Tag Archives: Hot Air

The Wrong Solution

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article reporting a suggestion from the Mayor of South Portland, Maine, on how to pay the increasingly high taxes imposed by the city.

The article reports:

In a city that has raised taxes by almost 25% over the past half-decade, the mayor has made the obvious suggestion: use your home’s equity to hand over your wealth to keep the city’s gravy train going.

It’s a brilliant solution if you think about it. You worked all your life to buy your house outright, happy that you can pass along the value to the next generation.

But really, wouldn’t you rather keep the government bureaucrats happy instead? The children of the community are the children of the community, which means that your children belong to the government, just as your home should too.

Included in a quote from the Mayor was the following link:

South Portland Directs $150,000 in State Funds to Help Migrants Currently Staying at Hotel Find Permanent Housing

You don’t suppose that might have something to do with the almost 25% increase in taxes?

The article also notes:

Notice that link in the middle of the quote? City directs $150,000 to help migrants find permanent housing.

Hmm. I wonder if there is some correlation.

This is exactly what you should expect in modern-day America. Governments spending money to help migrants while screwing their own citizens.

Is it any wonder that people are angry? We are constantly being asked to sacrifice our own futures for the benefit of people who aren’t citizens. We are paying the freight for others while being asked to surrender what we have.

Elections matter. Any Democrat you vote for in November will continue to give your money away to people who broke the law coming here.

 

 

Just A Reminder Of How Things Work

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On Sunday, Miranda Devine posted an article at Hot Air that included a screenshot of a Tweet. The headline of the article is, “Nobody Was Ever Charged for the Antifa Attack on the White House.”

This is the Tweet:

Meanwhile, people who walked through the Capitol on January 6th after the police waved them in are rotting in jail almost four years later. Where are their Civil Rights? Does anyone in Congress really care about Civil Rights? Where are the courageous Congressmen speaking out against this?

Is This Constitutional? Do We Still Have A Constitution?

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On September 21st, Hot Air reported on the first cabinet meeting President Biden has held in almost a year. It was not a normal cabinet meeting.

The article reports:

I suppose this has happened often enough during this administration that we probably shouldn’t be all that shocked, but that doesn’t mean that this behavior should be normalized. As we have noted here multiple times in the past, It’s been almost a year since Joe Biden sat down for a meeting with the members of his cabinet to discuss world affairs and get their agenda in order. That changed yesterday when the first such cabinet meeting in more than eleven months was held at the White House… sort of. A meeting was indeed called to order, but Joe Biden’s entire participation in it was comprised of his introductory remarks where he welcomed the person who would actually be chairing the meeting. That would be his wife, Jill Biden. Dr. Jill wound up doing almost all of the talking while Joe disappeared into the background before departing. This jarring event led many observers to yet again as the same question we’ve been wrestling with all year. Who is actually running the country right now?

Can you imagine the uproar if Melania had held a cabinet meeting?

The article concludes:

No matter what you may have thought of the outcome of the 2020 elections, the fact is that we did hold an election. Not a single person voted for Jill Biden to hold any sort of official office or power over the fundamental operation of our country. And yet she is obviously the person in charge of America’s government today. Are you okay with that? If the elected President is unable to discharge his duties (as clearly seems to be the case) the Founders provided us with various options to ensure the orderly transition of power, with further clarification coming from the addition of the 25th Amendment. It is impossible to imagine the authors of any of those fundamental documents writing, “If that doesn’t work out, don’t worry. There will be another election coming along soon enough. Let’s just hope for the best, shall we?”

As the Post correctly notes, Joe Biden has been officially on vacation for two-thirds of the days of the past month. I specify “officially” because there is typically so little on his schedule each day that it’s difficult to discern which days are vacation days and which are “work days” when he simply does basically nothing. Looking around that room and seeing the collection of DEI appointees for cabinet positions that Biden has assembled, it’s difficult to say who – if anyone – is actually running anything anymore. 

They were happy to show up and clap like trained seals for Jill Biden and she seemed to be enjoying the experience fully. How nice for her. Meanwhile, the world is on fire and the Vice President (who should have already replaced Biden under more normal circumstances) is busy campaigning while taking no questions and refusing to discuss her policy plans. This is no way to run an airline, folks. Fasten your seatbelts. We still have several months to go before we can officially say goodbye to Joe Biden and it will probably turn out to be a very rocky ride.

This is no way to run a country.

I Am Impressed

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It has become obvious that neither President Trump nor JD Vance are welcome in Springfield, Ohio. Heaven forbid we should find out exactly what is going on there. However, Vivek Ramaswamy is planning on holding a rally there. Just for the record, I have two reports from people there saying that the Haitians there that practice voodoo are continuing their practices–which include animal sacrifice.

On Wednesday, Hot Air reported:

Vivek Ramaswamy will be there tomorrow, and he is ensuring that it won’t just be a bitch session aimed at Haitian immigrants. He is inviting people from all walks of life to attend, and I expect that he will do an outstanding job representing the Republican ticket there.

I love Vivek; although I am unconvinced he is the kind of guy who would succeed in the job of being chief executive of the country. Frankly, he is too smart for the job and too intellectual in particular. He is smart, quick on his feet, makes the political and policy cases for our cause extremely well, and appeals to people like me because of it.

But what I am not certain of is whether a quick-talking intellectual is the sort of guy Americans can identify with. He is so smart that you kinda wonder whether he is “just like me” when it comes to empathizing with our day-to-day concerns.

The article notes:

And Springfield may turn out to play an outsized role for a couple of reasons: there are allegations that the mayor is making bank on the influx of migrants as he appears to have recently invested in rental housing in a big way, and despite denials from local officials that there is any truth to the rumors of pets being killed, recent footage from a town meeting shows that at the very least the city manager knew of the allegations and of reports that they were.

