Tag Archives: President Biden

The Buck Stops Anywhere But Here

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Most Americans are willing to admit that we have a crisis at our southern border. Most Americans are aware that the crisis began when newly-elected President Biden undid all of the Executive Orders President Trump had used to close the border. However, President Biden is still blaming President Trump for the border crisis. Evidently the fact that President Trump has been out of power for three plus years does not play into President Biden’s logic.

On Saturday, Breitbart posted a list of 64 ways that President Biden has opened America’s borders.

I will post part of the list. Please follow the link above to read the entire list and the details.

Here are some of the highlights:

  1. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden terminated the National Emergency at the Southwest border (Proclamation 9844), thereby halting emergency construction of a border wall.
  2. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden issued an Executive Order (EO) further entrenching the unlawful Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
  3. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden unveiled the U.S. Citizenship Act, which would provide amnesty to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., demonstrating intent to reward illegal border crossers with a path to citizenship.
  4. Jan 20, 2021: President Biden revoked Trump-era Executive Order that was designed to ensure there was meaningful enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
  5. Jan 20, 2021: The Administration issued an Executive action ending limitations and restrictions against immigration from certain countries associated with terrorism.
  6. Jan 20, 2021: The Biden Administration announced a 100-day moratorium on deportations and immigration enforcement, effectively providing amnesty to criminal and other removable aliens and sending the signal the Biden Administration would not enforce the law. 
  7. Feb 1, 2021: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) implemented Acting Secretary Pekoske’s policy requiring a new “process [that] shall provide for assessments of alternatives to removal including, but not limited to, staying or reopening cases, alternative forms of detention, custodial detention, whether to grant temporary deferred action, or other appropriate action.”
  8. Feb 2, 2021: President Biden issued Executive Order (EO) 14010 and began processing asylum claims at the border.
  9. Feb 6, 2021: Secretary of State Antony Blinken suspended, and began termination procedures, for the Trump Administration’s Asylum Cooperative Agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
  10. Feb 2021: The Biden Administration voluntarily stopped applying Title 42 expulsions to children across the board, setting off a major wave of unaccompanied alien children, family units, and illegal aliens generally heading to the U.S. border.

That’s only the first ten. President Biden willingly ended the programs that were securing our southern border. He is responsible for the disaster that border has become. He is also responsible for any negative results of the large number of military-age men that are coming across that border.

What Was Actually In Those Documents?

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Putting aside the fact that a Senator or Vice-President shouldn’t have classified documents in his home or garage, let’s take a look at what some of those documents were and how they might be related to other issues.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

President Joe Biden retained documents related to Ukraine that were classified as “secret” and “confidential,” according to a report by Justice Department’s special counsel Robert Hur, released on Feb. 8.

The 388-page report states that the FBI found a folder labeled “VP Personal,” containing two documents—a telephone call sheet and talking points for a call with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which occurred on Dec. 11, 2015—marked as “secret.”

There is a handwritten note from President Biden in the upper-right corner of the sheet asking his executive assistant to “get [a] copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please.” The document was labeled “confidential” and “EYES ONLY DO NOT COPY.”

Additionally, one appendix in the report states that President Biden kept a memo with the subject line “U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine,” from September 2014. The results of the classification review indicate the memo was “confidential.”

President Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration at the time. His son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of directors of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in May 2014.

Nothing like breaking the law to help and unqualified family member in his job.

The article concludes, reminding us:

Burisma contacted the source to seek assistance in buying a U.S. company to merge with, in the hope that it could go public in the United States.

After the disclosure of an investigation into Burisma by Ukraine’s prosecutor general Viktor Shokin in 2016, the source informed Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, that it could negatively affect the company’s prospective initial public offering.

Mr. Zlochevsky replied that Mr. Hunter Biden “will take care of all of those issues through his dad,” according to the document. Mr. Shokin resigned in March 2016.
President Biden in 2018 bragged at the Council of Foreign Relations that he got Mr. Shokin dismissed.

“‘We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he said about his interaction with Ukrainian officials, referring to a $1 billion loan guarantee he threatened to withhold. “Well, son of a [expletive]. He got fired.”

Mr. Shokin has said that the threat was cited when he was ousted. He said in a sworn statement that then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko asked him to resign because of “pressure from the U.S. presidential administration, in particular from Joe Biden.”

But as of now, there will be no consequences for President Biden ignoring the laws he should have been enforcing.

Does America Have A Justice System?

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On Thursday, The Epoch Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Hur has announced that President Biden will not be charged for mishandling classified documents. I suppose it would be petty to point out that as a Senator or a private citizen he was not entitled to have those documents in his personal possession, but I guess that really doesn’t matter.

The article reports:

Among the reasons stated for not pressing charges was that Biden would present to the jury ‘as sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

I would like to point out that this elderly man with a poor memory is President of the United States. I also question the ‘well-meaning’ part.

The article continues:

“Our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen,” Mr. Hur wrote in a 388-page report to Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The materials, stated the report, included “marked classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, and notebooks containing Mr. Biden’s handwritten entries about issues of national security and foreign policy implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods.” The FBI collected these items during a search of President Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, residence last year.

This is  unbelievable. President Trump’s house gets searched, and he gets charged while President Biden (because he is essentially considered a senile old man) gets away scot free. They searched Baron Trump’s room. Shouldn’t someone have searched Hunter Biden’s room?

I don’t know how (or if) we recover from the banana republic we have become.

