Monthly Archives: July 2023

Just Because It Is Legal Doesn’t Mean It Is Good

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On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted an article about one of the problems with legalizing marijuana.

The article reports:

Cases of cannabis poisoning increased after legalization and decriminalization of the drug, according to a new meta-analysis published in the journal, Addiction.

The combined results of thirty studies—which focused on legalization and decriminalization in the United States and Canada—estimate a more than three-fold increased risk of poisoning after it was legalized. Studies specific to children revealed an even higher number with episodes increasing almost four and half times the rate prior to the drug being legal.

…There’s also the possibility that changing the laws added an element of confusion to the public, Cairns continued. Consumers might assume that if marijuana is legal, it must mean the drug is safe, she said. However, that is far from true.

“Increased availability and use of edibles (gummies and chocolates, for example) appears to be an important driver of the increase in poisonings, particularly among children,” said Cairns. “Edible cannabis has a higher risk of poisoning because people tend to consume larger quantities, and the effects of cannabis take longer to show up when ingested than they do when smoked. This is concerning because edibles are especially attractive to children.”

Cannabis poisoning sets in when smokers inhale too much of the drug too quickly. It also occurs when consumers feast on drug-infused edibles with high concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns symptoms like trouble walking, sitting up or even breathing can come on quickly or slowly depending on the source, and may take hours to subside. In some instances, emergency hospitalization is required.

Cannabis is a drug, and any drug has risks. People who continually take certain pain killers for arthritis can develop stomach ulcers; certain allergy medications can cause back pain. All drugs have side effects. Legalizing marijuana simply created another way for Americans to engage in activities that can be detrimental to their health.

This Is What Desperation Looks Like

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On Sunday, The New York Post reported that the Department of Justice is attempting to arrest Devon Archer before he has a chance to appear before Congress.

The article reports:

Manhattan federal prosecutors on Saturday filed a letter requesting a judge set a date for Archer, 58, to start his one-year sentence in a fraud case unrelated to the first son’s various scandals.

The request came after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Archer’s 2018 conviction last Tuesday on two felony charges for his role in a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe.

Archer — who is set to deliver closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Monday about Biden — had been challenging the conviction.

In light of the appeals court ruling, the DOJ “respectfully requests that the defendant be ordered to surrender, at a date and time determined by the Court, to a facility designated by the Bureau of Prisons to commence his term of imprisonment,” reads the letter to Judge Ronnie Abrams.

The article also notes:

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who has been the point-person on the GOP inquiries of the first family, has repeatedly shrugged off the Biden administration’s various defensives.

Comer subpoenaed Archer in June and called the timing of the jail request letter “odd.”

“I don’t want to put words in Devon Archer’s mouth,” Comer said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” “but I’ll say this: He has an opportunity to come tomorrow to the House Oversight Committee and tell the truth.”

Other Republicans also seized on the DOJ letter.

“The DOJ is now actively committing the crime of obstructing a congressional investigation,” Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz charged in a tweet.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) shared Gaetz’s tweet, adding: “This is getting to be Banana Republic territory. They are moving from indicting their opponents to throwing witnesses in jail on the eve of Congressional testimony.”

Unfortunately we have been in Banana Republic territory for a while.

UPDATE:

On Sunday the DOJ backtracked on the timing of Devon Archer’s arrest. Townhall posted the story.

About That Heat Wave

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On Sunday, The American Thinker posted an article about the heat wave we have seen this summer. It seems that the mainstream media has somehow forgotten to report on some of the actual causes of the heat wave.

The article reports:

The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have.

So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year that I – probably along with you — had never heard of. The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific. Don’t take it from me, take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gasses and water injected into the atmosphere):

The article includes a video of the eruption.

The article also notes:

Another scientific paper explains the “net warming of the climate system” on a delayed basis.  NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory further explains:

Volcanic eruptions rarely inject much water into the stratosphere. In the 18 years that NASA has been taking measurements, only two other eruptions – the 2008 Kasatochi event in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile – sent appreciable amounts of water vapor to such high altitudes. But those were mere blips compared to the Tonga event, and the water vapor from both previous eruptions dissipated quickly. The excess water vapor injected by the Tonga volcano, on the other hand, could remain in the stratosphere for several years.

This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures. Massive volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo typically cool Earth’s surface by ejecting gases, dust, and ash that reflect sunlight back into space. In contrast, the Tonga volcano didn’t inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, and the huge amounts of water vapor from the eruption may have a small, temporary warming effect, since water vapor traps heat. The effect would dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere [Emphases added]

The bottom line here is very simple–we don’t know as much as we think we do, and it is foolish to cripple our economy in the cause of unproven science. We should also note that as we are being asked to cripple our economy to lower our carbon footprint, China is increasing their carbon footprint and building their economy. In what universe does this make sense?

Sometimes You Just Have To Wonder

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On Friday, Breitbart reported the following:

On Thursday, CNN hosts Poppy Harlow and Boris Sanchez blamed climate change for the recent surge in gas prices with the former saying that the surge in prices is a reason “to get it in check when it comes to climate change.”