There are a number of people profiting from the migrant influx. Taxpayer money is given to NGO’s to bring people into the country and provide housing, medical care, etc. with American tax dollars. Landlords and hotel owners are evicting Americans because the government pays them more to house legal and illegal immigrants. Meanwhile, we have homeless Americans who are getting none of these benefits. This is not rational policy.

Caught!

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On September 18th, Hot Air posted an article about the Hezbollah pagers that exploded yesterday. There were some very interesting people who had those pagers.

The article quotes The New York Times:

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amini, lost one eye and severely injured his other eye when a pager he was carrying exploded in a simultaneous wave of blasts targeting wireless electronic devices, according to two members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps briefed on the attack.

The Guards members, who had knowledge of the attacks and spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr. Amini’s injuries were more serious than Iran initially reported and that he would be medevacked to Tehran for treatment.

Hossein Soleimani, the editor in chief of Mashregh, the main Revolutionary Guards news website, confirmed the extent of Mr. Amini’s injuries in a post on X. “Unfortunately the injuries sustained by Iran’s ambassador were extremely severe and in his eyes,” Mr. Soleimani wrote.

Why was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon carrying a Hezbollah pager?

John Hinderaker at Power Line reported on the news that on Thursday handheld radios were exploding.

The article at Power Line notes:

Apparently fires have broken out in seemingly random buildings, and loudspeakers are telling people to take the batteries out of their phones. I haven’t seen any reports, however, of exploding cell phones.

The usual suspects are up in arms over yesterday’s pager attack:

The United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to discuss Israel’s wave of attacks in Lebanon, according to Slovenia, which holds the Council’s rotating presidency this month.

How many emergency meetings have they held over Hezbollah’s rocket bombardment of Israel, which has gone on for months?

The United Nations’ human rights chief, Volker Türk, has criticized the pager attack as a violation of international law and called for those behind it to be held to account.

So, does sending thousands of rockets into Israel violate international law? What does the U.N. propose to do about it?

Nothing, of course. Hence the need for Israel to defend itself.

That is the current state of the United Nations.

 

Knowing History, Religious Practices, And Cultural Norms Can Save Your Life

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article reporting that a group called the New Tolerance Campaign has offered $1,000,000 to any LGBTQ advocacy organization to hold a gay pride parade in Gaza or the West Bank! As of now, no one has accepted the offer.

In Iran, another Muslim-controlled area, people who belong to the LGBTQ community are thrown off of buildings with their hands tied behind their backs. In some Muslim countries they are stoned. Under Sharia Law, it is illegal to be gay.

The article notes (rather tongue-in-cheek) that no group has accepted their offer:

It’s a mystery because so many of these groups have expressed solidarity with Hamas and the Palestinian authority. You would think they would be chomping at the bit to show their undying (pun intended) support for their brothers and sisters in arms.

The article concludes:

Obviously, I don’t want anybody to actually go to “Palestine,” because I don’t want anyone killed just to make a point. But making the offer is a good way to remind these idiots that their “solidarity” with people who want to kill them is stupid.

Even if it were true–and the opposite is true–that both Palestinians and alphabet people were equally “oppressed”–it makes no sense for “Queers” to align themselves with the terrorists of Hamas. Their interests diverge in almost every way.

But they don’t see it that way because both hate America. It really is that simple. Hating America is the great unifying force of the radicals.

Kumbaya.

Maybe it’s time to remind some people how much freedom we have in America and to encourage them to be grateful for that.

Confirming What We Already Knew

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On Saturday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article about some recent Hamas documents captured by Israel in the war against Hamas.

The article reports.

German magazine Bild reports on a Hamas strategy document captured in Gaza that comes from the poisoned pen and mind of Yahya Sinwar himself. The document, if authentic, lays out the full hostaging strategy Hamas planned to employ in this war. It will come as no surprise to anyone at this point — outside the White House, anyway — that Sinwar has no interest in cease-fires or a two-state solution.

His real interests? Psychological torture and the annihilation of Israel, with his own survival somewhere in between. This comes from a Google translation of the original German:

Now a previously unknown document from Hamas’ military intelligence service shows how the terrorists are manipulating the international community, torturing the hostage families and seeking to rearm. And also that they are just as indifferent to a quick end to the war as they are to the suffering of Palestinian civilians.

▶︎ The document in which Hamas sets out its negotiating strategy was found on a computer that is said to belong to the terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar (61). He is said to have personally approved the content. The letter dates from spring 2024 and is available exclusively to BILD. … 

What is particularly perfidious is that Hamas is abusing the kidnapped hostages to improve its negotiating position. The document states frankly:

“Continue to exert psychological pressure on the families of the prisoners, both now and during the first phase (of the ceasefire, ed.) , so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.”

The recent protests in Israel illustrate the possible success of Sinwar’s plan. Unless the country unites behind Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is quite possible that the war will drag on unnecessarily and significantly weaken Israel. Obviously that is what Sinwar wants. Unfortunately,  America, knowingly or unknowingly, has helped Sinwar in this effort.

A change in personnel in Washington is the solution to the unrest in the Middle East. America needs to elect a President and a Congress that will support Israel in its battle against the forces of terrorism. The Biden administration’s desire to make a deal with Iran has destabilized the Middle East and undone the work of the Abraham Accords. If Americans want peace in the Middle East, they need to consider the move toward war in the Biden administration versus the move toward peace in the Trump administration.

Sometimes The Truth Isn’t Pretty

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the internal conflict taking place in Israel about the conduct of the war against Hamas. Obviously, Israelis want the hostages home safely and the war over, but in their quest for peace, many are overlooking the basic character of Hamas. Meanwhile, President Biden is sitting on a beach in Delaware playing armchair quarterback to the Netanyahu government. President Biden has never been a friend of Netanyahu and part of the problem in the war against Hamas–not part of the solution.

