Tag Archives: Power Line Blog

Common Sense Has Arrived

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Hamas has worked very hard to turn public opinion against Israel despite the horrific attack of October 7th of last year. The United Nations has worked very hard to ignore the role that some employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) played in that attack. Well, justice may be coming for the victims of that attack.

On April 25th, Power Line Blog reported:

It would be easy to miss today’s good news, which comes via the Trump Department of Justice. The headline of the Jewish Chronicle spells it out: “US scraps Unrwa’s legal immunity in major reversal of Biden-era policy.” Subhead: “The decision could see the UN agency, which has been accused of employing Hamas operatives, hit with significant claims from the relatives of terror victims.”

…The X feed of Professor Eugene Kontorovich has helpful background and reflection on this change of policy. He comments: “UNRWA’s funding from primary donors Germany, France, EU, Sweden, Norway is going to dry up fast when they understand every cent is going to be needed to pay damages to Jewish victims.” So let it be written, so let it be done.

Professor Kontorovich also cites his own September 2024 New York Post column (with Mark Goldfeder) “Outrage as US DOJ defends UN staffers who collaborated in Hamas’ terror.”

Let the lawsuits begin! My only concern is that America funds a large portion of the United Nation’s budget–in 2023, America paid $13 billion to the United Nations (in my mind, that is one place spending could be cut totally). I don’t want to see American taxpayers having to pay the lawsuits against the United Nations. It would be nice to see the United Nations’ funding dry up completely. The have never been the instrument of peace that they supposedly set out to be.

DOGE And The Cloward-Piven Strategy

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The Cloward-Piven strategy was developed by two sociologists and activists (Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven) in 1966. It aims to overload the US public welfare system and replace it with a national guaranteed income. This theory was the basis for a lot of policy changes that have taken place in recent years. We have all heard the cries that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are all going broke. Some recent discoveries by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) may explain some of the reasons for those programs having financial challenges.

On Monday, Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog quoted a post on X by Elon Musk reporting that in 2021, 270,000 non-citizens got social security numbers. In 2024, 2.1 million non-citizens got social security numbers. Human traffickers made $13-15 billion dollars during the time our southern border was open. Elon Musk has stated that DOGE is going to stop the Social Security payments that are going to illegals. Because these illegals have Social Security numbers, many of them have registered to vote and have voted. This is voter fraud.

I don’t know how the people responsible for this thought they were going to get away with this unless they planned on preventing any investigation of the fraud and keeping control of the Department of Justice indefinitely. Obviously, they have not been successful in either area.

The problem has now been identified. There are three steps that need to be taken. The first step is to stop any benefits being paid to people who are not American citizens. The second step is to identify the people behind the fraud and put them in jail. I don’t care how well-connected or powerful they are—they need to go to jail. The third step is to set up a system that will ensure that this never happens again. I have no idea how to do that, but I am sure that Elon Musk and his team of geniuses can find a way.

I suspect we may hear more about the discovery of this fraud in the near future.

The Impending End Of A Really Bad Idea

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On Sunday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about wind energy. The Trump administration is taking a good, hard look at the practicality and efficiency of wind energy.

The article reports:

One of the most felicitous aspects of the new Trump administration is its determination to drive a stake through the heart of the zombie wind industry. Because it is an absurdly inefficient and unreliable way to generate electricity, wind power was doomed from the start. But the Trump administration is seeing it off.

Robert Bryce, one of our top energy experts, has a long Substack post that is full of good news. You will have to follow the link to get it all, but here are some highlights:

A few days ago, Jason Grumet, the head of the American Clean Power Association (annual revenue: $62.3 million), told Heatmap News that “probably more than half” of all new wind projects under development in the US could be killed due to President Trump’s executive order requiring a “comprehensive assessment” of federal permitting. Heatmap explained that Trump’s policies pose “a potential existential threat to the industry’s future. Just don’t expect everyone to say it out loud.”

…[T]he offshore and onshore wind sectors are in full-blown panic mode. Trump’s executive orders, particularly the one requiring the federal government to assess the wind industry’s impact on wildlife — have had an immediate and chilling effect on wind projects onshore and offshore.

The article concludes:

I am not sure why solar energy is doing better than wind. It has the same defects that wind does: solar is ridiculously expensive, inherently unreliable since it can’t produce electricity at night, when it is cloudy, or when solar panels are covered with snow, and it is massively destructive of the environment.

So let’s drive the solar scam out of existence next. Or, rather, make it stand on its own two feet: no subsidies and no mandates. Let solar compete on even terms with nuclear, natural gas, coal and hydro power, and see who wins. Solar will die out, and the environment will only be better for it.

We have better, more efficient, and cheaper ways to produce energy. Let’s further develop them.

Looking Through The Lens Of History

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On Thursday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about the Senate confirmation hearings. He notes that at the three hearings this week  the Democrats were hoping to stop the nominees, things did not necessarily move in that direction.

