Tag Archives: President Trump

Don’t Believe The Name Of The Group

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Ads keep showing up in my Facebook feed by a group called the Republican Accountability PAC. That sounds like a group I would support–hold wishy-washy Republicans accountable for their votes and replace them with conservatives. However, that is the exact opposite of what this group does.

An article from January 2021 posted at Open secrets is my source for the following information:

A new anti-Trump group helmed by Republicans announced Tuesday that it would raise $50 million to encourage lawmakers to break with President Donald Trump. Behind the project is Defending Democracy Together, one of the top-spending “dark money” groups in the 2020 election cycle. 

The new effort — the Republican Accountability Project — promises to use its cash to “ensure that ample resources are available for those principled Republicans who do the right thing and hold Trump accountable for inciting an attack on the U.S. Capitol.” 

The campaign joins another never-Trump Republican group, super PAC The Lincoln Project, in its efforts to sway Republican who might otherwise hesitate to break from the president in order to avoid alienating Trump voters in their home states and districts. The Republican Accountability Project’s website offers scant detail about how lawmakers will be selected to benefit from the campaign, but promises to back “credible primary challengers” against “Republican members of Congress who have enabled or capitulated to Trump and Trumpism.”

The group promises Republicans who vote to impeach that it will provide them with political protection against primary challenges from Trump loyalists. The president’s campaign has raised $200 million since the election, which he could use against incumbent members of Congress who speak out against him. 

Open secrets also details the groups’ spending:

Targeted Candidates, 2022 Cycle

Outside Spending: Independent Expenditures, Electioneering Communication & Communication Costs by Targeted Candidate as of May 31, 2023:

Grand Total: $5,161,032
Total For Democrats: $639,718
Total Against Democrats: $0
Total For Republicans: $0
Total Against Republicans: $4,521,314

William Kristol is a founding director of Defending Democracy Together and chairman of the board for the Republican Accountability Project.

That tells you all you need to know.

 

Following The Legal Trail

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Recently, President Trump was found guilty of sexual misconduct and defamation. The interesting part of this case is that the woman bringing the charges couldn’t even remember what year the incident happened. She accused the President of rape in a department store dressing room. Her description of the event described her entering a dressing room with the President and locking the door. If that account is true, what did she expect to happen? At some point, women need to take responsibility for doing stupid things. However, that is not the most interesting part of the story. Until recently, the case could not have been brought because the statue of limitations for the ‘crime’ had expired. A law was passed in New York that allowed the suit to be brought.

On Thursday, PJ Media reported the following:

One of the more curious aspects of this case was that the only reason Carroll was even able to sue Donald Trump was because of a law passed in New York in 2022 called the Adult Survivors Act. This legislation, signed by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, introduced a “one-year lookback window for survivors of sexual assault” to legally pursue their alleged abusers, irrespective of when the abuse took place. Many argued it was passed specifically to let Carroll take her absurd allegations to court and punish Trump

It turns out those claims weren’t mere conspiracy theories. In a surprising revelation, E. Jean Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, acknowledged that Carroll played a role in advocating for the passage of the aforementioned law.

“The fact that New York passed this law, the Adult Survivors Act,” CNN’s Poppy Harlow said while interviewing both Carroll and Kaplan. “They passed it just a few years ago. Were it not for that law, you never would have been able to bring this case.”

“Exactly. This would never — I would never have this window, this year of having the ability to bring a lawsuit for rape,” Carroll responded, then pointed to her attorney and said. “Robbie can explain it better.”

“Well, E. Jean actually helped to get that law passed,” Kaplan admitted. “It passed last year. We filed – it was Thanksgiving Day, the first day you could sue. We filed it just after midnight on Thanksgiving. And there are a lot of other women throughout the state and, hopefully, throughout this country, that they will get other laws like this passed in other states. And New York women should use this law while it’s still around, which is until next Thanksgiving.”

The article concludes:

So not only was the civil suit a politically motivated attack, but it was also an attack that required an act of the Democrat-controlled New York State legislature and the Democrat governor of New York to make it possible. Does that sit well with you? Just how corrupt is this conspiracy to get Trump? Among other things, we’ve seen the Russian collusion hoax, two impeachments, the bogus Bragg case, and now this.

Wow.

A Different Reality

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On Friday, Breitbart posted an article about President Biden’s recent statements regarding raising the debt ceiling.

The article reports:

During an interview with MSNBC on Friday aired on Friday’s broadcast of “The 11th Hour,” President Joe Biden claimed that “no one’s ever tied” their budget to raising the debt ceiling and responded to charges that former President Donald Trump was willing to play ball on issues while he won’t by stating that Trump hurt the economy and increased debt, while the economy under the Biden presidency is doing well.

Biden said, “[T]he idea someone, for the first time, is saying, unless you pass this ridiculous budget I have — which is the way I would characterize what the Republican MAGA budget is — unless you pass this budget, we’re not going to increase the debt limit and we’re going to go bankrupt, we’re going to — the United States of America is going to renege for the first time in history on its debt. And you just can’t — no one’s ever tied them together before. I’ve said to the Republican leader, here’s the deal: Take the debt limit, pass it like you did three times when Trump was president, and he increased the whole national debt for 200 years by 40%.”

The article concludes with the following statement by President Biden:

Biden responded, “Play ball? He ballooned the debt, he created unemploy[ment]. Look, when I came to office, we had incredibly high unemployment, we were in a situation where we had very little movement on anything going on. And look at the employment rate now. Just today, 250,000 new jobs, highest participation in 75 years of women in the job market, lowest unemployment rate for African Americans. Things are moving.”

