Tag Archives: Just The News

Here Comes The Sunlight

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the attempts to kneecap President Trump during his first term of office. Obviously, there Washington bureaucracy is attempting to do that again, but I hopeful that they will not be successful this time.

The article reports:

Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.

The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.

McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director James Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.

That really isn’t news, but the fact that the misbehavior is not being documented is important. Hopefully there will be consequences for using the FBI for political purposes. If not, it will happen again.

The article concludes:

Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., sent a letter to Durham (Special Counsel John Durham) in 2023 pressing him on his investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators, noting that “it seems odd that individuals [such as McCabe] would be allowed to avoid fully cooperating with your office, particularly given your authority to compel testimony and records.”

Durham said McCabe “declined to be interviewed” by him. According to Durham’s report, Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane “immediately” and did so “at the direction of” McCabe. FBI agent Jennifer Boone said that McCabe was “heavily involved in all aspects of the investigation” into Trump and Russia, and a DOJ attorney said that McCabe was pushing the Justice Department “to get this going.”

The Durham report concluded that “the FBI was not able to corroborate a single substantive allegation contained in the Steele Reports” and that “the FISA on Carter Page would not have been authorized without the Steele reporting.”

“I don’t have any respect for that report or its author,” McCabe said of Durham and his report on a George Mason University podcast in July 2023. “It was flawed and politically motivated from the very beginning.”

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is long, but worth the read. It is a sordid tale of unelected people in our government trying to subvert an elected President. The people involved should face serious consequences for their actions.

Restoring The Power to The Executive Branch

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We seem to be having a problem right now with a lot of the court cases opposing President Trump’s (and the American people’s) agenda. Oddly enough, a lot of these cases seem to end up in the court of one particular judge, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg. Well, there may be a way (other than impeachment) to get back to government by “we the people” who elected President Trump.

On Monday, Just the News reported the following:

An Arizona congressman introduced legislation Monday to remove the federal judge who has blocked President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members, offering a novel path that avoids the impeachment process and the need for two-thirds support in the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., filed a resolution that would remove U.S. District Judge James Boasberg for “failing to maintain the standard of good behavior required of judges” under Article III, Section 1 of the Constitution.

You can read the resolution below:

“Most Americans believe that there is lifetime tenure for a federal judge. That unless impeached, a federal judge can serve until death,” Biggs told Just the News. “But lifetime tenure is not guaranteed, nor mentioned, in the Constitution. Article III, Section 1 permits a federal judge to serve only ‘during good behavior.’”

Biggs argued the clause gives Congress the authority to remove judges that it believes have failed to uphold that standard short of using impeachment.

The article also notes:

Biggs said he believes many of these judges have overstepped their authority and reached outside their narrow judicial districts, and that Congress should take the reigns, invoking the Constitutional provision, to fire ones that make politically biased decisions that fall short of grounds for impeachment.

“[W]hat about a judge who has a conflict of interest and refuses to recuse himself from the case with which he has a conflict? Or, what if he has repeatedly supported publicly a political figure and vigorously denounced, not just on policy grounds, but on more virulent grounds, his political opponent?” Biggs asked.

It has been reported that Boasberg’s daughter Katharine defends MS-13 and TDA gangsters, receiving pay from an NGO, Partners in Justice, which raked in $3.3 million in 2023 year from the federal government.  That should disqualify him from the deportation case, but the question is bigger than that.

Does the President run the country or do the judges run the country? The President is elected by the people. Shouldn’t he be in charge?

What Election Fraud?

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The election of a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice this Tuesday has gained national attention. The reason for the attention is that the outcome of this election could change the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. If Democrat-backed Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford wins this election, it is expected that she will redistrict the state in a way that will result in two additional Democrat Representatives and the loss of two Republican Representatives. The Republicans currently have a 5-member majority in the House, but there are four vacancies. That is why this race is crucial. Unfortunately, there are already questions about fraud in this race.

On Friday, Just the News reported:

Nearly 5,000 allegedly illegal voter registrations on Milwaukee voter rolls have been found by an election integrity watchdog ahead of the Wisconsin elections on Tuesday.

With the high-profile elections for the Wisconsin Supreme Court and enshrining voter ID in the state constitution just days away, Fair Elections Wisconsin (FEW) challenged 4,878 allegedly illegal voter registrations that had cast ballots in the November election in Milwaukee. The grassroots group’s challenges were unsuccessful, however, as the city election commission declined to investigate them.

FEW President Justin Gavery on Wednesday submitted a list of 4,878 allegedly illegal voter registrations to the Milwaukee Election Commission. Ballots were cast in the November election for all 4,878 of these voter registrations.

According to Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) data and United States Postal Service’s National Change of Address data reviewed by FEW, there are 281 voters who moved out of the county before October 24th, 2024, and 377 who moved out of state before that date.

On the commission’s website, it states that people registering to vote must include their complete and current full name and residential address.

However, according to FEW’s review of the data, instead of registering with their correct residential address, 2,926 addresses have missing or incorrect apartment/suite/unit numbers; 540 voters moved from the registered address; 501 physical addresses have been changed to P.O. boxes; 217 voters left no forwarding addresses before October 24th; 24 registered voters used commercial addresses (usually UPS or FedEx stores), and 11 used a U.S. Post Office address.

The money being spent on this race is outrageous:

Election spending has reached nearly $81.5 million in the race, and might reach $100 million by Election Day.

More than $17 million has been spent by groups funded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is supporting Schimel. Musk also gave the Wisconsin Republican Party $3 million this year.

