Tag Archives: The Wall Street Journal

When The Veneer Begins To Crack

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Bill Gates can easily be described as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America today. Some of us are very grateful for the computer consistency provided by Microsoft. I love the fact that this blog works essentially the same way as Microsoft Word. However, recent events have revealed a side of Bill Gates that seems to be anything but wholesome.

On Wednesday, Coffee and Covid included Bill Gates in its daily news update.

The article on Bill Gates reminds us:

Last week, the same Wall Street Journal reported, “Bill Gates Spent Years Crafting His Image. Now It’s Cracking.” The Journal published this story mere days before Gates’s closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee, which is today. If you want to believe the timing was coincidental, fine. Not me.

Gates’ carefully stage-managed agreement to testify voluntarily (without cameras) focuses on his connections with everyone’s favorite International Mystery Man, the late Jeffrey Epstein. Gates is taking it seriously. He hired attorney Jake Greenberg, the Oversight Committee’s former chief investigations counsel, to advise him.

Among other things, DOJ’s documents and Epstein’s calendar entries show numerous meetings with Gates starting in 2011, which is three years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor. Why was Gates repeatedly meeting with a convicted sex offender, starting three years post-conviction?

The WSJ article tells us, in so many words, that Bill Gates is a big fat phony. And they exposed him right before he was set to testify.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. The article reminds us of how carefully Bill Gates has crafted his image over the years–the article notes that he has spent more money on public relations than most major corporations. The article also reminds us that now that the NGOs are being defunded, Bill Gates has lost a lot of his influence.

The section of the article on Bill Gates concludes:

It is unquestionably true that, in normal times, men with Gates’ money and political connections are devilishly hard to convict. But, as we have seen, these are not normal times. And Bill’s political support network is winking out like stars on a cloudy night as the thunderstorm moves in.

Finally, as a brief coda, consider all the other libidinous billionaires, high-profile political types, and swamp co-critters who are currently squirming in the same broad net as Gates. Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, Leon Black, Marc Andreessen, Eric Schmidt, and the whole Pritzker network, just to name a few. It is so easy to forget how much karma is suddenly and relentlessly flowing upstream toward the funders and facilitators of vast human misery during the pandemic.

And all of it has happened recently, since the Epstein disclosures. Not just progress this time. It’s much progress.

Bill Gates is innocent of any crimes until proven guilty, but if he is guilty of criminal behavior, we need equal justice under the law.

Negotiating With The People Who Want Peace

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Just as Iran has become a county led by tyrants that do not represent the population, Lebanon in many ways has been taken over by Hezbollah. With the funding of Hezbollah by Iran at least temporarily cut off, this is the time to free Lebanon from their terrorist grip.

On Friday, Ed Morrissey posted an article at Hot Air about the negotiations for peace between Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah was not included in those negotiations.

The article reports:

The Wall Street Journal raises the question of the Rabid Dog That Was Not Allowed to Bark In DC in its analysis of the ceasefire brokered by Marco Rubio between Israel and Lebanon. Reporters Omar Abdel-Baqui and Dov Lieber concede that the pact engineered by the Secretary of State comes as a “historic step” between the two countries, especially since Lebanon has never recognized Israel’s status as a state. However, they wonder just how these negotiations can take place in the absence of “one of the main belligerents”:

The article quotes The Wall Street Journal:

Without Hezbollah at the negotiating table, the cease-fire and the possibility of a successful Israel-Lebanon peace agreement would be on shaky ground.

…In 1983, the countries signed a peace agreement, which fell apart after Hezbollah and other factions opposed it. Another U.S.-backed peace effort in 1993 broke down, owing to opposition from Syria, which then dominated Lebanon, and the impossibility of security guarantees with Hezbollah. A November 2024 deal was supposed to lead to the Lebanese government’s demilitarizing Hezbollah, and Israel’s withdrawal from southern Lebanon and halting strikes on Lebanon. None of those objectives were achieved.

…Meeting a group of Lebanese lawmakers, Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun endorses continued direct negotiations with Israel and says that his country is working to secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces, to bring back Lebanese citizens held by Israel and to solve border disputes.

Aoun says “direct negotiations are crucial… and the gateway to advancing the negotiations” with Israel.

The Lebanese Armed Forces “will play a fundamental role after the withdrawal of Israeli forces,” Aoun says, promising they will deploy to the Israeli border and will reassure residents of southern Lebanon, “after their return to their villages and towns, that there will be no armed forces other than the army and the legitimate security forces.”

The article at Hot Air concludes:

That’s why Hezbollah was not invited to participate in the talks. It’s also why Israel is not constrained by the ceasefire if Hezbollah violates it. Hezbollah did not get a seat at the table because Iran doesn’t get to dictate terms in Lebanon any longer. The IRGC regime may not get to dictate terms in Iran for much longer, for that matter. So why invite its terror proxies to discuss their own destruction?

I think the Lebanese are tired of living in a country held hostage by a terrorist organization.

Removing Things American Drivers Hate

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On Wednesday, Red State posted an article about the automatic start-stop technology in vehicles installed during the Obama administration. The feature is annoying at best. The technology gives me flashbacks of my high school days when I was driving a 1954 Lincoln Capri with a carburetor problem. The best way to get the car to idle properly was to open up the hood and put a board in to warm it up while the board held something down and even then you couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t stall out when you stopped.

The article reports:

The Trump administration is eliminating Obama-era off-cycle credits that incentivized automakers to install automatic start-stop technology in vehicles, effectively killing what many drivers consider one of the most annoying features of newer models.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin highlighted the victory on Wednesday — building on the February repeal of the 2009 Endangerment Finding — while sharing a Wall Street Journal article highlighting drivers celebrating ‘the demise of the most hated feature in their cars.’

Zeldin mocked the technology as an Obama administration climate zealot “participation trophy.”

“The start/stop concept in vehicles is almost universally DESPISED. So, the Trump EPA has now REMOVED the ridiculous climate participation trophy the Obama Admin created to get this hated feature installed,” he wrote on X. “The incentives for manufacturers to make your car die at every red light and stop sign have now been ELIMINATED!”

The Journal reports that a significant percentage — 58 percent — of new gasoline non-hybrid cars had these universally despised systems installed by 2024.

Why were these systems installed?

In October 2012, the Obama EPA finalized the “2017 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards” rule. 

As part of that package, the agency created “off-cycle credits” — a regulatory incentive that allowed automakers to earn compliance points toward stricter GHG emissions standards by installing certain fuel-saving technologies. Automatic engine start-stop systems were explicitly eligible for these credits. 

