Monthly Archives: December 2024

House Weaponization Committee Report

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From directorblue.blogspot.com:

INFOGRAPHIC: Top 20 Scandals From the Obama-Biden Weaponization Report

The partisan abuse of federal agencies by the Obama and Biden administrations has been exposed in a massive, 17,000-page report by the House Weaponization Committee. It outlines a widespread pattern of criminality that almost defies description. I used AI to illustrate the basic contours of how Obama and Biden weaponized the federal bureaucracy.

Here are 20 of the most nefarious and diabolical activities revealed by the report:

1. Censorship by Big Tech:

2. Weaponization of Federal Law Enforcement:

3. Collusion with the Intelligence Community:

4. FBI Targeting Parents at School Boards:

5. Suppression of Conservative Voices:

6. FBI’s Handling of the Mar-a-Lago Raid:

7. FBI Whistleblower Retaliation:

8. Investigation into the “Censorship-Industrial Complex”:

9. Legal Actions Against Pro-Life Activists:

10. Targeting of Traditional Catholics:

11. IRS and DOJ Targeting:

12. Misuse of National Security Tools:

13. Government Influence on Media:

14. Operation Choke Point:

15. Influence Over Social Media Algorithms:

16. Use of Disinformation Campaigns:

17. Involvement in Election Integrity:

18. Weaponization of Climate Change Policies: .

19. Manipulation of Public Health Information:

20. Protection of Political Allies:

Please follow the link above to read the details. To say that Washington, D.C., is a swamp is an understatement. At least swamps have some ecological value.

Something To Remember As The Trump Administration Approaches

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On January 5th, 2017, there was a meeting among President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI boss James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. (source here) Susan Rice wrote a memo about that meeting to herself. These people have not gone away, although thankfully most of them have much less influence.

The New York Post article reports:

Rice sent the Jan. 20, 12:15 p.m., note (recently declassified) to herself at literally the last minute: President Trump was sworn in at noon that day; her administration was headed out the door.

Oh, and Rice’s lawyer says she drafted it “upon the advice of the White House Counsel’s Office,” Fox News reports.

The point? Ostensibly, to memorialize the meeting with her, Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI boss James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, following a briefing on Russian hacking.

Obama, the memo claims, stressed that “every aspect of this issue” be handled “by the book” and then “reiterated” that law enforcement proceed “by the book.” Comey “affirmed” he’s “proceeding ‘by the book.’  ” That’s right: She used the term three times.

So let’s look at some of that meeting.

The article continues:

Comey, she wrote, had “concerns” about her replacement, Michael Flynn, and said the National Security Council should “potentially” withhold “sensitive information” on Russia from Team Trump. But Rice admits it was Obama who asked whether information should not be shared.

Yet they had no legitimate grounds to keep the new team in the dark about anything. The Obama folks knew full well by then that the FBI had found zero evidence of collusion or of Flynn betraying his country. Because they were listening in on his phone calls to foreign officials.

Another New York Post article reported:

Flynn had to be stopped. Obama had urged Trump not to hire him, but the new president ignored the advice. If they didn’t kill Flynn, he could take them all down.

Comey had the transcripts so he already knew that there was no criminal evidence against Flynn growing out of his conversations with the Russian ambassador, but this wasn’t about guilt or innocence. This was a fight for survival.

So, just four days after Trump’s inauguration, Comey sent two agents to the White House to try to trap Flynn into lying. Comey would later boast he took advantage of the helter-skelter start of the administration and did not follow the usual custom of getting approval from the White House counsel.

That alone is an unforgivable act of treachery against a sitting president.

The agents, one of whom was the odious Peter Strzok, misled Flynn about the nature of the interview, advised him not to get a lawyer and withheld the fact that they had listened to his calls with the Russian ambassador, hoping he would lie about the contents.

Thanks to a leak of classified information to The Washington Post about those calls and Yates’ intervention, Flynn soon was fired for not being straight with Vice President Mike Pence. Special counsel Robert Mueller, Comey’s friend, and his anti-Trump zealots later used the rigged interview to prosecute Flynn.

For more than three years, that kept a dangerous man quiet and out of the way.

So what if he was railroaded. It was all done “by the book,” just as Obama ordered.

This is what the new Trump administration will be up against. However, all of us are now wiser, and the mainstream media is less powerful.

Rand Paul’s 2024 ‘Festivus Report’

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On December 23rd, Rand Paul released his 2024 ‘Festivus Report,’ his list of ridiculous things that the government spends American taxpayers’ money on. The Washington Examiner posted some of the highlights.

The first item listed:

Ice-skating drag queens for climate change

Paul revealed that the government provided funds for a drag queen ice-skating performance warning about the dangers of climate change. The National Endowment for the Arts gave the Bearded Ladies Cabaret in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, $10,000 for its  “Beard on Ice” performance to promote climate change alarmism. The artistic director for the self-described “queer cabaret arts organization” provided the following statement regarding the performance: 

“It’s so impossible, the issue of climate change and climate anxiety right now—almost as impossible as drag queens learning how to ice skate. So if we can get these drag queens to ice skate, maybe, just maybe, we can solve the climate crisis.”