 

Victor Hanson’s Statement On Special Counsel Hur’s Report

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Victor Davis Hanson’s Twitter statement on Special Counsel Hur’s report:
Biden is Too Demented to Be Found Guilty of Crimes,  But Not Too Demented to Be President? Special Counsel Robert Hur just found Joe Biden was guilty of violating national security laws in removing classified documents— after examining then Senator and Vice President Biden’s some 15-year habit of removing classified files to his offices and residences, where they were stored in unsecured fashion.
Period. End of story.
Hur then as a disinterested Special Counsel, not a local county prosecutor on a limited budget, logically would have indicted and prosecuted Biden.
It really is a jury’s decision to determine whether Biden was guilty or innocent, or whether he is pardoned/exempted by reason of dementia.
It is not the role of Hur, as a prosecutor and advocate for the state, to imagine how difficult his case might be to prove someone so incapacitated like Biden was guilty, as Hur’s own research and investigations had otherwise indicated that he was.) Is mindset, intention, or mental status a normal consideration of violations of national security laws, or is it the act itself?
So we are back to the James Comey defense: Hillary was guilty but in Lord and Savior Comey’s judgement no jury would likely convict a presidential candidate of such stature of violating national security laws. (NB:  After her reprieve, Hillary immediately claimed such extenuating circumstances were proof of her innocence! And Biden in a nanosecond likewise claimed he is now exonerated too, as was the administration’s plan all along).
Finally note the following:
1) The Left, Hur, and others believe that someone who has lost his faculties and who would not be allowed to drive a semi-truck, teach a class, diagnose a patient, argue a case, wire a house, or cook a hamburger is nevertheless fit enough to run the United States of America.
2) Note this same old/same old shocking but predictable asymmetry. Trump is a mere four years younger than Biden. The left fixated on the fact that he recently confused Nikki Hayley with Nancy Pelosi. Are we then to expect Jack Smith to follow the precedent of his fellow special counsel Hur, who was likewise appointed by Biden administration AG Merrick Garland and thus to conclude that although Trump violated the law by removing files, he seemed too confused to indict, given the likelihood of a sympathetic jury?
3) Hur himself tried to preemptively defend himself from the obvious conclusion that he extended special considerations not to indict Biden in a manner Jack Smith did not to Trump. Yet he omits that there were key differences in the two cases:
Biden had no putative right, as did Trump as President, to declassify files he took home.
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago walled and surveilled estate was far more secure than Biden’s rickety garage.
Biden had stored files for over a decade not less than two years.
Biden’s attorneys came forward just days before Smith was appointed on November 18, 2022. So it was not altruism that prompted their confession after Biden’s years of secretly hiding such illegality, but rather fear that Trump would soon be hounded for a ”crime” of which Biden was found out to be long guilty. So they went public to preempt that charge and falsely claim civic virtue.
This is just more of a long, disgusting pattern of biased applications of the law: Jan 6 vs 2020 May to October deadlier and more violent riots; election denialism of Trump versus Stacey Abrams’s nonstop claims of being the real governor of Georgia; “insurrection” called for in Trump’s speech vs Kamala Harris’s threats that the 2020 riots (“protests”) would and should keep going; the Trump 2020 election gambit versus the 2016 Leftwing coordinated effort to leverage electors into renouncing their states’ popular vote mandates. And so on.
No Department of Justice in our history has ever done more to undermine Americans’ confidence in the fair and equitable application of justice.
This is not the America we grew up in.
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The Number The Mainstream Media Is Somehow Overlooking

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On February 5th, Red State posted an article that provides a whole new perspective on the Democrat South Carolina primary election. The mainstream media reported that President Biden won 96 per cent of the vote. That’s logical considering the efforts the Democrats have made to keep other people out of the primary. However, there is another number that the mainstream media forgot to report.

The article reports:

To his credit, Biden did notch a resounding win in the Palmetto State. He garnered 96 percent of the vote, leaving Marianne Williamson and Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN) in low-low single digits. Funny thing is, only about 131,000 people cast votes in the primary — out of over 3.4 million registered voters. Meaning less than four percent of the state’s registered voters bothered to participate in Saturday’s primary — and less than nine percent of the registered Democrats. 

Even taking into account Biden was the prohibitive favorite, that’s a decidedly unenthusiastic electorate. Which prompts one to ask: If an incumbent president gets 96 percent of the vote with only four percent turnout, does it make a sound?

The lack of participation should cause Democrats to lose sleep at night.

Behind The Jobs Numbers

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On Saturday, Zero Hedge posted an honest analysis of the jobs report that recently came out. It may be the only honest analysis out there. All of us know that the Biden economy is a problem for middle America–food inflation is in double digits, gas prices are lower than they have been but still a dollar or so a gallon more than they were under President Trump, and utility bills have increased dramatically in some places. President Biden may tell us that the economy is wonderful, but many of us living in it are not convinced. Just as an example, the total increase in my husband’s and my Social Security this year (after deducting the cost of Medicare) was about $115. I suspect that a lot of retirees didn’t even see that much of an increase. I can assure you that our grocery bill has gone up more than that.

The article at Zero Hedge is complicated and detailed. I suggest that  you follow the link and read it for yourselves. I will try to highlight some of it.

The article reports:

The headline data was stellar across the board, starting with the unemployment rate which once again failed to rise – denying expectations from “Sahm’s Rule” that a recession may have already started – all the way to average hourly earnings, which unexpectedly spiked from 4.1% (pre-revision) to 4.5%, the highest since last September, and a slap in the face to the Fed’s disinflation narrative…

… or it would be if one didn’t think of checking how the average rose: well, it turns out that, since average hourly earnings is a fraction, it did not rise due to a jump in actual wages but – since it is earnings over a period of time – “rose” because the BLS decided to sharply slash the number of estimated hours that everyone was working, from 34.3 to just 34.1, which may not sound like a lot until one realizes that the last time the workweek was this low was when the economy was shut down during covid.  Excluding the covid lockdowns, one would have to go back to 2010 to find a workweek that was this anemic.