On “CNN This Morning,” CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans stated, “There [are] a couple of things happening here: They’re still well below last year. Last year, at this time, we were hitting record highs, right? $4.30, last year, at this time, today, they’re $3.71. They’ve been jumping overnight. Some of these jumps have been pretty big. One of the reasons is the incessant heat means these refineries have to — are going offline for maintenance, they can’t run full throttle when it’s 115 with the heat index, just like people can’t work full throttle outside or on factory floors when it’s so, so hot. So, that’s one of the reasons. The other reason is, Russia backed out of this grain deal. And so, you had a rise in all kinds of commodity prices, corn, wheat, barley, all these prices have been going up. And sometimes, you tend to see commodities move together. But mostly, this heat thing has some of these refineries either slowing down or offline for maintenance. And that means they’re not processing as much gasoline.”

We have summer every year. During the summer it gets hot. I remember back in the 80’s when they had to close the Phoenix airport because it was too hot and there wasn’t enough lift in the air for the planes to take off. I also know that they have found plant fossils in Greenland, a place where no one can currently plant anything. Can we assume that Greenland at some point was subject to global warming? If we are so warm now, why can’t we grow crops in Greenland in the places that are now iced over? I would also like to remind everyone that weather is cyclical and tends to average out. No one is currently mentioning that we had an unusually cold June this year. Don’t the temperatures generally average out?

It Only Works If We All Do It

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I am not at all convinced that man is capable of changing the earth’s climate. However, if we are going to attempt such a thing, we all need to participate. It does no good for America to cripple its economy by demanding more higher usage of inefficient green energy while China is building coal plants at a rapid rate.

On Friday, Cowboy State Daily reported:

As much as it’s reported that the world is going through a transition away from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy, the data doesn’t support it. 

The International Energy Agency released its 2023 Coal Market Update on Thursday, which shows that global coal consumption in 2022 rose by 3.3% to a record 8.3 billion tons. While the use of coal in European countries and the United States has declined, those reductions are offset by increases in Asian countries, primarily India and China. 

Thirty years ago, the U.S. and European share of coal consumption was 40%. By 2024, the IEA predicts it will fall to 8%. 

Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, told Cowboy State Daily that the efforts to reduce emissions in the U.S. by shutting down coal plants will have no impact on global warming because Asian countries are moving full steam ahead with coal. 

“The environment doesn’t have glass walls surrounding the United States,” Bear said. 

The article concludes:

Bear said the Biden administration’s drive to lower the United States’ emissions while China rebuffs any attempt to drive its down will put America at a disadvantage with the Asian country. 

“The more that we put constraints on the United States emissions, the more difficult it is for us to compete with Asia, economically and militarily. And those are dangerous things,” Bear said. 

Bear said that as the nation moves toward wind and solar energy, which drive up energy costs and degrade reliability on the nation’s grid, the more American businesses and industries will suffer. 

“If the cost of energy is so high that you can’t, as a young person, create something new and build a business, then you’re killing the American dream,” he said.

The Biden administration’s energy policies are working very hard to make America a third-world country.

This Seems Illogical To Me

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On Saturday, Townhall reported that he Biden administration has refused to give Secret Service protection to presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. This is ironic at best because the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Sr., was the event that triggered providing Secret Service protection to presidential candidates. Meanwhile, there were a number of government vehicles and security agents that accompanied Hunter Biden to court last week.

The article reports:

“Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me,” RJK Jr. wrote on Twitter.

He added that the “typical turnaround time for pro forma protection requests from presidential candidates is 14 days. After 88 days of no response and after several follow-ups by our campaign, the Biden Administration just denied our request.”

…In response from the Biden Administration, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, “I have determined that Secret Service protection for Robert F Kennedy Jr is not warranted at this time.”

Biden’s challenger said his request included a 67-page report from the “world’s leading protection firm, detailing unique and well-established security and safety risks aside from commonplace death threats.”

RFK Jr’s father was assassinated in 1968 at a Los Angeles hotel. Five years earlier, his uncle, President John Kennedy, in 1963 was also assassinated.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has been a bit of a thorn in the side of the Biden administration. He has previously testified before Congress regarding the censorship that the Biden administration routinely practices.

We Need A President Who Will Put Americans’ Interests First

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Every four years, we elect a President of America. That person is not elected to be President of the world, he is elected to be President of America. Lately it seems as if some of our Presidents have forgotten this basic fact.

On Friday, Issues & Insights reported:

The Biden administration has just spent two years negotiating with a group of foreign countries to raise taxes on U.S. companies operating overseas. Now we’re being told it’s been “delayed” for two more years. But why delay a bad decision? It’s an awful idea that should be rejected out of hand.

“Americans have already been crushed by inflation caused by the Biden administration,” argued West Virginia congresswoman Carol Miller, in a recent op-ed. “But now, they want to add fuel to the fire by giving American taxes to foreign countries, raising costs for Americans, and sticking us with the bill for funding a global socialist agenda.”

Her analysis is spot on. The U.S. Treasury and White House have no business negotiating a deal to subvert America’s sovereignty and erode its economic power, which the accord with the 38-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), headquartered in the ultra-deluxe Château de la Muette in Paris, is clearly meant to do.

