Tag Archives: Fox News

The Fix Is In

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Many Americans are hopefully watching the trial of Michael Sussmann for indications that our justice system’s principle of all men are equal under the law still applies. Well, don’t get your hopes up too high. If you are following the case, you realize that the prosecution is very carefully laying out the case that the bad people in the Clinton campaign fooled the Justice Department into going along with the Russia hoax. There is no suggestion that the Justice Department was part of the plan. That is the first indication that this trial is a show put on to appease those in America who actually want to see people held responsible for ignoring the civil liberties of their political opponents and lying to the media and the American public. There are also some other indications that the truth is not actually welcome in this trial.

On Friday, Fox News posted the following quote from Jonathan Turley:

JONATHAN TURLEY: Durham faces a lot of challenges in this trial. The judge in the trial has hit the prosecution with limiting orders. This jury pool is a nightmare for the prosecutors. There are three Clinton donors on the jury. In the last 24 hours, the judge turned down a motion to dismiss a juror whose daughter is actually playing on the same team with the daughter of Sussmann. So I think for the prosecutors, it seems like the only thing that is missing on the jury is Chelsea Clinton. A jury of your peers is not supposed to mean other Clinton people. And so, I think that the prosecutors have quite a challenge with this pool.

If I am ever charged with a crime, can I get a jury of my friends? How likely is that?

Refusing To Learn The Lessons Of History

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Our Founding Fathers were not fans of nation-building. They felt that nations had to struggle to find freedom for themselves in order to be strengthened enough to hold on to that freedom. That idea is similar to the concept of not helping a baby chick peck its way out of the shell. The pecking is what builds the strength for the survival of the baby chick. Fighting for freedom is what causes a nation to cherish that freedom. Unfortunately our current politicians have forgotten that particular history. We are currently pouring money into Ukraine as if we actually have the money (rather than borrowing it from China). We are considerable weakening the American economy in an attempt to shore up another country. There is also some question as to why our Congress is so interested in funneling money into Ukraine. It would be very interesting to see which Congressmen have large investments in Ukraine and how much those investments are currently worth and would be worth if Ukraine falls to Russia.

On Thursday, Fox News reported that the Senate had passed a bill to send $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

The article reports:

Despite some GOP opposition, the bill passed by a final tally of 86-11, with the support of leadership from both parties and a significant majority of Republican senators. It will now go to President Biden’s desk. 

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., led the opposition to the bill, demanding an inspector general be appointed to oversee the spending. The U.S. total financial commitment to the Russian war on Ukraine will now total nearly $54 billion. 

The article concludes:

“Those senators who voted to gift $40 billion to Ukraine argue that it is in our national security interest,” Paul said on the Senate floor after the vote. “I wonder if Americans across our country would agree if they had been shown the costs, if they had been asked to pay for it.”

Paul added: “By my calculation, each income taxpayer in our country would need to pay $500 to support this $40 billion, which by some accounts is a down payment and will need to be replenished in about four months.”

Democrats, meanwhile, are railing against Republicans for the fact they delayed the Ukraine funding bill by a full week. “Senator Paul’s obstruction of Ukraine funding is totally unacceptable, and only serves to strengthen Putin’s hand in the long run,” Schumer said this week.

It’s time to elect people to Congress who will treat the American taxpayer’s money with respect. The current spending level is totally unacceptable.

Blocking Free Speech

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A politically neutral Twitter is a threat to Democrat success at the voting booth. If people had been allowed to know more about Hunter Biden’s laptop, it might have changed their votes. There are still some people who because of their primary news sources don’t know about the information on Hunter Biden’s laptop or the efforts to suppress the news about the laptop. That is not healthy for our Republic. There will be a fight to prevent Elon Musk from turning Twitter into a free speech platform because that is a threat to the Democrats’ monopoly on the American media.

Fox News reported Wednesday on a letter sent from Representative Jim Jordan to Federal Trade Commission chief Lina Khan regarding the sale of Twitter.

The article reports:

“The day after Twitter’s board of directors agreed to sell Twitter to Mr. Elon Musk, the Open Markets Institute (OMI), an extreme left-wing political advocacy organization, called on Biden regulators at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the Justice Department to ‘block’ the purchase,” Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote in a letter sent to Khan on Wednesday and obtained by FOX Business. 

“We are concerned that OMI – where you were previously employed as Legal Director – may be trying to leverage its close relationship with you to take action to further limit free speech online,” Jordan told Khan.

Open Markets Institute Director Barry Lynn issued a statement on April 26 saying the group believes Musk’s purchase of Twitter “poses a number of immediate and direct threats to American democracy and free speech.”

Lynn went on to say that Open Markets “believes the deal violates existing law,” and that the FCC, DOJ and FTC “have ample authority to block it.”

Jordan wrote in his letter to Khan that “OMI appears to believe that the FTC will be receptive to its cavalier effort to influence a federal agency that is run by its former employee.”

The article concludes:

Khan has a lengthy history of urging the federal government to go after Big Tech firms and regulate their power. After she became head of the FTC, tech behemoths Facebook and Amazon both asked that she be removed from any involvement in the agency’s antitrust litigation against the companies, alleging that she has a clear bias against them that is well documented.

I am not convinced that the people saying that Elon Musk buying Twitter is a threat to free speech actually understand what free speech is.

Misusing Funds? Again?

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On April 20th, Fox News reported that much of the money Congress appropriated to meet the Covid-19 crisis was actually spent on other things:

The article reports:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting new applications for grants funded by President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package passed in 2021, but last year’s awards funded some projects that had virtually little to do with addressing the impact of the pandemic.

The EPA’s Environmental Justice Small Grants Program recently announced it is using $1.6 million of American Rescue Plan funds to award grants to “federally recognized tribal governments to establish or modify public participation programs where fair treatment and meaningful participation priorities have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

Approximately 16 to 20 grants of up to $100,000 will be awarded for each project, the EPA announced March 21.

Last year under the same program, 99 organizations nationwide were selected to receive awards totaling approximately $7.4 million in grant funding, which included $5.25 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan and $2.15 million from what the EPA describes as its “baseline [Environmental Justice] appropriation.” Those grants were for up to $75,000 for each project that addressed “health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID–19 pandemic,” the EPA said at the time.

A review of the 2021 awards, however, shows that the program funded grants for some projects that had virtually little to do with addressing COVID-19 or the effects of the pandemic.

Basically, business friends of the Biden’s got lots of money and average Americans got inflation.

