Tag Archives: Breitbart

A New Definition of Chutzpah

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As America continues to pour money into Ukraine, it seems as if very little questions are being asked as to what we are supporting. The government we are supporting is looking less and less like a republic or a democracy.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that taxpayers in the United States and European Union send the country even more aid if the West wishes for elections to be held next year.

In an interview published by the president’s office on Sunday evening, Zelensky said that he would be willing to hold elections despite the ongoing martial law amid the war with Russia, so long as the U.S. and EU bankroll the voting process.

The Ukrainian leader said that elections during peacetime typically cost around 5 billion hryvnia ($135 million) but did not speculate as to how much more they would cost during a war, though presumably it would be much higher.

The article also notes:

Currently, elections are prohibited while the country is under martial law, the renewal of which takes place every 90 days. The next expiration date of martial law is set for November 15th, meaning that it is unlikely that parliamentary elections will be held during their typically scheduled October.

Under normal circumstances, the next presidential election would normally be held in March of next year. In addition to the uncertainty around the vote itself, it also remains to be seen if President Zelensky will lift the ban of several opposition parties he imposed last year under the pretence of them being pro-Russian.

In Sunday’s interview, Zelensky went on to describe some of the logistical challenges of holding elections, noting that millions of Ukrainians are currently living abroad, principally in the European Union, and therefore he said EU countries would need to set up polling stations for the refugees.

I suspect he will get the money. I also suspect that he has enough negative information on every western leader to make sure that he gets the money. This sounds like blackmail to me.

The ‘Elephant’ In The Room

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On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article about the question that was not asked during the Republican debate on Wednesday night.

The article reports:

The first Republican presidential primary debate hosted by Fox News on Wednesday featured no questions on election integrity, despite polls showing the issue is important to conservatives.

“Not one question about election Integrity tonight,” former Arizona governor candidate Kari Lake posted on X. “If we can’t talk about our broken elections, how are we ever going to be able to fix them?”

Could that possibly be that no one wants to fix them?

The article notes:

A recent poll conducted by the Honest Elections Project (HEP) from July 13-16 showed that the vast majority of U.S. voters support election integrity initiatives such as voter ID requirements and limiting mail-in voting, according to a report last month by the Federalist.

The poll found some 88 percent back voter-ID rules — including black (82 percent) and Hispanic voters (83 percent), according to the report. It also found three-fourths of voters think in-person voting is better than mailed-in ballots, and “overwhelming opposition” to noncitizens and minors voting in U.S. elections.

The article concludes:

Former U.S. Senate candidate for Pennsylvania Sean Parnell posted on X, “For the most part, this debate was not in anyway representative of where the base of the Republican Party is. Most of these candidates miss the moment. It’s not difficult to see why Trump is by far & away the front runner.”

None of the candidates on the state last night have any idea what Americans are thinking. This is illustrated by where their campaign money comes from. It is interesting that (according to The Daily Caller on August 3rd):

Over 80% of Trump’s campaign fundraising has been financed by small donors, contributing less than $200, which political experts say underscores his large advantage over DeSantis, who is reliant on wealthy donors.

According to The Tampa Bay Times on August 22nd:

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy

Campaign’s cash on hand: $9 million

Cash on hand at super PAC supporting the candidate: $225,000

Portion of individual contributions that came from small-dollar donors: 52%

Notable facts: Ramaswamy personally loaned his campaign more than $15 million, providing by far the largest chunk of his campaign’s cash. His small-dollar donor percentage is high in part because the total sum of donations from individuals is only about $3 million. Still, the roughly $1.6 million his campaign has received from those small-dollar donors is comparable or higher than some other, more established political veterans.

Who is backing the majority of the Republican candidates? That is something that voters need to investigate before they vote?

Thank God For Whistleblowers

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about the case against Hunter Biden.

The article reports:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) planned to let Hunter Biden off the hook without charges until two whistleblowers came forward to expose political interference in the investigation, despite the claims of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The New York Times exposed the inside dealings of Hunter Biden’s attorneys with senior officials at DOJ, who had constrained U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss even as Garland was testifying to Congress that Weiss had full authority to act in the case.

The New York Times reported:

Earlier this year, The Times found, Mr. Weiss appeared willing to forgo any prosecution of Mr. Biden at all, and his office came close to agreeing to end the investigation without requiring a guilty plea on any charges. But the correspondence reveals that his position, relayed through his staff, changed in the spring, around the time a pair of I.R.S. officials on the case accused the Justice Department of hamstringing the investigation. Mr. Weiss suddenly demanded that Mr. Biden plead guilty to committing tax offenses.

…As the testimony from the I.R.S. agents took hold, Mr. Biden’s legal team felt the ground shift beneath them. The U.S. attorney’s office suddenly went quiet.

The article concludes:

The whistleblowers, IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary A. Shapley Jr. and IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, told the House of Representatives that prosecutors would not let them pursue Hunter Biden’s tax crimes, and had sometimes tipped off the president’s son about impending searches or interviews.