Incidentally, the production was forced to cancel its opening-night performance due to poor ice conditions at the outdoor ice rink in which it was held, according to reports.

Followed by:

Millions of dollars on border security – for Paraguay

The “Festivus Report” also found that the State Department spent $2.1 million on border security—for Paraguay. This is particularly troubling because it meant that the U.S. government gave millions of dollars to another country for border security while ignoring the many failures and problems along the U.S. border. Millions of dollars in taxpayer money was sent to a South American country to help ensure people were not entering it illegally—while a record number of people were doing so in the U.S. 

Rats, cocaine, and loneliness

Cocaine is a terrible drug and the country has devoted a significant amount of resources in trying to prevent people from using the narcotic. Yet, apparently, more work was needed on the topic.

The Festivus Report identified a government study in which researchers injected rats with cocaine to analyze the impact of the drug’s addiction. The Department of Health and Human Services “spent $419,470 to determine if lonely rats” sought cocaine at a greater frequency than happy rats. These funds were used by researchers to observe and “see if rats placed in positive environments would be more likely to abstain from cocaine than rats in negative and isolating environments.” Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, the results were predictable and as what one might suspect.

Using pandemic relief funds to buy an island

The report identified the misdeeds of a Florida businessman who reportedly used COVID-19 relief funds to purchase Sweetheart Island off the coast of Florida. An investigation into the purchase found that the swindler used funds obtained from pandemic assistance to “help finance the island purchase,” according to reports. 

The person who tried to buy the island fraudulently received $7.8 million in emergency pandemic aid by submitting over 30 deceitful applications. He was eventually busted, convicted for his crimes, and sentenced to over five and a half years in federal prison, and agreed to return the $7.8 million in aid he received.  

Please follow the link above to read the rest of the list.

I agree with Warren Buffett’s solution to balancing the budget. He has suggested that he could end the deficit by passing “a law that says anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. I could vote for that!

The Impact Of A Government Shutdown

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A government shutdown was avoided. A deal was reached at the last possible moment because no one wanted to be blamed for a shutdown. The brinkmanship got something down. Time will tell how good that something was.

On Friday, The Western Journal posted an article about government shutdowns and their impact.

The article reports:

One can hardly contain one’s astonishment. In fact, my own “shocked” expression might remain forever frozen.

Ready for this? The establishment media colludes with Democrats, and the federal government swindles Americans. Who knew?

Thursday on social media platform X, with the prospect of a government shutdown looming, independent investigative journalist and former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson shared what she called a “[q]uick story about govt. shutdowns and the theatrics behind them.”

Attkisson recalled that around 2013, she and CBS News colleagues searched in vain for a government shutdown’s “real life impact.”

“When we couldn’t find any, *that* should have been part of the story. Instead, we kept trying to create the appearance of an impact,” she wrote.

…“Anyway, the Ds were blaming Rs for the shutdown, so we were calling Ds and the Obama administration for ideas to report what was the real impact. Taking our cue, these officials fabricated impact that we could report,” she wrote.

The fabrication came in the form of cordoning off public monuments in Washington, D.C.

“We knew and even discussed in the newsroom that this made no sense. These monuments weren’t ‘manned’ to begin with,” she wrote.

Attkisson characterized this incident as simply the most memorable among multiple acts of shutdown-related theater and deceit.

The article notes:

First, the establishment media will stoop to any degree of dishonesty, provided it helps Democrats.

CBS’s own “60 Minutes,” for instance, got caught doctoring an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris in October during her failed presidential campaign.

Second, Democrats and their allies in the Republican establishment desperately want Americans to regard the federal government as essential. After all, the federal government functions as the mechanism by which the establishment plunders American citizens.

According to U.S. News & World Report, suburbs of Washington, D.C. accounted for five of the 10 wealthiest counties in America by median household income in 2023. Only a massive transfer of wealth to the nation’s capital can produce a statistic like that.

Hopefully, the times are changing.

About That Farm Bill

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the ‘Farm Bill.’ Evidently the Farm Bill is not about farms–it’s about food stamps.

The article reports:

The bulk of the Farm Bill is funding for food stamps, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said Thursday during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.

Sen. Johnson walked through some of the issues with the original 1,537-page continuing resolution (CR) negotiated by Speaker Johnson, which is full of pork. One of the stumbling blocks for some is the inclusion of the Farm Bill in the spending deal, but the senator said it is not what it seems.

“It’s a food stamp bill,” Johnson revealed. “80 percent of the Farm Bill is funding for food stamps, and Obama dramatically increased eligibility.”

The article notes:

“It used to be in prosperous times, maybe 6 percent of the population was on food stamps. Then [the] recessions, go up to 12 [percent] 13 [percent], pretty well stuck at that higher limit nowadays, because we pay people not to work,” Johnson said.

“Let’s be honest, we pay people not to work,” he said, noting that the U.S. welfare program is very generous.

“People don’t pay taxes on them [welfare benefits]. We have a huge transfer of wealth from working Americans to people who don’t work. And we’re a compassionate society. We want to help people who can’t help themselves. We want to help people help themselves, but we created a far too large dependent class. That’s got to end,” he said. “We need to get people off the couch. They’ve got to enter the workforce and grow our economy.”

