Tag Archives: The Hill

Someone Needs To Do This

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On Monday, The Hill posted an article reporting that President Trump announced that America will be taking steps to insure the security of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

The article reports:

President Trump said Monday that the U.S.’s naval blockade on the Strait of Hormuz will be reinstated as Washington and Tehran fight for control of the crucial waterway after strikes were exchanged over the weekend.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving.”

“All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait,” he said, adding that the U.S. will be known as “the Guardian of the Hormuz Strait.”

Trump said the U.S. will be “reimbursed” 20 percent on all cargo shipped “as a matter of FAIRNESS” for the security needed.

“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” he wrote. “The process and formation will begin immediately.”

If our military is guarding the Strait and making the use of it available to other countries, we need to be compensated. Hopefully we will see regime change in Iran at some point and will no longer need American forces to protect the Strait.

The article notes:

Iran, for its part, has pushed back, saying the strait is theirs and they “will not allow a rogue and child-killing army from the other side of the world to continue its illegal interference in it,” according to The Associated Press.

According to factually.co:

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), waterways used for international navigation where no reasonable alternative exists are classified as “international straits” and are subject to transit passage, which prioritizes uninterrupted navigation and limits coastal-state control [3][5]. Many legal scholars and Western governments treat Hormuz as such an international strait and therefore argue transit passage applies as a matter of customary international law and UNCLOS interpretation [7][8]. Iran, however, asserts broader rights within its territorial sea and has claimed the ability to suspend passage or regulate traffic, invoking older legal doctrines and the fact that it has not ratified UNCLOS—an argument that complicates treaty-based enforcement.

It is obviously in the interests of most of the world to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. America is probably the only country in the world that has the military muscle to do that.

UPDATE: Further negotiations have resulted in the 20% toll being by significant investment in America by Middle Eastern countries.

The World Is Rapidly Changing

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It will be a while before we truly realize the aftershocks of what is happening in Iran. It may be a while before we know what is actually happening in Iran, but the impact of what has happened so far will be felt for a long time. I believe the war in Iran began with the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. That attack ended the idea of a peaceful Palestinian state, which Gaza was established to be. Once that illusion was shattered, and Israel realized how vulnerable it was, the war with Iran was inevitable whether or not America approved or got involved. The issue became the survival of Israel. Since the war began, other Arab states have realized that they are not immune from the terrorist activities of Iran. The region in gradually reshaping itself into a more modern, economically bonded region.

On Tuesday, The Hill reported:

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the country’s government said on Tuesday. 

The country will officially exit OPEC and its broader OPEC+ association on May 1 following the government’s internal review of its production policy, according to UAE state media, WAM. 

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production, and reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets,” WAM reported.

The move marks a major change for the permanent intergovernmental organization, which sets uniform petroleum policies among its member countries with the mission of maintaining stable global oil markets.

The UAE first joined OPEC seven years after its founding in 1960 under the emirate of Abu Dhabi, and it has been a vital member of the intergovernmental organization. The country’s exit follows UAE officials’ complaints about OPEC’s quotas and the country’s reported clashes with the organization’s de-facto leader, Saudi Arabia.

This decision is also the result of the fact that America is not only energy independent–we are exporting oil. Saudi Arabia no longer has the sway that it once had. The energy market is now every man for himself. It will be interesting to see what impact this has on crude oil prices.

This Is Unacceptable

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Iran has been at war with America since 1979. President Trump finally decided to answer the call other Presidents have ignored or bribed their way out of answering. America (and Israel) are in the process of returning Iran to the Persians and strongly encouraging Iran to be a positive addition to the nations of the world. The American Democrat party is not interested in any of that–they just want to score political points.

On April 15th, The Hill reported:

House Democrats will introduce five articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, accusing him of war crimes in connection with the Iran war, abuse of power and mishandling of the Department of Defense (DOD).

Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), the first Iranian American Democrat in Congress, will introduce the impeachment resolution, Axios reported after it obtained a copy of the resolution.

Notice that the charges were introduced by an Iranian America. Her biography says that she is also a climate activist. It is interesting that in the current Iran, she would not be allowed to serve in the government.

The article notes:

Ansari announced last week that she was filing articles of impeachment, which are almost certain to go nowhere in the GOP-controlled House. She accused Hegseth of being “complicit” in President Trump’s “devastating, illegal war” in Iran.

The first article accuses Hegseth of violating his oath of office in overseeing an “unauthorized war against Iran and reckless endangerment of United States service members.” The resolution goes on to accuse the secretary of war crimes by targeting civilians and breaking the rules of armed conflict, followed by the alleged mishandling of sensitive information.

…The administration pushed back on the claims made in the resolution. Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement to The Hill that it was “just another Democrat trying to make headlines as the Department of War decisively and overwhelmingly achieved the President’s objectives in Iran.”

“Secretary Hegseth will continue to protect the homeland and project peace through strength,” Wilson wrote. “This is just another charade in an attempt to distract the American people from the major successes we have had here at the Department of War.”

The actions of Representative Ansari during a time of war are despicable.

One Unexpected Positive Consequence Of The Shutdown

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On Friday, The Hill posted an article about what may be the only positive result of the shutdown–some of the corruption in our government may actually be dealt with!

The article reports:

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud. 

The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”

…Every state has a periodic recertification process that requires SNAP or food stamp recipients to update their whereabouts and earnings, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most municipalities require updated data every six to 12 months. 

The article concludes:

More than 41 million Americans rely on the benefits to buy groceries, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

However, Rollins told Newsmax that 120 Americans have been arrested for committing SNAP fraud and on Thursday told CNN the program was “corrupt.”