The result was a “sweetheart” plea deal that would have prevented Hunter Biden from being investigated further — until federal judge Maryellen Noreika, a Donald Trump appointee, balked.

Earlier this month, Garland named Weiss a Special Counsel in the case, raising suspicions that his real purpose was to continue the cover-up. Charges were withdrawn from Noreika — ostensibly to be pursued elsewhere, but possibly to avoid her jurisdiction.

Does anyone really believe that Hunter Biden is being treated the same way any American would be who committed the crimes he is accused of?

Does This Mean They Need To Indict Trump Somewhere Else?

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At this point it’s a pretty safe bet that anytime something damaging to the Biden family comes out, President Trump gets indicted somewhere. Well, another smoking gun has surfaced, so I am waiting for another indictment.

On August 17, Breitbart reported:

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) demanded Thursday that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) hand over all documents and communications in which then-Vice President Joe Biden used pseudonyms such as “Robert Peters,” “Robin Ware,” and “JRB Ware.”

Comer listed the pseudonyms in a letter to NARA in which he demanded access to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s documents and communications regarding official duties that overlapped with his son’s activities in Ukraine.

One email, which Comer says the committee has already seen, includes an attachment with the vice president’s schedule, indicating that he had spoken by phone to then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The email was sent to a “Robert L. Peters” and cc’ed to the vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.

Joe Biden was the designated foreign policy point person to Ukraine during the Obama administration. The House Oversight Committee argues that Joe Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid to Ukraine in 2015 until the president of Ukraine fired prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who had jurisdiction for an investigation into the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.

This is a portion of the letter sent to the National Archives and Records Administration:

The Committee seeks unrestricted special access under the PRA to Case Number 2023- 0022-F, entitled “Email Messages To and/or From Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden related to Burisma and Ukraine,” which has been published on NARA’s website. These records have been redacted for public release pursuant to the PRA and FOIA. For example, an email bearing the subject “Friday Schedule Card,” is withheld in part under a “P6” and “b(6)” restrictions, denoting personal information regarding the subject under the PRA and FOIA respectively.

Attached to this email, and made available on the NARA website, is a document that indicates at 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 2016, Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. It is concerning to the Committee, however, that this document was sent to “Robert L. Peters”—a pseudonym the Committee has identified as then Vice President Biden. Additionally, the Committee questions why the then-Vice President’s son, Hunter Biden—and only Hunter Biden—was copied on this email to then-Vice President Biden.

Expect another Trump indictment–this is the equivalent of a secret server!

Misplaced Priorities?

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As Americans cut back on their lifestyles due to continuing inflation (caused by reckless government spending), the Biden administration wants to spend more money.

On Sunday, Breitbart reported the following:

President Joe Biden’s deputies are asking the House GOP majority to fund new travel and housing programs for more economic migrants who are being encouraged to take opportunities needed by ordinary Americans.

The August 10 request for $3.3 billion funding “is not all designed to promote more illegal immigration, but most of it seems to be,” said Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, adding:

Which is why there’s resistance among a lot of Republicans to increased funding for [the department of] Homeland Security (DHS). If DHS was using the money to actually stop the flow of illegal aliens, Republicans will be falling all over themselves to vote for it. But that’s not what this administration wants to with the do extra money for DHS — they want to use it to speed up the arrival of people who have no right to be here.

The “border guard is turned into a Walmart greeter,” he said.

The article concludes:

The request also asks for $1.5 billion to help speed up the flow of migrants through U.S. borders:

Of the amounts provided, $203 million would support border management operations by CBP, including for soft-sided facilities, migrant transportation, and medical care requirements. This request also includes $606 million for CBP to reimburse the Department of Defense for border security support along the Southwest border … This request would provide $759 million to the Operations and Support account within the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau in the Department of Homeland Security. Of this amount, $714 million would be used to respond to migration surges along the Southwest border and related activities.

The document also asks for $800 million to counter the flow of drugs that are being delivered by the cartels.

If the Republicans ever want to gain majorities in Congress, they should veto this additional spending. Notice that the illegal aliens are now being referred to as ‘economic migrants.’ At the rate things are happening, these migrants are going to have to go somewhere else to find prosperity. The Biden administration is killing prosperity in America.

The Potential Consequences Of An Open Border

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the people that has been released into the United States as a result of President Biden’s immigration policies.

The article reports:

An illegal alien, now wanted for allegedly funding terrorism, is among an estimated 1.4 million border crossers and illegal aliens who have been released into the United States through President Joe Biden’s parole pipeline.

In April 2021, the Venezuelan illegal alien crossed the United States–Mexico border near San Luis, Arizona. He was briefly detained by Border Patrol agents, deemed inadmissible, and given a Notice to Appear (NTA) in federal immigration court.

…Only a few months later, in August 2021, a criminal court in Valencia, Venezuela, issued an arrest warrant for the illegal alien for charges related to fraud, money laundering, association with organized crime, and funding terrorism.

The article concludes:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested the illegal alien on August 8 and he will remain in federal custody pending deportation proceedings.