Actually, in January 2020, when President Biden took office, the overall unemployment rate was 3.5, the unemployment rate for women was 3.2, and the unemployment rate for African Americans was 6.3 (statistics here). The current unemployment rate is 3.4 (not a significant change), the unemployment rate for women is 3.1, and the unemployment rate for African Americans is 4.7 (that number is the only number that actually represents significant improvement). But before you get too excited about that, let’s look at the workforce participation rate (statistics here). In January 2020, the workforce participation rate was 63.3 overall, the workforce participation rate for women was 59.2, and the workforce participation rate for African Americans was 62.8. The current workforce participation rate is 62.6, the current workforce participation rate for women is 58.6, and the current workforce participation rate for African Americans is 63.0. These numbers illustrate just one area where President Biden is either seriously misinformed or is lying.

The Circus Continues

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The arraignment of President Trump was questionable at best, but Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had to fulfill his campaign promise to ‘get Trump.’ The next step in the drama was Representative Jim Jordan looking for information on what role the federal government paid in the investigation. Obviously, Alvin Bragg does not want any information on that topic investigated or revealed, so he a entered a restraining order against Rep. Jim Jordan to stop Jim Jordan’s investigation.

On Wednesday, The Epoch Times reported the following:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s urgent request to enter a restraining order against Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was rejected on April 11, the same day it was filed.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee, turned down Bragg’s emergency request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Jordan.

“The Court declines to enter the proposed Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Show Cause,” Vyskocil said, noting that she had not yet received several documents that were referenced in Bragg’s filings.

…Jordan said on Fox News that Bragg is obstructing a legitimate congressional investigation.

“They’re obstructing our investigation,” Jordan said. “We have a constitutional duty to get to the facts, particularly when you have a district attorney interfering with the most important election we have, which is the election of the commander-in-chief; the president of the United States.”

Trump, who was president until early 2021, is running for a second term in 2024.

Bragg has asserted that Jordan and other members of Congress lack the authority to probe the Trump prosecution but Jordan disagreed, pointing to how federal funds were used to investigate Trump.

“First, they indict a president for no crime. Then, they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask questions about the federal funds they say they used to do it,” Jordan said in a statement.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is engaging in election interference. Whether or not he will pay a price for that behavior remains to be seen.

 

Troubling, But Not Surprising

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On Tuesday, PJ Media reported the following:

New information is being uncovered regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s unprecedented raid of President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home last year. According to America First Legal (AFL), a judicial watchdog, an investigation of the raid confirmed that the FBI gained access to NARA records through a “special access request” made by the Biden White House on behalf of the Department of Justice.

“On August 8, 2022, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducted an unprecedented raid of Mar-a-Lago on the ground that potentially classified records existed there. According to press reports, Biden Administration aides were “stunned” to hear of this development,” AFL begins in a press release. “However, new NARA records obtained through America First Legal’s investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Mar-a-Lago raid further confirmed that the FBI obtained access to these records through a ‘special access request’ from the Biden White House on behalf of the Department of Justice (DOJ).”

According to AFL, it appears that “the Biden White House and DOJ coordinated to obtain the Trump records and perhaps create a pretext for the law enforcement raid by way of the ‘special access request.’”

In addition to confirming that the White House was involved in setting up Trump, AFL also proves that the National Archives misled Congress about the role the White House played in the raid.

Under President Obama and President Biden we have seen a lot of political use of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). However, the raid on Mar-a-Lago was a new low in unbiased justice. Please follow the link and read the article for further details. If no one is held accountable, no one in America will be able to criticize the ruling party without having the judicial system investigate or intimidate them. We are not heading in a good direction.

This Isn’t A New Strategy

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The deep state has been around for a while. I just finished reading The Last Days of Marilyn Monroe by Donald H. Wolfe. I was genuinely shocked by some of the behavior of J. Edgar Hoover, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, and a lot of other people. J. Edgar Hoover consistently broke laws in his surveillance of American citizens and was never held accountable. The activities of some of our leading political figures of the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s were routinely kept hidden from the public with the cooperation of the media. There really isn’t anything new under the sun.

As shocking as the indictment of President Trump is, that is a political trick that has been done before in a presidential campaign.

On Monday, The Federalist reminded us:

But in evaluating whether Bragg’s charges against Trump are politically motivated, it’s worth remembering that Trump is the second major GOP presidential candidate in less than a decade that has been indicted by a local Democratic district attorney. And in that case, involving former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the prosecution was redolent of corruption and naked attempts to harm Perry’s national political ambitions.

In 2014, Perry was indicted on two felony charges. The first charge was abuse of official capacity, and the second was coercion of a public servant. Perry’s crime was using the veto power granted to him in the Texas Constitution.

What happened was this: Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg, a Democrat, was convicted of drunk driving and incarcerated. Working from the Travis County DA’s office, Lehmberg managed the state public integrity unit, a legal office responsible for rooting out public corruption. After she refused to resign her position following a fair bit of criticism over the fact that a person in charge of rooting out public corruption should not be known for being convicted of a crime, Perry threatened to veto the public integrity unit’s $7.5 million budget and eventually did veto the budget.

So the Travis County DA’s office, the very same office where Lehmberg worked, convened a grand jury and indicted Perry. It wasn’t difficult; aside from the old saying that prosecutors could get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich, Travis County is where “the People’s Republic of Austin” is located. It’s a notoriously liberal enclave where it is easy to find a jury politically hostile to Perry, who was an otherwise popular three-term GOP governor.