Adoption by manufacturers rose sharply after those credits kicked in, from less than 1% of new gasoline non-hybrid models in 2012 to the aforementioned 58% in 2024.

Never mind that real-world fuel savings proved modest and inconsistent at best — many studies showed only marginal gains in typical driving, especially once frustrated owners simply turned the system off or dealt with the annoying restarts.

In a 2011 White House press release, the administration touted the upcoming fuel economy standards, saying they should “spur manufacturers to increasingly explore electric technologies such as start/stop, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles.”

They should have explored it, realized nobody liked it, and killed it with fire. 

Fortunately, Zeldin and the EPA are doing just that. Figuratively, of course.

No more forcing gimmicks on the public under the guise of environmental virtue.

Thank God my husband’s car has an easily accessible switch that turns this feature off. My current car is, thankfully, too old to have this feature!

Policies Have Consequences

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On Monday, Issues & Insights posted an article about the opposing taxation trends between red states and blue states in America.

The article reports:

The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the growing divide between blue and red states when it comes to income taxes. What it failed to mention is that this shows the genius of the nation’s founders.

“Republican-led states are racing each other to flatten, cut, and eliminate individual income taxes, with 23 states lowering their top income-tax rates since 2021,” Richard Rubin and  Jeanne Whalen write.

And, indeed, this year, nine states – all Republican – either cut their top marginal tax rate or lowered their flat tax rate. Ohio became the 14th state to adopt a flat tax.

“Democratic-controlled states are moving the opposite way,” notes the Journal, “pushing to increase taxes on top earners to combat inequality and plug budget holes expected from Republicans’ cuts to federal health and nutrition assistance programs.”

The article includes two graphs that illustrate the result of each of these policies:

The article notes:

The Journal notes that the number of states with top rates below 5% and above 10% have both been increasing.

“The middle ground is quickly disappearing.”

So how is this a good thing? After all, we’ve written many times in this space about the folly of playing the “tax the rich” game.

It’s good news because this is exactly how our system of government is supposed to work. States are free to experiment with their taxing, spending, and regulating policies – and suffer the consequences.

And that’s just what we’ve been seeing. Millions of middle-class Americans are voting with their feet – leaving high-tax “progressive” states for those that keep their government spending in check, regulations to a minimum, and their taxes low.

I guess my husband and I were not the only people to get out of Massachusetts as soon as we could!

The Negotiators Lied

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It isn’t really a surprise that the Iranians trying to get President Trump to agree to letting them have a nuclear program lied, but now we have further proof.

On Saturday, The Jerusalem Post reported:

Iran fired two ballistic missiles at a joint US-UK military base, Diego Garcia, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday night, citing multiple US officials. 

One of the missiles failed in flight, and a US warship fired an interception at the other. At this time, it has not been determined if an interception was made, but neither missile hit the base, officials told WSJ. 

Diego Garcia is located about 4,000 kilometers from Iran, double the 2,000-kilometer range that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran’s ballistic missiles had last month. 

According to a report published by Israel’s Alma Research and Education Center at the start of the war, Iran’s missile inventory primarily consists of short-range ballistic missiles, which reach up to 1,000 kilometers, and medium-range ballistic missiles, which can reach as far as 3,000 kilometers.

However, the Center added that “according to various reports, long-range ballistic missiles are currently in advanced stages of development.”

Note that during the negotiations with Iran, the Iranian Foreign Minister claimed that Iran only had missiles with a 2,000 kilometer range. What else was he lying about?

If we had waited to attack Iran until after they had developed long-range missiles, the world would have been blackmailed by Iran. A country constantly yelling “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” would have been a worldwide threat if they had nuclear missiles and the capability to deliver them. Thank God for a President with the courage to attack them when he did–time was running out.

This Should Have Been Done Ages Ago

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On Monday, Newsmax posted an article about a bill being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives to ban stock trading by members of Congress.

The article reports:

House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., on Monday will introduce a bill banning lawmakers from buying individual stocks.

A post from the House Administration Committee on X confirmed the rollout of the “Stop Insider Trading Act,” saying “it’s time we banned lawmakers from trading stocks,” as Republicans move to answer a long-simmering public concern: that members of Congress can use privileged information to pad their portfolios.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Steil drafted the legislation with the backing of House GOP leadership and support spanning party factions, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., as original co-sponsors.

The last time the House tried to do this, they called it the Preventing Elected Leaders from Owning Securities and Investments (PELOSI) Act. Now that Nancy Pelosi is not running for re-election (she was one of the most successful stock traders the market has ever seen), they may be able to pass this.

The article concludes:

The Washington Times reported last month that House Republicans planned to vote early in 2026 on a congressional stock-trading ban after reaching a compromise under which the ban would apply only to lawmakers, not the president or vice president.

“I think we’re going to deliver a really strong product in 2026,” Roy told the outlet.

Roy declined to discuss specifics but said the legislation will include “a lot of elements” of his Restore Trust in Congress Act, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., and 118 others.

The push comes as bipartisan frustrations over congressional trading persist.

Lawmakers in both parties have explored stricter bans in recent years, driven by voter anger over conflicts of interest and weak enforcement.

It is way past time to pass this bill.

Pulling An Ace Out Of A Hole

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The one thing that the Congressional Democrats are really great at doing is not understanding the consequences of their actions. They do not understand that many of today’s Republicans are not as willing to roll over and play dead as their former Congressional members. The attempt to blackmail Americans by planning to shut down the government if budget cuts are not restored may not work out the way Senator Schumer wants it to.

On Thursday, Ed Morrissey posted the following at Hot Air:

The deadline for a government shutdown is fast approaching, and Schumer tried to play hardball this week. He and Hakeem Jeffries demanded a meeting with Trump to negotiate, which Trump initially accepted, but canceled after the pair demanded a massive list of concessions before the meeting took place. Schumer then told the press that Trump was “chicken” and that any shutdown would be his fault — even though the House had already passed the clean CR that Schumer had demanded when Joe Biden was president-ish.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported:

The White House’s budget office directed federal agencies to draw up plans to permanently reduce their workforces if there is a government shutdown next week, raising the specter of mass firings on top of the customary furloughs during a lapse in funding. 

The new memo sent by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought sharply raises the stakes for funding talks and increases the pressure on Senate Democrats, who are demanding that Republicans restore hundreds of billions of dollars in healthcare spending as a condition of their support for keeping the government funded.

