Unfortunately, The Jobs Report Tells The Story

The Biden administration has spent a lot of time trying to convince Americans that Bidenomics is working. Most Americans are not convinced because all of us buy groceries and gasoline on a regular basis. Now that the jobs numbers for April have been released, the true condition of the American economy is becoming obvious.

On Friday, Townhall reported the following:

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in April according to the latest employment situation report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday morning, the smallest job gain in some six months and significantly below Wall Street estimates for the month.

It was expected that April would bring 240,000 to 250,000 new jobs, and the unemployment rate would remain at 3.8 percent. Instead, April was a big miss, and unemployment ticked up to 3.9 percent.

The article continued:

The labor force participation rate remained at 62.7 percent in April and the average workweek slipped down to 34.3 hours while average hourly wages rose 0.2 percent for a 12-month increase of 3.9 percent.

Comparing wage growth with inflation, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed core inflation was still running at an annualized 3.8 percent in March, meaning Americans’ wages are barely keeping up with still-rising costs.

The hourly wage numbers are a tribute to creative math. If the number of hours worked is decreased, but the income remains the same, it appears to be an increase on paper. It is not an actual increase. If I work 15 hours and make a total of $150, I earn $10 an hour. If I work 10 hours and make $150, I am making $15 an hour. My income has not increased, but my hourly wage has. So scaling down the average workweek increase the average hourly wage.

The article concludes:

“Today’s jobs report confirms the economy is reentering stagflation,” said Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of Job Creators Network, of Friday’s report. “Only 175,000 jobs were created last month, well below the recent average and expectations,” he emphasized. “More than half of new jobs were created in the unproductive government and quasi-government healthcare and social services sectors that don’t provide growth,” explained Ortiz. “Combined with slow economic growth and resurgent inflation, these jobs numbers suggest stagflation has returned.”

Welcome to the results of Bidenomics.

The Plan To Turn Florida Into A Blue State

The population of Florida is growing as people flee the high taxes and high cost of living in many of the northern states. That immigration is not turning Florida blue–most of the arrivals know what they are fleeing. However, the Biden administration has another way of making sure that Florida becomes a reliable Democrat state.

On Tuesday, Fox News posted an article detailing where the migrants who are being flown into America by the Biden administration are being placed. Two Florida cities top the list–Miami with 91,821, and Ft. Lauderdale with 60,461.

The article reports:

During an eight-month period from January through August 2023, roughly 200,000 migrants flew into the U.S. via the program. Of those, 80% of them, (161,562) arrived in the state of Florida in four cities: Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa Bay, according to DHS data obtained via a subpoena by the House Homeland Security Committee and provided to Fox News.

The policy was first announced for Venezuelans in October 2022, which allowed a limited number to fly or travel directly into the U.S. as long as they had not entered illegally, had a sponsor in the U.S. already, and passed certain biometric and biographical vetting. The program does not itself facilitate flights, and migrants are responsible for their own travel.

On April 18th, I posted an article about voter information being given to the people who are illegally crossing our southern border. Flyers are posted at the migrant services center near Brownsville, Texas, that tell illegal aliens: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States.” Voting by illegals is illegal, but these illegal border crossers are not being told that.

The article at Fox News concludes:

DHS has said that those who enter the U.S. under the program undergo and clear a “robust security vetting” as well as other eligibility criteria. 

“These processes are publicly available online, and DHS has been providing regular updates on their use to the public. These processes are part of the administration’s strategy to combine expanded lawful pathways with stronger consequences to reduce irregular migration, and have kept hundreds of thousands of people from migrating irregularly,” a spokesperson told Fox News Digital this month.

Remember that at the same time this is going on, Democrats are trying to prevent voter ID laws from being enacted and enforced. All Americans need to do all they can to fight for fair elections. Every illegal vote cancels out a legal vote.

Our Tax Dollars At Work

On Tuesday, The American Thinker posted an article about one way the Biden administration is dealing with the large number of illegal immigrants coming across our southern border–they are bringing them in in other ways so that the numbers crossing the border are smaller!

The article reports:

By the time Joe Biden’s term ends, if it ends, no fewer than 10 million illegal aliens, many of them criminals and the insane, hundreds of thousands of terrorists and spies, even members of China’s military, will be within America’s borders. Terrorist attacks on a previously unimaginable scale are a certainty, so likely even our feckless FBI director is warning of them, surely to cover his bureaucratic posterior. Should Biden steal a second term, America will no longer resemble America. But voting with one’s feet is far from the only way illegals breach our borders with the help of Biden’s Handlers:

The article continues:

That’s 320,000 in 2023 alone to which they’ll admit. The flights, carrying numbers unknown, continue. The information was obtained only by way of FOIA because these flights, usually in unmarked aircraft,  are kept strictly secret and land only at night. The Administration does this through an app that allows illegals to apply for those flights. Unvetted, they are flown directly into America at no cost, bypassing public scrutiny and cameras depicting them freely crossing our “secure” and “closed” borders. Americans forced to evacuate hostile nations due to the foreign policy idiocy of the Biden Administration have to cough up airfare in advance, when the State Department can be roused to arrange a flight or two. Illegals, once here, are routinely flown and bussed across the country to destinations of their choice, also at taxpayer expense.

The article concludes:

What’s next? Giving illegals free room and board, cell phones, work permits, displacing veterans and the needy, taking over school facilities and lying about all of that? Oh. Right. The Administration is already doing that too.

It’s a truism to say America is a nation of immigrants, but never before have we imported them unvetted, by air, with taxpayer dollars from the brokest nation in history. Never before have we not expected them to pay their own way and to assimilate.

When that bill comes due, who will be left to pay it and what with?

This is not helpful to the future of America.

