysts had predicted and leaving officials grasping for answers.”
The article concludes:
…But what we can say for certain is that the only thing “historic” about the current economy is how delusional the president and the media are about what is actually going on.
You can only lie to people about how good the economy is for so long when they are feeling inflation every day in gas and supermarket prices.
Whoops! I Guess We Forgot About That!
On Monday, Breitbart reported the following:
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate admitted during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that the FBI redacted any mention of audio recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden in a document shown last week to Republican lawmakers in which an FBI informant alleged the Bidens were involved in a bribery scheme around 2015 and 2016.
Under grilling from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Abbate confirmed: “What I will tell you with respect to the document, the document was redacted to protect the source.”
If you believe that the only motive was to protect the source, I have some oceanfront property I want to see you in Arizona.
The article notes:
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday revealed that the document, which was a transcript of an FBI interview with an informant, contained references to 17 alleged audio recordings — 15 with Hunter Biden and two with then-Vice President Joe Biden. However, Grassley said, when the document was made available to the House Oversight Committee last week under pressure from Republicans, the references to the audio recordings had been deleted.
…Abbate had at first tried to skirt the question, with Blackburn asking him several times to explain why the information was redacted.
After he finally responded, she told him.
I think it would be helpful when you came before us, if you were willing to answer the questions, it would help to remove the perception that the American people have — they see you do it everyday — and that is politicizing the FBI and using it against the American people who don’t happen to be named Biden, Clinton, or one of the elites.
Abbate also denied that the FBI was politicized, which Blackburn disagreed with.
“There are two very clear standards of justice in this country. We see it every single day. The American people see this every single day. They look at you and see a politicized entity that is weaponizing an agency of the federal government against the American people,” she told him.
Does anyone still trust the FBI?
What Are We Supposed To Eat?
On Monday, Breitbart reported that the Dutch government has begun buying out farmers in the name of climate change.
The article reports:
The Dutch government launched its long-anticipated Great Reset-style farmer buyout scheme on Monday, which could potentially see upwards of ten thousand farms shut down forever to fall in line with the green agenda of the European Union.
Following years of political wrangling, the government of The Netherlands has launched its programme for buying out farms that do not comply with the EU’s Natura 2000 scheme supposedly meant to protect environmentally sensitive areas. The buyout programme will initially impact approximately 3,000 privately-owned farms which are deemed to emit too much nitrogen.
…The farmers’ group Agractie expressed concern over the launch, saying that while a website has been opened to allow farmers to see if they are eligible for a buyout, the other options, such as reducing emissions, are not currently explained, meaning that farmers cannot accurately judge which direction to take.
The move to shut down potentially thousands of farms in The Netherlands, despite the ongoing food crisis, could have a significant impact further afield given the country’s status as Europe’s largest exporter of meat and one of the largest dairy exporters in the world.
Some of the farmers are refusing to comply:
There has been widespread rejection of the government’s green agenda, however, with farmers launching large-scale tractor protests across the country over the past two years, which have shut down highways and critical infrastructure.
The resentment against the globalist government also saw the populist Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) sweep to victory in the Senate and local elections earlier this year, becoming the largest party in the country after previously holding zero seats. Yet, the neo-liberal coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was able to cobble together enough support to remain in power for the time being.
The impact of this will probably not be felt for a few months, but when it hits, there will be food shortages. Be aware that this is also happening in other countries.
The Looming Carbon Tax
On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the Democrat’s plan to determine the amount of energy used in the production of goods.
The article reports:
Fresh from the looming trainwreck that is the deal to increase the debt limit, four Republican senators recently signed onto legislation that would require the Biden administration to study the feasibility of . . . a national tax on energy that would be collected at the gas pump and in electricity and heating bills.
The four Republicans — Senator Cramer (R-ND), Senator Cassidy (R-LA), Senator Graham (R-SC), and Senator Murkowski (R-AK) — joined five Democrats in asking Team Biden to determine the amount of energy used — and carbon dioxide emitted — by various countries in the production of essentially everything that makes modern life possible (aluminum, iron, steel, plastic, crude oil, batteries, etc.).
Eventually, the information would be used to impose tariffs on those countries who — in the view of the Biden crew — emitted too much carbon dioxide while creating those products.
The article notes:
Unfortunately for American consumers — and this is the important part of the story — the process will lead inevitably to the federal government setting a price for carbon dioxide in these United States.
That means only one thing: a nationwide tax on carbon dioxide, which is, of course, really a tax on energy in all its forms. Such a tax would be incredibly regressive, would damage the economy, and make everything grown, made, or moved more expensive.
The sad, sick part of this story is that the Republican senators are fully aware of that conclusion; they are in fact counting on it. Senator Cramer told the Washington Post that: “We spend so much time as Republicans saying hell no to people who want to tax carbon . . . . this is the low-hanging fruit of climate policy or trade policy or whatever you want to call it.”