For the record, the U.S. already imposes a 10.5% minimum tax on U.S. businesses’ foreign income, and last year imposed a 15% “global minimum tax” on big multinational companies’ profits. And the standard corporate rate here in the U.S. is now already 21%, well above 15%. So what’s the issue?

Under the OECD “deal” that both President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have embraced, there’s something called the Undertaxed Profits Rule (UTPR). That guideline basically would let other countries tax a U.S. company at a higher rate if the country determines that it is paying less than the 15% somewhere else. And the other country, not the U.S. taxpayer, gets the revenue.

The opportunity from this rule for global tax abuse and even graft are clear. Moreover, U.S. tax rates by law have always been determined by Congress and the president, not by foreign bureaucrats.

The first thing to understand here is that corporations do NOT pay taxes–they simply consider them a business cost and past the expense on to consumers. Higher taxes mean lower wages for employees and higher prices for the product produced.

The article concludes:

The House Ways and Means Committee has already held hearings, and will no doubt hold more in the future to halt or radically change the Biden-Yellen “deal,” which excluded congressional input. No doubt, more hearings are on the way.

Meanwhile, a post from the Committee’s website after a hearing earlier this month said it all: “Committee Members found the proposal would hurt American companies, kill American jobs, give Chinese Communist Party-sponsored businesses a global economic advantage, and surrender $120 billion in U.S. tax revenue.”

Sound like a good deal to you?

Who does our representative government represent?

The Fire Hazard The Government Has Failed To Mention

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On Thursday, The American Thinker reported that The Fremantle Highway, a boat, is is burning “out of control.”

The article reports:

Seventeen miles offshore from an island belonging to the Netherlands, a nearly 20,000-ton vessel loaded with vehicles is burning “out of control,” and officials are in a race against time; Lea Versteeg, spokesperson for the Dutch coast guard, reportedly said, “we’re currently working out to see how we can make sure that…the least bad situation is going to happen.”

…Given the details of this specific incident and what we know about EVs, all signs point to the culprit being…an electric vehicle! When EV batteries catch fire, they burn hotter and longer than most fires and the fire is “impossible” to snuff out, so mitigation strategies instead focus on “cooling”  (instead of extinguishing) the vulnerable or burning apparatuses. A prominent blog on fire science gives us the working knowledge of an EV battery blaze:

A high-voltage battery is made up of many cells packed tightly together inside a watertight, fire-resistant box. When a single cell fails, it is essentially a small explosive that produces a tremendous amount of gas and heat (1,200 degrees F) in tenths of a second. The failure is an exothermic chemical reaction that does not require oxygen from the atmosphere to sustain itself. The heat released from each individual cell is transferred to the neighboring cells, which causes them to fail as well.

Once a battery cell fails, it is impossible to extinguish the failed cell as the chemical reaction inside the cell happens far too quickly. The only way to stop a thermal runaway is by directly cooling the cells involved to ensure that the failed cell does not cause the cells around it to also fail.

The article concludes:

Worst case scenario, the vessel overturns, and we’re left with millions of pounds of debris littering the sea floor (at a world heritage site no less) and oil spills. Furthermore, what about all the pollution created during the manufacturing process, including the mining for the rare minerals used in EVs, for cars that are now unusable? And, here’s an unanswered question, but since water does next to nothing to cull flames from an EV fire, are first responders spraying any toxic flame retardants onto the ship?

What about the financial ramifications? Versteeg, the spokesperson quoted at the opening, stated that of the nearly 3,000 vehicles on board, only “25” were EVs. These numbers would mean that the EVs on board account for less than one percent of the total load, so if an EV is in fact the origin of the fire, it would show you how substantial the risk is. Ergo, insurance rates would increase (if an insurer even chooses to cover such a hazard), which in turn makes shipping rates rise.

Now as it turns out, this isn’t the first time—last year, a fire ravaged and sank the Felicity Ace; the ship was transporting both electric and non-electric cars. As far as official narratives go, the cause of the fire is still “unclear.”

Are these little “eco-friendly” batteries the catalysts for massive environmental calamities? I’m not a gambler, but if I had to wager, I’d suspect…yes.

It’s time to realize that electric cars are not at present a viable plan to save the environment. If we truly want to save the environment, we might want to consider the fact that China is building a new coal plant every week. Replacing Chinese coal plants with natural gas plants would actually help save the environment.

The Quest For Unequal Justice

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Anyone who believes that the Hunter Biden tax case and gun case has been handled the way any ordinary citizen’s case would have been handled must have been living under a rock. Lying on a handgun application is a felony. Generally speaking, it is treated like a felony. Forgetting to report and pay taxes on millions of dollars is also a serious offense with serious consequences. The plea deal was a joke and thank God did not go through. However, there is another aspect of this case that came to light before the trial that should be noted.

On July 25th (updated July 27th) The Epoch Times reported:

Lawyers for Hunter Biden may face legal sanctions for allegedly misrepresenting themselves to the court clerk in order to have information related to IRS whistleblowers removed from the case record.