The article lists some of the ways the funds were used:

Clean Air Carolina, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, received a grant for a project to install a public Level 2 EV charging station and to create an educational video as a way for “community members to get involved to mitigate air pollution.”

Roanoke Economic Development Inc, based in Rich Square, North Carolina, received a grant to “address air pollution and climate change through the development of a regional electric vehicle charger installation plan to promote EV use and accessibility by minority and low-income populations.”

An EPA spokesperson said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital that the American Rescue Plan funds provided for the program “allows communities to implement solutions that can improve conditions related to COVID-19 such as air quality issues.”

“These projects all went through a rigorous scoring and approval process to ensure project activities and goals align with our statutory authorities and the language and intent of ARP,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the 2022 call for grant applications from federally recognized tribes “is utilizing the EJ Small Grants Program to efficiently facilitate distribution of funds to federally recognized tribal governments in line with the ARP statutory requirements, but does not affect any past or upcoming funding opportunities for the program.”

The article concludes:

Daren Bakst, an energy expert at the Heritage Foundation, slammed the Biden administration for using taxpayer money to fund environmental “extremism.”

“COVID-19 relief money shouldn’t be some cover for the Biden administration to use taxpayer dollars to fund its far-left agenda and to indoctrinate people in environmental extremism,” Bakst told Fox News Digital. “But that appears to be happening at the EPA. Taking community tree walks, teaching people how to prevent future marine debris, and similar funded projects have nothing to do with the pandemic.”

“Americans are being crushed by inflation rates not seen in over 40 years, thanks in large part to out-of-control federal spending,” he added. “If the Biden administration is genuinely concerned about low-income communities, it would stop its excessive spending, war on energy, and general regulatory avalanche that is hitting Americans hard — especially low-income communities — through skyrocketing prices.”

Evidently excessive government spending on environmental issues has a positive impact on Covid. Who knew?

This Is No Surprise To My Boston Friends

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On April 14th, Fox News posted an article about some of Hunter Biden’s business associates. As my mother used to say, “You are known by the company you keep.”

The article reports:

James “Whitey” Bulger’s nephew, Jim Bulger, was a business associate of Hunter Biden, and according to emails obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, appears to have played a key role in a number of his Chinese business ventures. 

Whitey Bulger was a notorious Boston crime boss, who became one of the nation’s most-wanted fugitives after fleeing Boston in late 1994. He was captured in 2011. Bulger was serving a life sentence for 11 murders and other crimes when he died in prison in October 2018. 

In addition to being Whitey’s nephew, Jim Bulger is the son of William “Billy” Bulger, who served as president of the Massachusetts State Senate for eight years. Billy Bulger was an ally of John Kerry when he served in the Senate. Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz, co-founded Rosemont Seneca with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer.

The article also notes that Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation for his ‘tax affairs’ since 2018. Is anyone willing to make bets as to whether or not the laws that apply to the rest of America apply to the Biden family?

The article concludes:

The federal investigation into Hunter Biden was predicated, in part, by Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regarding suspicious foreign transactions.

Another source familiar with the investigation told Fox News in December 2020 that the SARs were regarding funds from “China and other foreign nations.”

A Treasury Department official, who did not comment on the investigation, spoke broadly about SARs, telling Fox News that SARs are filed by financial institutions “if there is something out of the ordinary about a particular transaction.”

The official told Fox News that the mere filing of a SAR does not mean there has been a criminal act, or violation of regulations, but instead, flags that a transaction is “out of the ordinary” for the customer. The official noted, though, that a SAR could be part of a money laundering or tax investigation.

Meanwhile, the grand jury continues to investigate Hunter Biden’s international business dealings—even after he paid off a tax liability following the announcement of the probe into his “tax affairs.”

Hunter Biden, weeks after the 2020 presidential election, released a statement acknowledging the federal investigation of his “tax affairs.”

“I take this matter very seriously, but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” Biden said in the December 2020 statement.

Translated loosely that means, “Barack and I control the Justice Department so I am not worried about my son.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It includes a number of screenshots of emails about Hunter Biden’s business deals.

What Are The Real Numbers?

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On Friday, Fox News posted an article about hospitalizations for Covid in New York State. It turns out that the numbers being reported include people admitted to the hospital for a problem unrelated to Covid who test positive for Covid.

The article reports:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul released data Friday breaking down COVID-19 hospitalizations by those who were admitted due to the virus and those who were admitted for other reasons but were found to have the illness.

Included in the data was a chart showing “how many hospitalized individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted for COVID-19/COVID-19 complications and how many were admitted for non-COVID-19 conditions.”

This is a screenshot of the chart:

The article concludes:

Hochul’s administration recently faced backlash after revealing that it will prioritize non-White people in the distribution of COVID-19 treatments in short supply.

New York’s Department of Health released a document detailing its plan to distribute the treatments, such as monoclonal antibody treatment and antiviral pills.

The plan includes a section on eligibility for the scarce antiviral pills that people must meet to receive the treatment, including a line stating a person needs to have “a medical condition or other factors that increase their risk for severe illness.”

This is the breakdown of the vaccinated and unvaccinated in New York City (article here):

As of December 13, 2021, CDC reported that race/ethnicity was known for 70% of people who had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among this group, nearly two thirds were White (58%), 10% were Black, 19% were Hispanic, 6% were Asian, 1% were American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), and <1% were Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI), while 6% reported multiple or other race. White people make up a smaller share of people who have received at least one dose (58%) and people who have recently received a vaccination (50%) compared to their share of the total population (61%). The same pattern is observed among Black people, who make up 10% of people who have received at least one dose and 11% of those recently vaccinated, compared to 12% of the population. In contrast, Hispanic people make up a larger share of vaccinated people (19%) and people who recently received a vaccination (23%) compared to their share of the total population (17%). The share of vaccinated people who are Asian is proportionate to their share of the total population (both 6%), while they make up a higher share (9%) of people initiating vaccination in the last 14 days.

It’s interesting to me that New York State is giving some minorities priority in Covid treatment when some minorities seem to be the most reluctant to get vaccinated. I guess some minorities are not included in the move to deny medical treatment to the unvaccinated.

The Soft Coup That Is Taking Place In Front Of Us

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A friend who is much smarter than I posted this on Facebook today:

It’s easy to ignore major parts of a huge government like ours because we never deal with certain sections. Of course we deal indirectly with the food and drug administration every time we eat some food but we don’t really pay them any attention.

