From my friends at Townhall:
Tag Archives: Townhall
This Statement Is Going To Have Repercussions!
On Monday, Townhall posted an article about a recent statement by President Biden that is going to create some problems for those pulling the levers of power in Washington.
The article reports:
President Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” during an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” an acknowledgement that prompted anger among liberals and questions from conservatives.
Noting that it’s the first Detroit Auto Show in three years, host Scott Pelley asked the president if that was a sign the pandemic was over.
While noting the virus continues to be “a problem,” Biden admitted, “the pandemic is over.”
“If you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, and so I think it’s changing, and I think [the Detroit Auto show resuming] is a perfect example of it,” he added.
The article notes the problems resulting from this statement:
Conservatives, meanwhile, pointed out there is no justification for any Covid restrictions to be in place anymore or any vaccine or mask mandates to remain. He also just upended his administration’s argument for its student loan bailout.
The article concludes:
According to Politico, the statement was not part of his planned remarks and “caught several of his own health officials by surprise.”
There were several other statements made during the “60 Minutes” interview that the Biden administration staff is working hard to clean up. On Monday The American Thinker posted an article detailing some of the other missteps by President Biden during the interview. The missteps include issues such as America’s policy on Taiwan, inflation, the raid on Mar-a-Lago and last of all, his own fitness for office.
Be Prepared
On Wednesday, Townhall posted an article about ongoing discussions between the rail unions and companies hoping to avoid a strike.
The article reports:
As the United States barrels toward a Friday deadline for rail unions and companies to reach an agreement to avert a national strike, rail companies are halting shipments in another sign that negotiations might not prevent a nationwide rail shutdown.
This worrying development comes according to “an agricultural association and sources at two grain cooperatives” who spoke to Reuters about the emerging threat to exports and domestic deliveries.
As Reuters explains, the timing of the looming strike is making the situation even worse. “With farmers starting to harvest autumn crops that are shipped to meat and biofuels producers, the shipping disruptions could add to already high inflation,” something that was already shown to be increasing in this week’s inflation reports measuring August costs. “Farmers also plan to add fertilizer to fields after the harvest, and shipments of fertilizer are being delayed,” another ripple effect that would make even a short rail shutdown a significant crisis with lasting impacts.
The article quotes Reuters:
Wayne-Sanderson Farms, a Georgia-based chicken company owned by Cargill Inc and Continental Grain, is working with local corn producers to augment feed supplies if needed during rail disruptions, spokesman Frank Singleton said.
[…]
Some rail customers that feed livestock do not have enough soymeal, said Fisher, of the National Grain and Feed Association. In a worst case scenario, that could force some producers to cull animals.
Railroads also ship hexane, a chemical solvent that crushers use to extract oil from soybeans, said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of Soy Transportation Coalition.
“Any slowdown or stoppage of rail service – especially on the eve of harvest – would significantly impact farmers’ ability to meet customer demand – both domestically and internationally,” Steenhoek said.
The article concludes:
The White House does not have a briefing scheduled on Wednesday, but Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tried to assuage concerns about a strike on Tuesday — but failed to explain how, after months of direct involvement by the Biden administration in the labor dispute, had only a “contingency plan” to shift rail freight to planes, boats, and trucks.
This is another attack (planned or unplanned) on America’s food supply. If the strike happens, it might be very difficult for Americans to feed their families this winter. This is NOT normal. We need people in charge in Washington who will keep Americans fed and keep the trains running. Obviously the current crop is not capable of doing that.
Have you read about a looming rail strike anywhere in the mainstream media?
Global Warming In History
On Monday, Townhall posted an article about climate change and the current hurricane season. The article included the following quote:
But, you know, maybe there is something to this global warming stuff after all. As one commentator wrote, “Snows are less frequent and less deep. They often do not lie below the mountains more than one, two, or three days and very rarely a week. They are remembered to be formerly frequent, deep, and of long continuance. The elderly inform me that the earth used to be covered with snow about three months every year. The rivers, which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scarcely ever do now. This changes…in the spring of the year is very fatal to fruits…I remember that when I was a small boy, say 60 years ago, snows were frequent and deep in every winter.” Proof, if any was ever needed, that the planet is disastrously warming.
The above paragraph was written by Thomas Jefferson in 1799.
The article notes the fact that the extremely active hurricane season for 2022 has not yet materialized. Admittedly, a lot could happen in the next month or so, but August was unusually quiet.
The article reports:
The Weather Channel notified us on August 31 that “Rare Hurricane Season August Shutout Possible.” Really. “August is one of the core months of [the] Atlantic hurricane season.” But none this August. Only once since 1966 has there been a failure of a least one tropical storm to develop in the year’s eighth month. A few days prior to the publication of this article, the Weather Channel told us, “Atlantic Gets Busier; 4 Areas to Track Now.” Please! We need a hurricane to confirm that such climate disasters are indeed increasing like we say they are! A few dead bodies are imperative! But, no fear, climate activists, “the long-slumbering Atlantic Basin is finally showing signs of waking up.” “Many quiet-start seasons have ended up busy.” Hopefully, this year we’ll get a big hurricane or two yet that will smack the USA, kill a few million people, and prove those climate-deniers don’t know what they are talking about.