In August 2010 , I posted an article about carbon trading in America. The article was about the failure of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), a trading place for carbon credits. The only thing you really need to know is who lost money when Congress failed to pass Cap and Trade legislation that would have necessitated the existence of the CCX.
I reported in August 2010:
“The biggest losers have been CCX’s two biggest investors – Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management and Goldman Sachs – and President Obama, who helped launch CCX with funding from the Joyce Foundation, where he and presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett once sat on the board of directors.”
Green energy is about money–not about ecology.
What Is vs. What We Are Being Told
The Conservative Treehouse is one of the best sources on the activities of the deep state. At one point The Conservative Treehouse had to find a new platform because their reporting was getting too close to the truth. Now that they have found a neutral platform, they are free to tell the truth. On Monday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about exactly what is causing the kerfuffle about the documents President Trump has in his possession.
The article reports:
Devin Nunes was previously the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. In that very specific role, Nunes was a member of the Gang of Eight who are briefed on all intelligence issues at the same level as the President, the chief executive. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman, is the #2 ranking intelligence oversight member within the national security oversight apparatus, exceeded in rank amid the Gang of Eight group only by the House Speaker.
As the HPSCI chairman, Nunes has a very granular understanding of intelligence language and the way the intelligence apparatus uses words within national security documents. When Nunes talks about national security documents, he is a subject matter expert on the administration side of the process. Why is that important right now? Because Nunes knows how to contrast the wording in the Jack Smith indictment against wording used to describe national security documents.
Pay very close attention to this interview, prompted to 05:06, for the Nunes part. You have to get past the paid to obfuscate Mrs. Hannity interruptus, as she tries to shut down Nunes from bringing sunlight on the indictment. However, what Nunes introduces in his comments is the origin of what I am going to explain after the interview.
This is the interview:
Please follow the link to the article to read the details. The actions of the Obama administration after the election of President Trump were totally destructive to our republic, but typical of a president who did not understand nor appreciate the idea of America.
We Can Dream
On Tuesday, Issues & Insights posted an article with the following headline:
Headlines We’re Never Going To See In Our Lifetime
Here is the list:
“Scientists Blame Climate Crisis For Unusually Mild Weather“
“Washington Post Wins Pulitzer for Exposing Biden Corruption“
“Transgender Woman Charged With Hate Crime in Men’s Room Mass Shooting“
“Sloth and Gluttony Added to Months Celebrating Cardinal Sins“ “
D.C. Memorial to 45th and 47th President Set to Open Next Week“
“Berkeley Suspends Students for Disrupting Conservative Speaker“
“Teachers Union Announces It Will No Longer Donate to Political Candidates“
“MSNBC Documentary About EVs — ‘Rape of the Planet’ — To Air Next Week“
“Democrats Realize They’ve Been Using The Word ‘Fascist’ Wrong For Decades“
“Latest Star Wars Trilogy Voted Better Than Original“
“New York’s High Taxes, Crime Cause Massive Influx of Citizens“
“After Lifetime of Public Service, Senator Retires With Modest Wealth“
“Big Tech Firms Denounce Censorship, Vow Never to Work With Gov’t Again“
“Bullet Train from L.A. to San Francisco Opens“
“Eight Cabinet Agencies Shuttered After Audit Finds Them Useless“
“Why Is The Mainstream Media So Fixated on Democratic Scandals?“
“5 Years Later: ‘Net Neutrality’ Zealots Admit They Were Entirely Wrong About Everything“
“Time Needed to File Federal Income Taxes Dips Below 30 Minutes”
“After Drifting Leftward for Years, Drudge Rediscovers Conservative Roots“
“God Gets Most Number of Thanks At Oscars”
There is also a list of headlines we might actually see:
Meanwhile, here are some headlines that we just might see someday.
“L.A. Bans Use of Sidewalks by Pedestrians After Homeless Complain About Traffic“
“In Science Breakthrough, Man-Made Air to Power Wind Turbines“
“NFL Promises Next Super Bowl Will Feature Better Ads“
“San Francisco Converts Downtown to World’s Largest Water Park“
“Electric Grid Fails Stranding Millions of Drivers“
“Math-Fluid Group Demands ‘≃’ Get Added to LGB Acronym “
From my friends at Townhall:
The Overall Impact Of The Witch-hunt
The government bureaucracy has been after President Trump since he came down the escalator in June 2015. The government has broken its own laws to manufacture false evidence, people in the Department of Justice have lied under oath, and generally speaking, many in our government have compromised the principles that have made this country great. On Saturday, The Hill posted an article about the negative impact the indictment of President Trump has on America.
The article reports:
First, it reinforces the view, shared by many conservatives, that our government delivers a two-tiered system of justice — one for people on the right and another for those on the left. Donald Trump, after all, is not the only public official found to have mishandled secret documents. Special Counsel Jack Smith claimed, as he brought the indictment: “We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone.”
History suggests otherwise.