The outcome was predictable:

As for the charges against Perry, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals eventually dismissed the charges against Perry in a 6-2 ruling. The abuse of official capacity charge was dismissed on the grounds that it violated the separation of powers in the state constitution. It was always the case that Perry had wide latitude and authority to issue a veto in this instance. “The governor’s power to exercise a veto may not be circumscribed by the Legislature, by the courts, or by district attorneys,” noted the ruling by Judge Sharon Keller of the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The second charge, coercion of a public official, was dismissed on the grounds that it was a violation of the First Amendment to say the governor could not threaten to lawfully wield power on the grounds he was intimidating other public officials.

Unless they are stopped, the Democrat party will continue with using the court system to interfere in elections.

A Truly Sad Day In America

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On Thursday, The New York Post reported:

The NYPD is beefing up its presence as newly indicted former President Donald Trump is expected to surrender early next week, sources told The Post Thursday.

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office — which filed an unprecedented indictment against Trump, 76, related to hush-money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels — wanted him arraigned Friday, sources said.

But Trump’s lawyers wouldn’t agree to that and instead, he’ll turn himself in next week, possibly as early as Monday, the sources added.

My first reaction to this is a message to all Americans–DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PROTEST OR REACT. That is what the forces behind this indictment are hoping for–an excuse to arrest anyone who supports President Trump and might be likely to vote for him. To me, his indictment means that all of us need to get behind President Trump and vote for him for President in 2024–otherwise, those who do not respect our Constitution have won, and our Republic is gone. Please be careful how you react.

Why is President Trump indicted when Hunter Biden, whose own laptop shows criminal activity still walking around? Why are all of the people involved in the Epstein chronicles with Ghislaine Maxwell not only still not revealed and still not charged with anything?

As of right now, it is pretty obvious that lady justice has taken her blindfold off and is working to turn America into a one-party country where taking a stand that does not agree with the powers that be will get you indicted. America needs our prayers; she is in deep trouble.

The Letter

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The New York case against President Trump keeps getting weaker. On Wednesday, The Daily Wire posted an article about the latest wrinkle in the case.

The article reports:

A five-year-old letter surfaced Wednesday that appeared to show President Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen lied to investigators about a hush money payment made during the 2016 presidential election.

The letter, dated February 8, 2018, was written by Cohen’s attorney Stephen M. Ryan to the Federal Election Commission about the payment Cohen made to porn actress Stormy Daniels. In it, Cohen’s lawyer claims that Cohen used “his own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford.”

“Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed Mr. Cohen for the payment directly or indirectly,” the letter said.

Cohen pled guilty six months after that letter was written to several charges in federal court, including campaign finance violations related to the payment to Daniels.

Cohen, who has since been disbarred, is a key figure in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office grand jury investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged involvement in that payment to Daniels. He has told investigators for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, and testified to the grand jury that he made the payments at the direction of Trump.

I would like to point out that Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000. Whoever paid Stormy Daniels was obviously a much better negotiator. This is much ado about nothing, but it has kept the news about the Biden family corruption off of the front pages. It has therefore served its purpose.

The Reason For The Delay?

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It looks as if the arrest of President Trump may be temporarily postponed. We shall see. Part of the reason for the postponement might be found in an article posted at The Gateway Pundit on Monday. Indicting President Trump might give you the pictures you want in case he is the Republican nominee for President, but if the case is thrown out of court, those pictures might not have the impact you hoped for.

The article reports:

Robert Costello, the former legal adviser to Michael Cohen, spoke to Tucker Carlson on Monday night after he testified to Manhattan Grand Jury investigating President Donald Trump.

Costello told the FOX News audience that he testified for two hours in front of Alvin Bragg’s Manhattan Grand Jury.

Robert Costello told Tucker Carlson, “I spoke to the jury for two hours… It was clear to me the Manhattan Grand Jury did not want to get to the truth.”

…Robert Costello: And I told them and told the grand jury today I was Deputy Chief of the criminal division of the US. Attorneys for the Southern District. I said I wouldn’t touch a witness like Michael Cohen for any amount of money. You simply cannot rely upon this guy.

Please follow the link to watch the interview. It would seem that Michael Cohen is a very angry man focusing his misplaced anger on President Trump. It should be noted that Michael Cohen was sent to jail partially because of the misuse of the Justice Department to go after anyone who supported President Trump, but that was not President Trump’s fault.

There Seems To Be A Slight Discrepancy In The Rules

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On Sunday, Breitbart posted an article about the charges against President Trump that may result in his arrest. It seems as if this sort of misbehavior has come up before in other campaigns by other candidates.

The article reports:

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is essentially using the same legal theory to potentially indict former President Donald Trump that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was fined for, argued former United States Attorney Brett Tolman.

Tolman asserted Saturday that Bragg’s legal theory that Trump tried to hide a campaign expenditure by using his then-lawyer to pay porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 in alleged hush money before the 2016 presidential elections would have applied to Clinton when her campaign hid a payment for the phony Russian pee dossier against Trump as “legal fees.”

Former New York City police officer and conservative pundit John Cardillo tweeted, “Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000 and no one cared.” Tolman tweeted in response, “And the Hillary Campaign was actually fined for hiding the Steele Dossier payment under ‘legal fees’ — essentially the same legal theory on the Stormy Daniels payment the DA is running criminal investigation of Trump.”