The article concludes:

…Said otherwise, not only has all job creation in the past 4 years has been exclusively for foreign-born workers, but there has been zero job-creation for native born workers since July 2018!

This is a huge issue – especially at a time of an illegal alien flood at the border – and is about to become a huge political scandal, because once the inevitable recession finally hits, there will be millions of furious unemployed Americans demanding a more accurate explanation for what happened – i.e., the illegal immigration floodgates that were opened by the Biden admin.

Which is also why the Biden admin will do everything in his power to insure there is no official recession before November… and is why after the election is over, all economic hell will finally break loose. Until then, however, expect the jobs numbers to get more and more ridiculous.

Creating An Energy Crisis In America

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The last real energy crisis America experienced was in the 1970’s. It was then that the country discovered that there was a price to be paid for not being energy independent. We have forgotten that lesson.

On Friday, Red State reported:

In a Friday morning announcement, the White House and Department of Energy (DOE) revealed their next target — and it’s enormous.

The White House is halting the permitting process for several proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal projects over their potential impacts on climate change, an unprecedented move environmentalists have demanded in recent months.

[T]he pause [will] occur while federal officials conduct a rigorous environmental review assessing the projects’ carbon emissions, which could take more than a year to complete. Climate activists have loudly taken aim at LNG export projects in recent weeks, arguing they will lead to a large uptick in emissions and worsen global warming.

The article concludes:

Chatterjee (former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chair Neil Chatterjee) was right— but here’s the thing. Facts, data, and science only matter to Democrats when they support the left’s narratives. We saw it with COVID-19. When facts don’t support the left’s narratives, they are to be dismissed, lied about, or outright ignored. (See: “Anthony Fauci.”)

Finally, House Speaker Mike Johnson released a statement following the White House announcement, warning that Biden is playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hand.

This announcement by President Biden is as outrageous as it is subversive. Stalling LNG export terminals, like Calcasieu Pass 2 in Louisiana, not only prevents America’s economic growth, it empowers our adversaries like Vladimir Putin.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, American petroleum producers have increased LNG shipments to our partners in Europe to prevent a catastrophic, continent-wide energy crisis and to provide an alternative to Russian energy exports.

It is outrageous that this administration is asking American taxpayers to spend billions to defeat Russia while knowingly forcing allies to rely on Russian energy, giving Putin an advantage. 

This policy change also flies in the face of the commitments made when the White House announced the joint US-EU Task Force less than two years ago to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia and strengthen energy security.

Nailed it. The question is, whether Biden is capable of understanding the gravity of the Speaker’s statement. The answer is no doubt chilling.

The Bottom Line

If the environmental alarmist crowd came out today and announced it has changed its position on natural gas, Joe Biden would be singing its praises before he eats his pudding cup and goes nighty-night.

Pleas follow the link to read the entire article. We are committing economic suicide.

News From The House Oversight Committee

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the testimony given to the House Oversight Committee by Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker. The testimony is important, but will probably be ignored by the mainstream media.

The article reports:

Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker appeared for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee Friday as the latest witness in the impeachment inquiry and weeks before Hunter Biden is set to testify.

According to a source familiar with Walker’s testimony, he confirmed reports that Hunter Biden’s work for the Chinese energy company CEFC began while Joe Biden was still Vice President, in 2015.

In December, Just the News reported that the impeachment inquiry had assembled a growing body of evidence that Hunter’s work with the Chinese energy company started years before its million dollar payments began to flow into the Biden family coffers in 2017, following Joe Biden’s departure from office.

It it interesting to me that the Committee is lining its ducks in a row before they get to Hunter Biden. The information that is being uncovered seems to implicate President Biden, but since the questionable activities occurred before he was President, I don’t see impeachment as an option. However, if influence peddling is proven, it does seem as if some sort of accountability should be required.

The article also notes:

Previously, the Oversight Committee traced funds from CEFC that ultimately ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account through his brother, James.

According to a previous committee memo, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company connected to CEFC, sent $5 million in August 2017 to Hunter Biden’s company. Later that month, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by Biden’s brother, James Biden, and his sister-in-law Sara Biden, evidence shows.

Days later, Sara Biden took out $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group and then deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal account that same day. The following week, Sara Biden sent a $40,000 check to Joe Biden marked as a “loan repayment.”

According to a source familiar with the testimony, Walker reportedly made excuses for Joe Biden’s apparent involvement in the CEFC deal, despite texts from former business partner Tony Bobulinski that appear to show otherwise, Just the News has learned.

It’s amazing how some people really prosper after being elected to serve the public.

 

Dealing With China II

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Author: R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

Question: Is China an ally, adversary, or enemy? The answer to this question should define how we interact with them. Clearly, China is not an ally. An adversary is one who acts in ways opposed to another’s interests. An enemy, is one who is seeking to injure, harm or overthrow another country. Let’s look at some facts.

China has stated that their intention is to replace our position in the world by weakening us and is committed to expanding their military and replacing the dollar as world currency with their yuan in order to do so. They are also enabling the smuggling of deadly fentanyl into our country which kills 100,000 of our youth each year. They steal our technology, ignore our patents and copyrights, and use deceptive trade practices. They recently sent a spy balloon over our country which the inept Biden regime failed to shoot down or take retaliatory action. They produced a deadly virus that killed millions throughout the world including thousands in the United States. They are sending thousands of their citizens over our border illegally. Currently there are over 350.000 Chinese students attending our universities, many of which have been caught spying for China. Also, China is apparently giving millions of dollars to the family of president Biden to control his decision making.