Former President Bill Clinton was found to have taken audio recordings of his discussions while in the White House and kept them in his sock drawer after his term was up. Judicial Watch sued to access the tapes, claiming they should be considered part of the presidential archive. But a judge ruled against the conservative group, claiming she had no jurisdiction and that such demands could only be made by the National Archives and Records Administration. NARA declined to seek the tapes.
The article also cites Hillary Clinton and President Biden’s mishandling of classified information.
The article continues:
Second, the announcement of Trump’s indictment just happened to occur on the very day that members of Congress were shown an FBI document containing credible allegations that Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian company. Instead of burrowing in on claims from a trusted whistleblower that our president, as vice president, accepted payment from Burisma in return for helping to oust Ukraine’s top prosecutor, Biden’s Justice Department created a powerful distraction.
This is unacceptable. The allegations against Biden are not far-fetched. We know for a fact that Biden pushed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016 to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, threatening to pull $1 billion in U.S. aid unless he did so. We know that because Biden actually boasted about it to a meeting of the Council on Foreign Relations.
…Third, Biden has talked a great deal about protecting our democracy and the sanctity of open and fair elections. Call me crazy, but Biden’s DOJ indicting his most likely 2024 campaign rival on charges that, as in the case of Hillary Clinton, might or might not justify prosecution, seems to qualify as election interference. The president is running for another term; polls show his prospects are poor.
When a sitting president is struggling to get his approval ratings above 40 percent, he is in trouble. An NBC News survey from last month showed that 70 percent of voters, and more than half of Democrats, do not want Biden to run.
Unfortunately, many Americans who get their news from the mainstream media have not idea how politically weaponized our Justice Department has become. Unfortunately, by the time they wake up to reality, equal justice under the law may be a thing of the past in America.
This Reads Like Mad Magazine’s “Spy vs. Spy”
Those of us who are baby boomers remember “Spy vs. Spy” from Mad Magazine. To refresh your memory: 
On Tuesday, PJ Media posted the following headline:
REPORT: Burisma Founder Who Allegedly Bribed Joe and Hunter Biden Is a Russian Asset
Good grief!
The article reports:
Jennifer Van Laar, at our sister site RedState, just dropped a bombshell exclusive report about the founder of Bursima:
Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky, who allegedly paid a total of $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in 2015 and 2016 in exchange for then-Vice President Joe Biden’s assistance in getting Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired, is believed to be an asset of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) by the United States intelligence community, according to a national security source speaking to RedState on condition of anonymity.
The anonymous source told RedState, “The US intelligence community has a high degree of confidence in their assessment of Zlochevsky as SVR. This is not a new assessment; the intelligence community under Obama knew this, and Obama was briefed on it. Joe Biden and Victoria Nuland were briefed as well.”
RedState also pointed to a tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Monday, claiming that the foreign national who allegedly bribed the Bidens has audio recordings of his conversations with Joe and Hunter Biden. He kept the recordings “as a sort of insurance policy,” according to the senator.
The article concludes:
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) also read the document and tweeted, “Joe, the money is hidden in the DOZENS of LLCs you & your family created to HIDE THE MONEY. You can run, but you can’t hide from House Republicans.”
PJ Media’s Kevin Downey Jr. wrote last week, “This FBI document—attributed to a trustworthy and well-paid informant—is beginning to look like a smoking gun. This explains why the FBI went to such great lengths to keep the Oversight Committee from getting its hands on it.” He added, “When a reporter asked Joe Biden about the allegations that he ‘sold out the country,’ Biden laughed and joked: ‘Where’s the money?’ No one chuckled. Biden then went on to smilingly say it’s a bunch of ‘malarkey.’”
Is that the same malarkey that paid for his Delaware beach house?
You have to wonder if this is political theater orchestrated by the Democrats to remove Joe Biden from the White House in time to set up their 2024 candidate and also to set a precedent for removing a President from the White House in case Donald Trump wins the 2024 election.
The Culture War Comes Before The Political War
Governments can make all of the laws they want, but if the laws are ignored, they are worthless. We can ban all sorts of harmful transgender indoctrination and medical procedures, but if the population does not support those bans, they will find a way around them. However, if the population sees the harm being done to children, the bans will be supported. That is the good news in the battle against the move to encourage sex changes among our children.
On Monday, Red State posted an article that included a few charts illustrating the status of the current culture war.
The article includes the following screenshots:
The article comments on the significance of the numbers:
It’s hard to overstate how incredibly rare it is to see a retreat like that from what has become left-wing orthodoxy. Usually, once something enters the culture, especially under the idea of “acceptance” and “tolerance,” it becomes so pervasive that you’re more likely to see Big Foot than see things go the other way. Yet, in this case, 69 percent of Americans say that transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete in leagues that match who they actually are (i.e. their biological sex).
Now, you might be saying it’s sad and disturbing that such a sizable minority still doesn’t agree with such a common sense position, but context is everything. 69 percent represents a rise of seven percent since 2021. Further, there’s been a four percent rise among the public since 2021 in the belief that it is morally wrong to “transition” one’s gender (a misnomer in itself).
