Targeting Taxpayers

Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association is committed to ensuring that citizens receive accurate information about policies that impact taxes. The election in November will have a major impact on federal taxes. It is important to note that 47% of earners paid no federal income tax in 2022 and the top 1% of earners paid a whopping 76% of federal taxes collected. This means that there are a substantial number of people who have no stake in how much federal taxes increase. Also, be aware that the Left’s constant refrain that the top earners do not pay their fair share is a lie.

What can we as taxpayers expect in the future? Let’s take a look. First, if a leftist Democrat, like Kamala Harris, is elected we can expect that Trump’s tax cuts from 2017 will be allowed to expire in 2025 increasing taxes substantially; particularly on middle class wage earners. Second, we can expect an increase in spending on “green new deal” programs, which are not only a hoax, but will destroy this country. Subsidies and mandates for wind, solar, and electric vehicles will increase your tax debt. The war on fossil fuels is the major cause of the increased price of energy and inflation. Third, runaway government spending has increased the federal deficit to over $35 trillion, which amounts to $104,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. This will only get worse, and ultimately must be paid by you the taxpayer. Fourth, the so-called student loan forgiveness scam (which is really a transfer of the debt to you the taxpayer) will be pursued in order to buy votes from those who actually benefited from the loans. Fifth, the open border policy is costing taxpayers billions of dollars in direct payments, housing subsidies, food stamps and free healthcare. Kamala Harris has previously advocated free healthcare and Medicare/Medicaid for all, including illegal immigrants. Since hospitals are not allowed to turn people away, you are actually paying this bill now, and it will get worse.

Of course the biggest tax of all is rampant inflation, which has increased the cost of living for the average American over 23% since Biden/Harris took office. Even though the inflation rate has diminished somewhat, prices continue to increase and will never return to their previous levels. In the meantime, mortgage rates, housing prices and rising rents are an increasing burden on the American people, especially the young. The American Dream is being shattered by excessive government spending.

By contrast, a Republican administration is likely to expand energy production, which will not only ease inflation, but provide revenue from the sale of oil and gas to other countries. Trump’s “Drill, baby, drill” plan needs to be implemented. Tax rate cuts to stimulate economic growth and productivity can be expected and are the only positive way of attacking the federal debt. Shrinking the federal government such as eliminating the federal Department of Education and cutting agency budgets are planned. President Trump’s commitment to closing the border will not only reduce taxes but ensure greater security and protect American jobs. Last, but not least is Trump’s commitment to revoke China’s most favored nation status which would help level the playing field and return manufacturing to this country, as well as provide revenue from equal tariffs as appropriate.

Regardless of other issues, and there are many, the impact on taxpayers of this coming election could not be more profound. As taxpayers this should be of the highest concern.

Taking Out The Leadership

Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, was killed early Wednesday morning in Tehran according to The New York Post. He was in Tehran Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president. Ismail Haniyeh moved to Qatar in 2019, having lived in the Gaza Strip previously. Qatar has generally been the safe haven for many of the Hamas leaders, so why are they playing a role in the peace negotiations with Israel?

The article reports:

Ismail Haniyeh, one of the most senior Hamas officials, was was killed in Iran by an alleged airstrike carried out by Israel at his Tehran residence on July 31, according to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

Haniyeh was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new president.

Born in the then Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip in 1963, Haniyeh had been a prominent member of Hamas since the 1980s and, in 1989, spent three years imprisoned by Israel during the first Palestinian uprising.

Upon his return to Gaza in 1997 after spending years in exile with other Hamas leaders, Haniyeh was appointed leader and President of the Political Bureau of Hamas, solidifying his influence and power within the organization.

In 2006, President Mahmoud Abbas appointed Haniyeh as Palestinian prime minister after Hamas won the most seats in national elections. He was then elected head of Hamas’s political bureau in 2017 and was widely considered Hamas’s overall leader until his death.

Before the killing, Israel vowed to eliminate Haniyeh and other Hamas leaders following the terror group’s Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state where 1,200 people were killed.

An Israeli airstrike killed three of Haniyeh’s sons and four of his grandchildren, who were traveling in a car through Gaza’s Shati refugee camp to visit family on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr in April 2024.

A controlled strike taking out senior leadership is probably a good way to deal with Hamas. False claims of genocide against Israel make actually eliminating the problem difficult.

 

Why The Internet Is A Valuable Tool During The Election Season

The Internet is not perfect. It’s search engines are generally skewed, and pop-up ads are a pain in the neck. However, the Internet is very useful during the election season.

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported:

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has said she no longer endorses a ban on fracking, but political strategists and energy experts say the sudden policy shift will do little to move the needle with key voters in November.