A member of Mr. Biden’s legal team is accused of falsely identifying herself while requesting the removal of amicus materials. According to the court clerk, Jessica Bengels, a New York-based Latham and Watkins litigation services director, contacted the clerk and asked to have the information kept confidential.

In a July 25 letter, Theodore Kittila informed Delaware Judge Maryellen Noreika of the alleged trick, and that the clerk’s office had “advised that someone contacted the court representing that they worked with my office and that they were asking the court to remove this from the docket.”

Judge Noreika gave Mr. Biden’s lawyers until 9 p.m. on Tuesday to provide an explanation from their perspective.

“The Court has discussed the matter with the relevant individuals in the Clerk’s Office and has been informed that the caller, Ms. Jessica Bengels, represented that she worked with Mr. Kittila and requested the amicus materials be taken down because they contained sensitive grand jury, taxpayer and social security information,” the order reads.

Judge Noreika noted that “the caller misrepresented her identity and who she worked for in an attempt to improperly convince the clerk’s office to remove the amicus materials from the docket.”

The House of Representatives has uncovered a lot of information that is relevant to the charges against Hunter Biden (and President Biden). The question in the minds of many Americans right now is whether or not there actually is equal justice under the law. I sincerely doubt the Biden crime family will ever be held accountable for the millions of dollars they took from foreign entities for reasons unknown. I would be very happy to be wrong about that.

Unfortunately we have reached a place in America where the next election determines which President goes to jail. That is the stuff of banana republic, and I never thought America would come to that.

What Were The Goods Or Services Provided?

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On Thursday, Breitbart reported the following:

Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, admitted in court Wednesday the president’s son received $664,000 from CEFC China Energy Co. in 2017, contradicting President Joe Biden’s claim Hunter Biden never received money from a Chinese entity.

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, Clark revealed Hunter made over one million dollars in foreign business transactions, including $664,000 from CEFC, a company linked to the CCP and Chinese intelligence.

“During calendar year 2017, Biden earned substantial income, including: just under $1 million from a company he formed with the CEO of a Chinese business conglomerate [BHR Partners]; $666,666 from his domestic business interests; approximately $664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure investment company[CEFC]…” Clark told the judge, according to the court transcript obtained by not-for-profit Marco Polo.

The article concludes:

The House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-KY) revealed the Biden family business, over the course of several years, received over $10 million from business schemes in Romania and China in return for what appears to be influence peddling. In addition, Burisma paid the Biden family business $7.3 million over the course of many years, including when Joe Biden was vice president, IRS agent Joseph Ziegler told Congress last week.

Suspicious Activity Reports obtained by the committee revealed a Biden associate, Rob Walker, received a $3 million wire transfer from CEFC China Energy Co. In turn, four Biden family members — Hunter, James, Hallie, and an unidentified “Biden” — received a collective $1.3 million cut from the $3 million wire transfer.

The committee is investigating the entities that accepted and passed money through to the Biden business. The Biden business opened more than 20 shell companies to hide payments and launder money, Comer said in July.

The Biden family makes the Gambino Mafia family look like pikers.

Weaponizing Climate Change

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Author: R.Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

A rational discussion of climate variation should be acceptable to everyone. Question: Do Marxist climate extremists want a rational discussion and investigation? Obviously not. They are increasingly using climate change as a weapon to further their radical Marxist ideologies. Let’s see how they are doing this.

First of all, they are acting more like cultists than objective, rational investigators. Cults are based on emotional commitments that exclude others who do not share their beliefs. Labeling people who question their beliefs that climate warming is caused by man-made use of fossil fuels rather than natural causes as “climate change deniers” does not foster rational inquiry and debate.

Second, as a recent book by Jeremy Williams shows, they are now claiming that climate change is racist and an example of white supremacy. He claims that Blacks and other minorities suffer disproportionately from the negative impacts of man-made climate change. Since the United States, Canada and Australia, use much more electricity per person, than say, African countries like Madagascar it must be due to racism. Also, since many polluting factories are located in communities with a higher concentration of Blacks; this is more evidence of white privilege.

Third, the Marxists are good at re-inventing the meaning of words to further their agenda. Jeremy Williams claims that climate change is actually a form of violence perpetrated on Black people. He equates it with alleged police brutality using George Floyd’s death as a parallel. All this is intended, of course, to justify the actions of groups like Black Lives Matter and give them another reason (i.e. climate change) to strike out towards Whites.

Clearly, the climate extremists are using these tactics to attack Western civilization, industrialism, and capitalism. Their solution is a typical Marxist one: more extensive government control of our lives– including what we eat, where we live, where we travel, etc. They are very pleased with the Biden regime not only greatly expanding tax money spent on solar/wind energy, blocking pipelines and drilling, and encouraging Federal agencies to implement restrictive regulations against gas stoves, reasonably priced home appliances, and gas vehicle emissions. All of these actions will increase the cost of living for all Americans, especially the middle class.

This Marxist attack on Western Civilization must be stopped if we are to survive as a nation. China is applauding our caving in to the destruction of our own country by these Marxist extremists while they build a new coal powered plant on average of one per week!

 

I Guess That Didn’t Go As Expected

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Yesterday, the plea deal between Hunter Biden and the prosecutors fell apart. The judge ordered conditions for Hunter Biden to avoid going to jail at this time. Hunter Biden, of course, entered a plea of not guilty of the various crimes he is charged with.