I bet 98% of Americans have no idea what position Jelena McWilliams holds, yet her FDIC controls everything that happens at your bank. Through regulations passed to improve our “faith” in our banking institutions, the FDIC affects everything from how much money you earn on your savings account to whether or not you can get a mortgage on your house. If somebody was going to take over our government, it would be a good place to begin.

Last month Ms. McWilliams, chairman of the FDIC, warned us of just that. She said the Democrats on the FDIC’s committee have been going behind her back to get agency employees to circumvent the chain of command to use their position to further their own agenda. One of the ways they do this is to threaten banks that make loans to conservative businesses. During the Obama reign of terror they made it next to impossible for gun dealers, including independent sporting goods stores, to use federal banks.
Ms. McWilliams wrote an Op-Ed about the problem and encouraged the Puppet President (who is constitutionally mandated to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed) to get involved.

After the White House refused to stop targeting conservatives, she tendered her resignation Friday. We now have one less patriot fighting against corruption and the takeover of our government by a select few who think they know what is best for us.

That is why the Democrats are not concerned about this year’s election. They plan to have complete control of our country by that time. If they get their “voting rights act“ passed, we will not have another fair election until after the civil war.

You may disagree with his conclusion, but his facts are correct. After reading his post, I went looking for more information. I found it.

Fox News covered Ms. McWilliams’ resignation yesterday, reporting:

FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams announced her resignation Friday in an open letter addressed to President Biden, just weeks after she warned of a “hostile takeover” of the agency by Democrats. 

McWilliams, a Serbian immigrant, has lived in the country for decades and boasts a successful career in law, finance, and banking policy.

“When I immigrated to this country 30 years ago, I did so with a firm belief in the American system of government,” McWilliams wrote in the letter. 

…She continued, “Throughout my tenure, the agency has focused on its fundamental mission to maintain and instill confidence in our banking system while at the same time promoting innovation, strengthening financial inclusion, improving transparency, and supporting community banks and minority depository institutions, including through the creation of the Mission Driven Bank Fund.”

McWilliams was appointed to the position in 2018 under former President Trump. Her resignation will be effective Feb. 4.

McWilliams did not provide a direct reason for her resignation in her letter to the president. However, she previously published a December op-ed in which she described a “hostile takeover” of the FDIC by Democrats.

The actual details of the events which led to her resignation are contained in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on December 15th.

Some highlights from the Wall Street Journal:

On Nov. 16, as I was about to board a flight to Switzerland for a meeting of international regulators, I informed board member Michael Hsu, acting comptroller of the currency, that the FDIC staff document would be available to board members no later than Dec. 6. Seventy-five minutes later, the directors sent a joint letter instructing FDIC staff to mark up their original document instead. Agency staff report to me as the CEO, and I have always ensured that board members have access to staff for discussions, briefings and technical expertise. The board members’ letter was an attempt to seize control of the FDIC’s staff while its chairman was on a nine-hour flight to Europe for official meetings.

…On Dec. 6, the FDIC staff produced a document to board members that was factual and neutral in tone, informed by the expertise of career staff—a genuine effort to solicit public feedback without politicizing the agency or the process. It asked broad-based questions on the statutory factors that govern merger applications and whether the FDIC’s existing approach is appropriate.

Within hours of receiving that document, board members responded by attempting to vote on the original CFPB document. Board member Martin Gruenberg, a former chairman, electronically signed his alleged vote on Dec. 3, three days before receiving the FDIC document for review. When board members were informed that their actions didn’t constitute a valid vote, Messrs. Chopra and Gruenberg posted their document on the CFPB’s website and claimed it was an official FDIC issuance.

Of the 20 chairmen who preceded me at the FDIC, nine faced a majority of the board members from the opposing party, including Mr. Gruenberg as chairman under President Trump until I replaced him as chairman in 2018. Never before has a majority of the board attempted to circumvent the chairman to pursue their own agenda.

So why is this important? Remember when banks (under the Obama administration) closed accounts of businesses dealing in gun sales? Remember (under the Obama administration) when any organization with a conservative-sounding name was denied tax exempt status? Remember when banks (under the Clinton administration) were forced to make sub-prime mortgage loans in the name of equality? The FDIC needs to be politically neutral. What is happening now is the Biden administration (aka deep state) attempting to silence conservative speech by taking control of the banking system. Be prepared to hear in the future that organizations like One America New and other conservative news outlets will not be able to get business loans to expand their businesses. That is where this is going.

About That Border

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On Monday Fox News posted an article about a recent arrest of someone who had crossed our southern border illegally.

The article reports:

A “potential terrorist” with links to a number of “Yemeni subjects of interest” was captured in Arizona late last week after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S. Border Patrol officials announced Monday.

The 21-year-old man was apprehended Thursday night entering the U.S. from Mexico through Yuma, Arizona, according to a tweet from Yuma Sector Chief Patrol Agent Chris T. Clem. He appears to have been wearing a jacket emblazoned with an American flag patch and another that stated: “Central Oneida County Volunteer.”

You have to admit it was a great disguise. Thankfully law enforcement saw right through it.

The article continues:

Speaking to Fox News on Monday morning, Central Oneida County Volunteer Ambulance Corps Chief Thomas Meyers said the man, whose identity has not been released, has no affiliation with the New York-based group. Meyers added that he does not know who the man is or how he acquired one of the jackets, which is outdated from the version the ambulance corps now uses.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Having an open southern border is not good for national security. How many secret terror cells have been smuggled in while the border is open? How long will it be before those cells begin carrying out attacks on Americans?

Elections Have Consequences

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The election of Virginia Governor Youngkin has already had an impact beyond Virginia. Heeded or not, the election was a wake-up call for the radical leftist agenda being pushed in Washington, D.C. The election itself was important, but the policies that Governor Youngkin enacts will also have an impact on America’s future.

On Saturday, Fox News reported the following:

Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin of Virginia has signaled his intention to pull the state out of a climate compact that many small businesses there are glad to see go.

Youngkin has made clear his intention to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The interstate compact places penalties on entities that exceed emission regulations set by an organization representing all member states.

The article concludes:

The RGGI currently boasts eleven member states in the initiative, all from the northeast: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia.

The RGGI is currently being courted by Pennsylvania for membership. It boasts itself as the “first market-based, cap-and-invest regional initiative in the United States.”