Harris said in 2020 there is “no question” she would end fracking if elected president, but her campaign recently told The Hill she no longer wants to outlaw the practice after videos of her endorsing a ban resurfaced following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 race. The campaign can walk back Harris’ old fracking position as it pleases, but it likely won’t be enough to allay the concerns of crucial voting blocs — particularly more rural, blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania — that Harris may wage war on the industry or otherwise escalate Biden’s climate agenda to their detriment if elected, political strategists and energy experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The video of Kamala Harris stating that she will ban fracking is easily found on YouTube. There are also other videos that either contradict what she is saying now or simply show her saying things that don’t make sense. The Internet is a valuable tool for election research.

The article concludes:

Dave McCormick, the GOP candidate for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, is already running an advertisement attacking Harris’ energy positions and tying together the vice president and his opponent, incumbent Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey.

Some pundits have suggested that Harris could mitigate risks she may face in Pennsylvania by picking Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate. However, selecting Shapiro could cause problems for Harris in other states and isolate voting blocs she needs to win due to his support of Israel and criticisms of pro-Palestinian activists, McHenry told the DCNF.

“Bob Casey and Kamala Harris have opposed Pennsylvania energy every step of the way, and their anti-fossil fuel agenda would be disastrous for our commonwealth and the 600,000 workers who rely on the energy sector for a paycheck,” McCormick said in a statement shared with the DCNF. “Banning fracking and abolishing the filibuster to pass a Green New Deal may be popular among the far-left, but here in Pennsylvania these radical proposals are radically out of step with the needs of working families.”

The Harris and Casey campaigns did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Do your homework before you vote!

The Quest For Unity

America right now is a divided country–there are not only major divisions between the major political parties, there are major divisions within each of the two political parties. It’s hard to find unity anywhere.

On Monday, Issues & Insights posted an article titled, “Want More Unity And Freedom? Try Returning To Constitutional Federalism.” What a great idea.

The article states:

The current electoral cycle has featured a political culture in which candidates and their partisans claim to be advancing unity, but the primary form of the unity advanced is agreement among some that they want what does not belong to them or to dictate what others can do, and that they want government to “make it happen.” Unfortunately, that is not the kind of widespread unity that benefits “we the people.”

That is what recent events, from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump to Joe Biden’s argument for why he was staying in, then getting out, or the race, to Harris’s promises to unify people by giving them even more federal “something for nothing” have only turbocharged.

But as long as the dominant political culture remains unchanged, and even more so if it intensifies, all those self-depictions of being unifiers will remain empty promises. If we really wanted more unity in the sense used outside current politics — general agreement, rather than some who agree to harm others for their purposes — we would be well advised to revisit the federalism designed in our Constitution, because of the limits that places on the latter usage.

At America’s creation, a decentralization of power — a federal system, rather than a national system, (more accurately termed “The States, United solely for specified joint purposes,” than “The United States”) — played a key role in protecting Americans’ liberties from infringement. That also allowed more unity at the federal level by eliminating many fights over who could exercise federal power to over-ride the choices of citizens and their governments that were closer to home.

The article concludes:

Power in American life has been increasingly taken from individuals and local self-government, to be increasingly centralized in the federal government. Federalizing everything, including plainly private and local choices, has not benefited nor unified America, as clearly indicated by the increasing intensity of the battles to control what is to be imposed on everyone. We need to resurrect the federalism of the Constitution again, leaving people to make their own decisions outside of those very few areas where their choices must necessarily be in common. 

Felix Morley (a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and college administrator) saw this clearly:

The value of federalism, in preventing the prostitution of freedom, becomes more clear … the founding fathers put restraints on government so that the governed might be free.

If America is to re-establish federalism, the liberties it protects and the far greater potential for unity it  preserves, Felix Morley’s Freedom and Federalism is a great place to begin. As its cover summarized:

A government of free men is like a strong-standing arch. The solid stones of which it is built is called freedom. Neither the building blocks of individual liberty nor the arch of freedom will stand secure without the keystone of federalism. It is federalism that holds up the arch. It is federalism that makes possible the preservation of both liberty and freedom.

That is why lovers of liberty and freedom — self-ownership and solely voluntary arrangements, over as wide a canvas as possible — need to rediscover the force of federalism in resisting the ever-growing reach of centralized political determination, which is tyranny, even when it is tyranny of the majority.

If democracy is at variance with federalism, and if federalism is conducive to freedom, it would follow that, far from maintaining freedom, democracy is inimical to it.

If the American people want unity, they need to vote for liberty.

 

No More Half Measures

Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

Members of the Coastal Carolina Taxpayers Association (CCTA) generally believe in smaller government, lower taxes, and individual freedom.  Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many, elected officials are frequently unwilling to take truly conservative positions on key issues.  While the art of negotiation sometimes require compromise; clear, conservative positions should always be the starting point.  Starting negotiations with half-way measures is unacceptable.  To do so leads to voter frustration and apathy.

