Revising The Numbers

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the rapidly decreasing job numbers.

The article quotes The Washington Times (behind the paywall):

WASHINGTON DC – […]  Job growth was overestimated by more than 770,000 last year. Put differently, about 1 in 4 jobs that were supposedly added last year never existed. That’s like eliminating all of the jobs gained in three whole months of 2023.

Overly optimistic employment estimates help explain why polling of people’s perceptions of the economy has been so terrible yet the official data from the Biden administration has looked so robust, at least in terms of the number of jobs. Much of the other data has been downright rotten.

With prices rising faster than earnings, the average worker’s weekly paycheck buys 4.4% less today than when President Biden took office. Homeownership affordability has plummeted because the monthly mortgage payment on a median-price home has more than doubled. Three-quarters of Americans now view fast food as a luxury they can’t afford. Gasoline prices are up 46%.

And now, even the job numbers have lost their luster, especially when you consider that millions of those added jobs are from double counting. Whenever someone who is already employed has to get a second — or even a third — job just to help make ends meet, that increases the number of payrolls, without increasing the number of people employed.

The Biden administration is very adept at lying with statistics. They consistently claim that President Biden has simply not been given enough credit for the wonderful economy he has created. I guess the people saying that don’t shop at the grocery store or buy gasoline.

Where Are The High-Speed Internet Connections?

On Saturday, Breitbart posted an article about one of the provisions in the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. The Bill included $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of American.

The article reports:

“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest,” the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner wrote.

“Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program – a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans. Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more,” he continued.

Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption.

The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed.

The article concludes:

Carr continued, saying that the BEAD program fails to close the “digital divide,” or the gap between with those with high-speed internet and those without.

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

You would think that at some point the Republicans in Congress would learn that the bills that the Democrats want bi-partisan support on are never what they appear to be. This was another spending boondoggle that the Republicans stupidly endorsed. We need new Republicans who won’t be fooled (or bribed) by the Democrats.

Honoring The People Who Pay You–Not The People Who Protect You

On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported:

The Biden administration “strongly opposes” a proposal to raise the pay of junior enlisted service members in the military — even after nearly spending seven times the proposed amount on Ukraine and the broader region’s security.

The House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC) draft of the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would give all junior troops a pay raise, representing a rough total of $24.4 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Biden administration said in a statement on Tuesday that it does not support the proposed “significant, permanent” pay hike until it has had a chance to conduct a compensation review.

“The Administration is strongly committed to taking care of our Servicemembers and their families, and appreciates the Committee’s concern for the needs of the most junior enlisted members, but strongly opposes making a significant, permanent change to the basic pay schedule before the completion of the Fourteenth Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation,” the White House budget office said.

The article concludes:

“Joe Biden must hate our military,” Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, also on the committee, told the DCNF. “While families of our junior enlisted struggle on food stamps, this administration opposes their pay raises and wants to force-feed them pronoun training and drag queen story hour. If Biden had any PRIDE at all in our troops, he’d support the long overdue pay raise House Republicans have passed.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ukraine is a fantastic money-laundering tool for Democrat (and some Republican) campaigns. It is an almost unlimited source of funds for American politicians. It also provides the President of Ukraine with a lifestyle that is unimaginable to his countrymen. It may be time to unelect every Congressman who has voted continuously for Ukrainian aid.

Betraying An Ally For Political Gain

On Monday, PJ Media posted an article about the Biden administration’s attempts to free the American hostages held captive in Gaza. While I agree that the American hostages should be freed, I also believe that the effort to free them should also be part of a larger effort to solve the problem of Hamas terrorism. Unfortunately, that is not the path the Biden administration has chosen.

The article reports:

It’s a line we’ve heard in countless movies and TV shows. Get the picture: a terrorist group hijacks a plane, kidnaps an American, or otherwise takes over something on U.S. soil, and the country’s leaders are discussing what to do. Usually, the president or someone else in the administration says that inevitable line: “We do not negotiate with terrorists!”

If we are to believe a report from NBC, that’s not the case anymore. Or, as my colleague Ed Morrissey put it: “Old and busted: America doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. New hotness: We’d rather cut a deal with terrorists than support our ally.”

NBC is reporting that the White House is ready to work on a deal to get five hostages back from Hamas along with the remains of three dead hostages while leaving Israel out of the loop:

The article also includes a screenshot of a Tweet illustrating another way the Biden administration is trying to undermine the Israeli government of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The article also notes:

“Not only is this effort from Biden and Antony Blinken despicable, it’s incredibly stupid,” Ed Morrissey wrote. “They want to reward Hamas for the October 7 massacre and want to punish the Israelis for grasping its existential import.”

Add this to the growing list of Biden’s foreign policy failures. “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades,” former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said of Biden 10 years ago. Make that five decades because his treatment of Israel is shameful and wrong.

Genesis 12:3 states:

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (KJV)

The Biden administration might want to keep this in mind.

 

Skewing The Facts

On Sunday, Yahoo News posted an article reporting White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s statement about the rescue of the Israeli hostages.

The article reports:

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan confirmed that “innocent people were killed” in the Israeli military operation that rescued four hostages over the weekend.

The Israeli military said it rescued four hostages in a special operation in central Gaza on Saturday. CNN’s Dana Bash asked Sullivan on “State of the Union” whether the U.S. can confirm how many people were killed in the operation, noting that two separate hospitals in the area said at least 236 people were reportedly killed.

