Do These Regulations Look Familiar?

The mid-term elections are behind us and even though it is way too early, attention has turned to the 2024 presidential election. One of the challenges to whomever the Democrat candidate is will whether or not the crisis at our southern (and now northern) border is resolved. The Biden administration has a plan for that. Actually, it bears a striking resemblance to the Trump administration plan.

On Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported:

The Biden administration proposed a new restriction on asylum seekers that closely resembles a policy from the Trump administration.

The new rule would prevent migrants who do not use already available legal pathways to asylum and do not seek asylum in a third country from applying for asylum in the U.S. Biden Administration officials said the rule was proposed in response to the end of Title 42 immigration restrictions. It also closely resembles a Trump administration policy which similarly banned asylum seekers who did not first seek asylum in another country.

The article concludes:

After a public comment period, the new restrictions will go into effect on May 11th, the same day that the Biden administration intends to end the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies. Title 42 restrictions, which allow authorities to turn migrants away due to public health concerns, are also scheduled to end then.

The new restrictions closely resemble a similar asylum ban implemented by the Trump administration. Those restrictions, referred to as both “asylum bans” and “transit bans,” were highly controversial and bitterly fought over in the courts from the beginning of former President Trump’s term. The Trump-era bans were blocked by the courts in 2018 and 2020; the final rule was implemented on Trump’s last full day in office, but a judge struck that down as well.

Democrats and immigration advocates decried the new rules because of the similarities to Trump policies. But the Biden administration dismissed those criticisms, and noted that they have provided alternative pathways for migrants to seek asylum. In January, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas rejected the comparisons, saying that his plan was based on “a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility. And there’s a marked difference between the two,” he said, via The Hill.

The South American refugees coming through Mexico are a much better fit for asylum in Mexico than in America. They share the Spanish language and culture. Mexico needs its patriots and those willing to join its patriots to stand up to the thugs that are attempting to take it over. I realize that is easier said than done, but we need both a strong border and a strong Mexican government to put an end to the refugee crisis.

Giving Away American Sovereignty?

On Saturday, The Epoch Times posted the following headline:

Biden Admin Negotiates Deal to Give WHO Authority Over US Pandemic Policies

The next line says:

New international health accord avoids necessary Senate approval

Is anyone else getting tired of the Biden administration’s total disregard for the U.S. Constitution?

The article reports:

The Biden administration is preparing to sign up the United States to a “legally binding” accord with the World Health Organization (WHO) that would give this Geneva-based UN subsidiary the authority to dictate America’s policies during a pandemic.

Despite widespread criticism of the WHO’s response to the COVID pandemic, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra joined with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in September 2022 to announce “the U.S.-WHO Strategic Dialogue.” Together, they developed a “platform to maximize the longstanding U.S. government-WHO partnership, and to protect and promote the health of all people around the globe, including the American people.”

These discussions and others spawned the “zero draft” (pdf) of a pandemic treaty, published on Feb. 1, which now seeks ratification by all 194 WHO member states. A meeting of the WHO’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) is scheduled for Feb. 27 to work out the final terms, which all members will then sign.

Written under the banner of “the world together equitably,” the zero draft grants the WHO the power to declare and manage a global pandemic emergency. Once a health emergency is declared, all signatories, including the United States, would submit to the authority of the WHO regarding treatments, government regulations such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates, global supply chains, and monitoring and surveillance of populations.

Let’s look back on the successes and failures of following the WHO policies during the Covid pandemic. Sweden refused the lockdown suggested by the WHO and (according to the BBC) suffered a death rate of 185.9 per 100,000 people. America locked down and suffered a death rate of 308.6 per 100,000. I don’t think the lockdowns had the desired effect.

The article continues:

The WHO pandemic treaty is part of a two-track effort, coinciding with an initiative by the World Health Assembly (WHA) to create new global pandemic regulations that would also supersede the laws of member states. The WHA is the rule-making body of the WHO, comprised of representatives from the member states.

“Both [initiatives] are fatally dangerous,” Francis Boyle, professor of international law at Illinois University, told The Epoch Times. “Either one or both would set up a worldwide medical police state under the control of the WHO, and in particular WHO Director-General Tedros. If either one or both of these go through, Tedros or his successor will be able to issue orders that will go all the way down the pipe to your primary care physicians.”

Physician Meryl Nass told The Epoch Times: “If these rules go through as currently drafted, I, as a doctor, will be told what I am allowed to give a patient and what I am prohibited from giving a patient whenever the WHO declares a public health emergency. So they can tell you you’re getting remdesivir, but you can’t have hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin. What they’re also saying is they believe in equity, which means everybody in the world gets vaccinated, whether or not you need it, whether or not you’re already immune.”

This is an unacceptable loss of American freedom and American sovereignty.

What An Incredible Coincidence.

Somehow President Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency don’t seem too interested in the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. At least they were not all that interested until President Trump said that he would visit the area.

On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

The announcement by President Trump with his intent to visit East Palestine next Wednesday, followed moments later by a reversal announcement from FEMA stating they will now offer support to East Palestine, do not seem coincidental.

The Biden administration, including the EPA, FEMA and Transporation Secretary, was likely very worried about the optics of getting blasted by President Trump very visibly next week for their lack of urgency and concern. Moments after Trump announces his visit, FEMA reverses their prior denial of aid. lol

On Friday, wkyc reported:

Just hours after saying he “[did] not expect” members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be in East Palestine, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine now confirms the government entity will, in fact, be sending a crew to assist with the aftermath of the train derailment in the village.

In a joint statement released Friday night, DeWine and FEMA Regional Administrator Thomas C. Sivak said the agency would deploy a Regional Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) to Columbiana County starting Saturday, along with a senior response official. The workers will “support ongoing operations, including incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long-term recovery needs.”