The article notes:

But now several of Trump’s most controversial nominees–controversial meaning that the New York Times and The Washington Post really, really hate them–have taken their turn. Today, Robert Kennedy, Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard all testified in confirmation hearings. These are the nominees (along with Hegseth) that the Democrats are seriously determined to block, and you could see it in their hysterical, if sometimes hilarious, questioning.

I was able to watch only brief portions of today’s hearings and don’t have an opinion on how, in general, they went, other than the fact that the Democrats were in full howl-at-the-moon mode.

I hope all three nominees are confirmed, although I could go either way on Kennedy. Even here, though, Kennedy came across as I expected. He is walking away from some of his more out-there positions of years ago, and is focused on “making America healthy again.” I think there is room for him to do considerable good as an advocate for more healthy lifestyles.

But I really hope that Tulsi Gabbard is confirmed. From my own (admittedly minimal) experience with her, I have a great deal of respect for Gabbard’s patriotism, her intelligence–she is very, very smart–and her military bearing. And, to be honest, in my dealings with Gabbard I just liked her.

America’s “intelligence community” is sick and throughly politicized. Tulsi is, I think, a great choice to set it straight. I don’t agree with all of her opinions–my view of the Iraq war is more positive than hers, for instance–but I trust her to oversee an objective, competent and non-politicized intelligence operation. Which is what Trump wants, and a huge improvement.

The article notes a bit of history often overlooked:

The Democrats can’t block any of the President’s nominees, so their grandstanding is directed mostly at their own base. I suppose they also hope to persuade four Republicans to vote against Gabbard and the others. That shouldn’t happen. Of this group, the only one who isn’t plainly an excellent choice is the eccentric Robert Kennedy. But Kennedy, too, is President Trump’s choice, and there is a clear rationale for why he might be a very good Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Beginning with the Clinton administration and until this year, I believe there were only two occasions on which any senator of a president’s party voted against any of his Cabinet nominees. That number grew from two to three when three Republicans voted against Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Secretary of Defense. Let’s hope that Senate Republicans don’t continue to break with tradition.

If the Republicans are not willing to support their own President’s choices, why should they be considered Republicans? I am willing to support any primary opponent who runs against a Republican who opposes President Trump’s choices.

This Could Have Been Done Four Years Ago

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On Friday, Steven Hayward at Power Line Blog posted two charts illustrating the changes at America’s southern border in the past few days.

Here are the charts:

The illegal immigration at America’s southern border could have been totally avoided or totally stopped at any time during the last four years. During that time people on the terrorist watch list came freely into our country along with criminals let out of jail by other countries. During the past four years, the drug cartels have not only controlled our southern border, they have made more money than ever before doing it. Again, this was totally unnecessary.

As the border remains closed and the criminals are deported, the safety of Americans will improve. The senseless murders, the drunk driving, and driving without a license incidents should decrease significantly.

It is time to bring our nation back to a nation of law and order where people can safely go out for a walk or go to stores where the merchandise is not locked up for fear of looting.

About The Confirmation Hearings

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We have had a few days of confirmation hearings, enough to get a feel for what will be asked and how people will conduct themselves. So far, many of the questions asked have very little to do with the future and much to do with accusations or possible past mistakes. It is entertaining to watch some of the Democrats making accusations being reminded of their own actions.

On Wednesday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the hearings.

The article lists his three main observations about the hearings:

First, Trump’s nominees have uniformly done well. Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Marco Rubio and Chris Wright have all come across as competent and likable, in contrast to most of their Democratic interlocutors, who have been shrill at best, and often dim-witted.

…Second, the main themes behind Trump’s nominations have come through. Trump nominated Pete Hegseth because he wants a soldier running the Pentagon–an idea to which I have enthusiastically come around. Pam Bondi will run a non-politicized Department of Justice. Marco Rubio will implement an America First foreign policy. And Chris Wright wants reliable, affordable energy. All of these themes are popular with the general public.

Third, the Democrats have played only to their hard-core base. Their questions often have focused on hobby horses that the general public has long lost interest in: Will you concede that Trump lost the 2020 election? Should the January 6 protesters be pardoned? And so on.

Somehow I don’t think this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote ‘advise and consent.’

The article concludes:

Finally, all of Trump’s key nominees are going to be confirmed. Republicans control the Senate, and there is no sign that any Republican senators are wavering. Some nominees will sail through, like Marco Rubio, who not only benefits from a traditional senatorial privilege, but is genuinely popular with senators on both sides of the aisle. Others, like Pete Hegseth, will be the focus of Democratic opposition. But it won’t matter: Republicans have the votes, and Republicans are united behind the Trump administration. Democrats can howl at the moon, but they have no power to stop the administration from taking office and moving forward.

A Picture Of A Shift

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On Friday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about the Senate elections in 2020 and 2024.