How do you think China would respond if we were doing these things to them? It is no wonder that they see us as weak, in decline, and ready for take over. The question, now that we recognize China as an enemy, is what action to we take to protect ourselves? First, elect a non-compromised president who has the courage to face the threat that China presents. Second, eliminate our dependency on China for essential manufacturing products and importantly, essential pharmaceuticals. Third, expel all Chinese in our universities. Fourth, impose draconian tariffs on all Chinese products until their enabling of fentanyl smuggling over our border is stopped. Fifth, prohibit the sale of any land or food processing companies.in our country to China.

These actions may seem extreme to some. However, history is replete with countries who were destroyed by not recognizing external threats. It is time to recognize reality and take appropriate action before it is too late.

Creating An Unnecessary Constitutional Crisis

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On Thursday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the crisis at the southern border. There has been a crisis at our southern border since day one of the Biden administration when President Biden undid some of the procedures President Trump had put in place to deal with illegal immigrants. I am not sure why this is finally being addressed after three years, but I am glad that someone is taking action. It is very possible that it is finally being addressed because of the impact moving the illegal aliens around the country has had on Democrat-controlled cities. I am always suspicious of the timing of crises–in recent years they have become political tools.

John Hinderaker reports:

The Biden Administration has dealt a devastating blow to America by opening up the southern border to all comers. The influx of illegals threatens our national security and our economy, and it has placed an intolerable burden on the border states. How intolerable, is demonstrated by the panic that seizes blue cities when they are faced with a tiny fraction of the burden suffered by communities near the open border.

Joe Biden’s border policy is unconstitutional. Under Article II, his most fundamental duty as president is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Biden has not faithfully executed our immigration laws; rather, he has deliberately sabotaged and negated them. This is an impeachable offense, but what to do in the meantime?

In Texas, a constitutional crisis may be brewing. Governor Greg Abbott, having had enough of the scofflaw Biden Administration, had fencing erected along the border to discourage illegal migration. Biden, determined to illegally undermine our country, directed that the fencing be torn down so that more illegals can pour in. The case reached the Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 to overturn a Court of Appeals decision that enjoined federal border agents from cutting the wire. So for now, the Court has the feds back in control.

The article includes a memo written by Texas Governor Greg Abbott stating that it is the responsibility of the federal government to enforce the border. It also includes screenshots of tweets by other governors supporting Governor Abbott.

The article concludes>

Sarah Hoyt says that Oklahoma, Montana, Virginia, Arkansas, West Virginia, Louisiana and Idaho have also lined up behind Texas. And, she reports, the entire Republican Governors Association has signed a letter supporting Abbott. So far, no Democrats. Fine: let’s let sovereignty be the issue on which the 2024 election turns.

I haven’t studied the constitutional issues raised by this crisis in any detail. For the moment, I would simply say, with Justice Robert Jackson, that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. No sane interpretation of the relevant constitutional provisions could conclude that a scofflaw president, by violating federal law and betraying his oath of office, can disable the states, who came together to form the federal government in the first place, from defending themselves against foreign invasion.

A nation without borders is no longer a nation. The battle has been joined. Let’s fight it out.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

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President Biden and his administration are claiming that they have inflation under control and that Americans are doing better than ever. They can claim all they want, but a quick trip to the grocery store could quickly result in widespread skepticism.

On Friday, Red State posted an article where the Tweets tell the real story.

These are the tweets:

I realize it is hard to read, but the price went from $5.99 to $7.69 in three years–a 28 percent increase. Did your income go up 28 percent in those three years?

 

Not Everyone Has The Gift Of Self-Awareness

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On Monday, ABC Channel 5 in Cleveland posted the following headline:

Howard Dean says leading GOP candidates don’t look presidential

I’m stunned.

The article reports:

Speaking to Scripps News moments before the start of Monday’s Iowa caucuses, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said that none of the leading Republican presidential candidates look presidential. 

Dean, who was a presidential hopeful in 2004, had a disappointing showing during the Democratic Iowa caucuses that year. His campaign might be best remembered for the “Dean Scream,” after Dean gave an impassioned speech when he finished third in that year’s Iowa caucuses. Dean was behind eventual Democratic nominee John Kerry and his eventual running mate John Edwards. 

The article also notes:

“Biden is the president and he’s acting like a president,” Dean added about not campaigning in Iowa. “I think Biden has gotten a bit of a raw deal from the mainstream media. People want to focus on his age. You know, I’ve been around a long time; this is the most extraordinary president on domestic policy in terms of job creation, bringing high tech to rural areas, which is badly needed, climate change.”

One reason Biden wasn’t in Iowa is that the Democrats’ Iowa caucuses are scaled down this year. Instead of choosing their presidential preference, Iowa Democrats are caucusing to discuss policy and to choose delegates. 

After a while, you begin to wonder what universe some people live in. I don’t expect to see a lot of campaigning from President Biden this year. It has become obvious in the past year that he is losing his battle with dementia. I have not posted pictures of some of his recent episodes of disorientation because I believe it is cruel to post them, but it is also cruel to put a man with obvious dementia in the presidency. I also suspect that there might be an abrupt switch of the Democrat’s 2024 candidate sometime this spring. Also, I find it interesting that Howard Dean is commenting on looking presidential.

There Is Spin, And There Is Spin

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On January 18th, Issues & Insights posted an article about the difficulty the Biden presidential campaign is having gaining traction.