Are We Being Played?

There have been a number of documents released in the various cases against President Trump that were originally redacted that have now been unredacted. There are some things that have come out that are not surprising–the cooperation between the White House and the Attorneys General prosecuting the former President, but there have also been some somewhat surprising things in the unredacted documents.

On April 28, PJ Media reported the following:

This week in Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon unsealed a trove of new documents that Jack Smith fought to keep hidden. And you’ll soon find out why. Among the documents unsealed were extensive exhibits, motions, and other filings shedding light on the intricate web of communication between the Biden White House and the National Archives and Records Administration in the lead-up to Trump’s indictment.

Investigative journalist Julie Kelly found something interesting in the documents that could change everything. The first things is testimony from an FBI agent who testified that the General Services Association (GSA) had been in possession of Trump’s boxes in Virginia before ordering Trump’s team to come get them.

This is a screenshot of Ms. Kelly’s Twitter post:

Somehow this has not been discussed in any of the reporting on the charges.

The article notes:

“So an entire pallet full of boxes that had been held by GSA somewhere outside of DC is dumped at Mar-a-Lago,” Kelly notes. “Apparently these are the boxes that ended up containing papers with ‘classified markings.'”

“I will double check indictment but I don’t recall this event in the timeline,” she added.

So, it appears that the Biden administration may have been responsible for shipping classified information to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. This development is significant because Trump has previously blamed the GSA for packing the boxes that contained the classified documents, only to later accuse Trump of essentially stealing them and using that as pretext for sending the  FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022.

The article concludes:

Even so, it still raises other legitimate questions. For example, if the GSA had been in possession of the boxes, why wasn’t a review of the materials conducted before they instructed Trump’s team to get them? When it comes to classified information, they wouldn’t have expected Trump and his staff to be responsible for ensuring that classified documents weren’t among the records. Perhaps they did review the contents of the boxes and knew classified documents were contained in them before they told Trump’s people to come get them.

Naturally, the mainstream media isn’t talking about this.

Unless the November election removes this administration from office, this is only the beginning. I believe the stage is already being set for a totally fraudulent election. Pray.

Who Is Paying For The Protests?

It is no secret that George Soros has been working to destabilize and destroy America for some time now. Unfortunately, many of our politicians are working with him. One path to destabilization is to fund continuing protests, causing people to feel unsafe. Look around.

On Monday, Front Page Magazine posted an article about how George Soros is spending some of his money.

The article reports:

The Soros clan has been accused of providing an estimated $15 million to the pro-terrorist groups storming cities in support of Hamas, and an estimated $758,000 already to Biden.

Both of those are only partial estimates of much larger spending by the family of radical billionaires which have simultaneously been funding the anti-Israel movement, trojan horse Jewish groups and the Democratic Party politicians whom they are busy pressuring.

No accounting of Sen. Schumer’s infamous speech attacking Israel can overlook the fact that Alex Soros, the son of the elderly former Nazi collaborator who has defended Hamas, has met at least nine times with Sen. Schumer and called him “his good friend”. The younger Soros has continued meeting with Senate Dem candidates on whose victory Schumer’s Senate Majority Leader role depends.

The outside game of pressure campaigns, street blockades and violent attacks in the streets may get more attention, but is subsidiary to the inside game mastered by the Soros family.

$60 million has been pumped from the Soros network into its own Democracy PAC to help Democrats win. Millions from that PAC have gone to the Democratic Party’s Senate Majority PAC and House Majority PAC. And so when the Soros clan speaks, top House and Senate Democrats like Sen. Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries listen closely and then take action.

Unfortunately, George Soros has been an American citizen since 1961, and it would be difficult to revoke his citizenship and kick him out of the country (although it might be worth a try). It is sad that someone who wants to destroy America can find allies in our government.

The article concludes:

On August 7th, months before the Hamas attacks, Alex Soros co-signed a letter falsely accusing the “current Israeli government” of a “campaign is so severe and so consequential that it merits a proportionate reaction by Israel’s chief ally, the United States of America” such as voting against Israel at the UN and other ways of undermining the Jewish State.

Despite the attacks of Oct 7, all 7 of the demands for actions against Israel were either enacted, moved forward or otherwise entered consideration by the Biden administration.

While the pro-Hamas mobs may condemn the Biden administration, both ‘Genocide Joe’ and the Hamas supporters share a common anti-Israel agenda and a common funding source.

The difference between the inside and the outside game, lies in the facades. What’s the real difference between Biden and Hamas supporters? Appearance. The combination of internal and external pressures, mob violence and massive checks, is a campaign of total warfare against Israel that is designed to appear as if it were coming from many diverse voices.

But behind many of the facades lies one agenda.

The Soros family needs to leave America.

Even Inquiring Minds At CNN Are Noticing Things

On April 22, The Daily Caller posted an article about some interesting  comments recently made at CNN.

The article reports:

A CNN panel on Monday said they found it striking that an alternate juror in former President Donald Trump’s case can attend a dentist appointment while the defendant cannot attend momentous events.

Opening arguments for Trump’s trial related to a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels began on Monday, and the judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, reportedly will end the session early to allow one of the alternate jurors to attend the appointment. Merchan previously ruled that Trump must be in the courtroom throughout the trial because of his status as a criminal defendant, meaning he is not permitted to attend the Supreme Court’s Thursday presidential immunity argument and may not be able to go to his son Barron’s graduation.

…“And the fact that he can’t attend Thursday‘s historic Supreme Court argument on presidential immunity and there’s an open question about whether he’ll be able to attend his son’s graduation,” Reid (CNN legal correspondent Paula Reid) added. “The judge said he’ll consider that, but look, he’s a criminal defendant. He has to attend every single day of court unless he gets a waiver, but the jurors, the judge has signaled he’s going to work around their schedule.”

