Monthly Archives: September 2023

The Real Data vs. What We Have Been Told

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On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted the following headline:

If economic growth seems too good to be true, that’s because it is

I would revise that headline slightly to “If economic growth is so good, why do people seem to be struggling financially?”

The article reports:

Perhaps the most notorious example this year has been the jobs numbers published by the Biden administration. Consider the newly released August jobs report. While the economy added 187,000 jobs last month, previous months were revised down by 110,000 jobs. That means 59% of the employment growth last month was jobs we thought we already had.

In fact, every monthly employment report this year has been revised down, meaning the economy has been adding fewer jobs than initially believed. Worse, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its semiannual benchmark revisions showing jobs were overestimated by more than 300,000.

Between the downward adjustments for the monthly data and the semiannual benchmark, the number of jobs has been revised down by almost 700,000. That’s 30% of the jobs initially estimated to have been added this year. Adding insult to injury, government jobs were revised upward with the semiannual benchmark.

To be clear, jobs data are normally revised, and occasionally, several months in a row will be revised in the same direction, sometimes heavily. But this year stands out because so many of the statistics have consistently turned out to be worse than initially estimated.

Other labor market indicators have followed this pattern. The number of job openings, a proxy for labor demand, has not only fallen over the last several months but previous levels were also revised down. The latest estimate shows job openings are now 2 million below the initial figure for the start of the year.

And the problem goes beyond the labor sector to the general economy. The revised estimate for gross domestic product in the second quarter of the year removed an eighth of the previously estimated growth, falling from 2.4% to 2.1%. Investment and business income, in particular, are in bad shape.

The media in America has brought us to the point where we have a choice either to believe what we see or what we are being told. We are told that Bidenomics is working and that we are all better off under President Biden. What we see tells a different story. It is our choice as to whether or not we believe our eyes or what we are being told.

Always Follow The Money

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If green energy is so good for the planet, how come it is killing whales and enslaving children in Africa? Seems like a fair question.

On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about a new proposed green energy project.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden wants to shrink a Pacific Ocean marine sanctuary meant to protect endangered whales in order to accommodate offshore wind energy factories—one of them owned by a major Democratic donor.

What a coincidence.

The article continues:

The Biden administration late last month proposed cutting about 1,400 square miles of ocean and coastline from an Indian tribe’s proposed national marine sanctuary to make room for wind turbine infrastructure. One of these factories would belong to Invenergy, whose founder and CEO Michael Polsky has given more than $400,000 to Democrats since 2016. His company shelled out $2.4 million to lobby the White House, federal agencies, and Congress this year.

The proposal reflects a conflict between efforts to fight climate change and those to preserve natural habitats. The Biden administration’s proposal would benefit green energy companies and generate renewable energy, but environmental groups have sounded the alarm on such projects noting that they kill birds and whales—the very wildlife that the marine sanctuary seeks to preserve. The proposal also reflects the green energy industry’s status as a major player in the Democratic Party. Biden has invested billions of taxpayer dollars into renewable energy projects backed by liberal billionaires, enriching them in the process.

Polsky’s major contributions from the past several years include a total of $72,000 to the House Democrats’ campaign committee in 2020 and 2022, and $35,500 to the Democratic National Committee in 2016—the same year he poured $75,000 into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Polsky has also donated to Republicans and Invenergy’s political campaign committee, but of the roughly $500,000 he has contributed to political causes since 2016, more than $400,000 has gone to Democrats according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis.

Sorry, green energy is a scam. Until the government gets out of the way and allows the free market to sort out the science, green energy will be a very expensive and political boondoggle. The current technology in green energy is reminiscent of the search for a perpetual motion machine. We haven’t found one yet.

If You Repeat A Lie…

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Joseph Goebbels once said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” Those of you who are still relying on the mainstream media for your news need to read that again.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about a White House memo instructing the news media on how they should report on the impeachment inquiry begun by the House of Representatives.

Below is just a sample of the memo:

Where was all this concern for evidence when President Trump was impeached?

The article concludes:

The White House giving instructions to the media only serves to make any media reporting look even more like “fake news.”  Then again, constructing chaos in order to perpetuate the goals of the radicals is a typical Alinsky play.

Create as much confusion as possible, label everything as disinformation, funnel all the voters to the places of MSM controlled review.  This appears to be the strategy.

 

Is This The Best Use Of Our Money

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There is an old expression, “What you subsidize will increase, what you tax will decrease.” The subject of this article is not subsidization, but it is providing income for a questionable activity. I believe that the payment I am describing will lead to more questionable activity.

On Monday, The Conservative Review reported the following:

President Joe Biden will approve the transfer $6 billion of frozen funds to the government of Iran in a prisoner swap deal, it was confirmed Monday.

