Misleading The Public About The Shutdown

On Friday, Chris Bray posted an article at Substack about the misleading reporting on the current government shutdown.

The article shows an X post from Senator Amy Klobuchar:

The article explains:

The Galls are among roughly 22 million ACA marketplace enrollees — about 92% of all enrollees — who face the prospect of higher premiums in 2026, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group.

Democrats are pushing Republicans to extend the enhanced subsidies that make enrollees’ health premiums cheaper, as part of a deal to end the federal government shutdown that began Oct. 1. Republicans have said they want to negotiate any extension of ACA subsidies outside of legislation that would reopen the government.

See the premise? Subsidies “make enrollees’ health premiums cheaper.”

The article points out that the subsidies don’t go to the people paying for the health insurance premiums–they go to the insurance companies (who oddly enough make donations to candidates’ campaign funds).

The article explains:

They (subsidies) make enrollees’ health premiums divided, splitting the cost between the person paying for the insurance and the taxpayers who fund the subsidy, but they flatly don’t make the premiums cheaper. It’s like you go to the supermarket and buy filet mignon, and it only costs you a dollar — wow, filet mignon is so affordable now! — but the supermarket bills the federal government for $25 every time you make that purchase, and the government gets the $25 from you as taxes. The thing costs what it costs. Subsidies don’t make it cheaper. They just hide the expense at the point of purchase. Subsidies shift and obscure.

Why should insurance companies work to be more efficient when the government will support them? This is very similar to what happened to college tuition when student loans became the norm.

The article concludes:

The ACA subsidies are only $91 billion a year, though, so it’s practically nothing.

See also this 2023 CBO report, which projects explosive growth in federal healthcare costs over the next decade.

We’re not having a debate about giving money to Bill and Shelly so they can enjoy their early retirement. We’re having a debate about how much money the federal government — meaning you, if you pay taxes — is going to give to private corporations. Congressional Democrats are servicing their corporate clients.

“Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage.”

Unraveling the National Basketball Association Scandal

On Friday, Doug Ross posted an article at Substack about the scandal related to the National Basketball Association. The article lists twenty facts about the scandal. Some are truly disturbing.

Here are a few of the items stated in the article:

  • The FBI’s “Operation Nothing But Bet” and “Operation Zen Diagram” led to 34 arrests across 11 states in two intertwined schemes: one exploiting insider NBA information for illegal sports betting, and another rigging high-stakes underground poker games backed by four of New York’s “Five Families” (Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese), highlighting the Mafia’s shift from traditional violent crimes to sophisticated tech-driven frauds like online betting scams. High tech included rigged card shufflers with hidden cameras to predict hands. Threats involved gunpoint robberies and extortion to collect gambling debts, with one incident where mobsters allegedly punched victims and sent messages like “Watch what’s good now” to intimidate payments. Link: CNBC.
  • Portland Trail Blazers head coach and NBA Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups was charged with wire fraud and money laundering for acting as a “face card” to lure high-rollers into rigged poker games in luxurious spots like Las Vegas and the Hamptons, where he was paid by the Mob to participate and sometimes instructed via text to intentionally lose hands to avoid suspicion. Advanced cheating tech featured X-ray poker tables allowing accomplices to see face-down cards remotely. In one crazy debt collection episode, a victim who lost $1.8 million was threatened with “a bunch of goons” showing up at the door. Link: The Athletic.
  • Miami Heat guard Terry “Scary Terry” Rozier was arrested for allegedly faking an injury during a March 2023 game against the Memphis Grizzlies, exiting after just nine minutes to manipulate prop bets on his underperformance, netting bettors over $200,000 in illicit gains. The scheme used encrypted messaging apps for sharing insider tips. One co-conspirator drove through the night to Rozier’s house to count and divide profits, while threats of physical harm were used against debtors, including ominous texts implying violence. Link: USA Today.
  • Former NBA player Damon Jones, a confidant of LeBron James, was implicated in both schemes, leaking non-public injury info about James before a February 2023 Lakers vs. Bucks game via text: “Get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out!” Tech involved special contact lenses to read marked cards in poker. Jones’ own gambling addiction reportedly cost him millions, leading to mob ties where debtors faced extortion like being punched or robbed at gunpoint to settle debts. Link: NBC News.

That’s just four of the twenty items listed. Please follow the link to the article and read the entire list. This is a sad day in American sports.

Remembering Some Not-So-Recent History

There has been a lot of noise lately about the fact that Jimmy Kimmel was not on the air for a few days. There are still a few stations that have chosen not to air his late-night show. Considering the ratings of the show, I do wonder how long he will remain on the air. However, there has also been a lot said about the ‘tyranny’ of the Trump administration in wanting his show to go away. Hollywood has been very vocal about protecting their right to free speech. However, they have not been consistent.

On Wednesday, Jack Cashill posted an article at Substack reminding us of some of Hollywood’s not-so-recent history.

The article reports:

Those of us who know even a little recent history can only snicker at the CNN headline, “Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks join 400 artists to back Jimmy Kimmel against ‘government threats.’” To “back” here meant signing an ACLU letter. Such bravery!

The letter reads, “We the people must never accept government threats to our freedom of speech. Efforts by leaders to pressure artists, journalists, and companies with retaliation for their speech strike at the heart of what it means to live in a free country.”

Although I agree with the sentiment, I am astonished anew at Hollywood’s selective outrage. They sat in silence these past four years while the Biden administration used every lever of power to silence critics on the internet, even to the point of imprisonment. Those offenses they could pretend not to notice, not so the hunt through the Hollywood Hills in 2012 for filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a hunt that the media gleefully joined.

Just three days after the September 11, 2012, disaster in Benghazi, the New York Times Ian Lovett reported that the feds were inquiring into whether Nakoula “had been the person who uploaded the video to YouTube.” The video was actually a 14-minute trailer for a proposed film titled, “The Innocence of Muslims.”

Nakoula was eventually arrested on September 15, just four days after the Benghazi attack, and held him in secret without charge or without access to an attorney.

The article notes:

Nakoula was vulnerable. He was on parole for his involvement in a check-kiting scheme. Even more worrisome, he had quietly cooperated with the feds and fingered the scheme’s ringleader.

Less than 48 hours after Secretary of State Clinton first alluded to Nakoula’s video, someone in the Obama administration had unsealed the indictment and exposed Nakoula to retaliation. “Why did the government release the deal?” Nakoula asked me when I first spoke to him after his release from prison. “Why did they put my life in danger?”

They put his life in danger because they knew they could get away with it. With Nakoula silenced, they could perpetuate the lie that the attack on the consulate in Benghazi was not a result of the administration’s disastrous policies but of a spontaneous protest inspired by Nakoula’s “hateful” film trailer.

No one’s life was endangered by taking Jimmy Kimmel off the air for a few days. Spare me your outrage when you kept quiet while an American citizen’s civil rights were totally violated to protect a false narrative created by the Obama administration. That also happened on January 6th, 2021, but the truth on that has not totally been revealed. Stay tuned.