The article at wkyc concludes:

It is unknown what changed in the time since those remarks, but the governor did confirm he would “preemptively file a document with FEMA to preserve our rights in case we need their assistance in the future.” DeWine has not declared the crash aftermath to be a federal disaster, perhaps because of concerns doing that could shield the Norfolk Southern Railway from liability.

“Let’s say, for example, the railroad stops paying, for whatever reason,” DeWine said Friday of filing the paper. “We’re still going to go after the railroad, but we want to make sure that there will be support for people if that support does, in fact, stop from the railroad.”

The wreckage from the freight train led to the release of multiple potentially toxic materials both into the air and into waterways. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has continued to say both the air and municipal drinking water are safe, with DeWine adding that a chemical plume in the Ohio River has since completely dissipated.

Some of us don’t think that the reason for the change is unknown.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

On Saturday, Townhall reported that the Biden administration has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on dental and healthcare for illegal immigrants.

The article reports:

In an annual report released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Biden Administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure illegal immigrants were well taken care of. 

The ICE Health Service Corps’ budget was about $324 million, which was an $8 million increase from the year prior. 

According to the report, the money was spent on providing “direct care – including medical and dental health services – to over 118,000 non-citizens housed at 19 IHSC-operated facilities throughout the United States, which exceeded 1.1 million visits over the course of the fiscal year.”

At taxpayers’ expense, illegal migrants are treated to “an initial medical screening, including for mental health needs, as well as all necessary follow-up care” once they have illegally entered the U.S. 

Even migrants flagged as “public safety” are still given these cushy services. 

Last month, the Biden Administration approved Washington state’s request to offer health care insurance to undocumented immigrants, thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The state will expand access to qualified health plans as well as dental care regardless of immigration status. 

No wonder illegals are forcing their way into our country when Biden gives out cushy incentives. 

The Federation for American Immigration Reform published a study that shows that for the U.S. to provide the so-called “necessary” needs for illegal migrants, American citizens must burden an additional $20.4 billion every year.

This comes as Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, announced he was suing the Biden Administration over a rule that punishes taxpayers to pay for the cost of illegal immigration. 

How many Americans are foregoing dental care because they cannot afford it? At some point, we need to stop the gravy trail for illegals and begin taking care of American citizens. How many veterans are living on the streets of America? Where is the help that they need?

Bad News For America

On Saturday, The Daily Caller reported that President Biden has agreed to having America pay climate reparations to the rest of the world. Yes, I know that’s not what they are calling it, but that’s what it is.

The article reports:

The Biden administration and nearly 200 world governments agreed on Saturday to a framework that would have richer countries compensate poorer nations for damages allegedly caused by carbon emissions at the United Nations COP27 climate conference, according to Reuters.

Wealthy nations will create a “loss and damage” fund that will provide money to countries that have suffered from climate-related “disasters” such as droughts or hurricanes, according to a draft proposal seen by Reuters. However, most of the details of the financial framework will be decided and agreed upon in 2023 at the next COP conference that will take place in Dubai.

In March 2016, I reported the following (article here):

…former United Nations climate official Ottmar Edenhofer:

“One has to free oneself from the illusion that international climate policy is environmental policy. This has almost nothing to do with the environmental policy anymore, with problems such as deforestation or the ozone hole,” said Edenhofer, who co-chaired the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on Mitigation of Climate Change from 2008 to 2015.

So what is the goal of environmental policy?

“We redistribute de facto the world’s wealth by climate policy,” said Edenhofer.

The Biden administration is part of the move toward worldwide socialism. This latest giveaway of American taxpayer dollars is part of that effort.

The article concludes:

COP27 has been dominated by the debate surrounding a plan to compensate developing nations for climate damages, according to Reuters. The European Union said Thursday that it would support such a framework if China, the world’s chief polluter, would provide funding and if the money raised was exclusively earmarked for developing countries that are destitute to ensure that China did not benefit from the proposal, according to the WSJ.

After agreeing to the climate financing framework, the U.S. also called for the inclusion of a pledge to phase out all fossil fuels which would build on the 2021 agreement to “phase down” coal use, according to Bloomberg.

The White House and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

This is another reason we need to vote the Biden administration out of office in 2024.

President Trump Is Running

I watched President Trump’s speech Tuesday night. It was a reminder to me of how much things have changed in the past two years. I remember when my grocery bill was a lot lower and it cost me less to fill up my gas tank. I remember when my stock portfolio was not scary to check. I remember when our southern border was on the way to being secured and the amount of drugs coming over that border decreased. I remember when we weren’t sending millions of dollars and some ‘noncombatant’ soldiers overseas to support a war. The country is not in a good place right now. Under the current leadership of both parties, the country will not return to a good place.

Temporarily at least, the uni-party has won. The Republicans have taken control of the House of Representatives, but there are no indications of a change in leadership. I will believe that there will be honest investigations of the misdeeds of the Biden family and the Biden administration when I see them. I am not optimistic.

Meanwhile, this mid-term election taught us the difference between ballots and votes. Votes are in-person and have some degree of assurance that the person is a legal voter and is who they say they are. Mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting are two of the biggest invitations to voter fraud that we have. I am willing to bet that until we deal with mail in ballots and ballot harvesting, we will never see another Republican President.

I have some thoughts for the never-Trumpers. They are all over the internet today fact-checking and criticizing. Were they not paying attention during the four years Donald Trump was President? How did their household budgets look? How much were they paying for gas? Did they enjoy the benefits of America becoming energy independent? Did they feel safer knowing that America’s southern border was being secured? If you don’t support President Trump, keep in mind that any Republican candidate who is not part of the uni-party (and I am not sure there is anyone in leadership who fits that description) will be subject to the same sort of attack that has been waged against President Trump. Do you believe anyone else would be willing to fight back against that attack?