The article concludes:

Although Bragg cannot bring charges against Trump for federal violations, Turley said he could bring state charges under Section 175 for falsifying business records, based on the claim that Trump concealed the hush-payments as “legal expenses” to violate federal election laws.

As Turley noted, a Section 175 charge would normally be a misdemeanor, but Bragg could try to convert it into a felony by showing that “intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.” The crime, Turley speculated, is that the federal election violations, which he noted the Justice Department previously declined to charge.

Epoch Times show host Hans Mahncke — who followed the Russia collusion hoax closely — also agreed with Tolman: “Probably the most important thing anyone has said since the pending arrest reports came out. Hillary claimed the Steele reports were legal fees. That’s not just essentially the same as what Trump is being charged with, it is the same.”

I wonder if the people who are planning to arrest President Trump are having second thoughts. We shall see.

A Sad Day In America

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On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported the following:

There have been reports swirgling the last couple of days that Donald Trump will be charged and arrested next week by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office on charges relating to payments to Stormy Daniels. The exact nature of the charges and the basis is not known yet, but based on prior leaks to the media, it appears that Bragg has come up with a novel theory that an otherwise lawful payment become criminal if it is accounted for incorrectly, a so-called falsifying business records offense. Even the NY Times noted this is highly unusual:

In New York, falsifying business records can amount to a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. To elevate the crime to a felony charge, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors must show that Mr. Trump’s “intent to defraud” included an intent to commit or conceal a second crime.

In this case, that second crime could be a violation of New York State election law. While hush money is not inherently illegal, the prosecutors could argue that the $130,000 payout effectively became an improper donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, under the theory that because the money silenced Ms. Daniels, it benefited his candidacy.

Combining the criminal charge with a violation of state election law would be a novel legal theory for any criminal case, let alone one against the former president, raising the possibility that a judge or appellate court could throw it out or reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor.

Alvin Bragg is a deeply destructive D.A elected with the help of a Soro-funded polical PAC:

The article concludes:

The charges, if not more substantial than described so far, are a fraudulent abuse of power aimed at manipulating the politicial process as we enter a presidential election cycle. Make no mistake, this has happened before and cost Republicans politically, including the fraudulent prosecution of then Senator Ted Stevens, which was overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct but not before Stevens resigned setting in motion events that gave Democrats the votes they needed to pass Obamacare.

The abuse of prosecutorial power by Democrats will, to paraphrase Chuch Schumer’s attack on the Supreme Court, unleash the whirlwind. We just don’t know in which direction it will hit. I think there are several things going on here, including Democrats hope for violence that will allow a J6 crackdown on Trump supporters more far reaching than the prosecution of people for “parading” because they peacefully attended a protest where other committed violence. I also think that keeping the Trump prosecution (with more to come) front and center as he (likely) leads the Republican primaries is a political strategy – it’s no wonder the charges are coming now.

Meanwhile there seem to be no consequences for the Biden crime family and their drug-addicted son.

Understanding The Change

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Before he became a Republican and ran for President, Donald Trump was loved by the political elite. He attended weddings, social events, and was welcomed and sought after by the people who now claim he is the devil incarnate. He has written a book titled, “Letters to Trump,” which intentionally or otherwise shows how drastically things changed for him when he ran for President and won.

Breitbart posted an article on Sunday about the change.

The article notes:

Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that his forthcoming book will show readers that he has had a “very fascinating life” and that many of the powerful people who attack him now used to adore him before he ran for president.

The book, titled Letters to Trump, is the former president’s second book release since leaving office in January 2021. The first one, Our Journey Together, was a collection of historic photos from Trump’s time in office. This book collects letters that Trump sent and received from interesting, famous, powerful, and influential people over the years, both during his time as president and for the decades leading up to his historic White House run in 2016.

Letters to Trump is being published by Winning Team Publishing, which has the book available for pre-order ahead of its April 25 release now on its website.

The book includes correspondence with such wide-ranging figures as royal world leaders like Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Diana; cultural figures like Clint Eastwood, Oprah Winfrey, and Michael Jackson; sports stars like Shaquille O’Neal; and former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. It also has correspondence Trump had with foreign leaders like Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

…Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. said that the tone of all of these elites changed when his father ran for office as a Republican.

“My father has lived an amazing life and has been around some of the most interesting people in the world,” Trump Jr. told Breitbart News. “It’s amazing how quickly their adoration of him changed when he ran for office as a Republican. Letters to Trump shows you exactly how they felt about him and how phony their newfound disdain truly is.”

Washington is a swamp. As President Truman said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.”

 

 

Can The Economy Prosper When Taxes Are High?

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On Monday, The Washington Examiner posted an article with the following headline:

Debunking the myth that the US once prospered despite extremely high taxes

The article explains how the tax system in the 1960’s was very different from the tax system today:

Left-wing politicians who demand higher taxes on the rich argue that the U.S. had previously prospered when tax rates were very high, proving that high taxes do not harm the economy. And it is true: In the 1950s and early 1960s, the top federal personal income tax rate in the U.S. was a horrendous 91%, after which it was lowered to 70%. Under former President Ronald Reagan, it was then successively reduced to 28% by 1988 (before being raised several times and then lowered again under former President Donald Trump).

However, as Phil Gramm, Robert Ekelund, and John Early show in their book The Myth of American Inequality, “The top income tax in 1962 was 91 percent. After deductions and credits, only 447 tax filers out of 71 million paid any taxes at the top rate. The top 1 percent of income earners on average paid 16.1 percent of their income in federal and payroll taxes while the top 10 percent paid 14.4 percent and the bottom 50 percent paid 7.0 percent.”