The article reports:

Benjamin Netanyahu stuck to his guns in his effort to remove the incentives for hostaging by Hamas. But it got a lot more difficult after the terrorists murdered six of them over the last few days. And even though Netanyahu won this round in his own Cabinet, that victory may not last. Especially not if Joe Biden gets his way. 

The fight in the Cabinet came from Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant, an ally-of-sorts for Netanyahu most times, who objects to Netanyahu’s plan to keep control of the Gaza-Egypt border. Netanyahu has made clear that he does not want Hamas to get resupplied or to escape out to the Sinai, especially with the hostages. Gallant considers the policy both unnecessary and provocative, and accused Netanyahu of prioritizing the land over the hostages:

He again turned to the premier and asked: “If Sinwar presents you with the dilemma: Either you leave Philadelphi or you return the hostages, what do you do?”

Netanyahu responded that the imperative to keep the IDF at the corridor was of crucial importance to the state.

Gallant said that was all well and good if it was a decision taking in isolation. But, he asked, “What about when 30 lives are at stake? What do you do?”

The prime minister said: “I stay on the Philadelphi. Only resolute negotiations will force [Sinwar] to fold.”

Netanyahu then demanded an immediate vote on his policy. Only Gallant voted to oppose it, although he grumbled afterward that the Cabinet would eventually come around to his position. 

President Biden has stated that he believes Prime Minister Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages. Somehow I doubt Netanyahu is the problem.

The article concludes:

Ahem. Which side has executed hostages? In fact, which side takes hostages as a war strategy in the first place? And which side started the war on October 7 — while breaking a US-negotiated cease fire? 

There was a time when the world knew that harming an American abroad meant dire consequences for the perps. Now Hamas has demonstrated that killing Americans will put them closer to a strategic victory in separating the US from Israel, with no consequences at all from this administration. What kind of incentives do we think this sets for Hezbollah, Iran, and every other terrorist state and non-state terror networks?

It’s one thing for the Israelis to debate cooperation in hostage strategy. It’s another thing entirely for the US to hand Hamas a strategic victory with our own pusillanimity.  

The Biden administration is encouraging terrorism.

 

 

We Need A Fair Search Engine!

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about Google and Google searches. Searching for a politically conservative link on Google is like looking for ice cubes in the Sahara Desert.

The article reports:

When we first learned that Google’s autocomplete function in its search engine appeared to be blocking suggestions about Donald Trump’s attempted assassination (or even his name), the company assured us that those results were simply “an anomaly” in the code. But the House Judiciary Committee has been digging into the question more deeply and asked parent company Alphabet’s legal counsel to explain further. The answers the committee received weren’t exactly definitive, but they may provide a bit of additional clarity. First of all, the search engine absolutely was blocking autofill from pointing users to articles about the assassination attempt. But was it out of some bias against Trump? According to them, the system was performing as designed, but the design was overly broad. We’ll look into it a bit further here this evening. (National Review)

The article concludes that the blocking may not have been intentional politics, but a filter to prevent malfeasance.

The article concludes:

As to the far more damning searches for information about the assassination attempt, it was easy enough to note that the shooting created an iconic moment for President Trump and his approval ratings and donations were surging. A liberal outlet could easily be tempted to suppress such search results. But in reality, anyone searching for information related to trying to assassinate a President would no doubt raise red flags across the board. The FBI would (or at least should) be interested in any persons conducting such a search. Would it be that surprising that their default filters would prevent the autocomplete, typeahead function from refusing to fill in questions such as “How could I ass**ate President D*****”?” ( I won’t even type it out here or we will be blocked as well.)

The code underlying the search engines is smart, but it’s not “human smart.” I believe that they had such a filter in place to cover all such eventualities. And after the flaw was discovered, they had to go in and manually revise it to allow for searches dealing with news of the events in Butler, Pennsylvania. I’m generally not shy about criticizing Google and Alphabet, but in this case I believe I’m going to give them a pass.

That’s the word from someone who deals with search engines every day.

The Free Market Shows Up

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent announcement from General Motors.

The article reports:

General Motors had kind of a biggish announcement this morning, which should anger progressives and the Green grifters.

So, pretty encouraging for normal people hoping to see manufacturing claw their way free of the madness.

General Motors said Tuesday it is again slowing its plans for all-electric vehicles by further delaying a second U.S. electric truck plant and the Buick brand’s first EV.

The six-month delay in retooling the electric truck plant in Michigan, until mid-2026, also means GM will not achieve a prior target of having North American production capacity of 1 million EVs by 2025.

…The changes add new questions about the Detroit automaker’s plans for future battery cell plants other than two current joint venture facilities with LG Energy Solution in North America. GM previously announced plans for four of the multibillion-dollar plants in the U.S. by 2026.

Barra on Tuesday said the company would grow cell production in a “meaningful cadence.”

This is partially the result of basic free market forces and partially the result of looking ahead. If President Trump wins the election in November, federal subsides for consumers buying electric vehicles will end. At that point, sales of electric vehicles will drop significantly. General Motors does not want to be stuck with an inventory it can’t sell. The free market needs to control green energy. The free market will provide incentives for manufacturers to make cars that are truly green. Right now what passes for green energy is NOT green. It includes children working in lithium mines, windmills that break apart and pollute, and windmill blades that have a limited life-span and are not biodegradable. We can do better.

A Preview Of Things To Come?

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It’s only July, and the presidential election is in November. A lot can change between now and then. The lawfare against President Trump has made him more popular, and the assassination attempt has only increased his lead in the polls. Sadly to say, I don’t expect this to be the last assassination attempt. Hopefully the Secret Service will do a better job of preventing the next one. The Democrats are in a difficult position.

Hot Air posted one of the more entertaining comments made at the Republican convention last night:

It’s time to “end the Weekend at Bernie’s presidency,” DeSantis (Florida Governor Ron DeSantis) declared, and to “send Joe Biden back to the basement.”