This is unbelievable. I can’t believe this is happening in America. We used to believe in equal justice under the law. Now the judicial system is being used as a political attack arm of the government. That does not bode well for any of us who do not want to be part of the woke agenda or the economic plans of the Biden administration.

Isn’t Congress Supposed To Be The One Making Laws?

On April 21, American Greatness posted an article about some new regulations the Biden administration is planning for Title IV.

The article reports:

On April 19, 2024, the Biden administration finalized regulations it proposed in July 2022. Likely to avoid backlash at the polls this November, the administration recently indicated it is postponing finalizing the proposed sports-related Title IX regulations it published in April 2023. In each case, the regulations do something that not only the Executive Branch does not have authority to do but also what Congress has specifically declined to do.

They declare that “sex” in Title IX actually means sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

The Executive Branch has no authority to make such a radical change in the meaning of a statute. But this is no ordinary Executive Branch. This is the one whose chief executive recently boasted that although the Supreme Court ruled that he does not have the authority to forgive student loans, he is doing it anyway,[ii][ii]1 requiring truckers and plumbers to absorb the cost of strangers’ ineffectual college degrees. And although the President is required to administer and enforce the laws Congress has passed, this President has steadfastly refused to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.

Our government of, by, and for the people has bit by bit become a government of forced mandates to which we do not consent. Mandatory school, business, and church closures during 2020, along with required COVID-19 shots, were but the most visible recent manifestation of this trend.

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, commonly known as the DREAM Act, was first introduced in Congress in 2001 and reintroduced numerous times thereafter. Each time, members of Congress, mindful of the opposition of their constituents, refused to pass it. Nonetheless, in 2012, without even relying on his phone and his pen as he had threatened, but merely with a memorandum from the head of his Department of Homeland Security, President Obama implemented DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) and DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans), a similar program for their parents, in effect implementing provisions of the law—the DREAM Act—which Congress repeatedly refused to pass.

Where is Congress? Hasn’t anyone in Congress figured out that this is not the government of our Founding Fathers? The checks and balances our Constitution put there are there for a reason. Congress needs to stand up and take back the power our Founding Fathers gave it.

Regulations Matter

On Thursday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the regulatory nightmare that is being created by the Biden administration.

The article reports:

Just after Ronald Reagan won the presidential election in November 1980, economic adviser David Stockman wrote a memo warning the president-elect that he faced an “economic Dunkirk” thanks to the disastrous economy he was inheriting.

Among Stockman’s warnings was that the Carter administration had set a “ticking regulatory time bomb” that would blow up the economy.

“They have spent the past four years ‘tooling up’ for implementation through a mind-boggling outpouring of rulemakings, interpretative guidelines, and major litigation – all heavily biased toward maximization of regulatory scope and burden,” Stockman wrote.

Stockman – who would later serve as head of the Office of Management and Budget and ended up losing Reagan’s trust – had that part wrong. While Carter was a disaster as president, at least he showed an ability to learn on the job. And so late in his term, Carter embarked on a deregulatory campaign to fight inflation. Among other things, he freed the trucking and airline industries from onerous government mandates.

“Carter gave Reagan the phenomenal gift of deregulation. Combined with the (Reagan) tax cuts that largely took effect in 1983, the economy went on a growth tear,” wrote Brian Domitrovic, a scholar at the Laffer Center, in Forbes. “All the capital that Reagan freed up via his tax cuts found room to roam in the deregulated world which Carter had set up.”

Unfortunately the Biden administration has not studied the lessons of history. The article lists some of the regulations the Biden administration has put in place:

  • Force car owners into inconvenient, expensive, range-deficient EVs.
  • Impose emission standards on large trucks that, the industry says, will be “the most challenging, costly and potentially disruptive heavy-duty emissions rule in history.”
  • Sharply raise the cost of drilling for oil and gas on public lands and raise the cost of water.
  • Make it nearly impossible to get permits to expand or build new facilities in most areas of the country without violating impossibly strict clean-air standards.

The article concludes:

In his 1980 memo, Stockman said avoiding an economic Dunkirk required “an initial administration economic program that is so bold, sweeping, and sustained that it totally dominates the Washington agenda (and) holds promise of propelling the economy into vigorous expansion and the financial markets into a bullish psychology.”

Reagan delivered.

It will take even greater levels of boldness today. And while there is hope for such a comprehensive program under the return of Donald Trump, if Biden wins in November there will be no rescuing the economy this time.

Deregulation will be one of the keys to reviving the struggling economy. Despite the fact that the Biden administration keeps telling us that the economy is strong, people are working two jobs to keep up with inflation, there are layoffs in a number of industries, and high interest rates are making it very difficult for new home owners to afford a home.

Is This Just Careless Or Mean-Spirited?

On Saturday, One America News reported that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has again been denied Secret Service protection by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The article reports:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has threatened to take legal action against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after being denied secret service protection for the fifth time.

Department Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas concluded that Kennedy does not require Secret Service protection, in a letter to the Kennedy campaign dated March 28th. This decision was made after conferring with an advisory committee that included the Senate Sergeant at Arms and prominent members of Congress.

Kennedy’s lawyer, Aaron Siri, responded to Mayorkas’ series of denials in a letter on March 29th, which was posted to X, labeling them “capricious, an abuse of discretion, and clearly politically motivated.”

…In the letter, Mayorkas and the DHS are accused of “ignoring the real risks” to Kennedy, citing an instance at a campaign event that involved a guest carrying two loaded handguns.

The Secret Service has extended protection to presidential and vice-presidential candidates since the 1968 assassination of Kennedy’s father and then-Democratic presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy.