Even when the top tax rate was lowered to 70%, not much changed. Only 3,626 out of 75 million taxpayers actually paid taxes up to 70%. Interestingly, the actual percentage paid by the top 1% of earners in the U.S. was only 16.1% in 1962, when the top marginal rate was 91%. However, in 1988, when the top rate was only 28%, the percentage paid by the top 1% of earners had risen to 21.5%! As the top tax rate fell by two-thirds, the percentage of their income that the top 1% of tax filers paid in federal income and payroll taxes rose by a third.

The article concludes:

This growth was a direct consequence of Reagan’s deregulation and tax reform policies in conjunction with falling oil prices. The growth rate in the 1980s was higher than in the 1950s and 1970s, though substantially below the growth rate of 5% following John F. Kennedy’s 1964 tax rate cuts of 30%.

This growth, along with the elimination of numerous deductions and exemptions, led to a sharp increase in tax revenues. Exactly what Reagan had predicted now came to pass: At a press conference in October 1981, Regan quoted the 14th-century Muslim philosopher Ibn Khaldūn’s foreshadowing of the Laffer Curve theory, as this effect is called in economic jargon: “In the beginning of the dynasty, great tax revenues were gained from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, small tax revenues were gained from large assessments.” Reagan added: “And we’re trying to get down to the small assessments and the great revenues.”

So the myth that the U.S. experienced strong economic growth when the top marginal tax rate was high is false. In fact, the top marginal tax rate was only nominally high because there were so many exemptions, loopholes, and deductions.

Higher taxes slow economic growth. The Laffer Curve is real.

Congratulations On Your Twisted Logic

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On Saturday, The Daily Wire posted President Biden’s explanation of why his mishandling of classified documents was different than President Trump’s. It’s an interesting stretch of logic. Obviously, the first problem is that President Biden’s documents were found in multiple locations. President Trump’s documents (which he claims he had declassified) were in a secured location. But wait–there’s more.

The article reports:

“You and the former president are both now under investigation by the Justice Department for the discovery of these classified documents,” Muir (David Muir ABC News) said. “I know that you believe these two cases are very different. But I do remember something you said after the discovery at Mar-a-Lago, you said, ‘I thought data that was in there may compromise sources and methods and names of people who help and it’s just totally irresponsible.’”

“Can you assure the American people that none of the documents discovered in your garage, or your old office, compromised sources or methods or U.S. intelligence?” Muir asked.

“I’ve been advised by the council, let the Justice Department make that decision, to not try to alter the case in any way, there have been very few documents that have been confiscated, found, in my possession that are in, other than, in my possession, meaning in my ho–, all the stuff that was moved out of my Senate office over the years, I’m told there are a couple things that were from 1973 or 74, the documents were marked classified,” Biden responded. “I don’t know of anything, maybe. I don’t know if anything that is marked like it was, you know, top secret, highly class–, etc. But I am told not to comment on that, because I don’t even know what they are able, what they confiscated.”

First of all, as a Senator, Biden was not supposed to remove classified documents from the skiff. He was not allowed to have them in his personal possession. That is a problem.

The article continues:

Muir then highlighted Biden’s reaction to the news last year that federal officials had found classified material in Trump’s possession.

“One word you used, when you hear about boxes in your garage or in your old office, you called the Trump discovery ‘irresponsible,’” Muir said. “Is there something irresponsible here though, too?”

“You know, you’re a good lawyer, but you’re trying to make a comparison. What, there’s degrees of irresponsibility, that are, they can be significant degrees of responsibility,” Biden claimed. “What, the way in which the boxes were packed up from my office, apparently, not everything was gone through as meticulously as it should have.”

“But there was no intention,” Biden claimed. “I opened up my home, all my homes. My homes, my home at the beach and the home, my permanent home. And they spent hours and hours going through everything, personal, everything I had. And that’s a fundamentally different thing. There’s nothing for me to hide.”

The contrast between the way these two situations has been handled is chilling. This is one of many glaring examples of unequal justice under the law.

President Trump Is Definitely Seen As A Threat To The Washington Establishment

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Eric Swalwell is not a shining example of a Congressman. Sleeping with a Chinese spy did not get him removed from the House Intelligence Committee. He’s so deep in the swamp, he’s on a first-name basis with the alligators. Now he has sponsored a bill that he hopes will pass to make sure the swamp stays intact and avoids any future dismantling by President Trump.

On Wednesday, The Political Insider reported the following:

California lawmaker Eric Swalwell is co-sponsoring a bill that would ban Donald Trump and several allies of the former President from entering the United States Capitol.

The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 17th by Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA). The sole co-sponsor of the legislation is Swalwell (D-CA).

The resolution seeks to prohibit “President Donald Trump and certain other individuals who attempted to undermine and overturn the 2020 presidential election from entering the United States Capitol.”

It reads as if it were written by a CNN intern, and includes the requisite lie that the January 6th riot at the Capitol “claimed the lives of five law enforcement officers.”

It didn’t. No police officers died that day, nor did any die as a direct cause of the actions that took place that day. Democrats, however, want you to think they did. It’s all part of making January 6th the newest National Myth.

The bill seeks to enlist the House and Senate Sergeant at Arms and the U.S. Capitol Police in preventing Trump and his colleagues from ever setting foot in the Capitol.