Yesterday, The Gateway Pundit posted a list of the ‘conditions of release’ for Hunter Biden set by Judge Maryellen Noreika.

This is the list:

1) NOT possess a firearm
2) NOT use or possess any controlled substances (including marijuana) unless prescribed
3) Submit to full federal supervision
4) NO use of alcohol AT ALL
5) Seek active employment
6) Submit to testing for prohibited substances
7) Participate in substance abuse therapy

These are the penalties for not abiding by the list:

1) Immediate issuance of an arrest warrant
2) Revocation of release
3) Forfeiture of bond
4) Prosecution for contempt of court

The people who are attempting to shield Hunter Biden are not doing him any favors. I question whether or not he has dealt with his drug problem. Simply ignoring his past without some sort of substance abuse program is not helpful. Most previous addicts will tell you that they participated in a drug rehab program only after everyone around them stopped enabling them and they were faced with the consequences of their actions. This Judge is doing more to help Hunter Biden than his family ever has.

I hope that Hunter Biden will take this Judge’s actions as a wake-up call and move to a more positive lifestyle.

The Best Summary I Could Find

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On Wednesday, Hunter Biden went to court because of his tax evasion and gun felony. If you or I had committed either one of those crimes, we would be sitting in a jail cell, but he is Hunter Biden. The best summary of what happened in that courthouse can be found at The Conservative Treehouse.

The Conservative Treehouse reports:

There was a lot going on in the Delaware federal court today.  One of the topline issues was an admission by federal prosecutors that an additional investigation of Hunter Biden is ongoing, as the tax evasion and federal gun charge deal was brokered.

At the core, we see U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika noting the terms of the current DOJ plea deal appeared structured to provide immunity to Hunter Biden for any future crimes identified in the ongoing investigation on other matters; so, Noreika asked the DOJ directly.  In essence, Judge Noreika called out the DOJ and directly asked them if this was their intent.

When Judge Noreika questioned the prosecution about this immunity implication, the US attorneys said future immunity was not part of this agreement.  At that point the Hunter Biden defense team then acted surprised, saying if this is the accurate position of the DOJ then any plea deal is “null and void.”

After those statements, Judge Noreika seemingly dispatched the deal, telling both the DOJ and Biden defense, “I think having you guys talk more makes sense.”

Here’s the non-pretending version.  The corrupt U.S. attorney’s office organized, coordinated and colluded with the Hunter Biden team to structure a deal that would provide cover for Hunter Biden for any further crimes.  This is corrupt as hell.  The judge sniffed this motive and asked the DOJ directly.  The DOJ could not make that admission for obvious reasons and denied this intent. Thus, the Hunter defense team then had to say without the previously agreed future immunity, the deal was off.

Please follow the link to the article–it includes video of some of the mainstream reporting of the events.

A Major Green Energy ‘Whoops’

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On July 3, a website called environmental progress posted the following:

Last August, in an amalgamation of ‘The Green New Deal’ meets ‘Build Back Better’, President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act gifted the renewables industry with billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded subsidies. What few backing the bill realized was that the largest beneficiary would likely be China due to its expansive grip on the global solar photovoltaic (PV) industry.

Worse than that, it might end up misdirecting the world’s clean energy efforts into dirtier than appreciated energy technologies because of the country’s ongoing dependence on coal-fired energy.

Information unearthed by Environmental Progress points to a gaping oversight in how the figures influencing government net zero policy and investments in solar worldwide are compiled and collated due to the difficulty of collecting accurate information out of China, especially for the purification processes used to create silicon wafers.

Key to this blind spot is that the source material for most of the assessments is provided by a small number of data compilers, many if not all of them working in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA). The data is voluntarily submitted by the industry in response to academic surveys. The nature and profile of the respondents is never publicy revealed, so that there is the potential for conflicts of interest to develop.

A further puzzle is how that data feeds into an organization called Ecoinvent, a Swiss-based non-profit founded in 1998 that dubs itself “the world’s most consistent and transparent life cycle inventory database”. This data is relied on by institutions worldwide, including the IPCC and IEA itself, to calculate their carbon footprint projections, including the sixth assessment report published as recently as March 2023.

Based on such data, the IPCC claims solar PV is 48 gCO2/kWh. But, as we’ll see below, a new investigation started by Italian researcher, Enrico Mariutti, suggests that the number is closer to between 170 and 250 gCO2/kWh, depending on the energy mix used to power PV production. If this estimate is accurate, solar would not compare favorably with natural gas, which is around 50 gCO2/kWh with carbon capture, and 400 to 500 without.

On July 24, in a similar article, Hot Air noted:

I think we all know how the Chinese came to be at the forefront of solar panel manufacturing – the same way they’ve done everything else. They don’t have an innovative bone in their collective billion bodies, but what they do have is conniving. Plus cheap labor, no environmental strictures, and enterprise once they steal what they need to make something. And that’s exactly what happened with the solar industry. There were once German leaders in solar technology who are long out of business because of the Chinese filching their designs.