Schimel has raised more than $12 million, including more than $6 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party. Meanwhile, Crawford has raised more than $25 million for the race thus far, including $5.5 million from the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

Crawford’s financial supporters include progressive billionaire George Soros and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). Soros donated $1 million to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and Pritzker gave the state party $500,000.

Shutting Down Human Smuggling

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that federal and local law enforcement officers have shut down one of the largest human smuggling operations in history.

The article reports:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and Inglewood Police investigators in California launched an investigation that led to the arrests of four Guatemalan human smuggling ringleaders who were all living illegally in the U.S.

They were charged and indicted on multiple counts for orchestrating what law enforcement said was one of the largest human smuggling organizations in America.

They were indicted on charges of smuggling roughly 20,000 Guatemalans into the U.S. over a period of five years. Overall, the smuggling operation was active for roughly 12 years nationwide, according to a recently unsealed indictment.

The article concludes:

For an additional fee, the smuggled Guatemalans paid to be transported throughout the U.S., including to Los Angeles. Those who couldn’t pay were allegedly held hostage in a stash house in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles, according to the complaint.

Renoj-Matul also orchestrated a process for the human smuggling proceeds to be transported from Los Angeles to Phoenix, given to Mexican smugglers “to pay the expenses incurred by Renoj-Matul’s transnational criminal organization,” according to the complaint.

If convicted of all charges, each of the four Guatemalan ringleaders face a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment.

Authorities also arrested two additional illegal foreign nationals and alleged lieutenants in the Renoj-Matul transnational criminal organization. Rolando Gomez-Gomez, who was previously deported, was arrested in South Los Angeles, charged with “one count of being an illegal alien found in the United States following removal.” Juan Lopez Garcia was arrested in Downtown Los Angeles on a civil removal matter.

The smuggling bust occurred after a record nearly one million Guatemalans illegally entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, The Center Square reported.

What a nightmare for people who choose to come to American illegally. We need to reform our immigration policies so that people who want to come here to work (not just collect money for being here) and assimilate can come here easily.

Getting Rid Of The Department Of Education

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On Friday, Just the News reported that Ohio Republican Representative Michael Rulli will introduce legislation to allow President Trump to shutter the Department of Education through Congress. I can’t imagine that legislation going anywhere, but it’s a great idea.

The article reports:

Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin taking steps to close the department. However, dismantling a federal agency requires an act of Congress.

Rulli told Fox News Digital Thursday that he would be introducing the legislation soon but didn’t specify when. 

He said his legislation would allow funding for resources for children with special needs, Title I programs and Pell Grants to come from other federal departments.

A website called Intellectual Takeout reported the following in 2019:

Federal “Highly Qualified Teacher” mandates. Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Smaller learning communities. Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. Reading First. Early Reading First. The dozens of other federal programs authorized via No Child Left Behind. School Improvement Grants. Race to the Top. Common Core.

All of that has been just since 2000. Over those past two decades, while federal policymakers were busy enacting new federal laws, creating mandates for local school leaders, and increasing the Department of Education’s budget from $38 billion in 2000 (unadjusted for inflation) to roughly $70 billion today, the math and reading performance of American high school students remained completely flat. That is to say, stagnant.

The U.S. is now above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average in reading, but alas, not because U.S. reading performance has improved. Rather, other countries have seen declines in reading achievement, despite increases in education spending.

In mathematics, however, U.S. performance has steadily declined over the past two decades.

Those are the findings from the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA exams, released last week.

It seems that the formation of the Department of Education has not resulted in the success of American students.

The article at Intellectual Takeout concludes:

Federal government efforts to improve education have been dismal. Even if there were a constitutional basis for its involvement – which there isn’t – the federal government is simply ill-positioned to determine what education policies will best serve the diverse local communities across our vast nation.

The sooner we can acknowledge that improvements will not come from Washington, the sooner we’re likely to see students flourishing in learning environments that reflect their unique needs and desires.

It really is time to get rid of the Department of Education. They have not fulfilled their purpose, and they are simply a financial drain on the American taxpayer.

How Much Did The Inflation Reduction Act Actually Cost?

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about the actual cost of the Inflation Reduction Act. The Inflation Reduction Act was not about inflation–it was about subsidizing green energy.

The article reports:

When former President Joe Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022, it did so along party lines with not a single Republican voting for it. At the time, a Senate one-pager summarized the law as costing taxpayers $369 billion, based on Congressional Budget Review (CBO) estimates. 

A new study from the Cato Institute finds that the law could cost as much as $4.67 trillion by 2050. That’s roughly 12 times the stated cost. The study also concludes that the subsidies are undermining innovation and driving investments toward subsidy farming rather than satisfying consumer demand. 

“The government should not have a hold on the economy in such a way that it can truly distort entire markets, and that’s what the Inflation Reduction Act is,” Joshua Loucks, research associate with Cato Institute and co-author of the analysis, said in a video explaining the study. 

…The subsidies for the IRA come in two forms — production tax credits (PTC), which provide tax credits per unit of energy produced, or investment tax credits, which provide tax credits for various investments in carbon-free energy. Which one developers take depends on the project and their business preferences. With the ITC, the subsidies provide an infusion of cash up front, whereas the PTCs provide payouts over time. 

Some of these are not capped, and others are only phased out when certain greenhouse gas emission reductions are met. Using models from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the study shows there’s little likelihood that these reductions will be met in the next 25 years, meaning the subsidies have no meaningful end date. 

The article concludes:

The study’s authors argue that, in light of the IRA’s actual costs, a full repeal of its energy subsidies is needed. If a full repeal isn’t possible, Congress should limit taxpayer liabilities by placing caps on the dollar value of the subsidies, add expiration dates instead of emission reduction targets — or both. 