On Wednesday, The New York Post reported the following:

President Biden said in a new interview that he would consider dropping out if he was diagnosed with a “medical condition” by doctors — giving the clearest indication yet that he may be faltering in his vow to seek a second term.

The 81-year-old president made the remark in a BET interview taped Tuesday when asked what it would take to prompt him to reconsider his candidacy.

“If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if doctors came to me and said, you got this problem and that problem,” Biden said in an excerpt released Wednesday.

In the same interview, Biden said that he feels the need to run again — rather than serve as a “transitional” leader, as he said in 2020 — because the country is “so divided.”

As far as divisiveness is concerned, President Biden has been a large part of the problem–not the solution.

The comment about stepping down for medical reasons is a very interesting change from the recent “I’m not going anywhere” statements. So what might be going on? Even though it is a long way until November, the Democrats are reading some pretty ugly writing on the wall. Even if President Biden is not aware of his poll numbers, I am sure Jill is. Does Jill want her husband defeated in a George McGovern-style rout? Even if President Biden drops out of the race on whatever excuse, who is willing to be the sacrificial lamb for this election cycle?

We have definitely come to a get-out-the-popcorn moment.

Didn’t He Ask For A Cooling Of The Rhetoric?

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On July 16th, Hot Air posted an article that illustrates how serious the Biden administration is about cooling the rhetoric during the election season.

The article reports:

Biden’s position is that the problem with heated rhetoric is entirely on Republicans, and nothing he has ever said or done has been anything but loving and unifying. All that talk of existential threat to democracy? About MAGA extremists? About this being the last election if Trump wins?

All totally normal, says Joe Biden. It’s Trump who is the nasty one.

…Of course, when J.D. Vance was announced, the Biden campaign went straight back to it’s old form. Fewer than 48 hours after a man took a shot at President Trump, they released this:

Just for the record, Project 2025 is not Trump’s platform. Please do your homework!

The article concludes:

Biden is flailing, and when he flails he gets nasty. He gets nasty with opponents. He gets nasty with supporters. He gets nasty with citizens. It is his way, the “dog-faced pony soldier.”

…Biden simply doesn’t have it in him to rise to the moment, and it’s not due to his decline. He never has had it in him. He is a nasty old man, and was a nasty young man when he was elected.

…Expect President Biden’s campaign to go lower and lower because that is all he has.

The article contains multiple examples of the President Biden and the media vilifying President Trump and calling him a threat to our ‘democracy.’ Their rhetoric is the problem.

President Biden’s Plan For Inflation

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about one way the Biden administration plans to fight inflation. It’s a plan guaranteed to be rife with unintended consequences.

The article reports:

Enough about Joe Biden’s mindless nastiness. I’ll take my cue from Donald Trump and Biden himself and focus on policy this morning.

Specifically, let’s talk about Joe Biden’s mindless and nasty demagoguery on economic policies. Faced with the electoral consequences of his corrosive inflationary wave, especially in shelter costs, Biden has to come up with some promised policy solution. And that is … federal rent control:

According to the Associated Press:

President Joe Biden is ready to propose a 5% cap on annual rent increases for tenants of major landlords as he tries to show he’s doing something about the high cost of housing, according to a person familiar with the plan.

The proposal, to be announced while the president visits Nevada on Tuesday, is being championed by Biden in the middle of a tense presidential campaign and a time when housing costs have been a major driver of overall inflation.

Hasn’t this man ever studied economics?

Housing costs are a major driver of overall inflation. That is true, but let’s examine why. Interest rates are double what they were under President Trump. According to U.S. News, the interest rate on November 19, 2020, for a 30-year mortgage was 2.72 percent. A loan of $250,000 would be paid back at the rate of $1,016.63 per month. On May 16, 2024, the interest rate on a 30-year mortgage is 7.02 percent. That loan would be paid back at a rate of $1,666.62 per month. The cost of the actual house you would be financing has also increased significantly in the past four years. So exactly what would be the result of federal rent control? First of all, find rent control in the U.S. Constitution. It’s not there. The 10th Amendment does not include rent control.

In January 2020, The Manhattan Institute posted an article about rent control.

Here are some highlights from the article:

Rent Control Makes It Harder to Find an Apartment

    • Cities that implement rent control see substantial declines in the availability of rental housing.
    • Locking people in to existing rental units leaves many renters in apartments much larger or much smaller than they would prefer.
    • In some cities, waitlists for rent-controlled housing are decades-long.

Rent Control Does Not Increase Diversity

    • Rent control benefits incumbent tenants at the expense of migrants hoping to relocate to a city. In New York City, white tenants have disproportionately benefited relative to black or Hispanic tenants, and landlords give preference to older and childless households.
    • Many of rent control’s benefits typically flow to higher-income households even as rent control drives up rents for everyone else.

Rent Control Degrades the Quality of Its Beneficiaries’ Housing

    • Rent control reduces investment in a property’s quality and causes a city’s housing stock to decay.
    • By suppressing property values, rent control also reduces tax revenue to municipalities, hindering their ability to provide essential services.

It will not decrease inflation, but it will increase government control.

The Part The Media Has Played

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On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the mainstream media’s role in covering up the failing mental acuity of our current President. The cover-up began in 2019 when President Biden was hiding in the basement ‘because of Covid.’

The article credits Drew Holden, someone who has posted a lot of the history of the cover-up on Twitter, with a lot of the information the article reports.

The article notes:

I have been pounding the drum on what I think is the most important thing to focus on right now, and it’s not the decline of the president. Everybody knows that, can see it, and it is baked into the cake. What conservatives need to do is open everybody’s eyes to the real villains in this story, and that is the mainstream media.

…Without their conscious decision to engage in a full-on conspiracy to perpetrate a hoax, Biden would never have become president. He probably would not even have become the 2020 Democrat candidate for president. Biden was already in mental decline in 2019–even George Clooney admitted that in his Opinion piece in The New York Times in an aside–and the media helped Biden and his aides to cover that fact up.

