Tag Archives: Red State

The Risk Of Upside-Down Priorities

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On Saturday, Red State posted an article with the following headline:

As China’s Blue-Water Navy Continues Massive Expansion, US Navy Secretary Says Climate Is His ‘Top Priority’

Wow. Doesn’t that make you feel well-protected?

The article reports:

Let’s begin with a sobering — to the sane among us — reality.

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the U.S. Navy in fleet size sometime around 2020 and now possesses roughly 340 warships, according to the Pentagon’s 2022 China Military Power Report, released in November. Moreover, China’s fleet is expected to grow to 400 ships by 2025.

Meanwhile, the U.S. fleet consists of fewer than 300 ships, with a Pentagon goal of 350 manned ships by 2045, according to the U.S. Navy’s Navigation Plan 2022, released last summer.

Incidentally, a blue-water navy is a maritime force capable of operating globally, essentially across the deep waters of open oceans. While definitions of what actually constitutes such a force vary, the constant is a requirement for the ability to exercise sea control at long range. In other words, the more dominant a nation’s blue-water navy, the better chance that nation has of controlling the world’s strategic sea lanes.

So, what is the U.S. Navy under Joe Biden doing about this sobering reality?

As reported by the Washington Examiner, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro has said, multiple times, that fighting climate change has been one of his biggest priorities since taking office. During a recent trip to the Bahamas to meet with Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis, the two men talked at length about… wait for it… climate change, and what the United States is doing to fight it. Here’s Del Toro:

As the Secretary of the Navy, I can tell you that I have made climate one of my top priorities since the first day I came into office. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps team has been working on climate and energy security for a long time, and we are accelerating and broadening those efforts.

If they were truly working on energy security, they would be telling the government to resume drilling in America. It would be really nice if the Secretary of the Navy cared about protecting America from foreign aggression. His priorities as he explains them are upside-down.

Why The Release Of The January 6th Tapes Matters

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On Tuesday, Red State posted an article illustrating why the release of the January 6th surveillance tapes is so important. The Democrats and the mainstream media have created a narrative about the events of that day that is fictional. The tapes illustrate that fact. That is why the Washington elites are making so much noise about the release of these tapes. Much of what the media has reported about January 6th for the past two years is fiction. Now the American people have a chance to see for themselves what actually happened. It should be noted that the January 6th Committee hired a television producer to help them with their propaganda efforts (article here). There was never any intention of the committee to get to the truth–the intention was for the Democrats to win the mid-term elections and destroy President Trump.

The article notes:

Nothing says “saving democracy” by trying to stop the speech of your political opponents.

Schumer out and out lied on the Senate floor — claiming that Carlson said Jan. 6 was not violent. Carlson said no such thing. He said that while there was violence, there were other protesters inside the Capitol who were not violent. Schumer is the one lying because he doesn’t want that basic truth to be told.

This isn’t the first time that Schumer has gone after Fox and tried to suppress speech. I wrote just last week about how Chuck Schumer had threatened Fox, saying he not only had a “right to tell Rupert Murdoch and Fox what to do but an obligation.” He said “democracy was at greater risk than it’s ever been,” that Fox must admit they told “lies” or he will take other “steps.”

I don’t disagree with him that “democracy” and our freedoms are at risk — from Schumer threatening them himself.

They are truly panicking that the narrative is becoming unhinged when it comes to Jan. 6, that people are seeing that there are other takes, apart from the cherry-picked narrative of the Jan. 6 Committee and the Democrats which was all about using the riot to attack former President Donald Trump and affect the midterms. Among the people the show reached was Twitter head Elon Musk, he saw the points being made.

But while Schumer and Kinzinger were certainly deplorable with their remarks on the day, it may be Attorney General Merrick Garland who had the worst lie. He was asked by a reporter during a press briefing what he thought about Carlson’s coverage. Listen, as even now, Garland lies. He talks about officers assaulted on “that day” and then says, “Five officers died.” (click link to article to see video)

The article concludes:

But this is just an example of why Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 coverage was so important. Dems and media have been lying about this specific point since the beginning, as Carlson noted, to make the riot worse, to add “deadly” to it. That’s why this lie is so disgusting, yet even now, it’s continuing, proving Tucker’s point. The Democrats don’t care about honesty or the facts, just that narrative.

Just a note–we are not a democracy–we are a representative republic.

 

The “Mark Twain” Of The Current Senate

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Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana has a way of expressing himself that both gets to the point and makes you smile. On Thursday, Red State posted an article about some of his recent remarks.

The article reports some of Senator Kennedy’s recent remarks:

The truth is that it’s important to speak your mind, he said, and he didn’t care too much about what anyone thought of him–except dogs, because he liked dogs. How do you sleep at night knowing some people don’t like you, he said some had asked him. “With the fan on,” he joked. “Because I think I make the right people mad.”

“What else is the truth?” Kennedy asked. “The truth is God is great, beer is good, and, and, the United States of America is star-spangled awesome!”

“I cannot imagine what the world would be like without our country,” he said.

“The truth is common sense is illegal in Washington, D.C.; I know, I’ve seen it first-hand,” Kennedy declared. “I wonder sometimes how some people in Washington, D.C., actually made it through the birth canal. The truth is we’re going to have to get some new conspiracy theories. Because all the old ones came true. The truth is that Americans aren’t perfect, we’re not. But the other side is crazy.”

The article notes:

Americans do not deserve to be governed, Kennedy explained, “by deeply weird, nauseously woke people, who hate George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Seuss, and Mr. Potato Head; who hyperventilate on their yoga mats if you use the wrong pronoun; who think kids should be able to change their gender at recess; who carry around Ziploc bags of kale to give them energy; and who think they are better than us.”