In short, the pro-transgender ideological gambit that has engulfed the nation, specifically in the last two years since Joe Biden’s ascension to the White House, is backfiring. People are looking at what’s being pushed and deciding that it’s not only contrary to reality, but that it’s simply wrong. Children should be protected, not butchered by opportunistic doctors. Women’s spaces, including sports, should not be invaded by mentally ill men. And yes, transgender ideology as a whole, even for adults, should be thoroughly rejected.
The article concludes:
To summarize, this is why it’s foolhardy for anyone on the right to dismiss the culture wars as secondary. Yes, the economy is important. Yes, foreign policy matters. But if you lose the culture, you’ve left yourself nothing to preserve and improve. Keep up the good fight.
Always Keep The Camera On Your Cell Phone Handy
On June 6, Newsweek posted an article about Damon Atkins, a Christian who was arrested in Reading, Pennsylvania, for shouting Bible verses during a gay pride event. I am not necessarily a fan of shouting anything, but I believe we do have free speech in this country.
The article reports:
The incident took place on Tuesday morning at a public Pride Month event in Reading, a Pennsylvania city located roughly 64 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The man, Damon Atkins, was captured on video in an altercation with police patrolling near the event after he attempted to shout a verse from Corinthians.
“Let them have their day,” an officer said to Atkins. “Respect it.”
…The officer, as seen in the clip, briefly moved to stand between Atkins and the crowd at the event, but turned back as he resumed reading the verse and arrested him.
…Responding to an inquiry from the conservative news outlet, the Daily Caller, the Reading Police Department said that Atkins was not arrested for reciting Bible verses, but rather for disorderly conduct due to his volume.
“He was not arrested for reading a bible verse,” a police spokesperson told the outlet. “He was arrested for being disorderly. His volume was at a level that he was heckling a preplanned and permitted event. He was given an area he was allowed to protest in, and was asked to keep volume at a level that was not problematic or that was inciting public inconvenience.”
Later, police claimed that Atkins engaged in fighting.
On June 11, Jonathan Turley reported:
The Berks County District Attorney’s Office has confirmed that it is dropping charges against Damon Atkins after the preacher was arrested citing the Bible in protest of an LGBTQ Pride event in Reading, Pennsylvania. The only reason that the charges were dropped is that a third party videotaped the scene and disproved the account of the arresting officer. Ironically, Atkins was reciting 1 Corinthians 14:33 that begins “For God is not the author of confusion.” That role appears to rest with the Reading police, which processed a wildly exaggerated account of the encounter.
Atkins was arrested on June 6 for “disorderly conduct, engaged in fighting.” However, a video of Atkins’ encounter with the police officer disproved the officer’s statement, as acknowledged in a press release.
For many, the case is likely reminiscent of the arrest of the woman for praying near an abortion clinic in Britain. Fortunately, this case was dropped.
Berks County Commissioner Christian Leinbach admitted that the arrest of Atkins was “unlawful” and “could open the City of Reading and their police department to legal action.”
Jonathan Turley’s article concludes:
What is notable is that, absent the videotape, Atkins would have had a difficult time refuting that he engaged in fighting. What is equally notable is the lack of any public statement on the repercussions for an officer making such a false charge. This was clearly a protest that was protected under the First Amendment. The violation of Atkins’ rights should result in something more than a shrug and dismissal of the charges.
I question the wisdom of going to a gay pride event and shouting Bible verses, but this story illustrates the fact that ALL Americans need to know their rights and be willing to stand up for them. Thank God for that videotape.
We’ve Seen This Play Before
It is very obvious that the Democrats want to see President Trump in a jail cell. He is their strongest opponent in 2024, whether or not they run Joe Biden. They only need to put him out of action for a little more than a year–after that it won’t matter if any verdict is overturned in court. So it really doesn’t matter how strong the case is, if the prosecution leaked information to the media, or if surveillance laws were broken. All they need is a year and a half without President Trump as a candidate. We have seen this play before.
On Sunday, Clarice Feldman posted an article at The American Thinker reminding us of some past legal cases against candidates.
The article notes:
Just as Hollywood seems stuck on the notion of releasing new versions of once-popular films using new actors, the corrupt Department of Justice seems to be using the same tattered playbook once again in the preposterous and ill-considered indictment of President Trump. Only if you saw the originals, you know the plot tricks this time.
I refer you to the Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Senator Ted Stevens cases I’ve written about here. In particular, the detailed account of the former case in the now defunct Weekly Standard. It was written in 2006 and is now in the Washington Examiner archives. If it is difficult for you to access, this more recent and less detailed article may help refresh your recollection.
