President Joe Biden condemned Uganda’s anti-gay law on Monday, calling for its immediate repeal and the possibility of implementing sanctions.
“The enactment of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a tragic violation of universal human rights — one that is not worthy of the Ugandan people, and one that jeopardizes the prospects of critical economic growth for the entire country,” Biden said in a statement.
On Monday, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed a tough anti-gay bill into law that orders the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex relations involving HIV-positive people, children or other vulnerable people.
Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda.
“This shameful Act is the latest development in an alarming trend of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda,” Biden said.
Biden said he had directed the National Security Council to evaluate the implications of the law on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda, including the ability to safely deliver services under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and other forms of assistance and investments.
“And we are considering additional steps, including the application of sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption,” Biden said.
Unlike China, Ukraine, Romania (and other countries hidden on Comer’s list), it seems that Uganda doesn’t have enough bribe fodder to merit being on the Big Guy’s good side.
However, liberals all around (especially those who sit in universities of various sorts) tell me that judging other cultures by the ruler of the Joe Biden Western standard (or maybe I just added the “Joe Biden” part) is bad. So maybe liberal Joe should live by liberal standards.
…
On the other hand, Biden has been courting extremely anti-LGBTQ Iran
Biden seeks a balance on Iran
In an earlier article by Politico, there are all sorts of mentions of “balance” and “middle path,” but nothing of “gay” or “LGBTQ” in the country where they hang and throw gays off buildings.
President Joe Biden faces growing calls from activists and even a former crown prince to openly back regime change in Iran as the country’s Islamist rulers face a wave of protests.
But Biden and his aides are unwilling to go that far.
Instead, the administration is charting a middle path — one that voices support for the Iranian protesters and helps them through both easing and imposing some sanctions, but which falls short of an all-out pressure campaign to isolate Iran’s government or abandon nuclear talks with the regime, according to six U.S. officials familiar with the issue.
This week, the administration is expected to unveil more sanctions on Iran related to the protests. Among the possible targets are mid-level Iranian police commanders who have abused demonstrators.
The overall strategy is likely to disappoint many in a complex constellation of activists whose voices are driving much of the public debate about the Iranian regime. It also could make crafting U.S. policy toward the Middle East even harder, especially if Iran’s regime snuffs out the protests and emerges more emboldened to pursue a nuclear program and cause trouble in the region.
But the Biden administration is unified on the approach, according to those involved in discussions. “There aren’t camps,” a State Department official said.
The U.S. officials said they must factor in everything from the human rights demands of Iran’s protesters — many of them young and female — to the U.S. preference for using diplomacy to keep Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran’s decision to sell drones and other weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine also is complicating the picture.
Nothing about human rights, much less the Human Rights Campaign in Iran
Biden didn’t mention the treatment of gays in Iran. He didn’t mention the treatment of Iranian women or the lack of Iranian free speech rights. Joe didn’t even talk about the refined uranium that the Iranians are pulling together.
Could all of this be due to the importance put on the Iranians by Biden’s paymasters, the Chinese?
Facebook-owned Instagram is preventing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is competing with President Joe Biden in the Democrat primary, from setting up an official campaign account, according to the candidate.
In a post on Twitter, RFK Jr. said that his campaign account is being automatically banned when they attempt to set up a campaign account.
“When we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up Instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban,” said the Democrat candidate on Twitter. “Can anyone guess why that’s happening?”
Interesting… when we use our TeamKennedy email address to set up @instagram accounts we get an automatic 180-day ban. Can anyone guess why that’s happening? pic.twitter.com/0G8oRnoXTv
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 2, 2023
“To silence a major political candidate is profoundly undemocratic. Social media is the modern equivalent of the town square. How can democracy function if only some candidates have access to it?”
(Read three more tweets and a response from Musk at Breitbart)
How, after over two years of Biden idiocy that pushes down on Facebook’s market, does Zuckerberg support Biden
Is it just that there is such a small field of players in the socialist field out there? Or is it that Biden has been employing Zuck and his companies?
…
DHS-funded program labels GOP and conservatives as nazis
The Department of Homeland Security has been called out by GOP lawmakers for its repeated targeting of conservative Americans, and for funding a university program that explicitly links the Republican Party, as well as Christian and conservative groups, into the same category as organizations that promote Nazi ideology, Fox News reported on Friday.
Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., on Friday sent a letter cosigned by 15 other Republicans to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Biggs’ letter, which was obtained by Fox News Digital, strongly urged Mayorkas and DHS to stop their alleged pursuit against political adversaries of President Joe Biden’s administration.
“Under your leadership, the Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly targeted conservative Americans for lawfully expressing their First Amendment rights,” Biggs’ letter stated. “The Constitution prohibits the federal government from suppressing the free speech of Americans, by any means, including the use of third parties to engage in unconstitutional attacks on free speech. But this unlawful federal speech regulatory regime continues to be the norm under the Biden administration.”
The Arizona congressman also highlighted in the letter a Homeland Security grant that, according to him, provides funding to organizations that “openly demonize and equate mainstream conservatism with domestic terrorism.” He added that it’s Mayorkas’ “duty to stop this un-American politically motivated targeting of ideas.”
Biggs’ letter refers to stories reported last May which revealed Homeland Security had doled out over $350,000 in taxpayer-funded, anti-terrorism grant money to a University of Dayton program known as the Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio (PREVENTS-OH) project.
The program, according to documents obtained by conservative media watchdog Media Research Center (MRC), positioned the Republican Party and several mainstream conservative groups on a “Pyramid of Far-Fight Radicalization” chart alongside militant neo-Nazis. The University of Dayton’s grant application to DHS footnoted a link to a controversial Dayton conference in which an academic researcher presented the chart.
(Read at Newsmax how the leftist bureaucrats categorized Christian groups)
I don’t care what people call me among themselves, but what my government calls me is a different matter
Just as it matters how the leftists in bureaucracy have been able to start calling people who are legally “illegal aliens” as “migrants,” it matters that bureaucrats have decided to slap law-abiding citizens with the label of “nazi.”
Government is not a free-speech zone until you are out of power. As long as you lord power over others (especially as an unelected bureaucrat), you should lose certain rights commensurate with those powers.
…
Twitter cancels a deal with the Daily Wire to stream “What Is A Woman?” over “misgendering” and claims it will label the film “hateful conduct”
Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing revealed Thursday that Twitter canceled a deal with the conservative media company to stream its hit documentary “What is a Woman?” for free on the social media platform due to “misgendering.”
After Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform and his promised dedication to free speech, The Daily Wire sought a deal to stream Matt Walsh’s “What is a Woman?” on Twitter for the documentary’s one-year anniversary. Initially, Twitter responded enthusiastically to the idea, even offering The Daily Wire a package to purchase a whole page for Twitter users to view the film, Boreing said. That changed after the platform asked to view a screening of the film.
“After reviewing the film, though, Twitter let us know that not only could we no longer purchase the package they offered, they would no longer provide us any support and would actually limit the reach of the film and label it as ‘hateful conduct’ because of ‘misgendering.’” Boreing said in a Tweet thread explaining Twitter’s reversal.
“Specifically: In the film, a father refers to his 14-year-old daughter as ‘her,’ and a store owner uses the ‘wrong’ pronoun in a confrontation with a trans person,” Boreing continued.
Twitter canceled a deal with @realdailywire to premiere What is a Woman? for free on the platform because of two instances of “misgendering.”
The groundbreaking documentary released last summer was watched by people in over 70 countries, even as legacy media reviewers ignored the film and its effect on the culture. Soon after its release, “What is a Woman?” became the most-watched movie at home, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which also showed that audiences scored the film with a 97% rating.
(Read at the Daily Wire of the documentary and the efforts at Twitter)
If the leftist side is so compelling that it requires such action, why not just convince us?
Why has it been the leftist side that has, over the past few years, shut down coversation? Is the emotional side of the conversation so exhausting that people cannot bear to repeat it? Is there just no logic behind the emotion? What is the reason?
The marks of spiritual immaturity — Hebrews 5:11-14
The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the comments of the class.
A point of no return
The writer is addressing Jews who had heard the gospel and had not accepted Jesus as the promised Messiah. However, the warning here applies to anyone, whether Jew or Gentile. All who know the truth of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ or who have heard it or even seen the change of lives of those who accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and walked away from the full acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Savior are given a severe warning. Persistent rejection of Christ may result in that person’s passing the point of no return spiritually or forever losing the opportunity of salvation. Such a person eventually follows their evil heart of unbelief and turns their back forever on the living God. What do you think about this comment? if this summary is accurate, does it cause you concern for those who appear to be indifferent to the Lord Jesus Christ?