The deal would free five Americans being held captive in Iran in exchange for the release of five Iranian citizens being held in the U.S.

…”First Joe Biden used 9/11 as an excuse to flee Afghanistan. Now he desecrates this day by paying ransom to the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. Shameful,” said Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“It’s ridiculous for US to be blackmailed into paying $6B for hostages which will help indirectly finance the number 1 foreign policy of Iran: terrorism Last time it was $1.7B traded for hostages next time it will probably be $10B the price keeps going up & up,” said Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Israel has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists because it encourages more terrorism. America needs a policy of not negotiating with kidnappers because it encourages more kidnapping! This is money we do not have being given to people who want to destroy us. In what world does that make sense?

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I wish I could post this every day to remind people that what we are seeing is not new. Carroll Quigley was born in 1910 and died in 1977.

Carroll Quigley’s biography can be found at Discovery Publisher.

His biography includes the following:

Quigley was born in Boston and attended Harvard University, where he studied history and earned B.A, M.A., and Ph.D. degrees. He taught at Princeton University, and then at Harvard, and then at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from 1941 to 1976.

From 1941 until 1972, he taught a two-semester course at Georgetown on the development of civilizations. According to his obituary in The Washington Star, many alumni of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service asserted that this was “the most influential course in their undergraduate careers”.

In addition to his academic work, Quigley served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Navy, the Smithsonian Institution, and the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration in the 1950s. He was also a book reviewer for The Washington Star, and a contributor and editorial board member of Current History. Quigley said of himself that he was a conservative defending the liberal tradition of the West. He was an early and fierce critic of the Vietnam War, and he opposed the activities of the military-industrial complex.

Quigley retired from Georgetown in June 1976 and died the following year.

The quote above perfectly describes our current political situation.

No Direct Evidence

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One of the things to watch when listening to either the mainstream media or democrat politicians is the words they use. Controlling the vocabulary can control the spin. One of the phrases we can expect to hear in the coming days is “no direct evidence.”

On Tuesday, Townhall posted the following headline:

There’s Been a Narrative Shift on Joe Biden’s Business Dealings

The article reports:

“Since January, House Republicans have uncovered an overwhelming amount of evidence showing President Joe Biden lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes. Bank records, suspicious activity reports, emails, texts, and witness testimony reveal Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ around the world to enrich the Bidens. And, thanks to two brave IRS whistleblowers, we know that the Justice Department – which has been sitting on much of this evidence – has prevented career investigators from pursuing information that could have led to Joe Biden,” McCarthy released in a statement Tuesday afternoon with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. 

“Based on the evidence, we support the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The House Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means, will continue to work to follow the facts to ensure President Biden is held accountable for abusing public office for his family’s financial gain. The American people demand and deserve answers, transparency, and accountability for this blatant abuse of public office,” they continued. 

…Now, Democrats and their allies in the media are attempting to change the definition of “evidence.”

The article includes the following tweet:

…We’re getting close to an admission Joe Biden was in business with his son, but that it was legitimate and not corrupt (it was).

Expect to hear the term ‘no direct evidence’ repeated endlessly in the mainstream media in the coming days.

What Did You Get Done This Week?

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On Wednesday, The Federalist  posted an article about the federal budget discussions. Personally, I am not opposed to a government shutdown. During the rather drawn-out election of Kevin McCarthy, one of the things that was discussed (and I thought agreed to) was a return to the budget process requiring individual votes on the 12 appropriations bills that make up what’s known as the “omnibus package. This supposedly would be the end of the omnibus packages and the threat of government shutdowns.

On March 10, 2022, I posted the following:

Someone asked the website Quora when the last federal budget was passed using the conventional budget process.

The website posted the following answer:

Usually a President’s first year in Office is under the previous President’s budget. However knowing that Barack Obama was winning, the Congressional Democrats used Continuing Resolution to push the budget forward. With Obama in Office, they passed the full budget in April 2009. I think since then we have only operated in a world of continuing resolutions and an omnibus budget. After gaining the control of the congress in 2014, Republican promised to return to regular order and it hasn’t happened yet.

To answer your question, the 2007–08 budget was probably the last regular budget passed.

The Federalist reports:

While we gleefully await the federal government’s bankruptcy at the end of the month, here’s my favorite Elon Musk quote: “What did you get done this week?”

Every Republican in Congress should have to answer that question to the American taxpayer (you and me) before even thinking about giving another cent to Ukraine, the Pentagon, the DOJ, Health and Human Services, and every other department that is, at best, useless, and at worst, packed with paper pushers overtly harassing the people who pay their outsized salaries (you and me).