“Delaying action only strengthens the political and economic interests tied to its subsidies, making reform even more difficult as the web of government handouts expands,” Loucks and Fisher warn in an article on “The Fishtank,” Fisher’s Substack. 

Repealing the energy subsidies in the IRA is a wonderful idea. This is another budget cut the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) needs to look at.

The Need For Responsibility

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During the Biden administration, we heard a lot about the ‘proper’ handling of classified material. Mar-a-Lago was raided, President Biden’s garage was not. President Trump was charged; the case against President Biden was not charged because he was an old man with a faulty memory. Justice was not blind. However, both incidents brought up the issue of responsibility. In every business there is one person (or group of people) who represent the final authority. That person or group is held responsible for policies withing the business. In America, that person is the President; rightly or wrongly, he is held responsible for inflation, the stock market, energy prices, and a lot of other things he has no control over. But there are some things he does have control over.

On Wednesday, Just the News reported the following:

Briefing materials for President Barack Obama, subjects and times for White House Situation Room meetings and discussions about sensitive conversations with foreign leaders and even fallout from leaked National Security Agency intercepts were forwarded to Joe Biden’s private pseudonymous email accounts when he was vice president, according to a new tranche of documents turned over to Just the News by the National Archives. 

Security experts and lawmakers, who reviewed the records, said they were disturbed by the nonchalant transmission of sensitive government information to Biden’s insecure private email accounts and believed it put national security at risk.

“The new set of emails from Joe Biden’s time as Vice President are very troubling and are more evidence that Biden believed he did not have to abide by classification and document handling regulations,” former CIA analyst and former Trump National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz told Just the News. 

Several hundred pages of emails from 2011 to 2015 were released to Just the News and its public interest law firm partner the Southeastern Legal Foundation as part on an ongoing Freedom of Information Act litigation.

The article notes:

Applicable federal regulations aren’t limited to classified material, and instead strictly limit federal employees’ use of commercial email to conduct government business.

As for the contents, each federal agency has its own definition of “sensitive.” The U.S. Air Force, for example calls it “controlled unclassified information” in a memo about email, while the U.S. Department of Labor is even more restrictive, directing federal employees to “NOT use your personal email or social media accounts for official matters. This raises record-keeping issues and potentially puts confidential information at risk.”

Why were both the Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) and the Vice-President using fake names and private emails to do government business? That is the question I would like answered.

Protecting The Second Amendment

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On Thursday, Just the News posted an article about a new law passed in Ohio.

The article reports:

Gun owners in Ohio won’t have to worry about firearm purchases being tracked by financial institutions or having to carry liability insurance.

Senate Bill 58, one of a series of bills signed into law late Wednesday by Gov. Mike DeWine, received backing from pro-gun organizations like the National Rifle Association and Buckeye Firearms. But the Ohio Mayors Alliance and the Ohio Municipal League both opposed it.

Known as the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, the new law stops government entities from keeping a list of privately owned firearms or firearm owners and prohibits banks and other financial institutions from assigning a firearms code in a way that distinguishes a firearms retailer from other retailers.

In 2022, four major credit card companies established a rule that would create a new four-digit code to classify merchants by their business, specifically those that sell guns and ammunition. The rule has been on hold since.

The article notes:

The bill also stops cities from requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance, a provision supported by the NRA. An analysis from the Ohio Legislative Service Commission showed no political subdivisions in the state currently require it.

“Mandating law-abiding gun owners purchase firearms liability insurance is an unnecessary financial burden that infringes upon a constitutionally protected right,” the NRA’s John Weber said in testimony before the Senate Veterans and Public Safety Committee. “Forcing gun owners to incur additional fees on top of the already expensive costs of purchasing and maintaining firearms will only make it more difficult for good people to defend themselves and their families. Furthermore, liability insurance will never cover criminal acts, and those who break the law are already liable through our justice system.”

Let’s hope other states follow this example.

It’s Really Dumb To Take Pictures When You Are Doing Something Questionable

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President Biden has granted his son Hunter a blanket pardon to cover the past ten years or so. President Biden has also claimed that he never had any involvement in his son’s business dealings. The millions of dollars that came into the Biden family during his time as Vice-President and President had nothing to do with Joe Biden he says. If you want to believe that, that’s fine, but some pictures have recently surfaced that you might want to take a look at.

On Wednesday, Just the News reported the following:

The National Archives has released photos of Hunter and Joe Biden meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese high-ranking officials in 2013 during the Obama-Biden administration. 

The photos were obtained by the conservative legal foundation, America First Legal.

The president had long insisted that he never had any involvement in Hunter’s business dealings.

In another photo, Biden is seen presenting Hunter to then-Vice President Li Yuanchao, according to Newsweek. The photos include instances in which Joe Biden is pictured with Hunter’s business associates from BHR Partners, including Jonathan Li and Ming Xue. 

The newly surfaced images take on added significance in light of the full and unconditional pardon on Dec. 1 that Biden granted his son after insisting he would not do so. 

The pardon not only covered the offenses that Hunter was convicted of, namely illegally obtaining a firearm and failing to pay over $1.4 million in taxes between 2016 and 2019, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024,” according to Newsweek.

Michael Ding, America First Legal Counsel, said: “Even while President Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter, for anything and everything ‘he has committed or may have committed or taken part in’ going all the way back to the year 2014, more evidence comes out each day showing how his family leveraged Joe Biden’s even longer career in public office for private gain. America First Legal will not stop fighting to uncover the full story of the Biden family’s corruption.”

The pictures, along with the testimony of Tony Bobulinski should be enough to justify further investigation into the corruption, regardless of whatever pardons may eventually be involved.