For example, the integrity of the election process is of deep concern to all clear-thinking patriotic Americans.  For over 200 years, the election process in our country was reliable and trustworthy to voters.  This is no longer the case.  Early voting, machine counting, and excessive use of mail-in absentee ballots have undermined confidence in the election process.  The Democrat party’s refusal to support citizenship requirements and photo IDs that will allow illegals to sway the result of our elections is also part of the problem.  The question is, “What should our elected officials be doing about this?”  Simple, we should return to paper, hand-counted ballots, cast on Election Day with minimal absentee ballots (e.g. for military and physically infirm).  Instead, we hear talk about reducing the number of early voting days.  Not good enough–a halfway measure at best which in no way solves the potential for fraud.

Another issue is climate change legislation.  Do our conservative leaders actually believe in the unproven hoax that climate change is being caused by CO2 levels in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels?  Do they not realize that the green energy agenda will destroy our economy and make us vulnerable to our adversaries like China and Russia? They should be introducing legislation to stop all subsidies for wind and solar, as well as requirements on energy producers to reach unrealistic, and costly carbon emission standards.  Off-shore wind farms in North Carolina should be prohibited, and all restrictions on new nuclear energy plants removed.  These measures would reduce the cost of energy, which is hurting the average citizen, and make our state competitive in a free economy.

The public education system in the state continues to promote critical race theory (or misnamed “social learning”); Diversity/Equity/Inclusion; as well as transgender ideas in our schools.  Some efforts have been made to reign in this indoctrination, but the prohibition against these destruction ideas should be absolute.  No society can exist and prosper that does not recognize and reward the effort and skill of their citizens regardless of race, gender, or other factors.  Recognition and promotion should be based solely on competence and merit.

The socialist left has been undermining our country and having considerable success.  Standing up to them will require determination and the courage to take strong positions and fight the good fight.  Compromising and half measures will not return us to the country that we once were.  Let’s hope our elected officials are up to the challenge to save our country from socialism.

 

About That Olympics Opening Ceremony…

I have watched videos and seen screenshots of Friday night’s opening ceremony for the Olympic Games. I have heard the excuse that it was not meant to mock Jesus but to raise awareness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” (according to msn). Actually, the name of the Olympic presentation was literally called “La Cène Sur Un Scène Sur La Seine,” i.e. “The Last Supper on a Stage on the Seine.” (reference here). Unfortunately, the placement of the people at the center table and the table were highly reminiscent of Jesus’ Last Supper, an event sacred to Christians. This may have been accidental, but it was definitely inappropriate. The use of drag queens in the opening ceremony was also in very poor taste. If adults want to enjoy drag queen entertainment, that’s their business, but it is not appropriate for prime-time television (or children’s story hours). Intentional or not, the opening ceremony represented an attempt to normalize an aberration that is not normal. Drag queens are people and should be respected. However, we need to understand that their lifestyle is not part of the mainstream of worldwide culture.

On Sunday, Zero Hedge reported:

On Saturday, the organizers of the Paris Olympics scrambled to pressure social media platforms, such as X, to censor users who mocked and criticized Friday night’s shocking Opening Ceremony. The event, which featured drag queens, nudity, and scenes deemed highly disrespectful to Christians, sparked outrage worldwide. When the International Olympic Committee’s social media 1984-style censorship efforts failed (read: here), the committee had no choice but to apologize for the drag queen parody of Jesus’ Last Supper on Sunday morning. 

The Olympic Games celebrate athletic excellence worldwide. In the past, the opening ceremonies have included beautiful pageantry and in 2012 in London, a helicopter entrance by James Bond to spoof the James Bond movies. Let’s go back to the beautiful colors and pageantry that have opened the Olympic Games in the past.

Has President Biden Read The Constitution?

On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about a planned move by President Biden before he leaves office.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden has one last thing on his agenda before leaving office, and of course, it involves attacking former President Donald Trump.

The president is set to propose a few changes to the U.S. Constitution next week in a bid to reform the Supreme Court. While he’s at it, Biden will also seek to reverse the higher court’s immunity decision on Trump.

Does President Biden really believe that he can unilaterally change the U. S. Constitution? Is Congress wimpy enough to let him do it? This is the epitome of political lawfare.

The article notes:

According to a report, Biden will seek to establish term limits for Supreme Court Justices and an enforceable code of ethics. He will also push for a constitutional amendment that would limit immunity for presidents and other lawmakers—a response to a case brought before the SCOTUS by Trump, in which the court ruled that presidents are protected from prosecution for “official acts” during their time in office.