Kennedy Jr. is also the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, who was killed in office earlier that decade.

According to the Secret Service website, requirements for protection include declaring oneself in public, being the target of “general or specific threats” and, in the case of independent and third-party candidates, polling at 20% or higher in the Real Clear Politics national average for a minimum of 30 days.

Kennedy’s national average for Real Clear Polling as of Thursday was approximately 11%.

The family history alone should be reason enough for Secretary Mayorkas to provide Secret Service protection. This is simply one more in a list of things that make the Biden administration look vindictive and petty.

The ‘Chamberlain Approach’ Has Never Worked

Those of us who grew up before the age of ‘reconciliation’ with bullies know how to deal with bullies–you beat them up severely and they never bother you again. Unfortunately, America’s leaders forgot that principle shortly after World War II. Now, because they have forgotten that principle, they are on the verge of starting World War III. Neville Chamberlain was the Prime Minister of England from May 28, 1937, to May 10, 1940. In the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, he and Premier Édouard Daladier of France granted almost all of Hitler’s demand that Czechoslovakia cede the Sudetenland to Germany. That agreement left Czechoslovakia defenseless.  Neville Chamberlain returned to England after signing the Munich Agreement a popular hero, speaking of “peace with honour” (echoing an earlier prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli) and “peace for our time.” His intentions were good–he wanted to prevent war. However, it didn’t turn out well. Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939.

On April 14th, The U.K. Daily Mail reported the following:

  • President Biden has made it clear to Benjamin Netanyahu that US forces will not join offensive operations against Iran, according to reports 
  • The comments were made by Biden during a phone call between the two leaders after Iran unleashed a drone and missile attack on Israel 
  • Biden released a statement following the call between the two leaders saying it had reaffirmed America’s ‘ironclad commitment to the security of Israel’ 

How can America have an ‘ironclad commitment to the security of Israel’ if we tell them not to attack the people who are attacking them?

The following was also noted at The Gateway Pundit on April 13th:

Tonight, as Iran launches attacks on Israel, it is important to remember that exactly one month ago the Biden administration granted new sanctions relief to Iran that gave the country access to billions.

The move was criticized by Republicans and downplayed by Democrats and the liberal media.

It’s just another reminder that Biden has a habit of making the exact wrong decision on foreign policy every single time.

It is very possible that America paid for the drones used against Israel.

This Isn’t Going To End Well

American ‘Sanctuary Cities’ are going out of their way to feed, house, and clothe people who are here illegally. That makes no sense at all when Americans are homeless. We need to find a way to help America’s homeless before we take in someone else’s homeless. Some cities are doing amazing financial acrobatics in order to meet the needs of the influx of homeless, jobless, needy illegal immigrants.

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported:

The Democratic-run city of Denver, Colorado, plans to defund its police department to pay for illegal immigrants.

Denver, which is commonly referred to as a “sanctuary city,” announced on Wednesday that it will spend $89.9 million on services for incoming illegal migrants, pulling some of the funding from roughly $45 million in public programs and services. Denver’s police department will be hit with an $8.4 million reduction — about 1.9% of its total operating budget, the city confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Denver became the top destination per capita for incoming migrants in 2023, having had more than 40,000 arrive that year alone — putting the total migrant population at roughly 710,000, according to NBC News. Denver already spent over $42 million in 2023 in housing and medical services for migrants and plans to spend over $100 million on similar costs in 2024.

The fire department will also suffer a $2.5 million reduction, or about 0.8% of its total operating costs, the city told the DCNF. Half of those reductions will also come from vacant positions.

Today, we shared a new budget and a more sustainable newcomer program.

Proud of our city for welcoming those most in need. Proud of our city teams who found ways to minimize budget without major impacts.

Note the use of the word ‘newcomer’ instead of illegal immigrant.

The article concludes:

Over 15,000 migrants have flooded into Denver since May 2023 as a result of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing effort. The Lone Star state sits at the epicenter of the illegal immigration crisis.

More broadly, illegal immigration in cities and states across the U.S. has surged under the Biden administration. There were roughly 1.6 million migrant encounters at the northern and southern border in fiscal year 2021, compared to over 2 million in fiscal year 2023 and roughly a million in the first five months of fiscal year 2024, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Every state is becoming a border state, and every city is becoming a sanctuary city.

 

I Don’t Think The Biden Administration Wants To Hear This

On April 5th, Fox News posted an article about a recent statement by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. There are a lot of centrist Democrats who will agree with the premise behind his statement.

The article reports:

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on Friday said he is “disturbed” by “the weaponization of government against” former President Donald Trump. 

He also vowed that if elected president, he would appoint a special counsel to investigate whether “prosecutorial discretion was abused for political ends” in cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 

Kennedy on Friday issued a statement in an effort to “clarify his views on the events of January 6, 2021.”

“January 6 is one of the most polarizing topics on the political landscape. I am listening to people of diverse viewpoints on it in order to make sense of the event and what followed. I want to hear every side,” Kennedy said, adding that it is “quite clear that many of the January 6 protesters broke the law in what may have started as a protest but turned into a riot.” 

“Because it happened with the encouragement of President Trump, and in the context of his delusion that the election was stolen from him, many people see it not as a riot but as an insurrection,” he said. 

I disagree with his statement that the rioting happened with the encouragement of President Trump. The direct quote from President Trump’s speech is, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” That is not incitement to riot.

The article notes:

But Kennedy said that “reasonable people, including Trump opponents, tell me there is little evidence of a true insurrection.” 

“They observe that the protesters carried no weapons, had no plans or ability to seize the reins of government, and that Trump himself had urged them to protest ‘peacefully,’” Kennedy said. 