“By the way, to me, kale tastes like I’d rather be fat,” Kennedy exclaimed.

The truth is what we accomplished when we were in charge made the economy better and made your lives better, Kennedy said, listing all the things the Republicans had done from cutting taxes, increasing wages, and cutting unemployment to securing the border, beating back ISIS, and putting criminals in jail, as well as confirming 234 judges including three members to the Supreme Court.

“By God, we can do it again,” Kennedy proclaimed.

Please follow the above link to the article for further truths. Senator
Kennedy makes C-SPAN entertaining!

When Cooler Heads Don’t Prevail

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about the raid on Mar-a-Lago. The Red State article heavily quotes an article from The Washington Post.

The Washington Post reports:

Months of disputes between Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents over how best to try to recover classified documents from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club and residence led to a tense showdown near the end of July last year, according to four people familiar with the discussions.

Prosecutors argued that new evidence suggested Trump was knowingly concealing secret documents at his Palm Beach, Fla., home and urged the FBI to conduct a surprise raid at the property. But two senior FBI officials who would be in charge of leading the search resisted the plan as too combative and proposed instead to seek Trump’s permission to search his property, according to the four people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive investigation.

Prosecutors ultimately prevailed in that dispute, one of several previously unreported clashes in a tense tug of war between two arms of the Justice Department over how aggressively to pursue a criminal investigation of a former president. The FBI conducted an unprecedented raid on Aug. 8, recovering more than 100 classified items, among them a document describing a foreign government’s military defenses, including its nuclear capabilities.

First of all, I question the list The Washington Post is providing. Has that information ever been made public?

Red State notes:

The FBI was criticized by both sides during those debacles—Hillary almost had a coronary in 2016 over then-FBI Director James Comey’s handling of her illegal server which contained classified information. Yet, her home was never raided, and she never faced charges. It doesn’t take a partisan to point out that there seem to be two systems of justice at play here.

The article at Red State concludes:

As we all know, the FBI’s concerns fell on deaf ears, and the raid went ahead as planned. The fact that there was such internal division within the DOJ shows that the surprise offensive was always politicized and heavy-handed. Merrick Garland has repeatedly shown in his term that he values politics over justice, and he will continue to act that way till he’s called to account.

There are currently two systems of justice in America. I am not sure how much longer that will last before it becomes a major problem.

Threatened With Exposure?

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Adam Schiff has an interesting relationship with the truth. He claimed to have information proving collusion between President Trump and the Russians. Somehow that information never appeared. He created a fictional telephone call between President Trump and Ukraine that he wanted to be the basis for impeachment. And he sat on the January 6th Committee supposedly investigating the events of that day. So far he has never been held accountable for his lies. However, that may be changing.

On February 20th, I posted an article about 14,000 hours of footage from cameras around the Capitol complex from January 6th that has been released to Tucker Carlson. Red State posted an article on February 20th about Representative Schiff’s reaction to the release. Somehow the Representative is less than thrilled that the footage will probably be made public fairly soon.

The article notes:

“Kevin McCarthy turned over Jan 6 videos to right-wing propagandist Tucker Carlson,” Schiff huffed. “A man who spews Kremlin talking points. Suggests Jan 6 was a false flag. And spreads the Big Lie. Make no mistake: This isn’t about transparency, it’s about fueling dangerous conspiracy theories.”

It’s always a conspiracy theory until we find out that it is true!

The article notes:

So the man who lied his head off about the Russia collusion hoax is concerned about “dangerous conspiracy theories” when he helped to promote one?

How is the actual video footage that was shot a “dangerous conspiracy theory”? What Schiff is saying is he has a problem with the truth coming out, that the truth is “dangerous,” and that he fears it, that’s what he’s saying here. That’s why neither he nor Pelosi wanted this video out there, otherwise, he wouldn’t be so desperate to try to attack the release now. If he cared about the truth, he’d welcome the release. But to Schiff, the truth is just something to lie about, to achieve his political aims.

During the next few weeks, I suspect that the Tucker Carlson Tonight will have many ‘get-out-the-popcorn segments.’

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.

Retribution For Speaking Out

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about a father who complained about a male in his high school daughter’s locker room.

The article reports:

Remember earlier this month when the news broke about a Vermont high school allowing a biologically male student to use the girl’s locker room? Well, there has been a new and disturbing development in this saga. A father who works at the school was suspended for speaking out against the policy after his daughter was made uncomfortable by the male student.

The situation began when the Daily Signal reported that two girls who are members of the Randolph High School’s volleyball team asked the boy, who identifies as a girl, to leave the locker room after he made an inappropriate comment. The school responded by essentially banning girls from the girl’s locker room to cater to the male student’s delusion about his gender identity as it launched an investigation into the matter.

But they were not investigating the conflict. Instead, they are “launching a harassment investigation” into the girls who complained rather than the 14-year-old boy who chose to use their locker room. The Daily Signal spoke with parents whose children attend the school. Predictably, they were outraged that the school would prioritize the biological male over their daughters.

“We allowed a child who is biologically the opposite sex, male, go in a locker room where biologically girls were getting fully changed,” one of the girls’ mothers said. “The biological child was not changing and sat in the back and watched girls getting changed. That made girls feel uncomfortable, made girls feel violated and not protected.”

“When parents and kids went to the school principals they were told it was a law—nothing they could do about it,” she continued. “The law gives them room to protect all and they did not.”

The article continues:

But now, the school is taking further action to defend this practice. The Daily Signal reported that Travis Allen, who coaches girl’s soccer at Randolph Union Middle School, was suspended for speaking out about the matter:

Travis Allen has been suspended without pay from his job as the Randolph Union Middle School girls soccer coach, Orange Southwest School District Superintendent Layne Millington said in a Tuesday letter. His suspension follows a Daily Signal report highlighting his daughter’s discomfort at a biological male using her locker room while she was changing.