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NASB)
Mark Ramsey noted that this was the fourth of five admonitions presented in Hebrews. One class member noted that, while the reactions of Bud Light and Target to the people’s rejection of being force-fed transgender ideology, it did run a parallel course. Bud Light and Target would rather align themselves with child-destroying evil than stand up against evil.
Another class member noted the many pew-fillers and tolerant non-believers who embrace the lies of the world while thinking that they will go to heaven for their good works. With the consistent radio and television broadcasts of the real gospel, Americans do not have an excuse. They have likely repeatedly heard the true gospel. Nonetheless, they persist in believing in their own works rather than the sacrifice of Christ.
Leaving the elementary teachings — Hebrews 6:1a
Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, Hebrews 6:1a NASB)
The Greek word for “leaving” (ἀφέντες pronounced “aphentes’) is to forsake, disregard or put off. It refers to total detachment or total separation. The teachings the Jews were to leave was the Old Testament principles of Judaism-the sacrifices, the types, the pictures and come to the reality of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. A paraphrase could be, “Leave the pictures of the Messiah and go to the Messiah Himself” or “Drop the Old Covenant and accept the New.”
Six features of the foundation, the Old Covenant — Hebrews 6:1b-2
not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. (Hebrews 6:1b-2 NASB)
Repentance from dead works
Repentance from dead works is simply turning from evil, which is an important truth of the Old Testament However, it is not complete. It is fulfilled and made effective through a relationship with Jesus in faith. An incomplete dealing with sin must be abandoned for a complete one through Christ. How do you respond to someone who says they are a good person and do not believe they will go to hell?
Faith in God
There is no acceptable repentance apart from faith in Christ. The only faith towards God that is now acceptable is faith in God the Son. There is no way to the Father except through the Son.
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NASB)
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6 NASB)
What do you say to someone who says “I believe in God but I don’t believe Jesus is God”?
One class member noted that there was more proof of the miraculous acts of Christ than there was of the existence of Alexander the Great.
Another class member said that this was likely centered on an issue with a Christian. She would drill down to the problem with the previous Christian. Further, she would point to how all sin. Finally, she would point to our common need to forgive and be forgiven.
Instruction about baptism or washings
The actual translation of the Greek word is washings Every Jewish home had a basin for ceremonial cleansings, which were many. It is these washings that the readers are- told to abandon. The old washings were physical, symbolic and temporary while the new washing is spiritual, real and permanent.
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5 NASB)
The laying on of handsThis has nothing to do with the laying on of hands of the apostles. Under the Old Testament, the person who brought a sacrifice had to put their hands on it, which symbolized their identification with it. Our identification with Christ does not come by our putting our hands on Him; it comes by the Spirit’s baptizing us into union with Jesus by faith. “Forget the teachings about laying hands on the Temple sacrifices and put your trust in Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice.”
The resurrection of the deadThe Old Testament doctrine of resurrection is not clear or complete. We know from Job that the resurrection will be bodily and spiritual and that there is life after death and rewards for the good and punishment for the wicked but not much more. Of course, in the NT, resurrection is a major doctrine.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, (John 11:25 NASB)
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:2 NASB)
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, (1 Corinthians 15:20-23 NASB)
Eternal judgement
We learn very little about the final judgment except in Ecclesiastes 12:14, in the New Testament we are told a great deal about eternal judgment.
For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12:14 NASB)
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1 NASB)
Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15 NASB)
The judgment of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25); the judgment of the great white throne (Rev. 20). We know all judgment has been committed to Jesus Christ. (John 5)
The point of these verses is that the unbelieving Jews should let go of the elementary shadows and symbols of the Old Testament and take hold of the perfect reality of the New. The Old Testament is partial revelation and incomplete and Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises and symbols.
The Power — Hebrews 6:3
And this we will do, if God permits. (Hebrews 6:3 NASB)
Most likely, this means the author’s continuing to teach and salvation by the audience maturing in Christ must be energized by the Holy Spirit. Everything revolves around the permission of God. Need for divine enablement is the point. God’s sovereignty is recognized.
Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, (2 Corinthians 3:5 NASB)
No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:44 NASB)
Five great advantages for these Hebrews — Hebrews 6:4-5
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, (Hebrews 6:4-5 NASB)
They had to be enlightened
This is not speaking of salvation but to intellectual perception of spiritual, biblical truth. It carries no requirement of a response-acceptance or rejection. This group heard the truth but did not embrace it.