The Musk quote came in a strikingly similar context. In a text chat, some overpaid Twitter executive lectured him about the “internal distraction” that Musk’s public comments about the company had made after he purchased a large portion of its shares. “Next time we speak, I’d like to provide you perspective on the level of internal distraction right now and how it [sic] hurting our ability to do work,” the executive said.

“What did you get done this week?” Musk replied.

What makes it so good is that there is no answer to the question. Just some Twitter nerd versed only in talking about “optimization” (meaningless) and “company culture” (zero productivity value) blankly staring in a freeze.

The article concludes:

Members of Biden’s own party are dogging his open-border policies. Health and Human Services melted its own credibility on “science,” then recently flirted with recommending public masking again. The Justice Department is found out over and over again to be hostile toward the rule of law and the will of the people.

Which of the seven heads on this monstrosity is even bothering to smile at me? Why would I care if the federal government is funded when it does nothing for me? What’s worse, it functions in ways that make clear it deeply resents me.

Tell me, Republicans. What did you get done this week?

That’s a really good question.

 

 

Whatever Happened To The First Amendment?

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On Monday, Todd Starnes posted an article about a recent school board meeting in Suffolk County, Virginia.

The article reports:

A controversy over prayer has erupted in Suffolk County, Virginia.

The other day a woman concluded her remarks to the school board by attempting to offer a prayer.

The school board chairman interrupted and said prayers were not allowed inside the school board chamber.

Instead of leaving, Angela Kilgore invited those in the audience to join her in a recitation of “The Lord’s Prayer.”

At that point the school board chairman asked law enforcement to clear the room.

He then admonished those who had prayed – accusing them of grandstanding and conduct unbecoming.

As if there is something unseemly about praying for God to bless and protect the students in Suffolk County, Virginia.

…The Founding Freedoms Law Center and First Liberty Institute wrote a letter to the school board reminding them it is against the law to silence a citizen’s prayer.

“In fact, the Constitution prohibits the government from excluding religious expression from a public forum; it certainly does not require such censorship. We ask that the School Board clarify its policy accordingly, and we would be happy to work with the School Board to craft new policy that does not discriminate against religious citizens or violate their constitutional rights.  “When the government encourages diverse expression—say, by creating a forum for debate—the First Amendment prevents it from discriminating against speakers based on their viewpoint.” Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 142 S. Ct. 1583, 1583 (2022),” the law firms said in a joint statement.

The school board is more concerned about someone praying at their meeting than about the pornography in their school libraries. Maybe we need a new school board.

Let The Games Begin

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On September 12th, Townhall reported that Republicans were opening an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. This is an awkward situation. The impeachments of President Trump were purely political. There was very little actual information behind them. This time we have a lot of information, but we need to make impeachment look apolitical. I suspect that the Democrats will do everything possible to avoid that happening.

The article reports:

“We have found that President Biden did lie about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings,” McCarthy explained, and “joined on multiple phone calls — and multiple interactions — with Hunter’s business partners,” the Speaker recounted of the evidence already uncovered by House committees.

“Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden’s family members and associates through various shell companies,” McCarthy continued, emphasizing that more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates were flagged in “Suspicious Activity Reports” by U.S. banks.

“Even a trusted FBI informant has alleged a bribe to the Biden family,” the Speaker said of revelations that arose from the FBI-generated FD-1023 form the Biden administration attempted to keep hidden from lawmakers and the American people.

“Despite the serious allegations, it appears that the president’s family has been offered special treatment by Biden’s own administration,” McCarthy noted of the kid-glove treatment for Hunter and others privileged to have the Biden name.

“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption,” said McCarthy.

“Today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” the House Speaker said of this “logical next step” which “will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts” about President Biden and his family’s activities.

This probably needs to be done, but it is a road filled with minefields. President Biden may actually become a sympathetic character as his slips further into the mental challenges he has exhibited in recent years. There will also be cries of ‘it’s political’ regardless of how much evidence turns up. This is something to follow closely. I don’t want to see either party get away with sweeping any criminal activity that occurred under the rug.

Something To Watch Closely

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Today, MSN reported that protesters had taken over Speaker McCarthy’s office and had to be dragged out by police.

The article reports:

Protesters stormed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s Congressional office on Tuesday, demanding that he and other House Republicans re-up funding for an AIDs relief program.

Protesters with Housing Works pressed their way into McCarthy’s office and refused to move until Capitol Hill Police arrived and arrested them. The group was demanding a 5-year reauthorization of the PEPFAR global AIDs relief program, which they say has saved “25 million lives.”

…McCarthy’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the incident, but Capitol Police confirmed to Fox News Digital that they arrested seven individuals.

“This morning, multiple individuals were demonstrating inside a House Office Building. After the demonstrators refused to cease demonstrating, USCP then arrested the 4 males and 3 females for Unlawful Entry,” Capitol Police said in a statement.