…The OMB memo instructs agencies to design reduction-in-force plans for employees who work for programs that have no current funding and have no outside funding source, and that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” This would be in addition to any temporary furloughs that happen during a government shutdown. 

The memo from Vought says that any cuts made after the funding deadline would be permanent.

Never play checkers with someone who plays three-dimensional chess!

Ending Government Shutdowns (And The Threat Of Government Shutdowns)

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On Sunday, Senator Ron Johnson posted an article at The Wall Street Journal that included a proposal that would end government shutdowns and end the threat of government shutdowns.

The article reports:

The U.S. has experienced three government shutdowns since I entered the Senate in 2011. During that time Congress has passed 55 continuing resolutions and increased or suspended the debt ceiling 12 times. The national debt has grown during those 14 years from $14 trillion to $37 trillion. In 2019 I supported a bill that would have done away with government shutdowns forever. It passed the committee I chaired 12-2, but never passed either chamber of Congress.

With another shutdown looming, I’ve introduced an even simpler bill, the Eliminate Shutdowns Act, that could end the drama and uncertainty of Congress’s budgetary dysfunction. Some argued the 2019 bill would lead to higher spending and prohibit consideration of other measures until appropriations bills were passed. Those were legitimate concerns. My new bill simply provides for automatic two-week rolling continuing resolutions for any department for which an appropriation bill or longer-term continuing resolution hasn’t been passed. This would keep spending flat by prorating the previous year’s spending level.

North Carolina has a similar method in place–until a budget is passed for the current two-year period, the budget for the previous two-year period remains in place.

The article concludes:

The fighting over funding fiscal 2025 lasted six months. No one can predict how long we will be at loggerheads trying to fund 2026. With Democrats demanding spending that increases 10-year deficits by $1.5 trillion as their price for a four-week continuing resolution, a shutdown seems all but certain. At least this time a Republican administration will manage the shutdown in a way that minimizes harm to the nation. Democrats take the opposite approach, looking for ways to inflict as much pain as possible for political advantage.

Fortunately, this turmoil can be avoided permanently by passing the Eliminate Shutdowns Act. Anyone voting “no” is voting to continue budgetary chaos and should be held accountable by the American people.

S.2806 – Eliminate Shutdowns Act was introduced in the Senate on September 15th.

Unintentionally Or Otherwise, America Is Leading The Way

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The progressive movement is slowing down worldwide, if not stopping. On Saturday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air quoted a Wall Street Journal article on the subject of the decline of the progressive movement.

The article reports:

This past year showed that the progressive politics that dominated most industrialized countries over the past two decades or more is shifting to the right, fueled by working-class anxieties over the economy and immigration, and growing fatigue with issues from climate change to identity politics. …

Part of the shift is the normal pendulum of politics swinging back and forth between established parties on the left and right. The difference this time is a strong strain of populism and a growing rejection of traditional parties. 

In country after country, many working-class voters—especially those outside the biggest cities—are signaling the same thing: They mistrust the establishment—from academics to bankers to traditional politicians—and feel these elites are out of touch and don’t care about people like them.

Years of increased migration and trade, coupled with low economic growth, have led to a backlash and a rise in nationalism, where people want more of a sense of control, political analysts say. The rise of social media has exacerbated divisions and led to an upsurge in antiestablishment parties.

The monopoly that the political left has had on the media ended on the radio when The Rush Limbaugh show went national and on the internet when Elon Musk bought Twitter. There is still some censorship on Twitter, but it is nothing compared to what it was before Elon Musk bought it.

The article at Hot Air reminds us:

Economics are part of this too, but are more of a symptom than a root cause. Western economics has suffered from climate-change hysteria pushed by the progressive Left as a means to seize control of energy production. Where that has succeeded, in Germany and the UK to some extent, it has produced economic hardship and promises more of the same for the future. Germany in particular has a crisis on its hands which will shrink its income and wealth unless it takes rapid steps to return to reliable and scalable energy production. The US went in this direction to a lesser extent in the Obama and Biden years too, but they didn’t have enough buy-in to do the kind of extensive damage that the radicals did in Germany.

Add in the lies about the pandemic, transgenderism, forced multiculturalism through open borders, and wokery in general. Those are the first causes of the rejection of the progressive “moment” and of the neo-Marxists who seized power through it. When it began to damage economies enough for voters to notice, not to mention all of the other quality-of-life indicators that matter to the electorate, then the rejection was not just predictable but long overdue.

People around the world welcome a change to work and become economically successful. The progressive movement historically has transferred wealth to a favored few.

When The Powers That Be Don’t Like Your Definition

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On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about Alice Wairimu Nderitu, who has served as the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide since 2020. Nderitu’s contract has expired. Normally, renewing that contract is routine. However, this time her contract was not renewed–she was essentially fired.

The article explains the reason:

Alice Wairimu Nderitu has served as the United Nations Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide since 2020. During that period, Nderitu has urged caution regarding the use of the term, telling the UN to only apply it when genocidal intent is both manifest and the only legitimate explanation, lest “genocide” get watered down into mere political fashion. That is especially true in clear counter-terrorism operations, Nderitu warned, specifically resisting the application of the term “genocide” in the war Hamas started.

According to The Wall Street Journal:

Her paper explains that the term “genocide” was coined in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to describe massacres of entire ethnic groups with the intention of eliminating them. That definition, Ms. Nderitu has said, includes the Holocaust, the Hutus’ genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, the Serbian slaughter of Bosnian Muslims, and may include the ethnic killings now unfolding in Sudan. 

As a legal matter, establishing a pattern of violence as a genocide requires demonstrating intent. Israel’s campaign of self-defense doesn’t qualify. The war against Hamas has had many deaths, but Israel’s strategy is intended to dismantle a terrorist regime, not eliminate an ethnic group. The Jewish state has gone to great lengths to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties, even as Hamas uses civilians as shields so their deaths can be used as propaganda.

That’s not what the anti-Israel cabal at the U.N. want to hear.

The article at Hot Air concludes:

To call this a genocide is absurd. The Israelis are taking far more care about protecting civilian populations than any of the belligerents in World War II did, the conflict that birthed the UN. They are the only army in history that is expected to feed the population that started a war with them while the war still rages, in population centers where belligerents still attack the Israelis from civilian infrastructure. 