Things Are About To Change

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about President Biden’s ban on new liquefied natural gas sites. The ban is expected to be lifted when President Trump takes office in January.

The article reports:

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a legal motion this week asking to end a legal battle over the Biden administration’s blockage of new liquefied natural gas sites because President-elect Donald Trump is expected to end the ban.

The Biden administration in January announced a pause on new export sites for liquefied natural gas, citing climate change concerns. The U.S. is a major exporter of LNG.

The broad ban sparked criticism from Republicans and the industry, which is a significant employer in the U.S. and supplier of daily energy needs for Americans.

Soon, the ban faced a lawsuit as critics argued that while the Biden administration could deny individual permits, a sweeping pause was a policy decision beyond its authority.

The article concludes:

Earlier this week, lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the LNG pause as Republicans blasted

Seehase is optimistic that the ban could be ended.

“We look forward to seeing this unconstitutional ban struck down—whether through the courts or by the incoming President—and see this as a major victory for the rule of law and for the tens of thousands of Americans across the country whose livelihoods rely on the oil and gas industry,” Seehase said.

I don’t know exactly how long it will take, but I believe that America will see cheaper energy in America by June. We have the resources for cheap energy, we just have to develop them responsibly.

Tracking Illegal Campaign Donations

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On Sunday (updated Monday), Just the News posted an article about questionable campaign donations to Democrats funneled through ActBlue.

The article reports:

For the first time, a Wisconsin court has approved a subpoena to the massive Democrat fund-raising platform ActBlue, saying it owes an explanation to a Republican whose email identity was used to make liberal donations he did not authorize. 

“Something is not right,” Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad D. Schimel declared as he approved a limited demand for documents and opened a new front into a widening fund-raising probe begun earlier this year by Congress and 19 attorneys general.

Schimel rejected ActBlue’s arguments that it was onerous to require it to comply a subpoena for third-party donations it processed on its platform. The judge permitted GOP consultant Mark Block and his lawyers from America First Policy Institute to conduct discovery to determine if fraud was involved in the use of his identity to make dozens of Democrat donations on his old email address.

The article notes:

ActBlue’s lawyers unsuccessfully tried to quash the subpoena, arguing that a man using the identity Bernard Cain used Block’s email address from California and Colorado and that it is not responsible for his actions.

The judge rejected a broader subpoena sought by Block’s ‘lawyers that would have required ActBlue to disclose how it guards against fraud but approved a revised version offered by the plaintiff that aimed to ascertain how the donations using Block’s email addresses were paid,

“ActBlue is not a party to this action,” attorney Glenn Graham argued on behalf of the fundraising platform. “They are not a defendant. The case law, and I know you read the brief, the first step to get the information from the interested person himself or herself and here that interested person is Bernard Cain. And it sounds like plaintiff is close to getting that information.”

…Block filed a lawsuit this fall after he discovered an old email account he used for the 2012 Herman Cain presidential campaign was receiving receipts for donations to Democrat candidates like Kamala Harris that he did not make. 

The use of peoples’ names without their consent by ActBlue has been going on for a while. During the last election season, people in various areas of the country who had supposedly made campaign contributions were interviewed and denied knowledge of the contributions. The ActBlue campaign finance source is simply one more pipeline  that needs to be blocked off in order to improve election integrity.

There Used To Be A Penalty For Perjury

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On Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about the two pipe bombs that were discovered on January 6th, 2021. Somehow the federal investigators have been stymied in finding the person who put them there, but that may not be the complete story.

The article reports:

Cellular carriers have told Congress they possess intact phone usage data from the vicinity where two pipe bombs were planted during the Jan. 6 incident, directly disputing FBI testimony that agents couldn’t identify a suspect because the phone data was corrupted, a key House chairman tells Just the News.

The revelations from Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., the chairman of the House Administration oversight subcommittee, adds new intrigue to a debate that has gripped Washington for nearly four years: Why can’t the FBI with so much evidence and manpower identify the suspect who planted the explosive devices at the Democrat and Republican Party headquarters hours before the Capitol was breached.

“In the days and weeks following January 6, 2021, the FBI opened an investigation into the pipe bomber and attempted to identify the suspect by analyzing cell phone data linked to the area surrounding the RNC and DNC,” Loudermilk told Just the News. 

…Last year, D’Antuono (the former Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, Steve D’Antuono, who oversaw the pipe bomb investigation) told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI did not a receive complete phone data from telephone carriers because some of it had been corrupted.

“We did a complete geofence. We have complete data. Not complete, because there’s some data that was corrupted by one of the providers, not purposely by them, right. It just — unusual circumstance that we have corrupt data from one of the providers,” D’Antuono testified in a transcribed interview.

The article notes:

At a hearing earlier this year about assessing the law enforcement response to the pipe bombs, Loudermilk reiterated concerns about the FBI’s investigation.

“Despite the suspect’s appearance on numerous USCP CCTV cameras, and the FBI’s efforts interviewing over 800 individuals and assessing more than 300 tips, the suspect remains at large,” Loudermilk said.

“Unfortunately, FBI has failed to provide substantive updates on the investigation despite numerous requests from congressional committees. Today, they have declined to participate in our hearing,” he added.

As we get closer to a change of administration and control of Congress, I suspect a lot more information about January 6th will be forthcoming. I also suspect that a lot of that information will be different from what we have heard in the past.

The Tone Deafness Will Continue For The Next Two Months

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The Biden administration seems to have been tone deaf to Americans during the entire administration. They did not respond to the pleas to make energy more available and thus, cheaper. They didn’t have an answer for rising grocery prices. The elites in the Democrat (and Republican) party were not greatly impacted by inflation, therefore, it didn’t really matter.