There are a few things here that need to be noted. The protesters actually came into the Speaker’s office and disobeyed requests to leave. They had to be escorted out and arrested. Contrast that with the way people peacefully paraded through the Capitol on January 6th. Some of the people who did nothing more than walk through and take selfies are facing multiple-year jail terms. It will be interesting to see how the Justice Department treats the people who were actually in the Speaker’s office and refused to leave versus the people who not only walked peacefully through the Capitol but left the Capitol when they were asked to do so.

I have no idea why the Republicans in Congress are too cowardly to stand up for the January 6th political prisoners. Every morning, a Congressman should put a statement in the Congressional Record that the political prisoners are still being held. There should be a reminder on every newscast every night that there are political prisoners in America.

There is a poem all Americans need to remember. Below is a 1946 post-war confessional prose by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

The best-known versions of the confession in English are the edited versions in poetic form that began circulating by the 1950s.[1] The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum quotes the following text as one of the many poetic versions of the speech:[2][3]

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Bidennomics At Work

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On September 12, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Median household incomes peaked at $78,250 in 2019, the year before the pandemic. They declined in 2022 to $74,580, a year that saw inflation soar, undercutting household purchasing power.

“Despite nominal gains, historically high inflation resulted in a decline in real median household income,” said Liana Fox, assistant division chief for economic characteristics in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.

That’s about a $300 a month decrease.

The article continues:

The figures released on Tuesday showed that poverty was flat, with about 11.5% of the population, or 38 million people, below the poverty line, which was $29,678 for a family of four.

The bureau also reported a jump in child poverty by one metric, the supplemental poverty measure, or SPM, from 5.2% to 12.4%. The increase was attributable in large part to the expiration of the temporary expanded child tax credit implemented by Democrats and President Joe Biden as a form of pandemic relief. The SPM, unlike the official poverty measure, includes tax credits in calculating household resources.

The question that needs to be asked in next year’s election is, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?”

Saved For A Purpose

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The Battle of la Drang, Vietnam began on November 14, 1965. It was the first major battle between the United States Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN), as part of the Pleiku Campaign conducted early in the Vietnam War. It is notable for being the first large-scale helicopter air assault and also the first use of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers in a tactical support role.Ia Drang set the blueprint for the Vietnam War with the Americans relying on air mobility, artillery fire, and close air support, while the PAVN neutralized that firepower by quickly engaging American forces at very close range.  (Source here). Before the Battle of Ia Drang was over, 305 Americans had been killed along with an estimated 2,000 North Vietnamese troops. (Source here).

One of the people involved in the Battle of la Drang was Rick Rescorla.

According to the book WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE…AND YOUNG (published in 1992), the story of the Battle of la Drang:

Rick Rescorla was a platoon leader, Bravo Company 2nd Battalion 7th Cavalry. He completed a full tour with Bravo Company in Vietnam and did another year teaching at Officer Candidate School in the States. He left active duty in 1967, but continued in the Army Reserves until his retirement in 1990 as a colonel. The British-born Rescorla earned a master’s degree and a law degree at universities in Oklahoma and went into corporate-security work. Today (1992) he is vice president for group security at a major stock-brokerage house in New York City.

That is by no means the end of the story.

On September 10, 2008, I posted an article that included the following:

There was one man who was living in a different world than the rest of us–even on September 10.  His name was Rick Rescorla.  He was the vice president for security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, a brokerage house with 2,700 employees in the World Trade Center in the south tower on floors forty-four through seventy-four and 1,000 employees in Building Five across the plaza.  Because of the foresight of this man, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter lost only six employees in the bombing of the World Trade Center.  His story is told on his website, RickRescorla.com. Unfortunately, Rick Rescorla was killed on September 11, 2001, when he went back into the towers to rescue more people.

As we remember the events of September 11, 2001, we need to remember that God has a plan for all our lives. Because Rick Rescorla survived the Battle of la Drang, he was in the right place to save the lives of many employees at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter years later. Even though the world may seem to be spinning out of control right now, God is still in charge and has a plan for your life.

Avoiding The Chickens That Have Come Home To Roost

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On Friday, Breitbart reported that President Biden is considering a plan that would require all illegal immigrants to remain in Texas. I guess all of those Democrat cities and states that declared themselves sanctuary cities and sanctuary states didn’t really mean it.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden is reportedly considering a plan to require illegal aliens with dubious asylum claims to remain in Texas — a move that would see the Lone Star State absorb tens of thousands of illegal aliens every week.

Biden administration officials who spoke anonymously to the Los Angeles Times said the plan is being considered so that if newly arrived border crossers fail their initial asylum screenings, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents can more easily locate and deport the illegal aliens within Texas since they would be close to the United States-Mexico border.