“These are the things that we’re uncovering that, for years, no one has really ever dug into because the feds didn’t have the system in place to do it. But we do now,” the secretary told Newsmax.

“The president has made this a priority,” she added. “We will fix this program.”

Imagine how many taxpayer dollars could be saved if we stopped all of the cheating in government programs.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

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The government shutdown continues. The Democrats refuse to pass a clean continuing resolution identical to thirteen that they have previously passed. The shutdown is on the Democrats–all but one Republican has voted to keep the government open. However, while the shutdown continues, we are learning some interesting things.

On Monday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

One aspect of the government shutdown that probably wasn’t anticipated by Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, is that it has revealed to the public just how many people receive food stamps.

Years ago, when the program was still called ‘food stamps’ it was seen as something that struggling families might use temporarily to get through a hard time. Then it was re-branded as the ‘SNAP’ program and destigmatized. People were encouraged to enroll. Now there are many more people using the program, many who probably don’t even really need it.

The longer the shutdown goes on, the more reports there are about this and it’s stunning to taxpayers who did not realize until now how incredibly huge this is.

The article quotes The Hill:

More than 40 million low-income food assistance beneficiaries are expected to receive less help with grocery bills — or no help at all — in the coming days.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency funding, which Congress has already allocated for emergency scenarios, if the government shutdown stretches into November.

According to The Overton News:

“There are 42 million people in this country that need food stamps on a weekly basis.”

“And we’re saying ‘people’ deliberately instead of Americans because most of the people that are on food stamps aren’t even from this country.”

“45% of Afghanistan immigrants are on food stamps.”

“42% of Somali immigrants, 34% of every immigrant from Iraq, 23% of Haitians.”

“59% of ALL illegal aliens are collecting food stamps, meaning that most of the people getting food stamps from the U.S. Government and the U.S. Taxpayer are not even Americans.”

“Think about that.”

“And we didn’t know about any of this before the government shutdown started.”

“But thanks to Democrats, we can confirm tonight that millions of Joe Biden, illegal aliens, people who crossed the border when Joe was president, are now collecting food stamps from a program funded by hardworking American taxpayers.”

This country was built by immigrants who came here, worked hard, didn’t take money from the government, and contributed to the growth of America. I need someone to explain to me how the people who came here illegally and immediately took advantage of government programs are benefiting America.

Better Late Than Never (I Guess)

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On Thursday, The Hill posted an article about a policy Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has recently put in place at the Department of Defense.

The article reports:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said the Pentagon would no longer allow Chinese nationals to work as coders on Department of Defense (DOD) cloud systems. 

A program previously allowed Chinese developers to work as “digital escorts” in a role modeled by Microsoft, where foreign nationals remain under the supervision of remote U.S. contractors.

China has a long history of stealing intellectual property, military secrets, etc. Why in the world would you let them anywhere near the computers in the Department of Defense?

The article notes:

Hegseth said the effort “exposed” the department to “unacceptable risks.”

“I mean, if you’re thinking America first and common sense, this doesn’t pass either of those tests. So I initiated an immediate review of this vulnerability, and I want to report our initial findings,” the Defense secretary said in a Wednesday video uploaded to the social platform X. 

“So the use of Chinese nationals to service Department of Defense cloud environments, it’s over,” he added. 

Hegseth said Microsoft would conduct an audit free of taxpayer expenses to uncover any vulnerabilities.

“Additionally, all Department of Defense software vendors will identify and terminate any Chinese involvement in DOD systems,” Hegseth said.

The article concludes:

Hegseth said both the Microsoft audit and a separate investigation were launched to reveal malware and associated risks.

“We’ve issued a formal letter of concern to Microsoft documenting this breach of trust, and we’re requiring a third-party audit of Microsoft’s digital escort program, including the code and the submissions by Chinese nationals. … I’m also tasking the Department of Defense experts with a separate investigation of the digital escort program and the Chinese Microsoft employees that were involved in it,” Hegseth said Wednesday.

“These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out,” he added.

I guess common sense took a vacation for a while. It’s good to see that it’s back.

Adding Insult To Injury–And It’s Beautiful

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On July 1st, The Hill reported:

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the official end of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on Tuesday, after rapidly dismantling the government’s foreign aid arm since President Trump’s return to the White House.

USAID’s official shutdown comes following a study published Monday in the Lancet Medical journal projecting that more than 14 million additional deaths could occur globally as a result of the U.S. aid reductions, including 4.5 million deaths among children. 

Wow! Millions of deaths could result around the world if America stops funding one supposedly non-governmental agency. How is it a non-governmental agency if the government is funding it? I didn’t realize our government was so powerful.

On June 30th, Power Line Blog noted:

There are something like 195 independent nations on the planet, and not a single one, other than America, is capable of helping any of the others. No one. Not a single Euro, Yen, pound, franc, peso, etc., can be freed up to prevent mass genocide on a biblical scale.

…America contains just over 4 percent of the world’s population and generates about 24 percent of the world’s economic output. Yet a single U.S. government agency that you hadn’t even heard of before January 2025 was providing 40 percent of global humanitarian aid and single-handedly sustaining life on earth.

…It also bears mentioning that the Lancet, once a respected medical journal, is now a left-wing rag that loves to publish specious “studies” like this one.

On July 1st (this is the icing on the cake) The Daily Caller reported:

The FBI will relocate its moth-eaten headquarters from the Hoover Building to the Ronald Reagan Building downtown after the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) vacated the complex, officials announced Tuesday.