Moreover, Hamas has made its genocidal intentions against the Israelis and Jews in general explicitly known and declared ever since its founding. After October 7, their representatives announced that Hamas would keep conducting such massacres and atrocities until they destroyed Israel and enslaved the Jews that managed to survive. IDF operations uncovered Hamas’ specific plans for the enslavement of the remnants.

There’s a genocide going on, all right. And the UN is siding with it. 

“Can anyone with integrity survive at the UN?” the WSJ editors wonder. Not for long, it seems. If they want to side with genocidal terrorism, what value is there in the United Nations, even as a debating society?

There is no equivalency between the violence of October 7, 2023, and Israel’s fight for its survival. The United Nations has become what it was founded to prevent–an organization acting in opposition to the defense of freedom.

Taking Preventative Steps To Combat Election Fraud

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On April 10, 2020, The Wall Street Journal reminded us:

‘Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” That quote isn’t from President Trump, who criticized mail-in voting this week after Wisconsin Democrats tried and failed to change an election at the last minute into an exclusively mail-in affair. It’s the conclusion of the bipartisan 2005 report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker III.

That is still true, with mail-in ballots of any kind running a close second. However, there is a group that is taking pre-emptive measures to prevent voter fraud in the 2024 election.

On Monday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

This week, a group of citizens, attorneys, investigators, writers, former elected officials, tech entrepreneurs unveiled a powerful technology platform to even up the fight with Leftist NGOs stealing U.S. elections.

Their site, StopBogusBallots.com is an initiative of Common Sense Elections, a PAC applying quantum speed technology, innovative, successful legal strategies, top flight investigative talent – to exposing mail-ballots from nonsensical addresses BEFORE the votes get counted.

2024 will be decided by mail-in ballots, from 7 swing states, each of which is currently too close to call.

NGOs are active in each swing state, operating ballot mills registering illegal aliens and other migrants – capturing their ballots – and voting them.

The Common Sense Elections Dark Money Tracking System tracks every NGO influencing U.S. elections – dollars they spend, dollars they receive.

There is no organization in America, who can, with 3 clicks from a phone, expose every connection between the Chinese Progressive Association, Tides Advocacy, down to Leftist street-level GET-OUT-THE-VOTE organizations impacting the 2024 election.

The article explains:

StopBogusBallots.com does not simply find an anomaly; they cross-search it with property tax records, real-time U.S. postal change of address records, and other databases to challenge a mail-in ballot before it is counted rather than litigate afterward.

The product is a ballot challenge – with full documentation – from an official government document – like a property tax entry – and a street level photo – delivered weeks or days BEFORE the ballots are counted.

Let’s say Phineas votes from 135 Elmont Street.

The voter roll reveals nothing about the address.

Common Sense Elections cross-searches property tax rolls, which informs us that the address is a vacant lot in an abandoned mall with no bedrooms.

…Should a ballot come from that address, Common Sense Elections, or affiliated groups can challenge it, consistent with Wisconsin procedure, before it is counted.

How could Phineas get a mail-in ballot where a mail-in ballot cannot be delivered?

But he did get that ballot! He cannot get it in the mail! The ballot is then cast!

Why doesn’t each state do this on their own?

Shame on this group for interfering in the voting rights of dead people and illegal aliens who don’t have the right to vote!

Sometimes It’s Not What You Say–It’s What You Leave Out

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On Monday, Breitbart posted an article about the official platform of the Democrat party to be voted on during the Democrat Convention in Chicago.

The article reports:

…it calls for reelecting President Joe Biden, who was still the candidate at the time the document was finalized in mid-July.

“President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are running to finish the job,” it says.

Read the full, 91-page document here.

The platform begins with a “land acknowledgment,” declaring that the convention is being held on lands once belonging to Native Americans. This is a left-wing practice that, the Wall Street Journal noted last weekend, is central to the ideology behind campus anti-Israel protests — the claim that the United States and Israel are guilty of “settler colonialism.” This also “means rejecting the understanding of American history that has been mainstream since the mid-20th century—that it is a story of slow progress toward fulfilling the nation’s founding promise of freedom for all,” the Journal notes.

The Democratic platform claims Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have achieved enormous progress for Americans, and that Donald Trump “is rigging our economy for his Mar-a-Lago friends and billionaire donors, who like him, are only in it for themselves.”

Just for the record, in January 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported, “One of the most underreported stories of the Trump presidency is the extent to which black economic fortunes improved.” How has the Biden administration impacted black economic fortunes?

The article at Breitbart notes:

The platform makes a number of misleading claims, including the claim that the U.S. is “finally rebuilding … broadband” as part of the administration’s investment in infrastructure. Despite a $42.5 billion fund for expanding broadband under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which Harris was meant to supervise, not one new connection has been built.

…Among other highlights, the platform defends surgery and drug treatments for “transgender youth,” without specifying the age at which children should be provided such surgeries. “Democrats will vigorously oppose state and federal bans on gender-affirming health care,” it says. It does not mention the issue of transgender sports, and the question of biological males participating in women’s sporting activities.

The platform repeats the “very fine people” hoax — the false claim that Trump praised neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in 2017, when in fact he said they should be “totally” condemned.

On migration and the border, the platform claims: “President Biden has led with the conviction that we must secure our border and fix a broken immigration system decades in the making.” The platform blames Republicans in Congress for rejecting Biden’s proposed immigration legislation, which would legalize current migrant flows at massive levels.

The article concludes:

The platform also boasts that “President Biden ended America’s longest war, bringing our troops home from Afghanistan,” without mentioning the disaster than ensued, including the death of 13 American troops in a terror attack during the haphazard evacuation of Kabul.

Do we really want four more years of this?

IRS Audits For Thee, But Not For Me

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On Friday, The Federalist posted an article about how the extra money given to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the last budget passed by Congress is being used.

The article reports:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is using a new army of tax collectors to conduct mass audits of middle-income earners after Democrats promised additional resources would only be used to target the rich.

On Thursday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., celebrated the federal government’s collection of more than $1 billion in taxes from “high-wealth taxpayers” as a triumph for the agency’s radical expansion under President Joe Biden.

…A columnist for the paper trumpeted by Warren, however, pointed out that “Buried deep in the same story: Two-thirds of IRS audits initiated last year were on taxpayers making less than $200,000.”

The article notes:

“It should also be noted that nearly two-thirds of audits initiated in 2023 were on those making less than $200,000,” Brady told the paper.

In April, The Wall Street Journal editorial board reported on a review of the federal tax agency’s auditing practices, which found 63 percent of new government inquiries were to middle-income earners who made less than $200,000.