The uni-party in Washington cannot afford to have an outsider become President. They like their power, and they want to hold on to it. Expect a media, Justice Department, and political attack on President Trump the likes of which we have never seen.

Stopping The Mutilation Of Children

On Saturday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a recent decision by a federal judge regarding the issue of gender identity.

The article reports:

A federal judge has reversed a Biden Administration rule that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to sex change surgeries and hormone therapies, including to children, in a Friday ruling.

Biden’s HHS said in May 2021 that it would interpret a section of the Affordable Care Act, which bars doctors from discriminating on the basis of sex, as covering sexual orientation and gender identity. Two doctors represented by the America First Legal Foundation brought a class action lawsuit against the Biden administration after the HHS took the action, arguing that the rule would interfere with their ability to properly practice medicine.

The judge argued that the Biden administration’s interpretation of Title IX to include “gender identity,” was faulty and could not be changed until Congress passed a law to that effect, or the Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

In recent years, we as Americans have subverted the lawmaking process our Founding Fathers put into place. Many, if not all, of our laws are being made by government agencies and Executive Orders rather than Congress. Executive Orders are easily overturned by subsequent Presidents, but laws by the bureaucracy seem to go unchallenged.

The article concludes:

The judge also added that by extending sex protections to individuals who identified with a sex other than their biological sex, the purpose of Title IX was compromised.

“Defendants’ reinterpretation of Title IX through the Notification imperils the very opportunities for women Title IX was designed to promote and protect — categorically forcing biological women to compete against biological men.”

Several states have moved to ban sex change procedures for minors. Florida’s Board of Medicine has voted to ban sex change surgeries and hormones for children under 18. Tennessee lawmakers introduced a bill to ban the procedures Wednesday.

The way to treat gender dysphoria is not to surgically confirm it–the way to treat it is to find the underlying cause or simply wait for the child to outgrow it.

Why The Red Wave Was A Trickle

On Friday, The American Thinker posted an article explaining the forces that blocked the overwhelming Republican victory that should have happened in the mid-term elections.

The first headwind that the red wave encountered was the Republican Elites who do not want to give up their power (despite the fact that they have not used their power to help average Americans in any way).

The article notes:

What response did the Republicans make to the Dems’ constant drumbeat about Republican fascism leading up to the election? As far as I can tell, it was mostly crickets. They were overconfident and complacent. They spent three weeks beating their chests about the “red wave” and talking big about what they’d do when they took control of Congress. While they were doing that, the Democrats and their media allies were scaring the bejesus out of their base and, as a result, they turned out in droves.

When I read that Mitch McConnell called Joe O’Dea, a Colorado Senate candidate, “the perfect candidate,” I shuddered because conservatives dislike McConnell almost as much as they dislike Nancy Pelosi. That statement probably cost O’Dea support among rural conservatives.

There was also the matter of denying money to candidates that McConnell knew would not support him as Senate majority or minority leader.

The second headwind was the garbage the media was constantly feeding Americans.

The article reports:

…Americans don’t see the threat to our freedoms that vaccine and mask mandates and lockdowns were and are. They also don’t understand that someone must pay the bill for government handouts, either directly as confiscatory taxes or indirectly as rampant inflation or hyperinflation.

As a result, they tend to vote for the person who promises them something for nothing. Many are mush-heads who will be gobsmacked with the business failures, job losses, foreclosures, bankruptcies, shortages, and other chaos that will inevitably result from the Biden administration’s policies.

The third headwind was early voting. It skews the results by letting those who engage in stuffing ballot boxes how many ballots they need to create.

The article notes:

Early voting is the sleeper contributor to last night’s losses. It gives both parties an advance detailed picture of how many people voted, who voted, who is likely to vote but hasn’t yet, and what party voters support or belong to. With all the massive databases out there and modern computers, they have a pretty good idea of how many votes they need to produce to win an election and where to go to get them, days before election day.

The Democrats have turned early voting and stuffing drop boxes into a science.

Please follow the link to the article to read the details. The Republicans who still believe in the Republican platform need to get their heads out of the sand and change their Washington leadership.

Ballots vs. Votes

On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article analyzing Tuesday’s election. The article notes that there is a distinction between the Republicans view voting and the way the Democrats view voting. The Republicans emphasize votes; the Democrats emphasize ballots.

The article notes:

As the political discussion centers on the 2022 wins and losses from the midterm election, one thing that stands out in similarity to the 2020 general election is the difference between ballots and votes. It appears in some states this is the ‘new normal.’

Where votes were the focus, the Biden administration suffered losses. Where ballots were the focus, the Biden administration won.

Perhaps the two states most reflective of ‘ballots’ being more important than ‘votes’ are Michigan and Pennsylvania.  Despite negative polling and public opinion toward two specific candidates in those states, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman achieved victories.

Whitmer and Fetterman were not campaigning for votes, that is old school. Instead, the machinery behind both candidates focused on the modern path. The Democrat machines in both states focused on ballot collection and ignored the irrelevant votes as cast.

Since the advent of ballot centric focus through mail-in and collection drop-off processes, votes have become increasingly less valuable amid the organizers who wish to control election outcomes.  As a direct and specific result, ballot collection has become the key to Democrat party success.

The effort to attain votes for candidates is less important than the strategy of collecting ballots.

It should be emphasized; these are two distinctly different election systems.

The system of ballot distribution and collection is far more susceptible to control than the traditional system of votes cast at precincts.

A vote cannot be cast by a person who is no longer alive, or no longer lives in the area.  However, a ballot can be sent, completed and returned regardless of the status of the initially attributed and/or registered individual.

While ballots and votes originate in two totally different processes, the end result of both “ballots” and “votes,” weighing on the presented election outcome, is identical.

While initially the ballot form of election control was tested in Deep Blue states, through the process of mail-in returns under the guise and justification of “expanding democracy,” a useful tool for those who are vested in the distinction, I think we are now starting to see what happens on a national level when the process is expanded.