The Cato Institute puts out an index of personal and economic freedom annually. The Sixth Edition (2021) has a list of states according to the “Miscellaneous Regulatory Freedom Score.” The least regulated state on that list is Arizona, the most regulated is North Carolina. Of the states in the RGGI, Connecticut ranks 31, Delware 29, Maine 33, Maryland 42, Massachusetts 49, New Hampshire 6, New Jersey 41, New York 47, Rhode Island 30, Vermont 14, and Virginia 20.

It appears to me that the RGGI is simply the latest cap and trade proposal put in place by the Democrats. To learn some interesting history on the cap and trade scams of the past, please read the article from August 2010 about what happened to the Chicago Climate Exchange when the Democrats were predicted to lose the majority in the House of Representatives. Unfortunately, much of the talk of the environment is actually a smoke screen for hidden financial interests and governmental quests for more power.

An Interesting Change In Voting Habits

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On Thursday, The Patriot Journal posted an article about a shifting voting bloc.

The article includes an excerpt from Fox News:

A new poll from The Wall Street Journal found that Hispanic voters are now split between Republicans and Democrats on the generic ballot at 37%. A further 22% responded that they were undecided…

Hispanics were also divided nearly evenly on the question of a 2024 presidential rematch. In an identical election between President Biden and former President Trump, 44% stated they would vote for Biden, while 43% said they would vote for Trump.

The article at The Patriot Journal continues:

We’ve been seeing this trend all throughout the year. Several special elections were held in Texas in 2021. Candidates were running in largely Hispanic towns and districts, close to the border. And, what do ya know, Republicans won again and again. In some places, this was the first time a GOP candidate took the victory.

That’s a very bad sign for Democrats. And it’s not just about elections. Democrats pride themselves on being “inclusive” and “diverse.” Much of their messaging is that they are the party that supports people of color. And that Republicans only care about rich, white people.

But that narrative is completely shattered if half or more of the Hispanic voters break for the GOP. Democrats can’t claim they are the only ones that care about minorities if so many of them vote for the other party.

Many of the Hispanics that are voting GOP are unhappy with the open-borders policy of the Biden administration. People who came here legally do not appreciate the unsecured border. Our Hispanic population is very familiar with the character of the cartels currently controlling our border and smuggling gang members through our porous border.

The article concludes:

Democrats are already making excuses for these numbers. They claim they just need to do a better job at “reaching” Hispanic voters. But these Americans have seen what Democrats can do when given power. And they are not impressed. They want what we all want, a safe border, good education for their children, and—oh yeah—an economy that’s not terrible.

And it seems Democrats cannot deliver on any of that.

Losing Our Competitive Edge

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American Education has not been improving over the past few decades. Test scores have been going down, and America’s ranking among the other countries in the world has gone down.

According to an article posted on February 28, 2021, at a website called The Balance:

The United States is not investing as much in human capital as other developed countries. As a result, its comparative advantage is falling behind. For example, U.S. students’ math skills have remained stagnant for decades.1

This means they are falling behind many other countries, such as Japan, Poland, and Ireland, which have greatly improved. In fact, U.S. test scores are now below the global average. 

…The Program for International Student Assessment tests 15-year-old students around the world and is administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2018, when the test was last administered, the U.S. placed 11th out of 79 countries in science. It did worse in math, ranking 30th.2 

The U.S. scored 478 in math, below the OECD average of 489. That’s well below the scores of the top five, all of which were Asian nations: Singapore at 569, Macao at 555, Hong Kong at 551, Taiwan at 531, and Japan at 527. China was not included in this ranking, since only four provinces participated.

The article implies that this is the result of not spending enough money on education. I disagree, but I cited the article because I wanted to post some numbers to prepare you for what I am about to share.

On Monday, Fox News posted an article about California’s efforts to reform mathematics education in the name of social justice.

The article reports:

Hundreds of highly distinguished science and math professors have signed an open letter expressing “urgent concern” over California’s efforts to reform mathematics education in the name of social justice.

The letter, signed by 597 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals, said the California Department of Education’s (CDE) proposed new mathematics framework will aim to reduce achievement gaps by limiting the availability of advanced mathematical courses to middle schoolers and beginning high schoolers, making it more challenging for students to succeed in STEM at college.

Denying access to accelerated courses to advanced students will not improve the education of anyone. Different people have different talents, and allowing them to pursue those talents is helpful to all concerned. I can assure you that China and Russia are not limiting the progress of their advanced students.

The article notes:

The signatories demanded that all students, regardless of background, have access to a math curriculum “with precision and rigor,” and that students be offered multiple pathways to explore mathematics at varying grade levels of middle and high school.

“Far from being deliberately held back, all students should have the opportunity to be nurtured and challenged to fulfill their potential,” the letter said. “This is not only for their own benefit but also for society and the nation’s economic competitiveness.”

The open letter echoes similar concerns in an open letter over the summer, signed by more than 1,100 Californians working in science and technology, who argued it is “immoral and foolish to intentionally hold back the intellectual growth of students by forcing them to waste time in unchallenging classes.”

Bright students in unchallenging classes lose interest in school and tend not to continue their education. The California reform proposal is a recipe for disaster.

 

 

 

Let The Awakening Begin

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On Thursday, Just the News reported that Victor Jimenez, a former spokesperson for Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser, has switched to the Republican party because of the policies of the Biden administration.

The article reports:

Victor Jimenez told Fox News host Tucker Carlson that until recently he “lead public information officer at [Bowser’s] office for community affairs” and worked prior to that in a similar role for Latino outreach.

“The reason I switched parties is because of everything that’s going on in the country right now,” Jimenez, an Afro-Dominican immigrant, told Carlson. “We see immigration through the roof right now, and that is affecting a lot of Hispanic families in my home state of Virginia. And those are people who are already struggling with making ends meet.”

Jimenez cited immigration issues as the major reason for leaving the Democratic Party, including what the considers party leaders’ unsuccessful efforts to get control of the record number of migrants attempting to cross the southern U.S. border.

“If you look at the southern border, we have thousands of people who are just waiting there,” he said. “And I’m not saying we have good people try to come into the country with good intentions, but we also have bad people coming into the country with bad intentions. People with illegal guns and drugs and people who are running from their law enforcement in their own country.

“Being Hispanic and Black, I should be Democrat by default. But I am going against their narrative and I feel like right now everything is crumbling for the Democrats.”

Mr. Jimenez stated that he voted for Glenn Youngkin in Virginia’s gubernatorial election.

The article notes:

Jimenez called the defeat of former Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe by Youngkin, a first-time politician and former businessman, “the beginning of the end” for the Democrats, and precursor for what could be a very painful 2022 election cycle for the party currently in power in D.C.