“Only a small overall share reached the very highest earners, while 80% of audits covered filers earning less than $1 million,” wrote the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal. “Don’t forget to save those charitable-giving receipts.”

It has been reported that nearly half of American Congress members are millionaires. Why would the people who write the laws write them so that their activities would be closely watched?

Some Sanity From The Federal Bench

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With all the cries from hysterical Democrats that President Trump would be a dictator if he is elected, why don’t the Democrats look in the mirror? The student loan forgiveness has continued despite being ruled unconstitutional, domestic oil production has pretty much been shut down despite the fact that Congress passed no laws shutting it down, the border has been left open despite laws that would control the flow of illegal immigrants, and liquid natural gas exports have been shut down despite the fact that Congress never passed a law shutting it down (more on that in a moment). So who is the dictator?

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article about a recent decision by Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana putting the Biden’s pause on LNG exports on hold.

The article quotes Politico:

A federal judge in Louisiana on Monday put the Energy Department’s pause on natural gas export permits on hold, dealing another legal blow to the Biden administration’s climate agenda.

Judge James Cain of the Western District of Louisiana, a Trump appointee, granted a request for a stay from 16 red states that had challenged the pause, arguing it will harm their economies.

The decision to stay the LNG pause upends one of Joe Biden’s major policy nods to climate-focused activists who have accused the president of not doing enough to mitigate planet-warming emissions despite Democrats passing the largest investment in climate in history via the Inflation Reduction Act.

The article also quotes The Wall Street Journal (behind the pay wall):

The Sierra Club, a vociferous and enthusiastic proponent of the January pause, is one of the more strident voices now encouraging our mush-brained hero to do an end-run around SCOTUS.

KEEP DOIN’ THAT VOODOO THAT YOU DO SO WELL

…Who cares what a court says? Not the Sierra Club, which says the judge’s ruling doesn’t compel the Administration “to issue any specific decisions.” In other words, the Administration can continue to slow-walk reviews, as it has been doing.

…Democrats fret that Donald Trump will ignore court rulings, but the Biden Administration defies them left and right. A federal judge in June 2021 ordered the Administration to resume quarterly oil and gas lease sales as required under federal law. It didn’t hold its first auction until June 2022 and waited another year to hold a second.

Progressives have no credibility when they warn about an imperial Trump Presidency after encouraging a lawless Biden Administration.

Laws only apply to Republicans.

Here We Go Again

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Remember the housing bubble that collapsed in 2007? There were a lot of reasons for that collapse–Congress was not innocent, the government encouraging sub-prime mortgages, putting quotas on mortgage companies telling them who they could loan money to (regardless of income qualifications), etc. Well, the government is in the process of laying the groundwork for a similar crisis.

On Friday, Hot Air posted an article by Stephen Moore about some current government actions that will have results similar to the housing bubble collapse of 2007.

The article reports:

Here we go again. The latest scheme by the Biden administration is to encourage families to borrow more money by using the equity in their home as collateral. Home equity loans are often very risky. If prices fall, home equity can become negative. There is nearly $18 trillion in home equity, and it’s one of the largest sources of savings and ownership for American families.

Now the Biden administration wants to encourage Americans to borrow even more at a time when credit card and auto debts are at an all-time high. If homes fall in value, families could slip underwater and default — just like during the subprime crisis.

As The Wall Street Journal points out, the other “likely losers” from this scam “would be taxpayers.” The evidence is indisputable from 2008 that the mortgages that ended in default were low-down-payment and low-equity loans.

Why in the world would President Joe Biden want to go down this dangerous road again?

In 2009, I shared the following information (here and here):

The bank is East Bridgewater Savings Bank which has no delinquent loans or foreclosures on its books.  The bank didn’t even need to set aside in money in 2008 for anticipated loan losses.   From late 2003 through mid-2008, East Bridgewater Savings made an average of 28 cents in loans for every dollar in deposit — a sharp contrast to the 90 percent average loan-to-deposit ratio among similar banks.

The FDIC recently criticized this bank for not lending enough, slapping it with a “needs to improve” rating under the Community Reinvestment Act, the Boston Business Journal reported.

According to the article:

“East Bridgewater Savings ended 2008 with $135 million in assets, deposits of $84 million, $87,000 in profit, and a Tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 31.6 percent — more than three times higher than many community banks in Massachusetts, the Journal reported.”

It seems to me that this sort of behavior on the part of the bank should be praised–not criticized.  It used to be good business to lend money only to people who were likely to pay it back!

The average consumer has more common sense that the economic ‘experts’ in the government!

Karma Isn’t Fun

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On Wednesday, PJ Media posted an article titled, “What a  Bad Day to Be a Democrat.” The article lists seven reasons for that statement. Please follow the link to read the details.

Here are the seven reasons:

1. By now you’ve heard that the Trump donation site crashed as patriotic Americans, 29.7% of whom were first-time donors, bombarded Trump with over $50 million in about 24 hours after the guilty verdicts, and a grand total of $200 million for the month of May.

2. A poll just out of my home state of Michigan revealed, much to the pain of the wailing, sissy-Mary sitzpinklers on the left, that the 34 guilty verdicts did not hurt Trump but, as America’s favorite commie-hating, radio talk show host/ PJ Media pundit/bourbon-drinking comedian pointed out, likely helped him.

3. New York City decided to incur a $15 “congestion tax” on people who travel south of 60th St. in Manhattan. The commies in charge thought it would be a tasty way to stick it to the profit-grabbing Milburn Pennybags of the Big Apple. 

But on Wednesday, Komrade Kathy Hochul delayed the tax indefinitely until the day after the presidential election because she knows New York State might, actually, possibly vote Republican for the first time in years.

4. As you’ve likely heard, the House Oversight Committee informed America’s notorious tergiversator, Merrick Garland, that it has proof that Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden lied to Congress, which is a big, fat, juicy felony. The committee recommended criminal investigations.

4.5. The gun case against Hunter is pretty daming. But he is on his own turf, so it’s hard to say how this case will go. If the jury just looks at the facts and doesn’t succumb to the sympathy of the ghost of Hunter’s dead brother Beau, who has already made an appearance, Hunter should be found guilty.

5. Georgia’s sassiest pinko, Fani Willis, might get booted from the Trump prosecution case. That could go either way, but we recently learned that the Trump trial will not proceed until a judge has decided whether or not to send Fani to the showers.