The article includes two illustrations:

The article concludes:

So the Great Sort continues apace. The GOP has a slight built-in advantage in the Senate, but that edge could be neutralized by the Democrats’ vast financial resources and their control over most of the means of communication and the federal bureaucracy.

The more fundamental question, which I won’t address for now, is whether the Great Sort renders futile the entire notion of a United States that includes both its red zones–pro-America, pro-Constitutional government, pro-free enterprise, indifferent to race–and its blue zones–anti-American, anti-Constitution, socialist and racist. On what basis, exactly, can we form a common polity?

That question may become acute much sooner than most observers realize.

I believe that most voters rejected some of the strange ideas the political left has espoused in recent years such as ‘affirmative gender care’ for children and drag queen story hour. Those things may be okay in liberal cities, but they are not acceptable with mainstream Americans trying to raise children. Until some of the more extreme ideas of the political left are jettisoned, there will be little common ground. The extreme right also has its problems. We can’t legislate morality, but we can encourage it. Sometimes the right forgets the old expression that says you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. The political right needs to stand for the values that made this country great, but they need to do it with compassion.

When The Truth Leaks Out

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On Monday, Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article about a comment made by Vice-President Kamala Harris at a recent political event.

The article reports:

Vice President Harris in response to a heckler screaming that Israel is committing “genocide” “Listen, what he’s talking about, it’s real. It’s real. That’s not the subject that I came to discuss today, but it’s real and I respect his voice”

This is the video from X:

Israel is not the one committing genocide. Israel did not disrupt the peaceful existence between Israel and Gaza by killing innocent civilians at a music festival and in their homes. The October 7th invasion left Israel no choice but to defend itself against future attacks (which we now know were planned).

The article continues:

Whose side is Harris on? We think we know. It’s not Netanyahu she has a problem with, although she has a problem with him. It’s Israel and its defense of itself from the genocidal maniacs confronting the country on seven fronts whose ultimate source is Iran.

Levine quotes the former United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman:

“Kamala Harris just publicly validated the false and vicious accusation that Israel is engaging in genocide,” David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told The Post Saturday.

“Many, including myself, always suspected that she held this warped, antisemitic view of Israel’s self-defense against Hamas barbarism. But the cat is now out of the bag,” he added.

“Her view is as ignorant as it is malign. … To give credence publicly to this disgusting blood libel disqualifies Harris from holding any public office, let alone the presidency,” he said.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren comments on X:

A very dangerous precedent. I was disturbed to view the video in which Vice President Kamala Harris appears to confirm the charge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This is the first time that the White House has been linked to a libel which threatens Israel’s legitimacy and security. I call on the U.S. administration to issue an immediate and complete denial.

Vice-President Harris is condoning the same sort of anti-Semitism that led to the concentration camps of WWII.

An Outsider?

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On Wednesday, Scott Johnson posted an article at Power Line Blog about Kamala Harris campaigning as a Washington outsider. We all need to remember that she has been a major player in Washington for the past 3+ years, casting tie-breaking votes in the Senate and according to President Biden, she has been in agreement with all of his policies. Kamala Harris broke the record for Vice-Presidents casting tie-breaking votes in the Senate–she cast 32 votes to help pass President Biden’s agenda. (This figure comes from The New York Times).

The article reports:

Vice President Harris is running for president as though she is somehow an outsider running against the establishment rather than its hand-picked mouthpiece. She’s not only an insider, she’s the second ranking officer in the incumbent administration. She has previously campaigned on every one of the policies of the Biden/Harris administration that have wrought so much damage to the United States.

To take only one example, consider Biden’s opening of the border and his invitation to the whole wide world to come on in. Come on in, that is, and enjoy the freebies. Enjoy the freebies, that is, at the expense of American taxpayers. These are the policies that Harris herself promoted during her 2020 presidential campaign.

And yet Harris has adopted these campaign themes: She has “a new way forward.” We’re not “going back.” Oh, yeah, and “it’s time to turn the page.”

Harris pretends to resolve the contradiction by asserting that she’s “not Joe Biden.” However, not surprisingly, she’s on “the same page” as Joe Biden. What if “it’s time to turn the page”? Harris herself was unable to keep up the pretense or reconcile the contradiction in her appearance on The View yesterday.

When asked on The View what should would have done differently from President Biden during the past four years, she replied, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” So how is Kamala Harris going to ‘turn the page’ if she is elected after she and President Biden were on the same page for four years?

 

You Can Tell When Israel Is Winning–The United Nations Asks For A Cease Fire

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On Monday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the continuing war between Israel and the terrorists that surround it. It is unfortunate that the rest of the world does not understand that in defending Israel they are fighting worldwide terrorism.