Translated loosely, what he is saying is, “Let’s destroy Texas. It’s a red state. Maybe we can turn it blue if we do this.”

The article concludes:

Under Trump, the Remain in Mexico policy effectively helped end Catch and Release at the southern border by requiring border crossers to stay in Mexico while awaiting immigration hearings in the U.S. The overwhelming majority, more than 70 percent, in the program who had their cases adjudicated as of June 2022 were deported after filing invalid asylum claims.

A fixture of the Biden administration’s lax enforcement of federal immigration law has been to oppose policies that seek to limit the movement of border crossers and illegal aliens — opting for an expansive Catch and Release network that has released millions into American communities in the last two and a half years.

Most recently, at a Senate hearing on asylum law, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) estimated that at least five million border crossers and illegal aliens had been welcomed into the U.S. interior since Biden took office — a foreign population that exceeds the size of half of all the states.

One of the specific duties of the President as listed in the U.S, Constitution is to “…take care that the Laws by faithfully executed….” There are laws on the books that require our borders to be secured. It would be nice if President Biden would uphold those laws.

Has The Governor Of New Mexico Read The U.S. Constitution?

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On Friday, Red State reported the following:

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a public health emergency over “gun violence” on Thursday following the death of an 11-year-old boy. On Friday, she took the unprecedented step of “suspending” gun rights in Albuquerque, the state’s largest city, with the possibility of other cities following suit.

Gov. Lujan Grisham declared gun violence a public health emergency Thursday, following the murder of an 11-year-old boy on his way home from an Isotopes game Wednesday night. That case, combined with several other violent cases involving children, sparked the decision. 

The new public health order is effective Friday, Sept. 8. After 30 days, they will evaluate whether they should renew the order or make adjustments. 

The public health order is a statewide mandate, but it only suspends open and concealed carry laws in communities with extremely high violent crime rates and firearm-related emergency room visits. Right now, that only includes the Albuquerque metro.

The article concludes:

How many children die in car accidents a month in New Mexico? Could Grisham unilaterally outlaw the use of cars within the state she leads to supposedly prevent driving deaths? Because that’s the same logic being applied in relation to gun rights.

In the end, this isn’t actually about stopping the shooting of children because people who shoot children do not follow gun laws. Rather, this is about Grisham trying to punish her adversaries in response to tragedies they have nothing to do with. Gang members do not worry about legally concealing their guns nor obtaining them through legitimate means. Law-abiding gun owners do. There is no rationale in punishing them, which perfectly exposes what Grisham is really doing.

No doubt, the governor’s move will be quickly challenged in court, as it should be. The idea that she can simply suspend gun rights, much less do so indefinitely, subject to her carrying out a 30-day review, is insane. If this injustice isn’t corrected and correctly swiftly, it will open the door for all kinds of new aspects of government overreach, and you can bet Joe Biden will try it at the national level. 

Lastly, there’s no real indication of who will enforce this order. Will the Albuquerque Police Department use its already limited resources to arrest legal gun owners? Time will tell. 

On Saturday, The Gateway Pundit posted a statement by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s office.

Here is the statement:

Today, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham issued an emergency order temporarily suspending open and concealed carry laws in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days. This move has been positioned as a response to the alarming and tragic rise in gun violence, particularly the heart-wrenching death of an 11-year-old boy this past week.

First and foremost, every lost life is a tragedy, and the well-being of our community is of paramount concern to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office. We share in the collective grief and urgency to address this issue.

However, as the elected Sheriff, I have reservations regarding this order. While I understand and appreciate the urgency, the temporary ban challenges the foundation of our Constitution, which I swore an oath to uphold. I am wary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts, as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense.

I was elected to represent and safeguard all constituents and to ensure the balance between our rights and public safety is maintained. That means we must critically evaluate any proposed solution to the deeply rooted issue of gun violence, ensuring we both protect our community and uphold the values that define us as a nation.

The Sheriff has the right to intervene when a law is passed that is unconstitutional. That is the reason it is very important to consider candidates carefully when you vote for your county sheriff.

Somehow This Doesn’t Make Sense

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On Thursday, The New York Post reported the following:

Hunter Biden testified recently that he was embarrassed by “offensive” content published from his laptop after he dropped it off for repair at The Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 12, 2019 — but still denies that the laptop or its contents are his.

The first son provided confusing and often contradictory testimony under oath on June 29 during a six-hour deposition related to a defamation action brought by John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the now-defunct computer repair shop, who accuses Hunter of falsely insisting the laptop was not his, or was stolen, or that his information was hacked.

Hunter is countersuing Mac Isaac, accusing him of illegally distributing his personal data and invading his privacy.