6. Judge Aileen Cannon just might decide that Jack Smith has no legal right to persecute Trump in what the Castromaniacs are calling the “classified documents trial.”

7. The Wall Street Journal released a damning article about how Joe Biden has the mental faculties of a carrot. Biden’s dementia is becoming an inconvenient truth for the Democrats who see voters — especially black and brown people — leaving the Democrat plantation in record numbers.

Almost all of these are ongoing issues. Stay tuned.

A Very Predictable Reaction To The New Law

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On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that California fast food restaurants are beginning to lay off workers in anticipation of the new minimum wage that will take place April 1.

The article reports:

A California state law is set to raise fast-food workers’ wages in April to $20 an hour. Some restaurants there are already laying off staff and reducing hours for workers as they try to cut costs.

California restaurants, particularly pizza joints, have outlined plans to cut hundreds of jobs in the months leading up to the April 1 wage mandate, according to state records. Other operators said they have halted hiring or are scaling back workers’ hours. 

Michael Ojeda, a Pizza Hut driver for eight years in Ontario, Calif., received notice in December that his last day would be in February, according to a letter from his former employer. Pizza Hut franchisee Southern California Pizza offered $400 in severance if he stayed through February, but Ojeda, who said he made hundreds of dollars a week in wages and tips as a delivery driver, went on unemployment instead. 

“Pizza Hut was my career for nearly a decade and with little to no notice it was taken away,” said Ojeda, 29, who previously supported his mother and partner on his Pizza Hut delivery wages. 

Southern California Pizza didn’t respond to requests for comment. Pizza Hut said it was aware of some of its California franchisees changing their delivery services. 

The article concludes:

Alexander Johnson, a second-generation owner of 10 California Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon restaurants, said the higher wages would lift his labor costs by around $470,000 annually. He has reduced his staff by about 10, and his 73-year-old parents have returned to working in the business to help shave costs. 

Johnson said he turned down a recent offer to add a location in a waterfront tourist area in San Francisco because of the projected operating costs. 

“It pains me to think about shutting down stores or laying people off,” said Johnson, who moved to Nevada this year to open Scooter’s Coffee locations in the state. “I love California, and I’m very sad about what’s going on.”

This new law will also have a negative impact on people entering the workforce for the first time. Unemployment will increase under the new law, and it will be more difficult to find an entry-level job. Companies are not in the habit of training inexperienced workers at the rate of $20 an hour. I wonder how long this law will stay in place.

Hudna?

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In a recent article, I explained the concept of “hudna.” Basically, the principle is “please stop attacking me so that I can re-arm.” Another tenet of Islam is “taqiyya” which says that it’s okay to lie to infidels for the sake of the advancement of Islam. We are seeing both of these concepts at work after the horrific attack on Israel on October 7th.

On Thursday, The American Thinker reported:

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report, identifying an arms-trafficking scheme in which “Iran and its allies” have been smuggling heavy weapons and small arms to the jihadi terrorists occupying certain areas of Israel; see the lede below:

Long before Hamas militants burst out of their Gaza stronghold to massacre scores of civilians with handguns and assault rifles, Iran and its allies had accelerated efforts to smuggle weapons into a different part of the Palestinian territories, the West Bank.

What was most explosive though, given current circumstances, is that the arms flowing from the terrorist regimes to the smaller terrorist groups, often comes disguised as aid packages. The authors of the Journal item recount that after the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria, Iran “began hauling large quantities of weapons to Syria” in shipments disguised as aid; as we see, a “humanitarian crisis” or an “emergency” is a great cover for arming terrorists.

On a separate and totally unrelated note… From a Politico report last week:

The U.S. will send $100 million in aid for humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday.

‘This money will support more than 1 million displaced in conflict affected Palestinians, including emergency needs in Gaza,’ Biden said Wednesday during a speech in Tel Aviv.

We are arming the enemies of Israel while we claim to be supporting them.

 

The Real State Of The Economy

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Remember when owning your house was something of a hedge against inflation? When everything else fell apart, at least your house maintained its worth and you had a place to live. Well, it seems as if President Biden is even threatening that small amount of stability. First the administration changed the mortgage rules to penalize people with good credit ratings (article here), now higher interest rates are beginning to slow down the housing market.

On Thursday, The Conservative Treehouse reported the following:

As higher interest rates continue to put pressure on borrowers, the ability of the average person to afford a mortgage diminishes. Higher mortgage rates lead to downward pressure on residential home values as fewer borrowers can afford higher payments. Simultaneously, commercial real estate is dropping in value as vacancies continue increasing.

Put both of these issues together and already tenuous banks holding mortgage bonds as assets can become more unstable.

…A perfect storm starts to realize.

(Wall Street Journal) U.S. existing-home sales decreased 2.4% in March from the prior month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. March sales fell 22% from a year earlier.

March marked the 13th time in the previous 14 months that sales have slowed. The housing market had a surprisingly strong February, when sales rose a revised 13.75% from the previous month. But after mortgage rates ticked higher, March sales resumed the extended period of declines.

The housing market’s slowdown is now starting to weigh on prices, which have fallen on an annual basis for two consecutive months for the first time in 11 years. The national median existing-home price decline of 0.9% in March from a year earlier to $375,700 was the biggest year-over-year price drop since January 2012, NAR said.

Median prices, which aren’t seasonally adjusted, were down 9.2% from a record $413,800 in June. Home prices in the western half of the U.S. experienced some of the biggest gains for many years but are now falling the fastest.

[…] Housing starts, a measure of U.S. home-building, fell 0.8% in March from February, the Commerce Department said this week. Residential permits, which can be a bellwether for future home construction, dropped 8.8%.

The housing market slowdown shows one of the main ways that the Fed’s aggressive interest-rate increases are rippling through the economy. Housing is one of the most rate-sensitive economic sectors, and high housing costs have been a big contributor to inflation.

The article concludes:

As mortgage rates rise, just as a consumer would pull back from the housing market, so too will institutional investment groups now control the slow dumping of the asset to remove the equity they pumped into it.  Much of the investment housing will be retained as rental housing, with the monthly rents being part of the returns on the investments.    However, as this dynamic unfolds further investment purchases of houses stop, because the asset overall is declining in value.  This halt of investment activity also worsens a steeper drop in home values.

Notice this line within today’s WSJ article: “The housing market had a surprisingly strong February, when sales rose a revised 13.75% from the previous month.”