How in the world is this bill even constitutional? This is simply another indication of how frightened the swamp is of a Trump presidency. If Trump were elected in 2024, he would be a lame duck to begin with. He would not have to consider his political future in his decisions. He would be free to do whatever was needed without concern for re-election. That would be a good thing. I personally would like to see him elected because I feel that he would do a good job and that he was cheated in the last election. There are a lot of things just now coming to light about voting irregularities in the 2020 election, and most of them are in places that made the difference in the Electoral College. We can’t do a do-over of that election, but I believe we can make things right by electing Trump in 2024. The swamp is terrified of that possibility.

What An Incredible Coincidence.

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

On Friday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

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

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

On Friday, wkyc reported:

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

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

The article at wkyc concludes:

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

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

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

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

The Reverse Impact Of Releasing Donald Trump’s Tax Returns

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The real lesson in looking at President Trump’s tax returns is that he lost money while he was President. Not only did his businesses lose money–he refused to take a salary. Contrast that with some of our recent Presidents who were middle class when they arrived at the White House and left as millionaires. Or contrast that with Congressmen who arrived in Washington as members of the middle class and left a few years later as millionaires.

On Friday, Hot Air noted the following:

He is already rich. So rich that he donated his salary every year that he was president.

All the ridiculous talk of emoluments, schemes to use the office to enrich himself seemed beside the point. Trump loves himself some money and will do ridiculous things to make it, but even if he did use his office to enrich himself he wouldn’t be stupid enough to have it show up on his tax returns.

And sure enough, his returns tell us little except that Trump seems to be the only human being on the planet who didn’t get richer while he was president. He lost over a billion dollars of net worth.

As with most Trump controversies, it was much ado about nothing. Nothing bad was done by Trump, and while lots of commentators are cherry picking years when Trump paid little in taxes due to business losses, they ignore the fact that over his presidency he paid a million dollars in taxes.

Trump never claimed that he liked paying taxes; he even bragged that he did everything he could legally to avoid the practice. As any red-blooded American should. The federal government wastes trillions of dollars and you are an idiot to simply donate to the government what isn’t legally required.

The article also notes:

I would be much more interested in seeing the financials of politicians who entered office without much wealth but have grown immensely wealthy during their tenure. By what mechanism, exactly, did they do this on their relatively modest salaries? What about their families, who also often find their fortunes improve during their tenure.

The idea that anybody who supports Joe Biden could care about any financial malfeasance by Trump is ludicrous. The Biden family is little more than a circle of grifters using Joe’s political connections to get rich. Bill Clinton entered office a relative pauper and together with Hillary is now worth north of $100 million.

That is quite an achievement for a guy who has never worked in business. “Public service” has been very good to the Clintons, I would say.

The article comes to the only really logical conclusion:

Not every grifter is a Leftist–there are plenty to go around–but nearly every Leftist is a grifter.

Still, I am not that interested in seeing their tax returns. I am sure their accountants are as good at manipulating numbers as well as Trump’s. What I would really like to see is somebody doing a correlation between the investments of politicians and the legislation they write and have access to.

That would be a great project for a forensic accountant.

The correlation between investments and legislation would be fascinating I am sure!

I Miss The A-Team

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I used to love to watch the A-Team. They were a bunch of misfits that rolled into a town run by a bunch of bad guys and cleaned things up (only after being put in a hopeless situation where they built something that provided an escape and a victory over the bad guys). The show illustrated how bad law and order could be in a ‘company’ town. Now, Washington, D.C., has become that company town and there is no A-Team in sight.

On Tuesday, Red State reported the following:

Add yet another government overreach to the “Things You Didn’t Think Could Happen in America” file: Democrats on the lame-duck House and Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday to release six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns. Why? Because they um, uh—because they want to?

But wait, you say to yourself, that’s not possible; your tax returns are private by federal law, and therefore protected from release.

The Dems of course found a sleazy way around that. The tax code allows the committee to look at people’s tax returns to provide “oversight” of the Internal Revenue Service, and by writing an official report on their findings, then those returns can legally become public as part of the report.

Nice.

So when are we going to see Hunter Biden’s tax returns, Nancy Pelosi’s tax returns, Adam Schiff’s tax returns, etc.? I wish the Republicans in the House had the guts to release those when they take the House in January, but I am not optimistic.

The article continues:

The intrusion of government into our private lives and the ongoing weaponization of federal departments have reached truly scary new heights. We see peaceful anti-abortion protesters rounded up by heavily armed squads, we find that the FBI worked closely with social media companies to censor citizens (a clear violation of the First Amendment), we’ve witnessed highly-questionable raids on Trump and his opponents, and now this.

Among other things, it sets a dangerous precedent, as we are likely to see more tax wars among political opponents in the future. Lawrence Gibbs, IRS Commissioner under Reagan and Bush the Elder, warned of this in 2019 [emphasis mine]:

As a former Internal Revenue Service commissioner, I believe taxpayers assume the IRS will protect the privacy and confidentiality of whatever information they put in their tax returns or otherwise provide to the IRS. I also believe that if politicians are able to obtain and make public the president’s tax returns and tax information, they are likely to do the same thing to anyone else they choose to target in the future, including but likely not limited to political donors or other supporters of any public figure in any political party.

I really wish there was an A-Team that would come into Washington, uphold the Constitution, and bring our country back to what it was founded to be.

Don’t Let That Pesky Constitution Get In Your Way

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One of the constant cries from the political left is that the political right is a danger to our democracy. First of all, we are a representative republic–not a democracy. Secondly, which political wing is ignoring the Constitution–that requires us to secure our borders, requires equal justice, limits the federal government to enumerated powers as stated in the Tenth Amendment? Today we have a new Constitutional breech.