…Hurricane Harvey in 2017 is a prime example (have we had a disaster like that since then?). “Harvey is what climate change looks like,” Politico informed us. The Independent asked, “Will Hurricane Harvey show Trump that climate change exists?” “Climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly,” a climate change professor educated the peasants. Harvey was actually the first category 3 or larger hurricane that had made landfall in the US since 2005. But the hype was par for the course for the climate change religious cultists (one of whom told us, in 2012, we need to “repent” of our “sin” of “climate denial”). In 2015, “Hurricane Matthew looks a lot like the future of climate change,” CNN warned. 2012: “Superstorm Sandy is what global warming looks like,” Environment News Service echoed. 2005: “The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming,” the Boston Globe enlightened us. In 2007, Al Gore said that the North Pole could be “ice-free by 2013.” In 2013, the earth gained a record amount of sea ice, adding the equivalent of 19,000 Manhattan Islands of ice. Gore only missed it by 920,000 square miles. Ad infinitum, ad nauseum.
Weathermen are not always accurate in their predictions for the next week, why should we believe their predictions for the next fifty years? Earth is always changing. A good meteorologist tracks cycles to see what to expect. Meanwhile, enjoy the calm, but understand that the hurricane season is not over yet.
Attacking Religious Freedom In America
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about the Biden administration’s misuse of Title IX to attack Christian schools.
The article reports:
Sometimes, scrolling through the news, you come across a story so ludicrous, so extreme, it seems like someone must have made it up to prove a point. Take, for example, the recent situation at Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa, where the federal government was threatening to take away school lunches for underprivileged children unless the school allowed, among other things, male students to share lockers, showers, and bathrooms with female students. For Grant Park and other Christian schools and universities that have chosen to uphold their deeply held beliefs, reality is proving crazier than fiction.
The Biden administration has proposed changes to the language of Title IX, a civil rights law designed to prevent sex-based discrimination. The administration is trying to change the meaning of the word “sex” to include “gender identity and sexual orientation.” This seemingly small change would set off a cascade of problems, as it would compel all Americans—regardless of their deeply held beliefs about the nature of sex and gender—to assent to the current radical view that maleness and femaleness are just a matter of individual expression.
The article notes:
Because HUD announced that it would enforce its order through the Fair Housing Act, College of the Ozarks and other colleges across the country—regardless of their beliefs—will be required to house male students in female dorms and vice versa. Colleges will be required to allow students to choose which restrooms, dorms, showers, and locker rooms they want to use—or be shut down.
For College of the Ozarks, that is not an option. Providing safe, comfortable housing for all students is a part of the college’s commitment to its community. That means that no female student should be forced to share private spaces with a male student, and vice versa. But if College of the Ozarks shuts down, countless young people will lose their only chance at higher education. So the college took a stand, and is continuing to fight in court for its right to offer safe, affordable education to its students.
The article concludes:
Fortunately for Grant Park, Alliance Defending Freedom got involved. Just days after ADF filed a lawsuit on Grant Park’s behalf, the USDA issued an exemption and Commissioner Fried approved the school’s request for funding for lunches. The USDA also agreed to automatically respect Title IX exemptions for all religious schools.
So for students at Grant Park Christian Academy, lunch is back on the menu—for now. But if the Biden administration succeeds in changing the definition of sex in Title IX, this extreme gender ideology will be set in stone for all public schools, charter schools, and private secular schools. Schools and colleges that try to stand up for their right to operate according to their deeply held beliefs will be at a disadvantage, and it’s only a matter of time before this crazy reality gets even more bizarre.
The lesson here is that if you want to be free to run your school in accordance with your beliefs, don’t take money from the government. Hillsdale College is a shining example of that principle.
When You Don’t Deal With A Lawbreaker…
On Tuesday, Townhall reported that the Biden administration has chosen the person to lead the new, expanded Internal Revenue Service.
The article reports:
As the Biden administration continues its attempts to consolidate power within the federal government and among its leftist allies, there’s a familiar face being tapped to lead Biden’s effort to surge power, resources, and agents to the IRS — and she has quite the track record of working to target conservative groups and organizations.
One of Lois Lerner’s lackeys from the Obama-era IRS scandal — one that saw the agency target conservative and tea party affiliated groups as a political arm of the Obama-Biden administration — will be leading the Biden administration’s expansion of the IRS and stated goal of hiring 87,000 new agents.
Nikole Flax, who most recently served as the deputy commissioner in charge of the IRS’ Large Business & International Division, has been with the IRS since 2008. According to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Flax will be leading “the creation of a new, centralized office for implementation of all IRS-related provisions” outlined in the boondoggle falsely named the “Inflation Reduction Act.” There’s little Democrats love more than a chance to work on “centralized” anything within the federal government.
I wonder if the IRS will be used to squelch conservative speech before the mid-terms and before the 2024 presidential election.
The article notes:
Once the IRS was caught in its scheme of treating conservatives disparately from liberal organizations, Flax was one of several senior IRS officials who had their emails conveniently get “lost,” along with Lerner’s, as Katie reported in 2014. “One of those officials is former chief of staff to former Acting Commissioner Steven Miller, Nikole Flax,” Katie also noted. “The ‘lost’ emails fall during the time period when ‘the Washington, DC office wrote and directed the Cincinnati field office to send abusive questionnaires, including inappropriate demands for donor information, to conservative groups,” according to the House Ways and Means Committee.”