The article concludes:

Campaigning, advertising, promoting, debating, hand-shaking, crowd attendance and venues for rallies, along with physically meeting people and convincing them of your worth, are only important if you are trying to win votes. Fortunately for Democrats, modern electioneering via ballot collection does not require these arcane efforts. So, in the larger picture of what you now see in elections, Democrats have stopped wasting time doing them.

Republicans are running around trying to convince people and win votes. Meanwhile, who needs voters? Democrats have skipped all of that old fashioned stuff and modified all of their electioneering systems to quietly and efficiently collect ballots. Yesterday you saw the outcome.

Haven’t you noticed?

It really is that simple.

Obviously election fraud is much easier when counting ballots than when counting votes. I think it’s time to go back to what we used to do–vote on one day and mail-in ballots for military and those who truly cannot make it to the polls.

The Ongoing War On Fossil Fuels

Whoever is currently directing the energy policy for the Biden administration has little of no regard for the common man. Gasoline prices have more than doubled since President Biden took office, and heating costs for the average American are expected to go through the roof this winter. Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues its war on fossil fuel.

On Thursday, The American Thinker posted an article about the Biden administration’s energy policies and their consequences.

The article reports:

On October 19, in the heat of an election campaign, President Biden told the American people, “We need to increase oil production.”  He went on to say, “My administration has not stopped or slowed U.S. oil production.”  It was a disingenuous statement from a man whose sense of reality, fact, and fiction have become an undecipherable narrative.  Biden failed to mention the executive order he issued which stipulates, “the Secretary of the Interior shall pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters.”  This pause is ongoing.  Biden uses the same executive order as an instruction to the secretaries of State, Treasury, Energy, Defense, and Homeland Security, “to organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis.”

Millions of Americans are employed by businesses supporting the fossil-fuel industry.  Others choose to invest in fossil-fuel businesses.  All Americans rely on fossil fuels to power their businesses, transportation systems, and utilities.  Democrats will destroy these people’s jobs, capital, and imperil the U.S. economy.  The Biden administration decreed that, “we must combat the climate crisis with bold, progressive action that combines the full capacity of the Federal Government with efforts from every corner of our Nation, every level of government, and every sector of our economy.”  By executive order Biden has weaponized the federal bureaucracy to destroy the fossil-fuel industry. 

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The world’s economy depends on fossil fuel, and to destroy the fossil fuel industry is to take down that economy. One of the ways America could rebound from the rapidly increasing inflation would be to begin drilling our way back to energy independence. As soon as gasoline prices began to drop, the cost of goods would begin to drop and the domino effect would begin. I don’t know if there will be enough people in the newly elected Congress to bring back American energy, but that is the ultimate solution to a lot of America’s problems and would also have a positive impact on America foreign policy.

I Approve Of Something The Biden Administration Did!

The Biden administration did something really smart. I don’t know exactly who is responsible, but I am grateful. On Sunday, Hot Air posted the story. I need to say up front that this is one of those articles I do not totally understand, but what I read sounds really good.

The article reports:

I am pretty sure that I have never praised the Biden Administration. I mean, why would I?

Well, I may have found a reason, believe it or not. It seems that the Biden Administration has struck a huge blow against the Chinese tech industry, and it wasn’t even by accident. They did something right, and never let it be said that I am more unfair to liberals than my job naturally requires.

…So here we go, and yes, it is painful to praise Biden, even a little bit. Worse, I have to rely on The New York Times for part of the story, completing my humiliation:

This is the important part of the article:

There are two important aspects of the China/Taiwan tension that are both related to technology:

    • China has become a technology superpower due to America’s reliance on its manufacturing prowess. Almost everything we think of as high-tech has a lot of Chinese manufacturing and components in the end product. Those DJI drones doing the heavy lifting in Ukraine? Chinese.
    • Taiwan is a much more important technology superpower. Almost every high-end microprocessor (the highest up the value chain) is reliant on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is made by TSMC. They blow everybody else away in making chips, including former leader Intel. Over half of the chips in the products you use are manufactured by TSMC.

China doesn’t only want Taiwan territory; if they ran Taiwan they would control many of the most important parts of the tech industry. They aren’t a design or software powerhouse, but the world would still rely on them for high-tech products. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons China remains hesitant to invade Taiwan is the implied strategy of the Taiwanese government to threaten the destruction of TSMC facilities were they to be invaded. This is the so-called “silicon shield.”

The article concludes:

To the extent that I can, which is not much, I have verified this. And that means that it is of medium reliability. Certainly, ASML leaving is a big blow, and the extent of the Biden Administration sanctions is dramatic, the thread itself is more than plausible.

I admit to being shocked that the Biden Administration has chosen this path. It is bold, aggressive, and likely to hurt China badly both economically and militarily. I would have to assume that they have war-gamed the consequences extensively because such a move would not be taken either lightly or without serious consideration.

In this case, unlike the Russia sanctions, the Administration had plenty of time to evaluate the costs and benefits. Without access to the information and analysis they have, I can’t say with certainty that this was precisely the right policy, but it certainly moves us in the direction of achieving the goal of slowing China’s ability to threaten our interests in the Pacific.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally!

Looking For The Root Causes

On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted the following headline:

Biden Admin Still Working On ‘Root Causes’ Of Immigration Crisis As Border Crossings Remain At Record High

Is O.J. Simpson still looking for his wife’s killer?

The article reports:

Top officials from the Biden administration and the Mexican government met Thursday to discuss their work on border security, as illegal border crossings and cross-border drug trafficking remain at historically high levels.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Rodriguez held a press conference after meeting in Washington on Thursday to tout their progress on reining in drug trafficking, human smuggling and illegal arms sales across the southern border.