Let’s put work requirements back in order to receive any kind of public assistance. We can exclude the elderly and those with young children, but let’s put people back to work.

One Partial Solution To The Chinese Banning Shipments Of Critical Minerals

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On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about China’s halting shipments of critical minerals to America.

The article reports:

The Chinese government in recent weeks expanded its ban on exports of a handful of minerals found in critical military and energy technologies in America. The move puts a spotlight on America’s domestic mineral supplies, many of which are locked in years-long federal permitting and regulatory reviews.

This emphasizes the need for America to be self-sufficient in many areas–energy, pharmaceuticals, and minerals. We are not self-sufficient due to years of over-regulation.

The article notes:

“We must confront Chinese mineral extortion and recognize that U.S. mining policy is the foundation of our nation’s economic, energy, and national security,” Nolan continued. “We can and should be producing gallium, geranium, and antimony right here at home. Our challenge is not geology—the U.S possesses vast mineral resources—but the lack of comprehensive, urgent policy to turn those resources into the secure supply chains we so desperately need.”

Antimony, like the other minerals targeted by China, has significant defense and energy applications—it is a key component of munitions, night-vision goggles, and military uniforms and is required for both utility-scale and electric vehicle batteries.

The United States, though, imports 100 percent of its antimony supplies, 63 percent of which comes from China. China supplies the international market with about half of its antimony.

According to Perpetua, the Stibnite mine—which contains roughly 67,000 metric tons of antimony—could account for 35 percent of the nation’s antimony demand in its first six years of production and fulfill long-term defense needs.

“China is putting an exclamation point on its control over our essential needs by weaponizing access to defense and technology minerals,” Perpetua president and CEO Jon Cherry said in a statement. “It’s time to get serious about American mineral sources and end our reliance on China.”

Perpetua spokeswoman Marty Boughton told the Free Beacon in an interview that the company is expecting a favorable record of decision from the U.S. Forest Service before the end of the year. That would put it on track to begin production in 2028—18 years after its initial work at the site.

“Waiting 18 years isn’t a good model,” said Boughton. “We are not at all in favor of relaxing environmental standards, but there are ways to make this an efficient process. I don’t think you can really overstate the importance of strong coordination and communication between permitting agencies.”

Self-sufficiency is the answer to a lot of America’s economic woes and trade woes.

Hang On, Help Is On The Way

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On Friday, Byron York posted an article at The Washington Examiner about Kash Patel, President Trump’s choice to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The article notes that Kash Patel was once targeted by the FBI because he uncovered some of their malfeasance.

The article lists some of the political acts of the FBI during the Trump years:

1) Opened investigations on presidential candidates. …FBI investigations of both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016. The big difference between them was that the then-FBI director, James Comey, planned to exonerate Clinton before interviewing her or other key witnesses in the email case. There was no such intent to exonerate in the Trump investigation.

2) Deployed undercover agents and confidential sources to spy on a candidate’s advisers.

3) Hired a campaign opposition researcher under the guise of intelligence gathering.

4) Presented false opposition research to a court as a basis for wiretapping a candidate’s adviser.

5) Used false opposition research to brief the president of the United States.

6) Ambushed the president-elect with false opposition research.

7) Sought to include false opposition research in intelligence community products.

8) Ambushed the national security adviser with wiretap information on the pretense of a Logan Act violation.

9) Misled/stonewalled Congress on the investigation of the president.

10) Misled the president about the investigation targeting him.

The article also notes:

Many of the other examples, numbers 2 through 10, refer to the Trump-Russia investigation, in which bureau leadership unleashed the FBI on an enemy — the presidential candidate and then President Trump. Democrats cheered them on from Congress, where they hoped a Trump-Russia special counsel investigation, led by a former FBI director, would give them a case for impeaching Trump. (It didn’t, but Democrats quickly changed gears and impeached Trump for something else.)

Another thing the FBI did was stonewall the congressional leaders who had the authority and responsibility to oversee the FBI. When in the final months of the 2016 campaign and the first months of Trump’s presidency members of Congress began to realize how intensely the FBI had targeted Trump, they wanted to know what was going on. They had a right to know. But the FBI and the Justice Department told them to get lost.

One of those congressional investigators was Kash Patel, who at the time was working for then-Rep. Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Patel was looking into the provenance of the Steele dossier, which was the compilation of false and incendiary allegations that, among other things, Trump was involved in a “well-developed conspiracy” with Russia to fix the 2016 election and that Russian intelligence had hidden camera video of Trump engaged in kinky sex with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel. 

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It reminds us of the reasons that the FBI has to be cleaned up and reformed.

Losing Your Culture Due To Uncontrolled Immigration

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On Thursday, MSN reported that Britain now has sharia courts–85 Islamic councils operating across the nation. The article explains that the sharia courts are necessary because the large number of Muslims in Britain from across Europe and North America seek religious rulings on marriage and family matters.

The article notes:

An estimated 100,000 Islamic marriages have been conducted in Britain, with many not officially registered with civil authorities.

These marriages often require religious rulings for dissolution, particularly affecting women who must seek approval from sharia councils for divorce.

Many aspects of traditional sharia have been modified in most Muslim countries, but classical rulings are frequently still observed in marriage and divorce matters.