The shuffle caps nearly 20 years of bureaucratic waffling over where to park the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. By opting for a ready-made federal property — freshly emptied when USAID officially shuttered operations Tuesday — the Trump administration says it will save taxpayers billions while giving agents a secure, modern workplace.

This is one of many reasons we elected a businessman as President!

A Much-Needed Safety Measure

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On Monday, The Hill reported that President Trump signed an Executive Order requiring commercial truck drivers in the United States to be proficient in English. This makes a lot of sense. The electronic signs along the side of the road often warn of impending traffic jams or accident scenes that require caution. Truck drivers need to be able to read these signs. Often, at the scene of an accident, law enforcement officers are giving verbal instructions. Truck drivers need to be able to understand these instructions. Requiring truck drivers to be able to understand English makes our highways safer.

The article reports the content of the Executive Order”

“Every day, truckers perform the demanding and dangerous work of transporting the Nation’s goods to businesses, customers, and communities safely, reliably, and efficiently,” the order said.

Trump designated English as the country’s official language in an executive order in March. In his order Monday, the president said proficiency in English should be nonnegotiable for professional drivers.

“They should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers,” the order said. “Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English.”

Under the order, a driver must be able to read and speak English “sufficiently to converse with the general public” to operate a commercial vehicle in the U.S.

“My Administration will enforce the law to protect the safety of American truckers, drivers, passengers, and others, including by upholding the safety enforcement regulations that ensure that anyone behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle is properly qualified and proficient in our national language, English,” the order said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will issue a new guidance on English proficiency testing and enforcement policies, according to the order. A violation of the English language proficiency requirement would put a driver “out-of-service,” the order said.

“You might not know, but there’s a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials, as well, which obviously is a public safety risk,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Monday.

The decision was celebrated by Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

will issue a new guidance on English proficiency testing and enforcement policies, according to the order. A violation of the English language proficiency requirement would put a driver “out-of-service,” the order said.

“You might not know, but there’s a lot of communication problems between truckers on the road with federal officials and local officials, as well, which obviously is a public safety risk,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a briefing Monday.

The decision was celebrated by Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA).

This is something that has been needed for a long time. Congress needs to get moving and pass this Executive Order as law.

Common Sense Is On Vacation

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On March 3rd, The Hill reported that the bill to prevent transgender male athletes from competing in women’s sports failed in the U.S. Senate. All of the Democrats voted against the bill.

The article reports:

Legislation to prevent transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports failed to advance in the Senate on Monday after all Democrats voted against it. 

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act failed to clear an initial procedural hurdle on a 51-45 vote. It needed 60 votes to advance, which would have required at least seven Democrats to vote with all Republicans to move it. The bill cleared the House in January on an almost entirely party-line vote. 

The article notes:

House Democrats, all but two of whom voted against the bill in January, said the measure would open the door to sexual abuse and invite invasive scrutiny of girls’ bodies, dubbing it the “Child Predator Empowerment Act.”

“Bills like these send the message that transgender kids don’t deserve the same opportunities to thrive as their peers simply because of who they are. And they are impossible to enforce without putting all kids at risk of invasive questions or physical examinations just because someone doesn’t look or dress like everyone else,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ civil rights group.

I have no problem with transgender kids having opportunities, but I want those opportunities to be fair opportunities on a level playing field. Science tells us that sex is determined by chromosomes. Science tells us that males develop different muscle structure than females. That’s why golf courses have ladies’ tees. Student athletes who are women have been physically injured by transgender women playing in their sports. Women who have trained as athletes all their lives have lost scholarships to transgender women. How is that fair?

Gender dysphoria is an illness. We would be better off helping the people who suffer from that illness rather than encouraging them in the lie that they can become the opposite sex. Their DNA will never change, and they will be taking drugs their entire life to overcome their body’s desire to get back to reality. This is not healthy. Transgender people need to be loved and accepted, but they do not need to be encouraged in their illness.

Changing Things On His Way Out The Door

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On Tuesday, The Hill posted an article about a recent decision by the Biden administration regarding Cuba.

The article reports:

The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it will remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism (SST) in exchange for the release of political prisoners jailed for protesting against the regime in July 2021.

The Trump administration placed the SST designation on Cuba in the last week of the president-elect’s first term, and Biden officials said they are in contact with the Trump transition team over their action. 

“This issue is among the issues on which they’ve been in communication,” a senior administration official said in a call with reporters.  

The administration, required by law, is notifying Congress of the decision, allowing lawmakers to review it, although there’s little they can do to block the lifting of the designation. 

Cuban officials had fought tooth and nail for removal from the SST list throughout President Biden’s term, but had generally not received much buy-in from administration officials.

On Tuesday, the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement lauding the changes, but noting that the economic “blockade” of the island — referred to as an “embargo” stateside — “remains in force.”

It is nice that the political prisoners are getting released, but is Cuba going to take more political prisoners in order to have the economic blockade lifted? Why is the Biden administration (I truly doubt President Biden totally understands a lot of what the administration is doing at this point) doing this on their way out the door? Is there any way we can stop damaging decisions by a lame-duck President, because we are seeing a lot of them?

The article concludes:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Trump’s pick for secretary of State, introduced legislation in February 2023 that would prevent Cuba’s removal from the SST list until democratic elections are held in the country, a transition government is in power and all political prisoners are released.

Rubio will sit for a confirmation hearing with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday where he is likely to face questions from his colleagues over whether the Trump administration will maintain Biden’s actions or reverse them.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in a Tuesday statement that he would work to reverse Biden’s decision.