Who Benefits From Having The National Guard In Washington, D.C.?

On Wednesday, Don Surber posted an article on Substack about the actual crime figures in Washington, D.C., and where the crime rate was highest.

These are some of the numbers the article cited:

  • In 2023, the homicide rate for black people in Washington DC was 88.2 per 100,000 people.
  • The homicide rate for non-black people in Washington DC was 6.1 per 100,000 people.

It’s very easy for a person in a non-black neighborhood to complain about the National Guard in Washington–they are not likely to have been impacted by the high crime rate.

The article includes some interesting information about the people who are protesting the presence of the National Guard:

Who are the protesters? From Newport Coast, CA, Tony Seruga ran the numbers:

GPS—there were 318 mobile devices present, including law enforcement and media. 92% have been present at 5 or more past DC protests.

67 appear to likely be federal government employees, with their mobile devices accessing both keycard required garages and federal buildings, including the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, FBI and Department of the Treasury.

Additionally, 9 of these mobile devices accessed the White House via the Northwest Gate located on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, across from Lafayette Square, 3 or more times in the past 30 days.

Most are local residents of the DMV—with 86.7% of devices spending evenings in a home worth $850,000+ and 34% in homes worth over $2.5 million.

It appears that the people protesting are not the people who were impacted by the original problem. They need to go home, and the people in the neighborhoods that are now heavily patrolled need to be grateful for the help they are receiving. Even with a safer Washington, D.C., brought to you by President Trump, do you believe any of the residents will ever vote for a Republican?

What’s In A Name?

The word of the day is “gerrymandering.” It is a technique long used by the Democrat party to ensure that Republicans don’t get elected to Congress. Lately, the Republicans have figured out that they can play that game too.

On Thursday, the Tilting At Windmills website on Substack reported:

The term “gerrymandering” has become a big part of the recent news cycle. Mostly, it’s been a yawn for me. Both sides do some degree of gerrymandering, but it’s only a problem when the other side does it.

Texas, however, was engaging in a little bit of it that would oust Rep. Jasmine Crockett and help Republicans snag a few more seats in the midterms, where the president’s party typically loses a bit of ground.

And people lost their minds over it, acting like this has never happened anywhere else, and that it’s somehow the most horrible thing in the world despite the pile of examples of Democrats doing it.

Politico, however, went a slightly different direction in their headline for a story about the situation that reads, “Democrats try to separate their tactical use of redistricting from that of Republicans.”

That’s right, it’s not gerrymandering that Democrats do. It’s “tactical use of redistricting.”

And understand, the word “tactical” isn’t anywhere else in the piece, so that’s Politico’s choice of words there, not a quote from someone like JB Pritzker or some other Democrat trying to deflect.

No, that’s their covering fire.

On August 6th, John Hinderaker at Power Line Blog posted a chart showing the impact of gerrymandering:

The chart shows why gerrymandering is important and how it impacts Congress. Let’s end tactical use of redistricting!

General Flynn Speaks Out

General Flynn has a Substack website where he posts articles about current happenings.

On July 29, he posted the following headline, “The Hunted Have Become the Hunters The Truth is Rising.” I agree. In the article he lists recent events that have uncovered the truth about the continuing attacks on President Trump and his past and present administrations.

The article reports:

The recent declassifications from DNI Tulsi Gabbard weren’t coincidental. They were a strategic disclosure of evidence and laid the groundwork for follow-on prosecutions.

Here’s what those documents confirm:

Barack Obama knew in December 2016 that there was no Russia-Trump collusion. He also knew Hillary Clinton’s campaign was manufacturing the narrative, yet he allowed it to proceed anyway. Why…Because globalism and communism were the end goals. Obama was not just transforming America, he was weaponizing the entire federal government to destroy a duly elected successor.

This wasn’t politics, this was a coup that they nearly got away with.

How Do We Know?

Let’s look at five confirmed, documented facts that expose this Deep State playbook:

1. Illegal surveillance of the Trump campaign via FISA warrants—later ruled invalid. The DOJ’s Inspector General found at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications (Horowitz Report, 2019).

2. Unmasking of Gen. Michael Flynn by dozens of Obama-era officials. According to DNI declassifications, 39 officials made 53 unmasking requests involving Flynn, including Biden and Obama’s Chief of Staff.

3. Despite its unverified status, Senator John McCain hand-delivered the Steele Dossier to James Comey, and it later became the basis for FBI surveillance.

4. AG Bill Barr claimed “no election fraud” within days of the 2020 election despite hundreds of affidavits, video footage, and ongoing court challenges.

5. The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago authorized with “deadly force” authority in the execution order (as confirmed by court filings in 2024).

Why 2020 Was Critical

2020 wasn’t just about beating Trump, it was about silencing him before he could uncover and expose their crimes. The Deep State’s strategy is to run out the clock since the federal statute of limitations for many offenses is five years.

But there’s one catch: a conspiracy investigation resets the clock and opens up new venues for prosecution. The Deep State’s favorite Washington, D.C. courtrooms can no longer protect this corruption-Florida is now in play and that changes everything.

A New DOJ — A New Battlefield

This marks a new chapter beyond the Barr–Wray–Durham era. The president has appointed a talented team of leaders and assigned them clear responsibilities and expectations to ensure accountability.

From the FBI’s new investigations to Tulsi’s precise declassifications, every piece of this operation is moving in sync. You don’t declassify sensitive intel unless ready to act on it. You don’t flip the DOJ unless you plan to prosecute.

This is not the Trump of 2017. This is 2025 Trump, deliberate, battle-tested, and backed by a trusted inner circle.

Please follow the link and read the entire article. It is time for justice.

Priorities?

New York City Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani wants to help the city’s economically challenged to have a better life. He is talking about rent control, city-operated grocery stores with free or very low-priced food. He has stated that millionaires shouldn’t exist. He frowns on private property. He himself is the child of wealth who seems to enjoy thoroughly what that wealth has given him.

Amuse on Substack posted an article about Mamdani’s recent celebration of his wedding. It was a lavish affair in Uganda that lasted for three days and cost approximately $250,000. He is entitled to spend his money any way he wants to, but if he is so concerned with New York City’s economically challenged, why doesn’t he throw some of his money their way? Why does he choose to be charitable with other people’s money while living lavishly with his own? Why not buy a building and let people live there rent free? Why not fund a drug rehab center or an alcohol rehab center?

The article concludes:

As George Orwell once wrote of British socialists in The Road to Wigan Pier, the problem is not the idea of socialism but the people who advocate it. He observed that many socialists do not love the poor, they simply hate the rich. Mamdani embodies this paradox. He does not hate luxury. He hates its availability to anyone else.

And what of New York? If Mamdani governs as he lives, then the city is in trouble. His plans include rent controls so severe they would hollow out the housing market, defunding the police at a time of rising crime, and replacing core public services with untested socialist experiments. His ideology is not tempered by responsibility. It is validated by fantasy.