Biden is expected to make the announcement during a trip to Texas on Monday. However, the report notes that the proposal has not been finalized, and changes can occur.

When asked to comment on the topic, the White House referred back to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s Thursday remarks in which she said the president “believes if you are serving in high office, you should be held to a transparency, accountability and you should be held to a high ethics.”

During his first address to Americans on his decision to exit the 2024 race, Biden insisted that reforming the Supreme Court is “critical to our democracy,” adding that he would work to do just that in his last six months in office.

Our ‘democracy’ is a republic with a constitution. Amending the Constitution without going through the proper process undermines that republic. I am hoping that Congress will develop a spine and put an end to the current dictatorship.

Not Surprising

Our open southern border is only part of the problem.

On Saturday, Breitbart reported the following:

Border Patrol agents in the Swanton Sector of the U.S.-Canada border have apprehended more than 15,000 migrants so far this fiscal year, more than the previous 13 years combined, according to U.S. Border Patrol reports.

Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia reported this week that since October 1, 2023, his agents apprehended more than 15,000 migrants. The astounding record of migrant apprehensions this year reflects the vulnerability of our northern border with Canada.

We have no idea who is coming into our country at this point. I realize the America’s immigration system needs major repair, but we cannot have both an open border and a welfare system. One of them has to go.

The article concludes:

Garcia’s post above indicates that July apprehensions will likely exceed 3,000 migrants. If that holds true, the sector will have apprehended more than 9,000 migrants just in the last three months.

Migrant apprehensions in the Swanton Sector rose exponentially during the Biden-Harris era. Garcia reported that the apprehensions during the month of April exceeded the combined annual totals of FY21 and FY22.

Since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office in January 2021, Swanton Sector agents have arrested more than 23,000 migrants.

We will not survive as a country without borders.

The Consequences Of Liberal State Government

On Saturday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the movement of the American population from Blue States to Red States.

The article reports:

One of the most important phenomena in contemporary America is the Great Sort–we are increasingly dividing into red and blue states, in part because of domestic migration. But that migration is basically a one-way street: people are fleeing blue states and moving to red states. Many, but not all, of these migrants are conservatives seeking a more congenial home. And of course there are liberals living in red states, but very few of them are picking up stakes and volunteering for higher taxes and more sluggish economies.

This is not a new phenomenon. The billboard below is from 1971:

So what impact does this movement of people have on red and blue states? The article includes the following charts:

If the state governments are the laboratories of democracy, it is becoming very obvious which states are doing better economically and in other areas.

The article concludes:

Where does it all end? I don’t know, but one possibility is that the current balance in our national politics, where far-left and center-right forces are almost equal, may before long become obsolete. America may become definitively a center-right country, simply because that is where most people and most resources are located.

Moving illegal immigrants to red states might help restore the balance of power. Just sayin’.

 

I Guess That Didn’t Go Exactly As Planned

Evidently all is not roses and sunshine in the Democrat party right now. Although it seems that Kamala Harris is the candidate, not everyone is thrilled. I don’t know if there will be a bait and switch at the Democrat Convention next month, but I am not ruling it out. Once you ignore the votes of all the people who voted in your primary elections, I suspect that you can do pretty much anything you want to at your convention.

On Friday, The New York Post reported the following:

There’s buzz swirling within the Biden camp that the president’s swift endorsement of Kamala Harris was his revenge on prominent party leaders — including Barack Obama — who pressured him to bow out of the race against his will, sources told The Post.

Joe Biden, who said he was dropping out “in defense of democracy” during his public address Wednesday, had been told by Obama to allow delegates at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago to decide a new candidate, a source close to the Biden family claimed.

“It was Joe’s big f–k you,” the source said. “Joe said, ‘If I’m out, then I am endorsing her.’”

Talk among insiders is that Biden saw this as a final way to assert some control over his ouster.

It is my impression that there are three camps in the current Democrat party–the Clinton camp, the Obama camp, and the Biden camp. Keep in mind that the Clinton and Biden camps both are not fans of the Obama camp. Also remember that the Clinton camp got a little closer to George Soros and his money and influence recently when Huma Abedin announced her engagement to Alex Soros, the son of George Soros. Speculation is that President Obama’s choice for the Democrat presidential candidate was Mark Kelly of Arizona. Kelly would have been a better candidate and might have had a positive impact for Democrats on the down ballot in Arizona.

The article concludes:

According to a source close to the Biden family, prominent Democrats threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution and urge the vice president and the cabinet to remove Biden from office, the source said.

The source said that the belief within the family is that Obama wanted to get Biden out of the race — and an op-ed written by George Clooney in the New York Times, asking him to step aside, was a part of that plan.