The Biden administration has continued to stress that it is focused on addressing the “root causes” of the border crisis, but the fruit of that labor isn’t evident to Americans yet.

Has it occurred to the Biden administration that one of the root causes of the border crisis might be that fact that there is no border wall to make crossing the border more difficult?

The article concludes:

Further complicating matters, the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico isn’t entirely copasetic. One journalist asked Blinken and Ebrard about recent comments from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador blaming President Joe Biden for a “lack of control” at the southern border and criticizing the West for shipping arms to Ukraine.

Mexico has also blamed the U.S. for cartel gun smuggling. Blinken said the comments and actions gave him no doubts about the strength of the U.S. relationship with Mexico and the two countries’ ability to continue working together. But as the administration continues to stress the long game, polls show that Americans’ immigration concerns aren’t fading.

The cartels are currently controlling America’s southern border. That is not good for either Mexico or America. If the Biden administration were to come up with a workable plan to control the border, I suspect that Mexico would be willing to cooperate with that plan.

Keeping Americans’ Wages Low

In September 2022, the Workforce Participation Rate was 62.3, slightly down from 62.4 in August. Part of that is due to the end of summer jobs, but even at that, the number is not where it needs to be. In February 2020 (before the pandemic), it was 63.4. That is the highest number since June 2013. Our economy is struggling right now, and Americans are struggling under the burden of inflation.

On Thursday, Breitbart reported the following:

President Joe Biden is set to import nearly 65,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to take blue-collar American jobs as roughly 11.6 million Americans remain jobless.

This week, Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Labor Department announced that the administration would be allowing businesses to import a few less than 65,000 H-2B foreign visa workers to take nonagricultural jobs in construction, meatpacking, and landscaping, among other industries.

This is in addition to the 66,000 H-2B foreign visa workers that the Biden administration has already allowed into the United States labor market to take blue-collar jobs.

…The big business lobby is praising the inflation of the U.S. labor market as a victory but also suggested in a statement that they want more legal immigration overall so companies can rely on a steady stream of cheaper foreign workers as opposed to hiring unemployed Americans.

This is one example of the uni-party. Big business Republicans want cheap labor, and Democrats want new voters.

The article concludes:

When comparing the wages of H-2B foreign workers to the national wage average for each blue-collar industry, about 21 out of 25 of the industries offered lower wages to foreign workers than Americans.

Annually, the U.S. gives green cards to about 1.2 million legal immigrants, while another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens are added to the labor market every year, many on work permits given to them by the federal government.

Until we elect people who actually support American workers, this will continue.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

On Tuesday, Steven Hayward posted an article at Power Line Blog about the gender pay gap that President Biden pledged to close during his 2020 election campaign.

The article reports:

During his 2020 campaign and after taking office, Joe Biden has been happy to retail the favorite leftist cliche of the “gender pay gap,” in which women only earn 83 cents for every dollar a man earns. Biden pledged to “close the gender pay gap,” and ostentatiously signed a list of commitments to “Advance Pay Equity and Support Women’s Economic Security.” Biden also signed an executive order that called on the Office of Personnel Management to review compensation packages and report back to the president on how to advance equal pay.

The chart below illustrates that gender pay gap in the White House:

The article concludes:

This isn’t a new story for the Sniffer-in-Chief. The Washington Free Beacon notes:

For Biden, a gender pay gap among his staffers is nothing new. Over his 35-year Senate career, Biden paid women lessthan men every single year—at one point, women working for Biden were paid just 44 cents for every dollar paid to men.

It’s always better to clean up your own backyard before yelling at a neighbor for an untidy yard.

Does This Make Sense?

On Tuesday, The Washington Times posted an article about vaccine mandates.

The article notes:

The Biden administration allowed hundreds of Afghans from last year’s airlift to disappear into American communities without getting COVID-19 or other vaccinations, an inspector general has revealed.

The information was released as the Biden administration was starting the process to fire government workers who didn’t get the coronavirus shots — including some employees at Homeland Security, the department that allowed the Afghans to go free.

Investigators couldn’t say exactly how many Afghans avoided vaccination. They said the Homeland Security Department reported that fewer than 600 walked away without the shots in the early weeks of the evacuation, but dodgy records made it impossible for the inspector general to evaluate that claim.

Others walked out of military base camps before final clearance — a process that was supposed to ensure they were vaccinated, as well as acclimated to their new homes.

“Some Afghan evacuees independently departed safe havens without completing medical requirements,” the inspector general concluded — though again, because of poor records, it was impossible to say how many evaded the vaccines.

Actually, I am not as concerned about the evacuees that departed safe havens early without completing medical requirements as I am concerned with how many evacuees left before they could be accurately screened for ties to terrorism.

The article notes:

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas used his parole powers to clear 77,000 Afghans into the U.S. during the airlift.

The inspector general said 8,600 evacuees never made it to the camps set up to process them at eight military bases in the U.S. Another 11,700 went to the camps but walked off without full processing.

Homeland Security created a task force to try to track down the evacuees who never made it through processing, but even there, the government bungled, the inspector general said. The task force tracked down only Afghans who walked away from Washington Dulles International Airport. It didn’t track down the thousands who went to the military base camps but departed without completing their processing.

Homeland Security insisted the task force was fulfilling the exact mission it was given, but the inspector general said the administration’s documents showed that the task force was supposed to be tracking down everyone.

At the time of the evacuees’ arrival, the U.S. had a near-blanket policy at international airports requiring visitors — those arriving without immigrant visas in hand — to prove they had been vaccinated.

Those who came in on parole, as well as asylum-seekers and refugees, were exempted.

It is an unsettling thought that this many Afghans are roaming around America without having been vetted.

Just What We Needed–Another Government Agency!