The superintendent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal, said that Allen was being punished because he “misgendered a transgender student in our district.”

Biological males do not belong in a high school girls’ locker room–particularly when they are just sitting there watching and not changing! Every parent of a daughter needs to speak up about this. Schools may have to create separate spaces for transgender students, but that is a small price to pay for protecting our daughters.

Does Congress Live In The Same America As The Rest Of Us?

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On Sunday, Red State shared some information about the spending habits of Congressman Eric Swalwell.

The article notes:

Rob Pyers is the Research Director for California Target Book, a group that provides information on congressional and state legislative election campaigns in California. Pyers posted some intriguing information about Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on Twitter that our friends over at Twitchy picked up.

The article includes the following Tweets:

The article explains:

“Dem Eric Swalwell, who has submitted the 2nd-highest number of ‘I am unable to physically attend proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing public health emergency’ proxy letters, spent $250K+ on travel & car service in the 1st 9 months of the year,” Pyers said.

Let me explain to those who may not know what the “proxy letters” are. During the pandemic, the House started offering its members the opportunity to have other members vote for them because of the “ongoing public health emergency.” That might have been understandable when people were freaked out initially in the early days of the pandemic, although I don’t think they ever should have done it. But it’s been more than two years now, kids. Joe Biden has declared the pandemic over. Why is this still on? It’s an excuse for people not to show up to do their job and skip out if they have other things to do. That’s why the Senate doesn’t do it, because it’s ripe for abuse, as we see now.

Case in point: Swalwell. As Pyers observes if there’s such an “emergency” that he can’t show up, why is filing 48 proxy letters, the second-highest number? Why is he spending $250,000 on travel and car expenses? He’s going places. What’s preventing him then from getting into work?

I wrote in January about how he went to the free state of Florida when they were still imposing mask rules in California.

The article concludes:

Swalwell needs to answer up.

Seriously, it gets silly when they do things like this and it means he’s spending money while blowing off the job. They need to eliminate the proxy so we finally have people doing the job they were elected for and are paid to do back again. That has to be something the Republicans do when they take the House back so we can have some accountability again.

I need to mention that I would love to see the Republicans take the House and the Senate back and then act like Republicans. However, I am not counting on a fair election. The only recourse conservatives have is to get out the vote to a degree that cheating will be inconsequential.

An Awful Record

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On Monday, Red State reported that for the first time, migrant encounters at the border have surpassed two million in one year.

The article reports:

While Southern Border security under Donald Trump was a mixed bag — despite Trump’s protestations to the contrary — his plan to force Mexico to stem the flow of illegals into the U.S. was largely effective.

By contrast, Biden’s intentional illegal alien disaster, including planeloads of untold numbers of illegals shipped across the country in the dead of night, constitutes a clear and present danger to America’s security and that of the American people — millions and millions of deadly doses of fentanyl included.

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced Monday that there were 199,976 migrant encounters in July, taking the total for this fiscal year to 1.946 million encounters. But CBP sources tell Fox that since then, the number has now surpassed the two million mark, a milestone previously unhit. 2021, the previous record-setting year, saw more than 1.7 million encounters. Clearly, the reality is dire and it continues to worsen.

Kamala Harris and Karine Jean-Pierre were unavailable for comment.

Speaking of the twin serial liars, not even NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd buys Kamala Harris’s “secure border lie.” And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who doesn’t suffer fools gladly, dropped a truth MOAB on Jean-Pierre after she delusionally claimed the fiery Texan doesn’t “truly care about border security.”

And Joe Biden? He likely has no idea what the hell is going on as he continues to lie.

God help us.

The price for an open border is being paid for in South American lives and in American lives. South Americans are being trafficked when they come to America (after having been lured here by the promise of the open border) and Americans are dying from the fentanyl being smuggled in by the Cartels. At this time, the Cartels are in charge of America’s southern border, and Americans have no one to blame but themselves. If those in Washington feared that they would not be reelected unless the border was closed, the border would be closed. Both Republicans and Democrats are keeping the border open. The only way to close it is to unelect anyone who fails to support laws that would close the border.

The Start Of What?

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On September 9, Red State posted an article about homes raided and subpoenas issued to dozens of supporters of President Trump. On September 10, Red State posted an article with some of the names who were subpoenaed.

The first article includes a screen shop of one of the subpoenas. The subpoena includes the following:

Why is the Justice Department asking that the subpoena be kept secret?

The September 10 article notes:

William Russell wasn’t home when the two FBI agents came to his house Wednesday morning, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Russell served in the Trump White House as a special assistant to the president and the deputy director of advance before moving down to Florida to work as an aide to Trump after he left the White House.

Russell has also been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating Jan. 6, sources familiar with the matter said. The subpoena requests documents and communications related to the so-called fake slates of electors pushed in various states in support of Trump, the sources said.

The NY Times is claiming they’re aware of a dozen people including Brian Jack, former White House political director under Trump, and a big name, Stephen Miller, Trump’s top speechwriter, and a senior policy adviser, who received subpoenas. Jack is currently both an adviser to Trump as well as to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The subpoenas were issued to a wide range of people who either worked in the White House or on the Trump campaign, including senior officials like the campaign’s chief financial officer; personal aides to Mr. Trump; and the former chief of staff to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter who also served as one of his senior advisers. [….]