Sullivan explained that the Gaza Health Ministry and the Israeli military have put out differing numbers and that the U.S. could not confirm how many casualties there were.

“We, the United States, are not in a position today to make a definitive statement about that. The Israeli defense forces have put out one number. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has put out another number,” he said.

“But we do know this, Dana. Innocent people were tragically killed in this operation. The exact number we don’t know, but innocent people were killed. And that is heartbreaking. That is tragic,” he added.

The appropriate reply to that statement was posted on Twitter by Caroline Glick:

Which operation? What was it for? Why don’t you mention that the mission was to rescue 4 Israeli hostages, held by Palestinian “civilians” in the heart of a “civilian” neighborhood? Why don’t you mention that the taking and holding of hostages is a war crime and there is no distinction between militants and complicit civilians under international humanitarian law? Why don’t you mention that you’re thrilled the hostages, whose lives were in imminent danger every minute of every day since they were illegally kidnapped from Israel on October 7, are free and safe and with their families? What is wrong with you?

As usual, the Biden administration totally misrepresented what actually happened. Have they forgotten that Americans are still held hostage? Have they forgotten October 7th? Have they forgotten who was behind October 7th and that America’s border is open to the terrorists involved?

The Road To War

One of the major differences between President Trump and President Biden is that President Trump knows how to wage economic war rather than physical war. All it would take to bring peace to Ukraine and cripple Iran would be to resume domestic drilling in America on a large scale. Since oil is an international commodity, that would drop the price of oil. A dropped price in oil would weaken the economies of both Russia and Iran. So why hasn’t the Biden administration done this? Ukraine is great for money laundering and if the Biden administration resumed drilling, they would lose the ‘green’ vote.

On Friday, The New York Post reported:

NATO is mapping out “land corridors” to enable US troops and other allied forces to reach the front lines quicker in the event of a broader European ground war with Russia.

The move follows warnings from NATO leaders earlier this year urging Western governments to prepare themselves for a full-blown war with Russia sometime in the next 20 years.

The newly established troop expressways would see American soldiers landing at one of five designated ports.

They would then be deployed along pre-established routes depending on how a potential attack by Moscow would play out, NATO officials told The Telegraph.

The new routes would expand on existing arrangements that have been in place since last year when the alliance agreed to have 300,000 troops in a state of high readiness during a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Under the current plans, US forces would land at ports in The Netherlands before being transported through Germany and on to Poland by train.

If you are over 60, you remember the beginnings of the Vietnam War. The American involvement in Vietnam began in the 1950’s under President Eisenhower. Our involvement began innocently enough–we sent advisors. The election in November will determine whether or not your sons and daughters are deployed to Ukraine. You have a choice–a President who will wage an economic war or a President who will wage a physical war.

Why Hamas Has To Be Eliminated

On Monday, Just the News reported:

Four more hostages were found dead in Gaza on Monday, including three elderly men who were previously spotted in a video released by the terrorist group Hamas, according the Israeli military.

Amiram Cooper, Yoram Metzger and Haim Peri, were more than 80 years old, according to reports.

In December, Hamas publicly released a video called, “Don’t let us grow old here” that included the 3 men.

The additional hostage found dead was Nadav Popplewell. The cause of the deaths has not been determined, according to an Israeli military spokesman.

The Biden administration’s proposed peace settlement (which they claim is Israel’s idea) does not penalize Hamas in any way for its treatment of hostages or taking of hostages. It does not punish Hamas in any way for the events of October 7th.

A Reuters article from May 31 explains the plan:

Biden said the first phase of Israel’s offer would last for six weeks and would include a “full and complete” ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from “all populated areas” of Gaza and the “release of a number of hostages including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.”

Biden called the second phase “a permanent end to hostilities.” However, he added that the negotiations to arrive at the second phase could take longer than six weeks as there were going to be differences between the two sides.
“Israel will want to make sure its interests are protected but the proposal says if the negotiations take longer than six weeks from phase one, the ceasefire will still continue for as long as negotiations continue,” Biden said, which would mark a new development from previous proposals.

In the third phase, Biden said “a major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who have been killed would be returned to their families.”
Biden said Israel had “devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months,” adding: “At this point, Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another Oct. 7.”

In the deal to rebuild Gaza, Arab nations and the international community will also participate in a “manner that does not allow Hamas to rearm,” Biden said. He added Washington will work with its partners to rebuild homes, schools and hospitals in Gaza, where the war has displaced nearly the entire 2.3 million population and caused widespread hunger.

People in Gaza were starving before October 7th because any money that was sent to Gaza was used for military purposes. This plan is only going to pave the way for another October 7th.

 

What He Says vs. What He Does

President Biden has pledged to get tough on illegal immigration. It’s about time. However, are you going to believe what you hear or what you see?

On Sunday, The New York Post reported the following:

While the Biden administration is attempting to look like it’s getting tough on the border, behind the scenes it’s operating a program of “mass amnesty” for migrants, The Post can reveal.

Data show that since 2022, more than 350,000 asylum cases filed by migrants have been closed by the US government if the applicants don’t have a criminal record or are otherwise not deemed a threat to the country.

This means that while the migrants are not granted or denied asylum — their cases are “terminated without a decision on the merits of their asylum claim” — they are removed from the legal system and no longer required to check in with authorities.

The move allows them to legally, indefinitely roam the US without fear of deportation, effectively letting them slip through the cracks.