They had tasted the heavenly gift
The greatest heavenly gift is Jesus.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15 NASB)
This greatest gift was only tasted and sampled but not received.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 NASB
Those who drink the living water, not just taste it or sip It, are saved.
I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh.” (John 6:51 NASB)
Eternal life comes from eating, not just tasting.
They shared in the Holy Spirit
The Greek word for “shared” (μετόχους, pronounced “metochous”) has to do with association, not possession. These Jews had never been possessed by the Holy Spirit. They were simply around when He was around. The Bible speaks of believers being indwelt or possessed by the Holy Spirit not being associated with Him.
They tasted the Word of God
Again, these unbelievers heard God’s word and sampled it, but did eat or digest it. The Greek term for “word” is not Λόγος (pronounced “logos”) but ῥῆμα (pronounced “rhema”) which emphasizes parts and not the whole. King Herod was like this-he enjoyed listening to John the Baptist teach but he forsook God’s message. There is nothing wrong with tasting God’s word. The problem is stopping with tasting.
They tasted the powers of the coming age
The age to come is the future kingdom of God. They saw the apostles do signs and wonders and heard of the miracles of Jesus which will be reproduced in the millennial kingdom. But, they only tasted them and, then, left the table. These unbelieving Jews experienced all these advantages yet still did not believe. Do you know anyone who has these advantages yet still reject the Way, the Truth and the Life? Does this motivate you to share the truth with them before it is too late?
The fourth warning — Hebrews 6:4-6
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. (Hebrews 6:4-6 NASB)
__
The illustration of the abundant life — Hebrews 6:7-8
The writer is saying to these unbelievers who have this knowledge that the opportunity for salvation can be lost. The believer can never lose their salvation.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:27-29 NASB)
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 38-39 NASB)
to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:4-5 NASB
It is the unbelievers who are in danger of losing the opportunity of receiving salvation. The longer one resists the Gospel, the more they become immune to it. They become more and more unresponsive and insensitive. Their only hope is to reject what they are holding on to and receive Christ without delay as they will most likely become so hard, often, without knowing it, that their opportunity is forever gone. If someone rejects Christ when they experience knowledge and conviction, it is doubtful they will truly accept Him at a lower level.
They could not return because they have crucified to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
This implies that those who reject Christ are aligned with the crucifiers, that He deserved to be crucified and that He is not the true Messiah. Shame or disgrace connotes guilt.
How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:29 NASB)
It is a dangerously self-deceptive position to think it is safe to stay on the sidelines and thinking that you are tolerant to the Gospel as opposed to outwardly rejecting it.
The illustration of the abundant life — Hebrews 6:7-8
For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned. (Hebrews 6:7-8 NASB)
The gospel seed which is planted grows and matures as it is rooted and nourished in God while the other seed is unproductive and worthless as it rejected the life, offered to it and is only good for burning. Sounds like the parable of the Sower and seeds, doesn’t it? How is your soil/ground as the rain falls from heaven where the seed is planted?
After a confidential human source claimed then-Vice President Joe Biden agreed to accept money from a foreign national to affect policy decisions, FBI agents used what’s called an FD-1023 form to record the allegation. Now FBI Director Christopher Wray is defying a May 3 congressional subpoena to provide this form. On Tuesday, in response to Wray’s refusal to hand over the documents, Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer announced the House will move to hold the FBI director in contempt of Congress.
It isn’t that announcement — or even the other explosive ones released over the past year by Comer’s Senate colleague, Chuck Grassley — that prove the most telling, however. Rather, it is the combination of all the details, big and small, that suggests the scandal set to unfold over the coming weeks will be bigger than anyone imagined.
The Dirt Is in the Details
Take recent big news from whistleblower disclosures revealing that the Justice Department and the FBI have the unclassified FD-1023 form spelling out Biden’s alleged criminal behavior. Then combine that with other known information to discover the bigger picture.
For instance, in response to Wray’s failure to comply with the subpoena, Grassley, who had previously noted the FD-1023 form was five or six pages long, indicated that the confidential human source (CHS) was “an apparent trusted FBI source.” This is huge because Grassley wouldn’t make that claim unless the whistleblower had. That means the source is not some random guy walking in off the street, but rather an existing “trusted” CHS, which is why the FBI used the FD-1023 form.