On Sunday, The Epoch Times reported the following:

The Biden administration on Saturday launched a new national office dubbed the “Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights” charged with addressing what some officials say are the disproportionate harms inflicted on low-income areas and communities of color by pollution and climate change.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government, announced that the new office “will position the agency to better advance environmental justice, enforce civil rights laws in overburdened communities, and deliver new grants and technical assistance.”

The new office will oversee a portion of Democrats’ $60 billion investment in environmental justice initiatives created by the Inflation Reduction Act—specifically, the implementation and delivery of $3 billion in block grants to underserved communities affected by pollution.

The EPA said the new office will also “ensure EPA’s implementation of other funding programs provided by the Inflation Reduction Act [and] Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

Three existing EPA programs that oversee environmental justice, civil rights, and conflict prevention and resolution will be merged into the new senior-level office.

Wow! A whole agency saying that the climate is racist. Good grief!

I have a suggestion. If the summertime temperature is higher in black neighborhoods that white neighborhoods, plant trees. I am sure something could be worked out so that the city involved could afford to do that. We don’t need another government agency to do that.

Note that they are merging three current EPA programs into this new office. These programs oversee environmental justice, civil rights, conflict prevention and resolution. Let’s get something straight–if the earth burns up because of climate change (which is highly unlikely) all people will be equally impacted. The climate is not aware of anyone’s financial situation or political power. If those screaming the loudest about climate change really believed what they were saying, would they buy oceanfront estates and run around in private jets?

The article concludes:

The EPA’s definition of “environmental justice” is “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.”

There is no such thing as environmental justice–the government does NOT control the environment! This office will simply be a center for the redistribution of wealth, which is the ultimate goal of the Biden (Obama) administration.

Reversing Another Common-Sense Policy

On Sunday, Breitbart reported that the Biden administration has reversed the Trump administration’s policy that directed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop fast-tracking work permits for border crossers and illegal aliens.

The article reports:

The rule change made sure that border crossers and illegal aliens would need to be in the U.S. for at least a year before applying for work permits through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency.

Now, as Reuters reports, Biden is repealing the Trump-era rule change to ensure that hundreds of thousands of border crossers and illegal aliens his DHS releases every few months into the U.S. interior can now more quickly secure work permits to take American jobs.

As part of the reversal, border crossers and illegal aliens who crossed in between ports of entry or have been convicted of certain crimes will now be eligible for work permits after residing in the U.S. for at least 150 days.

Biden’s push to more quickly get border crossers and illegal aliens into American jobs comes as 11.5 million Americans are jobless but want full-time employment and another 4.1 million Americans are stuck in part-time jobs wanting full-time work.

The change in policy by the Biden administration will only encourage more economic migration. There is nothing wrong with people seeking to come to America to pursue a better life; however, we need to encourage people to come here legally. Making it easy for illegal aliens to find work quickly does not benefit Americans–it lowers wages for working Americans and limits the number of jobs available to Americans. It doen nothing to help Americans realize their dreams.

 

When You Don’t Deal With A Lawbreaker…

On Tuesday, Townhall reported that the Biden administration has chosen the person to lead the new, expanded Internal Revenue Service.

The article reports:

As the Biden administration continues its attempts to consolidate power within the federal government and among its leftist allies, there’s a familiar face being tapped to lead Biden’s effort to surge power, resources, and agents to the IRS — and she has quite the track record of working to target conservative groups and organizations. 

One of Lois Lerner’s lackeys from the Obama-era IRS scandal — one that saw the agency target conservative and tea party affiliated groups as a political arm of the Obama-Biden administration — will be leading the Biden administration’s expansion of the IRS and stated goal of hiring 87,000 new agents.

Nikole Flax, who most recently served as the deputy commissioner in charge of the IRS’ Large Business & International Division, has been with the IRS since 2008. According to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Flax will be leading “the creation of a new, centralized office for implementation of all IRS-related provisions” outlined in the boondoggle falsely named the “Inflation Reduction Act.” There’s little Democrats love more than a chance to work on “centralized” anything within the federal government. 

I wonder if the IRS will be used to squelch conservative speech before the mid-terms and before the 2024 presidential election.

The article notes:

Once the IRS was caught in its scheme of treating conservatives disparately from liberal organizations, Flax was one of several senior IRS officials who had their emails conveniently get “lost,” along with Lerner’s, as Katie reported in 2014. “One of those officials is former chief of staff to former Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, Nikole Flax,” Katie also noted. “The ‘lost’ emails fall during the time period when ‘the Washington, DC office wrote and directed the Cincinnati field office to send abusive questionnaires, including inappropriate demands for donor information, to conservative groups,” according to the House Ways and Means Committee.”

Somehow in Washington, the excuse ‘the dog ate my emails’ is accepted.

The article concludes:

As a refresher, the emails that *were* recovered from Lerner and other high-ranking officials included explanations of their main goal in going after conservatives and tea party groups: “One IRS prosecution would make an impact and they wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing stuff,” Lerner wrote.

Flax also, as Katie reported here, “visited the White House 35 times after talking with former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner about working to criminally prosecute conservative tea party groups for ‘lying’ about political activity.” What was Flax doing at the White House? Who did she talk to? Was she reporting progress or taking orders? All that’s known is that Flax will again now have a leading role within the IRS as the Biden administration steps up its attacks on conservatives by labeling vast swaths of Americans as fascists.

A Facebook friend who does excellent research points out:

Nikole Flax was the pointPERSON in the Obama program to target conservative businesses. When it was discovered that they broke the law in specifically targeting opposition, the inspector general sent Flax instructions to deliver her computer to his office for inspection.
She miraculously had a hard drive crash that very instant and, notwithstanding the incredible amount of computer geeks at the FBI, no one was ever able to recover a single bit of information from her hard drive. Imagine that.
She was never prosecuted for abuse of power, obstruction of justice, or destruction of evidence.
Instead, China Joe has appointed her to head the IRS Central Office controlling the audits for the 87,000 new agents as well as its existing auditors. The White House did not disclose whether she gets one of the new AR-15s and some high-capacity magazines the IRS recently purchased.
Do you really think they are going to enforce the law equally?
Not since Vladimir Putin has an evil person in government been given so much power.