The article notes:

Rep. James Clyburn, who is a co-chairman of Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, recently tried to explain the president’s predicament by saying that he’s “delivered for the American people in such a way that nobody seems to grasp.”

As campaign slogans go, that’s not exactly “Morning in America.” But the truth is that everybody grasps what Biden has delivered. It’s what he’s delivered that they don’t like.

Clyburn, talking on MSNBC, said the public just needs to “look at the facts and stop listening to all of this tweeting and stuff that’s going on out there that’s not good for the American people.”

We took the South Carolina Democrat’s word for it, and here’s what we found that Biden has delivered, at home and abroad.

This is the list of what President Biden has delivered:

The cost of living has skyrocketed.

Real wages are down.

Poverty is up.

The national debt has exploded.

Deficits are on the rise.

Illegals are flooding across the border.

Attacks on the U.S. are up.

The world is a more dangerous place.

Please follow the link above for further details.

Does anyone want four more years of this?

What An Incredible Coincidence!

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported that Hunter Biden didn’t sell any paintings under his father was elected President.

The article reports:

Hunter Biden’s first art sale with a professional art dealer came shortly after his father, Joe Biden, was elected president, his art gallerist testified earlier this month.

Attorneys for Georges Berges, Hunter Biden’s New York City-based gallerist, provided a letter to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees showing Hunter Biden sold his first piece of art with Berges on Dec. 11, 2020, according to a transcript reviewed by the Daily Caller.

The article notes:

“[W]hen did you first sell a piece of Hunter Biden’s art?”

“Gees, I don’t remember,” Berges said. One of his attorneys appeared to show him the letter with the date of Hunter Biden’s first art sale with Berges.

“Is this the–so, December 11th, 2020,” Berges stated.

“So according to your letter, the first sale of Hunter Biden’s art was on December 20th. Had you established anything in writing regarding your relationship with Hunter Biden at that time? Excuse me. December 11th,” Berges was asked.

“I believe so, yeah,” he replied. He recalled a 60% to 40% split between Hunter Biden and himself in the terms of the first contract. He believed the first contract was agreed upon around the 2020 presidential election but he could not recall a precise date.

Berges and Hunter Biden entered into a new contract in September 2021, and Hunter Biden received a slight commission increase in the new deal. The 60% to 40% rate for artists and gallerists is the industry standard, Berges said.

As part of the initial contract, Hunter Biden was allowed to learn the identity of his art buyers, and in the second contract Berges was required not to inform Biden of his buyers, the art gallerist testified.

The article also notes another strange coincidence:

On Feb. 17 2021, right after President Biden’s inauguration, Democratic donor Elizabeth Naftali purchased a piece of Hunter Biden’s art for $52,000, Berges stated. It took the art gallerist a year of persuasion to get Naftali to buy the piece.

President Biden appointed Naftali in July 2022 to a presidential commission tasked with preserving America’s heritage abroad. She bought another Hunter Biden art piece for $42,000 on Dec. 9, 2022. Berges confirmed that Naftali knew Hunter Biden and he believed she could have told him about her art purchases.

The art gallerist said he did not provide the White House with any records of Hunter Biden’s art sales or the patrons who bought his art.

Please follow the link to the article for further details. To say that this whole new art career on the part of Hunter is fishy is like saying water is wet.

Exactly What Are We Supporting In Ukraine?

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How is the Ukrainian government acting any differently than the Russian government they are fighting? What citizens’ rights does the Ukrainian government under President Volodymyr Zelensky support?

On Friday, Breitbart reported:

American journalist Gonzalo Lira has died in a Ukrainian prison, according to show host Tucker Carlson.

Carlson posted on X on Friday evening:

Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments. Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen, but the Biden administration clearly supported his imprisonment and torture. Several weeks ago we spoke to his father, who predicted his son would be killed.

In early December, Carlson interviewed Lira’s father, who blamed President Joe Biden and the State Department for allowing his son to languish in a Ukrainian prison for criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, the West’s response to the Russian invasion, and President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Lira is a dual citizen of Chile and the U.S., and was living in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at the time of the invasion last year, as reported by Breitbart News’s Kurt Zindulka. He began giving his on-the-ground perspective of the war, attributing it to Western antagonism to Moscow.

Lira was arrested multiple times, and was last imprisoned for attempting to cross the border of Ukraine and seek asylum in Hungary. He faced multiple years in prison under Ukraine’s wartime propaganda laws, being accused of having “criminal intent aimed at the manufacture, distribution materials containing justification, recognition as legitimate, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine…as well as justification, recognition as legitimate of the temporary occupation of part of Ukraine territory.”

He was also reportedly accused of publishing videos with the faces of Ukrainian soldiers, despite many such videos being freely available online and published by news outlets.

“The charges against me are just because of my opinion about this conflict, I did no harm to anyone,” Lira claimed before his latest imprisonment.

In September, the State Department confirmed to Breitbart News that it was aware of Lira being imprisoned in Ukraine, saying in a statement:

We are aware of the detention of Mr. Lira in Ukraine. We take our role in assisting U.S. citizens abroad seriously and are providing all appropriate assistance. We are monitoring the situation but have no further comment at this time. We reiterate our message that U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict.

Considering the fact that Mr. Lira is an investigative journalist in Ukraine, does anyone really believe that the American State Department wanted him released?

 

 

Action Is Good, But When Do We See Results?

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On Friday, Townhall reported that Congressman Jim Jordan is seeking a specific document from FBI Director Christopher Wray regarding payments to the Biden family from overseas entities.