The article quotes The Wall Street Journal:

Israeli special forces have been carrying out small, targeted raids into southern Lebanon, gathering intelligence and probing ahead of an expected broader ground incursion, people familiar with the matter said.
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The Biden administration expects an imminent Israeli invasion of Lebanon, U.S. officials said.
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An Israeli official said that, if there were to be a broader ground operation, it would feature “localized, limited raids against Hezbollah targets along the border with the objective of destroying the capabilities of the Radwan Forces,” the militant group’s special-operations unit. Israeli forces assess that the group is making preparations for an attack, as Hamas did before Oct. 7, including positioning clothes, weapons and other materials along the border.

The difference is that October 7th was unprovoked and aimed at civilians. Israel’s attack has been provoked by the constant rocket fire on civilians in Northern Israel, and Israel’s attack is aimed at Hezbollah–a terrorist group.

The article at Power Line Blog concludes:

So, what is the Biden administration’s role in these events? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have remained true to their policy of being utterly irrelevant, when they are not actually destructive, on all foreign policy issues. Biden’s greatest fear, apparently, is that Israel might actually achieve victory in its battle to the death with Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies:

President Biden starkly instructed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to abandon reported plans for an imminent invasion of southern Lebanon to clear out Hezbollah-held areas days after the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah.

“Israel may now be launching a limited operation into Lebanon. Are you aware of that? Are you comfortable with their plan?” a journalist asked Biden at the White House.

“I’m more aware than you might know, and I’m comfortable with them stopping,” the president replied.

“We should have a cease-fire now,” he added.

There is a pattern here: whenever the Jews are winning, liberal Democrats want a cease fire to give the terrorists time to regroup and live to fight again another day. Happily, no one cares what they think.

If Mexico were firing rockets into Texas every day, would America want a cease-fire?

Where Was This Information In 2020?

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On Wednesday, Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article about The New York Times’ reporting about Hunter Biden’s efforts in landing a Burisma deal.

The article reports:

Ken Vogel reports in the New York Times that “Hunter Biden Sought State Department Help for Ukrainian Company.” Subhead: “After President Biden dropped his re-election bid, his administration released records showing that while he was vice president, his son solicited U.S. government assistance.” The New York Post has an accessible account of Vogel’s story by Victor Nava in “Hunter Biden asked US embassy in Italy for help landing Burisma deal while Joe was VP.”

It’s interesting to see the lengths to which the government went to protect President Biden from the story. The Times had to bring a FOIA lawsuit to obtain the documents it suspected had been withheld from an earlier production. Vogel seems to be afraid that Republicans will “pounce” on this element of his story:

The Times challenged the thoroughness of the [State Department FOIA] search, noting that the department had failed to produce responsive records contained in a cache of files connected to a laptop that Mr. Biden had abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. The department resumed the search and periodic productions, but had produced few documents related to Mr. Biden until the week after his father ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Harris for the Democratic nomination.

The article concludes:

The more apt headline for Vogel’s story in the Times would be Now it can be told! I would like to say that Miranda Devine apparently could not be reached by Vogel for comment. On X, Devine drily observes of Vogel’s story “[t]his might all come as a surprise to @nytimes readers but @nypost readers have known the score for four years.”

Rush Limbaugh used to talk about low-information voters. Now we have voters who read the New York Times who are uninformed and often misinformed.

Kamala Harris Has Selected Tim Walz For Her Vice-President Running Mate

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On Tuesday, Breitbart introduced us to Tim Walz.

Here are some basic facts the article reports about the Minnesota Governor who has been Governor since 2019:

Below are seven things to know about Waltz’s record:

    1. A June report from Minnesota’s legislative auditor found that Walz’s administration “failed miserably in its duty to properly oversee millions of federal dollars it administered to nonprofits to feed children.” The report said that Walz’s alleged incompetence “created opportunities for fraud.” Axios reported: “The report highlighted several ways in which the Walz administration failed to rein in the fraud, undercutting the governor’s longstanding claims that his agency staff deserve credit, not criticism, for their efforts to catch and stop it.”
    2. Walz signed legislation to allow minors to get sex-change operations in Minnesota. He signed a bill to require schools to stock period products in boys’ bathrooms.
    3. Walz allegedly failed to anticipate and react to riots in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. Even the liberal mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, slammed Walz’s response to the riots.
    4. Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota gives free college tuition to illegal immigrants.
    5.  Walz signed a bill into law that will give driver’s licenses to potentially 77,000 eligible illegal aliens.
    6. Walz openly championed socialism last week during a “White Dudes” for Harris event.
    7. Waltz was also a radical member of the House of Representatives, with Heritage Action giving him a lifetime score of 13 percent

Honorable mentions:

    • Authorities arrested Walz for DUI.
    • Walz said it was “ageism for Americans to be concerned about Biden’s fitness for office.

Walz is considered to be politically somewhere to the left of Bernie Sanders.

On Tuesday, Steve Hayward of Power Line Blog posted:

First, the fact that a choice of running mate did not leak out prior to the announcement this morning likely means Harris didn’t make up her mind until yesterday. She’s indecisive.