On Monday, Just the News posted an article about President Biden’s energy policies.

The article reports:

The Biden-Harris administration had been a champion of an extensive climate agenda. Not only did Democratic candidate Kamala Harris lose the presidential election to former President Donald Trump, a man who has called “climate hysteria” a “hoax,” voters in two Harris stronghold states rejected anti-fossil fuel measures. 

In 2019, Berkeley, California, became the first city in the U.S. to ban natural gas hookups in new construction. The Sierra Club, which is managing $1 billion from billionaire Michael Bloomberg to fund a campaign to prevent consumers from accessing fossil fuels, hailed the move and kept a running tally on other California cities that followed with similar legislation. However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban, and then rejected a request for a rehearing in February, effectively killing the law. 

Undeterred, the City of Berkeley initiated a voter ballot measure this election that would have taxed the owners of buildings over 15,000 square feet based on the amount of natural gas it used annually. Voters rejected the measure 68% to 32%. Alameda County, where Berkeley is located, voted for Harris 72% to 25%, showing that even fervent Harris supporters aren’t given to anti-fossil fuel regulations. 

In Washington state, where the vote for Harris currently stands at nearly 58%, voters passed ballot measure No. 2066, which repeals part of a state law expediting the state’s transition from natural gas to electricity. The ballot measure also prohibits cities and counties from banning or penalizing the use of natural gas. 

I believe that most Americans have enough common sense to realize that our economy and way of life are built on fossil fuel. We have an obligation to make the use of fossil fuel as efficient as possible. We need clean air and clean water, but we also need civilization.

Fighting Fraud Before The Voting Ends

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about some of the challenges some areas of the country are experiencing in keeping our elections honest.

The article notes:

In the aftermath of the messy 2020 election, Michigan police sent to the FBI a strong body of evidence documenting a multi-state scheme to submit fraudulent voter applications. Three years later, nobody can explain what the bureau did with the case as a similar scheme has now surfaced in the battleground state of Pennsylvania with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.

If criminals are charged for their actions, those actions tend not be be repeated.

The article reports:

Prosecutors in Lancaster County said Friday they had uncovered a large-scale scheme to submit fraudulent voter applications that were collected at shopping malls and other locations. Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams told a news conference that detectives have found about 60% of some 2,500 voter registrations submitted in recent days to the county’s election office were fraudulent.

“At this point, it is believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large-scale canvassing operation for voter registrations that date back to June,” Adams said. The prosecutor said that while detectives continue to review applications, they have confirmed fake names, identifications, and signatures were used to submit applications and create potentially fake voters. In some cases, real voters’ names were used but the voter said they neither approved nor signed the registrations.

…”Staff noticed that numerous applications appeared to have the same handwriting (and) were filled out on the same day,” Adams said during the press conference. “The confirmed indicators of fraud that detectives came across were inaccuracies with the addresses listed on the applications, fake and false personal identification information, as well as false names,” she continued. “Also, applications that had names that did not match the provided Social Security information.”

Lancaster is a politically influential county in the battleground state and home to a large Amish population that both parties have courted. Pennsylvania’s State Department, which oversees elections, praised Lancaster County for its quick actions.

It has been reported that much of the Amish population is supporting President Trump because of government over-regulation of their farms.

The article also details some of the fraud found in Michigan. Please follow the link to the article for further details.

When Your Interviewer Won’t Let You Change The Subject

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Last night, Just the News posted an article about Vice-President Kamala Harris’ interview with Fox News host Bret Baier. The article described the interview as contentious.

The article reports:

Vice President Kamala Harris declined on Wednesday to answer why the majority of the country believes the United States is on the “wrong track” after three and a half years of the Biden administration. 

The question was posed by Fox News host Bret Baier during the vice president’s first sit-down interview with the network. The interview aired during Baier’s “Special Report” and was conducted in Pennsylvania. It focused on top voter concerns heading into the general election in November, such as immigration and the economy. 

“More than 70% of people [say] the country is on the wrong track,” Baier said. “If it’s on the wrong track, that track follows three and a half years of you being vice president and President [Joe] Biden being president … Why are they saying that if you’re turning the page, you’ve been in office for three and a half years.”

Harris pushed back that former President Donald Trump has been “running for a decade,” to which Baier questioned what she meant.

“What I’m talking about is that over the last decade … it is clear to me and certainly the Republicans who are on same stage with me, the former Chief of Staff to the President Donald Trump, former Defense Secretaries, national security adviser and his vice president, one, that he is unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous, and that people are exhausted with someone who professes to be a leader who spends full time demeaning and engaging in personal grievances and it being about him instead of the American people. People are tired of that.”

When Baier pushed about more than half the country supporting Trump, despite Harris’ claims about people being tired of him, she merely stated that elections are “not supposed to be easy.”

The nearly 30-minute interview featured other moments where Harris and Baier spoke over each other, including on the more controversial topics like Biden’s mental acuity. They also kept interrupting each other on the first question, regarding border security and immigration.

There are various clips of the interview all over the internet. The bottom line is that Kamala Harris did not do well and her handlers are claiming that she was ambushed. The interview was so bad that President Trump has posted the full interview on his X account. This ‘lady’ clearly is not qualified to be President.

Bad News For America’s Senior Citizens

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On Sunday, Just the News reported that the Biden-Harris administration’s new Medicare prescription drug plan could wind up costing America’s taxpayers up to $20 billion over three years.

The article reports:

The budget analysis arm of Congress said the increased costs are due to the government subsidizing many seniors’ premiums by sending money to insurance firms, and it would cost at least $5 billion extra in 2025 alone and add to the deficit.