Somehow in Washington, the excuse ‘the dog ate my emails’ is accepted.
The article concludes:
As a refresher, the emails that *were* recovered from Lerner and other high-ranking officials included explanations of their main goal in going after conservatives and tea party groups: “One IRS prosecution would make an impact and they wouldn’t feel so comfortable doing stuff,” Lerner wrote.
Flax also, as Katie reported here, “visited the White House 35 times after talking with former head of tax exempt groups Lois Lerner about working to criminally prosecute conservative tea party groups for ‘lying’ about political activity.” What was Flax doing at the White House? Who did she talk to? Was she reporting progress or taking orders? All that’s known is that Flax will again now have a leading role within the IRS as the Biden administration steps up its attacks on conservatives by labeling vast swaths of Americans as fascists.
A Facebook friend who does excellent research points out:
Nikole Flax was the pointPERSON in the Obama program to target conservative businesses. When it was discovered that they broke the law in specifically targeting opposition, the inspector general sent Flax instructions to deliver her computer to his office for inspection.
She miraculously had a hard drive crash that very instant and, notwithstanding the incredible amount of computer geeks at the FBI, no one was ever able to recover a single bit of information from her hard drive. Imagine that.
She was never prosecuted for abuse of power, obstruction of justice, or destruction of evidence.
Instead, China Joe has appointed her to head the IRS Central Office controlling the audits for the 87,000 new agents as well as its existing auditors. The White House did not disclose whether she gets one of the new AR-15s and some high-capacity magazines the IRS recently purchased.
Do you really think they are going to enforce the law equally?
Not since Vladimir Putin has an evil person in government been given so much power.
Stay tuned (and make sure you are current on alternative news sources)!
There Is No Honor Among Thieves
On Tuesday I posted an article about the few good things in the Inflation Reduction Act. They were things that would prevent the fossil fuel industry in America from disappearing entirely under the extreme environmentalist agenda of the Biden administration.
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article raising the possibility that the items that made the deal with Senator Manchin possible might not happen.
The article reports:
The deal that took place between Manchin and Schumer, as well as Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, assured Manchin that there would be a separate method approved that would involve permits for energy infrastructure, including gas pipelines. There would also be new lease sales for oil drilling on federal lands.
It doesn’t seem like everyone is on board, though. As POLITICO reported on Tuesday for Congress Minutes, Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) says he’s “reserving judgement for now.” As the headline aptly read, though, “Tom Carper sure doesn’t sound sold yet on the permitting deal Chuck Schumer struck with Joe Manchin.”
While Carper’s highlighted remarks begin sounding hopeful enough, there’s still room for concern. “I’m confident we’ll find some areas where we agree. There will probably be some areas where we don’t agree. I’m not sure the vehicle. I feel confident we’ll do that. … At the end of the day, I just don’t want us to make the changes in permitting that will undermine our ability to fight climate change,” he said.
A newsletter from Inside Climate News last month explained a whole host of complaints that environmentalist groups had about the agreement.
The remarks came after Carper presided over a pro forma session that same day.
The article notes:
Making the agreement even more high stakes is that Sen. Manchin is threatening to shut down the government if he doesn’t get his permitting deal in a continuing resolution (CR). While Republicans have taken heat for threats to shut down the government, now it’s a Democrat who is doing so.
On Sunday, The West Virginia MetroNews reported:
As part of an agreement between Manchin and Democratic leaders, Congress will consider changes to the permitting process once lawmakers return to Capitol Hill next month. Related legislation will include steps to speed up approval of energy projects as well as the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile system capable of transporting natural gas from West Virginia to southern Virginia once complete. The project has been marred by legal challenges.
Manchin said the language will be in a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
“This is something the Republican Party has wanted for the last five to seven years I’ve been with them,” he said.
“It either keeps the country open, or we shut down the government. That’ll happen Sept. 30, so let’s see how that politics plays out.”
Stay tuned.
The Damage Done
Dr. Fauci announced recently that he was planning to retire in December. What a coincidence! If the Republicans take the House of Representatives and hold investigations into his behavior, he will be retired.
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about the legacy of Dr. Fauci. The article mentions a number of Dr. Fauci’s misdeeds–lying to the public, conflict of interest with companies making Covid vaccines, not reporting the ill-effects of the vaccine, championing shutdowns, masks, questionable vaccines, etc. But the article focuses on what it considers the greatest of Dr. Fauci’s transgressions.
The article explains:
Because of Anthony Fauci, Americans have a dwindling – if non-existent – level of faith in their public health institutions. When the next “expert” stands in front of the American people to deliver information, advice and warnings about a public health issue, most of us will be skeptical and wonder if what we are hearing has been politicized. And that’s Fauci’s fault.
Fauci is worse than the boy who cried wolf. He’s the boy who told fantastical tales about multiple wolves and wrongly advised on how to protect yourself from those wolves even after saying the wolves would cause you no harm. And now, the next time we hear about a dangerous wolf, our understandable reaction will be to ignore the warnings. And people will die.
Fauci did that. Because he let his ego and petty, political battles take precedence over his duty and responsibility to the American people and the truth.