The councils have religious authority to end marriages at a wife’s request if her husband is unwilling to grant a divorce, though this process differs significantly from civil proceedings.

Men seeking Islamic divorces can end their marriages simply by saying “divorce” three times, highlighting a stark contrast in gender-based religious procedures.

The normalisation of polygamy is evident through modern technology, with an app allowing Muslim men in England and Wales to create Islamic wills.

The app features a drop-down menu enabling men to specify between one and four wives.

This same app demonstrates further gender disparities, allocating daughters half the inheritance amount given to sons.

This is a very watered-down, friendly description of sharia law.

Some of the tenets in sharia law not mentioned are (source here):

• Theft is punishable by amputation of the hands (see above and Quran 5:38).
• Criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by death.
• Criticizing Muhammad or denying that he is a prophet is punishable by death.
• Criticizing or denying Allah is punishable by death (see Allah moon god).
• A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death (see Compulsion).
• A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is punishable by death.
• A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punishable by death.
• Homosexuality is punishable by death but sodomizing boys is fine (see Islam & Sex).
• Girls’ clitoris should be cut (Muhammad’s words, Book 41, Kitab Al-Adab, Hadith 5251).
• Girls can be sodomized until and vaginally raped after 8 years of age (see Islam & Sex).
• A woman or girl who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).
• Testimonies of 4 male witnesses are required to prove rape of a female (Quran 24:13).
• A woman or girl who alleges rape without producing 4 male witnesses is guilty of adultery.
• A woman or girl found guilty of adultery is punishable by death (see “Islamophobia“).
• A male convicted of rape can have his conviction dismissed by marrying his victim.
• Muslim men have sexual rights to any woman/girl not wearing the Hijab (see Taharrush).
• A woman can have 1 husband, who can have up to 4 wives; Muhammad can have more.
• A man can beat his wife for insubordination (see Quran 4:34 and Religion of Peace).
• A man can unilaterally divorce his wife; a wife needs her husband’s consent to divorce.
• A divorced wife loses custody of all children over 6 years of age or when they exceed it.

This is not nearly as insignificant as MSN is painting it to be. This is a major cultural change that will spread as more Muslims enter Britain. What we are seeing will eventually be the end of Britain as we have known it.

Shutting It Down Isn’t Really Shutting It Down

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Right now the mainstream media and the Democrats (actually the same thing) are trying to scare Americans with the idea of a government shutdown. Somehow they fail to mention that in a government shutdown, only about 17% of the government actually shuts down. The rest remains open to provide Social Security checks, military pay, and other essential services.

On Friday, Mark Levin posted an article at The Daily Signal.

The article reports:

Hey, Republicans. The sky will not fall if there’s a government shutdown. The government was shut down six times during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Over 20 times since 1974. Yet, recent presidents have avoided it like the plague.

The nation survived, Reagan won massive landslides, and, in the end, the public didn’t give a damn despite all the media-Democratic Party hype at the time.

The bureaucrats wound up getting their money. Social Security checks and Medicare payments continued without a hitch. So did veterans’ benefits. The active military was unaffected.

…When you think of it, since the biggest entitlements are unaffected and they make up the overwhelming majority of government spending, it makes sense. And, by the way, no one, and I mean no one, will discuss reforming any of the big entitlement programs. Not even the self-anointed fiscal conservatives.

We are talking about a pittance in relative terms. Nonetheless, the Republicans need to take a stand somewhere. At least it’ll be a beginning. And they should explain to the people that the Democrats (and too many of their fellow Republicans) spend, borrow, and steal like pirates—which will bankrupt the country for their children and grandchildren; further drive up inflation, including the cost of food, clothing, and energy; destroy the value of their paychecks and pension checks; eventually collapse the government altogether—and that this drug-like spending addiction must be broken before it’s too late, which it already may be.

The Republicans shouldn’t act defensively or out of fear but boldly and proudly. They should speak up and speak to the people.

Government shutdowns (and the threat of government shutdowns) are a political strategy that needs to end. We have seen this play before.

Shut down the government if necessary, but please do not continue to spend American into oblivion.

Some Tyrannies Have A Long Grasp

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported that a man living in New York City has admitted to operating a secret police station for Beijing in Manhattan. In November 2022, I first posted an article about the Chinese police operations in New York City (article here).

The article at The Epoch Times reports:

A New York City man has admitted to acting as an illegal Chinese agent by operating a secret police station for Beijing in Manhattan.

Chen Jinping, a 60-year-old U.S. citizen, pleaded guilty on Dec. 18 in front of U.S. District Judge Nina Morrison, a development that prosecutors lauded as the latest progress in countering the Chinese regime’s transnational repression scheme.

Chen was one of two individuals the FBI arrested in April 2023 over the illegal police station, one of more than 100 identified overseas Chinese police outposts Beijing had operated globally.

He faces up to five years in prison.

The New York City site runs under the cover of a Chinese organization called the America ChangLe Association in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The association ostensibly serves as a mingling place for immigrants from China’s southeastern Fujian Province, where the namesake district, ChangLe, is based.

Chen was the secretary general of the association at the time of the arrest, while the other man arrested, Lu Jianwang, was the former president. Lu, also known as “Harry Lu,” has pleaded not guilty to the charges and is awaiting trial.
The article notes:

Beijing refuted Chen’s guilty plea.