Stay tuned (and make sure you are current on alternative news sources)!

Will We Ever Get The Blindfold Back On Lady Justice?

On Monday, Just the News posted an article with the following headline, “Biden White House facilitated DOJ’s criminal probe against Trump, scuttled privilege claims: memos.:

The article reports:

“I have therefore decided not to honor the former President’s ‘protective’ claim of privilege,” acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall wrote Trump’s team in May.

Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-a-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News.

Where was the FBI when it came to dealing with the illegal server and email account Hillary Clinton was using? Hillary Clinton was not President and did not have the authority to declassify documents. President Trump did have that authority at the time the documents were removed from the White House.

The article notes:

The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.

By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency.

The machinations are summarized in several memos and emails exchanged between the various agencies in spring 2022, months before the FBI took the added unprecedented step of raiding Trump’s Florida compound with a court-issued search warrant.

The most complete summary was contained in a lengthy letter dated May 10 that acting National Archivist Debra Steidel Wall sent Trump’s lawyers summarizing the White House’s involvement.

The article reports:

“We have requested the ability to review the documents,” Corcoran wrote National Archives General Counsel Gary Stern on April 29, copying Su on the letter. “That review is necessary in order to ascertain whether any specific document is subject to privilege. We would respectfully request that you restrict access to the documents until we have had the opportunity to review the documents and to consult with President Donald J. Trump so that he may personally make any decision to assert a claim of constitutionally based privilege.”

But a dozen days later, Wall informed Corcoran that she had the blessing of Biden to overrule those privilege claims and share all materials requested by the DOJ and FBI.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. This is a breathtaking abuse of power on the part of the Biden administration.

Yes, Your Taxes Will Go Up If The Inflation Reduction Act Passes

The Biden administration is claiming that the Inflation Reduction Act will reduce inflation, help bring down the deficit, and not raise taxes on any American who makes less than $400,000 a year. That’s a really great idea. Unfortunately it’s not true.

The Daily Caller posted an article on Monday that explains what the bill will actually do. The article cites the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) as the source of its information:

The JCT found that taxes would go up by a total of $16.7 billion for Americans making less than $200,000, and by $14.1 billion for Americans making between $200,000 and $500,000.

Tax rates will begin to increase for a number of income groups as soon as the 2023 calendar year, according to the JCT. Those making less than $10,000 would see their average tax rate increase from 7.3% in 2022 to 7.6% in 2023, while those making between $30,000-$40,000 would go from 7.8% to 7.9%, and those making between $100,000-$200,000 would go from 19.1% to 19.4%.

That may not be a significant amount, but it is a tax rate on every American who pays taxes.

The article notes:

Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden’s spokeswoman Ashley Schapitl pushed back against the estimates, arguing that the JCT analysis is incomplete since “it doesn’t include the benefits to middle-class families of making health insurance premiums and prescription drugs more affordable,” Politico reported.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made a similar argument Monday when pressed on the incongruities between the JCT estimates and Biden’s claims.

“The JCT’s report that we’re seeing is incomplete because it omits the actual benefits that Americans would receive when it comes to prescription drugs, when it comes to lowering energy costs like utility bills,” Jean-Pierre said.

The promise made was that the bill would not raise taxes. It raises taxes. The other savings may or may not happen. Green energy has been shown to increase utility bills–not decrease them, and a lot of money in this bill goes toward increasing America’s dependence on green energy.

The article concludes:

But it remains unclear how President Biden’s initial claim that taxes are not going to go up on those making under $400,000 dollars squares with JCT’s data, even if there are certain “indirect benefits” like “drug-price savings,” “mitigating the climate crisis” and “deficit reduction.” Tax rates on at least some individuals making under $400,000 will still increase, according to the JCT, a bipartisan committee, contrary to Biden’s claim.

Changing The Language To Fit The Situation

In discussing the book 1984, a website called bookanalysis.com posts the following definition of Newspeak:

The purpose of the language is to reduce “unnecessary” words and those that might lead the citizens of Oceania into thought patterns the Party wants to avoid. They believe if they can rid the English language of troubling words, then there will be no way that anyone can conceive of the concepts without them.

It is a language that is still under construction as the novel’s plot is playing out. There are various iterations of the Newspeak dictionary, and one of Winston Smith’s associates, Syme, is working on the text. The language reduces words to syllables and combines them together to create new, unusual words.

On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article titled, “6 terms Biden has redefined to further agenda, stigmatize opponents.”

Here is the list of the six terms:

1. Recession

2. Disinformation

3. Domestic terrorist

4. Insurrectionist

5. Voter suppression

6. Illegal alien

The redefining of all these terms has to do with keeping the Democrats in power. The chances of a Democrat victory in the mid-terms will be negatively impacted if America is declared in a recession so the administration will simply change the definition of recession. Disinformation has come to mean anything the Biden administration does not like or anything that paints the administration in a bad light. The Facebook fact-checkers have this concept down pat. A domestic terrorists is anyone who questions the far left agenda the Biden administration is attempting to impose on Americans–anything from school curriculum to men in women’s sports. An insurrectionist is anyone who questions the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Voter suppression is anything that will insure a more secure and honest election. Illegal aliens are now called undocumented citizens or simply non-citizens.