I think it’s time to rethink this ‘green energy’ thing.

 

Preserving The Family

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The building blocks of all successful civilizations has always been the nuclear family. This is especially the case in Western Civilization, which has given the world the highest standard of living, the longest life spans, and greatest freedom to pursue happiness. The support and bonding within the family structure gives individuals the support to peruse life’s challenges. Dependence on government handouts is not necessary.

Centralized, authoritarian governments following Marxist principles cannot succeed without diminishing the role of the family in people’s lives. Strong, intact families do not need Marxism. Let’s take a look at how the family is doing in today’s America. The basis of the family is obviously the existence of intact marriages between a man and a woman. In 1950, men married on average at 23 years of age; today the average age is 31 years; women married in 1950 at an average age of 20 now it is 29. In 1960, 72% of the population were married, today it is 51%. The percentage of young adults (18-24 years old) still living with their parents in 1960 was 29%, today it is 58%. There are many other statistics that show a similar trend, but you get the point.

The first question we need to ask is what cultural shifts are causing this diminishing of marriage and family. One of the most obvious is the erosion of the moral standard prohibiting sexual intercourse until married. The biological drive for sexual activity, especially in men, has always been the prime motivation for a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. The need for intimacy, love, and companionship with another person are also essential motivators for marriage. The sexual revolution, begun in the 1960’s, began to dramatically change this. Today, premarital sex is not only freely engaged in, but by many, Is considered a pre-requisite to ensuring compatibility if one chooses to marry. Living together prior to marriage which seems to be the usual practice today, was strongly disapproved in the past. Why should a man pay for candy when he can get it for free?

The feminist movement has also had a profound impact on marriage and family. Women are being told that the traditional role of a woman as a wife, mother, and housekeeper are demeaning and will not bring the happiness and satisfaction of a career, independence, and professional status. Those women who accept this belief, view marriage as a loss of freedom and independence that would diminish their self-worth. They cannot accept the idea that they would place themselves in a position where they are dependent to any degree on the economic support of a husband. Many young men of today reject that they would be the primary “bread winner” and the main support of their spouse and family.

The result of all this has been an increase in children born out of wedlock from 5% in 1960 to almost 50% today. (To be continued in my next article).

 

The Long-term Impact On Children

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On Tuesday, The Federalist posted an article about one of the drugs used in ‘transgender care.’ The article was written by someone who was prescribed Lupron as part of a cancer treatment protocol. Lupron is one on the puberty blockers used in ‘transgender care.’ Just for the record, the reason I keep putting ‘transgender care’ in quotes is that it is not care at all–it is setting up a person for a lifetime of necessary and frequent medical treatments.

The author notes the side effects she suffered from taking Lupron:

Instead, I now suffer from osteoarthritis and chronic bone pain, most likely caused by a drug called Lupron, the very same drug used to stop puberty in children claiming to be transgender.

I received a Lupron injection on my first day in the hospital as part of the other supportive care I received. The drug was prescribed for two reasons; the first was because I had a hemorrhagic type of leukemia, and Lupron was used to stop the risk of my period transforming into hemorrhaging. The second reason was to protect fertility, operating under the theory that by temporarily shutting down fertility by inducing temporary menopause, the inactive system wouldn’t be exposed to the chemotherapy agents.

Although the use of Lupron to protect fertility is newer and not one that the FDA has approved, it was prescribed matter-of-factly compared to chemotherapy agents. Ironically, none of my chemotherapy agents caused hair loss, but I lost over half of my hair during treatment from the Lupron and wore a wig for over six months after my treatment ended.

Lupron caused both general and abdominal weight gain, but because it also caused decreased bone density, I also have chronic pain in my pelvis and arthritis in my knees from osteoarthritis that I didn’t have before treatment. I now get injections in my knees to walk comfortably; I’ve given up my passion for trail running and generally cannot use cardio exercise to control my weight. I have to sit on a cushion at work and when I drive.

The author also notes that the dosage of Lupron given monthly as a puberty blocker is twice what she was given as a cancer treatment.

The article concludes:

Thus, we must ask ourselves, as a society, whether children or even their parents can consent to drugs and procedures that create a permanent dependence on medical care absent life-threatening illnesses, such as cancer or diabetes. Moreover, can they consent during periods of intense emotional distress? The side effects I continue to experience from only nine months of Lupron, first administered in an authentic life-and-death situation, are far less severe than those on children, but they are permanent.

I have a high degree of faith in science and medicine. Still, it’s becoming evident that we must prevent the medical exploitation of children and work to keep the temporary distresses of adolescence from being permanently medicalized and pathologized. The time for live and let live is over, and states must continue intervening. We must stop the needless sterilization of children.

What are we doing to our children?

Some Good News

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On Monday, KENS5 reported that the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office arrested 28 people on charges of child sexual abuse material being shared on the internet and child exploitation.

The article reports:

According to the DA’s office, 28 people from 17 states accused of making the material available were arrested in the months long sting. Those arrested were reportedly taking part in various chat groups in what the DA said was a popular social media app. They said those chat groups were designed to share child sexual abuse material. In some cases, the DA’s office said the defendants were administrators of the chat groups.