“Today’s decision is unacceptable on its merits. The terrorism advanced by the Cuban regime has not ceased. I will work with President Trump and my colleagues to immediately reverse and limit the damage from the decision,” Cruz said.

Has Anyone Considered The Consequences?

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On December 26th, The Hill posted the following headline:

Congress has the power to block Trump from taking office, but lawmakers must act now

President Trump won the Electoral College and the popular vote by a considerable margin. What kind of mayhem would ensue if the Democrats decided to prevent him from taking office?

The article reports:

The Constitution provides that an oath-breaking insurrectionist is ineligible to be president. This is the plain wording of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” This disability can be removed by a two-thirds vote in each House.  

Disqualification is based on insurrection against the Constitution and not the government. The evidence of Donald Trump’s engaging in such insurrection is overwhelming. The matter has been decided in three separate forums, two of which were fully contested with the active participation of Trump’s counsel.  

The above two paragraphs are garbage. The article claims that the second impeachment of President Trump, the Colorado attempts to keep him off the ballot, and the January 6th Committee prove that President Trump was trying to start an insurrection. They overlook President Trump’s statement, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” It also should be noted that insurrectionists generally have weapons. The protesters were not armed, and the deaths that occurred that day were at the hands of the police–Rosanne M. Boyland and Ashli Babbitt.

The article continues–it is rather long and explains how the charges of inciting insurrection should prevent President Trump from taking office. However, it fails to mention that a legal court of law has never found him guilty of those charges.

This is another example of the mainstream media deciding that the votes of Americans (or the opinions of the majority of Americans) don’t matter.

When You Forget Past History, You Say Stupid Things

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There is so much garbage in the media right now about President Trump going after his political enemies. It is garbage. I would like to remind everyone that if Hillary Clinton had been anyone other than Hillary Clinton, she would have gone to jail for her secret server and for destroying evidence. President Trump, in the interest of not further dividing the country, chose not to take that route. There was a legitimate open-and-shut case to send her to jail. Other people have gone to jail for similar crimes.

On Saturday, The Hill posted an article by Jonathan Turley about the Democrats wanting pre-emptive pardons from President Biden before he leaves office. If President Trump did not put Hillary Clinton in jail when there was an obvious violation of the law, why would he put his political enemies in jail? The Republicans are not the party that does that.

The article reports:

Liberal pundits and press in Washington are facing a growing nightmare in Washington. No, it is not the victory of President-elect Donald Trump or the Democrats’ loss of both houses of Congress and the popular vote in this election. It is the possibility that democracy may not collapse as predicted, and Trump might not even round up his opponents en masse.

For months, liberals have been telling voters that this will likely be their last election and that democracy is about to end in the U.S. ABC host Whoopi Goldberg declared on “The View” that Trump will immediately become a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”

I hope that Americans are smart enough to recognize total propaganda when they see it.

The article concludes:

Trump may be the only one who is not interested in a trophy pardon. What is the value of being part of the resistance if you are not being pursued, persecuted or pardoned?

It seems like some of the same people who had hoped to be on the list for the Biden Inaugural balls are now making calls to make the Biden pardon list. If Biden were to yield to calls for hundreds or even thousands of pardons, the loss of political standing for those not making the list could become intolerable. For any self-respecting armchair resistance fighter in 2025, a Biden pardon could become the latest status symbol.

Good grief!

The Lie That Keeps Being Told

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To debunk one of the claims repeatedly made by the Harris campaign, I am going back to an article from December of 2021. The facts have been available since then, but the campaign has chosen to ignore them–just as the campaign has continually lied about Project 2025 and President Trump’s stand on abortion.

In December 2021, Yahoo News shared an article from The Hill.

The article reports:

Congressional Democrats have argued that one of the best ways to pay for the legislation is to raise taxes on wealthy households, which, according to many on the left, have benefited disproportionately and unfairly from the 2017 tax reform law passed by Republicans and signed by former President Trump. The latest data, however, proves that this claim is pure mythology.

Income data published by the IRS clearly show that on average all income brackets benefited substantially from the Republicans’ tax reform law, with the biggest beneficiaries being working and middle-income filers, not the top 1 percent, as so many Democrats have argued.

A careful analysis of the IRS tax data, one that includes the effects of tax credits and other reforms to the tax code, shows that filers with an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $15,000 to $50,000 enjoyed an average tax cut of 16 percent to 26 percent in 2018, the first year Republicans’ Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went into effect and the most recent year for which data is available.

Filers who earned $50,000 to $100,000 received a tax break of about 15 percent to 17 percent, and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 in adjusted gross income saw their personal income taxes cut by around 11 percent to 13 percent.

By comparison, no income group with an AGI of at least $500,000 received an average tax cut exceeding 9 percent, and the average tax cut for brackets starting at $1 million was less than 6 percent. (For more detailed data, see my table published here.)

That means most middle-income and working-class earners enjoyed a tax cut that was at least double the size of tax cuts received by households earning $1 million or more.

What’s more, IRS data shows earners in higher income brackets contributed a bigger slice of the total income tax revenue pie following the passage of the tax reform law than they had in the previous year.

The article concludes:

Every income bracket with a top level lower than $25,000 experienced a reduction in its number of filers, and every income bracket above $25,000 increased in size, with the biggest gains occurring in the brackets with a floor of at least $100,000.

The fact is, Republicans’ 2017 tax reform law did exactly what was promised: It lowered taxes for all income groups, provided the greatest benefits for middle-income households, and spurred economic growth that helped reduce poverty and improve prosperity.