Portions of Hunter’s deposition are revealed for the first time in the opening brief of a motion filed by Mac Isaac, in Delaware Superior Court late Thursday, to dismiss the countersuit with prejudice.

If it wasn’t his laptop, how come all of his pictures and emails were on it?

The article also notes:

Hunter refused to admit in his deposition that he visited The Mac Shop twice in April 2019, despite Mac Isaac presenting evidence that Hunter signed a work order and provided his contact information.

Have we reached the point where Democrats routinely lie and just assume that they will never be held accountable?

The article concludes:

Hunter abandoned his laptop at Mac Isaac’s store in April 2019 and never returned to pick it up or pay his bill, despite multiple attempts by Mac Isaac to contact him by phone and email.

“After obtaining the rights to the laptop pursuant to the contract signed by Biden, Mac Isaac grew uneasy with the seemingly illegal activities cataloged in the laptop.

“As he was taught to do at the Apple Store and in accordance with his own convictions, he made contact with the FBI. Soon thereafter, on December 9, 2019, Mac Isaac gave the laptop, the original hard drive, and the original work order to the FBI.”

The FBI verified the authenticity of Hunter’s abandoned laptop in November 2019 “by matching the device number against Hunter Biden’s Apple iCloud ID,” IRS supervisory agent Gary Shapley testified to Congress in June.

An FBI computer expert assessed that the laptop “was not manipulated in any way” and could be used as evidence, Shapley said.

The IRS investigation of Hunter also accessed financial records showing he was at a cigar shop near Mac Isaac’s store in Wilmington, Del., the day the laptop was dropped off.

The only real question here is why the IRS, FBI, and DOJ have taken six years to get this far on the case.

Misplace Priorities

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After a while, one begins to wonder what kind of information Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has on the Biden family and many other members of Congress. It is beginning to appear to some of us that the war in Ukraine is simply a massive money laundering operation designed to funnel money back to members of Congress and the Biden administration for personal and campaign purposes. The latest comments from the White House Press Secretary do not dispel this idea.

On Friday, BizPacReview reported the following:

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested on Wednesday that much-needed disaster relief for Florida’s hurricane victims and those in Maui who were devastated by the raging wildfire could be withheld unless Congress approves another $24 billion to aid Ukraine’s military.

“[Republican Florida] Sen. Rubio, whose state is recovering from [Hurricane] Idalia, says the $16 billion in additional disaster relief should be decoupled from the additional funding [sic] for Ukraine. Of course, that’s part of their request which seems to be opposed by many Republicans,” a reporter began during Wednesday’s briefing. “Is the administration willing to separate these requests and seek the FEMA disaster aid independently to ensure it gets to the hurricane victims [and] Hawaii wildfire victims as quickly as possible or do you see that these things have to be grouped together for the request?”

“We are not going to get into hypotheticals here about decoupling anything at this time,” Jean-Pierre replied. “What we believe is that these are vital, important government programs that need to be funded, that Congress should act on, that has been done in a bipartisan way, and so that is what we are going to continue to stick to.”

The article also notes:

As the Florida Phoenix reports, “FEMA has projected at least a $4 billion deficit with the disaster relief fund. The Biden administration in August proposed a supplemental package to Congress, including $12 million for disaster relief to pay for recent natural disasters like the fire in Maui and now the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia. But in the same spending package, the president sought more than $24 billion in additional funding for Ukraine’s military needs in their battle against Russia.”

Republican Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio are pushing back against the Biden administration.

In an August 29 press release, ahead of Hurricane Idalia’s landfall, Scott called on his colleagues to “immediately vote on a disaster relief package, the Federal Disaster Responsibility Act, that takes care of Florida families and all Americans facing emergencies” when the Senate reconvenes next week.

All Congressmen who support Ukraine over America need to be defeated in their next election.

Is Anyone Surprised?

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During the Congressional hearings regarding the Biden family corruption, Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that he gave U.S. Attorney David Weiss ultimate authority over the Hunter Biden investigation. However, there are currently questions as to the accuracy of that statement.

On Thursday, The Federalist reported:

Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, and shared exclusively with The Federalist, reveal a glaring gap in the documentation maintained by the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office: There is nothing memorializing the authority Attorney General Merrick Garland claims he gave U.S. Attorney David Weiss for the Hunter Biden investigation. 

For more than a year, Garland represented to Congress that Weiss held ultimate authority over the Hunter Biden investigation — which the eventual appointment of Weiss as special counsel contradicted. But now there is more evidence — or rather a lack of evidence — indicating the claimed authority was always a charade. 

The Friday before the long holiday weekend, the DOJ provided the Heritage Foundation with the second batch of documents it was ordered by a federal court to produce in response to Heritage’s FOIA lawsuit. This installment concluded the DOJ’s production of the non-exempt documents in Weiss’s custody which concerned his authority for investigating Hunter Biden. But none of the documents produced addressed Weiss’s authority or any authority promised by Garland.