Breitbart is reporting the following today:

The Democrats’ January 6 Committee will conclude its “investigation” on Monday by asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prosecute former President Donald Trump, though the committee lacks constitutional authority to do so.

Congressional committees must be organized for a legislative purpose, not as part of a law enforcement action, which is a function of the executive branch under the separation of power in the Constitution.

Nevertheless, the January 6 Committee — in what is expected to be its final act before a Republican-led House takes over next month — is expected to ask the DOJ to prosecute Trump for what it says are multiple crimes.

I suspect that the one crime that President Trump is actually guilty of is being President Trump.

The article concludes:

Schiff saw no irony in accusing the former president of trying to overthrow the government when he himself had tried to overturn Trump’s administration through the “Russia collusion” hoax and a failed impeachment.

Neither of the two Republicans chosen by Pelosi for the committee was reelected to Congress; one Democrat retired, and one Democrat, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA), was defeated in November by her Republican opponent.

The mainstream media has treated the January 6 Committee hearings as legitimate, despite the fact that they were scripted “show trials” — complete with TelePrompTers — and that they offered no representation to the other side of the argument. Several witnesses 466 that the committee lied about what they had said in closed-door depositions; some witnesses changed their stories to be more amenable to the committee’s agenda.

The committee’s request to the DOJ will come nearly two years after the Senate failed to convict Trump on similar charges, especially after evidence that he told a rally crowd to protest “peacefully and patriotically.”

There isn’t enough popcorn in the world to watch the ridiculous circus that the current session of the House of Representatives has become.

A Truly Amazing Statement

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article that included a quote from Senator Mitch McConnell that tells us more about the workings of Washington than I suspect he meant to tell us.

This is the quote:

“Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 2022 because of the support of the former president. Hopefully in the next cycle, we’ll have quality candidates everywhere.”

The article includes a loose translation of the statement:

Unless and until the Republican Party can figure out how to get around the voting, installing the correct type of Republicans will always be problematic.

Sir, the problem is not with the voters–it is with the people like you who are supposed to represent them who are not representing them.

The article also notes:

Earlier today, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell discussed the greatest problem for the Republican Party as it exists with voters. Allowing people to vote is not in the best interests of the Republican Party. If the politicians could just devise a government system that didn’t need voters to support it, things would be much better.

Senator McConnell does not mind being the Minority Leader as long as he does not have to deal with President Trump or President Trump’s supporters. That is sad. The fact that Senator McConnell seriously underfunded the candidates that President Trump supported indicates a lack of commitment to the Republican Party and the wishes of the voters.

When A Prank Isn’t A Prank

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On Tuesday, The Conservative Treehouse posted an article about the dinner hosted by President Trump that included a white supremacist. The more honest media has explained that Nick Fuentes, a known white supremacist was brought to Mar-a-Lago by Kanye West. In an article posted Tuesday, Hot Air explains that Milo Yiannopoulos set up the dinner to troll President Trump. If nothing else, this even illustrates that President Trump trusted someone he considered a friend and got stabbed in the back. However, the American media, being what it is, has used to event to attempt to convince its readers that Republicans are white supremacists. Unfortunately, many Americans don’t know any better.

The Conservative Treehouse notes:

As NBC has now outlined in detail, a trio of dubious characters leveraged President Trump’s previous support for troubled Kanye West as an opportunity for an intentional smear campaign construct by Milo Yiannopoulos, Nick Fuentes and Kanye West himself. [Details Here]  Mr. West, now known as Ye, intended to make trouble by bringing uninvited guests along to carry out the operation.

The media and political opposition gleefully latched on to the successful targeting operation, in an effort to smear Donald Trump.  In typical Alinsky fashion, the goal is to controversialize the operational target.  Senator Mitch McConnell followed up today with his own pile on supported by his Senate leadership.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

Trump’s ego was bruised by Kanye who, I think it’s fair to say, has an equally massive ego. But what really happened here is that Milo set this up knowing it would explode and Trump would be left explaining why he was having dinner with an anti-Semite like Fuentes. And of course Trump can say he didn’t know but that just raises the next question which is why is the former president having dinners with complete strangers? It doesn’t seem very professional or smart and clearly it backfired in this case.

On the other hand I’m honestly not sure how any of this was supposed to help Kanye. It sort of makes me wonder if Milo isn’t doing this for his own personal reasons which have nothing to do with Ye’s plans to run for office. Or maybe he just assumed there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Except, as we found out last night, bad publicity seems to be the only kind Ye and Milo can get out of this whole thing.

Milo and Kanye are not people who care about America. It is a shame that they thought it was okay to create this controversy. Unfortunately the media and the Washington Club will play this up for all it is worth. Trump is a threat to the status quo, and based on the ferocity of the attacks on him, he may be exactly the right person to clean up the mess that is Washington.

Politicizing Justice

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Last week (updated today) The Epoch Times posted an article about the appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate President Trump. I wonder if all the Americans who have decided that President Trump is the ultimate evil have actually looked at what is happening and what it means to the future of America. A sitting President has allowed a Special Prosecutor to be named to investigate a political opponent who may run for President. If you are happy with this, would you have been happy if this had happened after the Hillary Clinton email scandal where she erased much of what was probably evidence against her? This is the kind of thing that goes on in banana republics. I only hope America has not become one.