Second, the Walz pick suggests the progressive anti-Semitic left successfully intimidated Harris out of picking Josh Shapiro. So she’s weak, too.

A confident Democratic nominee would have picked Shapiro. He could have helped Harris nail down the all-important state of Pennsylvania, and represented for Harris a “Sister Souljah” moment of repudiation to the progressive left that the newly “centrist” Harris badly needs. Shapiro, and perhaps Mark Kelly, would have been a move to add the veneer of ideological diversity (heh) to the ticket, like Michael Dukakis’s pick of Lloyd Bentsen in 1988, JFK picking LBJ in 1960, or Al Gore selecting Joe Lieberman in 2000. Instead she has doubled down on progressivism.

As Scott’s analysis reveals, Walz’s record is almost as target rich as Harris’s. Cue the Trump campaign ads displaying “Kamala’s San Francisco” and “Tim’s Minneapolis” from the summer of 2020. (By the way, will Trump’s nickname be “Tiny Tim”?) The only pick from the field that would have been better from a Republican point of view was Pete Buttigieg. The ghost of Lee Atwater smiles.

The election is going to need a LOT of popcorn.

The Impact Of American Elections

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On Sunday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the recent prisoners swap with Russia. The article made a few observations on why the swap took place now instead of after November.

The article quotes a Wall Street Journal article:

[Deputy chief of the foreign secret service BND Philipp] Wolff’s team saw an opening when their Russian counterparts said they wanted to wrap up the deal before the U.S. election in November. Some officials deduced that the Russians were either concerned about an unpredictable Donald Trump coming again to the presidency, or they feared that [German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz would no longer be willing to help a president who rarely misses an opportunity to criticize Germany.

“We then decided to push it to the limit,” a senior official involved in the talks said.

The article speculates that the real reason for the rush to complete the deal before November is based on the fact that if President Trump is elected, his administration will be much better negotiators than the Biden administration. The article reminds us that the Iranian hostages of the 1970’s were released as soon as Ronald Reagan became President.

Some Americans may get caught up in the ‘never Trump’ movement, but have they thought about the consequences. The Biden administration has given us a small taste of what a Harris administration would be like–higher taxes, weak economy, more unemployment, shrinking middle class, etc. Don’t get caught up in the media spin that says President Trump is a threat to democracy (we are not a democracy) when the Democrat party candidate for President has been put in place without a single vote in the primary election. All of the Americans who voted in the Democrat primary have had no say in who the candidate is–their votes didn’t count. So who is the threat to ‘democracy?’

 

The Consequences Of Liberal State Government

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On Saturday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the movement of the American population from Blue States to Red States.

The article reports:

One of the most important phenomena in contemporary America is the Great Sort–we are increasingly dividing into red and blue states, in part because of domestic migration. But that migration is basically a one-way street: people are fleeing blue states and moving to red states. Many, but not all, of these migrants are conservatives seeking a more congenial home. And of course there are liberals living in red states, but very few of them are picking up stakes and volunteering for higher taxes and more sluggish economies.

This is not a new phenomenon. The billboard below is from 1971:

So what impact does this movement of people have on red and blue states? The article includes the following charts:

If the state governments are the laboratories of democracy, it is becoming very obvious which states are doing better economically and in other areas.

The article concludes:

Where does it all end? I don’t know, but one possibility is that the current balance in our national politics, where far-left and center-right forces are almost equal, may before long become obsolete. America may become definitively a center-right country, simply because that is where most people and most resources are located.

Moving illegal immigrants to red states might help restore the balance of power. Just sayin’.

 

This Entire Scenario Could (And Should) Have Been Avoided

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On Sunday, Power Line Blog posted an article about the shooting of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Executive Director Bryan Malinowski. Evidently there were some questions regarding paperwork surrounding the fact that Malinowski was a gun collector who occasionally sold his guns.

The article reports:

“An Arkansas prosecutor on Friday said a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent was justified when he fatally shot the Little Rock airport director during a raid in March,” CBS News reports. “Pulaski County Prosecutor Will Jones said in a letter to ATF that no charges in the shooting would be filed after reviewing the Arkansas State Police investigation of the shooting of Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport Executive Director Bryan Malinowski.” On the other hand, a group of Arkansas legislators had some questions.

“Were they wearing required body cameras?” wondered Rep. Matt Duffield. “If not, why not? And where the hell is the footage? . . . Why the pre-dawn raid? ATF knew where he lived. They knew where he worked. They knew his and his wife’s routines.” Arkansas attorney general Tim Griffin, who had called for release of ATF body-cam footage, suddenly fell silent.

This was not a violent criminal–this was a family man living peacefully at home. When the ATF conducted a SWAT raid on his house, he had no idea who they were and attempted to defend himself and his family.