Mike Howell, the director of the Heritage Oversight Project and a co-plaintiff in the FOIA lawsuit against the DOJ, stressed the significance of this omission to The Federalist.

“The DOJ lives on paper.” Anything as important as granting Weiss ultimate authority over an investigation or promising to give him authority to bring charges in another venue, if necessary, “would have been written down,” Howell explained. To Howell, this last batch of documents constitutes an admission by Garland that “there was nothing written down at the DOJ and sent to Weiss, indicating Weiss had any of the authority that Garland claimed he did.”

The thing to remember when evaluating all of the information that is currently coming out about the Biden family business is that the media, the Department of Justice and the Democrat party are all in control of what you hear and when you hear it. There are some serious questions as to whether or not the Democrats want President Biden to run for a second term. Releasing a lot of information about some of his questionable business dealings may be the way to prevent him from running. Indictments against the Biden family will not have the same impact as indictments against President Trump. There is a strong possibility that the Biden family actually did things that were illegal.

I suspect that the Democrats are desperate to take over the House of Representatives to stop the current investigations.

Some American Children Will Actually Be Educated

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On September 7, The New American reported the following:

On Tuesday, the State of Oklahoma announced that it will allow educational videos by the conservative media organization PragerU to be used in its public schools.

Oklahoma joins Florida, which announced in August that it will also use videos from PragerU’s children’s content division PragerU Kids, which creates lesson plans and videos for children in grades K-12 on a variety of subjects, including civics, financial literacy, and climate change.

PragerU announced the new partnership in a statement: “We are proud to announce that PragerU Kids will have an ongoing educational partnership with the State of Oklahoma. Now, many more American students will have the opportunity to learn from PragerU’s wholesome, patriotic, and age-appropriate content.”

State superintendent Ryan Walters announced the Sooner State’s new partnership.

“I am thrilled to announce this partnership with PragerU,” Walters said. “This expansion of our available resources will help ensure high-quality materials rich in American history and values will be available to our teachers and students. We will work together to find ways for PragerU to create content that will enrich the education of Oklahoma students.”

“I cannot be more excited to get this content in our classrooms, to get this understanding of American history without any indoctrination, but actually the facts of what happened, so that our kids can know the principles this country was founded on,” he added.

The article concludes:

What’s actually happening is that now Oklahoma’s teachers will have one tool that counters some of the left-wing dogma that passes for educational curricula in today’s public schools. There’s nothing a true propagandist hates more than a dissenting opinion. That’s what these attacks are about.

Texas is also said to be considering the use of PragerU videos, although they are receiving considerable pushback from left-wing organizations.

PragerU videos are well-researched, informative, and interesting. They are a good tool in providing information to our children in an entertaining way that captures their attention. Today’s children are a video generation with a short attention span. PragerU videos are perfect for that learning style.

Exacerbating A Problem Rather Than Solving it

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On Wednesday,  The Conservative Review reported that federal District Judge David A. Ezra has ruled that the floating border barrier that Governor Abbott had installed in Texas had to be temporarily removed.

The article reports:

“Governor Abbott announced that he was not ‘asking for permission’ for Operation Lone Star, the anti-immigration program under which Texas constructed the floating barrier,” wrote federal District Judge David A. Ezra in his ruling.

“Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters,” he added.

Illegal alien activists have called Abbott’s efforts to end illegal immigration inhumane and unjust.

“The buoys are a symbol of the hate-filled and inhumane policies Gov. Abbott has embraced as he continues to wage war on immigrants seeking to make better lives for themselves, as millions of other immigrants have done for hundreds of years in this country,” said activist Carolina Canizales.

Abbott’s office immediately said that it would appeal the ruling.

“Today’s court decision merely prolongs President Biden’s willful refusal to acknowledge that Texas is rightfully stepping up to do the job that he should have been doing all along,” read a statement from Abbott.

According to the specific case, the judge’s ruling is correct. He merely reinforced what the law said regarding the barriers. He ruled within the limits of the case. However, there are larger issues involved. What about the nation’s obligation to protect its borders? Again, I would like to remind you that if either party wanted the border crisis solved, it would have been solved by now. The establishment Republicans want cheap labor and the Democrats want future voters. Until one of those groups is voted out of office, we will have an open border.

Contrast

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about the sentencing of Montez Lee, a Black Lives Matter protester who set fire to a pawn shop after looting it in May 2020. The owner of the pawn shop was trapped in the blaze and died of smoke inhalation, leaving behind five children. Mr. Lee had a long criminal record, but his sentence does not reflect that record.