Calls to the offices of Obama and Biden, as well as the Democratic National Committee, were not returned.

Obama persuading Biden not to run for the presidency in 2016, allowing Hillary Clinton a shot at the Oval Office, has since been a sticking point between the two men, according to reports.

“He was not encouraging,” Biden later told the New York Times, referring to Obama.

As for the race ahead, Obama has little faith in Harris, the source close to the Biden family claimed.

“Obama knows she’s just incompetent — the border czar who never visited the border, saying that all migrants should have health insurance,” the source said.

“She cannot navigate the landmines that are ahead of her.”

It is possible that the Democrat Convention will be very interesting. I don’t think President Obama gives up easily.

If She Were Rated On Actual Performance…

The media loves Kamala Harris. The Internet is trying to erase her role as Border Czar, her involvement in the Afghanistan withdrawal, and any other failed policy of the Biden administration. Unfortunately for Kamala Harris, there always seems to be one more administration failure that she was involved in.

On Friday, Breitbart posted the following:

Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tapped to lead the administration’s rural broadband expansion, failed to connect one person with high-speed internet despite having $42.5 billion from the so-called infrastructure bill.

During his 2021 State of the Union address, President Joe Biden tapped Vice President Harris to lead the effort “because I know it will get done.”

Now, in 2024, it appears that the Biden-Harris admin has made little progress getting Americans connected to high-speed internet.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commission Brendan Carr noted in June that Biden and Harris did not connect one American despite having access to $42.5 billion in funding from the so-called infrastructure bill, or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Carr noted on Wednesday, “President Biden put VP Harris in charge of this effort back in 2021 and days later not 1 person has been connected.”

The article concludes:

Carr in June contended that much of the Biden administration’s failure to expand broadband is to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals.

“The Biden Administration is barreling towards a broadband blunder. Congress has appropriated enough money to end the digital divide, but the Biden Administration is squandering the moment by putting partisan political goals above smart policy,” the FCC commissioner explained. “It is doing so through rate regulation, through union, technology, and DEI preferences, and through a thumb on the scale for government run networks. All of this threatens to leave rural communities behind.”

One wonders exactly how the $42.5 billion was spent. How much of it went to companies that coincidentally made huge campaign donations to Democrats?

More Lies

On Thursday, The Daily Signal posted an article about one of the lies that has been told multiple times Kamala Harris during her brief campaign for the presidency.

The article reports:

A campaign official for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris acknowledged Wednesday that the vice president is deliberately misleading voters about Project 2025.

CNN first reported the stunning admission as part of a fact-check article accusing Harris of making false claims about Project 2025 and former President Donald Trump’s stance on Social Security. CNN’s Daniel Dale revealed:

A Harris campaign official said the campaign has ‘made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies’ as ‘Project 2025,’ since they believe ‘it has stuck with voters.’

The article also notes:

CNN, for example, examined Harris’ comments at her first campaign rally Tuesday about Project 2025:

When you read it, you will see Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare. He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill. They intend to end the Affordable Care Act. And take us back, then, to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions.

After reviewing “Mandate for Leadership,” the Project 2025 book of policy recommendations, CNN concluded:

One of Harris’ claims about Project 2025 is false, while another is at least misleading. The Project 2025 document does not show that Trump intends to cut Social Security; the document barely discusses Social Security at all and does not propose cuts to the program. In addition, contrary to Harris’ suggestion, Project 2025 does not call to ‘end’ the Affordable Care Act or eliminate its protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

If a campaign thinks it has to lie about its opponent to get votes, why should anyone vote for the campaigner?

Unequal Justice Strikes Again

On Thursday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

At least 11 anti-Israel protesters arrested in Washington, D.C., had their misdemeanor charges dropped Thursday evening, one day after protesters scrawled graffiti across federal property and burned an American flag in the nation’s capital.

The charges for the 11 protesters who had their cases dropped included crossing police lines and disorderly conduct at the protest attended by thousands in Washington on Wednesday, according to the Washington attorney general’s office. Additionally, at least seven people charged by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington were released pending their next court hearing, according to Washington Superior Court records obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The protesters given release conditions face charges such as assault on a police officer, attempted assault with a deadly weapon, making threats, and attempted second-degree theft, and they have been issued a “Stay Away” order to avoid the Union Station grounds until they head to preliminary hearings in late August.

How many January 6th political prisoners are in jail still awaiting trial?

The article notes:

Protests against Netanyahu’s appearance in the District of Columbia marked the largest violent protest in the area since the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, where thousands of supporters of Trump descended on the complex and entered the building in anger and frustration over his 2020 election defeat.