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. If nothing else, Kennedy recognizes the danger of an overly-powerful government using its power to silence its political opposition.

That Was Then; This Is Now

I love it when the hypocrisy of the Biden administration is called out, and they trip over their tongues trying to change the narrative. Last week there was a glaring example of that.

On Friday, Breitbart posted the following headline:

White House: ‘Imprudent’ to Compare Israeli WCK Strike to Afghan Strike ‘Three Years’ Ago in ‘Different’ Circumstances

The article reports:

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to questions on how the 2021 U.S. strike in Afghanistan that killed an aid worker is different from the Israeli strike that killed World Central Kitchen workers are different by stating that it’s “imprudent to try to compare two things that happened three years apart in two different conflicts.” And there was an independent investigation of the Afghanistan strike, “and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence.”

Host Martha MacCallum asked, [relevant exchange begins around 3:25] “When we left Afghanistan, we had a similar, tragic Hellfire missile attack that landed and killed ten people, a man who was carrying water, bringing water as part of humanitarian aid, and, at that point, when you were asked, what are we going to do about that, who’s accountable for that? This is what you said, John.”

She then played video of Kirby saying, “None of their recommendations dealt specifically with issues of accountability. … So, I do not anticipate there being issues of personal accountability to be had with respect to the August 29 airstrike.”

MacCallum then asked, “So, there were seven children that were killed by that U.S. Hellfire missile, no accountability, you said, was part of the plan. So, why is this so different than what we did there?”

Kirby answered, “Well, look, these are events that happened three years apart, two different geographic locations, two different countries, two different sets of circumstances, two different types of threat[s] that were being evaluated, and [two completely] different militaries that were involved, with two different chains of command. So, I think we’ve got to be careful comparing both events too closely. We, too, had an independent investigation, Martha, of that incident, and that independent investigator found that there was no need for personal accountability to be had, but did find that the U.S. military needed to make some systemic changes, procedural changes in how we looked at intelligence and acted on that intelligence. The Israelis, similarly, have said the same thing about this event this week with the WCK strike, that they’re going to make some systemic changes. Now, we’re glad to hear that and we’re going to be watching to see what those changes are and how they can put them into effect. But these are two different events.”

Translation–it’s different when we make the mistake.

The Circus Continues…

According to a March 2024 Gallup Poll, about 68 percent of Americans identify as Christians. About 41 percent attend church at least once a month.

In March 2018, the AARP reported:

When broken down by age, results from the multiple surveys show that the oldest Americans — the Silent Generation, born before 1946 — are 84 percent Christian. The figures for younger cohorts: boomers (born 1946 to 1964) 76 percent; Generation X (born 1965 to 1980) 67 percent; and millennials (born 1981 to 1996) 49 percent.

The Christians in America are the voters who are likely to be offended by the Biden administration’s declaration of Easter as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”

According to PJ Media:

By now, we’re all aware that the White House managed to commit the most sacrilegious act imaginable — or at least made the biggest possible slap in the faces of Christians — by emphasizing “Transgender Day of Visibility” over Easter. While the holiday honoring our secular state religion of transgenderism is fixed on March 31, it could have and rightly should have taken a backseat to the moveable feast that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus.

Instead, Joe Biden, his handlers, and the rest of his administration chose to double down on honoring a tiny minority of transgender Americans over the millions of Christians who celebrate Easter Sunday. The White House statement on Easter was only 94 words, while the proclamation of “Transgender Day of Visibility” clocked in at a whopping 635 words. On the president’s X/Twitter account, the “Transgender Day of Visibility” tweet was twice as long (45 words) as the Easter tweet (20 words).

The proclamation (which we’re supposed to believe is Biden’s words) makes ridiculous statements like, “Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our Nation.” It also falsely claims that states enacting laws preventing children from undergoing life-altering hormone treatments and surgeries “target and terrify transgender kids and their families.” To hear the White House tell it, keeping kids safe from making decisions they’re likely to regret denies people “the freedom to be yourself, the freedom to make your own health care decisions, and even the right to raise your own child.” (And I thought this administration only cared about killing children.)

Considering the percentage of transgenders and other alphabet groups and their tendency not to vote, this was a really stupid political move. A semi-apology has been issued, but I am not sure voters will forget this in November.

Why Weren’t The Messages The Same?

On April 1, Townhall reported the following:

The White House’s Spanish-language account on X is not simply a replication of content on its English-language page, critics noticed on Sunday.

While the Biden administration wished followers of both pages a happy Easter, it was only the English-language account that celebrated the Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31. On “La Casa Bianca” page, the White House commemorated Cesar Chavez Day.

“Today we remember César Chávez and his noble efforts to bring dignity to the work of agricultural workers in our country,” the post said, according to a translation. “His legacy lives on in the administration’s values and its support for social justice and economic equality for organized labor.” 

In English, however, “The White House” account posted this: “Transgender Americans are part of the fabric of our nation. On Transgender Day of Visibility, our Administration honors the extraordinary courage of transgender Americans and reaffirms our commitment to forming a more perfect union – where all people are treated equally.”

It’s interesting that the White House did not think that the Hispanic community would be interested in the Transgender Day of Visibility. I suspect that a lot of American Christians were not interested in the Transgender Day of Visibility.

I Went To Biden Mart

I went to Biden Mart to see how much my grocery bill has changed during the Biden administration.

This is what I found:

Obviously that’s not my whole grocery bill, but you get the picture. Anyone who has shopped for groceries in the past three years probably has a similar result. I personally cannot afford four more years of Joe Biden or whoever the Democrats sneak into his place while he’s eating ice cream.