…Biden ran the “basement campaign,” in which he made few appearances and did only scripted events. The media called every criticism of Biden a lie or “misinformation.” They put Biden on their back and carried him over the finish line. Biden wasn’t as bad as he is now, but everybody with a brain could see his decline if they cared to look.

…And it is the media’s job to look and tell everybody what they see.

They also pushed every anti-Trump hoax as if it were reality, turning him into a moronic demon while Joe Biden was a wonderful, compassionate genius who just wanted to save the world from Orange Hitler.

The article concludes:

Politicians come and go, but the media, like the bureaucracy, is permanent. They help make or break the politicians. They pick and choose who gets in to a great extent, and thus they help push the most poisonous narratives and policies destroying our country.

Look at alphabet ideology–especially transgenderism. The media was all-in LONG before the politicians. They created the issue and the politicians hopped on board after the media made it necessary for them to do so.

…There is much more to say, but let me end with this:

Our job is to destroy the mainstream media. It is now a cancer in the body politic. Sure, we have to defeat the Democrats, but recognize that the Democrats are this way because it is what the media wants, or at least the media enables the Democrats to pursue their insane policies.

That’s why you see so many former politicians and operatives in the media–they are basically the same thing. It’s time to destroy their influence.

It’s time to stop watching or listening to the mainstream media and let their advertisers depart due to the lack of audience. That is how you defeat them.

Some Sanity From The Federal Bench

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With all the cries from hysterical Democrats that President Trump would be a dictator if he is elected, why don’t the Democrats look in the mirror? The student loan forgiveness has continued despite being ruled unconstitutional, domestic oil production has pretty much been shut down despite the fact that Congress passed no laws shutting it down, the border has been left open despite laws that would control the flow of illegal immigrants, and liquid natural gas exports have been shut down despite the fact that Congress never passed a law shutting it down (more on that in a moment). So who is the dictator?

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent decision by Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana putting the Biden’s pause on LNG exports on hold.

The article quotes Politico:

A federal judge in Louisiana on Monday put the Energy Department’s pause on natural gas export permits on hold, dealing another legal blow to the Biden administration’s climate agenda.

Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana, a Trump appointee, granted a request for a stay from 16 red states that had challenged the pause, arguing it will harm their economies.

The decision to stay the LNG pause upends one of Joe Biden’s major policy nods to climate-focused activists who have accused the president of not doing enough to mitigate planet-warming emissions despite Democrats passing the largest investment in climate in history via the Inflation Reduction Act.

The article also quotes The Wall Street Journal (behind the pay wall):

The Sierra Club, a vociferous and enthusiastic proponent of the January pause, is one of the more strident voices now encouraging our mush-brained hero to do an end-run around SCOTUS.

KEEP DOIN’ THAT VOODOO THAT YOU DO SO WELL

…Who cares what a court says? Not the Sierra Club, which says the judge’s ruling doesn’t compel the Administration “to issue any specific decisions.” In other words, the Administration can continue to slow-walk reviews, as it has been doing.

…Democrats fret that Donald Trump will ignore court rulings, but the Biden Administration defies them left and right. A federal judge in June 2021 ordered the Administration to resume quarterly oil and gas lease sales as required under federal law. It didn’t hold its first auction until June 2022 and waited another year to hold a second.

Progressives have no credibility when they warn about an imperial Trump Presidency after encouraging a lawless Biden Administration.

Laws only apply to Republicans.

Here We Go Again

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Remember the housing bubble that collapsed in 2007? There were a lot of reasons for that collapse–Congress was not innocent, the government encouraging sub-prime mortgages, putting quotas on mortgage companies telling them who they could loan money to (regardless of income qualifications), etc. Well, the government is in the process of laying the groundwork for a similar crisis.

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article by Stephen Moore about some current government actions that will have results similar to the housing bubble collapse of 2007.

The article reports:

Here we go again. The latest scheme by the Biden administration is to encourage families to borrow more money by using the equity in their home as collateral. Home equity loans are often very risky. If prices fall, home equity can become negative. There is nearly $18 trillion in home equity, and it’s one of the largest sources of savings and ownership for American families.

Now the Biden administration wants to encourage Americans to borrow even more at a time when credit card and auto debts are at an all-time high. If homes fall in value, families could slip underwater and default — just like during the subprime crisis.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, the other “likely losers” from this scam “would be taxpayers.” The evidence is indisputable from 2008 that the mortgages that ended in default were low-down-payment and low-equity loans.

Why in the world would President Joe Biden want to go down this dangerous road again?

In 2009, I shared the following information (here and here):

The bank is East Bridgewater Savings Bank which has no delinquent loans or foreclosures on its books.  The bank didn’t even need to set aside in money in 2008 for anticipated loan losses.   From late 2003 through mid-2008, East Bridgewater Savings made an average of 28 cents in loans for every dollar in deposit — a sharp contrast to the 90 percent average loan-to-deposit ratio among similar banks.

The FDIC recently criticized this bank for not lending enough, slapping it with a “needs to improve” rating under the Community Reinvestment Act, the Boston Business Journal reported.

According to the article:

“East Bridgewater Savings ended 2008 with $135 million in assets, deposits of $84 million, $87,000 in profit, and a Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 31.6 percent — more than three times higher than many community banks in Massachusetts, the Journal reported.”

It seems to me that this sort of behavior on the part of the bank should be praised–not criticized.  It used to be good business to lend money only to people who were likely to pay it back!

The average consumer has more common sense that the economic ‘experts’ in the government!