…They also said that 19 children who had been sexually abused or exploited were “rescued” over the 12-month operation, though no additional information was given.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office worked with law enforcement agencies in various parts of the country to make the arrests. At this point, we don’t have the identities of those arrested.

The Montgomery County Precinct 2 Constable’s Office led ‘Operation Hydra’ and worked with several other agencies throughout the 12-month-long sting.

The identifies of those arrested should be made public as soon as their activities have been confirmed. They should be made an example of. Thank God that the children were rescued.

Child trafficking and child sexual abuse is a real problem in America. People need to wake up to it. The movie The Sound of Freedom is a good first step to waking people up.

 

First They Came For Our Shower Heads…

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On Sunday, The New York Post reported that the Biden administration is now targeting gas generators and gas water heaters.

The article reports:

Water heaters could soon be subject to much more stringent efficiency requirements if a recent Department of Energy proposal that has been criticized by Republican lawmakers goes into effect.

In a draft rule unveiled Friday, the Biden administration is seeking to compel most electric water heaters to deploy heat pump technology and gas-fired ones to use condensing technology.

It comes months after the Biden administration ignited a firestorm over feared stove top regulations, after Albany lawmakers enacted a controversial first-in-the-nation gas stove ban in New York.

“Today’s actions—together with our industry partners and stakeholders—improve outdated efficiency standards for common household appliances, which is essential to slashing utility bills for American families and cutting harmful carbon emissions,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. 

Water heaters that have tanks are not as efficient as tankless gas water heaters. Heat pump technology is not efficient below about 40 degrees. The idea of getting everyone off of gas is not about ecology–it’s about control–it’s easy to shut off electricity or limit it if someone says the wrong thing or supports the wrong cause.

The article illustrates some of the reaction to this move:

“First they came for your gas stoves. Then they came for your dishwashers. Next they came for your water heaters and air conditioners. Now the Biden apparatchiks are coming for your portable gas generators,” Forbes contributor David Blackmon tweeted.

“From the people who want showers and faucets without enough water pressure, dishwashers that don’t fully clean, washers and dryers that fully wash or dry, etc. they now want water heaters that don’t fully and quickly heat. All in the name of ‘environmentalism’ or ‘climate change,’” Ken Gardner tweeted.

“Leave us alone. These products already exist in the free market. Consumers should decide whether the upfront cost of a heat-pump water heater is worth the possible long term savings. In many cases, the monthly savings never make up for the upfront cost of the equipment,” Rep. Thomas Massive (R-Ky.) tweeted.

Somehow I don’t think this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they established our government. I wonder if the White House and the Capitol Building are planning on changing their water heaters.

Parents Have The Last Word

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On Friday, The Conservative Review posted an article about a recent Chino Valley Unified School Board in southern California.

The article reports:

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond spoke at the meeting for the Chino Valley Unified School Board in an attempt to dissuade the members from voting for a policy requiring parents be informed about their children’s gender decisions.

When Thurmond tried to speak past the allotted time, he was berated by Chino Valley Unified Board President Sonja Shaw who accused him of trying to “pervert” children and said he had threatened the board.

Videos on social media showed police officers escorting Thurmond out of the meeting.

…The board went on to vote in favor of the policy securing parents’ rights, 4 to 1.

The article notes:

Shaw fired back and doubled down on her position.

“We’re going to safeguard parental rights,” she told KTLA-TV. “That is a constitutional right and we’re going to make sure that our parents at Chino Valley know they’re sending their kids here to be taught, not to be anything else.”

Officials in Temecula, another city in southern California, similarly rejected a social studies book that praised gay activist Harvey Milk after some school board members pointed out that he had admitted having a relationship with a 16-year-old male while in his thirties.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at the board and called its members “radicalized zealots” and “extremists.”

Why are you considered an extremist if you want to know what is going on with your child? The move to discount parents is not new. In some states, a child under 18 can get an abortion without her parents’ knowledge, but cannot get her ears pierced or be given an aspirin in school. Parents have the right to know what is going on with their children. If a child is moving toward a life-changing event before they are of a responsible age, the parents need to know about it. One of the things that may actually save us from the abuses of the transgender movement is that many of the children who received ‘gender affirming care’ as children are now reaping the consequences as adults. Some of these now adults are suing the medical profession and the companies that supplied the drugs. If enough of these children collect damages for what was done to them, the transgender movement will diminish considerably.

Exposing The Truth As The Evidence Is Unveiled

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On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about the death of Rosanne M. Boyland on January 6th. The story we have been told is contradicted by the closed-circuit television footage that has been released.

The article reports:

Previously unreleased Capitol Police closed-circuit-television footage obtained by The Epoch Times adds crucial new details to the tragic story of Ms. Boyland, 34, of Kennesaw, Georgia, who died after collapsing outside the Lower West Terrace tunnel on Jan. 6, 2021.

The security video deflates claims made in the initial Capitol Police report that Ms. Boyland simply collapsed in the Capitol Rotunda at 5 p.m. on Jan. 6, and that the officer who observed her “wandering around the Rotunda” immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

Nothing that the Metropolitan Police Department relayed to Ms. Boyland’s family from the Jan. 7 report turned out to be true, except that she was dead. As the security video conclusively shows, Ms. Boyland did not collapse in the Rotunda and paramedics did not find her there receiving CPR from two unnamed Capitol Police officers.