Red State reports:

Given that Lee had a long criminal history, you would think a harsh sentence would be in order. Instead, the DOJ turned into his biggest advocate. 

Here’s what the government’s sentencing memo to the judge stated.

Mr. Lee credibly states that he was in the streets to protest unlawful police violence against black men, and there is no basis to disbelieve this statement. Mr. Lee, appropriately, acknowledges that he “could have demonstrated in a different way,” but that he was “caught up in the fury of the mob after living as a black man watching his peers suffer at the hands of police.” As anyone watching the news world-wide knows, many other people in Minnesota were similarly caught up. There appear to have been many people in those days looking only to exploit the chaos and disorder in the interest of personal gain or random violence. There appear also to have been many people who felt angry, frustrated, and disenfranchised, and who were attempting, in many cases in an unacceptably reckless and dangerous manner, to give voice to those feelings. Mr. Lee appears to be squarely in this latter category. And even the great American advocate for non-violence and social justice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated in an interview with CBS’s Mike Wallace in 1966 that “we’ve got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard.”

The article also notes:

On Tuesday, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the unrest on January 6th. Convicted of seditious conspiracy, Tarrio, who was not present at the Capitol, pleaded for leniency but received none. 

How does any of this make sense?

 

Killing The Alaskan Economy

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On Thursday, The Daily Wire posted an article about some new Biden administration policies that will destroy the economy of Alaska.

The article reports:

The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would be canceling oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Preserve and move to ban drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve. 

The announcement from the Department of the Interior means that seven leases for drilling given during the Trump administration will be rescinded and that 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve will be off limits for drilling if the proposed rule is approved. The leases were held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) and encompassed 365,775 acres. 

“Alaska is home to many of America’s most breathtaking natural wonders and culturally significant areas. As the climate crisis warms the Arctic more than twice as fast as the rest of the world, we have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. 

The announcement was opposed by top Alaskan officials, including Governor Mike Dunleavy and Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. 

“Today the Biden Administration announced that it is cancelling legally-issued oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge section designated for oil and gas development. The leases AIDEA holds in ANWR were properly acquired in a sale mandated by Congress,” Dunleavy posted on X. “It’s clear that President Biden needs a refresher on the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. Federal agencies don’t get to rewrite laws, and that is exactly what the Department of the Interior is trying to do here.”

The article concludes:

Despite the fact that Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline expansion and aggressively pushed green energy, climate activists are still angry at Biden after he allowed the Willow oil project in Alaska’s North Slope to go forward, which could end up yielding 180,000 gallons of oil per day. The decision to end the leases and block drilling comes as gas prices across the country remain high. 

Hopefully the government of Alaska will bring a lawsuit that will go to the Supreme Court. This is government overreach.

Poetic Justice Can Be Fun

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There are a lot of people, including myself, who believe that former President Obama is orchestrating a lot of what goes on in the Biden administration. I am sure he is well aware of the corruption that seems to be part of the Biden family, but there is an aspect of that corruption that he might not have foreseen.

On Saturday, Jonathan Turley posted an article at The Hill that details a problem that the Biden corruption scandal has created for former President Obama.

The article reports:

Obama is now being asked to bail Biden out from another debacle of his own making, going back to his time in Obama’s administration. Various committees and private groups are seeking more than 5,000 emails from Biden in which he used an array of aliases during the Obama administration.

Under the Presidential Records Act, Obama has 30 days to bar the release of the emails and to help shield his former vice president in a growing corruption scandal over the influence-peddling operation run by Biden’s son, Hunter.

Recently, it was learned that Joe Biden went by a variety of code names and false names, including Robin Ware. Robert L. Peters, JRB Ware, Celtic and “The Big Guy.” House investigators believe that may only be a partial list. For many Americans, it is understandably unnerving to learn that their president has more aliases than Anthony Weiner. However, while the number seems unusual, the practice is not unprecedented.

Top officials have used such aliases in the past for emails, including former Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. During the Obama administration, the practice was defended by then-White House press secretary Jay Carney, who assured the public that any such emails would still be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and congressional inquiries. He added, “We do not use and should not use private email accounts for work.”

The problem is that there was “work” being discussed on some of these emails, including official foreign travel plans and the hiring of associates of Hunter for high-level positions. More importantly, some emails are relevant to the clients of Biden’s son. Biden has previously lied that he knew nothing of these dealings, but these emails could reveal even more about his knowledge and involvement.

Congress is investigating more than $20 million that was transferred to members of the Biden family from foreign sources through a labyrinth of shell companies and accounts. Even the Washington Post has been forced to admit that the president has lied in the past about aspects of Hunter’s dealings.  Devon Archer recently confirmed that Joe Biden’s long-standing denial of any knowledge of their business dealings is “categorically false.”

Stay tuned.