Among the recipients of subpoenas from a grand jury sitting in Washington are relatively junior aides from the White House and Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign. While the subpoenas asked for information concerning the Save America PAC, they also sought communications with several pro-Trump lawyers — like Kenneth Chesebro — who helped devise the electors plan.

Numerous subpoenas focused solely on the fake elector plan were sent to Republican state lawmakers and state Republican officials allied with Mr. Trump starting this spring.

We previously reported of subpoenas being dropped on Republican Pennsylvania state lawmakers and seizing the phone of a member of Congress, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).

The NY Times notes that Miller was not known to have had a planning role in the electors plan or the fund-raising efforts. So it’s not clear why they are dropping a subpoena on him. Nor is it clear what their legal justification is in regard to the electors plan.

This looks an awful lot like the politicization of the Justice Department. I hope it is not. If it is, I hope the mid-term elections will put enough brave people in Congress who will put a stop to this.

 

What Reports?

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On Saturday, Red State reported that Representative James Comer (R-KY), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, has been trying for months to get the Suspicious Activity Reports — anti-money laundering reports that flag suspicious transactions — that have been filed by banks against Hunter Biden.

The article reports:

Now, the word is in from Biden’s Treasury Department that they have formally rejected his request for the information because the Democrats aren’t part of the request.

…But what a coincidence that the Biden Treasury is suddenly cutting off access to the reports that could point to influence peddling and/or other crimes. I’m sure that there isn’t any funny business in making such a decision. Can we say cover-up when they do things like this? It sure sounds like it.

We reported back in July how Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen told media that they were complying when in fact they were not according to Comer.

“It is troubling that the Biden Administration is willing to provide a false story to the media to create the appearance of transparency while continuing to thwart congressional oversight,” Comer said at that time, and he said it raised more questions about how far they were willing to go running cover for the Bidens.

The article concludes:

Comer now says that if they get power back over the Committee in November, they’re going to get the records and have the bank CEOs testify about the SARs and what was going on there.

One has to think that Joe Biden is desperate to prevent Republicans from getting back power not just because he and the Democrats don’t want to relinquish any of their power but because with that little bit of power, the GOP finally seems firmly set on holding people — including the Bidens — to account. That’s likely why he’s also demonizing the MAGA people/more pro-Trump Republicans because it’s mostly those people in Congress who are pushing for accountability as well.

There will be serious shenanigans in the mid-term elections because of the Democrat’s fear of losing power. The Biden family cannot stand up to the full investigation of their activities in recent years that might occur if the Republicans take Congress.

Let’s Not Follow California’s Example

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On Thursday, California Air Resources Board approved a regulation banning new sales of gas-powered vehicles. On Saturday, Red State posted an article about one of the consequences of that law.

The article reports:

On Friday, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin and legislators in the Republican-controlled lower chamber vowed to take action to block the CA rules from coming to fruition in their state. Governor Youngkin addressed Virginians in a statement.

“In an effort to turn Virginia into California, liberal politicians who previously ran our government sold Virginia out by subjecting Virginia drivers to California vehicle laws. Now, under that pact, Virginians will be forced to adopt the California law that prohibits the sale of gas and diesel-fueled vehicles. I am already at work to prevent this ridiculous edict from being forced on Virginians. California’s out of touch laws have no place in our Commonwealth.”

In a statement, House Speaker Todd Gilbert added:

“House Republicans will advance legislation in 2023 to put Virginians back in charge of Virginia’s auto emission standards and its vehicle marketplace. Virginia is not, and should not be, California.”

The article notes that the law putting Virginia on California’s standards is set to take effect in 2024, but the California law banning gasoline vehicles does not take effect until 2035, so there is some time to work this out.

The article also notes that can manufacturers will no longer be making the Dodge Charger and the Dodge Challenger. Meanwhile, there is no an electric Mustang. I object.

Some Level Of Fairness

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On Saturday, Red State reported that a federal judge has granted President Trump’s request and has issued her preliminary order intending to appoint a special master that Trump sought to review the documents seized in the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago.

The article points out that some on the left are upset about this ruling:

You know you are over the target when the left-wing legal “experts” on the bird site start frothing at the mouth. Someone should ask them what they are so afraid of. How is transparency and accountability in this process a bad thing? Given the disputes over the records, it only makes sense that a hopefully neutral third party would be allowed to arbitrate between the two sides. The NARA is not all-powerful. It does not lord over the executive branch, and just because they say something doesn’t make it true or the law.

The article concludes:

No one can be certain where this goes from here, but my suspicion is that this was more about generating bad headlines for Trump than actually building a criminal case against him. I actually came to that conclusion very early on following AG Merrick Garland’s presser on the matter. I just don’t see the DOJ ignoring the Hillary Clinton precedent regarding the handling of government records, and even if they tried to go that route, there are people on record saying the declassification order existed. It would lead to total chaos if Trump were charged (and presumably convicted given the DC jury pool) with a crime that the government gave Clinton a pass on, and she didn’t have the use of presidential powers as a defense.

Still, another part of me feels like they have to go all the way here. If the DOJ stops short, it only further exposes the raid for what it so obviously was. The administration has painted itself into a corner, and that may bring about some more bad decision-making before this is all said and done.

Stay tuned. I personally think the FBI and DOJ got out over their skis on this, but there is still a danger here that constitutional rights will be overlooked and bad things will happen. Remember, the January 6th prisoners are still in jail.

 

What Racism?

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At some point the media needs to come to grips with the fact that identifying people and categorizing people according to the color of their skin is racism. It doesn’t matter what race you are dealing with, we need to remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.,”I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Job applications, college applications, and employment decisions should be considered on the basis of qualifications–not race. Evidently there are still a lot of people walking around that don’t understand that.

On Saturday, Red State posted an article about a recent decision by the Minnesota Public Schools.