The irony is thick. The man who declared that “capitalism is theft” held a $500,000 wedding on a private estate, protected by military police, while advocating for the seizure of private property. That is not public service. That is theatrical oligarchy. Mamdani may call himself a radical. But he is something more familiar: a privileged revolutionary who wants to burn down your house so he can rule from his.

If New York City elects this man, they deserve everything they will get!

The Ugly After The Flood

The floods in Texas were horrific. There were heroes, but there were tremendous losses. Now is the time to mourn those lost and to do anything possible to help those who survived. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. Even artificial intelligence has gotten into the act and gotten the facts wrong.

In an article posted at Substack on Monday, Don Surber reports:

Jason Runyen, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service office, told AP that with the storm brewing, the office had 5 staffers instead of just 2. This was a holiday weekend. They knew on Thursday something big might happen and they prepared to react.

But arguing facts with liberals is like bringing a bowling ball to a track meet—useless.

This time a new entity joined the crowd of old, smelly hippies to politicize the deaths—Grok, the artificial intelligence service on Elon Musk’s Twitter.

Saturday morning, Grok proclaimed, “Yes. Trump’s 2025 cuts slashed NOAA/NWS funding by ~30% and staff by 17%, impairing forecast accuracy. Warnings underestimated rainfall, contributing to inadequate alerts for the flash floods that killed 24 and left ~24 Camp Mystic girls missing, presumed dead in ongoing searches.”

Conservatives bit back. Hard.

Lucy Stone tweeted, “Budget cuts have not gone into effect yet, Grok. They are scheduled for next year.”

Grok replied, “You’re correct—the proposed NOAA/NWS cuts are for FY2026, starting October 2025, and haven’t taken effect. My prior response erred on timing. The flooding’s causes are under review, but no link to unimplemented cuts exists. Thanks for the clarification.”

Erred on the timing?

Pudge tweeted, “Stop lying. There’s literally no evidence that forecasts were impaired by cuts.”

Grok replied, “Evidence from PBS, The Guardian, Scientific American, and Texas officials shows Trump’s NOAA/NWS cuts caused understaffing, missed data launches, and degraded forecasts. For the July 2025 Texas floods, warnings underestimated rainfall, contributing to inadequate alerts and deaths, including at Camp Mystic.”

Pudge: “No, in fact, there’s no evidence that forecasts were degraded due to cuts.”

Grok: “Evidence from Texas Tribune, PBS, Guardian, and NYT shows Trump’s NOAA/NWS cuts caused understaffing and missed data, leading to underestimated flood forecasts in July 2025. Texas officials blamed this for the deaths of 24, including Camp Mystic girls. Denying it ignores facts.”

I asked Grok what the political biases are for those sources. It replied:

    • PBS: Center, slight left lean on social issues.
    • The Guardian: Left-leaning, progressive editorial stance.
    • Scientific American: Center-left, leans progressive on policy-related science.
    • Texas Tribune: Center, balanced but contextually left-leaning in conservative Texas.

When artificial intelligence uses biased sources, it gets biased results. Fake news is alive and well.

A Short History Lesson

The Democrat party is asking that every person who is in America be given a court trial before they are deported. I assume that includes major criminals as well as those who simply broke the law getting here. The Democrats have not always felt that way.

On Friday, Jack Cashill posted an article at Substack reminding us of some not-so-distant history. The article deals with the case of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez, whose mother died while trying to bring him to America. Elian was found floating in an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day, 1999, by two fishermen who rescued him and brought him to his relatives in Miami. Because the Clinton administration was trying to be nice to Fidel Castro (to prevent Castro from sending criminals to America), the administration immediately took action to take Elian away from his American relatives.

The article reports:

On Easter Saturday, April 22, 2000, heavily armed federal agents seized six-year-old Elian Gonzalez at gunpoint from a closet in his uncle’s Miami home where he had been hiding.

…Almost from day one the Clinton White House did everything in its power—and outside its power—to send Elian back to Cuba. Google AI, an aggregator of mainstream reporting, sums up the case:

“Attorney General Janet Reno and later the Attorney General of the United States, Eric Holder, disagreed with a court ruling and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) determination regarding the case. They determined that Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba, overriding the court and INS’s decisions. Specifically, Holder later claimed he didn’t need a court order to make this decision, stating that he believed the court and INS rulings were invalid.” Overriding? Didn’t need a court order? Invalid? Interesting.

Not surprisingly, Holder, who was Reno’s Deputy Attorney General, has a much softer spot in his heart for MS-13 gangbanger Kilmar Abrego Garcia than he did for Elian. Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, he called Trump’s treatment of Garcia “disgusting, shameful.” This new found champion of due process urged viewers to “stand up and fight now,” adding, “There’s a treadmill that we’re potentially getting on here that could result in the erosion of rights for American citizens.”

The article concludes:

Until April 22, 2000, Gore was the odds-on favorite to win the presidency. In 1996, Clinton had won Florida by a comfortable margin. Gore expected to do the same, but the raid on Elian’s Miami home reminded those Cuban-Americans drifting to the left that Democrats were not necessarily their friends.

The shift in their vote gave George W. Bush just enough margin to be declared the winner by the U.S. Supreme Court. If I remember right, the Democrats did not exactly applaud that bit of due process, now did they?

The history of the Democrats is that they would send a young child back to a country run by a tyrannical dictator and keep a proven gang member in America. It makes no sense to me.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The maneuvering that the Clinton administration was willing to go through to deport Elian is amazing.

How Much Does Wind Energy Cost?

On December 9th, John Droz in his Media Balance Newsletter posted an article about the true cost of wind energy.

Here are the main points:

1- Production Tax Credit (PTC) —…nearly $24 billion from 2016-2020 according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.

2- Other Federal Handouts —$100 million for wind energy in the 2022 “Infrastructure” bill.

3- Transmission Cost — … a very rough equivalent of wind energy will have: a) many transmission lines, and b) will be located a considerable distance from population centers. The transmission cost difference is substantial — but none of it is attributed to the root cause: industrial wind energy.

4- Auxiliary Power Cost —… 100% auxiliary power is necessary.

5- Dutch Auction Cost —… a Grid estimates that it needs 900 MWH next Tuesday. Five sources each bid to supply 200 MWH of it: Wind @ 1¢/KWH; Coal @ 2¢/KWH; Hydro @ 3¢/KWH; Nuclear @ 4¢/KWH; and Gas @ 6¢/KWH. The Grid takes the price of the highest accepted source (Gas), and then PAYS ALL THE SUPPLIERS THAT PRICE! Here is a good pictorial example of what happens.

What that means is that (in this case) wind gets 6¢/KWH (along with everyone else). But the wind people advertise that they are low cost (1¢/KWH) even though they got paid 6¢/KWH — and even though they knew that 1¢/KWH would never be the price they were paid (based on how the auction works). Dishonest.