The Biden administration’s ‘Newspeak’ has been somewhat successful in limiting some of the complaints about election fraud in 2020. Many politicians are afraid to bring up the subject out of fear of being labeled insurrectionists. It has also become obvious that the Biden administration is not above sending the law after any citizen that consistently opposes their agenda. The FBI has used excessive force on Americans accused of minor crimes on numerous occasions. In some states the banning of drop boxes is being called voter suppression even as it becomes evident that drop boxes are easily used by those who want to engage in ballot harvesting, an illegal activity in many states. And finally, as we watch our totally open southern border, the term illegal alien has somehow disappeared from any document or speech connected to the Biden administration.

If the trend of redefining words for political purposes continues in the Biden administration, we will one day in the very near future wake up and wonder what has happened to our country.

In Case You Are Wondering, It Is Ultimately About The Money

The protests continue against the Supreme Court ruling against abortion, despite the fact that the ruling did nothing more than allow each state to make its own rules regarding abortion. So what is all this noise actually about? First of all, abortion is a million-dollar industry that contributes large amounts of money to politician’s campaign coffers. If abortion is limited, campaign contributions will also be limited. Secondly, it is cheaper for a corporation to pay for an abortion than to pay for maternity leave and the costs associated with motherhood. Also, a mother’s first priority is generally her child–not the corporation. So abortion does make a large contribution to the economy and to the political class. That explains some of the horror at the idea that some states will be limiting abortion. Meanwhile, the government is seriously interested in maintaining the status quo.

On Tuesday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

The Biden administration is considering setting up abortion providers on federal land in red states, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.

The administration has not decided yet whether it will pursue the plan, which is favored by left-wing legislators Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), but Becerra said that “every option is on the table.”

…Becerra’s comments are at odds with those of Vice President Kamala Harris, who said just Monday that the administration was not discussing clinics on federal lands. 

The article concludes:

The proposal, if pursued by the administration, would offer women a safe haven for abortion access in red states, most of which have already curtailed access. The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban overturned the 49-year-old constitutional guarantee of the right to an abortion, sending the power of regulating access to the procedure back to the states. But abortion is not federally illegal.

“We know that there is misinformation out there about what the Supreme Court did. We want to make sure it’s clear that Americans didn’t lose every right they have. Americans still can assert their rights, and we will do everything we can to protect you,” Becerra said

Just for the record, abortion was never and never should be a right.

It’s Not A Pretty Picture

Just the News posted an article on Sunday that sums up the Biden administration in five numbers.

These are the numbers:

1. 8.6 percent

2. $5.01 per gallon

3. 234,088 illegal border crossings

4. 39% approval

5. 83% dissatisfied

Obviously, this is not a pretty picture. The 8.6 number represents the government figure on inflation. There is little question that government policies on spending and energy have fueled the rapid spike in inflation. According to Fox Business, on Jan. 20, 2021, the average price for a gallon of gas nationwide was approximately $2.39. Today it generally $5.00 or more. That impacts everyone. It has the same impact as a massive tax increase.

The number of illegal border crossing also impacts everyone because of the drug traffic and human trafficking associated with those illegal crossings.

The article notes:

The figure reached about 2.4 million illegal border crossings from April of last year to this past April, the last month for which there’s publicly available data and the month with the highest number of migrant encounters during the Biden administration at 234,088.

The 39 percent approval rating is not a surprise, but I would love to know who those 39 percent are.

The article notes:

A new poll from Quinnipiac last week found that approval of Biden’s job performance plummeted to 33%. More striking, however, the data shows just 22% of Americans ages 18-34, 24% of Hispanic voters, and 49% of black voters said they approve of Biden’s job performance. Each of those demographics is a critical voting bloc for the Democratic Party.

And finally, the article notes that 83 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with “the way things are going in the United States at this time.” Only 16% of Americans said they were satisfied.

The article concludes:

In this political environment, Democratic pollsters and strategists are growing increasingly pessimistic, seeing major Republican gains as all but inevitable.

To make matters worse for Biden and Democrats in Congress, “election outcomes are more-or-less baked in” by the end of the second quarter of an election year, according to RealClearPolitics Senior Elections Analyst Sean Trende.

Of course, things can always change, but the numbers don’t look good for Biden.

More importantly, behind those numbers are real people who are hurting. And each of them has a vote in November.

These numbers only matter if there is an honest election in November.

Using Spin Instead Of Solving The Problem

On Wednesday, The Washington Free Beacon posted an article detailing how the Biden administration plans to address the problem of rising inflation as they approach what could be a disastrous mid-term election. Mid-term elections tend to lose seats for whatever party holds the White House. If this year’s mid-term is an honest election, the prospects for the Democrat party are looking bleak.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party finally have a plan to get inflation under control and address the economic anxiety felt by millions of Americans. It’s not a plan in the conventional sense, but rather a public relations campaign to convince the American people that “despite their current misgivings, the economy is actually doing quite well.”

Inflation is soaring and gas prices are through the roof, but Americans are wrong to be concerned about the direction of the country, the president and his allies will argue this month. Politico reports that Biden has assembled a team of experts and professional communicators to make the case that, actually, the economy is good. The White House effort to “communicate on our accomplishments” kicked off on Monday with a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which Biden touted his stewardship of “the most robust recovery in modern history” and cited a bunch of macroeconomic statistics to make his case.

No one who routinely makes trips to the gas station or the grocery store is going to believe that the economy is doing well.

The article concludes:

The dubious public relations campaign is in keeping with the Democratic Party’s longstanding belief that all of their electoral problems could be solved by simply explaining to skeptical voters that they have no good reason to be skeptical. It is also indicative of a White House in disarray. Biden is reportedly furious at his subordinates for failing to come up with a winning message ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and White House chief of staff Ron Klain is rumored to be on the chopping block. Anita Dunn, a longtime Biden aide who once provided “damage control advice” to disgraced Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein, could take his place after the midterms.

Considering all of the information bubbling beneath the surface about Hunter Biden’s laptop and what is on it, Anita Dunn might be a really good choice for chief of staff.