The article quotes the new policy:

Starting with the Spring 2023 Budget Tie-Out Cycle, if excessing a teacher who is a member of a population underrepresented among licensed teachers in the site, the District shall excess the next least senior teacher, who is not a member of an underrepresented population.”

The article notes:

Following the decision, constitutional lawyer Hans Bader wrote an op-ed, as noted by my colleague, which states:

“It is illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. When it comes to termination (as opposed to hiring or promotion under an affirmative-action plan), an employer can’t racially discriminate even against whites. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1996 that an school district can’t consider race even as a tie-breaker, in deciding who to lay off, even to promote diversity, because that (a) unduly trammels the white teacher’s rights — even affirmative action plans are supposed to be mild and not unduly trammel someone’s rights, and getting fired as opposed to being denied a promotion unduly trammels someone’s rights — and (b) putting that aside, the school district couldn’t consider race to promote diversity when black people weren’t seriously underrepresented in its workforce as a whole. That ruling was Taxman v. Board of Education of Piscataway, 91 F.3d 1547 (3d Cir. 1996).”

The article continues:

Despite the backlash this blatantly racist policy has received, it was recently defended by the president and vice president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers. On Friday, in an appearance on ABC, Greta Callahan, president of the teachers’ union, said:

“This contract language was something that we are, first of all, extremely proud of for achieving but it also doesn’t go far enough … We need to support and retain our educators, especially those who are underrepresented, and this language does one tiny, minuscule step towards that but doesn’t solve the real crisis we’re in right now.”

If a particular group of people are underrepresented, maybe you should look into the cause rather than use racism to try to correct the problem. Have you worked to improve schools in neighborhoods where the underrepresented people live? Have you set up mentoring programs to encourage underrepresented people to become teachers? What have you done to improve the overall quality of education for all students?

The policy of firing teachers based on their race is a losing idea for everyone. If downsizing has to happen, fire the teachers that are not getting the job done–whatever color they are.

 

Good News For All Americans

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On Saturday, Red State reported that NorthShore University Health System medical employees have won a lawsuit in which they sued the company because they were denied medical exemptions from the company’s vaccine mandate.

The article reports:

Now, in a big victory for freedom, NorthShore has agreed to settle with the employees. They agreed to pay more than 500 current and former employees $10,337,500. NorthShore is also been required to change its policy to allow religious exemptions and rehire anyone who was fired or forced to resign for not getting the vaccine. The Court still has to approve the settlement. Once the Court approves it, the employees can apply to get their jobs back at the same seniority level.

The Liberty Counsel which represented the employees cheered the victory.

This is the “first-of-its-kind class action settlement against a private employer who unlawfully denied hundreds of religious exemption requests to COVID-19 shots,” Liberty Counsel said. Its founder and chairman, Mat Staver, said it “should be a wake-up call to every employer that did not accommodate or exempt employees who opposed the COVID shots for religious reasons. Let this case be a warning to employers that violated Title VII.”

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

In many cases, the religious exemption claimed is due to the fact that scientists used fetal stem cells in the development and production of the Covid vaccines. Because many religions oppose abortion, the use of fetal stem cells from aborted babies is in conflict with those religions. The fact that the stem cells are from an older strain of cells does not matter.

The article notes that the decision on religious exemptions from vaccine mandates followed a similar decision in California:

This followed a decision, earlier in July from a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, which struck down a Los Angeles County Unified School District (LAUSD) COVID vaccine requirement for students, finding the district exceeded its authority and that the resolution approving the mandate clashes with state law by not allowing exemptions for personal beliefs.

This should serve as a big warning sign to companies who have done this or who would think about doing this to their employees ever again in the future.

Hopefully these lawsuits will pave the way for the end of the government insisting that Americans put chemicals in their bodies that they are not comfortable with. Our freedom is fragile, we need to continue to work to protect it.

When You Don’t Want To Admit The Problem, Change The Definition

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America’s economy is not exactly humming along. Inflation is out of control, and continuing high gas prices are adding fuel to the fire. It hasn’t been a good economic year for most Americans. However, the Biden administration is doing everything it can to avoid saying that America is experiencing a recession. On Sunday, Red State posted an article about one way that the Biden administration is avoiding admitting that we are in a recession.

The article reports:

This coming July 28th, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis will release the second quarter GDP numbers, and all available signs point to a disastrous report. Current trackers have growth sitting at around -1.6 percent as of July 19th.

That means that according to the most traditional definition of a recession, the United States has already entered into one. US first quarter GDP came in at -1.6 percent, which combines with the second quarter drop to give the economy two straight quarters of negative growth. That is the technical definition of a recession. Further, the bond yield curve has recently inverted, something that has preceded every other recession in modern history.

What’s the White House to do with that devastating economic news dropping on their watch and as a result of their policies? Apparently, in a move that would make George Orwell cringe, they are going to simply redefine what it means to be in a recession.

The article includes the following Tweet:George Orwell would be proud.

The article continues:

I wonder if the “economists” cited by the White House in that statement are the same “economists” who said inflation would be temporary and transitory? That would make sense given how ridiculous it is to suggest that two straight quarters of negative growth combined with an inflationary boom and a yield curve inversion don’t qualify as a recession. After all, why be technical about something as important as analyzing the US economy when you can just have a panel of faceless economic advisors redefine the terms and proclaim that negative growth is actually a sign of strength.

Do they really think Americans are that stupid?

 

Suspicions Confirmed

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On Sunday, Red State posted an article about Silent Invasion, a book by Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator for President Trump. It’s a very interesting article that includes a few excerpts from the book that confirm what most of us already suspected.