The illegal alien is among an estimated 1.4 million border crossers and illegal aliens, according to the Center for Immigration Studies, who have been released into American communities specifically through Biden’s parole pipeline. This is a foreign population the size of the population of Hawaii.

Hundreds of thousands of others, as well as known got-aways, have entered the United States interior since Biden took office.

In February 2023, NBC News reported:

Nearly 600,000 migrants who crossed the U.S. border since March 2021 have been released into the U.S. without being charged or given a date to appear in court, according to data obtained by NBC News, and thousands have even been dropped from the program that was supposed to track them.

When immigrants are given a notice to appear in court, how long do they have to wait for their court date and what is the likelihood that they will show up? Our entire immigration system is a mess. We need to make it easy for people to come here legally if they are willing to work and more difficult for people who want to take advantage of our social safety net. People who immigrate to America should be denied any government assistance for the first five years or so that they are here. That would make it clear that coming to America means becoming part of the workforce and assimilating into the culture.

Tampering With Evidence?

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The ongoing indictments of President Trump are getting a bit ridiculous. I am waiting to see if the government gets a search warrant to go to Mar-a-Lago to see if he has torn the tags off of his mattress. All the current indictments are doing is illustrating (for anyone who is actually paying attention) the two-tiered justice system. Now there are some questions about evidence tampering in the January 6th case against President Trump.

On Friday, Breitbart posted an article quoting Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz on some aspects of the latest indictment.

The article reports:

Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz says that under his own “fraud” standard, Special Counsel Jack Smith could be indicted for omitting a key portion of then-President Donald Trump’s speech in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021.

The indictment charges Trump with four counts, including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” But in a portion recounting Trump’s speech at the “Stop the Steal” rally, Smith repeats the errors made by House Democrats in Trump’s second impeachment trial: he focuses on Trump’s use of the phrase “fight like hell,” and omits a sentence highlighted by Trump’s defense team: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

Dershowitz told the Megyn Kelly Show podcast on Friday that by his own standard, Smith could be charged with fraud, because of his omission of Trump’s “peaceful” rhetoric.

“Under the indictment itself, Jack Smith could be himself indicted. He told a direct lie in this indictment. He purported to describe the speech that President Trump made on January 6th. And he left out the key words, when President Trump said, ‘I want you to demonstrate peacefully and patriotically. You know, a lie by omission, under the law, can be as serious as a lie by commission.”

The fact that Smith repeated the error of the House impeachment managers would appear deliberate, because these phrases were the crux of Trump’s Senate trial. Trump’s lawyers even played footage of Democrats using similar “fight” rhetoric, to show its common usage.

Remember–only the political left is allowed to use the word “fight.”

Sometimes You Just Have To Wonder

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On Friday, Breitbart reported the following:

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

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

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

What Were The Goods Or Services Provided?

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On Thursday, Breitbart reported the following:

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

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

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

The article concludes:

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

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

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

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

Didn’t You Always Want To Run A Bed And Breakfast?

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On Monday, Breitbart reported that Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey is now asking residents with spare bedrooms or apartments to take border crossers and illegal aliens into their homes.

The article reports:

Gov. Maura Healey (D) is calling on residents with empty bedrooms in their homes and apartments to consider taking in border crossers and illegal aliens, WBUR reports:

Massachusetts officials are seeking residents willing to host newly arrived families in need of shelter. Hosts are asked to provide a room or apartment for a few days, until longer-term accommodations can be arranged. [Emphasis added]

A significant portion of the families in need of housing in the state are new immigrants. Many of those arriving in Boston have fled violence in Haiti and traveled through other states before coming to Massachusetts. [Emphasis added]

The article continues:

As Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr noted, Healey has not sent border crossers and illegal aliens to nearly any of the “millionaire destinations” in Massachusetts — like Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Cambridge, or Newburyport.

“The Healey administration has released a list of the 28 cities and towns where it is spending millions on hotels and motels for thousands of handout-demanding illegals arriving from the Third World,” Carr writes. “Oddly, however, almost all the ultra-affluent suburban communities most loudly committed to celebrating diversity have thus far been unable to provide suitable free housing for the new non-working classes.”

Today, about 316,000 illegal aliens reside in Massachusetts.

There are many reasons I left Massachusetts…

The Need For Vetting Immigrants

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported the following:

An illegal alien, now accused of drugging and then raping multiple unconscious boys, had an arrest record that dates back nearly 20 years in Tennessee.

As Breitbart News reported, 63-year-old soccer coach Camilo Hurtado Campos of Mexico was arrested and charged in Franklin County last week for allegedly drugging and sexually abusing multiple young boys from 9 to 17 years old.

According to police, Campos had a decades-long arrest record and has been living illegally in neighboring Williamson County for 20 years. In 2005, Campos was arrested for public intoxication. Then, in 2006, 2015, and 2016, Campos was arrested for driving without a license.

It remains unclear why Campos was never turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for deportation following his prior arrests.