The article includes the following chart:

The Democrats keep talking about saving ‘Democracy’ (we are a Republic–not a Democracy), but have they ever considered that the number of people entering this country illegally cannot easily be assimilated? Have they ever considered the number of Americans unemployed because many of these immigrants are working ‘under the table’ for very low wages? Have they considered the impact on our social safety net of having illegals in need of housing, medical care and food? If you are not yet familiar with the Cloward-Piven theory, it is now time to look it up.

The article concludes:

Meanwhile, the Biden administration’s attempt to tighten things up at the border has included issuing a rule in May that asylum claims must be resolved within 180 days for migrants who list their final destination in the US as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles or New York City.

The administration is also poised to issue an order to close the border once the number of migrant crossings reaches 4,000 per day, sources told The Post.

In April, US authoriites in the southwest intercepted an average of 5,990 migrants per day, according to US Customs and Border Protection. That figure didn’t even include the so-called “gotaways” who escape detection and arrest.

I am hoping we can hang on until we can change administrations in November and begin deportations in January.

The Truth Is Slowly Seeping Out

On June 2nd, Hot Air posted an article about the transcripts of the Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview of President Biden about the classified information stored in President Biden’s garage.

The article reports:

You may recall that President Joe Biden previously sat down for an interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur regarding the investigation into the many classified documents that Biden improperly removed from the White House over the years. A transcript of that interview was grudgingly produced later, informing the public that charges would not be filed against Biden because he was supposedly unlikely to be convicted, being an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Something didn’t seem right and the House sought the original audio recording of the interview, but the White House refused to allow it to be made public, with Biden making the stunning assertion of executive privilege based on “privacy” concerns to keep it hidden. Now, thanks to some digging by Judicial Watch, we may (possibly) know why that was done. According to a release from the Justice Department on Friday night, the transcript was altered with various words removed and significant “clean-up” work having been done to it. (You can read the original transcript here.)

On May 19, I reported the following (article here):

As Robert DuChemin stated in the RADLaw Newsletter:

There are two reasons for not releasing the video. Either the transcript is not the real transcript or Joe looks so bad that the AG knows its release will sink Joe’s chance of re-election. I am betting on the former, but it could be both.

I believe Mr. DuChemin called it correctly.

The article notes:

Judicial Watch announced that the White House admitted in a federal court that the transcript of President Joe Biden’s testimony to Special Counsel Robert Hur is not accurate and is missing “filler words (such as ‘um’ or ‘uh’)” and words that “may have been repeated when spoken (such as ‘I, I’ or ‘and, and’)” which were sometimes “only listed a single time in the transcripts.” In its new filing the Biden Justice Department makes the extraordinary assertions of executive privilege and privacy to hide the Biden audio. The agency makes the unprecedented assertion that because “AI” could be used to alter Biden’s words the material should be kept secret.

The article reminds us:

Transcripts of presidential records are not supposed to be altered. That is made clear in the Presidential Records Act. Of course, this is far from the first time we’ve seen the Biden administration playing fast and loose with those rules. We have regularly seen this White House “cleaning up” the transcripts of various speeches and press interviews that Joe Biden has done. Sometimes they simply change the words to reflect what Biden had “intended” to say. In other cases, his meandering utterances are simply recorded as “inaudible.” Shockingly, Biden’s team went even further, claiming that an audio recording could be “altered” using Artificial Intelligence. That’s one of the dumbest claims we’ve heard coming out of this White House since virtually every appearance that he or any other official makes is potentially subject to the same type of hoax. 

Please follow the link to read the entire article. This is another example of the Biden administration positioning itself as above the law.

The Deal Offered

On June 1st, Red State posted an article about the peace proposal offered to Israel by President Biden.

These are the details:

Let me provide a little context. Israel has evacuated almost all of Rafah. They have also secured the Egyptian border region and seized the center of the city. There is nothing left to do but clear out the tunnel complexes and finish off Hamas as a military and governing authority. 

With that as the backdrop, Biden is still demanding a “complete ceasefire” and the removal of Israeli forces from Gaza. That would be “phase one” of this stupid proposal, which would allow Hamas to regroup and rearm. What would Israel get in return? The release of “some hostages” and some dead bodies of those murdered by the terrorist group. 

Then there’s “phase two,” which would be a “permanent ceasefire” and an “exchange” for the release of the remaining “living hostages.” Yes, the Biden administration is glossing over the fact that Hamas has executed hostages. Still, the worst part of that line is that Israel would be expected to exchange terrorists who murdered or attempted to murder Israelis even to get those still alive back. 

Of course, “phase three” would be the rest of us paying to rebuild schools that taught Gazan children how to commit terrorist attacks while shouting how much they hate Jews. Isn’t your government great?

Let’s be honest. We all know why Biden put that explainer out minutes before Shabbat took effect (meaning many Israelis wouldn’t see the news). He wanted to try to paint Israel into a corner and force them to accept terrible terms that would ensure Hamas’ continued rule.

The article includes a screenshot of Israel’s response:

I believe that Hamas crossed a line on October 7th. Hamas may be able to manipulate world opinion to some degree, but Israel remembers October 7th and still awaits the return of the hostages. To release terrorists in exchange for hostages (or the dead bodies of hostages) and allow Hamas to regroup would be folly. Most sensible people realize that. To return Gaza to the control of those who support Hamas would only pave the way for another October 7th style attack. My prayer is that Prime Minister Netanyahu will stand strong to preserve the safety of Israel.