The article notes:

If you read Birx’s bio, it is obvious that she was Fauci’s creature. She hitched her wagon to his star. He mentored her. The odds of her acting independently, and the odds of Fauci letting a molecule of power slip from his grasp, are slim. I think the nation would be unwise to arbitrarily absolve Fauci of his role in the COVID fiasco before a jury has returned a verdict.

Birx deliberately deceived and lied to President Trump and his advisers.

Shocking, right? The idea that a privileged and entitled liberal with a terminal case of god syndrome would deceive people to get her way, I mean, smack my ass and call me Sally; what will happen next?

This is from Jeffrey Tucker’s review of the Birx book.

Birx admits that she was a major part of the reason, due to her sneaky alternation of weekly reports to the states.

After the heavily edited documents were returned to me, I’d reinsert what they had objected to, but place it in those different locations. I’d also reorder and restructure the bullet points so the most salient—the points the administration objected to most—no longer fell at the start of the bullet points. I shared these strategies with the three members of the data team also writing these reports. Our Saturday and Sunday report-writing routine soon became: write, submit, revise, hide, resubmit.

Fortunately, this strategic sleight-of-hand worked. That they never seemed to catch this subterfuge left me to conclude that, either they read the finished reports too quickly or they neglected to do the word search that would have revealed the language to which they objected. In slipping these changes past the gatekeepers and continuing to inform the governors of the need for the big-three mitigations—masks, sentinel testing, and limits on indoor social gatherings—I felt confident I was giving the states permission to escalate public health mitigation with the fall and winter coming.

As another example, once Scott Atlas came to the rescue in August to introduce some good sense into this wacky world, he worked with others to dial back the CDC’s fanatical attachment to universal and constant testing. Atlas knew that “track, trace, and isolate” was both a fantasy and a massive invasion of people’s liberties that would yield no positive public-health outcome. He put together a new recommendation that was only for those who were sick to test – just as one might expect in normal life.

After a week-long media frenzy, the regulations flipped in the other direction.

Birx reveals that it was her doing:

This wasn’t the only bit of subterfuge I had to engage in. Immediately after the Atlas-influenced revised CDC testing guidance went up in late August, I contacted Bob Redfield…. Less than a week later, Bob [Redfield] and I had finished our rewrite of the guidance and surreptitiously posted it. We had restored the emphasis on testing to detect areas where silent spread was occurring. It was a risky move, and we hoped everyone in the White House would be too busy campaigning to realize what Bob and I had done. We weren’t being transparent with the powers that be in the White House.

Keep in mind that these are her words. Lying to the American people and cheating were okay if it met her goals. That is a disgrace.

An Example Of The Futility Of Gun Control Laws

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On July 4th, Breitbart noted that the shooting during the Highland Park parade in Illinois occurred despite some of the toughest gun regulations in the nation.

The article reports:

Moreover, Gabby Giffords gun control group gives Illinois a grade of A- on gun control.

Illinois has a red flag law, a waiting period for gun purchases, gun owner licensing, domestic violence gun laws, “open carry regulations,” and numerous other gun controls.

The gun owner licensing is done via Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) cards. Only those with a FOID card can legally buy and possess a gun in Illinois and the process for acquiring a FOID card includes a background check.

The Illinois State Police listed the process for buying a gun in Illinois:

• Buyer must possess a valid FOID card.
• Buyer must verify local firearm ordinance requirements.
• Buyer must display valid FOID card to FFL prior to handling firearm.
• Buyer must complete Federal Form ATF 4473.
• FFL notifies the Illinois State Police (ISP), Firearms Services Bureau to perform
a background check in accordance with state and federal laws.
• FFL receives an “Approval” from ISP to transfer the firearm.
• Buyer must abide by the State of Illinois waiting period before taking possession
of the firearm. The waiting period for a long gun is 24 hours and 72 hours for a
hand gun.
• Upon taking possession of the firearm, the firearm must be unloaded and
enclosed in a case to transport.

Cook County has an “assault weapons” ban that also bans “high-capacity” magazines. In neighboring Lake County, the City of Highland Park has an “assault weapons” ban that also bans “large-capacity” magazines.

At some point authorities are going to realize that people who are intent on committing murder do not necessarily care about following laws.

Just a short note on the shooting from Red State:

His (the shooter) videos obviously indicated some concerning thoughts as they were about shootings, and it looked like he may have been contemplating this for some time. So whatever his political thoughts, it was clear he had a lot of ongoing issues.

There are some pictures floating out there that are making some on the left immediately jump to the conclusion that the Highland Park, Illinois, shooter is a Trump supporter. The pictures show him at a Trump rally and in one. wearing a Trump flag. There are also pictures of him wearing an FBI hat.

…While anything is possible and we’ll have to see what comes out as the facts unspool, we’ll note all the evidence trends away from Crimo being a Trump supporter — from the multi-colored hair to being a rapper.

The article at Red State also posts a few Tweets from President Biden that the shooter liked, further casting doubt on the fact that the shooter is a Trump supporter.

The article at Red State concludes:

Now, we’ll doubtless hear more as the story unfolds, but the likes are a good indication of where he may land on the political spectrum.

But, it’s pretty sad when you have folks on the left more concerned with trying to somehow attack President Donald Trump than about the people who were killed and hurt. Every mass shooting now becomes “who did it” and a call to get rid of guns–rather than condemning what was done and dealing with a lot of the mental health issues that are almost always involved in these cases. That’s sick, and it’s not productive to solving the real issues behind such cases.

Priorities, people.