More than 1,424 defendants have been charged since the Jan. 6 protest, the Justice Department said in May, and about 350 people from the event were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 110 people who used a deadly or dangerous weapon to cause serious harm to a law enforcement officer. At least 145 people have been sentenced to prison terms over 151 months and roughly 172 defendants have been sentenced to periods of home detention, including approximately 31 who were sentenced to a period of incarceration.

The dropped charges against anti-Israel protesters come as critics have accused the Justice Department of cracking down more harshly on Jan. 6 defendants than on protesters who engage in similar conduct but whose causes align with the Left.

Welcome to our banana republic.

The Good Guys Have Recognized The Bad Guys

On Tuesday (updated Wednesday) The New York Post posted an article illustrating how few Americans and how few law enforcement officers trust the FBI.

The article reports:

As FBI Director Chris Wray performed his usual smarmy stonewalling in Congress Wednesday, a damning report on his $10 billion agency’s “cult of narcissism” was delivered to the House Judiciary Committee by an alliance of retired and active-duty agents and analysts. 

The same group gave us the scathing DEI report last year about the FBI’s degraded recruitment standards and coddling of physically unfit, mentally ill, drug-taking or generally useless agents to satisfy diversity requirements at the expense of merit and experience. 

This time they have assessed the entire bureau and drawn several worrying conclusions, including that local law enforcement partners have developed a “disturbing loss of trust in the FBI” and are therefore reluctant to share information, with alarming consequences for national security and public safety.

“Police officers and sheriff’s deputies on patrol and detectives investigating illegal activity in their jurisdictions have unparalleled visibility into street-level crime. … When this information is not immediately shared with the FBI, the FBI is left to address complex, evolving threats facing the United States with an unacceptably vast and debilitating ‘blind spot’ because [it] does not have enough personnel and resources to see into every corner of the country.”

…The picture that emerges of the FBI is of an incompetent, arrogant, bloated bureaucracy that includes a new generation of DEI hires described as “completely worthless” and “the worst batch of people.”

The report’s final damning indictment is reserved for the FBI Academy for New Agent Training in Quantico, Va., which “promotes a cult of narcissism by imbuing a false sense of superiority over all local, state and federal law enforcement.”

Taxpayer resources have been lavished on a new “wellness center” for yoga and meditation at the academy instead of teaching trainee agents the value of “humility and a higher sense of service and professionalism” when working with local law enforcement.

The article concludes:

Ultimately the whistleblower group says the only way to restore the FBI’s reputation and repair the damage is to force the resignation of Wray as “an extreme measure of last resort.

“… At stake are no less than the public’s safety and America’s national security.”

Judging by the sycophantic questioning of Wray by Democrats, we will have to wait for a Republican administration to clean house.

It is going to take a strong President and a strong Congress to clean up this mess!

Where Is Kamala Harris’ Campaign Money Coming From?

I think we have the answer.

This was posted on Twitter on Thursday (If the picture doesn’t immediately come up, click on the link):

EXPOSING ActBlue, Democrat Money Laundering Operation Journalist Esala “This New Orleans, LA resident told me that she lives on Social Security and DID NOT contribute to ActBlue. in the amount of $29,107.34 between the years 2016-2022. 2022: 1,113 counts = $13,347.84 2021: 715 counts = $6,957.90 2020: 839 counts = $6,983.10 2016-2019: 190 counts = $1,818.50

Wiping Away The Past To Create A Fictional Character

The media fact-checkers are engaged in fact-checking anything the Republicans say about Kamala Harris. There are claims that she was never the Border Czar while anyone call go to YouTube and find newscasters hailing her as the new Border Czar. The latest fact=check says that she never encouraged people to donate to the bail fund for the 2020 rioters.

Well–look what I found on Twitter:

Maybe she forgot.

You  can add this effort to deny her past with the one reported here.

The fact-checkers have already shown that they have no connection to reality. As the campaign continues, please keep that in mind.

 

Too Little Too Late

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about what is happening in Massachusetts with the influx of illegal immigrants.

The article reports:

A New England state that has long been regarded as a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants is now dramatically scaling back its emergency migrant shelter services and offering plane rides for them to leave, according to a Tuesday announcement.

Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced that the state will limit stays at overflow shelters to just five days for migrants beginning next month, and that it will offer to cover plane tickets and other travel expenses for migrants who wish to leave, according to Boston 25 News. The announcement comes as Massachusetts has been rocked with waves of illegal immigrants in need of housing and other services.

…The state will instead give priority shelter to Massachusetts families with a newborn baby, a veteran, or someone with a significant medical issue, Boston 25 News reported. The changes are due to become effective on August 1st.

The article concludes:

Healey deployed several top state officials to border communities in June to warn illegal immigrants not to make Massachusetts their destination of choice because the state’s emergency system is overwhelmed.