The article concludes:

The killing of Malinowski, who according to reports was shot in the head

. . . can be blamed on ATF’s leaders who are obsessed with flexing their SWAT teams and have never once cared about the sanctity of human life. Unfortunately, these leaders have demonstrated they are incapable of learning from past mistakes – Ruby Ridge, Waco, Fast & Furious and now Little Rock, to name a few.

Last August, an FBI SWAT team gunned down Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old-woodworker, for threats to Biden he had allegedly posted online. In similar style, the ATF now shoots first and avoids questions later. Like Lon Horiuchi, the FBI sniper who shot dead Vicki Weaver as she held her infant child, it’s a sure bet that nothing will happen to the ATF gunman who took down Malinowski.

Embattled Americans might contrast a famous case from 2020. When repeat criminal George Floyd died in police custody, Minnesota filed murder and manslaughter charges against Minneapolis policeman Derek Chauvin, who was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in prison, after which the Justice Department piled on with federal civil rights charges. Officers Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, involved in the restraining of Floyd, drew prison sentences of two-and-a half and three-and-a-half years, respectively. Officer Tou Thao, who held back a crowd of onlookers, was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

As we said in the 1960s, no justice no peace.

What are you supposed to do when a bunch of unidentified people break into your house early in the morning?

The Antisemitism Of The Biden Administration

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On May 11, Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article about another move by the Biden administration to hinder Israel’s efforts to defeat Hamas.

The article reports:

In February President Biden promulgated National Security Memorandum 20. NSM-20 directs the State Department to “obtain certain credible and reliable written assurances from foreign governments receiving [U.S.] defense articles and, as appropriate, defense services” that they will abide by U.S. and international law. NSM-20 also requires the Departments of State and Defense to report to Congress within 90 days on the extent to which these governments and services are abiding by their assurances.

NSM-20 purports to impose a generally applicable requirement. However, it is obviously aimed, Biden style, at Israel’s heart — as Senator James Risch accurately pointed out in a brief statement posted yesterday.

This is that statement:

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today released the following statement on the Biden Administration’s National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) report on Israel:

“In keeping with nearly four years of failed foreign policy, the Biden Administration is trying to have it both ways. Today, the administration has given Israel a politically damaging assessment while publicly announcing it is withholding a select set of precision weapons. The administration is attempting to placate voters on the far left at the expense of a close ally in the midst of its justified war with Hamas terrorists.

“NSM-20 is aimed squarely at Israel in the near-term, but the additional highly-politicized reporting requirements will eventually be aimed at other American allies and partners across the globe, further impeding the delivery of security assistance and undermining our ability to deter China and Russia.”

Background:

On February 8, the Biden Administration issued NSM-20, which undermines Israeli operations against Hamas in Gaza by affording Israel’s critics the opportunity to falsely claim Israel is committing war crimes.

NSM-20 threatens to cut off aid unless Israel meets arbitrary deadlines for providing “assurances” regarding international humanitarian law as well as vague facilitation of humanitarian assistance.

On April 30, Risch sent a letter with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul to the Biden Administration urging for the repeal of NSM-20.

The article concludes:

Speaking of assessments, I assess that the report constitutes another friendly Biden stab in Israel’s back by the Biden administration. I would juxtapose the report with the judgment of John Spencer, the West Point modern urban warfare expert:

In their criticism, Israel’s opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I’ve never known an army to take such measures [as the IDF has] to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF’s tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas.

Spencer is the voice of sanity. Interested readers can hear him at length in Sam Harris’s May 7 podcast with him.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. We are treating the people who have sworn to destroy us (Iran and Hamas) better than the people who would defend us (Israel).

Moving Quickly In The Wrong Direction

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On Sunday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the impact of the climate-change regulations the Biden administration is placing on Americans.

The article reports:

Liberals denounce Donald Trump as a would-be tyrant, but the fact is that he ruled less by executive order than any other recent president. It is Joe Biden who has discarded the Constitution and imposed a blizzard of illegal or probably-illegal regulations on the rest of us.

Lately, they have been coming so furiously that it is hard to keep up with them. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board caught up with just one set, relating to power plants. The intent of the regulations is to set our economy and our material well-being back by as much as a century:

On Thursday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed its latest doozy—rules that will effectively force coal plants to shut down while banning new natural-gas plants.
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Barack Obama’s regulation spurred a wave of coal plant closures. Now President Biden is trying to finish the job by tightening mercury, wastewater and ash disposal standards. EPA is also replacing the Obama Clean Power Plan that the Supreme Court struck down with a rule requiring that coal plants and new gas-fired plants adopt costly and unproven carbon-capture technology by 2032.

It is interesting that the Biden administration is planning to severely limit the production of electricity while at the same time encouraging Americans to buy electric cars. If the grid will not be able to keep up with normal expected growth, how will it be able to keep up with the additional demand placed on it by electric cars?