Goodbye and good riddance.
The government is always reluctant to give up control over the people. The powers that were usurped during the Covid epidemic need to be turned back over to the people. We need to go back to the days of the government not being able to tell a business that it has to close for two weeks or an indefinite period of time. We need to go back to the days of visiting terminally ill relatives in the hospital. We need to back to having the privilege of deciding what shots we put in our bodies.
Lastly, we need to go back to the days of being the free country our Founding Fathers created.
From my friends at Townhall.com:
Is Anyone Surprised?
When the CHIPS Act passed, the Biden administration said that it would lead to “more than $1 million construction jobs alone over the next 6 years building semiconductor factories in America.” On Friday, Townhall posted an article detailing the actual facts.
The article reports:
After signing the CHIPS Act into law earlier this month, which aims to increase domestic chip production, President Biden claimed it would lead to “more than $1 million construction jobs alone over the next 6 years building semiconductor factories in America.” It turns out, that figure is completely wrong.
A White House official said it was a “mix up,” but this number was not something Biden said off-script. He said it in official remarks while signing the bill, then tweeted the statement from his official Twitter account.
Does anyone believe President Biden has control over his Twitter account? That is a scary thought!
The article quotes The Washington Post:
When we dug into the report, moreover, we could not find any reference to 1 million construction jobs being created. Instead, the report predicted such an investment — roughly equivalent to the Chips Act — would create “an average of 185,000 temporary jobs annually throughout the U.S. economy from 2021 to 2026.”
Six times 185,000 adds up to more than 1 million. But note that these are not all construction jobs. In fact, few are construction jobs.
“The statement about 1 million construction jobs is not accurate,” said Sarah Ravi, a spokeswoman for the association. She directed us to a chart in the report that indicated that a $50 billion investment would create an additional 6,200 construction jobs. (The Washington Post)
The Washington Post gave the claim “four Pinocchios.” It was not a slip-up–it was made up to make the bill look good.
What Was This About?
On Tuesday I posted an article that I had serious doubts about posting. I posted it anyway because it was true. I was hoping it wasn’t true, but history has a way of repeating itself. Please keep that article in mind while reading the following.
On Wednesday, Townhall posted the following:
IRS Job Page Removed After Alarming Description of the Special Agent Position Got Exposed
Numerous people on the internet took screenshots of the job page before it was removed.
Here is one of those screenshots:
The article at Townhall concludes:
Excuse me? The link got taken down, but given what has transpired at the IRS, the FBI, and the DOJ—it sure looks like the organs of the state are mustering for armed confrontation with the Left’s political enemies. Let’s not forget that the IRS got busted for targeting conservative non-profits in 2013. The recent spending bill passed by Senate Democrats aims to appropriate $80 billion to the IRS, which even former commissioners admit won’t be spent efficiently, but it will add another 87,000 employees to the agency to apparently go on search and destroy missions if we don’t pay our taxes.
We all remember Lois Lerner who targeted conservative groups and has now happily retired with her pension. This is one agency that does not need to add additional personal nor does it need to be armed.
Thank God for the alert Internet users who found the ad and shared it.
Searching For The Truth
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.
The Correct Response To A Gun Buyback
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article about a recent gun buyback event in Houston, Texas. One resident made very clear what he thought of the event.
The article reports:
Over the weekend, Houston’s Democrat Mayor Sylvester Turner held a gun buyback event in a church parking lot where residents could turn in their firearms and receive a gift card ranging from $50 to $200 with no questions asked. According to the Mayor’s announcement, the funds provided to those turning in firearms came from the American Rescue Plan — aka American taxpayers — and the amount-per-firearm was $50.00 for a non-functioning firearm, $100.00 for a rifle or shotgun, $150.00 for a handgun, and $200.00 for a fully automatic rifle.
The American spirit of entrepreneurship was present:
One man showed up to the buyback with dozens of 3D-printed firearms, and Houston authorities had no choice but to accept them and hand over gift cards in return. The real kicker: it only cost the man $3 to print each firearm, of which he made 62, and received $50 per 3D-printed gun for a total of nearly $3,000 in gift cards.
FOX 26 caught up with the man, who remained anonymous, and asked him why he 3D-printed a bunch of firearms to sell back to Houston authorities. “The goal was not personal profit, but to send [Houston leaders] a message about spending $1 million tax dollars on something that has no evidence of any effect on crime,” he said.
The city has evidently learned from its experience.
The article concludes:
Before others think of taking advantage of Houston’s latest attempt to get firearms off the street, FOX 26 reported that Houston’s mayor won’t allow 3D-printed firearms at future buyback events. “We’re going to exclude those next time around,” the mayor said. “This is a program designed for people who want to voluntarily relinquish their guns,” he emphasized, despite that technically being what the creative 3D firearm maker did.
You have to love the creativity of the American people!
A Forewarning Of What Could Happen Here?
In March 2022, Townhall posted an article about a warning from President Trump given to Germany at the United Nations.
The article reported:
During a speech to the United Nations in 2018, President Donald Trump warned Germany against becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas. They laughed it off.