Here are some of the common features: Count Stacking — that is, separating a single matter into multiple counts for the purpose of poisoning the public, sensationalizing the case, and persuading a jury that there’s a pony in all that dung. (In this case, I’d add, dissuading voters from continuing to support Trump.) Cherry picking statements out of context, sometimes relying on both hearsay and misrepresentations. Leaking to the press even information which is false. Allegations aren’t evidence, and with this corrupt Department of Justice, you’d be wise to remember that.
The article also notes:
Here are some examples: The indictment shows many boxes stacked in a bathroom and ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, but most of those seem to be simply memorabilia that Trump saved, like presidents before him. In fact, the government claims that of the 13,000 documents they seized at Trump’s residence, only 102 had “classified markings” and only 31 are in issue, of which only 21 are claimed to be related to “national defense.” The President retains his secret clearance after leaving office. Why show all those boxes stored unsecured? Certainly, to create a certain impression of massive amounts of secret materials. The indictment indicates just six top-secret and 18 secret documents were in his office. The other 11 top-secret and 36 secret documents were in a storage facility onsite, which had a lock and key that was specified by the government in a security audit weeks before the raid in the midst of a discussion over which documents were to be kept by Trump, a fact omitted from the indictment.
Please follow the link above to read the entire article. No matter what the outcome of this, it is a sad day for America when laws are only applied when it is politically advantageous.
About Those Canadian Wildfires…
On Saturday, Anthony Watts posted an article at wattsupwiththat about the Canadian wildfires that have polluted the east coast of America for the past week or so. Mr. Watts explains that not only are the wildfires NOT the result of global warming, but that there were notable wildfires long before the invention of the automobile and the industrialization of America and other countries.
The article includes the following graphs:
The article also notes:
Temperatures in the United States are virtually unchanged from 2005, when a new state-of-the-art climate monitoring system called the U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) was put in place by NOAA. However, this data is never reported to the news media on NOAA’s climate reports for the United States.
The scientific evidence does not support the theory of global warming. However, there is major economic and political change that can be accomplished by promoting the theory of global warming, so the theory will continue to be promoted.
The Discussion Expands
Today, Hot Air posted an article reporting that the New York State legislature has passed to form a commission to study reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery.
The article quotes an Associated Press (AP) report:
New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Thursday.
“We want to make sure we are looking at slavery and its legacies,” said state Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages before the floor debate. “This is about beginning the process of healing our communities. There still is generational trauma that people are experiencing. This is just one step forward.”
The state Assembly passed the bill about three hours after spirited debate on Thursday. The state Senate passed the measure hours later, and the bill will be sent to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul for consideration.
The article concludes:
The history of slavery in New York is complicated, as are most things from that era. Slavery certainly took place in the earliest years, as it did pretty much everywhere Europeans went. (And as it did across most of the globe in various forms for nearly all of recorded history, if we’re being honest.) But nobody has legally owned a slave in New York State for almost two centuries. It was one of the earliest states to outlaw the practice. Not only are all of the slaves and the owners dead, but their great, great, great, great descendants are as well.
So if the New York legislature wants to have the same conversation that California’s lawmakers did, they will be dealing with the same reality. Any potential reparation checks that are decided on will be paid to people who have never been slaves and paid for by people who have never owned slaves in a state that was among the earliest to free slaves, even before it was mandated by the federal government. If you want to talk about the generational social and financial impacts of racism up through the early second half of the 20th century, that’s certainly a conversation we can have. But nobody today owes anyone anything based on the practices of people who lived more than two centuries ago.
So what will happen when the State of New York realizes that it is going bankrupt and cannot pay reparations? How will the people anticipating a cash windfall react when they find out that the cash windfall is not coming? Unfortunately, we may be paving the way for a ‘summer of love’ event in New York and California similar to what happened in many states during the summer of 2020.
Why Are Environmentalists Killing Whales?
On Friday, The Daily Caller reported the following:
- A large offshore wind project off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard has begun nearly two years after federal regulators approved “take” permits for the project’s developer allowing for thousands of incidental killings of marine mammals, including dozens of whales protected under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and up to 20 endangered North Atlantic right whales.
- Federal regulation allows for the approval of take permits for marine life so long as the permitted number of incidental deaths has a minimal effect on the longer-term viability of the species.
- The construction process for the turbines necessitates underwater blasts of noise which “are louder than a jet engine at 25 yards” of distance, New England Fishermen Stewardship Association (NEFSA) President Jerry Leeman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
If wind energy is about saving the planet and preserving life on earth, why is it acceptable to kill whales that are protected under the Endangered Species Act? If you haven’t figured it out by now, green energy is not about green energy. Green energy is about nations losing their national sovereignty and granted authority to global bodies to determine how they generate energy, how they feed their populations, and how much energy they are allowed to use. It is also about transferring wealth.
The following is a quote from an article I posted on March 30, 2016:
Investor’s Business Daily posted an article yesterday about climate change scientists and the alarmism that seems to follow people who talk about climate change.