Likewise, in 2014, Campos was able to register as a soccer referee with the U.S. Soccer Federation which would have required a background check. It is unclear how Campos passed such a review without a valid state-issued ID.

Campos was arrested because he left his phone at a pizza place. The employees went through the phone in an attempt to find the owner and instead found photos of sexual child abuse. As much as I am glad that this man has been arrested, it would be interesting to know how they managed to get far enough into his phone to find the pictures.

This story illustrates the need for employers to check the immigration status of the people they employ. There needs to be a penalty for employers who employ people who are here illegally that is large enough to make it not worthwhile. The advantage of hiring illegal workers is that if you pay them under the table, you do not have to pay the employer part of social security taxes, you do not have to deal with the paperwork involved in tax deductions, and generally illegal immigrants will work for a lower salary than American workers.

It’s time to close the southern border and to hold employers accountable for their actions in hiring people who are in America illegally.

Merit-based Promotions?

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On Tuesday, Breitbart posted an article about the Republican-controlled House’s version of 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill has a number of provisions that the Biden administration opposes.

The article reports:

“The Administration strongly opposes the House’s sweeping attempts…to eliminate the Department’s longstanding [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access] efforts and related initiatives to promote a cohesive and inclusive force,” the Biden administration said in a Statement of Administration Policy.

It seems to me that promotions based on merit promote a more cohesive and inclusive force. If people understand that they will be rewarded for their hard work, they are inclined to work harder. If someone knows that they will not get a promotion because they are the wrong color or the wrong sexual orientation, their attitude will reflect that knowledge.

The article continues:

The Biden administration specifically said it opposed Section 364, which would prohibit the defense secretary from appointing or employing a military or civilian employee whose duties include diversity, equity, and inclusion with a rank or grade above O-2 (military) or GS-10 (civilian).

It also said it opposed Section 523, which required the Department of Defense to issue policy that all military accessions, assignments, selections, or promotions must adhere to merit-based principles and that quotas are prohibited.

Those particular provisions were authored by Navy veteran and Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN), who told Breitbart News in a statement:

It’s incredibly dangerous that the Biden administration is opposed to merit based promotions. When our service members are in life or death situations, we need the best leaders, period.

The Biden administration also said in its statement that it opposed two other of Banks’ provisions, Sections 525 and 526.

Section 525 would prohibit punishment of service members based solely on refusal to receive COVID-19 vaccines and authorizes the reinstatement of individuals discharged for vaccine refusal.

Section 526 directs the military services’ Boards of Correction to prioritize requests to review the narrative reasons of discharge and re-entry codes of veterans for service members discharged for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

Please follow the link and read the rest of the article. Actually, I think the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act sounds pretty good.

Unemployment And The Workforce Participation Rate

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According to USA Today, the unemployment rate for June 2023 was 3.6 percent, down from 3.7 percent in May. However, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the workforce participation rate remained unchanged at 62.6. The percentage of Americans in the workforce or looking for jobs has not changed since March. That is not an indication of a growing economy.

USA Today reports:

Hiring slowed but remained sturdy in June as U.S. employers added 209,000 jobs despite inflation, high interest rates and nagging recession fears.  

Still, that’s the weakest showing since employers shed jobs in December 2020.

The unemployment rate fell from 3.7% to 3.6%, the Labor Department said Friday. 

Economists had estimated that 225,000 jobs were added last month.

Payroll gains for April and May were revised down by a total of 110,000, depicting somewhat weaker hiring in the spring than believed. The May rise in jobs was downgraded to 306,000 from 339,000.

On Saturday, Breitbart reported:

During an interview on Bloomberg on Friday, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chair Jared Bernstein stated that the increase in the black unemployment rate “was statistically insignificant in June,” but the increase in black unemployment in May was statistically significant.

Co-host Romaine Bostic asked, “Well, what about some demographics? Our International Economics Correspondent Michael McKee pointed this out to me, that, when you look at unemployment rates in terms of demographics here, it went down for white men, it went down for white women, but it went up for blacks, it went up for Hispanics, and it went up for those who only have a high school education or less.”

How many minorities who have a high school education or less are being replaced in the labor force by the illegal aliens coming across our southern border? How many companies are hiring illegal aliens and paying them under the table at a much lower rate than Americans would accept? It is possible that this is part of the reason the minorities and people with a high school education or less are having trouble finding work?

When CNN Gets It Right

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about the overlooked item in the discussion about forcing the government to forgive outstanding college loans.

The article reports:

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans discussed President Joe Biden’s student loan plan that was struck down by the Supreme Court and noted that the plan was really “taxpayers paying off all this student debt, but not addressing the core problem.”

Romans said, “This would have been significant relief, when you think of 44 million Americans with this student loan debt. And the typical student loan forgiveness was going to be $10,000, about half of borrowers have 20,000 or less. So, that would have been a real big relief for so many people. But, from the very beginning, there was also the discussion that it didn’t do anything to address the root cause here, which is inflation in the cost of higher education, right? So, this would have been paying off a bunch of student debt, taxpayers paying off all this student debt, but not addressing the core problem. So, that’s someplace where the White House and higher education can really try to fix the core — the root of that problem.”