The article reports:

While the Republicans kicked off the 2024 presidential race with the announcement that former President Donald Trump was again running for president, in perhaps the ultimate sign of our ignominious times, the Democrats, in effect, kicked off their half of the contest three days later by appointing a special counsel to escalate their political prosecution of him.

This is where “our democracy” stands today: with its purported defenders engaging in the singularly anti-democratic act of siccing a hyper-politicized law enforcement apparatus on a candidate for the highest elected office, on dubious grounds, thereby subverting the political process by which we decide who represents us.

At a minimum, no doubt to an approving President Joe Biden, his law-enforcement arm is now engaged in what amounts to election interference against arguably the president’s top challenger—ironically probing in part Trump’s alleged interference with the transfer of power in 2020, when Trump could make the case that the deep state did the same to him from the inception of Russiagate in 2016 onward.

Worse, with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel, the prospect of the former president being charged and convicted of something, anything, is more real than at any time during the perpetual campaign to purge Trump from the body politic.

Our ruling class really does wish to “lock him up,” or at least hold that threat over the former president’s head for maximum political gain.

The article concludes:

The legal persecution of Trump—an insurance policy of sorts should the political persecution of him and his supporters fail—is beyond chilling.

Those who loathe Trump, his policy, and his people, have proven they are willing to eviscerate the U.S. system in the name of defending it from traitors, authoritarians, and insurrectionists.

Their projection is reaching its apex.

Should it persist, we will be an unrecognizable country.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. I personally think President Trump needs to be re-elected to illustrate that the Washington elite and media mob do not control the voters. Unfortunately, I fear that they do.

Forgetting The Reasons

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On November 19th, American Greatness posted an article encouraging us to remember why we voted for President Trump in 2016. I did not initially support President Trump–all I knew about him was that he was rich and owned casinos. However, I voted against Hillary in the election. Later, I was totally impressed by the decisions he made. Among other things, the peace deals in the Middle East were thought to be impossible, and he got them done.

The article notes:

Most people do not understand the kind of true sacrifice Trump made when he decided to run for office—even though he surely didn’t have to. The hatred and other persecutions, the sorts that come with such public sacrifices, have the potential of ruining not only one’s own life but that of one’s family. Most people don’t know anything about what that’s like. Nevertheless, Trump chose to make those sacrifices to expose the unabashed corruption at every level of American politics.

Before Trump pulled back the curtain we only saw shadows and projections of what was actually happening there. We got only rare glimpses of what really goes on behind the scenes. We knew things weren’t on the up and up, but little did we know how deep the swamp really was. At that time, the Republican Party was lifeless and without any sense of direction. No one should forget that Trump resuscitated a dying party. He gave it a future. He gave it hope. 

He was the people’s champion among those who felt left behind by the establishment on both sides. He put American politics under a microscope like no other president ever has.

The article concludes:

Without Trump at the helm for the last two years, the RINOs have regained much of the momentum they lost and they, like the Democrats, cannot stand the thought of another four years under Trump. Backing away from Trump now is ill considered. Make some of your own observations about these strange occurrences and remember why you liked Trump in the beginning.

Remember, the same people who were attacking him years ago are the ones still attacking him now, only today they are using a well-liked candidate (who owes a great deal to Trump) against him, causing a divide and duping everyone in the process. Consider who that really benefits. That says a lot to me. 

President Trump is the only Republican wealthy enough to fight the Washington swamp and the only Republican willing to do it. Governor DeSantis has done a great job in Florida, but he will not fight the Washington swamp. He is a party animal–not an individual thinker. Unless you want your children and grandchildren to grow up in a third-world country where energy is rationed, food is scarce, and the average person is on a downhill slope economically, you need to support President Trump.

It Won’t Stop There

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Do you honestly think that the constant attack and investigation of President Trump is actually about President Trump? Do you think the people behind the constant attacks and investigations of President Trump will stop with him? Do you honestly believe that whoever is the Republican presidential candidate in 2024 will not be subject to the same attacks and misuse of government power that President Trump has been subjected to? Can you honestly say that a Special Prosecutor should be appointed to investigate President Trump but not Hunter or President Biden’s business dealings? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you should probably not waste your time reading any more of this article.

On Friday, Breitbart reported the following:

Attorney General Merrick Garland reportedly plans to name a special counsel to investigate former President Donald Trump, though he has yet to name such counsel to investigate President Joe Biden or his son, Hunter.

Update: Garland named John L. Smith as special counsel Friday afternoon in a televised press statement. According to LinkedIn, Smith is the Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at U.S. Department of Justice — one of the most highly politicized, left-wing departments within the agency.

Hunter Biden acknowledged in December 2020 that he had been under federal investigation for possible tax violations. Since then, the investigation reportedly broadened to include more of his global business dealings.

However, Attorney General Garland has declined to appoint a special counsel, despite criticism from legal scholars who say that greater political independence is needed in an inquiry involving the president’s family.

On Thursday, I posted the following from The Washington Post:

Federal agents and prosecutors have come to believe former president Donald Trump’s motive for allegedly taking and keeping classified documents was largely his ego and a desire to hold on to the materials as trophies or mementos, according to people familiar with the matter.

The appointment of a Special Prosecutor is political. It is a preemptive strike to make sure the Republicans cannot win the White House in 2024. The politicization of justice that has occurred during the Biden administration is a serious threat to our Republic. If this stands, the criminalization of political views that are not in agreement with the party in power will become part of our daily life.

President Trump Is Running

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

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

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

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

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