The Center for Immigration Studies identifies Massachusetts as a “sanctuary” state, citing a 2017 court decision that limits law enforcement’s ability to hold criminal illegal aliens solely based on a detainer request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Healey has also spoken in defense of sanctuary cities. In 2017, she issued a formal statement as state attorney general condemning then-President Donald Trump’s effort to withhold federal funding from sanctuary cities.

The problem is not in Massachusetts–the problem is the open border. Close the border. Send illegals home and reform the immigration process so that people who are willing to work can come here easily in small enough numbers to assimilate into our culture.

What An Incredible Coincidence

On Tuesday, Fox News reported that the Justice Department has the transcripts of President Biden’s interviews with his biographer. Previously the Justice Department has denied that they have these transcripts.

The article reports:

The Justice Department revealed late Monday in a court filing that it does in fact have transcripts of President Biden’s interviews with a biographer after initially having denied possessing the documents. 

While juggling Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests related to former special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents following his departure as vice president in the Obama administration, DOJ attorneys said it would be time-consuming to process audio files into transcripts related to the president’s conversations with biographer Mark Zwonitzer. 

“We don’t have some transcript that’s been created by the special counsel that we can attest to its accuracy,” DOJ lawyer Cameron Silverberg told U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich last month. 

Isn’t it odd that as soon as President Biden is no longer running for a second term, these transcripts magically appear.

The article concludes, reminding us:

The findings sparked widespread outrage that Biden was effectively deemed too cognitively impaired to be charged with a crime yet could still serve as president.

In May, the White House asserted executive privilege over audio and video recordings related to Hur’s investigation, including the interviews between Biden and Zwonitzer.

“The audio recordings of your interview and Mr. Zwonitzer’s interview fall within the scope of executive privilege. Production of these recordings to the Committees would raise an unacceptable risk of undermining the Department’s ability to conduct similar high-profile criminal investigations–in particular, investigations where the voluntary cooperation of White House officials is exceedingly important,” Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote to Biden in a letter obtained by Fox News at the time.

I wonder if the existence of these transcripts was part of the persuasion used to get President Biden to step down from the campaign.

This Has Been Deleted From The Internet

This was previously posted at Govtrack.us:

Also appearing on Twitter:

There are also some serious questions about money laundering in her fundraising.

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

Newsmax Carl Higbie has done a deep dive on FEC reports using the “number of donations” as the datapoint to track.  What he discovered about donations to Act Blue might surprise the people assigned to the contributions. {Direct Rumble Link

“This is verifiable data. Whoever is choreographing this volume is doing it in such small donations because they thought those wouldn’t get flagged by watchdogs and FEC officials. The way this is brought to our attention was not by the dollar amount, but rather by the number of donations per person. That’s where they messed up. But my question is, if these people whose names are on the FEC report are not making these donations, who is? Where’s the money coming from?”

The Kamala Harris campaign is a scam perpetrated on the American people. Her past is being whitewashed, and she will be given almost unlimited dark money. If Americans are stupid enough to fall for this scam, they deserve what they will get–open borders, lawfare against political opponents, the end of the 2nd Amendment, the end of free speech, and government control of almost every aspect of our lives. Make sure you are paying attention and looking beneath the surface.

A Futile Attempt To Rewrite History

The problem with the Internet is that anything posted can be looked up at any time in the future. That is a problem the Democrats are currently having with Vice-President Kamala Harris’ record of political positions and accomplishments.

On Wednesday, Breitbart reported the following:

The very same media that championed Kamala Harris as America’s new “border czar” in April of 2021, is now claiming she not only wasn’t our “border czar,” but her duties never included slowing the surge of illegal immigration at our southern border.

Here are the proven liars at the far-left PolitiFact (I don’t link misinformation) this week providing tackling assistance for Kamala: Nope, they say, she was never border czar. Nope, she was never in charge of decreasing the flow of illegal immigration:

…A perfect example of this latest media effort to gaslight voters comes from the far-left Axios.

Axios headline March 24, 2021: “Biden puts Harris in charge of border crisis”

President Biden is putting Vice President Harris in charge of addressing the migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border, senior administration officials announced on Wednesday … Her first goal will be stemming the flow of illegal migrants to the U.S. [emphasis added]

The following month, Axios went even further and told us this:

Vice President Harris said Wednesday she plans to visit Mexico and Guatemala “as soon as possible” in a diplomatic effort to address surging migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Reuters reports.

The number of unaccompanied minors crossing the border has reached crisis levels. Harris, appointed by Biden as border czar, said she would be looking at the “root causes” that drive migration. [emphasis added]

You’ll note Axios flat-out tells us Biden appointed Harris “as border czar.”