Another Win For The Supreme Court

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Does anyone remember this gem from 1975:

This is a kid-oriented explanation of how laws are supposed to be passed in America. Unfortunately, many of our laws are currently being passed by unelected bureaucrats in government agencies. These bureaucrats are not held accountable by the people because they never have to run for office. Well, on Thursday the Supreme Court took a small step to bring America back to the lawmaking procedure established by our Founding Fathers.

Red State posted an article on Thursday reporting the decision.

The article reports:

The Supreme Court sharply curtailed the power of the EPA to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change. In a 6-3 ruling written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court sided with conservative states and fossil-fuel companies in adopting a narrow reading of the Clean Air Act.

The Court found that Congress had not authorized the EPA to induce a shift toward cleaner energy sources.

“Congress did not grant EPA…the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan,” the majority wrote.
The ruling was spurred by an appeal to a decision last year that struck down a Trump-era power plant rule.

In appealing that decision, West Virginia asked the court to consider whether the EPA has the authority to try to push the entire system away from coal and reshape the country’s electric grid.

The article notes:

Justice Kagan in her dissent acted as though it was the Court’s responsibility to address climate change, rather than interpret the law and the Constitution.

Maybe she needs to go back and reread the Constitution.

If the Biden administration wants to change the source of America’s energy, they need to ask Congress to pass a bill to do that. Elected officials need to be held accountable for the laws they make. Bureaucrats are not elected and cannot be held accountable. That is why our laws are supposed to be made by Congress and not by bureaucrats.

Attempting To Solve A Problem After Misidentifying The Problem

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On April 3rd, there was a mass shooting in Sacramento, California. The New York Post reported that six people were shot dead and 12 others injured. The shooting took place at approximately 2 am. Since Sunday morning, the suspect has been identified.

On Tuesday, Red State reported:

Shortly after a mass shooting occurred in Sacramento, California early Sunday, Joe Biden was busy using the tragedy to beat the drum for more gun control across the country – despite the fact that California arguably has what are the nation’s strictest gun control laws, and despite not having any facts about the shooting or the shooters. Other gun control activists quickly jumped aboard the train.

…The actual story, which most of the mainstream media will likely attempt to erase, has nothing to do with lax gun control laws and everything to do with the “reimagining” of the justice system being perpetrated by people like George Gascon and Gavin Newsom, and enabled by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Board of Parole Hearings.

As it turns out, one of the two men arrested in connection with the shooting has a long criminal record and was paroled in April, 2021, just three years into a 10-year sentence for domestic violence and assault with great bodily injury. In an exclusive report from the Sacramento Bee, we learn that Smiley Allen Martin’s early release was vigorously opposed by the Sacramento County District Attorney’s office. Deputy District Attorney Danielle Abildgaard wrote a two-page letter to the Board of Parole Hearings, concluding:

“As shown by Inmate Martin’s pattern of conduct, he is an assaultive and non-compliant individual and has absolutely no regard for his victims who are left in the wake of numerous serious offenses. He has no respect for others, for law enforcement or for the law.

“If he is released early, he will continue to break the law.”

The problem wasn’t the gun–the problem was not keeping a violent offender in jail.

Equal Justice Under The Law?

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CBS News reported the following on Wednesday:

Jussie Smollett walked out of a Chicago prison on Wednesday night. An appeals court earlier cleared the way for his release, ordering the actor be released from jail after posting a personal recognizance bond of $150,000, and pending the appeal of his conviction for lying to police about a racist and homophobic attack.

…Smollett’s attorneys had argued that he would have completed the sentence by the time the appeal process was completed and that Smollett could be in danger of physical harm if he remained in jail.

…He (Smollett defense attorney Nenye Uche) criticized the special prosecutor’s decision to charge Smollett again after the initial charges were dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and he paid a fine. He also called Judge James Linn’s sentence excessive for a low-level felony, adding that the appellate court doesn’t “play politics.”

“The real question is: Should Black men be walked into jail for a class 4 felony? Shame on you if you think they should,” Uche said.

The office of the special prosecutor called the claim that Smollett’s health and safety were at risk “factually incorrect,” in a response to his motion, noting that Smollett was being held in protective custody at the jail.

I hate to be difficult (but I am good at it), but what difference does it make that Jussie Smollett is black? What is the normal sentence for a class 4 felony? The color of the person who committed the crime should have absolutely no bearing on the sentence!

Now let’s contrast this event with another recent event.

On March 7th, Red State reported the following:

You don’t see this very often in federal court, but one of the January 6 (J6) Defendants, Lucas Denney, is being held illegally. He was arrested in Texas on December 13, 2021, and brought before a federal magistrate, who ordered him detained without bond on a criminal Complaint. It then took six weeks to transfer him to DC, where he is currently being held. He has not appeared before a federal judge in DC since his arrival, although that will change Monday afternoon as a result of his lawyer seeking his release.

The article at Red State concludes:

And Denney’s case shows that apparently no one at DOJ, either at the U.S. Attorneys’ Office in D.C., at Main Justice, or in the U.S. Marshal’s Service, is paying attention to (or better yet tracking) these outside-of-D.C. pre-trial detention cases to ensure that the detainees are receiving all of the due process protections to which they are entitled and that the constitutional and statutory deadlines are met. Since it is the DOJ J6 prosecution team that is ordering arrests (instead of voluntary surrenders) and demanding detentions and transfers (instead of seeking reasonable conditions for pre-trial release), the failure to comply with the Constitution, the criminal code, and the Rules of Criminal Procedure rests entirely at the feet of the DOJ.

The operative principles and rules for these early proceedings in criminal cases are not obscure, complex, or ambiguous. Competent prosecutors have no excuse for not knowing that Rule 5 requires that the Preliminary Hearing take place in the district where the Initial Appearance occurs, that it must be held within 14 days of that Initial Appearance, that there is no such thing as two “Initial Appearances,” and that the Speedy Trial Act requires an indictment to be filed within 30 days of arrest.