This is what actually happened:

The new video only deepens the stark contrast between the indifference shown to a pulseless Ms. Boyland by police outside the tunnel and the unflinching trauma care she received from medics, police officers, and paramedics once she was brought inside the Capitol.

The video also underscores the desperate attempts to save Ms. Boyland’s life by a group of fellow protesters, who repeatedly begged police for medical help and began CPR themselves when no officers stepped forward.

It does nothing, however, to explain why MPD Officer Lila Morris beat the unconscious Ms. Boyland with a walking stick while she lay prone and defenseless on the sidewalk.

“Once again, we are very appreciative of these people trying to save her, but come to the same conclusion as before,” Bret Boyland, Rosanne’s father, told The Epoch Times. “She got the attention way too late.”

Generally I support the police, but there are some policemen involved in January 6th that committed crimes. You don’t beat someone with a stick when they are lying on the sidewalk, and you don’t shoot an unarmed civilian through a door for no reason. The wrong people are in jail.

A Summary Of The Story

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On Friday, The National Review posted an article about some of the information that has been revealed about the Biden family during the Congressional hearings.

The article reports:

The compelling congressional testimony of two IRS whistleblower agents has established three things.

First, the investigation into Biden corruption — millions of dollars pouring into the family coffers from apparatchiks of corrupt and anti-American regimes seeking to buy Joe Biden’s political influence — is real and has been thwarted by the Biden Justice Department. Second, the president’s son Hunter Biden received preferential treatment, and, next week, a federal judge should reject the sweetheart plea deal he was given by the Justice Department. Third, Attorney General Merrick Garland owes the country an explanation for why the Biden investigation has been sabotaged from within, even as he maintains publicly that it was conducted with independence and integrity.

…Garland and congressional Democrats never tire of branding Weiss a Trump-appointee — it’s Garland’s rationalization for not appointing a special counsel. Conveniently omitted from this story is the fact that Weiss could not have been confirmed absent the support of Delaware’s two Democratic senators, Biden allies Tom Carper and Chris Coons. More to the point, Weiss reports to Garland and, because the Hunter Biden matter is a tax case, DOJ rules dictate that any tax charges must be approved by the Tax Division at Main Justice — run by Biden appointees. Most obviously, Weiss’s appointment by Trump does nothing to eradicate the conflict of interest inherent in the Biden Justice Department’s investigation of the president’s son over conduct in which the president himself is implicated.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The information is out there for anyone who wants to hear it. I truly believe that if the Biden family is allowed to walk free after all of this evidence has been revealed, our republic is over. The first question that should have been asked years ago is how did Joe Biden maintain his lifestyle on his government salary. Senators and Vice-Presidents are not paid millions.

In 2021, The U.S. Sun reported:

In 2017, Jill and Joe purchased another property in Delaware for $2.7million.

The home is a short walk from the beach and has six bedrooms and outdoor amenities for entertaining guests. 

Why wasn’t that questioned at the time?

When Reality Shows Up

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Green energy is a wonderful theory. So is the perpetual motion machine. However, both are limited by the laws of physics, and the first is limited by practicalities regarding cost.

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection posted an article about some of the current problems being encountered by wind farms.

The article reports:

A couple of weeks ago, Sweden’s government ditched plans to go all-in on “green energy,” green-lighting the construction of new nuclear power plants. Shortly afterward, fossil fuel giant Shell announced it was scaling back its energy transition plans to focus on . . . gas and oil!

Now it looks like specific wind farm projects are beginning to topple due to strong economic headwinds. Recent, Rhode Island’s leading utility decided to nix a project called Revolution Wind 2 because the cost of the electricity was deemed too high.

…In Europe, Swedish energy firm Vattenfall will stop the development of a major wind project in the United Kingdom after a surge in costs (Hat-tip Hot Air’s Beege Welborne). Once again, the issue was related to surges in energy costs.

The economic headwinds associated with wind farms are beginning to be noticed.

…. Even as the White House is welcoming it with open arms and the Democrats’ climate law is channeling money in its direction, strong economic headwinds are blowing in the opposite direction – inflation and rising interest rates have hit the industry hard.

And then there’s the whales: Some citizen groups and conservative media have blamed a rise in whale strandings and deaths this year on the nascent wind farm projects – a connection scientists have so far found no evidence for.

The combination has made it a precarious time for offshore wind, said Jason Grumet, CEO of the American Clean Power Association, the trade group representing US clean energy.

“This is the vulnerable moment where the benefits are on the horizon,” Grumet told reporters this spring. “Because we don’t have the benefits of it on the table. We don’t have massive facilities producing energy, lowering prices in those states.”

Currently, green energy is not the answer to anything. The climate-change fear mongering is simply a way to eliminate the middle class and gain more control over the world’s population.

In February 2019, I posted an article that included the following:

In March 2016, I posted an article with the following:

…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.

I can’t post this quote often enough. It needs to engraved in the minds of every American.