The article reports:

As House Republicans continue to explore impeaching President Joe Biden, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has a request for FBI Director Christopher Wray. On Thursday night, Jordan sent Wray a letter informing him that the Committee is seeking an FBI FD-1023 form from March 1, 2017 to do with “a confidential human source (CHS) report about payments made to the Biden family from foreign entities.” As the letter explained, the FD-1023 in question “is referenced in a second FD-1023 from June 2020 detailing bribery allegations that involve President Biden and his son, Hunter,” and is needed to “evaluate whether sufficient grounds exist to consider drafting articles of impeachment.” 

The Committee knows about the FD-1023 thanks to testimony  that former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott Brady provided, who had asked the FBI to find information on files to do with Burisma–where Hunter Biden served on the board of directors–after he had been tasked by then Attorney Bill Barr to sort through FBI files. 

As Jordan explained during his Thursday night appearance on Fox News’ “Hannity,” the 2017 FD-1023 “became the basis for…Brady… asking to talk to the [CHS] that produced the 1023 form we have.” They’re now asking for this form. 

Brady testified it was “correct” that the FD-1023 in question “was not information provided from the public.” The FBI also waited until being contacted by Brady to reach out to the CHS for more information. Brady categorized the FD-1023 as having “not been developed,” making clear “it’s fair to say that it had not been looked into or developed any further.” It was because of Brady’s directive that the FBI took action to develop the information in the FD-1023. 

Frankly, it is my opinion that all that will become of this is that Christopher Wray will stall until the end of the year, hoping that a few more Democrats will be elected to the House of Representatives and the issue will go away. We have seen so much obvious evidence of wrongdoing for years, and nothing has been done. I am not optimistic about that changing.

The Accusers Have NO Moral Ground To Stand On

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On Wednesday, The New York Post posted an article about some of the activities surrounding the legal case against President Trump in Georgia. The shenanigans are unbelievable.

The article reports:

The special prosecutor that Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is accused of having an “improper” relationship with billed the Fulton County DA’s office $4,000 for two eight-hour meetings with White House officials while overseeing the election interference case against former President Donald Trump, according to court documents.

The apparent meetings attended by Nathan Wade, an Atlanta-based private attorney hired by Willis to assist in the prosecution of the Trump and his co-defendants, took place in 2022 after he was tapped for the role, according to invoices included in a bombshell court filing by Michael Roman, a former Trump 2020 campaign official.

Roman argues in the court filing that Willis should be disqualified from the case and the charges against him dropped because of her alleged “improper, clandestine personal relationship” with Wade.

The services rendered by Wade in conjunction with the case seemingly included attending an event with White House counsel in Georgia and a meeting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the invoices show. 

Not only are the taxpayers paying for the lawfare against President Trump, they are paying for an inappropriate relationship between the District Attorney and one of the prosecuting attorneys. The chutzpa of these people in amazing.

The article notes:

Last September, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) demanded that Willis detail any contact her office has had with federal officials about her prosecution of Trump, a request the DA refused to comply with. 

Jordan, a staunch defender of Trump, argued that Willis’ case could be “designed to interfere with the 2024 presidential election,” in which the 77-year-old is the Republican front-runner against President Biden.

Willis, in a chiding response to Jordan, accused the committee chairman of lacking “a basic understanding of the law” and attempting to “intrude upon and interfere with an active criminal case.”

Roman’s filing claims that “sources close to both the special prosecutor and the district attorney” have confirmed that Willis and Wade had an ongoing fling, and that Wade filed for divorce in Cobb County, Ga., “a day after his first contract with Willis commenced” in November 2021. 

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday Willis has been subpoenaed to testify in Wade’s divorce proceedings. 

Does anyone in the Democrat party have a sense of decency or a respect for the Constitution?

Misinformation And A Continuing Narrative

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Recently President Biden recently gave a speech where he talked about attending the funerals of police officers killed on January 6th. Just for the record, there were no police officers killed on January 6th. There were two civilians killed–one shot and one beaten and trampled during a police-caused stampede in the Lower West Terrace tunnel.

Capitol Policeman Brian Sicknick died on January 7th, after having been admitted to the hospital for a stroke on January 6th. The medical examiner ruled Sicknick’s cause of death as natural causes–two strokes. There is speculation that the strokes were a reaction to either the chemicals sprayed by the police on that day or the chemicals sprayed by the protestors that day. We will never know.

However, when was the last time that a police officer who died of a stroke was honored by flags flown at half mast and lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda? Those two things, ordered by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer were done to plant the idea in peoples’ minds that Brian Sicknick had been killed in the line of duty by radical extremists. It was all a lie. I am sure all of the police involved on January 6th were stressed. I am also sure that many of them were angry that the reinforcements that the President (Trump) had asked for were denied. There were also police that called headquarters for reinforcements and did not get a timely response.

The bottom line here is that we have been fed a lot of lies about January 6th. Many of those lies have been debunked as the videos of the day have been released. I am sure many more of the lies will be revealed as more video is released. Meanwhile, there are people in jail for simply walking through the Capitol after the police opened the doors. These defendants have been sitting in jail with no bail awaiting trial for three years. That is in total violation of the U.S. Constitution. Where are the lawmakers who have sworn an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution?

An Odd Shift In Reporting By The Mainstream Media

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Some of us who watch the mainstream media closely are often suspicious when the media starts covering a story that they have purposely ignored. Generally there is a political motive behind the sudden coverage.

On January 3rd, Issues & Insights posted an article wondering why the mainstream media was all of a sudden concerned about the number of illegal aliens coming into America every day.