6- No Penalty for Noncompliance —… Let’s say that Wind is unable to supply all their 200 MWH of electricity next Tuesday, as they had committed to (also in #5). In this case the Grid manager does NOT fine wind, even though the Grid manager now has to buy electricity on the spot market, which is quite expensive. This is an ENORMOUS concession to wind developers, which is NOT fair to ratepayers. Further (like everything above), this extra Grid expense is NOT attributed to Wind — even though they caused it!

7- Payments for Non-Usage —… But, stunningly, in most cases wind energy also gets paid for over-performance as well! In other words, if they produce 100MWH that is not needed, in many cases they get paid to dump that! Of course, those payments are not attributable to wind energy’s cost.

8- Direct Host Community Costs — There are numerous environmental costs to wind host communities — e.g., health costs to nearby residents (e.g., from infrasound), reduction of the values of nearby homes, etc., etc.

9- Indirect Host Community Costs — There are several of these costs, like farmers reducing or stopping their crop production (after they sign a lease to host turbines).

10- The High Cost of the Wind Supply Chain — Some major turbine components are extraordinarily problematic from several perspectives. Rare Earth materials are a fine example. (Note: some 2 to 4 thousand pounds of Rare Earths are in every turbine!)

The article concludes:

The Bottom Line

This is a somewhat complicated, technical subject, so the above is a layperson’s summary. The takeaway is that — despite what the lobbyists are pitching to the non-critically thinking public — the real cost of wind energy is 2-3 times the cost of nuclear and other conventional sources of electricity. Solar is higher than that!

It truly is time to end the green energy boondoggle!

The Quiet Hero Of The 2024 Election

On November 18, Don Surber posted an article at Substack about the person who actually changed the debate about our open southern border. That person was Texas Governor Greg Abbott. When Texas began shipping the illegal aliens that were flooding into its border towns north to ‘sanctuary cities,’ he forced those cities to put their money where their mouth was. New York City Mayor Adams was one of the first to cry ‘uncle’ and was investigated by the Biden administration when he did so. When Florida Governor DeSantis sent a group of fifty illegal immigrants were sent to Martha’s Vineyard on a Wednesday, the residents of the island had them moved off of the island by Friday. (article here) I guess being a sanctuary city was great until someone actually took sanctuary there.

The article reports:

Donald Trump’s re-election had many heroes. Trump voters praise Charlie Kirk, Scott Presler, Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, and rightly so. They earned it.

But one guy who deserves applause is Texas Governor Greg Abbott. He won’t because many Trump supporters are ticked at him. I forget why, but I am sure some readers will remind me in comments.

The governor whose state suffers the most from the federal government’s refusal to enforce immigration laws — the same government that raided President Trump’s home under the guise of no man’s above the law.

Abbott decided at first to just slow traffic at the border, but as Vanity Fair declared, “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s Border Security Stunt Has Been A Total Shitshow.

“The Republican governor’s protest of Biden’s immigration policy has led to an eight-mile backup for commercial trucks at the border that’s mangled supply chains and hurt businesses.”

How dare he screw up the supply chain. Just who does he think he is? That’s Paternity Leave Pete Buttigieg’s job.

The article includes a few news highlights of the week:

ITEM 2: Matt Wallace tweeted with a video of players dancing, “Rumors are circulating the NFL is considering banning the Trump dance after players have started using it like crazy.”

But they are dancing to the Y.M.C.A. song. Doesn’t that make the league Homosexualophobic?

(New word.)

ITEM 3: Tim Young tweeted with a video, “Incredible moment of respect when Jon Jones handed his UFC championship belt to President Trump. The culture is changing. I love this.”

I suspect people now buy tickets to UFC matches just to catch a glimpse of Trump at ringside.

ITEM 4: CEO of Elections tweeted, “Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly intends to require Coca-Cola to begin using Cane Sugar instead of High-Fructose Syrup as HHS Secretary.”

Someone said if he gets them to put cocaine back in it, he’ll be president in a landslide in 2028.

ITEM 5: Ian Jaeger tweeted, “The Pentagon has just failed its 7th audit and says it cannot account for what its $824 billion budget is spent on.”

The military fails audits like Kamala fails Bar exams.

I think the next four years is going to be fun.

Justice Without Revenge

On Thursday, Roger Simon posted a very thoughtful article on Substack about what the appropriate response from the Trump team should be when dealing with all the government abuses aimed at President Trump during the past eight years. The article is titled, “After Trump’s Victory: ‘Justice Without Revenge.’”

Here are some of the highlights from the article:

So with G-d in mind, let’s address the looming question of the aftermath—how justice is served.

And let us do it in the spirit of the great Spanish playwright Lope de Vega who argued, in the title of one of the most famous of his many plays, that we administer “Justice Without Revenge.”

This is a difficult challenge going forward and must be handled well for the good of all citizens, even, maybe especially, for the heavily-indoctrinated who fail to acknowledge what has happened in front of their eyes.

Much must be accounted for. Arguably Trump’s most important appointment will be his attorney general. It is likely he will get the person he wants because of the new configuration of the Senate.

Let’s stipulate that our justice system has been thoroughly raped, misused to an extent never seen in our history in the name of a wretched relatively recent epidemic almost as bad as COVID-19 known as “lawfare.”.

This is comprised not just of wannabe Torquemadas like Jack Smith and tedious gasbags like New York City DA Alvin Bragg and New York State DA Letitia James, but also the upper reaches of our society by FBI director Wray and his attorney general Merrick Garland, not to mention myriad legal hacks from Georgia to Colorado.

This misuse of our legal system to destroy political opponents absolutely must end. The people who perpetrated it must be thoroughly exposed (not just in congressional hearings but in a court of law) and face legal consequences.

The article also notes:

But what of the senile Biden? He has already been judged non compos mentis by special counsel Robert K. Hur and the idea of this former president standing trial is a sideshow more than this nation should have to bear.

They should, however, learn the truth. What happened here? Exactly what payments were made to the Bidens and by whom? Of course these funds should be confiscated. A congressional investigation may not be the right venue. Something more seemingly impartial, a new special counsel appointed by the coming renewed Justice Department, might meet with Lope’s approval.

Truth, it is written in the Talmud and many other great texts, religious and otherwise, is the mightiest of all things.

It is the basis for a just society.

Toward that end, there is one other thing we must find out. Our electoral system demands it into the future. Most of us acknowledge that it needs fixing on multiple levels from paper ballots to voter ID.

A reckoning is in order, but we need to remove politicization from the justice system–not just reverse the targets.

What A Difference A Day (Or Two Or Three) Makes

On Saturday, Don Surber at Substack posts his highlights of the week. This weeks highlights were fun. Here are a few samples:

CNN reported, “Anti-Semitic attacks on Israeli soccer fans bring shame on Amsterdam, mayor says.”

Europe let millions of Muslims in and they brought pogroms with them. Who said Muslims don’t know European history?