“The higher costs are attributable to the increases in subsidies for premiums and risk corridors,” the CBO told key lawmakers this week.

Does anyone remember medicine before the government got involved? Do you remember taking your children to the doctor when they all had ear infections and the doctor was able to look at all of them and charge you a reasonable price? Do you remember when doctors didn’t have to fill out a ton a paperwork just because you went in for your annual checkup. I suspect that if we all calculated what we spend on medical insurance vs. what we used to pay in medical expenses, we would find out we are paying much more. I understand the need for insurance for surgery and serious diseases, but what about going back to the time you could go to the doctor for a minor ailment and the bill was cheaper than your insurance payment for the month? The free market always works better without government interference.

The article concludes:

CBO responded that federal spending would increase between $10 billion and $20 billion in 2025 compared to earlier projections.

Lawmakers blasted the Biden/Harris administration for imposing such new cost on taxpayers

“As predicted, the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act not only quelled investment for new cures, but caused Medicare prescription drug plan premiums to skyrocket, and Democrats are scrambling to cover it up before the election,” Arrington said .

“In July, the Biden-Harris CMS scrambled to create a new federal program that will send billions of tax dollars to large health insurance companies to cover up a massive flaw in their so-called Inflation Reduction Act.”

The new average plan bid for a standard Part D coverage increases by 179% for 2025 partly due to an underestimation of federal coverage of the Part D changes, CBO said.

The Justice Department Supports Voter Fraud

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On Friday, Just the News reported the following:

The U.S. Department of Justice said Friday it is suing Alabama for trying to remove noncitizens from voting lists, arguing the effort comes too close to the presidential election in November.

According to the Washington Times, the DOJ asked a federal judge to order Alabama to put the names of the presumed ineligible voters back on the active voter lists, in part because it claims that some actual citizens were told that they had been moved to an inactive voter file.

The DOJ’s argument also boils down to timing, since Alabama announced its intentions 84 days before the election, which might violate the federal National Voter Registration Act that prohibits the deletion of names from election lists within 90 days of an election.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said that a lawsuit should be viewed as a warning to other states, adding that, “It is critical that Alabama redress voter confusion.”

Those actual citizens involved can go and make their case to the Board of Elections. There is no reason to protest the removal of illegal voters from voting roles unless you plan on having their votes cast.

We need election integrity, and it is telling that the Department of Justice is standing in the way of removing ineligible voters.

Legal Immigration Is A Good Thing–Illegal Immigration Is Not

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On Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about how Americans feel about illegal immigration.

The article reported:

A majority of Americans favor the mass deportation of illegal aliens a recent survey has revealed, presenting a potential window for former President Donald Trump to make headway with one of his signature campaign pledges.

In a Scripps News/Ipsos survey released Wednesday, 54% of respondents supported mass deportations. A further 62% expressed support for allowing law enforcement to detain illegal aliens. Sixty-nine percent backed restricting the number of migrants who may claim asylum while 68% support a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens who arrived as children.

Immigration featured among the top concerns for voters, with 39% placing it among the most important issues. Only inflation ranked higher, with 57% choosing that option.

We need to fix our legal immigration system. However, we need to close the southern border quickly while we still have a country. We have no idea who is coming through that border, and we may regret that at some time in the near future. The people coming here illegally have partnered with the Mexican cartels to get here. They have not respected our laws in coming here, and may not respect our laws once them get here. Many of the people crossing our border are from cultures alien to western civilization. It will be difficult for them to assimilate. Let’s control our immigration and give newcomers a chance to assimilate and become Americans.

Something The Moderators Overlooked

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During Tuesday’s Presidential debate, the moderators were very quick to fact-check President Trump and did not seem to fact-check Vice-President Harris. One area where the moderators fact-checked President Trump was in the area of late-term abortions and the babies that survived those abortion attempts.

On Tuesday, Just the News posted an article about that issue.

The article reports:

One of the ABC News debate moderators on Tuesday fact-checked former President Donald Trump on babies who survive botched abortions, saying that they aren’t killed. But Minnesota records show eight babies in recent years have in fact survived botched procedures but then died after being denied life-saving care.

Trump said that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s “vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth — it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay, and that’s not okay with me.”

ABC News’ Linsey Davis pushed back on Trump’s statement, saying, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.”

However, in Walz’s state and on his watch, five infants were “born alive” in 2021 during failed abortions, and none was provided life-saving care though two got “comfort care,” the Minnesota Department of Health reported on July 1, 2022.

The article concludes:

Minnesota was the rare state to require such born-alive abortions to be publicly reported, creating a powerful statistic for pro-life and anti-abortion forces to draw upon.

But in 2023, Walz worked with his new Democrat-controlled Legislature to eliminate both the reporting requirement and the state’s legal obligation for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to administer life-saving care to infants born alive during an abortion procedure.

That is barbaric.

 

Texas Is The Example

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On Saturday, Just the News posted an article highlighting the actions of Texas in dealing with the gang violence in Uvalde County.

The article reports:

Thirty-three members of violent gangs were arrested as part of a multi-agency operation targeting transnational and organized crime in the border town of Uvalde, Texas, and surrounding area in Uvalde County.

“Gang violence has no place here in Texas, we will bring the full force of justice down on these famous criminals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when directing Texas Department of Public Safety to surge resources there to root out organized crime in September 2022.

Nearly two years ago, a multi-agency operation began, made possible through additional state funding and criminal investigative oversight from DPS targeting an extensive organized crime network operating at the Texas-Mexico border. The investigation focused on the selling and distribution of narcotics, weapons, extortion, aggravated assaults and organized criminal activity of multiple gangs associated with transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels.