The article concludes:

Biden’s purpose is not to benefit the climate, it is to benefit the vast “green” grift that is one of the Democratic Party’s main constituencies. The greens, but also Communist China. China controls the market for solar panels and wind turbines, and it also controls the raw materials that are necessary to produce solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and the hypothetical batteries that are the magical solution to the fact that weather-dependent sources of energy can never fuel an economy–a primitive economy, let alone a modern one.

Why is Biden destroying our electrical grid and dragging the United States back into the 19th century, to the immense benefit of the Chinese Communist Party? Occam’s Razor suggests that he is doing it on purpose. Even Joe Biden isn’t dumb enough to fail to understand where these policies are leading. I don’t know whether it is sheer, malicious anti-Americanism, or whether the millions of dollars that Biden and his family have gotten from China have made him the Manchurian Candidate. But, one way or another, the disastrous consequences of the Biden administration’s energy policies are obvious to anyone who pays attention.

Including, even, Slow Joe.

Why Almost All Of The News Sounds The Same

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On Friday, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted an article about the current state of journalism in America.

The article reports:

Commentary in the liberal press is so uniform that you wonder whether reporters and commentators have coordinated their coverage, down to the word and the phrase. Well, they have, of course. You remember JournoList, where, years ago, reporters would gather to coordinate their pro-Democrat, anti-Republican stories. JournoList supposedly disbanded after it came to light, but I assume it more likely just went underground.

Here we have another instance, JournoList 2. Politico reports: “Inside the Off-the-Record Calls Held by Anti-Trump Legal Pundits.”

As the Jan. 6 committee was working on its bombshell investigation into the Capitol riot and President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the last election, committee staffers took some time out of their seemingly 24-hour jobs one day in 2022 to brief a group of lawyers and legal pundits on a Zoom call.

The people on the call weren’t affiliated with the investigation or the government. But they would have been familiar to anyone who watches cable news. They were some of the country’s most well-known legal and political commentators, and they were there to get insights into the committee’s work and learn about what to look for at the hearings.

To “learn what to look for.” That is, to coordinate their news coverage. But that zoom wasn’t a one-off:

The group’s gathering was not a one-time event, but in fact an installment in an exclusive weekly digital salon, whose existence has not been previously reported, for prominent legal analysts and progressive and conservative anti-Trump lawyers and pundits. Every Friday, they meet on Zoom to hash out the latest twists and turns in the Trump legal saga — and intellectually stress-test the arguments facing Trump on his journey through the American legal system.

The article concludes:

The Politico reporter, while sharing the group’s anti-Trump bias, understood that not everyone would see it that way:

[A]s I was reporting this story, I learned that some members of the group were understandably anxious about its publication. Trump has claimed that there is a legal conspiracy against him, and there is a risk that news of a group such as this could give Trump and his allies an attractive target.

Trump’s claims of an organized conspiracy might be bunk, but there are other potential problems with the Friday Zooms: There is a risk, for instance, that the calls could breed groupthink or perhaps help dubious information spread, where it might then reach people watching the news.

Trump’s claim obviously is not bunk, as the Politico article itself reveals. And the idea that the weekly calls could “breed groupthink” or “help dubious information spread” to “people watching the news”? That is the whole point, obviously.

This is just one more reminder that the legacy press is hopelessly corrupt and wholly unreliable. Happily, hardly anyone pays any attention to these people.

If we are going to save America, we have to learn to listen carefully to both the mainstream media and the alternative media. When almost all of the media uses the same words to describe the same news, something is not right.

 

When Senators Turn Out Much Better Than Expected

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On Sunday, Steve Hayward posted an article at Power Line Blog about some recent comments by Senator John Fetterman. I am amazed by the common sense of a man who when he was elected seemed seriously limited in his mental capacities. The article includes the following Tweet, which was in response to Secretary of State Antony Blinken warning Israel that it may find itself diplomatically “isolated” in the world if it attacks Rafah:

We need to remember that Israel did not start this war. We also need to remember that Israel has not been training its kindergarten children for war since 1948. Israel is not the problem. Arabs have more freedom in Israel than in any other part of the Middle East–they are included in Israel’s governing bodies, they are able to buy land, and they are treated as full citizens. In the Arab nations, Israelis are not shown that respect. It’s time to demand equal rights for Jews in the Middle East and to end the terrorist groups that planned October 7th.

Why Should They Listen To The Voters?

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On Saturday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about one possible outcome of the 2024 election. It is becoming very obvious that as the powers that be work harder and harder to make sure that President Trump does not get a second term, more and more voters are deciding to support him–just to have their voices heard. This is going to make for a very interesting year.

The article reports:

In 2001, 2005 and 2017, some Democrat House members objected to the certification of electoral votes for the winning Republican presidential candidate. Those objections, while “denialist,” were only symbolic. But Democrat leaders in the House are now suggesting that if they control that body following November’s election–as they well might–they may refuse to allow a victorious Donald Trump to take office.