It would be a grave mistake for Democrats to eliminate key parts of this important legislation.

Numbers don’t lie. Unfortunately, Democrat Presidential candidates do.

A Level Playing Field Would Be Nice

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On September 24th, The Hill reported:

The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to boost former President Trump’s level of Secret Service protection, putting it one step away from becoming law less than two weeks after he was the subject of a second assassination attempt. 

The bill, which was proposed by Reps. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) in the House days after the first assassination attempt, would require the Secret Service to “apply the same standards” to figure out how many agents should be used to protect the president, vice president, and those running for offices granted such protection. 

On Friday, The Federalist reported:

Former President Donald Trump was recently forced to cancel a campaign rally in Wisconsin because the federal task force in charge of safety denied him adequate protection resources.

On Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter to the acting director of the Secret Service detailing the allegations of a whistleblower who said the event was canceled because the nation’s premier security agency lacked “sufficient assets” to keep the Republican presidential nominee safe.

“Other whistleblowers with knowledge of Secret Service planning protocols allege that failure to provide protection for a major public event is highly unusual and that a sitting president would never be denied resources in this way,” Hawley wrote.

This is disgusting. The entrenched bureaucracy is doing everything it can to elect Kamala Harris. They don’t care about her abilities or qualifications–they just want to make sure President Trump doesn’t get elected and actually drain the swamp.

Some Common-Sense Analysis

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On Saturday night, after the assassination attempt on President Trump, Jonathan Turley posted an article at The Hill that sums up what a lot of Americans are thinking.

The article notes:

The assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump left a nation stunned. But the most shocking aspect was that it was not nearly as surprising as it should have been. For months, politicians, the press and pundits have escalated reckless rhetoric in this campaign on both sides. That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters “disappear.”

President Biden has stoked this rage rhetoric. In 2022, Biden held his controversial speech before Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as enemies of the people. Biden recently referenced the speech and has embraced the claims that this could be our last democratic election.

…Some of us have been saying for years that this rage rhetoric is a dangerous political pitch for the nation. While most people reject the hyperbolic claims, others take them as true. They believe that homosexuals are going to be “disappeared” as claimed on ABC’s “The View” or that the Trump “death squads” are now green lighted by a conservative Supreme Court, as claimed by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.

Rage is addictive and contagious. It is also liberating. It allows people a sense of license to take actions that would ordinarily be viewed as repulsive. 

As soon as Trump was elected, unhinged rage became the norm as with Kathy Griffin featuring herself holding the bloody severed head of Trump. 

Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, begged Biden to “blow [Trump] up” after the recent presidential immunity decision. DeLaria explained that “this is a **** war. This is a war now, and we are fighting for our **** country. And these a**holes are going to take it away. They’re going to take it away.”

For months, people have heard politicians and press call Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Some compared stopping Trump to stopping Hitler in 1933. Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) declared Trump “is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.” He later apologized.

Please follow the link to read the rest of the article. We need to tone it down and realize that this is an important presidential election, but we need to respect both campaigns.

Losing The Youth Vote

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On Wednesday, The Hill posted an opinion piece by a young voter who has worked for and voted for Democrats in the past, but is voting for President Trump this year.

The author notes:

The generation that was raised during the global financial crisis and the onsets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been a stalwart for the Democratic Party for over a decade. I was knocking doors for President Obama and local Democrats in 2012 even before I could vote.

I served as a College Democrats chapter president through the 2016 election cycle, and then voted for President Biden in 2020. In 2024, less than four years into the Biden administration, the world and our country have entered alarming trajectories. If Biden is nominated for reelection, he will be the first Democratic nominee whom I do not support.

The author explains:

Now disapproval of Biden is widespread among young voters, with him losing 18–29 year-olds and all under-45 voters when polled against all general election candidates. The dissent is not baseless, and not all young dissenters are doing so because of American support for Israel’s war against Hamas. Beyond Biden’s personal cognitive challenges, his administration’s policies are having indefensible consequences.

The United States is now entrenched in numerous international conflicts, each of which is increasingly dangerous and more complicated than a good-versus-evil narrative. Biden is largely responsible for escalating the Russia-Ukraine war, funding Ukraine through their incremental defeat while ignoring diplomatic negotiation and ceasefire offers. Biden has also allowed the funding of Iran throughout their proxy war against American and our Middle East allies. Meanwhile, North Korea has abandoned the decades-long reconciliation process with South Korea, following our escalation of multilateral military exercises in the region. Nuclear world war is now more probable than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The author also comments on the ‘threat to Democracy’ accusation that the Biden administration and the press frequently use against President Trump:

Biden supporters may say that none of these issues are dispositive because they pale in comparison to President Trump’s “threat to democracy.” Yet, if protecting American democracy is a top priority, as it should be, then we all must be alarmed by the unprecedented prosecution of a presidential candidate on novel legal theories, in the middle of a campaign. Regardless of what the appellate court decides, the political weaponization of prosecutorial discretion is anti-democratic and disconcerting. 

Many voters in the younger generations are thinking about these various crises and their consequences for the rest of the 21st century when evaluating Biden’s administration, not just one issue like some suggest. They are looking for a president who can stand up to the corporate lobbies and transcend partisanship to execute meaningful reform. Biden demonstrably is not that president.

Maybe our education system is working better than we thought!

Why Hasn’t This Case Been Thrown Out Of Court?

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On Friday, Just the News posted an article about the classified documents trial of President Trump.