In September 2022, U.S. News posted the following graph:

Just as a point of reference, this is the inflation chart from the U.S. Inflation Calculator site:

Shouldn’t we be looking into the inflationary cost of college instead of enabling that inflation by offering to pay off student loans? I realize that our money is worth less than it was in 2003–but not two and a half times less. It’s time to put strings on student loans. Colleges need to be encouraged to act with more fiscal responsibility. Colleges also need to use some of their legacy money to lower the cost of tuition for students.

 

The Different Reactions Tell Us All We Need To Know

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The Supreme Court today announced a decision that struck down the consideration of race in college admissions. The contrast between President Trump’s reaction and President Biden’s reaction is stark.

On Thursday, Breitbart reported:

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday applauded the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the consideration of race in college admissions.

Trump issued a statement making clear his delight. He said:

This is a great day for America. People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded. This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing. It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world.

Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!

As Breitbart News reported, racial preferences in college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the Supreme Court decided in a historic decision with profound implications for racial preferences in many areas of law and public policy.

On Thursday, Breitbart posted another article highlighting President Biden’s reaction to the ruling.

The second article reports:

President Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision striking down racial preferences in college admissions on Thursday, declaring in the White House: “This is not a normal court.”

Biden scheduled a press event to react to the decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in which a group representing Asian-American students sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their affirmative action programs. The court struck down racial preferences in college admissions that could not meet the “strict scrutiny” standards of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

Biden slammed the decision, saying that it interfered with colleges’ discretion over how best to achieve diversity within their student bodies — presuming that “diversity,” not excellence, is the purpose of college admissions.

He proposed an alternative standard for admission, an “adversity” standard that would examine an applicant’s socioeconomic circumstances and the difficulties they had to overcome to qualify for college. All applicants, he said, that met the academic standards for admission should then be measured by the “adversity” they had experienced. He did not explain how “adversity” might be an unconstitutional proxy for racial criteria.

This is such gobbledygook. There are children throughout America that are not getting the education they need–mostly in our public schools, which have placed more emphasis on diversity than achievement. The success of the Asian community in America is a result of their work ethic. If other ethnic groups would acquire that work ethic, they would be accepted at elite schools at the same rate as the Asian students. It’s not about race–it’s about the effort put forth. As one example, Ben Carson was not someone whose circumstances were ideal for success, but the love of reading instilled in him by his mother made all the difference. It’s not the race–it’s the culture.

Now They Are Coming For Our Pizza!

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection has created new rules regarding pizzerias that use coal or wood-burning ovens. Shouldn’t the people making these regulations be accountable to the citizens of New York? Aren’t laws supposed to be made by legislators who are elected?

The article reports:

“All New Yorkers deserve to breathe healthy air and wood and coal-fired stoves are among the largest contributors of harmful pollutants in neighborhoods with poor air quality,” Timbers said in a statement. “This common-sense rule, developed with restaurant and environmental justice groups, requires a professional review of whether installing emission controls is feasible.”

According to the New York Post, the new rule will likely require pizzerias with pre-2016 ovens to pay upwards of $20,000 to install air filtration systems, which will include continued maintenance costs:

Under the mandate, restaurants with coal-and-wood-fired ovens must hire an engineer or architect to assess the feasibility of installing emission controls devices to achieve a 75% reduction in particulate emissions.

If this report concludes that a reduction of 75% or more cannot be achieved, or that no emissions controls can be installed, it must identify any emission controls that could provide a reduction of at least 25% or an explanation for why no emission controls can be installed.

The restaurant will be allowed to apply for a variance or waiver, but must provide evidence to prove a hardship.

Are New Yorkers now going to be told that they cannot use their fireplaces?

Whoops! I Guess We Forgot About That!

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On Monday, Breitbart reported the following:

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate admitted during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that the FBI redacted any mention of audio recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden in a document shown last week to Republican lawmakers in which an FBI informant alleged the Bidens were involved in a bribery scheme around 2015 and 2016.

Under grilling from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Abbate confirmed: “What I will tell you with respect to the document, the document was redacted to protect the source.”

If you believe that the only motive was to protect the source, I have some oceanfront property I want to see you in Arizona.

The article notes:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday revealed that the document, which was a transcript of an FBI interview with an informant, contained references to 17 alleged audio recordings — 15 with Hunter Biden and two with then-Vice President Joe Biden. However, Grassley said, when the document was made available to the House Oversight Committee last week under pressure from Republicans, the references to the audio recordings had been deleted.

…Abbate had at first tried to skirt the question, with Blackburn asking him several times to explain why the information was redacted.

After he finally responded, she told him.

I think it would be helpful when you came before us, if you were willing to answer the questions, it would help to remove the perception that the American people have — they see you do it everyday — and that is politicizing the FBI and using it against the American people who don’t happen to be named Biden, Clinton, or one of the elites.

Abbate also denied that the FBI was politicized, which Blackburn disagreed with.