What happened in February?  The BIG CLUB [Blackrock, Vanguard, Citadel, etc.] moved liquid assets out of banks into hard assets (real estate), to avoid a predictable banking issue which surfaced a month later in March.  They knew what was going to happen in banking, they moved their own assets to avoid it.

I am not sure that the American economy can survive the Biden administration’s economic policies. Even if you hated President Trump, the impact President Biden has had on stock portfolios, real estate values, the price of gas, etc., has had a serious negative impact of the middle class.

Will There Ever Be An Apology?

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I really like Rand Paul. He is not afraid to say what he believes is truth regardless of the pushback. He was one of the more rational voices during the Covid pandemic and was ridiculed for the things he said (things that later turned out to be true). Will the Democrats and tech companies who maligned him ever apologize? Probably not.

The Washington Examiner posted an article on March 1st about Rand Paul and the information he provided on Covid during the pandemic.

The article reports:

The U.S. Energy Department and the FBI now agree that a lab leak is probably to blame for the spread of the COVID-19 virus, according to reports. The disclosure was made in “low confidence” earlier this week after the department received new intelligence on the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Energy Department oversees 17 national labs and research centers and was investigating the pandemic’s origins. Meanwhile, the Energy Department’s admission was just the latest in a recent string of evidence vindicating Paul. A new study released this month revealed that immunity from a natural COVID infection was “at least as high, if not higher” than receiving the vaccine. Paul said this last year but was dismissed by many on the Left as spreading misinformation.

The article concludes:

Paul was heavily criticized by those on the Left for saying the same thing the Energy Department just now concluded. He was censored by Big Tech and vilified by Democratic politicians who claimed Paul’s now-vindicated assertions were detrimental to the country. But it was Big Tech and the Democrats who were harming the country, not the Kentucky Republican.

“Trust the science” evolved into “trust the tyrants,” and the Left sought total compliance to its authoritarianism during the pandemic. Anyone objecting, such as Paul, was vilified as an ignorant conspiracy theorist and, in some cases, accomplice to murder. What happened to Paul should serve as a warning of left-wing, Democratic totalitarianism and why they can never be trusted to regulate speech or information. Liberals, Democrats, the Left, and Big Tech all owe Rand Paul an apology. Will they ever do so?

Will the political left ever be held accountable for their lies?

 

The Threat Of Disinformation

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On Sunday, The Wall Street Journal posted an article about Elon Musk’s release of Twitter’s documents showing censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

The article reports:

Elon Musk’s release of internal emails relating to Twitter’s 2020 censorship is news by any definition, even if the mainstream media dismiss it. There will be many threads to unspool as more is released, but a couple of points are already worth making.

The first is that Mr. Musk would do the country a favor by releasing the documents all at once for everyone to inspect. So far he’s dribbled them out piecemeal through journalist Matt Taibbi’s Twitter feed, which makes it easier for the media to claim they can’t report on documents because they can’t independently confirm them.

A second point is an huzzah for Rep. Ro Khanna, the California progressive Democrat, who warned Twitter in 2020 about the free-speech implications and political backlash of censoring the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. That was good advice, even if Twitter didn’t take it.

A third point is the confirmation of the central role that former spies played in October 2020 in framing the Hunter Biden story in a way that made it easier for Twitter and Facebook to justify their censorship.

Recall that former Democratic intelligence officials James Clapper and John Brennan led the spooks in issuing a public statement suggesting that the laptop may have been hacked and its content was Russian disinformation. On Oct. 16, 2020, Mr. Clapper told CNN that “to me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work.” On Oct. 19, 51 former spooks released their statement claiming that the arrival of the emails “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” (The statement and signers are published nearby.)

The article at the Wall Street Journal concludes:

The partisan foray by current and former U.S. intelligence officials in the last two elections should be deeply troubling to Americans on the left and right. They have authority by dint of access to information that isn’t confirmable by the press, which takes their spin as gospel. This is a form of political corruption that needs to be exposed, and perhaps the Twitter documents will help to unlock the story.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. It is very possible that the former and current U.S. intelligence officials working to get Joe Biden elected didn’t want President Trump looking into the domestic activities of our spy agencies. It seems that a thorough examination of those domestic activities is long overdue.

 

Delta Owns An Oil Refinery!?!?

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On Monday, Hot Air posted an article about the current energy problems in America (and worldwide).

The article quotes The Washington Post:

The country is down to 25 days of diesel supply with stockpiles at their lowest level for this time of year in records going back to 1993. In the Northeast, where more people burn fuel for home heating than anywhere else in the country, inventories are a third of their typical levels heading into winter. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese called the levels “unacceptably low.” By late October, diesel prices had risen for more than two weeks to 50% above where they were a year ago.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The Biden administration has leased fewer acres for oil-and-gas drilling offshore and on federal land than any other administration in its early stages dating back to the end of World War II, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

The article includes the following chart:

The article at Hot Air reports:

Where does Delta come into all this, after the commodities and doom and gloom lecture? That’s kind of interesting, too. At the top of the post, where I linked to those three PA refineries being closed in 2012? One of them was the Trainer facility, and it was given an EPA reprieve, of all things. CONOCO-Phillips still wanted to unload it, and Delta Airlines bought it as a hedge against oil prices and jet fuel shortages. They lost their butt owning it for years – as a small refinery fighting the EPA mandates tooth and nail didn’t help – and repeatedly tried to unload it, but, HEY! There’s been a sudden turnaround. Things are looking rosy and they are looking prescient. From April:

Delta will see a benefit of 20 cents per gallon of jet fuel from its refinery, which acts as a hedge against the spike in fuel. In particular, the refinery supplies fuel for Delta’s York operations, but Chief Financial Officer Daniel Janki said Monroe Energy’s output acts as a 40-50 percent fuel hedge across Delta’s network. In the first quarter, the refinery knocked about 7 cents off each gallon of jet fuel Delta consumed.

When Delta first bought the Trainer, Pa., refinery from Conoco Philips — now Philips 66 — in 2012, analyst opinions were mixed. Some argued it was a stroke of genius on the airline’s part, while others said it was too far afield from Delta’s core operations to make sense for an airline with no experience in selling or marketing petroleum products. The years since have been up and down for the refinery but now, with oil prices spiraling up in the wake of the Ukraine war, the refinery is proving its worth.

The refinery generated $1.2 billion in revenue in the first quarter, compared with $48 million in the same quarter in 2019, Delta said in its first-quarter results. About 80 percent of its output is diesel and gasoline, prices of which have surged. “Our Monroe refinery provides a unique benefit, acting as a partial hedge to elevated cracks,” Janki said. “This is especially true with New York Harbor Jet cracks, where our production at Monroe provides 100 percent offset.”