“Reliance on a single foreign supplier can leave a nation vulnerable to extortion and intimidation. That is why we congratulate European states, such as Poland, for leading the construction of a Baltic pipeline so that nations are not dependent on Russia to meet their energy needs. Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course,” Trump said. “Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers.”
They are not laughing now.
On Thursday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:
Hanover, a city in the northwest of Germany, has become the first major metropolitan area to try and reduce the use of natural gas by removing hot water from public buildings. The move comes as natural gas supplies from Russia are reduced to 20% of capacity. Germany is attempting to fill up storage facilities of natural gas in order to survive the winter.
Germany, together with several European countries, are telling their citizens to expect large increases in their electricity bills as energy costs continue to skyrocket.
Germany does not have any LNG terminals to receive shipments of natural gas into ports, they are dependent on pipelines from Russia. They are urgently trying to reduce the current amount of natural gas being consumed.
Unfortunately America is no longer energy independent and is not in a position to help them. This is the consequence of putting someone in the White House that is so focused on his left-wing agenda he is blind to the suffering he is causing around the world. The Biden administration is not simply a blight upon America, it is a blight upon the world.
A Very Short-Sighted Plan
There is a lot of climate change panic going on right now. It’s summer, and it is hot. In some places it is hotter than it has been for a long time. However, I would hesitate to say that it is hotter than it has ever been (we still haven’t seen plants growing on the Greenland Ice Cap where plant life fossils have been found in the past). Since everyone is sweating and complaining about the heat, this is a really good time to talk about global warming and blame man for its existence. We can choose to overlook climate cycles and simply complain about the heat. The Biden administration is planning to take full advantage of our summer heat wave.
On Tuesday, Townhall reported the following:
President Joe Biden’s Special Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein made an appearance on CNN Tuesday morning as gas prices continue to bust the budgets of American families.
During his remarks, Hochstein said the White House does not want oil and gas companies embarking on new projects and that they are working to accelerate the current, extremely painful and unaffordable transition to alternative energy.
Has it occurred to the brilliant people in the Biden administration that we are more likely to find a way to turn fossil fuel into almost entirely clean energy than we are to be able to run a country on green energy? When you evaluate the push toward green energy by our political leaders, it’s a good idea to look at their stock portfolios and investments as well as their personal actions (private jets, oceanfront property, carbon footprint, etc.). In 2010 I wrote an article about the closing of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) which was doing carbon trading. What had happened was that the Obama administration had not been successful in passing Cap and Trade legislation and the trading of carbon credits was not going to happen. A lot of liberal Congressmen lost money they had invested in the CCX when it stopped carbon trading. That alone should tell you all you need to know about the dreaded climate change.
The article at Townhall notes:
“It’s about making a choice between what is the short term and the medium term so we can make sure we have enough oil and gas to support us through the transition and what are the kind of steps we don’t want the oil and gas industry to take that would have longterm consequences when we don’t want new major projects that would take 20-30 years that would become profitable,” Hochstein said. “So we have to make that differentiation to make sure the American consumer has what it needs to grow, grow our economy and the global economy, but not take steps and endanger the climate work that we’re trying to do to make sure that we’re on a better footing to accelerate the transition.”
The political elites in America will find a way to avoid the suffering that will result from their policies. Meanwhile, Americans who are simply trying to work, raise families, and generally be good citizens will suffer. The only way to deal with the Biden administration is to limit their power by placing conservatives (I didn’t say Republicans) in Congress in 2022 and electing a conservative President in 2024.
Another Story The Mainstream Media Is Hoping We Will Forget
On Tuesday, Townhall posted an article with the following headline, “Will America Ever Find Out Who the Supreme Court Leaker Is?” That is a very good question. Each Justice is allowed four law clerks, and there is a support staff. However, the number of people who would have had access to a draft of a brief would be very limited. We really should know by now who leaked, and the person who leaked should be facing severe consequences. It is odd that we don’t know.
The article reports:
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court officially ended its term after releasing final opinions on a number of cases.
But the Supreme Court still hasn’t revealed who leaked the draft opinion of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization at the beginning of May.
…The leak not only rocked the Supreme Court, where trust and confidentiality are crucial, but prompted violent pro-abortion activists to launch a number of attacks on crisis pregnancy centers and illegally converge on the homes of conservative justices. Democrats have called for court-packing and even the elimination of the Supreme Court. Last week, President Joe Biden attacked justices on foreign soil.
…On June 24, the Court released the final opinion on Dobbs. It was largely unchanged and was nearly identical to the leaked draft opinion. The Department of Justice has expressed little interest in exploring potential criminal consequences for the leaker.
I can only assume that the leak came from the political left–the Justice Department does not seem to have prioritized the case (as I believe they would have if the leak came from the right). I suspect the media (and the Biden administration) are simply hoping that we will forget about the entire matter by the end of summer and it will never be brought up again. I really think that if the Republicans take Congress in the mid-terms, they have some serious investigating to do in a lot of areas.
The Science Isn’t Working
On Friday, Townhall posted an article that should (but won’t) give pause to the global warming advocates.
The article reports:
Global warming is not a serious topic. No one cares, but the left wants us all to suffer in order to drop the Earth’s temperature by less than a degree or whatever.
Let’s cannibalize future economic growth, curb population growth while we’re at it, and declare war on burgers.