Those Who Refuse To Learn The Lessons Of History…

I believe that yesterday was a very sad day for America. The conviction of President Trump is a blight on our country and our justice system. In the 17th century, the French statesman Cardinal Richelieu famously said, “Show me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough therein to hang him.”  That sounds accurate concerning the ongoing attacks on President Trump. I am not saying that he is a perfect man–he may have slept with Stormy Daniels, but I don’t know a lot of men who are facing jail time for sleeping with someone. It is interesting to me that the Democrats loved him and invited him to all of their major events before he became a Republican and ran for President.

Simon Ateba is the owner and sole employee of the website Today News Africa, for which he was a White House correspondent. He is frequently excluded from events by the Biden administration because of his honest reporting and probing questions.

He posted the following on Twitter:

In ancient Rome, a group of men loyal to the Republic feared that Julius Caesar was going to make his dictatorship permanent and establish a monarchy. In 44 BC, they decided to assassinate him, thereby restoring the Republic.

In the ensuing chaos and power vacuum, Caesar’s great nephew Octavius quickly rose to the top, assumed power, and permanently ended the Republic by establishing a de facto monarchy. After Caesar’s death, it came out that he had never intended to create a monarchical system. The conspirators brought about precisely what they had tried to stop.

In 19th-century India, under British colonial rule, authorities decided there were too many venomous cobras in the streets of Delhi, making life uncomfortable for the British residents and their families. To solve this, they offered a reward for every dead cobra residents would bring in. Soon, enterprising locals began to breed cobras in order to make a living from the bounty. The government caught on to this and canceled the program. The breeders, resentful of the rulers and angered by their actions, decided to release their cobras back on the streets, thereby tripling the population from before the government program.

Other notorious examples would include the 18th Amendment establishing prohibitions in the United States in 1920, which was designed to stop the spread of alcoholism but only ended up increasing alcohol consumption by a substantial amount.

Another example is the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941, designed to decimate the US Naval force in one blow and bring America to its knees. Instead, it shook the American public out of its deep isolationism, ensuring the total mobilization of the country’s superior manpower and resources to not only defeat the Japanese but also to obliterate its military for good. The very success of the attack guaranteed the opposite of the intended result, Robert Greene writes in his spectacular book, “The Laws of Human Nature.”

Be careful what you wish for.

 

Exactly Who Pays Our Taxes?

On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted an article about the progressive tax code in America. Just for the record, we are already overtaxing the wealthy.

The article reports:

The ultra-wealthy are paying the highest average share of taxes, according to a new analysis from a nonpartisan congressional committee.

The Joint Committee on Taxation found that the top 1% of earners pay an average tax rate of around 30% in combined income, employment, and excise taxes, double or more than the share of taxes that the bottom 80% of the country pays. Additionally, the top 5% of earners in the United States make up a whopping 46% of the country’s tax base.

According to the Economics Help page:

The Laffer Curve states that if tax rates are increased above a certain level, then tax revenues can actually fall because higher tax rates discourage people from working.

This is a picture of the Laffer Curve:

The Reagan tax cuts increased federal revenue. Unfortunately, the Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives offset those increases with increased spending. The Trump tax cuts also increased federal revenue, but again the House of Representatives increased their spending. At some point we need to realize that we don’t need more taxes, we need less spending.

The Biden administration is currently pushing for a tax on unrealized capital gains. The talking point is that it would only impact a very small number of taxpayers. Just for the record, this was the argument used to justify the establishment of a federal income tax in 1913.

Shouldn’t Americans Be The Ones Voting In American Elections?

On Thursday, Fox News reported that the House of Representatives voted to repeal a Washington, D.C. law that allows non-citizens to vote in local elections. The final vote was 262 to 143 to repeal the law. One hundred forty-three Democrats voted to allow non-citizens to vote. Fifty-two of the Democrats voted with the Republicans to limit  voting to American citizens. As our nation gets overrun by illegal aliens, we can expect to see more voting on whether or not elections should be limited to citizens only. Because people who are here illegally are not required to do the studying required to become a citizen (unless they choose to become citizens), many of the non-citizens voting would have no idea of how America works or what it stands for. Since many of the illegal aliens come from countries with non-western cultures, this is a recipe for disaster.

The article reports:

“What we’re doing is, we are talking about passing a law that prohibits citizens of foreign countries from voting in elections in D.C. It prohibits people that are here illegally from voting in elections. It prohibits spies from China from voting in elections. It prohibits people that are here from Russia that have wishes of ill will in the United States from voting in the elections in D.C.,” Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., said during debate for the bill.

GOP lawmakers have also accused Democrats of trying to tip the scales at the ballot box by encouraging illegal immigrants to sign up to vote – something the left has denied.

If the illegal aliens who have entered America during the Biden administration were allowed to vote, they would form a significant voting bloc that American citizens would not be able to overcome.

 

I’m Shocked! Shocked!

On Tuesday, The Jewish News Syndicate reported the following:

Close to three-fourths of the humanitarian aid transported from a new $320 million floating pier built by the U.S. military off the Gaza coast was stolen on Saturday en route to a U.N. warehouse, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

…The United Nations said that 10 truckloads of food aid from the pier arrived at the warehouse on Friday, its first day of operation. It was transported by U.N. contractors.

 “We need to make sure that the necessary security and logistical arrangements are in place before we proceed,” said the U.N. official.