Cooking The Books

The Biden administration claims that the economy is really doing well. Some of us who buy gasoline or shop at grocery stores might not agree with that statement. The other claim has been that there is a booming job market. Our city is have layoffs in some of our local companies, is yours? There seems to be something fishy here. On March 29th, Zero Hedge posted an article explaining what was fishy. This is one of those articles when I post what I don’t totally understand, so please be patient. I have very little to add–the article says it all.

The article reports:

The first red flags emerged in the summer of 2022: that’s when the Biden Labor Department started well and truly rigging the labor market data.

Regular readers may recall that it was back in July of 2022, when we first warned that something had “snapped” in the labor market: that’s when a striking discrepancy emerged between the number of US Payrolls (as measured by the BLS’ Establishment Survey, a far more crude and imprecise, yet much more market-moving data series), and the number of actual Employed Workers (as measured by the BLS’ far more accurate Household Survey) . As we showed then, after the two series had tracked each other tick for tick for years, a wide gap opened in March 2022 which quickly grew to 1.5 million jobs in just 3 months…

The article includes the following chart:

 

The article further explains:

And while some of this discrepancy could be explained with the record surge in multiple jobholders, which increased by 1 million since March 2022 to an all time high of 8.6 million at the end of 2023 (as a reminder, the Establishment Survey counts 1 worker have 2 or 3 (or more) multiple jobs as, well, 2 or 3 (or more) separate jobs, even if it is just one worker trying to make ends meet under the roaring inflation of Bidenomics), most of the gap remained unexplained.

There was more: it was around the summer of 2022 that the Biden labor department – in its zeal to show job growth no matter the cost, or quality of jobs – also started fooling around with the composition of the labor market, with most of the monthly gains going to part-time workers, even as full-time workers stagnated or declined. The culmination, as we reported earlier this month, is that in February 2024, the US had 132.9 million full-time jobs and 27.9 million part-time jobs. Which is great… until you look back one year and find that in February 2023 the US had 133.2 million full-time jobs, or more than it does one year later! And yes, all the job growth since then has been in part-time jobs, which have increased by 921K since February 2023 (from 27.020 million to 27.941 million).

The article concludes:

Putting it all together, we now know – as the Philly Fed reported first – that the labor market is far weaker than conventionally believed. In fact, no less than 800,000 payrolls are “missing” when one uses the far more accurate Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data rather than the BLS’ woefully inaccurate and politically mandated payrolls “data”, and if one looks back the the monthly gains across most of 2023, one gets not 230K jobs added on average every month but rather 130K.

Of course, none of that paints Bidenomics in a flattering picture, because while one can at least pretend that issuing $1 trillion in debt every 100 days to add 3 million jos per year is somewhat acceptable, learning that that ridiculous amount buys 800,000 jobs less is hardly the endorsement that the White House needs.

Which is also why nobody in the mainstream media – which is now nothing more than the PR smokescreen for the Biden puppetmasters, the government and the deep state – will ever mention this report.

As such, we urge all readers to read Philly Fed analysis (link here) and to analyze the excel data (link here) at their own leisure, because in a fascist state, the media no longer works for the people.

Think of these numbers when you vote in November.

Waiting For The Constitutional Challenge

On Wednesday, The Federalist posted an article about the new red flag law the Biden administration recently announced. The article notes that this law is unconstitutional. We all want to limit gun violence, but we need to find a way to do it without infringing on peoples’ constitutional rights.

The article reports:

On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris touted the administration’s new National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center, which will “support the effective implementation of state red flag laws” and “keep guns out of the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.” But there is a problem: Congress never authorized the U.S. Department of Justice to create this resource center. The administration confuses “grants … to implement state … mental health courts, drug courts, veterans’ courts, and extreme risk protection order programs” with creating an entirely new center for one of these areas.

This isn’t the first time the Biden administration has gone beyond what the law allows and done more harm than good.

The Department of Justice press release claims that Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs, also known as red flag laws) will “reduce firearm homicides and suicides.” Surveys show likely voters support laws that “allow guns to be temporarily confiscated by a judge from people considered by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others” by at least 2-1 margins.

If we truly want to curb gun violence, let’s work toward building stronger families with two parents who live together and raise their children together. Let’s make a decision to value life in all its stages–neither killing the unborn or advising euthanasia for the elderly or infirm. The guns are not the problem–mental illness and the devaluing of life are the problem.

Betraying An Ally

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about the impact of the Biden administration’s decision not to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Thank God the United Nations never called for a ceasefire during World War II. Why hasn’t the United Nations called for a ceasefire in Ukraine?

The article reports:

Hamas is reportedly refusing to accept Israel’s terms for a hostage deal and digging in on its demands after the Biden administration refused to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution on Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The resolution did not require that Israeli hostages be released as a condition of a ceasefire — a requirement that the U.S. had made in previous proposals. Instead, the resolution simply mentioned the release of the remaining hostages.

Hamas saw that as a victory — as did nations like South Africa, which is currently pursuing a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, claiming that Israel is committing “genocide” in its war against Hamas.

Hamas praised the Security Council, and said that it was prepared to discuss the exchange of Israeli hostages (which it described as “prisoners”) for Palestinian terror convicts — but only after a ceasefire.

The Times of Israel reported: “Hamas says it has informed mediators that the terror group will stick to its original position on reaching a comprehensive ceasefire, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a return of displaced Palestinians and a “real” exchange of prisoners.”

The article concludes:

A draft U.S. resolution, which was vetoed by Russia and China last Friday, made a ceasefire dependent on the release of the Israeli hostages — indeed, that was one of the reasons cited by opponents of the U.S. draft for voting against it.

The White House claimed Monday that its position had not changed. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disagreed, canceling a meeting between his senior aides and President Joe Biden’s aides to discuss their differences.