“There are two very clear standards of justice in this country. We see it every single day. The American people see this every single day. They look at you and see a politicized entity that is weaponizing an agency of the federal government against the American people,” she told him.

Does anyone still trust the FBI?

What Are We Supposed To Eat?

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On Monday, Breitbart reported that the Dutch government has begun buying out farmers in the name of climate change.

The article reports:

The Dutch government launched its long-anticipated Great Reset-style farmer buyout scheme on Monday, which could potentially see upwards of ten thousand farms shut down forever to fall in line with the green agenda of the European Union.

Following years of political wrangling, the government of The Netherlands has launched its programme for buying out farms that do not comply with the EU’s Natura 2000 scheme supposedly meant to protect environmentally sensitive areas. The buyout programme will initially impact approximately 3,000 privately-owned farms which are deemed to emit too much nitrogen.

…The farmers’ group Agractie expressed concern over the launch, saying that while a website has been opened to allow farmers to see if they are eligible for a buyout, the other options, such as reducing emissions, are not currently explained, meaning that farmers cannot accurately judge which direction to take.

The move to shut down potentially thousands of farms in The Netherlands, despite the ongoing food crisis, could have a significant impact further afield given the country’s status as Europe’s largest exporter of meat and one of the largest dairy exporters in the world.

Some of the farmers are refusing to comply:

There has been widespread rejection of the government’s green agenda, however, with farmers launching large-scale tractor protests across the country over the past two years, which have shut down highways and critical infrastructure.

The resentment against the globalist government also saw the populist Farmer–Citizen Movement (BBB) sweep to victory in the Senate and local elections earlier this year, becoming the largest party in the country after previously holding zero seats. Yet, the neo-liberal coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte was able to cobble together enough support to remain in power for the time being.

The impact of this will probably not be felt for a few months, but when it hits, there will be food shortages. Be aware that this is also happening in other countries.

 

A Possible Resolution To The Debt Ceiling Crisis

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On Sunday, Breitbart reported that Congress has released the details of the debt deal agreement that should avoid a government shutdown. As was to be expected, there are some good things and some bad things. There is also some griping from people who don’t want any compromise. Although I can identify with those people, I think the deal we got was the best we were going to get. The only thing that really will prevent a government shutdown by the Biden administration is the polls that are showing that the Biden administration would be blamed for that shutdown. The Democrats control two branches of government, so it makes it hard to blame the Republicans for much.

The article reports:

Congress released a bill package Sunday to increase the nation’s debt limit in exchange for a number of Republicans’ desired spending cuts and other concessions.

House lawmakers will have three days to review the 99-page bill, called the Fiscal Responsibility Act, before they are set to vote for it as soon as Wednesday. The bill can be viewed here.

House GOP leadership said in a statement that the legislation, which raises the debt ceiling through January 2025, included a “historic series of wins.”

“The Fiscal Responsibility Act does what is responsible for our children, what is possible in divided government, and what is required by our principles and promises,” the leaders said. “Only because of Republicans’ resolve did we achieve this transformative change to how Washington operates.”

The bill rescinds funds that have been allocated toward COVID, mandates student loan payments to resume in August, rescinds a portion of unused funding allocated toward the IRS, expands work requirements for certain welfare recipients, and tightens permitting processes under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The bill also caps discretionary spending for the next two years and includes a provision pushed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to force Congress into funding the government through 12 appropriations bills rather than one omnibus bill.

The good things I see are the resumption of student loan payments, rescinding COVID funds, and funding the government through appropriations bills rather than one omnibus bill. If those three things remain in the final bill, then we have made some progress.

UPDATE: The bill passed the House last night. It’s not a great bill, but it’s not an awful bill. It is probably the best we can do right now.

 

Passing The Buck

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On Wednesday, Breitbart posted an article about the claim by IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel that the Department of Justice made the decision to purge an IRS whistleblower from the DOJ’s probe into Hunter Biden. I doubt we will ever know the truth about what actually happened in this instance, but it makes for an interesting story.

The article reports:

IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel told Congress the Justice Department (DOJ) made the decision to purge an IRS whistleblower from the DOJ’s probe into Hunter Biden, according to a letter sent to House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO).

Werfel’s letter on May 17 responded to Smith’s May 16 inquiry about concerns that a high-ranking IRS agent faced retaliation for raising red flags about alleged political interference in the tax probe of Hunter Biden.

Werfel said the decision to remove a whistleblower from the tax investigation was at the DOJ’s direction, confirming what a second IRS whistleblower alleged Monday.

The article concludes:

The new whistleblower claimed leadership excluded his team from the case after it learned of “longstanding concerns” about the handling of the probe. The concerns allegedly angered a redacted “U.S. Attorney for the District…”

David Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, a Trump administration appointee, is the lead prosecutor in the case.

The whistleblower also alleged the DOJ and the U.S. Attorney’s office are responsible for his team’s removal from the probe.

In March, Garland told Congress that Weiss has the autonomy to recommend changes. Yet Biden’s attorney general also admitted he has the sole authority to sign off on the charges.