“The so-called secret police stations do not exist,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in a press briefing on Dec. 19.

U.S. Attorney Breon Peace of the Eastern District of New York said the prosecution was part of his office’s efforts to protect vulnerable people who “come to this country to escape the repressive activities of authoritarian regimes.”

Countering the malign activities of foreign states that violate U.S. sovereignty by targeting local diaspora communities is a priority of his office, he said.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division called Chen’s effort in operating the secret outpost “brazen.”

The Department of Justice will “pursue anyone who attempts to aid the PRC’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States,” he said, using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, said Chen’s admission of guilt was “a stark reminder of the insidious efforts taken by the PRC government to threaten, harass, and intimidate those who speak against their communist party.”

These police stations don’t exist, but they take up space but they rent space in buildings around the world.

Lied To Again

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On Monday, The Daily Signal posted an article about an ABC News article about Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. secretary of education. The article at ABC stated that McMahon has no formal education training and little experience.

The article reports:

On Dec. 11, ABC News’ Jay O’Brien reported false information about Linda McMahon, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. secretary of education, on “ABC News Live Prime.” 

In the first minute of an eight-minute overview, O’Brien stated that McMahon has no formal education training and little experience:

“If she receives Senate confirmation, McMahon, who has no formal teaching training and little experience in education, will be tasked with setting policies for the nation’s schools.”

This is patently false. 

While receiving a bachelor’s degree in French at East Carolina University in the late 1960s, McMahon earned a teaching certificate after completing a teacher preparation program at the school. This information has been available publicly for years, reported in outlets like The Washington Post and USA Today, was confirmed in a Hartford newspaper in 2011, and has been listed in official statements from East Carolina University.

The article concludes:

This is not the first time ABC News has published false information about members of the Trump transition team. On Dec. 14, ABC News agreed to pay a $15 million settlement after falsely asserting on air that Trump was guilty of rape.

In addition to her teaching certification from East Carolina University, McMahon served as a member of the Connecticut Board of Education and has served as a member of the Sacred Heart University board of trustees since 2004.

ABC News did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment, nor did it confirm if its news team has standards for reporting accurate information about story subjects.

I don’t really care what her teaching credentials are–I just want to know if she can shut down a department of the government that is unconstitutional–the Department of Education.

The Illusion Of Power vs. Authentic Power

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One of the things I have observed in my lifetime is that often people who claim or cling to ‘powerful’ titles don’t actually have much power. It seems to me that the people not concerned with titles or telling people how powerful they are tend to be the people who actually accomplish things.

We remember 2008 when Barack Obama invented the title “Office of the President-Elect.” There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that creates that office, but by 2008 the press had pretty much destroyed President Bush, so there was a power vacuum that Barack Obama was able to step into. He had no actual power, but he had the title he made up.

Contrast that picture with what has happened since the 2024 presidential election. President Trump has not claimed any title other than President-elect, yet world leaders and American influencers have made their way to Mar-a-Lago. Preparations are being made for a new sheriff in town, and some people are running for cover. That was illustrated in the “CR” bill that was not a actually a CR bill. That bill, which was going to be voted on this Friday, has been pulled. The bill was pulled because of pressure exerted by President Trump, Elon Musk, and American voters. Our voices are finally being heard.

Some of the things hidden in the 1500-page bill that the swamp hoped no one would read were money for “American music tourism,” “consumer safety standards for certain types of batteries,” a pay raise for Congress, and a one-year extension of the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC). (source here)

There is also one provision in the bill to block investigations into bad behavior by Congress (source here):

Congressional leadership slipped a provision into the stopgap spending bill that would bar or stymie investigations into Congress.

Tucked within the stopgap spending bill is a provision that has enflamed controversy amongst many conservatives on and off Capitol Hill.

The provision, titled “Treatment of electronic services provided for House offices,” sounds vague but could could stop or limit investigations into Congress.

Part of the section states:

Upon a motion made promptly by a House office or provider for a House office, a court of competent jurisdiction shall quash or modify any legal process directed to the provider for a House office if compliance with the legal process would require the disclosure of House data of the House office.

INFORMATION REGARDING IMPLICATIONS OF USING PROVIDERS.—The Office of the Chief Administrative Officer, in consultation with the House Office of General Counsel, shall provide information regarding the potential constitutional implications and the potential impact on privileges that may be asserted to each House office that commissions or uses a provider of electronic communication service or remote computing service. [Emphasis added]

“A new provision in the latest CR lets Congress block subpoenas for House data, including emails, potentially preventing any investigation into the J6 Committee,” Benny Johnson, a conservative activist, wrote on X.

The swamp creatures are trying to protect themselves. I hope it doesn’t work.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

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One of the most disturbing things about the Biden administration is the use of government agencies and government money to silence political opposition by any means possible–threats, investigations, lawsuits, censorship, etc. It is simply the way they do business.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted the following headline:

Biden Admin Sent $300M to Reuters to ‘Look Into’ Musk and His Companies?

Disturbing, but not surprising.

The article includes the following screenshots:

This is going to get interesting.