I doubt that we will ever see the ‘end’ for the Democrats, but I would celebrate the end of some of their policies.

Do Harsh Coronavirus Measures Work?

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Fox News posted an article today that included the statistics on coronavirus cases in California and Florida. California has mask mandates and other mandates impacting the freedom of the unvaccinated. Florida has no mask mandates and has pretty much been open since the original ‘two weeks to slow the spread.’

The article reports:

Watcher (Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the medical department at the University of California-San Francisco) added that with low booster shot rates and waning immunity, “the end result is that we’ve plateaued in our improvements, both nationally and in California, and it’s likely we’ll soon see some significant upticks.”

“California has done very well over the past few months, but we still have too many unvaccinated people,” he added. “People are spending more time inside and being more active, and masking is going down.”

Florida, meanwhile, hit another new benchmark last week. The first hospital in the state to treat a COVID patient last year, Doctor’s Hospital, announced that for the first time since the pandemic, it has no virus patients in its care.

“This is great news! For two weeks and counting, Florida has had the lowest rate of new COVID-19 cases in the entire country – with no mandates, vaccine passports, or lockdowns. Overall, COVID hospitalizations have been declining for more than 70 days straight, and we’re at an all time low in terms of the number of COVID patients hospitalized statewide,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, told Fox News on Monday when asked for comment about Doctor’s Hospital in Sarasota.

The article also notes:

Cases in California are no longer falling, with the rate increasing to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s red “high” level of virus transmission stemming from the delta variant, the outlet reported.

But Southern states such as Texas and Florida – where state leaders do not enforce face mask policies or support other strict mandates – are in the CDC’s orange “substantial” transmission level.

California’s vaccination rate is higher than states such as Texas and Florida, but that still hasn’t stopped the outbreaks. Sixty-two percent of California’s total population is fully vaccinated, while Florida reports 60% and Texas 54%.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the ‘science.’

 

Dishonesty Causes Division

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Media bias is reflected in two ways–the way the media covers a story or the fact that the media chooses not to cover a story. The Arizona audit is a glaring example of that principle. The misreporting of the results will only deepen the political divisions in America.

If you watch the mainstream media, you learned (from msn) the following:

If you watched Fox News, you heard the above when the audit was completed and very little since.

However, if you cruised the alternative media, you quickly learned that there was a whole lot more to the story.

Yesterday The Gateway Pundit reported:

The Arizona audit could not find an identity match on 86,391 people. This is disclosed on Page 56 of the “Results Details” report.

These Maricopa voters cast ballots in Nov 2020 and don’t seem to exist. The ones registered as Democrat or selected no party affiliation represent a whopping 73.8% of these unknown voters. That’s 63,757 ballots. Not selecting a party makes monitoring of nefarious registrations much harder as everything not R or D is bulked together as “Other”. Even the new State voter registration form now only has only 3 categories (R, D, Other) and some registration reporting reduced to similar.

Yesterday The Gateway Pundit also reported:

According to the initial Cyber Ninja Report released to the media on Friday,  the day before the Arizona Senate report was made public, there was real concern about provisional ballots.

On page 2 of the early Cyber Ninja report:

There were substantial statistically significant anomalies identified in the ratio of hand-folded ballots, on- demand printed ballots, as well as a statistically significant increase in provisional ballot rejections for a mail-in ballot already being cast, suggestive of mail-in ballots being cast for voters without their knowledge.

Arizona was not the only state in 2020 that illicit acts with provisional ballots.

In Michigan, leftist operatives taught poll workers how to cheat with provisional ballots.

Damning audio was released by Detroit Leaks before the election that outlined poll worker training wherein workers were trained in how to lie, trained on how to handle ballot challenges from Trump supporters, told to call 911 on any challengers and to use COVID as an excuse to deny poll challengers access to view the ballots as they were being counted and tabulated.

The series of leaks also revealed that even challenged or provisional ballots would be processed as regular ballots.

This was a tactic used by the left and TAUGHT to poll workers before the election. They were taught how to cheat with provisional ballots.

So if you are a follower of the mainstream media, you have heard nothing that indicates investigations are revealing election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. If you follow the alternative media, you are left wondering why our elected officials don’t care enough about election integrity to be shouting ‘foul’ from the rooftops right now. The dishonest mainstream media, intentionally or otherwise, is largely responsible for politically dividing America. They are not reporting the facts or telling the entire story.

Censorship In The Media

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NewsMax is reporting today that Rudy Giuliani and his son Andrew Giuliani, a New York gubernatorial candidate, have been banned from appearing on Fox News.

The article reports:

Rudy Giuliani has been banned from appearing on Fox News for several months, and only learned of the “from the top” order on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Son Andrew Giuliani, a New York gubernatorial candidate, has also been banned.

And former NYPD Commsissioner Bernie Kerik, a close adviser to Giuliani, is rarely booked on Fox News, Politico Playbook reports.

The obvious question is, “What are the executives at Fox News afraid that the American people might learn?”

The article notes:

Fox began distancing itself from Giuliani shortly after Trump left office and in the wake of Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against the network. The suit cited Giuliani’s appearances and statements made on Fox in its $1.6 billion defamation case.

Newsmax was also sued by Dominion over its election coverage, but the network continues to have Giuliani, his son, and Kerik on as guests.

“Rudy is really hurt because he did a big favor for Rupert [Murdoch, founder of Fox News’ parent company],” a source close to Giuliani told the outlet. “He was instrumental in getting Fox on Time Warner so it could be watched in New York City.”

Rudy Giuliani learned of being bumped from Fox News on the eve of this 9/11 anniversary, with “Fox & Friends” host Pete Hegseth having to call to apologize for being cut from the show, according to the report.

The article concludes:

Kerik was reportedly also un-booked from “Fox & Friends” on 9/11.

“I could not have been more disappointed with the Fox coverage on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11,” Kerik said in a statement to Politico. “Then they chose to intentionally ignore Mayor Giuliani who was, and who, according to their own coverage for the last two decades, was America’s hero on the day and in the aftermath of the attack.

“Regardless of reasoning, I think this was another demonstration of Fox’s cowering to the far left.”

A source close to Giuliani tells Newsmax that the former mayor and his circle view their banishment from Fox as part of the network’s strategy to reduce and restrict Trump’s influence in the Republican party.

If you are depending on any mainstream media for your news, you are being sorely mislead.