Notice that the objects to the electoral votes were not allowed in 2020–they were pre-empted by the events outside the Capitol and a parliamentary procedure was used to block them when the House reconvened.

The article concludes:

The Democrats have become so insane on the subject of Donald Trump that it is hard to know which of their mutterings to take seriously. But if Trump wins the election and a Democrat-controlled House refuses to certify his election on the ground that he is an “insurrectionist” under the 14th Amendment, we will be past the point of a constitutional crisis. If that happens, the only realistic path forward will be disunion, possibly accompanied by civil war, but preferably not.

This is one reason why the Supreme Court should put the 14th Amendment theory out of its misery, once and for all. It is obvious that the drafters of that amendment meant the just-concluded Civil War, in which 600,000 Americans lost their lives, when they referred to “insurrection or rebellion” against the United States. In contrast, the January 6 protest was not one of the 50 most destructive riots of the last few years, and the only person killed was Ashli Babbitt. Not a single participant in the protest was arrested in possession of a firearm. Some insurrection!

In the interest of preserving the Republic, the Supreme Court should rule definitively that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not apply to Donald Trump.

Stay tuned.

In America It Can Be Dangerous To Be A Conservative

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is investigating an arson attack on a building in Minnesota that houses a number of politically conservative groups.

One of the offices in that building was the office of John Hinderaker who writes Power Line Blog. In an article posted Thursday, John Hinderaker talks about the fire bombing.

The article at Power Line Blog reports:

I wasn’t entirely forthcoming in this post about why I haven’t written much the last few days. It is true that I have been in Washington, mostly to attend the Michael Mann v. Mark Steyn trial. I will write up my thoughts on the trial (or at least, those portions I have seen) when I have time.

But something else has been distracting me: leftists firebombed my office last Saturday night. At around 2 am, they broke into the building that houses Center of the American Experiment and two other conservative organizations with which we often collaborate, along with many other businesses. The arsonists set two fires: one was in the first floor corridor between American Experiment’s office and the space we sublease to Take Charge, Kendall and Sheila Qualls’ organization. A second fire was set on the third floor, immediately outside or perhaps actually inside the office of the Upper Midwest Law Center, on whose board I serve. This photo shows what the corridor outside my office looks like:

The article concludes:

I am working with the FBI to try to identify the perpetrators. As I told them, the list of potential suspects is long, as my organization is active, and unusually effective, across a broad range of issues. I will have more to say about this before long.

To all my conservative friends–Be careful out there.

Creating An Unnecessary Constitutional Crisis

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

John Hinderaker reports:

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

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

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

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

The article concludes>

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

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

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

This Green Energy Thing Just Isn’t Working

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On Friday, John Hinderaker posted an article at Power Line Blog about the current state of green energy.

The article reports:

Wind and solar are both terrible methods of generating electricity, both expensive and unreliable. The one thing that can make the situation worse is the drive to electrify everything, including motor vehicles. The impracticality of this “green” vision has become blindingly obvious, and the “green” movement has begun to fall apart.

The article cites a few recent articles on the subject.

From the Telegraph: “Electricity prices ‘must rise by 70pc to pay for more wind farms.’”

No new wind farms will be built off Britain’s shores unless the Government lets operators earn more money from the electricity they produce, the chief of the nation’s biggest generator has said.

Tom Glover, country chair of RWE’s UK arm, said the price offered by the Government to wind farm operators must rise by as much as 70pc to entice companies to build.
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His warning follows the disastrous result of the last offshore wind allocation round in September, which ended in a humiliation for ministers with not one company offering to build new offshore wind farms.

From Robert Bryce: “Ford Lost $62,016 For Every EV It Sold In 3Q.”

The bloodbath in Ford Motor Company’s EV division continues. On Thursday, Ford reported an operating loss of $1.3 billion in its EV division during the third quarter. That translates into a loss of $62,016 for each of the 20,962 EVs it sold during the period.

That’s a smaller loss than the company recorded in the second quarter, when it lost $72,762 for each EV and the $66,446 it lost per EV during the first quarter.
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In its October 26 press release, Ford provided an additional comment on the EV losses, saying, “According to the company, many North America customers interested in buying EVs are unwilling to pay premiums for them over gas or hybrid vehicles, sharply compressing EV prices and profitability.” …

That’s a truth bomb of the first order, one to which veteran observers of the EV hype should rightly reply, “ya think?” Consumers, that is, consumers who aren’t part of the Benz and Beemer crowd, have been unwilling to pay premiums for EVs throughout the century-long history of the EV business. The question that Ford shareholders should be asking the company’s management, and CEO Jim Farley in particular, is obvious: “What the hell took you so long to recognize that customers aren’t willing to pay high prices for EVs?”

I don’t know if I can ever forgive Ford for what it did to the Mustang!

This is what happens when the government interferes in the free market.