The article notes:

After spending three years largely ignoring the border, the mainstream press is suddenly all over it, with headlines blaring about a “surge,” “crisis” and “call for action.” Why now?

…Weirdly, the press is even exaggerating the current “surge.” Consider that CNN story, which says:

“Border authorities encountered more than 225,000 migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border this month, marking the highest monthly total recorded since 2000, according to preliminary Homeland Security statistics shared with CNN.”

Except that’s not true. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, illegal crossings exceeded 225,000 in August, September, October, and November of this year, and in six previous months since President Joe Biden took office.

As a matter of fact, illegal crossings have averaged more than 200,000 since Biden moved into the White House.

Also weird is the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is leaking these numbers for maximum effect, given that Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has spent the past three years insisting that the “border is secure.”

The article points out when the crisis began:

So again, we ask, why now? This is a crisis that began the moment Biden took the keys to the White House.

The Financial Times – in an article headlined “Surge in border crossings creates political upheaval in the U.S.” – offers a clue. It notes that “the migration issue is gaining salience among Democrat voters” and quotes Houston immigration lawyer Charles Foster saying: “It’s gotten to the point that the vast majority of Republicans and a growing percentage of Democrats agree with this concept that the border is wide open now.” 

A December Wall Street Journal poll finds that Biden trails Trump by 30 points on voter confidence in securing the border.

Is this part of the effort on the part of the Democrat party (in conjunction with the mainstream media) to force President Biden not to run again? I believe we will know the answer to that question sometime in March.

This Really Isn’t What I Wanted To Hear

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On Sunday, Fox News posted an article about a statement made by Chinese leader Xi Jinping during his year-end address on Sunday.

The article reports:

Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China during his year-end address on Sunday.

Tensions between China and Taiwan remain high, and Taiwanese voters are set to participate in the island’s elections on Jan. 13. Xi has repeatedly affirmed China’s stance that Taiwan is a part of China and that it must be reunified, by force if necessary.

“All Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” Xi said in Sunday’s address.

“The motherland will surely be reunified,” he added.

The speech was the second time in a matter of days that Xi addressed the Taiwan issue. Xi also vowed to reunify Taiwan on Tuesday during a symposium in Beijing commemorating the 130th anniversary of the birth of Mao Zedong, the founding father of Communist China.

…Taiwan split from mainland China in 1949, when democratic forces fled there after losing a civil war against the Chinese Communist Party.

Knowing all of the money that has flowed from Communist China to the Biden family, I seriously doubt that President Biden would interfere in a communist takeover of Taiwan. However, if President Trump is elected next year, I don’t think China would move on Taiwan. That would make it in China’s interest to prevent another Trump Presidency. Because China is a major financial player in America’s mainstream media, I expect to see a lot of hit pieces on President Trump in the coming months. Those stories will be proven false after they have done their damage.

 

 

The Whoppers Of 2023

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On Thursday, The New York Post listed twelve of the most outrageous lies told by politicians and the media during 2023. Please follow the link to the article for the details, I will simply post the  list.

This is the list:

#1

“The Middle East . . . is quieter than it has been for decades.”

— National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Foreign Affairs, November/December (print edition)

#2

“We ended cancer as we know it.”

— President Biden, July 25

#3

“Age jokes can’t diminish Biden’s unrivaled experience and wisdom.”

— The Hill, Dec. 11

#4

“Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say

— The New York Times, Oct. 17

#5

“Let’s always take a moment to also see what we have achieved thus far, while we clearly see the moment that we are presently in. So we have achieved a lot.”

— VP Kamala Harris, June 23

#6

“In the Hanukkah story, the Jewish people were forced into hiding. No one thought they would survive.”

— Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Dec. 11

#7

“Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink.”

— The Washington Post, July 13

#8

“We have seen the effectiveness of our approach [to the border].”

— Homeland Security boss Alejandro Mayorkas, May 10 

#9

“We have been [in Israel] for more than 1.5 million years.”

— Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh, May 22

#10

“There would be no climate crisis if there was no racism.”

— Jane Fonda, May 27

#11

“People Are Getting Real Heated Over a Gas Stove Ban That Isn’t Even Happening.”

— The New Republic, Jan. 12

#12

“Biden is extremely well-liked.”

— MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski, Feb. 10

Reality is merely a state of mind.

 

The Decline Of The Influence Of America

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America under President Biden has lost considerable prestige around the world. We are no longer feared, and countries that don’t like us feel free to harass American citizens (and worse) without fear of retribution. We are in a really bad place right now.

On Thursday, Just the News reported the following:

A second U.S. citizen being held captive in Gaza was announced dead Thursday, and Israeli officials said she was actually murdered on Oct. 7 and Hamas has been holding her body captive ever since.

Kibbutz Nir Oz announced the death of resident Judi Weinstein Haggai, a 70-year-old New York native who was an English teacher who specialized in working with special needs children, according to Israeli and U.S. media reports. 

The kibbutz last week announced the death of her husband, Gadi Haggai, 73, who was also a U.S. citizen who was taken captive by Hamas. Officials believe he died after being wounded when Hamas took him captive on Oct. 7, per The Times of Israel.

Gadi Haggai’s body is also being held in Gaza. 

There was a time when killing Americans would get you in serious trouble.

The article concludes:

Six Americans are still being held hostage by Hamas, including Itay Chen, 19; Edan Alexander, 19; Omer Neutra, 21; Sagui Dekel-Chen- 35; Hersh Goldberg Polin and Keith Samuel Siegel, according to Fox News.

When Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, terrorists kidnapped about 240 people and murdered approximately 1,200 others.