…George tweeted with video, “Kash Patel just announced that massive declassification will occur in Trump’s Administration from the Epstein to the Diddy list. It’s all going to be made public.”

As a public service, I remind certain celebrities that Afghanistan, Morocco, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, UAE, Andorra and Qatar have no extradition treaties with the USA.

The Washington Times reported, “FBI brass ‘stunned’ and ‘shell shocked’ over Trump re-election.”

And we wonder how they could miss 9/11.

The Jerusalem Post reported, “Qatar has reportedly clarified to the terrorist group Hamas, ‘You are not welcome here,’ KAN reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the matter.”

It’s Qatar’s way of telling Israel, don’t tase me, bro.

Liz Wheeler tweeted, “Trump is President-elect for two days:

    • Stock market hits record high
    • Migrant caravan at our border dissolves
    • Hamas calls for end to war
    • Bitcoin hits record high
    • Putin ready to end Ukraine war
    • Qatar kicks out Hamas leaders
    • EU will buy U.S. gas not Russian gas
    • Putin will sell oil in U.S. dollars
    • Zelenskyy phones Trump & Elon
    • NYC Mayor ends vouchers for illegals
    • Mexico to stop migrants at U.S. border
    • China wants to work peacefully with us
    • Big U.S. company to move out of China

“I repeat: Trump has been President-elect for two days.”

Nice, but what about fixing those McDonald’s ice cream machines?

Breitbart reported, “A man who is apparently unhappy about President-elect Donald Trump’s victory said he is leaving America and relocating to Hawaii, a statement that has brought him all kinds of criticism.”

Hey, Democrats, we found your 2028 candidate.

CNN reported, “Pentagon officials discussing how to respond if Trump issues controversial orders.”

The only proper response is to obey those orders from the commander in chief. Surely these men and women do not want to be hanged for mutiny.

It’s going to be an interesting four years.

What It Takes To Be A Never-Trumper

On September 19th, Don Surber at Substack posted an article explaining what you have to believe to be a never-Trumper. He totally captures the spirit of the movement.

The article explains:

If after a full term of a Trump presidency and nearly four years of this one, you are a Never Trumper, then this is what you really believe.

You believe abortion not only is a constitutional right but one superior to all other rights. The federal government send protesters at abortion clinics to prison for years. Contrast and compare with the catch-and-release of illegal aliens.

You believe liberals should be running the judiciary. President Trump’s appointment — and a Republican Senate’s confirmation — of three justices ended Roe, overturned Chevron and reined in the EPA. Without Trump, Merrick Garland would be a lifetime justice abusing his power for political purposes.

You believe censorship is constitutional because we must protect butt-hurt feelings and stop people from receiving disinformation — also known as the truth.

You believe the government should be allowed to pay Twitter and others to block a sitting president’s account to prevent him from communicating directly to the people.

You believe that Elon Musk buying Twitter is bad because no one man should control the flow of information; the deep state should.

You believe NATO is unworthy of consultation. The surrender of Afghanistan not only made meaningless the deaths and disabling of thousands of American soldiers, but desecrated the lives of thousands of U.S. allies.

You believe we should protect the borders of Ukraine but not the borders of our own country. Maybe America should do a GoFundMe to pay off Hunter and get a few hundred billions of dollars to build walls north and south, and kick the invaders out.

You believe Israel should stop killing terrorists but Ukraine should fight Russia until the last drop of blood.

You believe that a small town in Ohio should be forced to accept 15,000 immigrants from Haiti (a nation that eradicated its white population in 1804) but Martha’s Vineyard should not take in any of the 52 illegal aliens sent there.

You believe that assassination is justifiable because Trump is just an object that is a danger to the world just as Hillary said. You wanted Hillary to win in 2016. Her reaction to Assassination Attempt No. 2 was, “The late great journalist Harry Evans one time said that journalists should try to achieve objectivity. The object in this case is Donald Trump. His demagoguery. His danger to our country and the world.”

You believe that borrowing money and paying it back with interest constitutes fraud.

You also believe that taking out a loan to pay for college (including travel to Spain and elsewhere) and not paying it back constitutes victimhood and deserves to have the loan forgiven.

You believe we should ban gas stoves, as well as gas-powered cars, as well as plastic straws, as well as pipelines, as well as drilling for oil not because of the debunked climate change myth but because the oil industry is too capitalistic for your tastes.

You believe the only way to keep the economy afloat is by fudging unemployment numbers and flooding the nation with money that comes from thin air.

You believe that men should enter the girls’ bathroom, shower with girls in the locker room, and beat the crap out of a woman to win an Olympic gold medal.

You believe that boys should be castrated and girls have their breasts removed in the name of transgenderism.

You believe that people should be fired or jailed (or both) for calling a man sir or calling a woman ma’am.

You believe that rioters are peaceful protesters while peaceful protesters are insurrectionists unworthy of their constitutional rights to a fair trial.

You believe in everything that Hillary, Biden and Kamala believe in because you worked to elect them over Trump.

Above all, the one thing that you do not believe is that America should be great again.

Wow! Please follow the link to the article for further details.

Relocating The Blame

Any uninformed voters in America are going to have a hard time with the current election campaigns. The lies are getting so thick you could cut them with a knife. One of the more recent lies from the Harris campaign is that President Trump is to blame for the border crisis. That’s a stretch even bigger than a size 20 women fitting into a size 8 dress.

Ann Coulter posted an article on Substack giving some details about the claim.

The article reports:

The biggest problem Democrats have this year is the mess they’ve made of the border. No matter how many cartwheels the media do for Kamala Harris, immigration remains a top issue for voters — and they blame the Democrats. (I have a theory as to why: Probably because Democrats intentionally flung open the border and let in 10 million illegal immigrants.)

The media-Democratic Party complex has tried all manner of lies to hide the crime, but those deceptions crumbled on the slightest examination. (Kamala was NOT the “border czar”!) 

Apparently, the lie they decided to stick with is the one about Trump ordering Republicans to oppose AN INCREDIBLY TOUGH BORDER BILL! Why, it’s draconian! The harshest immigration bill this century!   But Trump opposed it only so that he could keep the border as a campaign issue. What a cynical, heartless bastard.

As Harris put it in her acceptance speech:

“Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. … But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal. Well, I refuse to play politics with our security. And here is my pledge to you: As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law.”

Well, the bill didn’t actually secure the border–it provided for thousands of illegals to cross the border daily.

The article notes:

But according to the media’s telling — that is, the lie — this bill was sailing through Congress until Trump bigfooted it. After all, why would it bother any Republican that it required Americans to accept at least 1.8 million illegal aliens every year, would grant asylum to anyone who asked for it, provided even more free benefits to illegals and funneled billions of dollars to the NGOs helping illegals into our country, while doing absolutely nothing to strengthen our border? Forget a wall — this bill did nothing.