According to Israeli estimates, Hamas has been stealing up to 60% of the aid entering the Gaza Strip, and a Channel 12 report last week revealed that the terrorist organization has made at least $500 million in profit off humanitarian aid since the start of the war on Oct. 7.

Considering the fact that the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees is largely staffed by Hamas, I don’t find these thefts at all surprising. At some point the Biden administration needs to realize that they are not working with honest partners when they call for a cease-fire. However, considering that the Biden administration has shown more support for Iran than Israel, this actually might be going according to plan.

The article notes:

USAID and the U.S. Department of Defense are leading the effort, alongside Cyprus, the United Nations and international donors, including the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Romania and the European Union, CENTCOM said. The aid is transported via sea from Cyprus where it is screened, and the United Nations receives the aid in Gaza and coordinates its distribution

Israel is also helping to facilitate the entry of aid via the pier.

Reuters also reported that “food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed.”

Israel took operational control of the crossing weeks ago, but Cairo so far has refused to cooperate with Israeli authorities to facilitate the entry of aid through Rafah. The Israeli government wants to allow aid into Gaza through the crossing but is unable to do so without Egyptian cooperation.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz last week placed the responsibility for averting a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip squarely on the shoulders of Egypt.

Katz said he had spoken with his British and German counterparts “about the need to persuade Egypt to reopen the Rafah Crossing to allow the continued delivery of international humanitarian aid to Gaza.”

The Middle East is a mess of plots and sub-plots. It is a difficult place for diplomacy and positive action. Unfortunately, the Biden administration’s actions have not furthered the cause of peace.

If The Biden Administration Wrote The Obituary For Hannibal Lecter, What Would It Look Like?

The American State Department has released a statement on the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — known as the “butcher of Tehran.” The statement released by Biden’s State Department makes me wonder how they would have handled Adolph Hitler’s death.

This is the statement the Biden administration released:

The United States expresses its official condolences for the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian, and other members of their delegation in a helicopter crash in northwest Iran. As Iran selects a new president, we reaffirm our support for the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We have done everything we could NOT to support their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms during the Biden and Obama administrations.

On Monday, Townhall reported:

The United Nations, unsurprisingly, was generally gutted to learn that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi — known as the “butcher of Tehran” — died in a helicopter crash over the weekend. In a Monday meeting of the U.N. Security Council, a “moment of silence” was held to mourn the dead murderer rather than his thousands of innocent victims.

Another reason to leave the United Nations.

The article also shared a quote from the Defense of Democracies website:

Raisi — the deputy prosecutor general of Tehran from 1985 to 1988 — facilitated the regime’s 1988 slaughter of thousands of jailed political dissidents by serving on a four-member panel known as a Death Commission, which decided who would live and who would die. The commission would conduct interviews of prisoners — often just a few minutes long — aimed at determining their loyalty to the Islamic Republic. Questions could include: “What is your political affiliation?” “Do you pray?” “Are you willing to clear minefields for the Islamic Republic?” The wrong answer meant death.

The executions were usually by hanging or by firing squad, and typically took place the same day as the interrogations. The commissions allowed neither lawyers nor appeals. Burials occurred in unmarked mass graves. The regime waited months before notifying the relatives of the victims, refused to tell them the locations of the bodies, and told them not to mourn in public. The victims included women and children as young as 13. Raisi has defended the killings, saying in 2018 that they were “one of the proud achievements of the system.”

Terrorists around the world are in mourning. It’s sad that America chose to join them.

What Four More Years Of Bidenomics Would Look Like

On May 14th (sometimes it takes me a while to get to things), Stephen Moore posted an article at BizPac Review detailing some of the economic plans the Biden administration has if they win the election in November. If you like trying to stretch your dollar because of inflation, you will love the new challenges.

The article reports some of the plans:

1. Tax rates on investment up to 70%.

2. $2 trillion in new debt spending.

3. A “net zero” energy policy eliminating production of nearly all our abundant fossil fuels.

4. An end to state “right-to-work” laws in 26 states.

5. The antitrust assault against Silicon Valley and corporate mergers ramps up.

The article also concludes:

There is more to worry about under Bidenomics in a second term. One worry is that Dems will agree to eliminate checks and balances in our system of government by overturning the filibuster rule of at least 60 votes in the Senate to pass legislation. Another concern is that Dems will lock in their electoral strength by making Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico states to add four more Democratic senators. Remember Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of Pennsylvania heroically voted to save the filibuster — but they won’t be around in January 2025 to stop the court packing.

Could American businesses and families survive getting smashed by these gale-force winds of another Bidenomics hurricane in 2025 without capsizing the ship of state? I wouldn’t bet on it.

Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump. His latest book is: “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.”

Your vote counts. We need enough votes against Joe Biden to overcome the fraud that is already being planned.

What The Biden Administration’s Foreign Policy Has Accomplished

The Biden administration’s foreign policy has successfully brought chaos out or order. Somehow they have forgotten which country they are supposed to represent. By backing our foes and treating our friends badly, they have created instability where there was stability. Since October 7th we have heard much criticism of Israel and how it is handling the war against Hamas, but we have heard very little about the hostages Hamas is still holding or Hamas’ practice of using civilians as human shields. We have also funded Hamas through ‘humanitarian aid’ and releasing money to Iran.

On Saturday, Fred Fleitz posted an article at American Greatness about the need for America to return to the America First policies of President Trump.