Even in a case as obvious as Hunter Biden and his laptop, the people who are supposed to enforce the law are not doing their job. The current level of corruption at all levels of our government is stunning.

There Was Some Interesting Information In The Durham Report

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On Thursday, Breitbart posted an article about some things in the Durham that have slipped under the radar.

The article reports:

Special Counsel John Durham’s highly-anticipated report on the origins of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign in 2016 revealed that top leaders at the Bureau shut down four criminal investigations into Hillary and Bill Clinton.

In 2014, the FBI investigated a “well-placed” confidential source’s claims that an unnamed foreign government intended to “contribute to Hillary Clinton’s anticipated presidential campaign, as a way to gain influence with Clinton should she win the presidency,” the report said.

The field office investigating these claims “almost immediately” sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant, but it remained “in limbo” for approximately four months, primarily due to Clinton’s then-expected presidential campaign.

As stated in Durham’s report:

According to another agent, the application lingered because “everyone was ‘super more careful’” and “scared with the big name [Clinton]” involved. 321 “[T]hey were pretty “tippy-toeing’ around HRC because there was a chance she would be the next President.”

Durham’s report also revealed that three separate FBI field offices in Washington, DC; Little Rock, Arkansas; and New York City, New York, opened investigations into “possibly criminal activity involving the Clinton Foundation” less than one year before the November 2016 presidential election.

Historically, people investigating the Clintons have a very high rate of suicide or accidental death.

The article concludes:

Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee’s Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee, told the DailyMail that Durham’s report warrants “additional exposure and review.”

“The Clintons had a team of people at the FBI running interference for them to avoid criminal culpability,” Gaetz told the outlet. “These matters absolutely warrant additional exposure and review.”

Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) said the FBI’s investigations into the Clintons “were shut down by the higher-ups who had an obvious political desire to see Donald Trump lose and Hillary Clinton win.”

“It’s disgusting really. Absolutely these investigations should be revisited,” he told DailyMail. “There’s no reason why Congress can’t have a series of hearings with the field agents who were pursuing the Clinton Foundation, and public interviews with them as well.”

There have been problems with the FBI since J. Edgar Hoover. I wonder if we currently have enough elected officials willing to dig into the dirt and clean up the Bureau.

What An Incredible Coincidence

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On Thursday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

Report: Signatories of Spy Letter Have Scored ‘Numerous’ Biden White House Visits

The article reports:

At least 11 of the signatories on the spy letter discrediting the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation have scored “numerous visits” to the Biden White House, according to a report.

The Washington Examiner reported Wednesday that between October 2021 and January 2023, at least 11 of the letter signers visited the White House a total of 24 times, according to visitor logs.

It’s good to have access to the President!

The article continues:

“Everyone who signed that letter had something to gain,” a former top White House official under both Joe Biden and Trump told the outlet. “They’ve washed themselves with the ability to say they were nonpartisan.”

The signatories who visited the White House since Biden took over include James Clapper, John Brennan, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, Marc Polymeropoulos, Nick Shapiro, Paul Kolbe, Russ Travers, David Buckley, Nick Rasmussen, and Glenn Gerstell.

The Functional Government Initiative, a “right-leaning watchdog,” told the Washington Examiner it was fair for the public to scrutinize any “continued contact” between the Biden administration and laptop letter signers, particularly because of the political nature of their actions and the baselessness of the letter, which suggested the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation.

The article concludes:

The former White House official said the visitor’s logs may only show a snippet of how visitors actually spent their time inside the White House. “These people are seasoned D.C. intelligence players,” the former official said. “They know how to navigate the White House quite well.”

After a while you begin to wonder why so many of the Washington insiders are working so hard to keep President Trump from returning to office.

 

Common Sense

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Kevin Stitt’s move to defund the state’s Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

The article reports:

Oklahoma’s GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt is defending his move to defund the state’s Public Broadcasting System (PBS) over its biased, left-wing agenda, and in particular, is wondering why the state should be “using taxpayer dollars to overly sexualize or indoctrinate children.”

Stitt made his comments in an appearance on Fox Business Network on Monday’s broadcast of Varney & Co. to defend his decision to stop allowing state pension funds to invest in businesses that engage in fossil fuels boycotts.

But Stitt was also asked about his move to defund PBS, spurring him to note that PBS does not “line up with Oklahoma values.”

Last week, Stitt vetoed a bill that would have renewed funding for Oklahoma’s statewide PBS station because, in his view, PBS indoctrinates kids with radical gay and transgender agendas.

Last Wednesday, Stitt vetoed funding for the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA), the state’s public broadcasting service which broadcasts PBS programming.

“I don’t think Oklahomans want to use their tax dollars to indoctrinate kids. And some of the stuff that they’re showing, it just overly sexualizes our kids,” he said after signing his veto, Fox News reported.