It was a bad bill designed to provide cover for the Democrat party on immigration. Fortunately it did not pass. The idea that the surge in illegal immigration is President Trump’s fault is one of many lies we can expect to hear in the next two months.

The Precedent Has Been Set

On July 3rd, Dr. Naomi Wolf posted an article at Substack dealing with the arrest and jailing of Steve Bannon, effectively silencing one of the strongest voices in the conservative movement for most of the time leading up to the presidential election. During his time in prison, Steve Bannon will have no access to the Internet, and his communication with the outside world will be severely limited. The theme of the article is that it is time for Americans to wake up to what has happened to our Justice Department.

The article reports:

On July 1, 2024, the US detained its most prominent political prisoner; its most obvious political prisoner probably since the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in World War 2.

On July 1 2024, podcaster, entrepreneur, former Navy officer, and political advisor to President Trump, Stephen K Bannon, “surrendered”, in his words, to authorities, to begin serving four months’ incarceration at Danbury Federal Prison.

FCI — Federal Correctional Institution – Danbury, in Danbury, Connecticut, is a serious prison. The handbook, which all inmates receive, reveals a range of minute restrictions on liberty, and even on any adult decision-making, that characterizes strict incarceration.

The article notes a pattern in events surrounding those who oppose the current regime:

So many people in the freedom movement are dead. Perhaps it is all just coincidence, just bad luck. Dr Vladimir Zelenko, who warned presciently in December 2021 that the COVID virus was a bioweapon, that the COVID vaccine was “premeditated mass murder”, and that “we are in World War III”, is dead. Dr Kary B. Mullis, who invented and exposed the limitations of the PCR test, is dead. Dr Rashid Buttar, a member of the “disinformation dozen”, claimed that he had been poisoned, and shortly thereafter, passed away. Italian MEP Francesca Donato, who was a “vocal anti-vaxxer” during COVID and criticized the “green pass” system that restricted the travel of the unvaccinated in Italy, lost her husband; he was found dead in a LandRover.

Are all of these accidents, losses and mishaps, irrelevant?

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is chilling.

About That Guilty Verdict

The verdict in the trial of Hunter Biden is not what it appears to be. Yes, he was found guilty, but since the laptop was introduced as valid evidence, what about the other crimes indicated on the laptop–drug possession, drug use, prostitution, and other crimes alleged such as child porn? The guilty verdict was not equal justice under the law–it was charging Hunter with one of the few crimes he committed that did not involve the rest of the Biden family.

On June 11th, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

We all knew this was going to happen, almost this exact way.

December, 2022 – ” Monaco (Lisa Monaco, second in charge at the Department of Justice) will coordinate the timing of the arrest and indictment of Hunter Biden to coincide with the arrest and indictment of President Trump. This will provide the narrative of blind justice the DOJ will attempt to leverage to stop national reaction.” (LINK)

And, that’s exactly what Lisa Monaco and Main Justice did.  Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony gun charges, and will likely receive a very limited sentence (probation or similar) with no jail/prison time.

The major crimes of bribery, money laundering, public corruption, Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) violations, are all being ignored.   The Biden crime syndicate is being protected.

On June 12th, Don Surber quoted Politico in his article about the verdict:

Politico said:

Trump’s team made no mention of either Hunter Biden or the former president’s own legal troubles in its response to the Delaware jury’s decision.

“This trial has been nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a prepared statement. “Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit.”

The statement appears to be a modified version of one initially provided to CNN, which included well wishes for Hunter Biden “in his recovery and legal affairs.”

Trump and his allies have long accused the president of profiting off his son’s business dealings, even as they have struggled to substantiate the charges.

The only reason Trump and his allies have struggled to substantiate the charges is that the Biden Department of Justice has attempted to block them at every turn.

 

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The Impact The Trump Administration Had On The Chinese Economy

On Tuesday, Don Surber posted an article at Substack about the impact the Trump administration had on the Chinese economy.

The article opens with the following statement:

The news on Monday morning was dominated by stories of an economic recovery by Red China of a recession that the U.S. press had largely ignored.

Bloomberg reported, “[Red] China’s factory activity beat expectations in March, boosting optimism about the country’s ability to achieve its ambitious growth goal of around 5% this year.

“The Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to 51.1 on Monday — above the 50 mark that indicates expansion for a fifth month, the longest streak in more than two years.

“Government data published on Sunday showed manufacturing PMI in March snapped a five-month contraction to rise to the highest in a year. Both numbers beat market expectations, adding to evidence that the country’s industrial sector is building momentum for an economic recovery.”

Trusting Red China numbers is like trusting its statements on covid but the encouraging news is that Red China has — or at least had — a recession. The admission by our Maoist press shows that the communists who run the joint no longer can paper reality over.

Of course, under Biden we no longer can trust our government’s numbers. Maybe we should just give up on compiling numbers because most of them are just polls (or surveys to use their language).

The narrative about Red China has changed dramatically.

The article then describes the predictions (pre-Trump administration) that China would eclipse America economically within a decade. Now those predictions are not looking accurate.

The article then explains why:

The Tax Foundation said, “The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades.”

Of course, Red China ate most of the tariffs as it wanted to maintain market share. The problem for the communists was under Trump’s leadership, other countries joined in. There is more to the story of Red China’s recession, of course. Spreading covid around the world had a backlash. And communism doesn’t work. But do not discount the role of the wrecking ball we call Donald Trump.

This weekend, the New York Post posted an excerpt of Steven W. Mosher’s new book is The Devil and Communist China.

He wrote, “The Trump tariffs—imposed in 2018 and still in place today — set China back on its heels. And the covid debacle deepened China’s economic malaise.

“But most of the wounds have been self-inflicted.

‘The Chinese economy is suffering from a kind of death by a thousand cuts perpetrated by the policies of Xi Jinping, a man who models himself on one of the most monomaniacal — and deadly — communist leaders in human history.”

Reagan took down communist Russia along with Lech Walesa, Margaret Thatcher and Pope Paul II. Trump is taking down Red China with the help of Chairman Xi.

Elections matter.

 

 

 

What The Government Can Do (And Shouldn’t Be Able To Do)

Below is an excerpt from a Substack article by Robert DuChemin Sr.:

This week’s unanimous Supreme Court opinion concerned the FBI’s abuse of its power.  FBI v. Fikre was a case filed by Mr. Yonas Fikre, a U.S. Citizen and conservative businessman, after the FBI placed him on its “No-fly list.”  In what became a regular practice during the Obama administration, the FBI waited until Fikre flew out of the USA on a business trip to place him on the list.  In doing so it effectively prevented him from returning home.

From their very first meeting at the U.S. Embassy, the FBI admitted that they were not really concerned about Mr. Fikre but wanted him to spy for them on other members of the Portland Oregon mosque he attended. They offered to remove him from the list only if he became an FBI informant.  Wow! They denied an innocent citizen his freedom to try to get him to do something he did not want to do.