The entire episode is an unmitigated disgrace.

We have become a banana republic.

While We Were Looking Elsewhere?

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Politicians are shifty creatures. Some are more shifty than others. The Friday night news dump occurs when an administration wants to reveal news they are hoping won’t get a lot of attention. Other information is lost behind the screen of a major story.

On Wednesday, Red State reported the following:

Biden Quietly Forgives Student Loans for Thousands of Government Workers While Millions of Others Remain Crushed by Debt

Seems a little unfair. Where does the money come from to forgive these loans?

The article reports:

While tens of millions of other Americans remain burdened with massive student loan debts, government and other nonprofit workers have enjoyed substantial amounts of student debt forgiveness, and at a rate we’ve never seen before, thanks to a combination of policies most voters know very little about.

Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which was created by the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007, federal student loan borrowers who work full-time for a nonprofit organization, including a government, can have their entire student debt balance discharged after making 120 qualifying monthly payments, a requirement that takes at least 10 years to complete, but could take longer.

Prior to receiving forgiveness, many of these borrowers enroll in a federal income-based repayment plan, which ties student loan payment amounts to income, allowing borrowers to “pay” as little as $0 per month without penalties, and as much as 15% of a borrower’s monthly discretionary income.

The article concludes:

The average loan amount forgiven for borrowers under the PSLF program in the 2020-2021 period was $94,907, while those enrolled in Biden’s smaller Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program received an average of $44,324 in loan forgiveness.

When President Biden promised to help solve the student debt crisis and reduce the cost of attending college, I wonder how many voters knew only a relatively small group of borrowers, most of whom work for the government, would benefit from his pledge.

Come this November, we may find out.

This is government interference in contract law. When the students took out those loans, they signed a contract to pay them back.

Milton Friedman famously said, “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

Lendedu.com, reminds us of the history of government involvement in the student loan process:

1993: The Student Loan Reform Act officially implements the Direct Lending program. Under this program, the government can now directly lend to student loan borrowers, instead of through a private institution, which had been the only system since 1965 (FFELP).

Below is a chart that illustrates the impact of that program on college tuition:

As you can see, the cost curve increased when the government got involved in the student loan program. At that point the colleges had no incentive to keep costs down because students were taking out loans to pay for school. This began a vicious inflation cycle in higher education that we are still seeing today. For the 2019-2020 academic year at Harvard, the cost of tuition and living expenses was $73,800. The cost of sending a child to the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth as a resident of Massachusetts is about $30,000. That is ridiculous.

Standing Up To Tyranny

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On Friday, Red State posted an article about how two bitcoin companies responded to Trudeau’s deputy prime minister, Chrystia Freeland, talking about freezing financial accounts of people involved in the truck protest and the people who are supporting them financially. Many of the major banks instantly cooperated, but two bitcoin companies had a different response.

The article reports:

Bitcoin wallet company Nunchuk announced that they’d gotten a request to freeze accounts from the government, “Yesterday, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sent us a Mareva Injunction, ordering us to freeze and disclose information about the assets involved in the #FreedomConvoy2022 movement.” But Nunchuk explained to the clueless government that they don’t hold any money like a custodial financial institution, they don’t collect user information apart from emails, and they don’t hold the keys to any of the wallets — that it’s all private to the user, by design.

…“Please look up how self custody and private keys work,” the company chided the government. “When the Canadian dollar becomes worthless, we will be here to serve you too.” Now, that’s gold. They even learned a lesson from this experience with the government, and now will be making it even more private by not even holding the email information in future updates.

The article also reports the response of Edge Wallet, another bitcoin company:

In the wake of ongoing turmoil taking place in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has requested, via the Emergencies Act, that various financial services companies freeze accounts of those linked to protesters occupying the region, as well as those providing funding to the protests, but not present physically.

Regardless of whether the protests resonate with individuals or not, financial seizure is an unprecedented action that must be taken seriously. It’s with great consideration that we would like to share our official response to the request that Canadian users’ Edge accounts be frozen:

They finished with this meme.

I wish the major banks had that kind of courage.

Beware Fake News

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Northern Virginia had a weather problem this week which resulted in people being stuck in traffic in the snow for many hours on Interstate 95. It does seem as if the problem was not dealt with as quickly as it should have been, but it’s Virginia and it’s snow. The south doesn’t really do snow very well, and southerners would do well to stay home at the sign of the first flake. However, there was some interesting commentary on this event on social media.

On Tuesday, Red State reported:

Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have been chock full of posts over the last 24 hours or so from understandably angry folks in the Virginia/D.C. area who have either been stuck for hours on I-95 in the middle of freezing temperatures and snow on the roads or who have family members and friends who are.

The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore, someone who you never want to see in your state because when he’s there that usually means trouble is ahead, tweeted out a map image this morning showing how long the logjam is. He noted that “some people” had been stuck in their vehicles “for over eight hours”:

Some of the social  media was confused as to who was in charge:

As the frustrations mount and the insane clips and photos of what things look like continue to roll in, some have taken to the Twitter machine to blame Republican Glenn Youngkin, who I should point out is the Gov.-Elect and won’t be sworn in until January 15th. The blame was so predominant that as I write this, “Youngkin” is trending on Twitter.

For instance, Jonah Goldberg, who we have been reliably told is a truuuue conservative or something, said on Twitter that “If I was Glenn Youngkin I’d be flooding the zone to get this I-95 crap fixed. DC suburbs are vengeful about this kind of thing.”

The article includes the screenshot below:

I guess you only blame the Governor for horrible traffic problems if he is a Republican.