Understanding The Long Game

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The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is the renamed Ummah. It is the second largest inter-governmental organization in the world (after the United Nations) and is comprised of 57 states representing Muslim goals. The Organization represents the voice of the Muslim world and is one of the largest voting blocs in the United Nations. The International Criminal Court was established by the United Nations by a General Assembly vote in December 1999 and December 2000. That is the court that has chosen to charge both Hamas and the Israel government with genocide. Because of the large Muslim voting bloc in the United Nations, Israel will never be given the right to fight for its existence. It is no secret that the end of the nation of Israel is the policy of the OIC.

On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the charges against Israel. The article notes that Amal Clooney played a key role in arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Amal Clooney is the wife of actor George Clooney.

The article reports:

The charges against Sinwar and other Hamas leaders include “extermination, murder, taking of hostages, rape and sexual assault in detention.” The charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are “causing extermination, causing starvation as a method of war, including the denial of humanitarian relief supplies, deliberately targeting civilians in conflict.”

Are you kidding me? Causing extermination ( a term used in Holocaust deaths) and deliberately targeting civilians is what Hamas does, not Israel. Forget the charges against Israel. Israel has to be free to conduct its war against Hamas as it sees fit. And, Israel has to be free of undue pressure from the United States.

It should be noted that neither America or Israel is a member of the ICC.

It is a shame that organizations such as the United Nations and the ICC have chosen not to be a force for peace. Does anyone believe that if Hamas is not destroyed, events like October 7th will not happen again? Criminals need to be put in jail or put to death. That should apply in the case of Hamas.

When Your Duplicity Is About The Be Discovered

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On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about the underground tunnels that run from Rafah to Egypt. The article speculates that the tunnels are the reason Egypt has been against the invasion of Rafah by Israel.

The article reports:

Juuuussssttttt spitballin’ here, but it certainly seems like we have an answer for Egypt’s extraordinary pissiniss about Israel’s plans to clear out Rafah.

I have to admit, this was the favored line of thinking over the past few weeks as the Biden administration sabotaged every Israeli move, and the Egyptians blustered and threatened. Almost to a one, folks weren’t at all fooled. They were asking, “What is Egypt worried the Israelis are going to find?”

At least fifty tunnels – so far – scootin’ over – well, under – the border into Egypt.

What are the odds?

And what are the odds the Egyptians knew nothing?

Slim to none.

Why, though? Why would Egypt jeopardize a place at the table with Israel and the big dogs to grovel in the dirt with terrorists like Hamas?

The article includes the following Tweet:

The article notes:

…I think we can now fairly say the relationship is much more complicated than that. Egypt has propped up Hamas for years by allowing supply lines to go through it. 50 tunnels could not go through the border without Al-Sisi and his regime knowing about it.  .

Also keep in mind that Israeli intelligence believes that most arms for Hamas are brought in through the Rafah Crossing, which is under Egyptian supervision.  

In addition, their threats to torpedo the peace agreement if Israel goes into Rafah no longer seem to be just about refugees leaving Gaza. It also pertains to finding the tunnels and the extent of Egyptian cooperation with Hamas. In addition, it appears their resistance was part of an attempt to keep Hamas in power.  

I don’t have all the answers to why Egypt is supporting Hamas, but this is my guess: 

1) They have a modus vivendi with Hamas. They ask that Hamas not intervene in Egyptian politics and not undermine control in Sinai. In return, they turn a blind eye to the tunnels and arms going in. 2) They are getting kickbacks from Hamas and possibly Iran and Qatar in return. Egypt has serious economic and debt problems and could desperately use a source of income. 3) Egypt is rife with antisemitism, and they will lose no sleep over helping its enemies.

The political alliances in the Middle East are very complicated. Israel lives in a very rough neighborhood. It is only through showing strength (and the grace of God) that Israel has been able to survive . I hope the invasion of Rafah is quick and thorough. The people responsible for October 7th need to pay a price high enough so that events like that will never happen again.

When Is A Tariff Not A Tariff?

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Yesterday various news sources reported that President Biden would be placing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and some other products coming into America from China.

MSN reported:

President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced new tariffs on $18 billion worth of Chinese imports, including a sharp tax hike on electric vehicles, to help protect his administration’s investments in key sectors in the United States.

The targets of the tariffs include EVs, solar cells, steel, aluminum, semiconductors, advanced batteries, critical minerals, solar and medical products.

“American workers can outwork and outcompete anyone, as long as the competition is fair,” President Biden said in remarks delivered from the White House Rose Garden. “But for too long it hasn’t been fair.”

Hitting China’s trade policies, Biden said “it’s not competition, it’s cheating.”

“China heavily subsidized all these products, pushing Chinese companies to produce far more than the rest of the world can absorb and then dumping excess products onto the market at unfairly low prices, driving other manufacturers around the world out of business,” he said.

It all sounds very good, but what does it do?

The Conservative Treehouse reports:

Biden might as well be announcing tariffs on Chinese swimming pools flown into the USA via hot air balloon.  There will be more Chinese swimming pools delivered from China than Chinese EVs.  The Chinese EVs come from Mexico.  The tariff is fake.

WHITE HOUSE […] To further encourage China to eliminate the acts, policies, and practices at issue – and to counteract the burden or restriction of these acts, policies, and practices – the Trade Representative shall modify the two actions to increase section 301 ad valorem rates of duty for the following products from China:

    • Battery parts (non-lithium-ion batteries):  Increase rate to 25 percent in 2024
    • Electric vehicles:  Increase rate to 100 percent in 2024
    • Lithium-ion electrical vehicle batteries:  Increase rate to 25 percent in 2024
    • Lithium-ion non-electrical vehicle batteries:  Increase rate to 25 percent in 2026
    • Natural graphite:  Increase rate to 25 percent in 2026
    • Other critical minerals:  Increase rate to 25 percent in 2024 (read more)

None of this stuff is coming from China. It is all coming from Mexico via transnational shipping and Chinese manufacturing in Mexico.