The article reports:

There is only one word to describe the result of President Biden’s foreign policy: chaos.

…Moreover, because of his differences with Israel over the war in Gaza, last week Biden said he was withholding weapons from Israel that recently were approved by Congress. But this week, the Biden administration said it was moving forward on a new $1 billion arms deal for Israel.

Adding to this confusion, the Washington Post reported on May 13 that the Biden administration is withholding sensitive intelligence on Hamas and is refusing to share this information until the Netanyahu government makes concessions to not launch a full-scale raid into the southern Gaza city of Rafah. This intelligence reportedly concerns the whereabouts of Hamas’s leadership and Hamas tunnels in southern Gaza.

Think about that. President Biden is actually withholding terrorism-related intelligence from a close U.S. ally while it is at war against a terrorist group.

And it gets worse. Iran fired over 300 missiles and drones at Israel on April 13, the first Iranian attack ever against targets on Israeli soil. There have been more than 150 attacks by Iranian proxies against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria since October 2023. Yemen’s Houthi rebels have fired dozens of advanced drones and missiles against ships in the Red Sea since last October. And the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce U.S. sanctions against Iran caused its revenues to be $71 billion greater by last fall than they would have been if Trump-era sanctions had been enforced.

The article notes:

We have witnessed a profound deterioration in international security since 2021, not just because of the Biden administration’s national security incompetence but also because of the president’s deliberate decision to reverse the successful national security strategy of the Trump administration and replace it with failed policies of the past.

This Trump strategy is called the America First approach to U.S. national security. This strategy brought our country a period of peace, kept U.S. troops out of new conflicts abroad, and resulted in important foreign policy achievements such as the Abraham Accords.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. There is a way out of this mess.

Regardless of what you think of President Trump, his foreign policy made the world a safer place.

Is This About Money Or About Doing Good?

On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner posted an article which provided information on the charities that are profiting because of the illegal aliens entering America.

The article reports:

Communities throughout the United States are suffering while they try to find money to house, clothe, feed, educate, and provide medical care for millions of illegal immigrants caught and released into the country by President Joe Biden. However, the left-wing nonprofit organizations paid to serve migrants are profiting pleasantly.

According to an examination by the Free Press of three of the most prominent nonprofit organizations paid by the Biden administration for migrant services, their revenues have more than tripled since 2018, and each of their CEOs makes more than $500,000 a year.

The article continues:

One, Global Refuge, saw its revenue rise from $50 million in 2018 to more than $200 million in 2022. Documents show that Global Refuge housed more than 2,500 migrant children in 2019 at a cost of $30 million. It housed just 1,443 in 2022 at a cost of $82.5 million. In that same period, Global Refuge CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah saw her salary rise from $244,000 a year to $520,000. Before coming to Global Refuge, she served as former first lady Michelle Obama’s policy director.

Another nonprofit group, Endeavors, was awarded more than 1 billion dollars in 2022, of which it spent $533,000 on a music therapist, $4.6 million on “consulting services,” $1.4 million on conferences, and $700,000 on lobbyists. Despite past scandals involving self-dealing among top executives, in 2022, Southwest Key Programs was awarded almost $800 million, of which it gave more than $1 million to its CEO.

Each nonprofit organization benefits from the Department of Health and Human Services’s Unaccompanied Children Program. When children are caught illegally crossing the border without parents, Border Patrol must, by law, turn them over to HHS, whose Office of Refugee Resettlement is charged with housing, feeding, and educating them until their parents or a sponsor can be found. HHS does not provide these services. They contract with nonprofit outfits that do, hence the big payouts to Endeavors, Global Refuge, and Southwest Key Programs.

At some point the communities where illegal aliens settle are expected to provide education for the children and medical care for the families, regardless of the involvement of a nonprofit. Local communities are dealing with overcrowded schools, diseases that Americans have not seen in years, and a serious strain on their financial resources. Children are being put in the care of people who are not relatives and may be subjected to human trafficking or other forms of slavery.

The open border is bad for our country, but it is also bad for the people coming here. There is no safety in making the trip and no guarantee of a better life once they get here. Right now the cartels are in charge of our southern border, and they are making a lot of money that they can invest in destroying America with drugs and violence.

Drastic change is needed.

April Inflation Statistics

On Tuesday, CNN reported that according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday inflation in April was the highest it has been all year.

The article reports:

Wholesale inflation picked up in April to its highest rate in a year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday.

The Producer Price Index, which measures the change in prices that manufacturers pay to suppliers, was 2.2% for the 12 months ended in April, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Tuesday.

That gain is higher than what was seen in March, which was downwardly revised from 2.1% to 1.8%.

On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.5%, a faster pace than March’s 0.1% loss (also downwardly revised) and ran much hotter than what economists had anticipated. Economists were expecting a monthly gain of 0.3%, according to FactSet consensus estimates.

“The concern here is that we now have a trend, an upward trend in producer prices, which can only be passed through to consumers and result in upward pressure on consumer price inflation over the coming months,” Kurt Rankin, senior economist for the PNC Financial Services Group, told CNN in an interview.

And that means interest rates will stay higher for longer and could further delay the Federal Reserve’s plans for cuts on that front, he said.

…While higher energy costs (up 2% in April) helped to push goods prices higher, services inflation is what drove up the overall PPI last month. Nearly three-quarters of the April monthly gain was attributable to price hikes seen by producers of services, according to the report.