These are the most miserable people on Earth. The problem is fighting back against their climate lies is hard when you have the shield of Big Tech there to flag and censor stories that shred their narrative. Before that crackdown, we used to torch the climate change crew. I’ll do so again.
The Earth is warming so rapidly that it caused a Norwegian cruise ship to hit an iceberg that shouldn’t even exist under these harsh conditions (via NY Post)
There are some other inconvenient truths noted in the article:
…The accumulation of sea ice was documented here several years ago. Scientists had trouble reaching their research stations in Antarctica in 2015 due to the amount of ice. In fact, in 2013, some 19,000 Manhattan-sized islands of sea ice were created. It’s been noted for its resilience in these heated times.
In that same year, the Arctic Ice Cap was supposed to be gone. By 2013, no more ice cap, right? It grew by over 533,000 square miles. These people are wrong. They were wrong in the 1970s when global cooling was the t-shirt of the week. Global warming is such a non-threat that the CIA’s operation and research into it were terminated in 2015.
Should we be concerned about conservation? Sure—that’s an entirely different thing. Hunters are very keen on this subject as well. That’s not what the green warriors want, however.
Notice how all these global warming policies center on controlling the means of production. They’re not even hiding it anymore, folks.
The earth’s climate is always changing. Evidence of plant life has been discovered under the ice cap in Greenland. That plant life could not exist there today. I believe in doing what we can to keep the air clean and the earth unpolluted, but I also believe in allowing people to eat what they want, stay warm in winter, stay cool in winter, and be relatively free from government control. I am not sure many of the people running around with their hair on fire because the earth is warming understand what is actually behind the movement.
A Victory For Free Speech
On Monday, Townhall reported that the Supreme Court had released a decision regarding religious liberty.
The article reports:
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Monday in favor of public High School football coach and former U.S. Marine Joseph Kennedy’s right to pray on the field after games.
“Joseph Kennedy began working as a football coach at Bremerton High School in 2008 after nearly two decades of service in the Marine Corps. Like many other football players and coaches across the country, Mr. Kennedy made it a practice to give ‘thanks through prayer on the playing field’ at the conclusion of each game,” the opinion explains. “In his prayers, Mr. Kennedy sought to express gratitude for ‘what the players had accomplished and for the opportunity to be part of their lives through the game of football.’ Mr. Kennedy offered his prayers after the players and coaches had shaken hands, by taking a knee at the 50-yard line and praying ‘quiet[ly]’ for ‘approximately 30 seconds. Initially, Mr. Kennedy prayed on his own. See ibid. But over time, some players asked whether they could pray alongside him.”
“Joseph Kennedy lost his job as a high school football coach because he knelt at midfield after games to offer a quiet prayer of thanks. Mr. Kennedy prayed during a period when school employees were free to speak with a friend, call for a reservation at a restaurant, check email, or attend to other personal matters. He offered his prayers quietly while his students were otherwise occupied,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. “Still, the Bremerton School District disciplined him anyway. It did so because it thought anything less could lead a reasonable observer to conclude (mistakenly) that it endorsed Mr. Kennedy’s religious beliefs. That reasoning was misguided.”
The First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
There is nothing in the First Amendment about separation of church and state. That concept is not part of our Constitution. That concept came out of a letter written by
Thomas Jefferson. Americans should be free to pray anywhere they want to, and other Americans should be free to join them. The Supreme Court made the right decision according to our Constitution.
The Abortion Ruling Has Been Released
On Friday, John Hinderaker reported at Power Line Blog on Friday that the Supreme Court had released its decision on the Dobbs case.
Townhall posted a similar article on Friday.
John Hinderaker reported:
The Supreme Court released its opinions in the Dobbs case this morning. Consistent with the leaked draft by Justice Alito, it overrules the Roe and Casey decisions. You can read the opinions here. I haven’t had time yet to review Alito’s majority opinion to see how closely it conforms to what was leaked.
The vote was 6-3, with Chief Justice Roberts concurring in the result. He would have upheld the Mississippi statute without entirely overruling Roe. Justices Thomas and Kavanaugh wrote concurring opinions.
Townhall reports:
The Supreme Court issued an opinion Monday morning in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. Justices ruled 5-4 to uphold Dobbs, which limits abortion to 15-weeks in Mississippi, effectively overturning Roe v. Wade and returning abortion law to the states. The majority opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito.
“Now today, the Court rightly overrules Roe and Casey—two of this Court’s “most notoriously incorrect” sub- stantive due process decisions,” Alito wrote. “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion. Roe and Casey arrogated that authority. We now overrule those decisions and return that authority to the people and their elected representatives.”
The ruling comes more than a month after a draft opinion of the case showed five justices planned to overturn Roe, with Justice Samuel Alito writing about the decision. The draft opinion is nearly identical to the final ruling.
This ruling does not end legal abortion–it simply allows each state to make its own decision on the matter. The theory behind the federalism principles that our Founding Fathers embraced was that the people in the states, who were the closest to the voters, should be the people making the majority of the laws. Roe vs. Wade was unconstitutional as it ignored the Tenth Amendment.
The Tenth Amendment states:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
We need to pay attention to the documents involved in the founding and establishment of America.