The article reports:

In a stunning admission, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team is admitting that key evidence in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents criminal case was altered or manipulated since it was seized by the FBI, and that prosecutors misled the court about it for a period of time.

Legal experts told Just the News the revelation could prove to be a serious problem for prosecutors and a violation of court rules to preserve evidence in the state it was seized.

In a new filing Friday, Smith’s team said that the order of documents in some of the boxes of memos that were seized by the FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was altered or jumbled, leaving two different chronologies: one that was digitally scanned and another the physical order in the boxes.

“Since the boxes were seized and stored, appropriate personnel have had access to the boxes for several reasons, including to comply with orders issued by this Court in the civil proceedings noted above, for investigative purposes, and to facilitate the defendants’ review of the boxes,” Smith’s team wrote in a new court filing to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.

The article concludes:

The alteration of evidence has been an issue in earlier political scandals and prosecutions in Washington.

Erasure of an 18 1/2 minute segment of Richard Nixon’s White House tapes became a very important aspect of the Watergate scandal.

The Iran-Contra scandal exploded during the Reagan years with the revelation that documents were shredded before they could be obtained by investigators.

The Hillary Clinton classified email scandal became more complicated in 2015 with the revelation that her team used a “Bleach Bit” program to erase emails on her secret computer server, and had email devices destroyed. 

In the above cases, one can assume that the government was not directly involved in the alteration of evidence. In the case of President Trump, I strongly suspect that the government was the party that altered the evidence. It should also be noted that Hillary Clinton was never charged for destroying cell phones or erasing emails on her computer. President Trump realized that charging her would tear the country apart and chose not to do it. Unfortunately, the never-Trumpers in our government don’t really care what they are doing to the American justice system or the country.

The Value Of Drug-Sniffing Dogs

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On Saturday, The Hill posted an article about a drug seizure at the Otay Mesa, California, cargo facility this month.

The article reports:

Mexican cartels for decades have devised creative ways to smuggle narcotics and other contraband across the southern U.S., including using produce, law enforcement officials say. This month, in one week, thousands of pounds of meth were seized hidden in shipments of peppers, tomatillos and carrots.

At the Otay Mesa, California, cargo facility this month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized large quantities of methamphetamine hidden under packages of the vegetables.

In one instance, CBP officers stopped a 27-year-old male with a valid border crossing card driving a commercial tractor-trailer with a shipment manifested for peppers and tomatillos. At first glance, the shipment appeared to contain only peppers and tomatillos. But after a K-9 unit screened it, officers examined the trailer and found a box containing a crystal-like substance. Additional officers were radioed to provide assistance and began extracting package after package hidden under the produce. They found 3,594 packages that were tested and identified as methamphetamine. The stash totaled 3,671.58 pounds.

The same week, CBP officers at the same facility uncovered another massive load of meth being smuggled in using carrots.

They stopped a 44-year-old man, also a valid border crossing card holder, driving a commercial tractor trailer hauling a shipment manifested as carrots. Officers unloaded the cases of carrots and found suspicious packages hidden underneath, which were tested and identified as methamphetamine. Overall, they seized 574 packages weighing approximately 2,900 pounds.

In both instances, the meth and commercial tractor-trailers were seized; the drivers were turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.

I do believe that part of the problem with drug smuggling is that unfortunately America is a prime market for those drugs. I don’t have a solution to that problem other than to discourage drug use among the youth and imprison drug users until they are willing to go through treatment. Because treatment doesn’t work unless the drug user is willing to cooperate, that would not be an ideal solution.

The article concludes:

As CBP officers continue to seize large quantities of drugs, California Border Patrol chiefs have warned of increased security threats between ports of entry where checkpoints have been closed due to current administration policies. When deposed by the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security during its impeachment investigation of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, they expressed alarm about not knowing how many people or drugs are being smuggled across the border.

Despite being stretched thin, California CBP and Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 500,000 illegal border crossers in fiscal 2023, The Center Square reported.

Record high illegal entries continued along the southwest border in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, with California seeing higher entries as Texas’ resistance grew, The Center Square reported.

It’s time to seal the border until we can get illegal immigration and drug smuggling under control.

Are We Living In A Police State?

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News organizations are firing employees because of law ratings. CNN, BuzzFeed, and Vice Media have all recently announced layoffs. CBS is also firing reporters.

On Thursday (updated Friday), The New York Post reported the following:

The acclaimed CBS reporter who was investigating the Hunter Biden laptop scandal before she was fired last week had her personal files seized by the network in an “unprecedented” move, sources told The Post on Thursday.

Catherine Herridge — who is the middle of a First Amendment case being closely watched by journalists nationwide — was among 20 CBS News staffers let go as part of a larger purge of hundreds of employees at parent company Paramount Global.

Her firing had stunned co-workers, but the network’s decision to hold on to her personal materials, along with her work laptop where she may have other confidential info, has left many staffers shaken, according to insiders.

“It’s so extraordinary,” a source familiar with the situation told The Post, noting that the files — which are presumptively now the property of CBS News — most likely contain confidential material from Herridge’s stints at both Fox and CBS.

The source said the network boxed up all her personal belongings except for Herridge’s notes and files and informed her that it would decide what — if anything — would be returned to her.

“They never seize documents [when you’re let go],” a second source close to the network said.

Brit Hume posted the following on Twitter:

 

This is just one more step in the direction of a police state where the media is controlled by the people in power.

The article at The New York Post concludes:

Jonathan Turley — a legal scholar and a former CBS legal analyst who first broke the news of Herridge’s documents being seized in an opinion piece for The Hill — said the timing of the journalist’s termination raised suspicions.