The article notes:

After an extensive investigation, 33 gang members were arrested, including from the Latin Kings, West Texas Tango, Tango Blast, Tango Orejon, Tango Aguilon, Texas Syndicate, Paisa, Texas Mexican Mafia, Maniac Latin Disciples, and San Antonio Walked Down Gang, according to a statement from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

The 38th Judicial District handed down 68 state indictments related to narcotics trafficking and engaging in organized criminal activity. The U.S. Western District, Del Rio Division, handed 17 federal indictments related to racketeering and conspiracy.

Texas DPS criminal investigators have identified gang activity “as a growing and serious problem in Uvalde and the surrounding area.”

Joining them in the investigation were investigators with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, Uvalde Police Department, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The 38th District Attorney’s Border Prosecution Unit and the U.S. Attorney’s office are prosecuting the case.

The investigation targeted the Uvalde area nearly 10 years after a joint operation in 2015 vanquished major gang operations there resulting in the Latin Kings being disbanded, the sheriff’s office said. Since that time, gang activity increased with the “most recent gang activity involve[ing] some of the children of those former incarcerated gang members.”

The only way to deal with the problem of the open southern border is to arrest the people who are involved in the criminal activity related to the open border. We need to arrest them, deport them, and seal the border. None of that will happen under a Biden-Harris administration or under a Harris-Walz administration.

Taking One Step Toward An Honest Election

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On Monday, Just the News posted an article about a recent rule adopted by the Georgia election board.

The article reports:

The Georgia State Election Board (SEB) on Monday adopted a rule that requires the number of ballots and voters be the same before the certification of election results.

The rule ensures that counties comply with Georgia state code. It comes after Fulton County was found to have likely scanned thousands of ballots twice in a recount of the 2020 election.

“The purpose of the rule is to ensure that county superintendents and boards of elections follow the required procedures and can uniformly, properly, and lawfully fulfill their duties, and reconcile the number of ballots to the number of voters so that certification of election results accurately reflects the will of the voters in every county,” the rule reads.

“The rule is built on basic, kindergarten math,” Election Integrity Network Founder Cleta Mitchell said Monday. “Count the number of voters, confirm that the number of voters match the number of ballots. Those numbers should match and should be the same as the number of votes tabulated. The duty for election officials to certify CORRECT results is required under the statute. The rule just makes sure it happens in every county.”

…Also on Monday, the SEB voted to adopt a rule that will require all polling places have signage that states only U.S. citizens can vote.

Obviously this move will not stop all election fraud, but it might stop some of it. There are people still registered on the voter rolls of many states who were born in 1850 and still vote. There are also counties where more people than the number of registered voters vote. It’s time to fix these problems.

Is Anyone In Washington Ever Held Accountable?

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On Monday, Zero Hedge posted an article about the Congressional investigation into the Biden family finances.

The article reports:

The GOP-led House committees who have been investigating the Biden family shook their fist at the sky on Monday, announcing in a 291-page report that the president engaged in impeachable conduct by helping to enrich his family with millions of dollars through various business schemes to trade on the family name – and then defrauded voters by lying to cover it up, Just the News reports.

The House Oversight, Ways and Means and Judiciary Committees said they believe the evidence from their nine-month investigation establishes that Biden abused his office and violated his oaths under the Constitution, according to the 291-page report reviewed by Just the News. 

Obviously this would have been infinitely more helpful even a few months ago when there was time for the GOP-controlled House to take action (particularly before the DOJ concluded that Biden is too senile to prosecute), but hey – better late than never.

The article concludes:

According to Just the News:

The committee cited evidence that Biden “actively participated” in an influence-peddling conspiracy by attending dinners with his family’s foreign associates and speaking to them over the phone. These interactions were documented by email evidence and testimony from several of Hunter Biden’s ex-business partners, including Devon Archer and Jason Galanis.

The committees also said evidence shows Hunter Biden used his father’s official position as vice president to “garner favorable outcomes in foreign business dealings and legal proceedings.”

Beyond Biden’s conduct as vice president, the report argued the Justice Department during his presidency deviated from normal practices in order to provide favorable treatment to Hunter Biden, throwing up roadblocks in the investigation and preventing attorneys from pursuing certain avenues of inquiry, as two IRS whistleblowers testified to the House Ways and Means Committee. -Just the News

The report also alleges that Biden engaged in a coverup by lying about he and his family’s conduct.

“President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift,” the committees wrote. “In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family.“

As JTN notes, the report is unlikely to result in a formal impeachment since Biden has stepped out of the 2024 race and is coasting towards January 2025 as the lamest of ducks.

I don’t think impeachment is reasonable at all–I think when you look at the timeline–the continuous breaking the law for years–many family members belong in jail.

The Only Green In Green Energy Is Taxpayers’ Money

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On Friday, Just the News posted article about the government’s effort to help the wavering wind industry by recusing wind energy companies from liability when they damage the environment. Would the same waiver be given to any struggling energy industry that involved fossil fuel?

The article reports:

The offshore wind industry has been struggling financially for much of the past year, with companies’ stocks falling in part over uncertainty in the outcome of the U.S. presidential election. Inflation, supply chains and interest rates have also been blamed for the industry’s troubles.

Despite the financial uncertainty of the offshore wind industry, the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management (BOEM) is issuing waivers for financial assurances on offshore wind projects, saying they present an unnecessary burden for the industry. The financial assurance requirement protects the public from decommissioning liabilities. If companies can’t afford to remove the wind towers they’re building after their useful life, the public has an assurance that those liabilities will be covered. 

Covered by U.S. taxpayers. What government insanity is this?