Services providers saw a 0.6% increase in prices for the month, the fastest pace seen for that category since March 2022, Rankin noted.

“Services has been the issue over the past year as consumers continue to spend money, and costs for services-oriented businesses is still stronger than goods inflation; but goods producer prices are now also rising after having fallen through most of 2023,” he said.

This is bad news for consumers and also bad news for the Biden administration that wants to get re-elected in November. The promise of cutting the interest rate before the election to bring consumer costs down will not be kept if inflation continues on its current path.

What Impact Does This Have On America’s Future?

On Monday, Breitbart reported that according to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), only 46 percent of the migrants who had arrived in America in 2022 or later were employed at the beginning of 2024.

The article reports:

“Immigration clearly adds workers to the country, but it just as clearly adds non-workers who need to be supported by the labor of others,” Steven Camarota and Karen Zeigler, researchers with the CIS, wrote.

This was the case in the past, it is true today, and it will surely be the case for immigrants who arrive in the future. Those who simply see immigration as a source of labor need to understand it is also a source of school children, retirees, and many other non-workers.

The data from the CIS report undermines arguments that supporters of illegal immigration have used to try to point out that migrant workers help the economy by working hard.

The article also includes a chart showing the rapid increase in the foreign-born population in America:

The article also notes:

The report also found that, since Biden took office in January 2021, the migrant population in the U.S. increased by roughly 6.6 million over the course of 39 months.

As of March 2024, there were 51.6 million foreign-born migrants, 5.1 million more than in 2022. This number made up 15.6 percent of the population in the U.S.

…Another report from the CIS in February found that Biden’s job growth centered around hiring millions of foreign-born immigrants while the number of American citizens with jobs decreased from pre-COVID-19 levels.

Controlled immigration is a good thing. However, when immigrants make up nearly one quarter of the population, assimilation is nearly impossible. What occurs is enclaves of ethnic groups that do not identify as Americans and are not necessarily inclined to work for the good of the country. In a recent election, a member of Congress declared that they would represent the interests of Somalia. The problem with that is that they are not supposed to represent the interests of Somalia–they are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents in America. The immigration policies (or lack thereof)  of the Biden administration are going to come back to bite us. It is only a matter of time.

 

Working Against Your Stated Purpose

The Biden administration keeps claiming that they support Israel and that they want to minimize the number of civilian deaths in the war between Israel and Hamas. However, their actions tell a very different story.

On Sunday, Red State posted the following headline:

BOMBSHELL: Biden Administration Has Been Hiding Intel on Location of Hamas Leaders in Betrayal of Israel

Wouldn’t the war end more quickly if Israel knew where the leaders of Hamas were hiding?

The article reports:

Joe Biden has been hiding intelligence on the whereabouts of Hamas leaders and their command tunnels, depriving Israel of vital information that could lead to an end to the war. That revelation came in a report on Saturday and was framed as the administration offering that information now if the ongoing operation in Rafah is canceled. 

Either they are lying when they say they have the information or they are withholding strategic military information from someone they claim they are allied with. It can’t be both.

The article concludes:

The scandalous part of the situation aside, there’s also an inherent contradiction on display. Biden is telling the Israelis he will give them information on the location of Hamas leaders while at the same time demanding they not attack their geographic location in Rafah.

In other words, this seems like a meaningless promise from the White House. It’s a desperate, pathetic attempt to get Israel to call off its final blow against Hamas. At this point, the Israelis don’t need the intelligence because they will find the terror tunnels themselves once they take Rafah. They should tell Biden to go pound sand over this betrayal.

This would be impeachable were it not for the obvious lack of qualifications of the current vice-president and the total lack of patriotism in the Democrat party.

The Antisemitism Of The Biden Administration

On May 11, Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article about another move by the Biden administration to hinder Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas.

The article reports:

In February President Biden promulgated National Security Memorandum 20. NSM-20 directs the State Department to “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving [U.S.] defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services” that they will abide by U.S. and international law. NSM-20 also requires the Departments of State and Defense to report to Congress within 90 days on the extent to which these governments and services are abiding by their assurances.

NSM-20 purports to impose a generally applicable requirement. However, it is obviously aimed, Biden style, at Israel’s heart — as Senator James Risch accurately pointed out in a brief statement posted yesterday.

This is that statement:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement on the Biden Administration’s National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) report on Israel:

“In keeping with nearly four years of failed foreign policy, the Biden Administration is trying to have it both ways. Today, the administration has given Israel a politically damaging assessment while publicly announcing it is withholding a select set of precision weapons. The administration is attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally in the midst of its justified war with Hamas terrorists.

“NSM-20 is aimed squarely at Israel in the near-term, but the additional highly-politicized reporting requirements will eventually be aimed at other American allies and partners across the globe, further impeding the delivery of security assistance and undermining our ability to deter China and Russia.”

Background:

On February 8, the Biden Administration issued NSM-20, which undermines Israeli operations against Hamas in Gaza by affording Israel’s critics the opportunity to falsely claim Israel is committing war crimes.

NSM-20 threatens to cut off aid unless Israel meets arbitrary deadlines for providing “assurances” regarding international humanitarian law as well as vague facilitation of humanitarian assistance.

On April 30, Risch sent a letter with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul to the Biden Administration urging for the repeal of NSM-20.

The article concludes:

Speaking of assessments, I assess that the report constitutes another friendly Biden stab in Israel’s back by the Biden administration. I would juxtapose the report with the judgment of John Spencer, the West Point modern urban warfare expert:

In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures [as the IDF has] to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.