When The Government Interferes With Medical Treatment
On Monday, Townhall reported on a lawsuit filed by a group of doctors against the Food and Drug Administration.
The article reports:
In a lawsuit filed earlier this month, a group of doctors sued the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health and Human Services for “unlawfully” interfering with their ability to practice medicine and prescribe ivermectin for use in Covid-19 patients.
Specifically, the three doctors—Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden and Paul E. Marik—argue the FDA can’t ban use of an approved human drug for “off-label” use.
“The FDA also can not advise whether a patient should take an approved drug for a particular purpose. Those decisions fall within the scope of the doctor-patient relationship,” the complaint says. “Attempts by the FDA to influence or intervene in the doctor-patient relationship amount to interference with the practice of medicine, the regulation of which is — and always has been — reserved to states.”
The article concludes:
In a statement, Bowden said “fighting the system has been a much bigger challenge than fighting the disease.“
“Despite my excellent track record treating COVID patients, the FDA’s smear campaign against ivermectin continues to be a daily hurdle to overcome,” she said. “I am fighting back – the public needs to understand what the FDA has done is illegal, and I hope this suit will prevent them from continuing to interfere in the doctor-patient relationship.”
The government’s handling of the use of ivermectin in concerning. It was proven early on that if you administered ivermectin to Covid patients early, the results were positive. The fact that the government opposed the use of ivermectin is puzzling. Hopefully the disclosure portion of this lawsuit will shed some light on that.
If You Had Any Doubt…
There may be (or not be) some good ideas in the current gun legislation moving through Congress. However, those of us who believe in the Second Amendment need to be very wary of what is happening. On Monday, Townhall posted an article that should give all of us pause. Public Safety may not be the goal of the Democrat Party.
The article reports:
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) praised the details of the bipartisan framework from the Senate on the issue of gun control but noted this should be used to pursue even more aggressive restrictions.
In a statement on Sunday, Murphy said the framework is a great step “in restoring sanity to our national dialogue” on firearms and “while this agreement is only a narrow first step, it is recognition that the ability of the gun lobby to block any and all common sense gun safety laws by its mere presence is waning and reform is possible. The door has cracked open. We must open it wider.”
One of my main concerns in this debate is the acceptance of ‘red flag laws.’ These laws are unconstitutional as they deny the person whose guns are confiscated his day in court. The only way I would support a ‘red flag law’ would be if it came with a promise of an appearance before a judge within 4 hours of the guns being seized. Even then, the constitutionality of the law is questionable.
Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment states:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The Second Amendment is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, how can it be denied without due process?
A New Age Of Government Control
I don’t think our Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves–I think they are spinning. On Monday, Townhall reported that President Biden is planning to use the Defense Production Act to force American companies to help transition to his green energy plans.
The article reports:
“President Biden today issued presidential determinations providing the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with the authority to utilize the Defense Production Act (DPA) to accelerate domestic production of five key energy technologies: (1) solar; (2) transformers and electric grid components; (3) heat pumps; (4) insulation; and (5) electrolyzers, fuel cells, and platinum group metals,” the Department of Energy released in a statement Monday.
In a “fact sheet” released by the White House, Biden administration officials claim the move will spur domestic solar panel production and ramp up so-called “clean energy” projects.
At some point will someone please tell those in charge in the Biden administration (whoever they are) that the sun does not shine 24/7 and the wind does not blow 24/7. Green energy is useless unless it is backed up by a more reliable source of energy.
The article continues:
“Today, President Biden is taking action to: Authorize use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) to accelerate domestic production of clean energy technologies, including solar panel parts; Put the full power of federal procurement to work spurring additional domestic solar manufacturing capacity by directing the development of master supply agreements, including ‘super preference’ status,” the sheet states. “Create a 24-month bridge as domestic manufacturing rapidly scales up to ensure the reliable supply of components that U.S. solar deployers need to construct clean energy projects and an electric grid for the 21st century, while reinforcing the integrity of our trade laws and processes. “
The move echoes efforts made by the Obama administration to prop up solar energy. At the time, Biden was Vice President and the project was a complete failure. It also left American taxpayers on the hook.
Solyndra was the poster child for the government’s last wasteful venture into green energy. I am sure this venture will provide us with more examples of the reason the government should keep its hands off of the free market.
Revealing The Slippery Slope
One of the actual good points of having Joe Biden as President is that he accidentally tells the truth when he wanders off of the teleprompter. He recently did that in regard to what he would like to do about gun laws. Townhall posted an article on Monday with a very telling statement by President Biden.
The article reports:
President Biden raised eyebrows on Monday when he spoke about what he considers sensible restrictions on “high-caliber weapons” in the wake of the horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last week.
The president recalled visiting a trauma hospital in New York, where he explained doctors showed him X-rays of gunshot wounds that were caused by different firearms.
“They said a .22-caliber bullet will lodge in the lung, and we can probably get it out — may be able to get it and save the life,” Biden told reporters outside of the White House. “A 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.”
He went on to claim “there’s simply no rational basis for [high-caliber weapons] in terms of thinking about self-protection, hunting.”
Well, actually, that’s not true. If you need to protect yourself from someone who is going to harm you, you want a bullet that will actually stop them. If someone is stupid enough to attack you, they deserve whatever bullet will stop them. Particularly as a woman, I want a high enough caliber to stop a person before they can get to me.