It really is time to rediscover American energy independence!

 

Is Anyone Comfortable With This?

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On Sunday, The U.K Daily Mail posted the following headline, “FDA set to authorize updated COVID-19 booster shots for newer Omicron strains without completed human tests: Agency will assess new jabs based on mice research and older vaccines.”

The article reports:

New COVID-19 booster shots are set to be authorized this week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will be available to most Americans before human testing has even been completed.

The shots have been modified to target the latest Omicron variant, but won’t have finished testing in humans when the FDA makes the decision. Instead, the FDA is relying on data from other sources – like research in mice and older vaccines, the Wall Street Journal reported.

‘Real world evidence from the current mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of individuals, show us that the vaccines are safe,’ FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a tweet last week. 

This is insane.

The article notes:

WILL THEY WORK BETTER?

No one knows. Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an FDA vaccine adviser, said the antibody jump from that earlier BA.1-tweaked candidate was ‘underwhelming.’

‘What the administration is asking us to do is to accept this bivalent vaccine as significantly better’ than another dose of today’s vaccine, he said. ‘It would be nice if there were data to support that.’

But while FDA hasn’t made a final decision, Marks said there’s evidence that the updated boosters are safe and that waiting for more study of their effectiveness would risk another mutant appearing before they could roll out.

They ‘essentially refresh the immune response,’ he said. ‘Granted, it’s still a bit of a guess how long it will last but, this is doing our best.’

Given how outdated the current shots are, an update makes sense, said Dr. Walter Orenstein of Emory University, a former vaccine director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While he’d like to see more data, he plans to get the new booster.

 A large percentage of Americans have had Covid. They have natural immunity. The shots did not prevent people from getting or spreading Covid, so why in the world should they get the booster. The current variant of Covid is not a danger to most Americans. The only reason to continue with the nonsense of creating vaccines that don’t work is financial, and that is not a valid reason to inject people with an untried vaccine.

Whose Debt Is It Anyway?

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Today, The National Review reported that President Biden announced that he would be forgiving the student loans of many Americans.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden is set to “forgive” up to $10,000 in federal student debt for those making under $125,000 annually, and $20,000 for Pell grant recipients, transferring the cost of the loans to the American public, the White House announced Wednesday.

…Biden is also set to extend the federal student loan freeze for a final time until December 31.

Lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, have argued that Biden’s executive order, is unconstitutional and goes outside the rights of the executive branch.

Congress, not the president, is the only body that can cancel student debt, Pelosi said in July of 2021, arguing that “the president can’t do it.”

“Not everybody realizes that, but the president can only postpone, delay but not forgive” student loans, she added.

The Department of Education came to the same decision, arguing that the executive branch “does not have the statutory authority to cancel, compromise, discharge, or forgive, on a blanket or mass basis, principal balances of student loans, and/or to materially modify the repayment amounts or terms thereof.”

The article concludes:

The total estimated cost for Biden’s one-time cancellation is $300 billion, according to a study released Tuesday by the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania. The cost would increase to $330 billion if the program continues over the standard ten-year window, the study showed.

Republican lawmakers have sounded the alarm over Biden’s decision, saying that it will lead to inflation.

Payments for most student loan borrowers have been stalled since March of 2020, when Congress, and then former president Donald Trump, paused the payments due to predicted financial hardships stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden has extended the pause four times, and the freeze was expected to expire on August 31.

For once I agree with Nancy Pelosi. The President does not have the power to forgive student loans.

In December 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported the following:

To help pay for ObamaCare, Democrats simultaneously federalized the student loan market and projected fictitious savings, all while adding more than $1.2 trillion to the federal balance sheet. The amount keeps increasing like the debt clock. Liberals then cited the government “savings” to peddle the fallacy that the feds make money off student loans—a pretext they then used to sweeten debt forgiveness plans that have helped keep default rates artificially low.

The Education Department claims the national student loan default rate is 11.3%, yet only half of all debt is in repayment. Borrowers can seek forbearance or deferment if they are unemployed, return to school or claim financial difficulties. Or they can enroll in income-based repayment plans that let them discharge the debt after making payments equal to 10% of their discretionary income for 20 years. Those who work in “public service”—government or a nonprofit—can wipe out their debt in 10 years without a tax penalty.

Initially, only students who borrowed in 2014 or later were eligible for these generous loan forgiveness plans. Then President Obama retroactively extended the benefits to buy millennial votes. Over the last three years the share of outstanding federal direct loan dollars in income-based repayment plans has doubled to 40%. Costs have exploded.

Students signed a contract to repay those laws. By switching the college loans from private lenders to the government, the government acquired the power to interfere in that contract. However, the House of Representatives has the ‘power of the purse’–not the President.

I wonder if the people whose loans are forgiven will see through this effort to buy votes or if they will simply vote for Democrats because their loans were forgiven.

Searching For The Truth

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On Saturday, Townhall posted an article about Americans and the Covid vaccine.

The article reports:

In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, UCLA Geffen School of Medicine Doctor Joseph Lapado and Yale School of Public Health Doctor Harvey Risch are sounding the alarm that there may be serious underestimated risks involved with the side effects of the Wuhan Coronavirus vaccine.

This comes as an independent pollster found that a significant number of Americans regret receiving the vaccine in the first place. 

10 percent of those vaccinated said they wish they hadn’t done so, while 15 percent of adults said they have been diagnosed with a new condition by a medical practitioner weeks or months after the first dose. 

Children’s Health Defense (CHD) authorized the poll two years after the first vaccine was rolled out. 

“The fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports more than 232 million Americans ages 18–65 have taken at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and 15 percent of those surveyed report a newly diagnosed condition is concerning and needs further study,” Laura Bono, CHD’s executive director said. 

The article lists some of the medical problems encountered by those who received the vaccine– blood clots, disrupted menstrual cycles, heart attacks, strokes, lung clots and liver damage. About 10 percent of the people who experienced these problems said that the problems were severe.

The article concludes:

The Epoch Times reported that in May, hospitals saw an increase in cases of heart inflammation among patients. They also noted that the media has given more attention to cases of blood clots despite myocarditis being more common. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci also admitted that vaccine caused menstrual irregularities, saying that the issue is “temporary” and that they “need to study it more.”

I wish they had studied it more before they demanded that everyone take the shot or lose their job.