Spencer is the voice of sanity. Interested readers can hear him at length in Sam Harris’s May 7 podcast with him.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. We are treating the people who have sworn to destroy us (Iran and Hamas) better than the people who would defend us (Israel).

With Friends Like This…

On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about the supposed cease-fire that had been negotiated between Israel and Hamas. Evidently the Biden administration negotiated an agreement that they did not bother to inform Israel about. The article also reported that the agreement was to include dead hostages in the number of hostages to be released.

The article reports:

Hamas announced with great fanfare that it had accepted a ceasefire proposal. There were celebrations in Gaza, and the White House said it was “reviewing” the deal.

Except: The Israelis knew nothing about it. 

The supposed agreement wasn’t even on the table. Hamas had changed the terms of a previous treaty to one more favorable to the terror group. To take just one horrific alteration: Rather than turn over hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, Hamas would surrender dead bodies of the hostages it had killed. 

That Hamas would try to pull this ruse, with the help of negotiators in Egypt and Qatar, is typical. It wants to pretend that Israel was the one “rejecting” a ceasefire it never knew about. Anti-Israel protesters in the US and a compliant media would eat it up, and they did. 

Unfortunately the Biden administration does not support Israel. They have attempted to protect the terrorists since October 7th.

The article also notes:

But there’s a shameful twist. Axios reports that the US was aware of the Hamas deal but did not brief Israeli officials.

“Two Israeli officials said the feeling is that ‘Israel got played’ by the U.S. and the mediators who drafted ‘a new deal’ and weren’t transparent about it,” the outlet says.

Just as those same officials are willing to give Iran everything and more for the terrible nuclear deal, so Biden would  bend over backwards for Hamas if only it will placate the Israel-haters on his left. 

The article concludes:

It’s no wonder Israel decided to begin its Rafah operation last night. When its supposed “closest ally” doesn’t have its back, it has no choice. Israel must stop this threat to its existence.

Biden could have been a partner in that. Instead, he went down in ignominy as a traitor to a friend.

The problem with America supporting terrorists who fight Israel is that America is the terrorists’ next target.

Bait And Switch By The Democrats

On Sunday, Fox News posted an article about the aid to Israel that the United States has promised. Remember when the Republicans were told that they had to pass the horrendous aid to Ukraine bill in order to get aid to Israel? Well, we have been fooled again.

The article reports:

The Biden administration has put a hold on a shipment of U.S.-manufactured ammunition to Israel for the first time since the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, according to a report.

Two Israeli officials told Axios that the weapons shipment was stopped last week, leaving officials within the Israeli government scrambling to understand why.

When asked about the report, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council told Fox News Digital that it has supported Israel’s defense since the Oct. 7 attack.

Remember that after October 7th, the Biden administration requested that Israel’s response be ‘proportional.’ As I have previously asked, exactly what is the correct proportional response to killing innocent civilians at a music festival, raping women, mutilating bodies and taking hostages?

Are we supposed to let Hamas regroup and do another October 7th-style attack?

When The World Is Upside Down

The recent pro-Palestine protests on American college campuses were a disgrace. The students were not only overlooking the fact that there are still Americans held hostage by Hamas, but many of the homosexual students who were part of the protests have no idea how they would be treated in a Sharia Law compliant country. Ignorance is bliss, but it is not always safe or healthy.

On Saturday, Front Page Magazine posted an article about some of the Biden administration’s actions in response to the protests (some of which definitely overstepped the boundaries of peaceful protest). The subject of blocking Jewish students from attending class does not seem to be covered in the Biden administration’s response to the protests.

The article reports:

After weeks of bias intimidation by Hamas supporters aimed at Jewish students and faculty, including Khymani James, an encampment leader who had talked to Columbia University officials about killing Jews, the Biden administration’s Department of Education, with the inevitability of a rigged slot machine in Reno, is launching a “civil rights investigation” into the university for “extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment”.

The complaint comes from ‘Palestine Legal’, the same group providing advice to the encampment protesters.

It complains that “Columbia has reinforced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment, including by suspending Students for Justice in Palestine — a student organization that advocates for Palestinian human rights — for engaging in speech activity supporting Palestinian rights”

What sort of “speech activity” did Columbia University’s SJP chapter engage in?

After Oct 7, Students for Justice in Palestine hailed the Hamas rape of girls, murder of babies and kidnapping of children as a “historic win for the Palestinian resistance”.

The national organization which has 200 chapters on campuses across North America put out a ‘toolkit’ which explained that the Jewish victims were “not civilians” and could be freely targeted.

Its poster for a ‘Day of Resistance’ featured an image of the paraglider that Hamas terrorists had used to massacre and rape young Israelis at a music festival.

Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine celebrated the “unprecedented historic moment for the Palestinians of Gaza” and asserted their “full solidarity with the Palestinian resistance”. It was also a signatory to the “victory or martyrdom” statement signed by the national organization.

The article concludes:

The Department of Education refuses to protect Jewish students from Hamas supporters, but rushes to protect Hamas supporters from Jewish students.

This is much more reminiscent of Germany in the 1930’s than the values of most  Americans. Remember that Germany began enacting anti-Semitic laws in 1933, followed by the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. In March 1933, Dachau, the first concentration camp opened. The anti-Semitic actions of the German government also spawned Kristallnacht in 1938. I do not want to see America go down that path.