“She was pursuing stories that were unwelcomed by the Biden White House and many Democratic powerhouses, including the Hur report on Joe Biden’s diminished mental capacity, the Biden corruption scandal and the Hunter Biden laptop,” Turley wrote.

Under normal circumstances, journalists are entitled to their notes and make available the files if needed in future ligation, but leaving sensitive documents in the hands of unnamed CBS officials, could compromise Herridge’s numerous other confidential sources.

It also potentially violates HIPAA laws, as her files may also contain personal and family medical records.

Turley said CBS’ “heavy-handed approach” to the files” is “dead wrong” and that it had “sent a chilling signal in the ranks” of the network.

SAG-AFTRA, the union which represents CBS staffers, condemned the network for seizing Herridge’s notes and research from her office.

“This action is deeply concerning concerning to the union because it sets a dangerous precedent for all media professionals and threatens the very foundation of the First Amendment,” the union said in a statement to The Post.

The union added it has been in touch with CBS News and is hopeful the matter “will be resolved shortly.”

We are in a dangerous place.

Reading Between The Lines

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On Sunday, The Hill quoted a statement by New York Governor Kathy Hochul.

The article reports:

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) addressed New York business owners in a new interview and told them there was “nothing to worry about” after former President Trump was hit with a $355 million fine and a ban on conducting business in New York for three years.

Hochul joined John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM, where she was asked if other New York businesspeople should be worried that if “they can do that to the former president, they can do that to anybody.”

“I think that this is really an extraordinary, unusual circumstance that the law-abiding and rule-following New Yorkers who are business people have nothing to worry about, because they’re very different than Donald Trump and his behavior,” Hochul responded.

They are very different than Donald Trump because they are not Republicans who do not support globalism who are running for President and may win. If you honestly believe that President Trump’s real estate practices were significantly different than other New York City real estate businesses, I admire you naivete. If you honestly believe that President Trump would have been tried even if he were not the probable Republican nominee for President, you haven’t been paying attention. Before President Trump became a Republican and ran for President, he received awards from civil rights groups and New York City organizations thanking him for the role he played in rebuilding the city after the city almost went bankrupt. Obviously those currently in power have chosen to forget that. This is political. It has nothing to do with the law.

The radio host who commented that if “they can do that to the former president, they can do that to anybody” got it right.

 

A Legal Perspective

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On Saturday, Attorney Jonathan Turley posted an article at The Hill about the recent New York verdict against President Trump.

The article notes that Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School. He is well qualified to evaluate the verdict.

The article reports:

In laying the foundation for his sweeping decision against former President Donald Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron observed that “this is a venial sin, not a mortal sin.” Yet, at $355 million, one would think that Engoron had found Trump to be the source of Original Sin.

The judgment against Trump (and his family and associates) was met with a level of unrestrained celebration by many in New York that bordered on the indecent. Attorney General Letitia James declared not only that Trump would be barred from doing business in New York for three years, but that the damages would come to roughly $460 million once interest was included. 

That makes the damages against Trump greater than the gross national product of some countries, including Micronesia. Yet the court admitted that not a single dollar was lost by the banks from these dealings. Indeed, witnesses testified that they wanted to do more business with Trump, who was described as a “whale” client with high yield business opportunities. 

The article concludes:

In “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Tom Wolfe wrote about Sherman McCoy, a successful businessman who had achieved the status of one of the “masters of the universe” in New York. In the prosecution of McCoy for a hit-and-run, Wolfe described a city and legal system devouring itself in the politics of class and race. The book details a businessman’s fall from a great height — a fall that delighted New Yorkers.

It is doubtful Trump will end up as the same solitary figure wearing worn-out clothes before the Bronx County Criminal Court clutching a binder of legal papers. But you do not have to feel sorry or even sympathetic for Trump to see this award as obscene. The appeal will test the New York legal system to see if other judges can do what Judge Engoron found so difficult: set aside their feelings about Trump.

New York is one of our oldest and most distinguished bars. It has long resisted those who sought to use the law to pursue political opponents and unpopular figures. It will now be tested to see if those values transcend even Trump.

If the verdict is not overturned on appeal, it will be interesting to see what its impact will be on the business climate of New York. I suspect that the businesses that President Trump runs in New York City and State bring in considerable tax revenue. New York may have just shot itself in the foot.

Less Freedom In The Name Of Safety

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Americans are generally used to being responsible for their own actions. If you choose to smoke, you may have heath problems. If you engage in certain sports, you risk injuries. If you buy a house, you are responsible for keeping it in good repair. Generally speaking, we understand that actions have consequences. Sometimes in our litigious society, you can sue people for your own stupidity, but that is the exception rather than the rule. California has now decided that they will control one more aspect of your freedom.

On Thursday, The Hill reported the following:

California could become the first state to require certain new cars to be equipped with a device capable of limiting speed, if legislation proposed this week ultimately becomes law.

San Francisco-based state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) introduced a bill mandating many new vehicles — beginning with the 2027 model year — contain a so-called “intelligent speed limiter.”

This device would restrict the speed of the car to 10 mph above the speed limit — with specific exceptions as indicated by the bill. Emergency vehicles, for example, would be exempt, and the California Highway Patrol could authorize the system’s disabling in certain other cases.

…The National Transportation Safety Board, Wiener’s office stressed, has repeatedly recommended the installation of such technologies in all new passenger vehicles. These devices will also be required in all cars sold in the European Union beginning this July.

“Preventing reckless speeding is a commonsense approach to prevent these utterly needless and heartbreaking crashes,” Wiener said.