I Wonder What His Resume Looked Like

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Yesterday The Daily Wire reported that the Interior Minister of the new Afghanistan government is Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the Taliban- and al Qaeda-aligned Haqqani network and a State Department “specially designated global terrorist.” For anyone who is unaware, the Taliban, the Haqqani network, and al-Qaeda are the best of friends. We can expect the new Afghanistan government to reflect the interests of all three groups. Those interests include Sharia Law throughout Afghanistan and eventually throughout the world, women put back in the place they were under Sharia Law, and restoration of the Islamic  Caliphate that was the Ottoman Empire. The place where things will get interesting will be when the leaders of various factions have to decide exactly who will rule the caliphate.

The article reports:

“Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, a long-time Taliban member who has been [the] leader of the group’s Shura or Leadership Council for about two decades, was named as prime minister. He is seen as an influential and respected on the religious side of the movement, rather than on its military side,” CNN reported. Not a single female leader was among those appointed, despite the Taliban’s reported newfound commitment to women’s rights.

“Two senior figures in the Haqqani Network, a US-designated terror group aligned with the Taliban and al Qaeda, will be in in the interim government. Both have been sanctioned by the United Nations and the US,” the outlet added.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is the Haqqani Network’s leader, CNN noted, and he is joined by his uncle, Khalil Haqqani, who was appointed “acting minister of refugees,” though it is not clear whether that refers to incoming or outgoing Afghans.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by both the FBI and the United States State Department, and he has a $5 million bounty from the U.S. State Department on his head, according to the FBI’s “Most Wanted” page,  which still lists his whereabouts as largely unknown.

Just for the record, Fox News reported the following yesterday:

According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.

At least if anyone wanted to deal with these criminals, we know where to find them.

There Is Some Irony Here

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Yesterday The Daily Wire posted an article about one aspect of America’s surrender to the Taliban.

The article reports:

The Taliban are “feeling angry and betrayed Wednesday” after discovering that helicopters, left by the United States military after they officially pulled out of Kabul, Afghanistan, do not work and, in some cases, were deliberately rendered inoperable before the military departed, Fox News said.

An Al Jazeera reporter spoke with Taliban fighters after they entered the formerly American side of Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA), and posted a video of the event to various social media networks, said that the Taliban fighters expected the U.S. to leave their equipment in full working order, though it is not clear whether the U.S. made any such promises.

It’s okay–the Chinese will reverse engineer them and solve the problem.

The article continued:

“An Al Jazeera reporter who toured a hanger on the military side of the airport said in a video that the terrorist group ‘expected the Americans to leave helicopters like this in one piece for their use,’” Fox reported.

“When I said to them, ‘why do you think that the Americans would have left everything operational for you’? They said because we believe it is a national asset and we are the government now and this could have come to great use for us,” the Al Jazeera reporter said in her video.

Photos of the equipment posted to social media, which appear to be of the helicopters and other aircraft left behind after the American withdrawal, show smashed indicators and gauges and destroyed control panels. The photos also seem to show that the U.S. military removed guns and other weapons from helicopters before leaving.

…The Washington Post noted Tuesday that, although initial reports said that the Taliban seized $85 billion in equipment left by American forces, that number accounts for all of the money expended to assist the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) since 2001.

Using a percentage provided by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Post reported that the “equipment provided to Afghan forces amounted to $24 billion over 20 years. The GAO said approximately 70 percent of the equipment went to the Afghan military and the rest went to the national police (part of the Interior Ministry).”

It is not clear how much of that equipment ended up in the hands of the Taliban. “With great fanfare, the Taliban has seized a number of Black Hawk helicopters, including ones that the United States had just shipped this year at the request of former Afghan president Ashraf Ghani,” the Post added, noting that the Taliban does not have many qualified pilots and that they targeted Afghan military pilots for execution before taking Kabul.

Upon leaving, CENTCOM said, “the military ‘demilitarized’ 70 MRAPs, 27 Humvees and 73 aircraft,” likely including those helicopters the Taliban is now reportedly angry about.

I hope CENTCOM is telling the truth. Demilitarizing some of the equipment left behind would have been one of the few sensible things done during the evacuation.

Fox Isn’t What It Used To Be

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As much as the political left in America likes to slam Fox News are being entirely right wing, that has never actually been the case. Actually Fox News historically has been one of the more balanced news networks. That was then; this is now. As the control of the network changes, it has lost some of its willingness to report thoroughly on some matters.

The Conservative Treehouse posted an article yesterday about some creative editing done by Fox News.

The article reports:

President Trump appeared on Fox News for an interview with Dan Bongino last night.  Unfortunately, when the interview segment was posted to the Fox News channel, some specific words from President Trump were deleted from the interview segment.

Ironically the name of Dan Bongino’s show is “unfiltered.”  Alas when President Trump’s spokesperson, Liz Harrington, reviewed the tape she discovered the censorship and showed on Twitter [SEE HERE]  In the transcript below the emboldened section was removed:

President Trump said: …“it’s a disgrace what’s happening, and I don’t think the country is going to stand for it much longer; they’re disgusted.  You have a fake election; you have an election with voter abuse and voter fraud, like nobody has ever seen before. And based on that, and based on what happened, they are destroying our country.  Whether it’s at the border. Whether it’s on crime. I can say in plenty of instances including military, you look at the leaders of military, the woke leaders of military, we have to focus on our great military for what it’s supposed to be – to protect us against very powerful countries like Russia, and China, and others who don’t exactly love us.”

The edit, called a “jump edit” takes place at 09:03 of the presented video below:

 

The article concludes:

This is just as bad as Big Tech. They are putting President Trump’s honest statement, and the concerns of tens of millions of Americans, down the Memory Hole.

I guess it’s FILTERED after all, @dbongino.

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) August 8, 2021

It is sad that news organizations are editing things to avoid letting Americans know the truth. I guess it’s nothing new, but it is definitely bad for our republic.

 

The Questions That Were Neither Asked Nor Answered

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Yesterday Fox News posted an article about comments made by the National Police Association Spokeswoman Betsy Brantner Smith about the Congressional hearings about the events of January 6th.

The article reports:

The National Police Association on Wednesday slammed Congress’ investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot as a politically motivated “dog and pony show” that has no intention of uncovering the truth of what really happened that day.

In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, association spokeswoman Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant who describes herself as a conservative, said Congress should hear from the thousands of police officers who were injured during the George Floyd riots last year.

…”Myself, like millions of Americans, sat there watching the testimony thinking, ‘Wait, where are the police officers who appeared – appeared – to let some of the protesters in?” she asked. “Where is the police officer who shot Ashli Babbitt? In fact, why aren’t we talking about Ashli Babbitt? I mean there’s so much more here.”