The article notes:

On the EV issue, this tariff approach is politically duplicitous by Biden against the backdrop of massive investment in Mexico by the three largest Chinese EV automakers. Last December, the three Chinese auto manufacturers, MG, BYD, and Chery, announced they were going to spend billions building new EV manufacturing plants in Mexico.  Each Chinese auto manufacturer was going to spend between $1.5 to $2.0 billion.

Those Mexican built Chinese EVs would pass into the USA market under current USMCA trade rules and regulations, as long as they technically meet the material origination rules.  This can make tariffs against the Chinese imported EVs a moot point, because China will be making them in Mexico (North American trade agreement).

One of the reasons President Trump said the U.S. auto industry would suffer a “bloodbath,” is specifically because the current Chinese auto companies are targeting these EVs in the $10,000 or less range.  If you want to see what it looks like when cheap Chinese EVs start to flood a consumer market, visit Russia – the Western sanctions have only increased this flow.  I can see it clear as day.

This is political sleight of hand to encourage voters to vote for Joe Biden. I don’t know if the American voters are really that dumb.

When You Lose Your Slide

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The problems with Boeing’s aircraft recently are not a joke, but some of them are definitely funny. On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent safety event involving a Boeing aircraft.

The article reports:

It took a while for all of the details to come to light, but Delta Airlines experienced another in-flight mechanical failure on Friday. The problem showed up shortly after Flight 520 took off from JFK Airport in New York. The issue was initially reported as one where the passengers and crew heard “a loud noise” coming from the vicinity of the plane’s right wing and detected a “vibration.” It turned out to be more than that. The plane’s emergency exit slide had deployed and fallen off. A search was underway to locate the missing parts. Also, you may have already guessed that this was another Boeing plane, though it was a 767-300 model rather than the troubled 737-MAX class that has been in the news of late. (NPR)

The article concludes:

My own attitude on this matter has shifted considerably as I’ve been researching this topic over the past six months or so. Originally, I’d simply assumed that the odd mechanical failure here and there is inevitable when you consider how many flights there are every day. I was also given reason for optimism while considering the lack of fatal crashes in the United States over a prolonged period of time. 

Now I’m not so sure, however. All of the witnesses and whistleblowers coming out of Boeing have been painting a consistent picture of a company where production speed is prioritized far ahead of safety and required inspections of repair work are spotty at best. The nature of some of the failures we’ve observed, particularly when it’s found that essential hardware was simply missing, creates even more concerns. It may still be excessive to refer to Boeing’s planes as “flying junkyards,” but I’m left with a growing dread that our streak of having no plane crashes is going to come to an end sooner or later.

I don’t think having an emergency exit ladder fall out of the sky is a good idea.

The Role Of The President

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On Wednesday, Jazz Shaw Hot Air posted an article with the following headline?

Is Biden Out of the Loop on Israel-Hamas Negotiations?

The article then goes on to explain why Jazz Shaw is asking this question:

You’ve probably seen the breathless headlines emerging this week featuring Joe Biden suggesting that a ceasefire deal in Gaza was “close” to being finalized and that at least some hostages and prisoners could be exchanged. Most of us would likely be glad to see hostages coming home, so that’s good news, right? And Biden assured us that he’d gotten that information from National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, so the claim must have been pretty solid. There’s only one problem with the story and the assumptions that followed, though. As the Free Beacon quickly pointed out, some reporters had been following up with their sources in Israel and around the Middle East where the major players are involved. None of them seemed to have any idea what Biden was talking about. 

Anyone who has paid attention for the past eighteen plus years understands why a cease fire and a two-state solution are both bad ideas. What assurance has HAMAS given that the hostages are still alive and what has HAMAS done to indicate it is willing to release them? A cease fire would only give Hamas a chance to regroup and rearm, and a two-state solution would create another terror base for Islamist extremists. It has become very obvious since October 7th and Israel’s response that almost all of the ‘humanitarian aid’ sent to Gaza since 2005 has been used to build tunnels and acquire weapons. Why would we give the residents of Gaza a chance to do that again? Many have already stated that they want to repeat the actions of October 7th. Why would we encourage or allow that? Until hate is not taught in Gaza schools and UNRWA camps (see kindergarten graduation picture here), a two-state solution will never result in peace.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

I have seen some conservative commentators previously asking why the United States isn’t assuming its traditional role as a peacemaker and shepherding these negotiations through to the finish line. But does anyone really want Joe Biden at that table at this point? The two sides are at an impasse and have been for a while now. Israel isn’t going to accept a deal that hurts their interests, fails to release all of the hostages, or prevents them from eliminating Hamas. Hamas won’t give up what they see as the last bit of insurance they have against complete obliteration. 

Negotiating this situation would have been a serious challenge for Henry Kissinger on his best day. And Joe Biden couldn’t have matched Kissinger’s skills on his best day, which has long since faded in the rearview mirror. But the fact that he keeps coming out and saying things like this, leaving the media scrambling to either verify it or explain what went wrong is a problem. The world is a powderkeg at the moment and the person potentially in control of the fuse no longer has the cognitive abilities to be trusted with a pack of matches.

When WOKE Takes Over

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about a change in the information collected by the government from broadcasters.

The article reports:

The Biden Administration is so concerned about preserving democracy and the norms that underlie it that they are, once again, ignoring Supreme Court precedents in order to do the right thing no matter how many Constitutional limits they have to blow through. 

…This time the issue is collecting DEI information from broadcasters, which has been tried before and found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court–twice.

We have this story via an FCC commissioner who dissented from the decision. He was previously the General Counsel of the FCC, so he knows of what he speaks better than almost anybody. 

…There is one and only one reason for the FCC to require broadcasters to publish their DEI-related employment stats, and it has everything to do with making broadcasters vulnerable to pressure from activist groups pushing them to change the racial and gender balance of their employees. 

The point is to outsource what the government can’t do to pressure groups: impose de facto quotas.

The Court has twice rejected similar attempts by the FCC, but they seem to believe that in this case, the third time is the charm. 