Every State Is Now A Border State

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On Tuesday, Red State reported that a suspected terrorist, initially detained in Texas but then set free, has been caught in Brooklyn. Why was he set free?

The article reports:

First: This suspected terrorist was “detained” — it’s unclear as to why this word is used, but “detained” is not the same thing as “arrested” — and then he was released. Why? He was picked up for criminal trespassing and just let go? He was in the country illegally; why was he released into the country instead of being hustled forthwith back across the border?

Second: How did he get to Brooklyn? Did he meet anyone there? What do we know about who he was hanging out with and what, if anything, he planned to do?

Third: The investigation revealed he was on a terrorist watch list. Well, that’s good, and it’s good that he was caught before he got up to something bad. But why release him if this investigation was still ongoing? He should have been detained until the investigation was complete, and then he should have been given a one-way ticket back to South Africa.

Fourth and finally: How many more would-be terrorists just like this are out there that have not been caught? Where are they, and what are they doing right now?

The article concludes:

At least he’s now “pending removal,” by which we may infer “awaiting deportation,” preferably assisted on his way by a size 12 Border Patrol boot to the backside. But this is just another illustration of the Biden administration’s disastrous open-border policy; who knows what this suspected terrorist may have gotten up to, and it is only luck and some persistence on the part of the Border Patrol that finally identified him, scooped him up and dropped him into the crowbars.

January 20th can’t come soon enough.

Let’s send everyone home who is here illegally until we can sort out the good guys from the bad guys.

This Is Not A Road America Should Go Down

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On Thursday, The Catholic News Agency reported that Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID) accounted for 1 in 20 deaths in Canada last year.

The article reports:

Government statistics indicated that 15,343 people were euthanized by medical officials in Canada in 2023, out of a total of just under 20,000 requests. Those numbers represent “an increase of 15.8%” over 2022, the report says, a drop from an average annual growth rate of about 31%.

Though the growth rate declined, it is “not yet possible to make reliable conclusions about whether or not these findings represent a stabilization of growth rates over the longer term,” the report said.

“An increased awareness of MAID within the care continuum, population aging, and the associated patterns of illness or disease, personal beliefs, and societal acceptance, as well as the availability of practitioners who provide MAID, may all influence the rate of provisions,” it noted.

The “vast majority” of euthanasia incidents detailed in the most recent report, about 95%, were administered to individuals classified as “Track 1,” whose natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” due to a medical condition.

More than half of those individuals were over 75 years old, with cancer as the “most frequently reported underlying medical condition.”

The article concludes:

Concerns have been raised recently that regulators are not effectively policing the country’s euthanasia program. A bombshell report in November alleged that out of hundreds of violations of the country’s controversial euthanasia law over the course of several years, none of them had been reported to law enforcement.

Activists, meanwhile, are pushing for the government to expand the law to cover individuals with mental illnesses. The government recently considered making that expansion itself, though early this year it paused the measure to allow the country’s health care system “more time” to prepare for it.

This is concerning. I understand that people suffering look for a way out, but the devaluing of life that is euthanasia cannot be ignored. This is a slippery slope that we do not want to go down. As of 2023, ten states in America allow assisted suicide, and a number of states are looking into making it legal.

It Is Time To Shut The Government Down Until January 20th

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On December 18th, Twitchy posted an article about the Continuing Resolution Bill currently being considered in Congress. Frankly, if we don’t hold the line on spending somewhere soon, we will never hold the line. The threat of a shutdown is getting old. Why not shut the government down for a month and let President Trump sort it out when he takes office. It’s Christmas (and Hanukkah), so everyone needs a vacation.

What is happening now is that Congress is being asked to pass a 1500-page bill that no one has had a chance to read. That is no way to run a government. Had Congress done their work in recent months and put something together in time to be read and considered, a vote might be appropriate. However, a vote on something no one has had time to read is not appropriate.

The article reports:

It’s déjà vu all over again at the US Capitol. A Friday deadline looms as Congress scrambles to pass a Continuing Resolution to avoid a government shutdown. House reps are in panic mode and tempers are flaring.

You think they’d have learned by now that all this undue stress could be avoided if they had just passed a budget.

House Speaker Mike Johnson faces intense criticism from fellow Republicans as the deadline to pass the CR approaches. Johnson had promised a clean stop-gap bill to provide funding for the government until March 14th. Critics claim what is being presented is a 1500-page omnibus spending bill disguised as a CR.

Johnson has indicated that he will adhere to the ’72-Hour’ rule, in which lawmakers have 3 days to review the 1500-page bill before a 12th-hour vote on Friday.

The article notes:

Republicans in the Senate may not have enough votes to kill the bill, but Rand Paul intends to delay it should it pass the House.

Thank you, Rand Paul. Every Congressman who votes for this bill should be primaried and voted out of office.

Karma Can Be A Problem

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On December 17th, Breitbart reported that the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee report recommends that the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate former Senator Liz Cheney for witness tampering during the January 6th Committee hearings.

The article reports:

Cheney, a former member of the panel, said last week that she should not go to jail for alleged wrongdoing during her tenure on the committee. President-elect Donald Trump accused members of the partisan panel of destroying committee evidence that he said exonerated him from allegations of wrongdoing.