That article states:
If they were honest, the climate alarmists would admit that they are not working feverishly to hold down global temperatures — they would acknowledge that they are instead consumed with the goal of holding down capitalism and establishing a global welfare state.
Have doubts? Then listen to the words of former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:
“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.
So what is the goal of environmental policy?
“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.
Are you paying attention yet?
The Growing Federal Budget Deficit
On Friday, MRCTV reported that the federal deficit has grown dramatically during the first eight months of Fiscal Year 2023.
The article reports:
The federal budget deficit was $1.2 trillion in the first eight months of fiscal year 2023 (FY23), nearly three times higher than it was in the first eight months of fiscal year 2022 (FY22), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported Thursday.
From October 2022 through May, the FY23 federal deficit was $1.161 trillion – $735 billion higher than $426 billion shortfall recorded the previous year, even after $63 billion of expenditures were shifted into FY22.
In May alone, the federal deficit was $236 billion, CBO estimates – $170 billion higher than the amount recorded in May 2022. Revenues were $81 billion lower this May than they were in 2022. Outlays increased by $89 billion.
In the first eight months of FY23, revenues were 11% lower and expenditures were 9% higher than in the same period year-earlier. Receipts were $380 billion lower (a larger decline than the CBO says it expected), while expenditures were $355 billion higher.
“Outlays for the largest mandatory spending programs increased by a total of $193 billion,” a 12% increase, the CBO reports.
In particular, interest paid on the public debt rose by $112 billion (up 34%), “mainly because interest rates are significantly higher.”
Expenditures rose in other key categories, as well:
-
- Spending for Social Security benefits rose by $85 billion (11%),
- Medicare outlays increased by $77 billion (17%),
- Medicaid outlays increased by $31 billion (8%),
- Outlays of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) rose by $53 billion, as a result of facilitating the resolution of bank failures in the spring of 2023.
On the revenue side, federal government collection of individual income and payroll (social insurance) taxes together declined by $299 billion (10%) and collections of corporate income taxes increased, on net, by $5 billion (2%).
The Biden administration’s economic policies have been a disaster for the government, the private sector, and the American citizen. Americans are dealing with rampant inflation, corporate layoffs, and rising taxes. Meanwhile, cities are trying to cope with inflation without imposing crippling tax hikes. Unless something changes, America’s economic future does not look good.
From my friends at Townhall:
Another Reason To Leave New York State
On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article about the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA), now in the New York state budget.
The article reports:
Ever hear of the Build Public Renewables Act (BPRA)? Sounds great, doesn’t it? Yet, like “The Inflation Reduction Act” (the largest climate legislation in government history), its title has very little to do with its actual purpose. Its true objective is to empower the state (in this case New York) “to provide clean energy if the private sector fails to.”
Still sounds great! There is, however, one little catch: the private sector has until 2030 to provide clean energy. We all know that, given today’s technology, the private sector isn’t going to meet this requirement — which means that the second little catch will kick in: the moving of power utilities out of private hands into publicly owned facilities. In fact, BPRA, now in the New York state budget, is viewed as a massive challenge to fossil fuel hegemony and a major victory for public power. The BPRA requires and empowers the New York Power Authority (NYPA) “to rapidly build renewable energy infrastructure to meet the goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2030.”
Except for the 100% clean energy part, still sounds pretty good. But here’s where the act begins to cause concern. The BPRA is laying the foundation for a socialized electrical grid. This from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) themselves. “A socialist strategy would put unions, industrial expertise, and clean energy writ large at the center of the bill,” begins this article. “New York is moving closer to public ownership and operation of renewable power,” says this article.
The act requires that all state-owned properties that currently receive power from the NYPA utilize only renewable energy by 2030. It also requires municipally owned properties, including hospitals, schools, public housing, and public transit, to switch to renewable energy by 2035. The act calls for NYPA, which built six natural gas–fired “peaker plants” in 2001 to meet energy demands during peak times, such as the hottest days of summer and coldest days of winter, to phase them out.
The act further directs the NYPA (founded in 1931 by Franklin D. Roosevelt, it was designed to provide low-cost electricity across New York state) to plan, build, and operate renewable energy projects across the state to meet the ambitious timetable to decarbonize the grid mandated by the Climate Act of 2019.
Please follow the link to the article to read the details. The eventual outcome of this policy is the state telling you how much energy you are entitled to use. People who live alone will probably not get the energy allotment needed to heat a house and cook meals. They will have to make choices. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Priorities??
On Wednesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about some of the current budget priorities in Portland, Oregon.
The article reports:
As crime and homelessness strains Portland, Oregon, the city’s liberal mayor has proposed spending more than $10 million on marijuana-related initiatives in the upcoming year, nearly double the amount requested to hire new police officers.
Portland mayor Ted Wheeler (D.) made a point to stress his intention to increase investments in public safety, announcing in early May that he aimed to spend $5.3 million to hire 43 new police officers to better address rising vehicle and retail thefts. What the mayor didn’t publicly stress, however, is that the city will be spending almost twice as much on various marijuana initiatives in the city.