I disagree with his decision to stop allowing state pension funds to invest in businesses that engage in fossil fuels. However, as long as the Biden administration is in power, that actually may be a wise investment strategy. As for his refusal to fund the PBS station, I don’t think we should be funding public broadcasting to begin with. I truly think Sesame Street can fund itself and many other programs with the sale of items related to the show.

The article concludes:

During the interview, Stitt also said that he has gotten pushback on the veto from the left but feels that most of his voters support him and noted that he would prefer to spend the money on the state’s education system, not some antiquated TV broadcasting system.

“Let’s educate kids, let’s not indoctrinate them, let’s spend those dollars in education, not propping up some television station,” he explained, citing all the forms of entertainment available today—from the Internet, to broadcast TV, to cable—concluding, “We don’t need to fund a public television station in 2023.”

I hope more Governors will take the stand that Governor Stitt has taken. The trash that is being thrown at our children and grandchildren should not be permitted mush less government funded.

A Different Reality

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about President Biden’s recent statements regarding raising the debt ceiling.

The article reports:

During an interview with MSNBC on Friday aired on Friday’s broadcast of “The 11th Hour,” President Joe Biden claimed that “no one’s ever tied” their budget to raising the debt ceiling and responded to charges that former President Donald Trump was willing to play ball on issues while he won’t by stating that Trump hurt the economy and increased debt, while the economy under the Biden presidency is doing well.

Biden said, “[T]he idea someone, for the first time, is saying, unless you pass this ridiculous budget I have — which is the way I would characterize what the Republican MAGA budget is — unless you pass this budget, we’re not going to increase the debt limit and we’re going to go bankrupt, we’re going to — the United States of America is going to renege for the first time in history on its debt. And you just can’t — no one’s ever tied them together before. I’ve said to the Republican leader, here’s the deal: Take the debt limit, pass it like you did three times when Trump was president, and he increased the whole national debt for 200 years by 40%.”

The article concludes with the following statement by President Biden:

Biden responded, “Play ball? He ballooned the debt, he created unemploy[ment]. Look, when I came to office, we had incredibly high unemployment, we were in a situation where we had very little movement on anything going on. And look at the employment rate now. Just today, 250,000 new jobs, highest participation in 75 years of women in the job market, lowest unemployment rate for African Americans. Things are moving.”

Actually, in January 2020, when President Biden took office, the overall unemployment rate was 3.5, the unemployment rate for women was 3.2, and the unemployment rate for African Americans was 6.3 (statistics here). The current unemployment rate is 3.4 (not a significant change), the unemployment rate for women is 3.1, and the unemployment rate for African Americans is 4.7 (that number is the only number that actually represents significant improvement). But before you get too excited about that, let’s look at the workforce participation rate (statistics here). In January 2020, the workforce participation rate was 63.3 overall, the workforce participation rate for women was 59.2, and the workforce participation rate for African Americans was 62.8. The current workforce participation rate is 62.6, the current workforce participation rate for women is 58.6, and the current workforce participation rate for African Americans is 63.0. These numbers illustrate just one area where President Biden is either seriously misinformed or is lying.

What Are They Thinking?

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On Thursday, Breitbart posted the following headline, “Poll: Biden Voters Want President to Debate Other Democrat Candidates.” Please understand, I do not in any way want President Biden to be re-elected, but putting him in a debate seems like elder abuse to me. This poll may be a reflection of what the mainstream media is not telling voters. The mainstream media may not be airing any of the many clips of President Biden not being able to navigate an exit from a podium or saying things that cause people to question his mental abilities.

The article reports:

A majority of voters who supported President Joe Biden in 2020 believe he should step up again and publicly debate other aspiring Democrat presidential candidates looking ahead to 2024, a poll released Thursday sets out.

A Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll carried out on April 30 for Newsweek found 79 percent of eligible voters who voted for Biden agree the Democratic Party should hold all-in televised primary debates, the outlet reports.

The Democratic Party has been criticized for the fact no debates are planned even after Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy and self-help author and 2020 Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson have thrown their respective hats into the ring.

The former has already called on the president to meet him publicly on the debate stage, as Breitbart News reported.

The article concludes:

Despite the push by party membership for Biden to be open and public in meeting his challengers, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) has already decided it would not hold primary debates.

Biden would be 86 at the end of a second term if reelected, three years older than former President Ronald Reagan was when he disclosed his battle with Alzheimer’s in 1994.

I believe that the Democrat party leaders are currently working behind the scenes to remove President Biden in the next few months. That conclusion is based on the current evidence of crimes that is being released. Remember, nothing the mainstream media reports is by accident–they are the public relations arm of the Democrat party. The removal of President Biden sets the stage for the appointment of a Vice-President (when Kamala Harris becomes President). That appointment is the thing to watch–whoever is appointed to fill the Vice-President slot will be the Democrat candidate for President in 2024. The appointment has to be approved by the Senate which will be interesting. Since there will be no sitting Vice-President to cast a tie-breaking vote, all the Democrats will have to be in attendance and one Republican will have to vote for the nominee (probably claiming that approving the nominee will avoid chaos in our government).

Stay tuned and get out the popcorn.