Kirby said that the Biden administration was “perplexed” by Netanyahu’s decision, and claimed Netanyahu was overreacting to the resolution by “choosing to create a perception of daylight here when they don’t need to do that.”

The Biden administration’s decision to abstain from the resolution recalls a similar decision by the Obama White House in its last weeks in 2016, when the U.S. abstained from U.N. Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared the Israeli presence across the 1949 armistice lines — including in the Old City of Jerusalem — illegal. The backlash against that decision led President Donald Trump to move the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Are we really sure that the hostages are still alive?

 

 

Who Is Protecting American Cities?

On Sunday, Townhall posted an article about an Amendment to H.R. 2882 proposed by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) that would have stopped the Biden Administration from chartering more than 32,000 illegal immigrants from their countries to various American communities.

The article reports:

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) called out Democrats on Friday night after they opposed legislation that would protect American tax dollars from being spent on flights for hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to be flown to cities across the country. 

“Make no mistake here. President Biden has secretly been flying hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens in foreign countries into blue-city airports,” Hagerty said from the Senate floor. “Just last year alone, in 2023, it was reported that some 320,000 illegal aliens have been flown in using this method.” 

…Hagerty also warned about the implications of illegal aliens living in American communities would have on Congressional seats and electoral college votes.

“Illegal aliens are counted when determining Americans’ representation in government, and the worth of their votes. The more illegal aliens and non-citizens in your state or district, the greater your voting power in Congress and presidential elections,” Hagerty said in a statement. “This means that in a state like California—or a city like New York—millions of illegal aliens result in several more Congressional seats and Electoral College votes for that jurisdiction.”

He claimed that this explains why every single Democrat who voted on his amendment opposed it, adding that the left is “weaponizing the census.” 

Hagerty accused Democrats of being desperate to preserve their political power and making it easier for blue states to “backfill their declining populations” by delivering illegal immigrants to their towns. 

There is no guarantee how the illegal aliens will vote (without a doubt, they will be voting within five years); however, they will currently impact the census and the Electoral College. Somehow I don’t think this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind.

Does Anyone Know Where Our Money Is Going?

On Monday, American Greatness posted an article titled:

GAO: ‘Unclear’ if Pentagon Tracking Reports of Misused Aid in Ukraine

I don’t know about you, but that headline does not give me the warm fuzzies.

The article reports:

While the Pentagon has assured Congress that no U.S. military equipment sent to Ukraine has been diverted, stolen, or otherwise misappropriated, a new report from the Government Accountability Office could not determine if the Department of Defense was tracking allegations of misuse two years into the conflict.

“If you never look, you will never find it,” a source familiar with how the report was compiled said of the worst-case possibility that aid was being misappropriated.

The report comes as President Biden struggles to keep the supply lines open to Ukraine. Although a majority of Congress supports sending further aid to help hold back the Russian onslaught, and the Senate passed a bipartisan aid package late last month, House Republicans have yet to approve the latest round of now-stalled military assistance.

The United States remains the leading supplier of munitions and other aid to Ukraine, providing more than $42 billion in assistance since Russia’s invasion. Much of it has come through the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows the president to transfer equipment from American stores directly to allies. The annual amount was limited by law to $100 million a year until Congress lifted the cap to $14.5 billion.

The sheer tonnage of supplies and the speed of its shipment, according to the GAO report, has left the Pentagon without “quality data” to assess its delivery. Ensuring munitions and materiel arrive in the right hands has led to unprecedented challenges on top of the existing chaos of war. Most officials were evacuated from Ukraine long ago, for instance, and those who remain are restricted from leaving Kyiv to ensure delivery of shipments before it is used or destroyed on the battlefield.

The article concludes:

The GAO included in their report eight separate recommended reforms, which the DoD consented to partly or entirely. In a letter from Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense, that was included in the report, the DoD declined a recommendation to require which allegations of misuse should be recorded and tracked. According to Cooper, the DoD already has sufficient regulations in place.

This will do little to pacify Republicans eager to rein in the war funding.

“The Biden administration has spent two years deceiving the American people, claiming they’ve closely tracked the military material we’ve sent to Ukraine. The GAO’s report not only proves them wrong, it references allegations that U.S. military equipment ended up in the hands of Russian military forces,” Sen. JD Vance, an Ohio Republican and former U.S. Marine, told RCP.

“This is a major problem. I plan to immediately introduce legislation to hold the Biden administration accountable for these errors,” Vance added.

We need a few people in Congress with the backbone to put an end to this ridiculousness–either account for the spending or stop the spending.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Thursday, The Daily Wire posted an article about the amount of taxpayer money that goes to federal employees that actually work for the unions that represent federal employees rather than the government but are paid by the federal government.

The article reports:

The federal government pays more than $100 million a year to employees who aren’t doing their actual government jobs, but rather working for unions representing government employees against management — with taxpayers essentially funding both sides of the bargaining table. 

For decades, the government has tracked and reported those figures, but the Biden administration has removed the reports.

Under the policy known as “official time,” hundreds of nominal government employees haven’t done anything but full-time union work in years, yet remain on the federal payroll. Not only is the policy expensive to taxpayers, but it also props up the power of unions by subsidizing their activities, giving them resources even if employees don’t support them enough to pay dues. Those unions fight against the firing of employees accused of misconduct, and advocate for policies that sometimes pit the interests of employees over the interests of taxpayers, such as resisting a return to in-person work.

The Office of Personnel Management has historically kept track of and published how the program is being used, including during the Obama administration. But the data has not been updated since 2019 — when the government shelled out for 2.6 million hours, or nearly 300 years’ worth, of employee time that was actually spent on union business.