Wheeler’s budget includes a proposal to put $3 million behind an “ongoing” Cannabis Fund and another $7 million behind a “one-time Cannabis Fund.” Of the more than $10 million dedicated to marijuana programs, $2.3 million is earmarked for funding so-called Social Equity and Education Development grants, which disburse funds to rectify “past racially-biased cannabis policies and disparate cannabis-related arrests” and support “Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and women led/owned small business initiatives.”
The article concludes:
The city also allocated $115,200 to hold an “equity summit” for the LGBTQIA+ community, provide community engagement, and train city staff. “Site assessment for My People’s Market,” another initiative, is set to get $137,000 “to fund a site relocation analysis” for “a marketplace aimed at advancing opportunities for BIPOC entrepreneurs.”
Additionally, the city is prepared to shell out $147,339 for a diversity program aimed at “BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee communities” as well as up to $109,512 for a government bureaucrat tasked with “broadening inclusion and diversity” in city government.
What the voters decide to do in their city is their business. However, when it spills over into the state and into the entire country, it is no longer a local issue. The Founding Fathers set up a nation of individual states that were to act as laboratories. Theoretically, when a state enacted a policy that improved the quality of life for its residents, other states would copy that policy. When a policy provide detrimental to a state, that state would abandon the policy and other states would not copy it. The problem today is that when a state has massive problems with overspending and bad governance, the expectation is that the federal government (we, the taxpayers) will bail them out. For a not-so-current example, research the funding of the ‘big dig’ in Boston, Massachusetts. Bad policy impacts all of us eventually.
More Insight On The Indictment Of President Trump
Robert Duchemin is a Florida attorney who posts on substack. He is extremely insightful, and is a master of research.
Here are a few of his observations on the indictment of President Trump:
As more evidence of Biden’s corruption comes to light, his corrupt Department of Justice comes to his rescue. Yesterday morning we learned that some of the bribe evidence the Department of Justice was hiding concerned a $5 million bribe from Burisma, the same Ukrainian company that received the lion’s share of the $50 million that the Obama and China Joe convinced a democrat-controlled US Congress to give Ukraine to “develop its fossil fuel industry.” Yes, that is the same fossil fuel industry that these people are trying to destroy in the USA, while giving our money to other countries to enable them to develop into our fossil fuel competitors.
And yes, Burisma is the same company that paid Hunter Biden about $180,000 per month to do nothing and the same company that was being investigated for corruption by Ukraine until Joe Biden withheld US aid until they would stop the investigation. You may recall the video of China Joe bragging about doing it. Bragging about doing the very same thing for which Queen Nancy and her corrupt kangaroo court impeached President Trump without any evidence. (video included in article here.)
So, the same DOJ that has been ignoring for at least six years evidence of China Joe accepting bribes has built in about six months an entire criminal case against President Trump based on documents, the possession of which are governed by a CIVIL statute.
In addition to the questionable actions of the Department of Justice in their quest to find President Trump guilty of something, Breitbart posted an article yesterday reporting on some questionable activities involved in putting the case together against President Trump.
The article reports:
An attorney who represents former President Donald Trump’s valet, who is under scrutiny as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, alleged in a letter that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutor handling the case engaged in misconduct that is reportedly “being viewed as a problem,” within the DOJ, according to The Guardian.
Please follow the link to read the article for further details.
We are rapidly approaching banana republic status, if we haven’t already reached it.
Some Perspective On The Indictment Of President Trump
Obviously the big story in the news today is the indictment of President Trump. Oddly enough, the new information on bribery in the Biden family has been pushed off of the front pages by this indictment.
Don Surber is a former newspaper reporter who now posts in Substack. On June 9th, he posted the following observations:
The indictment of President Trump is hooey. Washington no more cares about national security than it cares about Poca Dot football or whether I finally am allowed by my wife to buy that Bentley.
I don’t know about the leaders in your state, but in West Virginia they stand with the people, the president and the Constitution.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey tweeted, “Here we go again with another political prosecution. I think every American (including the other Presidential candidates) should speak out against having two different systems of justice. No double standards!”
Governor Jim Justice tweeted, “The Biden Administration and the Democrats know they can’t beat President Trump and me unless they weaponize the federal government. Democrats will stop at nothing to defeat us and keep the presidency and their Senate majority. I will always stand with President Donald Trump!”
The article notes the treatment of Hillary Clinton:
The FBI is best at covering up crimes. Consider Hillary sending state secrets while secretary of state via email to foreign governments and others who paid the troll via donations to her fake charity.
Remember the words of Jimmy the Weasel Comey, who said, “From the group of 30,000 e-mails returned to the State Department, 110 e-mails in 52 e-mail chains have been determined by the owning agency to contain classified information at the time they were sent or received. Eight of those chains contained information that was Top Secret at the time they were sent; 36 chains contained Secret information at the time; and eight contained Confidential information, which is the lowest level of classification. Separate from those, about 2,000 additional e-mails were ‘up-classified’ to make them Confidential; the information in those had not been classified at the time the e-mails were sent.”