Brantner Smith’s comments came the day after four law enforcement officers who responded to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol gave testimony to a House select committee about their experience.

Brantner Smith said those officers have been “politicized by Congress,” and that while their stories are important, the American public also deserves to hear the stories of the “more than 2,000” men and women in law enforcement who were injured during last year’s violent protests.

She cited a poll last week by the NPA and Rasmussen Reports that found 66% of likely U.S. voters think Congress should investigate the riots spurred by Floyd’s murder last May.

The article concludes:

“The veracity of the defund the police movement is directly related to crime in that area,” she continued. “We’re not saving Black lives by defunding the police, by reimagining police, by vilifying the police. And that’s what I think is so disingenuous, and I think it’s confusing for people. Because I think a lot of Americans say, of course, black lives matter. I mean, who doesn’t believe that black lives matter? But yet these policies in the name of Black Lives Matter are actually killing more Black people, damaging the lives of Black people than the police ever have.”

“We’re reaching a tipping point and I think yesterday kind of woke some people up — I hope. I hope,” she said.

Show trials are not going to help the ongoing crime problem that has developed in American cities since the ‘defund the police’ movement. Residents of the cities where crime has spiraled out of control need to seriously consider who they will vote for in their next mayoral and city council elections. That decision could be the beginning of a solution to the crime problem.

Accidentally Telling The Truth?

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Yesterday NewsBusters posted an article about a recent comment made by Nikki Fried, a Democratic politician who is running for Florida governor.

The article reports:

Sometimes people just come out and say what we all know to be true, even if some still pretend otherwise. Nikki Fried, a Democratic politician who is running for Florida governor and hopes to challenge Republican Ron DeSantis, tweeted this on Thursday: “Ron DeSantis has Fox News, but we have everyone else. Florida will be blue in 2022.” 

The article includes a screenshot of the tweet in case it is deleted.

The article concludes:

Fried is a frequent guest on the outlets she knows are in her corner. On March 31, 2021, she appeared on Joy Reid’s MSNBC show and bashed not just DeSantis, but her own state, saying she “want[ed] to apologize to the rest of the country of what happens here in the state of Florida.” Fried trashed DeSantis as “not rational,” “egotistical” and “dogmatic.” 

On the June 27, 2020 edition of AM Joy, Reid tossed this softball to Fried about DeSantis and Covid: “Commissioner Fried, I want to let you critique your governor’s performance.” See, MSNBC and the Democratic Party working together. At least Fried is being honest about it now. 

I don’t entirely agree with her statement. Fox News is a 24-hour news station. Of that 24 hours, I would say that approximately 4 or 5 hours of broadcasting actually lean conservative. Most of the shows on Fox are either in the political center or center right. The fact that the network is referred to as conservative illustrates the fact that our political center has moved left in recent years. In the last century, all Americans understood that communism and socialism were not workable economic systems. We are now at a point where we need to send almost everyone back to school to take an economics course.

You Can Only Celebrate What You Are Told You Can Celebrate

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Yesterday Fox News posted an article about regulations regarding celebrations in Evanston, Illinois.

The article reports:

The city of Evanston, Illinois, located just north of Chicago, joined communities across the U.S. in celebrating their first in-person Juneteenth parade Saturday, but some have been left wondering why celebrations for the nation’s Independence Day have been canceled. 

The Evanston Fourth of July Association voted to cancel the town’s Independence Day events earlier in 2020 and opt for a virtual celebration instead — citing concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

“Based on concern for public health due to the unpredictability of the pandemic’s impact, vaccination rates, and in cooperation with our local authorities, the Trustees…voted to cancel the Fun Run, Parade, Palatine Concert Band performance and Lakefront Fireworks show on July 4, 2021,” the board wrote in a statement.

But some took to social media to voice their frustration over the decision.

“My home town of Evanston, Illinois is having a Juneteenth Parade and a Gay Pride Parade, but is canceling the 4th of July Parade & Fireworks,” Tom Bevan, co-founder and president of Real Clear Politics, wrote on Twitter.

The article explains:

“We made the decision in March based on the information that we had at that time,” Trustee and Celebration Manager Jamie Black told Fox News. “There are deadlines for permits and to secure the fireworks, as well as taking applications for the parade that happen early in the year.”

“We erred on the side of caution. If things weren’t better, we would have been criticized for being a super spreader event,” he added.

Wait a minute. How is it that the July 4th celebration application for permits had a deadline in March and the Juneteenth parade was put on with very short notice?

The article notes:

Fox News could not immediately reach the mayor’s office for comment on the decision to cancel the Fourth of July celebrations.

But in partnership with Evanston Present and Future — a nonprofit that supports community development and education surrounding Black history — the city of Evanston helped promote a Juneteenth parade followed by community-wide celebrations.

The Juneteenth parade – a celebration of the nation’s newest holiday recognizing the complete emancipation of enslaved people on June 19, 1865 – is not the only community-based celebration happening this summer.

Evanston Pride will host a car parade and community picnic later in June to celebrate LGBTQIA individuals — though attendees are encouraged to bring their own food as an extra health precaution.

Unless Americans begin to reclaim their rights by electing people who celebrate America, we will fail as a country.

Disappointing, But Not Surprising

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There has always been a lot of conversation about the money in politics. Generally speaking, that conversation has centered around campaign donations, but in recent years there has been another aspect of money in politics that needs some serious scrutiny. Basically it has to do with how middle class Americans become millionaires after a few terms in Congress. Congressmen make less than $200,000 a year, so even if you had no expenses at all it would take you five  years to become a millionaire. Many do it through selling influence through donations to their ‘charitable organizations’ where the only charity goes to themselves. Others do it through insider trading. Some do it by getting exorbitant speaking fees from companies of countries that coincidentally have matters before the legislative or executive branches of our government. You can find examples of all of these activities in recent history with very little research. Recently, we had another example of questionable campaign donations.

Yesterday Fox News reported the following:

President Biden and his allies raked in campaign cash from a top Russia lobbyist in 2020, just months before his administration’s decision to scrap sanctions on a controversial firm building a Russian oil pipeline to Germany.

Richard Burt, a managing partner at McLarty Associates and a former U.S. ambassador to Germany during the Reagan administration, ponied up $4,000 for Joe Biden in October 2020 and dropped another $10,000 in the lefty-aligned political action committee Unite The County in March 2020, FEC records show.