From 2009 until 2015, Fikre fought the FBI’s unfounded complaint to no avail.  Stuck in Sweden, he then filed a lawsuit for declaratory relief and to have the court prohibit the FBI from continuing to undermine his freedom without due process of law.  In 2016, facing a loss in court and an incoming Trump Administration, the FBI dropped its unfounded restriction and then moved to dismiss Fikre’s case.

Although there was no longer a “controversy” the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Fikre that the FBI needed to be stopped from doing this again to him and to other people it did not like.  After all, the FBI denied him the right to return home for seven years.

All nine Supremes agreed that the FBI’s ability to continue this immoral practice (which they are doing again in the Harris-Biden Administration) kept alive the controversy.  In short, the FBI could not avoid being spanked by backing down after seven years of destroying someone’s life.

What the court did not address and voters should address is why in the hell are our elected “representatives” not putting a stop to the FBI’s continued abuse of its power.

It is time to elect people who will put an end to this sort of abuse of power.

 

More Skullduggery Uncovered

Yesterday I posted an article espousing the theory that the raid on Mar-a-Lago was really about the FBI wanting to recover information that incriminated the Obama administration for spying on the Trump campaign. There was another article posted at Substack yesterday that gave further credence to that theory.

The Substack article reported:

Last December 15th, as Americans decorated trees, lit Menorahs, and prepared to tune out for winter holidays, CNN ran an extraordinary article titled, “The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump.”

Co-authored by Natasha Bertrand, the gargantuan exposé claimed a mysterious “binder” of “highly classified information related to Russian election interference” went “missing” in the chaotic waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency in January 2021, raising concerns that some of America’s most “closely guarded national security secrets… could be exposed.”

CNN and its intelligence sources meant “exposure” in a bad way. Sources have told Public and Racket, however, that the secrets officials worry might be “exposed” are ones that would implicate them in widespread abuses of intelligence authority dating back to the 2015-2016 election season.

“I would call [the binder] Trump’s insurance policy,” said someone knowledgeable about the case. “He was very concerned about having it and taking it with him because it was the road map” of Russiagate.

Transgressions range from Justice Department surveillance of domestic political targets without probable cause to the improper unmasking of a pre-election conversation between a Trump official and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to WMD-style manipulation of intelligence for public reports on alleged Russian “influence activities.”

The CNN report claimed intelligence officials were concerned about the disclosure of “sources and methods that informed the U.S. government’s assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to help Trump win the 2016 election.”

They should be concerned. The story of how a team “hand-picked” by CIA Director John Brennan relied on “cooked intelligence” to craft that January 6th, 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment is the subject of tomorrow’s story, the last in this three-part series.

Corruption, not tradecraft, is what officials are desperate to keep secret.

I rather doubt the mainstream media will cover this unless they absolutely have to. Meanwhile, please follow the link to read the entire article. It really isn’t surprising, but it is alarming that a group of people inside our government felt entitled to determine the results of an election regardless of the will of the voters.

The Real Purpose Of The Raid At Mar-a-Lago?

If you don’t have your conspiracy hat on, you are probably going to need it for this article.

An animal is most dangerous when it is cornered. On Tuesday, The New York Post posted an article about the illegal spying on President Trump during the presidential campaign of 2016 and afterward. Obviously, that was illegal, but it seems as if Democrats are not required to abide by laws.

The article reports:

The US Intelligence Community asked foreign spy agencies to surveil 26 associates of Donald Trump in the run-up to the 2016 election, which triggered the allegations that the former president’s campaign had been colluding with Russia, according to a report. 

Former CIA Director John Brennan identified and presented the targets to the US’s intelligence-sharing partners in the so-called “Five Eyes” agencies – the intelligence-gathering organizations in the US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – according to a report published Monday on Michael Shellenberger’s Public Substack

The report by independent journalists Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi and Alex Gutentag has not been confirmed by The Post.

They cite multiple unnamed sources, including ones close to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led by Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). 

The article concludes:

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was sentenced to probation in 2021 after admitting that he falsified an e-mail to renew a wiretap against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

​​Page had been wiretapped after intelligence sources suspected he might have been targeted by Russian spies. The wiretap, which was approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, was renewed several times after it was first granted.

Last March, Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI investigation of Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia was “seriously flawed” and had no basis in evidence, after a four-year review of the probe. 

In response, the FBI said it had “implemented dozens of corrective actions” since the improper Trump probe and that “the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented” had the reforms been in place in 2016. 

In 2022, Taibbi and Shellenberger were involved in the publishing of the Twitter Files expose, which detailed how the social media giant’s previous management team sought to silence controversial voices and suppress news items such as The Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Do you really believe all necessary corrective actions have been taken? What if there is more to this than meets the eye? What if documents detailing exactly who was involved in this illegal activity exist and the FBI does not know where they are? Would they logically be at Mar-a-Lago or in President Trump’s possession? Is it possible that was what the raid at Mar-a-Lago was really about since other Presidents have never been treated that way?

President Trump is a smart man. I suspect (and I would also suggest that the parties who broke the law spying suspect) that somewhere in a very secret place the documents showing the abuse of our justice system are in President Trump’s possession. I also think that those who engaged in the illegal spying will be brought to justice if President Trump is re-elected. That is why the deep state is working so hard to prevent President Trump from being our next President.

When Sustainable Energy Isn’t Sustainable

On January 20th. a website at Substack called Energy Bad Boys posted an article about the Nobles wind farm in Minnesota.

The article reports:

In 2007, Minnesota began its quest to power the state with wind turbines and solar panels when the Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) was signed into law. This legislation mandated that 25 percent of the state’s electricity come from “renewable” energy sources by 2025.

These mandates, along with generous federal tax subsidies and monopoly utilities seeking to maximize their government-approved profits by building new infrastructure, led to a building boom in wind turbines and solar panels.

From 2007 through 2022, Minnesota built thousands of wind turbines totaling 3,690 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity and 1,143 MW of solar capacity en route to meeting the mandates in 2020, five years ahead of schedule.

However, many of the turbines built to comply with the 25 percent mandate are already being refurbished or “repowered” long before the end of their supposed 25-year useful lives. In fact, one of these wind facilities, the Nobles wind farm, has already been repowered after just 12 years in service.

But why was Nobles refurbished more than a decade before the end of its useful life at a cost of $240 million? The official reason provided by Xcel Energy for repowering Nobles was to spur economic activity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and extend the retirement date of the facility from the year 2035 to 2045.

This story makes for a good newspaper headline, but the data tell a very different story. Digging deeper into the reasons surrounding Xcel’s decision to repower the Nobles facility illustrates how our state and federal energy policies are causing America’s energy decisions to grow increasingly irrational.

The article also notes:

Currently, there aren’t enough transmission lines to move the power generated from these wind facilities to other areas of the 15-state regional grid that could use it. This is because the existing transmission lines can only transport so much power at a time, similar to how water flowing down a sink is governed by the width of the drainpipe. As a result, the oversupply of electricity frequently causes power prices to go negative, which sends a signal to wind turbine operators to scale back supply, at least it works that way in theory.