The Biden administration has even been secretive about its secrecy. In December, The Daily Wire asked OPM why the page listing the reports was missing, along with all historical reports except 2019, which can only be located via the search function. A spokesperson said, “Previous reports on official time are not currently available because OPM is reorganizing our website to improve navigation and customer experience.”

The article concludes:

In 2014, the Washington Examiner found more than 500 employees who did no or almost no work for their actual government jobs, despite drawing a full-time salary from taxpayers, because of official time. That includes 271 employees on full-time union release with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 201 from the IRS.

Then-Sen. Tom Coburn said “I just don’t think the federal taxpayers ought to be paying for that… That’s what union dues are for. What’s irksome to me is that we are paying someone to be a pharmacist or a nurse, but they’re not doing that. They’re doing union work.”

Washington is due for a really good cleaning out!

Supporting Israel Publicly While Undermining Israel Privately

On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about the Biden administration’s efforts to undermine the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of the war on Hamas.

The article reports>

U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly attempting to force the “collapse” of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of a war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza and a potential war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Biden has been increasingly hostile to Netanyahu in his public remarks, recently saying that Netanyahu is “hurting” Israel more than he is helping it through his conduct of the war. (Netanyahu fired back, saying that Biden was “wrong.”)

Now, New York Magazine reports that the Biden Administration is actively looking for ways to force Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, which has been remarkably unified, to fall apart, which would bring about early elections. It reported (original emphasis):

One Israeli expert frequently consulted by American officials says, “I have been asked by a serious administration figure what it is that will force the Netanyahu coalition to collapse. They were interested in the mechanics, what can we demand which will collapse his coalition.”

In the event the new American position over Netanyahu remained unclear, Vice-President Kamala Harris left no doubts in a Friday interview with CBS News, which asked “Are the Israelis at risk of losing U.S. aid if this continues?” Harris replied: “I think it’s important for us to distinguish or at least not conflate the Israeli government with the Israeli people.”

In other words: Israelis, we’re with you. Netanyahu, be gone.

I don’t understand how anyone can want a cease=fire and an end to the war after October 7. Israel did nothing to provoke that attack, yet Israel is being criticized for retaliating. That is simply upside down.

Don’t Mess With Mother Nature

On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article about the most recent efforts by the State of California to save the salmon.

The article reports:

“In my opinion, any salmon we’re producing this year are likely dead, and if they get to the main stem, they won’t be able to migrate out. I’m more concerned at this point with how do we rebuild the populations in those rivers,” Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt said.

Environmental groups are celebrating extensive efforts to remove dams across the United States, some of which produce carbon-free electricity. According to American Rivers, an anti-dam advocacy group, 65 dams were removed in 2022, and another 80 were removed in 2023.

Groups like American Rivers argue the dams are killing salmon and steelhead trout populations, encroaching on indigenous cultures, and harming water quality for people and wildlife.

The largest dam removal project in the history of the U.S. began on Northern California’s Klamath River last summer, with the removal of Copco No. 2, the first of four hydroelectric dams to be removed, also called “breaching” or “drawdowns.”

In January, the state began draining reservoirs behind the three remaining dams. The draining is not going well, especially for the fish the projects are supposed to be protecting.

Large amounts of salmon have been stranded on mud that is also trapping deer, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. Officials are warning people not to try to walk through it, as it can be very dangerous. According to California Globe, a two mile sediment plume extends into the Pacific Ocean.

“We’ve been told we’re the experiment,” Siskiyou County Supervisor Ray Haupt told Just The News. “Eyes wide open. It’s coming to a neighborhood near you.”

The article also notes:

Another major dam-removal effort on the Snake River in Idaho took a major step forward recently with the signing of an agreement between the four Columbia River Basin tribes, the governors of Oregon and Washington, and the Biden administration.

While Congress would have to authorize the dams’ removal, Biden administration officials say that removing the dams would help boost “clean energy” and restore wild salmon populations, and the energy produced by those dams will be made up by “the build-out of at least one to three gigawatts of Tribally-sponsored renewable energy production.”

Why are some states removing dams that create clean energy, particularly when they are killing the wildlife they claim to be preserving in the process? I am willing to bet that at some point in the future these states will decide that they need these dams for energy and rebuild them at an exorbitant cost. Hopefully they will at least build them with fish ladders.

Funding Countries That House Terrorists

On March 5th, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about one consequence of the Biden administration’s pause on liquefied natural gas production in America.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas production is already turning into a major financial windfall for Qatar, even as the Gulf regime undercuts the United States and its allies by funding terrorists and sheltering fugitive Hamas leaders.

Qatar, which is the third largest LNG exporter after the United States and Australia, announced last week that it is expanding its natural gas production by 85 percent. The news came weeks after the Biden administration announced that it would freeze new domestic LNG export permits, a policy that many political observers viewed as a concession to climate activists ahead of the presidential election.

Brenda Shaffer, a senior adviser for energy at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Qatar’s liquefied natural gas expansion was likely spurred by Biden’s policy announcement, adding that Doha will “benefit financially” from the pause.

“Nature doesn’t allow a vacuum. The United States is the biggest producer of natural gas in the world. To say that it’s going to put a pause or freeze for a few years, obviously [other countries] are going to pick up that market,” she said.

Energy experts told the Washington Free Beacon that Biden’s LNG announcement is already pushing buyers away from the U.S. market and toward adversarial competitors.

Limiting natural gas production in America does not limit the use of natural gas worldwide–other countries pick up the slack. Natural gas is a very clean fuel and does very little damage to the environment. The Biden administration’s energy policies have consistently negatively impacted Americans and benefitted America’s enemies. We need to go back to helping Americans and the American economy by becoming energy independent again.