Why are we not helping Israel rather than trying to slow them down>

As The Evidence Mounts

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As the evidence mounts that the Biden family had very large inexplicable sources of income during Joe Biden’s political career, the family, the media, and the Democrat party are struggling to explain exactly what was going on. On Thursday, The Hill posted an article with the latest explanation/justification.

The article, by Jonathan Turley, explains:

As the House of Representatives goes into high gear in its impeachment proceedings (and possible contempt resolution against Hunter Biden), the Biden family legal problems continue to mount. In one week, it was revealed that President Biden’s brother James was caught on an FBI audiotape in a corruption investigation, while Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, is now also facing demands for unpaid taxes.

James Biden is expected to appear before the House for questioning in the coming weeks. The appearance may solidify a new line of defense for the Bidens: that they are harmless grifters.

After years of denying influence peddling with the help of an obligating media, even some Democrats are now admitting that Hunter and his uncles have been selling influence. Biden associates confirmed that Joe Biden was the brand that they were peddling to foreign clients, who paid millions to the family.

The article also notes:

The greater problem facing the White House is that roughly 70 percent of voters (including 40 percent of Democrats) believes that President Biden acted illegally or unethically, or both. Even Hunter’s friend Archer said that the president’s denials of knowledge were “categorically false.” Other witnesses, such as Tony Bobulinski, have stated under oath that they personally spoke to Joe Biden about these dealings.

This is likely why defenders are now failing back on the claim that the Bidens may have been grifting, but not actually selling out. It was an act put on for corrupt marks wanting to buy an advantage. That is why the Biden team immediately said that James Biden took $100,000 but then did nothing to deliver his brother.

It is becoming very obvious that Joe Biden is not the model of an honest office-holder. However, since almost all of these actions were done when he was Vice-President, I don’t see their relevance to impeachment. I haven’t seen any actual evidence that he is currently crooked. Admittedly, you can draw that conclusion based on his past actions, but that really isn’t good enough. The Democrats made impeachment a joke. The Republicans need to avoid doing the same thing.

The Ever-Changing Narrative

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Yesterday, instead of complying with the subpoena issued by Congress, Hunter Biden held a mini press conference outside the Capitol building. When Republicans are in contempt of Congress (which Hunter Biden now is), they get arrested. It will be interesting to see what happens to Hunter Biden.

The Daily Caller posted an article about the statement made by Hunter Biden when he gathered the press together yesterday.

The article notes:

Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said six words that Hunter Biden told reporters on Wednesday represent a “huge change” in the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

Hunter defied republicans’ subpoena for closed-door testimony on Wednesday, saying he would only testify publicly. House republicans have threatened to hold Hunter in contempt of Congress.

The article includes the following statement by Representative Jordan:

“The White House’s story has changed multiple times, the Justice Department story has changed multiple times how they handled this investigation. But the story that hasn’t changed, the testimony that has been consistent and stood up to cross examination is the two whistleblowers. Their story has not changed and frankly it’s been buttressed and reinforced by – we’ve done eight different depositions of people involved in the investigation at the Justice Department…None of them have refuted what those guys say. So over time it just keeps changing from the White House. This statement today I think is the biggest news of the morning I guess along with the fact he didn’t show up which he’s supposed to do.”

In September I posted an article about the changing narrative on Hunter Biden’s business dealings (article here). The narrative has evolved as evidence has been uncovered. It began with ‘President Biden has no knowledge of his son’s business dealings, evolved into ‘there is no direct evidence Hunter Biden did anything wrong’ and now has become ‘my father was not involved in any of the financial transactions that I was involved in.’

The next iteration will be, “Joe Biden was in business with his son, but they didn’t do anything illegal.” They need to come up with more Trump drama to see if they can distract people from the truth.

Do You Like Having Electricity 24 Hours A Day?

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Years ago, I remember talking to someone from another country who was very impressed that Americans had electricity for 24 hours every day. In her country they thought four or five hours of electricity a day was good. That was a foreign concept for me. I would like it to remain a foreign concept.

On Sunday, The New York Post posted an article about President Biden’s plans for American energy.

The article reports:

The Biden administration made two virtue-signaling proclamations at last week’s COP28 conference in Dubai that it says will help save the planet from climate change.

The policies aren’t likely to change the planet’s temperature by even one-tenth of a degree, but they might just destroy the 21st-century American industrial economy as we know it.

First, Team Biden announced it will stop production of all new coal plants in the United States.

This comes on the heels of President Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency saying this year it would impose new power plant emission regulations that are virtually impossible for coal plants to comply with.

The article also notes comments from the Vice-President:

Vice President Kamala Harris trumpeted the next day new rules to “sharply reduce methane from the oil and natural gas industry.”

The administration calls methane a “super-pollutant” that it wants to eliminate because it’s “many times more potent than carbon dioxide.”

But methane is effectively a hydrocarbon that comes from natural gas.

Eliminating methane is a de facto ban on natural gas power plants.

Here is the most sinister part of this story that no one in the Biden administration is telling you: Eradicating coal and natural gas plants will ravage America’s electric power capacity.

These regulations will cause rolling blackouts and brownouts across the country, much like we’ve already seen in California — America’s forerunner of radical anti-fossil fuel policies.

The lights will go out intermittently, and home heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer will have to be turned off or rationed.

Without gas and coal plants, hospitals, schools, the internet, construction projects and factories will be routinely shut down when unreliable alternative energy sources like wind and solar power aren’t delivering enough juice.

Upward of 60% of America’s electric power generation will go away — and soon.

Does anyone want to make a wager as to whether or not the mucky-mucks who are making these policies will continue to have electricity 24 hours a day while the rest of us have electricity for maybe eight hours a day?