The article notes:

In the wake of the Vineyard Wind blade incident, Meghan Lapp, fisheries liaison and general manager at Seafreeze, Ltd., a fishing company based in Rhode Island, spoke at a hearing on offshore wind, organized by Reps. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., and Scott Perry, R-Pa. 

“The truth is that BOEM habitually grants waivers or departure requests for these financial assurances. In fact, every project constructed or under construction in federal waters off New England have received these waivers: Vineyard wind, South Fork Wind farm. Revolution Wind and New England Wind off Massachusetts have also received a waiver,” Lapp testified. 

Lapp was a plaintiff in the recent Supreme Court case that overturned the so-called “Chevron deference.” 

These waivers, Lapp pointed out, stand in stark contrast to the way BOEM treats oil and gas projects. Offshore oil and gas drilling is a much older industry, she said, and so many of the risks are known. But that’s not the case with offshore wind. 

Lapp pointed to the impacts of the Vineyard Wind blade disaster and how it shut down beaches and impacted economies that depend on summer tourism. Despite BOEM claiming that offshore wind technology is proven, she said, the potential for blades to break off and cause such extensive environmental damages was unforeseen.

The crisis, she said, “underscores this lack of foresight and BOEM’s political push for offshore wind, regardless of cost to American taxpayers. If a decommissioning bond is a financial hardship for developers, what of the cost of cleanup liability and damages to local economies, businesses and citizens?”

If a corporation cannot be held liable for the damages it does to the environment and to other industries, why should they be allowed to do business?

Refining The Law Because Of Technology

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For those of us who grew up before the age of computers and cell phones, a lot of what is currently happening in technology and being created electronically is very foreign. These changes in technology are also impacting our laws. Being tracked by your cell phone is nothing new. Back in the day when your cell phone looked like something you would use to call in an air strike, when you left one calling zone and entered another, you got a welcoming phone call. Even back then they knew where you were if you carried a cell phone (then known as a car phone).

On Wednesday, Just the News posted an article about how the location information on cell phones can be used.

The article reports:

Two federal appeals courts have taken starkly different views on one of the government ‘s newer electronic dragnet tools – geofence warrants that track people via their cell phones – setting up a likely showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court that could define privacy in the digital era for decades to come.

Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that such geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment” protection against unlawful search and seizure. The judges concluded the mass gathering of Americans’ cell phone geographic locations to identify a single suspect in a postal worker’s armed robbery amounted to the sort of general warrant that the Founding Fathers steadfastly rejected at America’s birth as their new country broke from British rule.

“It is undeniable that general warrants are plainly unconstitutional,” that appeals court ruled. The 5th Circuit oversees appeals from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas federal district courts.

A few states over, the 4th U.S. Circuit of Appeals came to a different conclusion, ruling that when law enforcement gathers two hours of all a cell phone users’ records in Google’s database for a certain location near a crime it didn’t violate privacy because more than a half-billion cell phone users had opted to turn on the geo-tracking capabilities of their to make their apps work better. Such opt-ins, the 4th Circuit ruled, amounted to a waiver of privacy. The 4th Circuit oversees appeals from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina federal district courts.

The article concludes:

In other words, using a digital dragnet to search millions of Americans location records to identify an unknown assailant or two amounted to a fishing exercise tantamount to the “general warrants” the Constitution’s framers rejected handily two centuries earlier.

Google has revealed that the number of geo-warrants has gone from rare in 2016 to overwhelming – more than 10,000 annually – a decade later. The tech giant announced last year it was shutting down its ability to store all users’ geo location data in its own database known as Sensorvault and instead leaving it on each consumer’s cell phone where it must be obtained by individual warrant.

No matter how Google changes their practices, the breadth of digital searching that law enforcement can still do in 2024 from other vendors leaves most experts certain the issue of geofencing and tactics likely will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

This is something to watch. How much privacy are Americans entitled to?

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Policies Matter

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The crisis at America’s southern border became a national issue when illegal aliens began to be bussed around the country by the State of Texas. However, the State of Texas is still dealing with the impact of the open border. Most Texans, if not all, want the border closed.

On Monday, Just the News reported the following:

Three and a half years into an unprecedented border crisis impacting Texans in border communities and the state’s largest cities, high-profile Democrats are openly endorsing a Republican candidate for Senate who they never endorsed before: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

Cruz, a Houston Republican, is running for reelection for his third term. He’s being challenged by U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat, who is trailing in the polls.

While Cruz has been characterized as polarizing or far right by those on the left, those on the right argue he’s a conservative stalwart championing their causes: pro-life, supporting traditional marriage, women’s rights, the Second Amendment, and school choice, among other issues. Differing on these views doesn’t matter. Texas Democrats supporting Cruz argue that border security and combating crime are their top concerns.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the greatest number of illegal border crossers have entered the U.S., with the bulk illegally entering in Texas, and increasing number of violent crimes being committed against Americans, The Center Square has reported.

The article concludes:

Democrats at the border are also endorsing Cruz, including Zapata County Sheriff Raymundo Del Bosque, Presidio County Sheriff Danny Dominguez, Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson, Reeves County Sheriff Art Granado, Kenedy County Judge Charles Burns and Reeves County Judge Leo Hung. Many are from the 55 counties that declared an invasion, The Center Square exclusively reported.

“The crisis at our southern border threatens our communities and well-being every single day,” Judge Hung said. “We used to live in a state where we could walk outside without fear of getting hurt. Now, because of the policies of the National Democratic Party, we fear for our safety every time we step outside. I’ve been a Democrat all my life and will continue to be, but no one has fought harder to secure the border than Senator Ted Cruz, which is why I am endorsing him for reelection and look forward to his victory in November.”

Policies matter.