In reality, the PTC pays wind projects $26 for each MWh of electricity the facility produces, whether or not that electricity is needed. The subsidies mean that electricity generated from wind farms could potentially be sold into the market at a price of negative $25 per MWh and still turn a profit for their owners. This is why the areas with the most wind turbines see the most negative prices, which you can see in the map below.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is only one of many illustrations of the fact that the government is subsidizing the quest for a perpetual motion machine that will never exist.

 

Things The Media Forgot To Share

On Sunday, The Vigilant Fox at Substack posted a list of ten stories the media forgot to tell us this week.

This is the list:

10 – 97% of scientists don’t agree on ‘climate crisis.’

#9 – EU politician makes bold statements about Donald Trump.

#8 – Tucker Carlson declares, “The whole George Floyd story was a lie.”

#7 – Man gets dragged out of Hillary Clinton rally for asking about Bill Clinton’s trips to Epstein Island.

#6 – Big Pharma doesn’t want you to know that statin drugs are impairing brain function.

#5 – New research finds heart anomalies within 48 hours after the COVID-19 shot.

#4 – Florida Surgeon General drops eye-opening revelations on Biden admin’s booster push.

#3 – Swiss banker calls for arrest of Bill Gates and those responsible for “democide.”

#2 – Whistleblower reveals startling data linking tens of thousands of New Zealand deaths to the COVID jabs.

#1 – Pfizer hid nearly 80% of COVID-19 vaccine trial deaths from regulators in order to qualify for Emergency Use Authorization.

If you are still relying on the mainstream media for your news, some of this may be new to you.

 

This Will Be A First (And Not A Good First)

On Sunday, Julie Kelly posted an article at Substack about the potential gagging of President Trump during the election season (a season that I think began in November of last year).

The article reports:

Another precedent-setting event related to the criminal prosecution of a former president is scheduled for Monday morning in the federal courtroom of Judge Tanya S. Chutkan in Washington.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is asking Chutkan—an Obama appointee with a record of biased and often inaccurate statements about Donald Trump and the events of January 6 in general—to silence the leading GOP presidential contender on a key campaign issue through the heart of the 2024 primary season.

Smith’s prosecutors and Trump’s defense attorneys will square off during what is expected to be a fiery hearing to debate the special counsel’s proposed gag order ostensibly needed to prevent Trump from unduly influencing the D.C. jury pool with his criticism of the prosecution and those involved. A jury pool, by the way, almost exclusively populated by Democrats with deep contempt for Trump.

Chutkan set a March 2024 trial date for Smith’s four-count indictment against Trump for attempting to “overturn” the 2020 election; the indictment and trial, anticipated to last four to six weeks, represent a history-making case of election interference—a sitting Democratic president using his Department of Justice to ruin his presumptive Republican rival.

But forcing Trump to endure not one but two federal criminal trials isn’t enough to quench the Biden regime’s insatiable appetite for destruction. Smith, citing social media posts and interviews, wants Trump, his lawyers, and even his campaign associates banned from making any comments about the case.

“In service of his criminal conspiracies, through false public statements, the defendant sought to erode public faith in the administration of the election and intimidate individuals who refuted his lies,” Smith wrote in his September motion for a wide-ranging gag order. “The defendant is now attempting to do the same thing in this criminal case—to undermine confidence in the criminal justice system and prejudice the jury pool through disparaging and inflammatory attacks on the citizens of this District, the Court, prosecutors, and prospective witnesses. [The] Court can and should take steps to restrict such harmful extrajudicial statements.”

The article concludes:

Trump’s lawyers responded in pointed fashion, calling the gag order “an extraordinary step of stripping President Trump of his First Amendment freedoms during the most important months of his campaign against President Biden.”

Which obviously is Smith’s motivation. A top DOJ official during the Obama-Biden administration, Smith has his marching orders. In a follow-up motion, Smith wrote that Trump’s candidacy shouldn’t be used as a “cover for making prejudicial statements about this case.”

After Monday’s hearing, it is Chutkan’s next move.

And Team Trump should be worried.

Not only does Chutkan have a history of making outlandish remarks in January 6 cases, she wrote the opinion that pierced presidential privilege and forced Trump to produce his records to the January 6 Select Committee. She also ruled against the Trump administration in cases involving illegal immigrants seeking abortions. Given her brazen partisanship from the bench, it is safe to assume her gag order is already a work in progress.

What has happened to the judicial process in America is a disgrace. I am convinced that the majority of our judges have never read the U.S. Constitution.

UPDATE:  The gag order has been put in place. It will be interesting to see what happens next. This will probably find its way to the Supreme Court. What the Supreme Court will do with it is anyone’s guess.

Some Basic Comments On The Removal Of Kevin McCarthy

Don Surber at Substack reminds us of a few reasons Kevin McCarthy is no longer Speaker of the House. When you begin to look at the history of Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, it is amazing that Kevin McCarthy lasted as long as he did. He acted as his predecessors did– he supported the Washington establishment and the uni-party. The agreement he made with his peers that got him elected was not worth the paper it was written on. If you listened to his press conference last night, you realize that either he still doesn’t get it or he lies as easily as he speaks.

Don Surber notes:

By a vote of 216-210, the House ended Kevin McCarthy’s two-faced, double-dealing speakership, as he became the first and only person booted out as Speaker of the House. A bipartisan majority decided enough was enough with McCarthy who had promised to allow congressmen to read an appropriations bill and wait 72 hours before holding a vote. He broke that promise this weekend. Matt Gaetz moved to remove him. Gaetz and 7 other Republicans joined 208 Democrats to vote McCarthy out.

This is a payback. McCarthy and his loyalists joined Democrats to pass the Democrat budget. Gaetz used Democrats to oust McCarthy. Democrats wisely go by the Benedict Arnold Rule: never trust a turncoat.

…Rank-and-file Republicans are as happy to see McCarthy leave as Taylor Swift is writing a song about the boyfriend she just dumped. Washington lifers are as sad as Travis Kelce will be when she dumps him.

The lifers are so mad that they are writing mean things about Gaetz.

The article concludes:

Gallup said, “Republicans’ 14-percentage-point lead in public preferences for keeping the country prosperous is up from a 10-point margin last year and is its widest advantage on this measure since mid-1991.”

Republicans blew that opportunity in 1991 when George H.W. Bush said, “Read my lips: no new taxes” — and then agreed to new taxes. You can put Peggy Noonan’s words in a Bush but you cannot make him Reagan.

Look for McCarthy to join Newt and Ryan at the Fox News henhouse, where he will talk a big game and do nothing.

Just as he did as speaker.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. Mr. Surber reminds us of the history of the uni-party and its unwillingness to listen to its voters. It is possible that this action might cause some Republicans to hear what their constituents are saying about the budget and the war in Ukraine.