The FCC claims that there is no evidence that forcing broadcasters to disclose this presumptively private information will have any impact. 

The article concludes:

Government grants go to nonprofits with Left-wing agendas, pushing for things the government cannot. It is the outsourcing of the cultural revolution in the way that post-9/11 intelligence and even military operations were outsourced to private contractors. 

It’s legally dubious, morally wrong, and over the long term it has been pretty damn effective. 

There is no plausible reason for forcing companies to release private employment data legally protected under privacy provisions except to give ammunition to outside pressure groups. 

Unfortunately, it’s no surprise that our benevolent betters are fine with tearing up the Constitution. They have been working at it for years now. 

I remember what happened in California when names of donors to a conservative cause were released–their homes were picketed and some were put out of business. The requesting of this information by the FCC is illegal and needs to end immediately.

The Perversion Of Justice Continues

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When something is called a crime but has no victim and the people who were supposedly injured by the ‘crime’ say that they were not injured, what is the appropriate punishment? In New York the punishment is to destroy the person who didn’t commit the crime because you dislike his politics and he might become President.

On Tuesday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted the following screenshot and commentary:

So this is a pre-emptive penalty because no actual fraud occurred?

This quirk in New York’s appellate procedure certainly offers one explanation. Engoron and AG Letitia James want to use the process as the punishment, and want to denude Trump of his legitimate wealth right in the middle of a political campaign they oppose. The massive fine will force Trump to either leverage these properties — and with banks outside of New York, thanks to Engoron — or to sell them off and put a large chunk of his wealth into the hands of New York for years. 

Did Engoron deliberately scale up the judgment to put Trump in this position? Let’s just say that New York’s system incentivizes it — and based on his deportment in the trial, it’s a reasonable conclusion.

It’s tough to overstate the absurdity of this situation. Appellate courts exist to allow citizens to seek redress for injustices in trials, both criminal and civil, that would result in ruination otherwise. This stands that process on its head. To seek redress for an injustice in a New York courtroom, the citizen must participate in his ruination just to knock on the door — even if an injustice has truly occurred. 

Please follow the link to the article to see exactly what is going on. I firmly believe that this verdict will have a chilling effect on business growth in New York in the coming years.

 

Why We Need Voter Identification Laws

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As of January 2024, 34 states required voters to present identification in order to vote at the polls on Election Day. The states vary on exactly what that identification should be, but some identification is required.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article that illustrates why requiring voters to show some form of identification is a good idea.

The article reports:

Here’s a story that shows a political prank can turn into a good case for the need for voter identification when registering to vote. It involves five recording artists and a house in Katy, Texas.

Katy is a city west of Houston, in the Houston metro area. Katy’s population at the time of the 2020 census was 21,894. The point is that it is a small city, most often thought of as a suburb of Houston. There is a story out today that recording artists  Drake, 50 Cent, Chris Brown, Trey Songz, and The Game are all registered to vote with the same address in Katy. 

The house is described as “a beige, $300,000 house in a modest new development in Katy.” The homeowner had no idea why the men were registered to vote at that address. Neighbors said they had not seen the performers. 

It’s a prank that uses a federal loophole in voter ID laws. 

…The apparent prank shines a spotlight on a potential loophole in federal voting registration law that allows virtually anyone to register friends, enemies or celebrities to vote. Whether the intent is malicious or not, experts say it is still illegal.

The article concludes:

What is this federal loophole that allows people to register to vote without an ID? It is the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Eligible voters without a driver’s license or a Social Security number are able to take advantage of it. There are some people who are eligible to vote but don’t have either. It might be someone born outside the United States who never applied for a Social Security number. 

When they go to vote, they have to show some other form of identity, like a utility bill. For example, Drake wouldn’t be able to do that. 

Don’t worry. This doesn’t pose a threat to the singers’ actual voter registrations if they are registered in Texas. 

This story, odd as it is, is a good example of the need to close the federal loophole that allows voter registration applications to be presented without identification. It invites shenanigans and creates extra work for election officials.

It is particularly urgent to get voter identification in place because of the number of illegal aliens currently in America that may be encouraged to vote.

Misled Again

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the continued funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Evidently things are not what they seem.

The article reports:

The Biden administration is continuing to build a disappointing track record of weak responses to foreign affairs crises and deceptive promotion of its own efforts at home. The latest example comes on the heels of the explosive revelations that at least a dozen members of the United Nations’ Palestinian relief agency, the UNRWA, took part in the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. In response, the White House claimed that they had reinstituted a freeze on funding for the UNRWA that had already been in place under Trump but was lifted by Joe Biden. That seemed like a step in the right direction at the time, but now we’ve learned that a very important detail was left out of the announcement. As Guy Benson reports at Townhall, the “freeze” in funding only applies to new, additional funding requests. Previously approved funds will continue to flow to them as usual.

  • That really does not solve the problem. We have all seen the pictures of Hamas hijacking the aid trucks that come into Gaza and stealing the supplies. How much of what we send actually goes to people in need rather than terrorists?

The article concludes:

Guy Benson correctly points out that this sleight of hand from Biden’s team is part of a larger pattern. You will recall that when Biden grudgingly agreed to add the Houthis back to the list of designated terror groups, he did assign them a designation, but it was a toothless classification compared to the position they occupied on the Foreign Terror Organization (FTO) watchlist under Donald Trump. That’s basically what he’s doing with the UNRWA. He’s giving someone a slap on the wrist when what they really need is a punch in the nose.

Joe Biden’s incompetent policies both at home and abroad aren’t simply embarrassing on the world stage, though that’s clearly true also. They are dangerous. They pose a threat to our own troops as we recently saw yet again and they put our allies at risk. He seems unwilling to do anything of substance that could be seen as too contrary to the wishes of Iran. You really have to ask yourself why.

Does the Biden administration support America?