Busted. Will Democrat voters care about the lies, or will they just vote for her because she is the Democrat candidate?

The Free Market Shows Up

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent announcement from General Motors.

The article reports:

General Motors had kind of a biggish announcement this morning, which should anger progressives and the Green grifters.

So, pretty encouraging for normal people hoping to see manufacturing claw their way free of the madness.

General Motors said Tuesday it is again slowing its plans for all-electric vehicles by further delaying a second U.S. electric truck plant and the Buick brand’s first EV.

The six-month delay in retooling the electric truck plant in Michigan, until mid-2026, also means GM will not achieve a prior target of having North American production capacity of 1 million EVs by 2025.

…The changes add new questions about the Detroit automaker’s plans for future battery cell plants other than two current joint venture facilities with LG Energy Solution in North America. GM previously announced plans for four of the multibillion-dollar plants in the U.S. by 2026.

Barra on Tuesday said the company would grow cell production in a “meaningful cadence.”

This is partially the result of basic free market forces and partially the result of looking ahead. If President Trump wins the election in November, federal subsides for consumers buying electric vehicles will end. At that point, sales of electric vehicles will drop significantly. General Motors does not want to be stuck with an inventory it can’t sell. The free market needs to control green energy. The free market will provide incentives for manufacturers to make cars that are truly green. Right now what passes for green energy is NOT green. It includes children working in lithium mines, windmills that break apart and pollute, and windmill blades that have a limited life-span and are not biodegradable. We can do better.

How Kamala Voted In Congress

On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about Kamala Harris’ voting record while she was in Congress.

The article reports:

Vice President Kamala Harris was rated the most liberal senator in 2019 — further left than even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — according to a GovTrack scorecard.

Harris, whom President Joe Biden opted to back after announcing that he will not seek reelection after all, was viewed as the most liberal senator prior to her becoming vice president.

According to GovTrack, the ideology analysis assigns a score to lawmakers according to their “legislative behavior by whether they sponsor and cosponsor overlapping sets of bills and resolutions with other Members of Congress.”

“The score can be interpreted as a left–right scale measuring the dominant ideological difference or differences among Members of Congress, although of course it only takes into account a small aspect of reality,” it explains.

In a list of all 100 senators in 2019, Harris scored #100, winning the title of the most leftist senator. For greater perspective, Sanders came in right behind her at #99. On the flip side, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) scored as the most conservative senator that year.

A breakdown of the rating found that Harris joined bipartisan bills “the least often compared to Senate Democrats,” as just 15 percent of the bills she cosponsored were introduced by a non-Democrat.

The breakdown also found that Harris “held the fewest committee positions compared to Senate Sophomores (tied with 1 other).” She also “was 3rd most absent in votes compared to All Senators.”

The article concludes:

New York Times bestselling author Peter Schweizer spoke about the reality of Harris’s political career during a Monday appearance on Breitbart News Daily, explaining that she has a history of “very frightening” activities as a prosecutor that show “collective favoritism to criminal networks and organizations linked to her political allies.”

“So my contention is that Kamala Harris as a prosecutor, she did the same thing as the Attorney General of California: Used her position not to protect the vulnerable but to actually protect the powerful people that put her in political office,” he said.

If you want political prosecutions to become the normal thing in America, Kamala Harris is the person you want to vote for.

Rewriting History

On Tuesday, Newsbusters posted an article about the spin the mainstream media is putting out about President Biden dropping out of the presidential campaign.

The article notes that CBS’s Mark Strassman is comparing President Biden to Lyndon Johnson in his decision to step aside. I don’t mean to nitpick here, but I am not convinced President Biden willingly made the decision to step aside. I think there was a “Godfather” moment with Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama that was the culmination of the effort to remove him from the campaign. Much of America was shocked when they watched the June debate. I don’t think the Democrat leaders were. I think they put President Biden out there because his poll numbers had been consistently low, and it was a step down the path to removing  him from the campaign. He has now removed himself from the campaign. It is also odd that he has not made any sort of appearance in a number of days.

The article reports:

We were told that Biden is stepping down due to bad polling, proof evident that he had no path to victory in 2024. But now we are getting a sliver of an admission that health was always a concern. The media are slowly circling back to what everyone else already knew to be true.

Of course, the big rewrite of history here is that Biden is somehow walking away from a second term in a patriotic exercise. This isn’t the case, either.

The truth is that Biden was pushed out of the race by his own party due to the aforementioned bad polling after the disastrous June 20th debate, which exposed the cognitive decline that people talked about for so long but never drew coverage in the media.

I don’t think history will look upon the Biden administration favorably. When President Biden came into office, inflation was low, the economy was rebounding, and the border was relatively secure. Four years later none of that is still true.