In addition to violating Biden’s own campaign pledge not to take lobbyist cash, the money from Burt is particularly noteworthy as he is currently directly engaged in lobbying activities for Nord Stream 2 AG.

“When Richard Burt donated to Biden Victory Fund, he failed to acknowledge that he was a registered foreign agent and was therefore ineligible to contribute,” a Democratic National Committee spokesman told The Post. “Because Burt also listed a different employer than on his [Foreign Agents Registration Act] registration, he was not flagged during our vetting process.”

The DNC said it returned the cash on Thursday after The Post’s inquiry.

The Switzerland-based Nord Stream 2 — controlled by an ex-East German stasi officer and close ally of Vladimir Putin — is currently engaging in sanctionable activity, according to the State Department. Team Biden raised eyebrows, however, after declining to enforce sanctions, citing U.S. national interests, Axios reported.

Critics worry the project will allow Russia dangerous influence over European energy supplies and increase their overall political leverage on the continent.

Somehow I am not convinced that the cash was fully returned rather than simply funneled somewhere else. Unfortunately this would have gone unchecked but for the efforts of the reporter at The New York Post who wrote the article.

Speaking Up For A Tradition

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On May 1st, I posted an article about the pentagon cancelling the permit for the rallying point for Rolling Thunder. The excuse used was the risk of Covid-19. Since we know that outdoor transmission of the virus is almost non-existent, that seemed like a rather lame excuse.

Yesterday Fox News reported that California Representative Darrell Issa has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to allow Rolling Thunder to have their annual event.

The article reports:

Issa joined Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., and other House Republicans to request President Biden override the Pentagon’s decision on Rolling to Remember, formally known as “Rolling Thunder,” in a letter sent Tuesday morning. Pentagon Special Events confirmed veterans group AMVETS’ permit for the Rolling to Remember motorcycle rally on March 11 but later reversed its decision. The Pentagon said it looks forward to working with AMVETS in the future “if COVID-19 conditions permit.”

“If I thought there was any credence or fairness to their refusal, I would have asked differently,” Issa told Fox News. “It’s very clear that someone with a unique political bent said no, and we’re going to get to the bottom of who that is.”

Issa’s bill, the “Let Veterans Honor the Fallen Act,” would codify the Rolling to Remember Memorial Day motorcycle rally’s ability to stage each year in the Pentagon parking lot as long as its host organization submits a notification of use to the Secretary of Defense by Jan. 31 of the year the event will take place.

“It’s narrow but it’s efficient. It simply authorizes what has been a 30-year tradition,” Issa said. “This is the equivalent of the president saying he wouldn’t throw out a baseball at a home opener.”

Issa cast doubt on the Pentagon’s reasoning for rescinding the permit and pointed to reports that the risk of outdoor coronavirus transmission has been greatly exaggerated.

“This is a boldfaced lie,” he said. “Ten thousand people are going to descend … in Washington, D.C. That they do so safely and they do so on vehicles that separate the family units by design, and they’re going to say that’s not acceptable. Unfortunately, this is an administration that if they called it a peaceful protest, even if they destroyed the city, would be allowed to do it.”

Representative Issa noted that the bill may not be passed in time to make it to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law, but Representative Issa is hopeful that the passage of the bill will cause the decision to be reversed.

Where Are The Perpetually Outraged?

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Yesterday Fox News reported that BLM protestors had stormed the Oklahoma Capitol Building on Wednesday, forcing the Oklahoma House of Representatives into lockdown.

The article reports:

Demonstrators chanting “Black Lives Matter” stormed the Oklahoma Capitol on Wednesday, forcing the state House of Representatives into lockdown, in order to protest several Republican-backed bills, including one that provides legal protections to motorists fleeing riots.

More than two dozen protesters filled the gallery on the fifth floor while the Oklahoma House in the chamber below was in session. Video showed demonstrators chanting, “Stand united against all hate,” and “We will use our voices to stand against corruption, to fight hate, to defend Black and Brown lives.” The disturbance interrupted the session for several minutes.

The demonstration was organized against what activists describe as anti-protest and anti-transgender bills advancing through the GOP-controlled state Senate and House. One bill increases penalties for protesters blocking traffic and protects drivers who unintentionally strike drivers with their cars. Another aims to protect law enforcement and their families from “doxxing.”

The article notes:

Oklahoma Highway Patrol escorted protesters from the building, and a drug dog was brought into the chamber to make sure “nothing was left behind,” KOCO reporter Dillon Richards tweeted.

I’m not sure I have seen this widely reported in the mainstream media.

It’s interesting to me that none of the bills they were protesting has anything to do with hate. The only bill that might even remotely be related to hate is the one protecting law enforcement and their families from “doxxing.”  Their problem with that bill would probably be that it protects people they don’t like. Blocking traffic should be illegal. There has been more than one incident when an emergency vehicle has been blocked by a protest and lives were at stake. The bills passed were not anti-protest–they were simply pro-common sense.

Pouring Gasoline On A Raging Fire

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Yesterday Fox News reported that the Judge in the trial of Derek Chauvin was not pleased with the recent remarks made by Representative Maxine Waters.

The article reports:

A lawyer defending Derek Chauvin, who is on trial for the death of George Floyd, cited Rep. Maxine Waters’, D-Calif., comments to Minnesota protesters over the weekend in court on Monday.

“And now that we have [a] U.S. representative … threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case, it’s it’s mind boggling…,” Attorney Eric Nelson said, as he attempted to argue that the jury may have been unduly influenced by external factors.

Judge Peter Cahill said that he wished elected officials would stop referencing the case “especially in a manner that is disrespectful to the rule of law” so as to let the judicial process play out as intended.

He added, however, that he did not believe the comments unduly influenced the jury as they had been told not to watch the news.

I hate to be cynical here, but does anyone actually believe that the jury followed the Judge’s orders not to watch the news? The jury in this trial should have been sequestered from the beginning (after the location of the trial was moved). There is no way this could ever be considered a fair trial–jurors know that if they return a not-guilty verdict there will be riots. There will probably be riots anyway, but I believe that the members of the jury fear for their safety if they produce a not-guilty verdict. Whatever the verdict is, it will probably be appealed and the country will go through more strife.

That being said, I have no idea what the correct verdict should be. I wasn’t in the courtroom. I would simply like to see rioters arrested and held in jail for a minimum of thirty days without bail so that they could cool off. That might discourage future riots. Meanwhile, I would like to know what stealing and burning buildings have to do with protesting.