A report released Tuesday by House Administration Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Barry Loudermilk stated the partisan committee “neglected or withheld evidence” from its final report and “deleted voluminous records it should have preserved.”

The article concludes:

The report found, per Loudermilk’s press release:

1. Former Representative Liz Cheney colluded with “star witness” Cassidy Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge.

2. Former Representative Liz Cheney should be investigated for potential criminal witness tampering based on new information about her communication.

3. Cassidy Hutchinson’s most outrageous claims lacked any evidence, and the Select Committee had knowledge that her claims were false when they publicly promoted her.

The report also alleged “evidence of collusion” between Special Counsel Jack Smith, who prosecuted Trump, and the Democrats’ committee.

This is awkward. If Liz Cheney is guilty of the things that she is accused of, she should go to jail. However, if that happens, it looks like a political case rather than a justice case. But, if Liz Cheney is not held accountable for the things she did, what value does the law have if no one is willing to enforce it? Actually, the easiest solution to this dilemma is to have President Biden pardon her. That doesn’t really solve the problem, but it saves the country from being further divided when she is held accountable for what she did.

January 6th was a horrible event; however, it was not an insurrection–it was simply a protest that got out of hand. There are some real questions about why it got out of hand–paid agitators in the crowd, FBI undercover stirring up the crowd, antifa disguised as Trump supporters stirring up violence. There were a number of factors involved. However, now it the time to tell the truth, hold people accountable, free the January 6th political prisoners, and put the events of that day behind us.

Paving The Way For Change

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On Monday, The Daily Caller posted an article explaining how a lawsuit filed during the Biden administration will make it easy for President Trump to put his people in strategic positions.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden fought a lawsuit brought by two former government officials appointed during the first Trump administration, contesting the legality of their unceremonious firings. Biden won, paving the way for President-elect Donald Trump to wield executive power that the Democrats will end up wishing he didn’t have.

Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer and former Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought sought to block their removal from the U.S. Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors in 2021 after Biden took office.

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that the lawsuit should be dismissed, citing the U.S. Code stating that executive officials are not insulated from presidential removal.

While it’s possible that Spicer and Vought enjoyed their term on the U.S. Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors, Spicer said the lawsuit against Biden had an alternative motive. He wanted to make it easy for Trump, should he become president again, to have the authority to remove Biden’s presidential appointees, even ones who still had time left on their term

…There has been a lot of chatter by Democrats about whether Trump has the authority to fire presidential appointees. Before FBI director Christopher Wray resigned, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, claimed that Trump couldn’t replace Wray and that he must be allowed to serve his full term, which ended in 2027.

The poetic justice in the incoming Trump administration is amazing.

Whoops!

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On December 16th, The New York Post posted an article about a CNN story about a prisoner released from jail in Syria. The Syrian regime was knows for its horrific prisons and its brutal treatment of prisoners.

The article reports:

The prisoner CNN helped free from a secret facility in Syria was actually a notorious member of Bashar al-Assad’s forces known to torture those who refused to pay him off, according to a shocking local fact check.

The network went viral last week with footage of the startled prisoner being led from the prison by journalist Clarissa Ward, who called it “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed” in her 20 years of reporting.

But “independent and unbiased” fact-checkers Verify-Sy published a detailed report Sunday saying that the seemingly innocent prisoner was actually Salama Mohammad Salama — a first lieutenant in Syrian air force intelligence with a long history of alleged war crimes.

“We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity,” CNN acknowledged to The Post. “We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story.”

…Known as “Abu Hamza,” Salama worked at several security checkpoints in Homs and was involved in theft, extortion and coercing residents into becoming informants for Assad, local residents told the fact-checkers.

He also killed civilians during the Syrian civil war in 2014 — and allegedly detained and tortured young men on bogus charges, many of whom refused to pay bribes, Verify-Sy reported.

Locals claim he was locked up in the prison where he was discovered for less than a month due to a dispute with a high-ranking officer over sharing the extorted money.

This is the picture of the prisoner:

His coat doesn’t even look worn, and he appears to be well-groomed. CNN has been fooled again.

It’s About Time!

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While the Biden administration has been sending millions of dollars overseas, the residents of western North Carolina who were impacted by Hurricane Helene have been living in tents and freezing. The Asheville Citizen-Times has stated that the rumors that people were not allowed to occupy the tiny  homes built by the Amish are unsubstantiated.

On December 16th, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported:

As temporary housing units from the Federal Emergency Management Agency remain slow to arrive in Western North Carolina following Tropical Storm Helene, a Dec. 10 emergency rule adopted by the North Carolina Building Code Council hopes to offset those delays by expediting the construction process for people, nonprofits and other recovery organizations helping to provide shelter.

Developed by the N.C. Office of State Fire Marshal, the new rule establishes minimum construction requirements for temporary housing, allowing property owners to forgo the permitting and inspection process. Instead, property owners will sign an affidavit acknowledging compliance with the minimum requirements, like foundation stability, releasing state and local government of liability.

“As the Winter deepens and temperatures drop – and as FEMA lags behind its prior projection for installation of temporary housing units – many North Carolinians in the counties devastated by Hurricane Helene are without safe and warm shelter,” State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor said in a Dec. 10 statement. 