In addition to its focus on intelligent speed limiters, S.B. 961 would also require the installation of side guards on trucks and trailers. Such guards, according to Wiener’s office, could help “reduce the risk of cars and bikes being pulled underneath the truck during a crash.”

This equipment — which would be installed on every truck or trailer that weighs more than 10,000 pounds — would need to be able to provide crash protection for a midsize car at any angle and any speed up to 40 mph, per the bill.

A variation of this has already been introduced in America with some insurance companies offering you a discount if you allow them to put a device in your car that tracks your speed and driving. I don’t endorse speeding, but I believe this is just too intrusive. I would also note that there are many roads in California where the traffic is so bad that being able to go the speed limit would be a blessing.

The U.S. Senate Does Not Want Patriots Or Critical Thinkers!

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Recently a news story broke about Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake being asked to step down from politics for two years. She was pretty much offered anything she wanted. She recorded the conversation, fearing it would be a threat, and has recently released the tape.

On Wednesday, The Hill reported:

The chair of the Arizona Republican Party announced he will resign Wednesday after leaked audio appeared to show him attempting to pay Senate candidate Kari Lake not to run for office in 2024.

Jeff DeWit said that the audio was “selectively edited.” He explained, however, that he chose to resign because he was threatened by members of Lake’s team that more tapes would be released if he did not step down. Lake’s campaign has denied the allegation.

Lake publicly demanded DeWit resign over the audio Tuesday, calling him “corrupt” and “compromised.”

The audio recording was first reported by The Daily Mail.

“There are very powerful people who want to keep you out,” DeWit reportedly told the Senate hopeful in the recording, saying only that these figures were from the “east.”

I do not doubt that the tape is real and unedited. I also suspect that any well-informed American can make an educated guess as to who the person who put Mr. DeWitt up to this. Unfortunately this is where we are. The deep state uni-party in Washington is trying to protect their turf. President Trump is a threat, but a Congress that supports him would make him an even bigger threat to the status quo. Many Americans believe that the status quo needs to be gone.

 

The Whoppers Of 2023

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On Thursday, The New York Post listed twelve of the most outrageous lies told by politicians and the media during 2023. Please follow the link to the article for the details, I will simply post the  list.

This is the list:

#1

“The Middle East . . . is quieter than it has been for decades.”

— National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Foreign Affairs, November/December (print edition)

#2

“We ended cancer as we know it.”

— President Biden, July 25

#3

“Age jokes can’t diminish Biden’s unrivaled experience and wisdom.”

— The Hill, Dec. 11

#4

“Israeli Strike Kills Hundreds in Hospital, Palestinians Say

— The New York Times, Oct. 17

#5

“Let’s always take a moment to also see what we have achieved thus far, while we clearly see the moment that we are presently in. So we have achieved a lot.”

— VP Kamala Harris, June 23

#6

“In the Hanukkah story, the Jewish people were forced into hiding. No one thought they would survive.”

— Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Dec. 11

#7

“Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink.”

— The Washington Post, July 13

#8

“We have seen the effectiveness of our approach [to the border].”

— Homeland Security boss Alejandro Mayorkas, May 10 

#9

“We have been [in Israel] for more than 1.5 million years.”

— Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh, May 22

#10

“There would be no climate crisis if there was no racism.”

— Jane Fonda, May 27

#11

“People Are Getting Real Heated Over a Gas Stove Ban That Isn’t Even Happening.”

— The New Republic, Jan. 12

#12

“Biden is extremely well-liked.”

— MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski, Feb. 10

Reality is merely a state of mind.

 

As The Evidence Mounts

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As the evidence mounts that the Biden family had very large inexplicable sources of income during Joe Biden’s political career, the family, the media, and the Democrat party are struggling to explain exactly what was going on. On Thursday, The Hill posted an article with the latest explanation/justification.

The article, by Jonathan Turley, explains:

As the House of Representatives goes into high gear in its impeachment proceedings (and possible contempt resolution against Hunter Biden), the Biden family legal problems continue to mount. In one week, it was revealed that President Biden’s brother James was caught on an FBI audiotape in a corruption investigation, while Ashley Biden, the president’s daughter, is now also facing demands for unpaid taxes.

James Biden is expected to appear before the House for questioning in the coming weeks. The appearance may solidify a new line of defense for the Bidens: that they are harmless grifters.

After years of denying influence peddling with the help of an obligating media, even some Democrats are now admitting that Hunter and his uncles have been selling influence. Biden associates confirmed that Joe Biden was the brand that they were peddling to foreign clients, who paid millions to the family.

The article also notes:

The greater problem facing the White House is that roughly 70 percent of voters (including 40 percent of Democrats) believes that President Biden acted illegally or unethically, or both. Even Hunter’s friend Archer said that the president’s denials of knowledge were “categorically false.” Other witnesses, such as Tony Bobulinski, have stated under oath that they personally spoke to Joe Biden about these dealings.

This is likely why defenders are now failing back on the claim that the Bidens may have been grifting, but not actually selling out. It was an act put on for corrupt marks wanting to buy an advantage. That is why the Biden team immediately said that James Biden took $100,000 but then did nothing to deliver his brother.

It is becoming very obvious that Joe Biden is not the model of an honest office-holder. However, since almost all of these actions were done when he was Vice-President, I don’t see their relevance to impeachment. I haven’t seen any actual evidence that he is currently crooked. Admittedly, you can draw that conclusion based on his past actions, but that really isn’t good enough. The Democrats made impeachment a joke. The Republicans need to avoid doing the same thing.