The article notes:
So while most Democrats have targeted what they call “assault weapons” in the wake of the mass shooting, Biden appears to be setting his sights on handguns, too, which isn’t the first time he’s singled out one of the most popular firearms in America.
The article concludes:
He also repeated a false claim about the Second Amendment and cannons.
“The Constitution, the Second Amendment was never absolute. You couldn’t buy a cannon when the Second Amendment was passed,” Biden said. “I think things have gotten so bad that everybody is getting more rational about it.”
The Washington Post has previously given him four Pinocchios for this claim, noting that no federal law existed about which types of weapons private citizens could own.
“Some readers might think this is a relatively inconsequential flub. But we disagree,” The Washington Post wrote last year. “Every U.S. president has a responsibility to get American history correct, especially when he’s using a supposed history lesson in service of a political objective. The president’s push for more gun restrictions is an important part of his political platform, so he undercuts his cause when he cites faux facts.
“Moreover, Biden has already been fact-checked on this claim — and it’s been deemed false,” fact checker Glenn Kessler continued. “We have no idea where he conjured up this notion about a ban on cannon ownership in the early days of the Republic, but he needs to stop making this claim.
Evidently facts don’t matter to Democrats when they are attempting to take gun rights away from Americans. No Republican who votes for any more gun laws should be re-elected in November. Let’s just enforce the laws we have.
Good News About A Shooting That Was Prevented
On Friday, Townhall posted an article about a graduation party in Charleston, West Virginia.
The article reports:
“Police said a woman who was lawfully carrying a pistol shot and killed a man who began shooting at a crowd of people Wednesday night in Charleston,” location Fox 11 reported about the incident. “Dennis Butler was killed after allegedly shooting at dozens of people attending a graduation party Wednesday near the Vista View Apartment complex. No injuries were reported from those at the party. Investigators said Butler was warned about speeding in the area with children present before he left. He later returned with an AR-15-style firearm and began firing into the crowd before he was shot and killed.”
Thank God it wasn’t a gun-free zone. Notice that the woman was lawfully carrying and acted to save lives.
We need to remember that taking away guns from Americans who legally have the right to own them will not impact the amount of guns in the hands of criminals. Criminals will not be interested in following any new gun laws we manage to pass.
A website called mass-shootings.info reports the following:
Many of the states on this list have strict gun laws–New York and California in particular. Because criminals tend not to abide by the law, strict gun laws don’t decrease gun violence. Criminals are less likely to attack people in areas where concealed-carry permits are common. Criminals want the upper hand–they want to be the only ones with the guns. We need the Second Amendment to keep all of us safe.
Not Everyone Wants Roe v. Wade To Stay In Place
One of the things that seems to be getting lost in the debate over Roe v. Wade is what the consequences of overturning the law would be. Overturning Roe v. Wade will not make abortion illegal in America. Overturning Roe v. Wade will allow every state to set its own abortion guidelines. It may be that abortion may be illegal in some states, but American women will still have access to abortion. It may not be as convenient, and possibly that will cause women to rethink their options. Also, overturning Roe v. Wade will have a negative impact on the campaign coffers of most Democrats. That may be the reason this fight has gotten so nasty. Some of the Democrats in Congress want abortion up until birth to be legal in every state. Attempting to get a law passed to codify that did not go well.
On Wednesday, Townhall reported the following:
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has repeatedly shown his ineptitude when it comes to leading Democrats in the upper chamber, and he did so again in spectacular fashion on Wednesday afternoon. In what he seems to think was a grand gesture to prove his party’s commitment to a woman’s (birthing person’s?) right to kill her unborn child only put Democrats on the record supporting a bill that’s more radical than Roe ever was.
After the unprecedented leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion signaling that Roe v. Wade would be overturned, Schumer jumped into action and called for the passage of a bill to supposedly “codify” Roe in federal law. But he once again failed to do the math among his own caucus or the Senate as a whole before holding what became nothing but a failed show vote to prove Democrats support radical abortion rights that go beyond what even most pro-abortion Americans support.
The vote to break a Republican filibuster and move to the final vote on the “Women’s Health Protection Act” came down 51-49, with every Democrat but one voting to move ahead — Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia joined all the Republicans to block the legislation from moving forward.
The article details the Senate bill:
In summary, the Democratic bill would make elective abortions legal across the entire country for all nine months of pregnancy (with “mental health” loopholes eliminating any real limitations), eliminating virtually all existing state-level restrictions (including lopsidedly popular ones), gutting conscience protections for healthcare workers who don’t want to participate in abortions, allowing non-doctors to facilitate the abortions, and likely forcing taxpayers to finance all of it. Short of endorsing post-birth infanticide or instituting CCP-style compulsory abortions, it’s hard to imagine a more extreme piece of legislation on this issue. Dressing this up as “codifying Roe” is astoundingly dishonest, yet it’s mindlessly — or perhaps not so mindlessly — repeated by journalists, ad nauseam.
I suspect Senator Schumer knew that the bill would fail. What the bill probably did was energize that small fringe of the Democrat party that supports unlimited abortion. I will admit that I have a hard time understanding why some people are fighting so hard for the right to kill a baby.