She committed at least 110 felonies by e-mailing classified information.
Comey admitted it.
The article cites the hope found in the law of unintended consequences:
“Another example is the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, designed to decimate the US Naval force in one blow and bring America to its knees. Instead, it shook the American public out of its deep isolationism, ensuring the total mobilization of the country’s superior manpower and resources to not only defeat the Japanese but also to obliterate its military for good. The very success of the attack guaranteed the opposite of the intended result, Robert Greene writes in his spectacular book, The Laws of Human Nature.”
One man cannot make America great again, in fact, one-man rule would make America something other than America.
But 62 million voters can. Four years later, we were 75 million strong. Next year, 100 million.
Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is extremely insightful.
From my friends at Townhall:
Indoctrinating Our Children
In my younger years, I was a Girl Scout. At one point I was a Brownie leader. I even went to Girl Scout Camp. We sang songs, we made things, and we learned about nature. At Girl Scout Camp we learned the responsibility of setting tables, cleaning our cabins, etc. It was fun. Well, things have changed.
On June 6th, The Daily Caller reported:
The Girl Scouts organization is encouraging its young members to participate in Pride Month by offering a special patch for scouts who complete a series of LGBT-themed activities.
Scouts can earn the rainbow-striped LGBTQ+ Pride Month segment of the multicultural community celebration patch by participating in LGBT educational activities and activism. Those activities include participation in pride celebrations and completion of educational assignments about gay and transgender activism.
“The Girl Scout LGBTQ+ Pride Month Celebration Fun Patch is designed for Girl Scouts of all levels and their leaders to honor LGBTQ+ history, to celebrate the diverse cultures and identities of LGBTQ+ people, and to acknowledge the many contributions of the LGBTQ+ community has made and continues to make across our nation,” the Girl Scouts website reads. “Girls and leaders have plenty of activities to choose from to earn this fun patch, and we encourage girls of all identities to participate.”
The organization offers a list of 20 activities through which scouts can earn the pride segment of their badge including attending pride celebrations, reading a book by an LGBTQ+ author and learning about LGBT history through documentaries and reading assignments. Some activities, such as watching a documentary about the creator of the Pride flag, are restricted to older grade levels, while participation in pride celebrations and several other activities are open to all levels.
I really don’t care about what anyone does in their bedroom. I am not interested in anyone else’s sex life–but please do not force the subject on my grandchildren. They don’t need to know or deal with these things at a young age. You are robbing them of their childhood by putting adult issues on them that they are not designed to handle. Let’s go back to letting children be children!
Sad News From Virginia Beach
CBN News announced today that Pat Robertson died. Pat Robertson was born on March 22, 1930. His father, Absalom Willis Robertson served in Congress as both a Senator and Representative for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
CBN reports:
Perhaps best known for offering prayer and political commentary at the helm of The 700 Club, the flagship program of his media ministry, Robertson’s rise to prominence is rooted in what he called a vision from God to create The Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded in 1960. A prolific innovator, he also started a Christian university, a legal advocacy group, and an international NGO specializing in disaster relief.
Even while promoting a worldview that believes in the inerrancy of the Bible, both his approach to business and his on-air persona were considered unorthodox by some – if not ahead of his time. Today, his influence and legacy crisscross interests and industries that have broken barriers for countless Christian leaders and laypeople.
…In 1966, Robertson began hosting a daily talk show, The 700 Club. Still on the air today, it is one of the longest-running programs in television history.
From the set of The 700 Club, he transformed Christian television. But his reach went far beyond spirituality.
By the 1970s, Robertson – who once described himself as a “newsman” at heart – had secured interviews with military and political leaders such as the late Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s prime minister, and Jimmy Carter, who was then Georgia’s governor and would win the White House with the support of evangelical Christians.
Four years later, Robertson was part of the conservative leadership that helped propel Ronald Reagan into the White House in 1980.
The article also notes:
He expanded his political influence by bringing thousands of evangelicals into the electoral process through the founding of the Christian Coalition. He also created the American Center for Law and Justice with a mandate to protect religious freedoms.
“Pat always had this vision to go where a lot of people don’t go. When you do that, sometimes you’re criticized by people,” Pastor Laurie said. “He’s been a risk taker in the best sense of the word. A visionary. A dreamer. But someone whose message was the Gospel.”
With his return to CBN after the failed campaign, Robertson took the company globally, dramatically extending the reach of the ministry’s Christian programming to over 150 countries in more than 100 languages through satellite technology.
Pat Robertson often reminded viewers that America was based on Judeo-Christian principles of law. He encouraged Christians to get involved in politics and uphold those principles. If our current politicians followed those principles today, our country would be in a much better place.
Pat Robertson will be missed, but he left an unbelievable legacy and was an example for all of us.