The article concludes:

Over 1,500 remain in hotels after Helene as Buncombe Co. mulls FEMA housing ‘group site’

It’s cold in western North Carolina right now. We need to find shelter for everyone quickly.

Women in Combat???

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense has indicated that he is opposed to women in the military serving in combat roles. As a combat veteran himself, Pete Hedgeseth must have sound reasons for this opinion. Let’s take a look at how we find ourselves dealing with this issue in the first place.

Throughout history, war and combat have been the prerogative and responsibility of men.  As the physically stronger and more aggressive gender, this was rational and culturally mandated. Why the change? Women have been in the U.S. Military increasingly since World War II, but exclusively in non-combat roles.   In fact, until 1994, the military followed what was termed the Risk Rule, that excluded women from roles that were at high risk for injury and death. However, during Democrat Bill Clinton’s presidency, the Risk Rule was revoked and women were allowed in most roles, except direct ground combat and submarine service. Finally, during the Democrat Obama administration in 2015, all restrictions on women were removed, making them eligible for direct combat roles. Why did two Democrat presidents make these changes? Was it because women were needed in these roles due to a lack of men? Or, was it part of a social experiment prompted by the women’s equality movement? I believe it was due to the latter.

It should be noted that the overall percentage of women in the military has increased dramatically since 1970 when it was 3% to 17% in 2021. Some people will not be satisfied until the percentage of women in the military has reached the same as in overall U.S. population. This is a typical objective, as seen in most other DEI (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) goals, that disregards the effectiveness and suitability of people for the roles in question. The overriding issue must be whether our military fighting force is made stronger or weaker by having women in direct combat roles. Lawsuits have been brought to force the military to include women in combat roles without restriction. There are also some efforts being made to include women in any future Selective Service draft program. Other countries such as Israel, Germany, Australia, Canada, etc. allow women to assume most other roles in the military although direct ground combat and submarine service may still remain restricted.

How do women perform in combat roles you might ask? Undoubtedly there are some who do very well. However, recent data on attrition rates in training programs show a significant disparity:

Attrition Rates for Training Programs:

Men                                  Women

Infantry                18%                                      49%

Field Artillery        Less than 1 %                      11%

Armor                  17%                                       72%

One should also consider the psychological and social aspect of mixing the genders in combat situations. While never in direct combat myself, I completed basic and advanced infantry training and can assure you that the presence of women would have had a dramatically complicating impact on the behavior of the soldiers. The bottom line is that the decision to include women in direct combat roles should be based on a thorough understanding of the impact on military preparedness and effectiveness and not on some social equality or DEI objective. Let’s hope the new Trump administration gets it right.

About That Longshoreman’s Strike

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On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the Longshoreman’s strike that is currently on hold. The hold will end, and the strike may resume on January 15th. One of the reasons the strike has not been settled is the debate over the automation of American ports. Oddly enough, President Trump has come out against automation.

Hot Air reports:

…The Biden administration was completely hands-off until the union physically shut the ports down. Even then, their participation only went as far as the Secretary of Labor finally flying in to meet with both parties to “urge” them to work through their differences and for the USMX to give a little to the union. That’s classic Scranton Joe for you there.

Public pressure and outrage, election upheaval, not to mention a looming economic disaster all probably served to cool some heated jets enough for a bit of progress to be made in a short period of time. The USMX agreed to something on the order of a 62% wage hike over 6 years. Then everybody agreed to get the docks reopened under the terms of the old contract while they hammered out other, thornier issues, but only until 15 January 2025.

The article notes:

This contract agreement is set to end five days before the inauguration – the 15th. Trump owes much of his support for winning to disaffected union workers who bucked their bosses and union tradition to vote for him. Trump IS the ‘workers’ president,’ and he knows it. Don’t forget, he even had a good meeting with curmudgeonly ILA head Harold Daggett before the election. He knows what their issues are, and he’s also an international businessman. Trump’s dealt with shipping companies, etc.

Trump also knows all about these guys – this is the foreign face of the USMX, the “alliance” that controls the ports. 

The article points out that the jobs that would be automated would not help with the bottlenecks that occur at our ports.

The bottleneck is caused by the rail capacity going in and out of the ports.

The article concludes:

So it makes you wonder if the foreign operators of these ports are simply looking to dump the dozen or so biggest salaries under the guise of efficiency when, in reality, nothing is going out of the gate any faster than it already is. It physically can’t.

One more angle Bingley thought of, and I thought it was brilliant.

The optics of a strike or a lockout.

These longshoremen want to work. Ostensibly, they are fighting not to be out of work.

If the ports shut down and Trump invokes Taft-Hartley, as Bingley said to me, 1) sending the National Guard in to force people to work (an ILA strike) versus 2) sending them in to unlock the gates to ALLOW people to work (a USMX lockout)?

The first is greedy union and zero sympathy.

In the second scenario, Trump becomes the America First president, acting on his promise of protecting American workers against powerful foreign interests. The same ones who, for too long, have taken advantage of liberal business policies and conditions here, destroying American jobs.

It’s BOX OFFICE GOLD.

So that’s our wild-eyed take on it. We could be way wrong, but then again…

I mean, crazier things have happened. 

Like…Trump’s gonna be president again, isn’t he?

Stay tuned.