In response to Wray’s stonewalling, Comer likewise revealed some significant details, clarifying late last week that the CHS reporting document was dated June 30, 2020, and referenced “the amount of money the foreign national allegedly paid to receive the desired policy outcome” as “five million.” These details could only have come from a whistleblower with deep knowledge of the investigation, meaning the whistleblower’s characterization of the CHS as “trusted” carries more weight. Likewise, the whistleblower’s claim that the FD-1023 “includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” is more credible given the whistleblower’s knowledge of other details.
Comer’s reference to “five million” is also intriguing. In a letter to Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, Grassley had previously revealed a promise by a Chinese communist government-connected enterprise to funnel $5 million to “Hunter and James Biden to compensate them for work done while Joe Biden was vice president.” Records released by Grassley and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., also confirmed a $5 million payment to James and Hunter Biden from another Chinese-connected business.
The date of the FD-1023 form, June 30, 2020, also proves significant when read in conjunction with Grassley’s letter to Wray in July 2022. In that letter, Grassley said the whistleblower had claimed that “the FBI developed information in 2020 about Hunter Biden’s criminal financial and related activity,” but “that in August 2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters (‘FBI HQ’) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”
The whistleblower further alleged that in September 2020, the FBI HQ team that handled the Auten assessment, after concluding the reporting was disinformation, placed the information in a restricted access sub-file that only the particular agents who uncovered the CHS’s information could access.
(Continue with three salient points that build on eachother at The Federalist)
I look forward to seeing how the press reacts to this scandal (especially the recording)
While Richard Nixon took campaigning as a conservative and governing as a “moderate” to the extreme (since he was the one to establish the EPA, OSHA, MSHA, and NIOSH), the press could not hide its glee when it found corruption to pin on him. Specifically, when there was a break-in at the DNC offices at the Watergate Hotel by Republican operatives and — moreover — when an 18.5 minute gap appeared in Nixon’s recordings, the press went haywire.
However, now that we have a doddering imbicle that can’t cross a level stage in the Oval Office, the press cannot seem to do enough to cover up for the corruption that has spread through the FBI and DOJ while also finding root in the whole Biden family.
Therefore, it will be interesting to see if the press will actually start doing their job. While there will always be a market for commentary, if America can just regain a measure of unbiased reporting, then we will be a major step closer to regaining the constitutional government that seems to be slipping away with the Corporate Equality Index enforcing liberalism on corporations hoping to get a loan.
In light of the free-press yearnings mentioned above, these are the things I would like to see in the press
Since it seems that this whistleblower has established credibility with previous operations, then the FBI and the Biden-loving press should have a harder time ignoring the accusations made against Dementia Joe. Moreover, since this comes to us on an unclassified form, it would seem that nobody would object to full disclosure.
Just as Woodward and Bernstein went after Nixon, I would like to see some honest journalists across the press go for Biden and his crew.
However, I will expect to see that starting when the New York Times turns in its Pulitzer Prizes it got for reporting on Trump’s collusion with Russia.
…
House GOP to start contempt proceedings against Wray as FBI refuses to produce Biden document
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said he will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against FBI Director Christopher Wray if the bureau does not physically turn over the Biden document alleging a criminal bribery scheme, despite the FBI giving lawmakers access to the information at headquarters.
The document in question is an FBI-generated FD-1023 form that allegedly describes a $5 million criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.
Comer had subpoenaed the document and set a May 30 deadline for Wray to physically turn it over to the committee, threatening to hold him in contempt of Congress if the deadline was missed. The FBI did not comply with the subpoena but instead offered assurances that lawmakers could access the information in a secure setting.
Comer, Sen. Chuck Grassley and Wray participated in a phone call Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the accommodations the FBI could offer for congressional oversight efforts, while maintaining the integrity of bureau investigations.
“Today, FBI Director Wray confirmed the existence of the FD-1023 form alleging then-Vice President Biden engaged in a criminal bribery scheme with a foreign national,” Comer said in a statement. “However, Director Wray did not commit to producing the documents subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee.
“While Director Wray—after a month of refusing to even acknowledge that the form existed—has offered to allow us to see the documents in person at FBI headquarters, we have been clear that anything short of producing these documents to the House Oversight Committee is not in compliance with the subpoena,” Comer explained.
Maybe this source will lead to the end of Wray and the burying of Biden
With a Democrat Senate and a partisan DOJ, we cannot hope to get justice through the impeachment of either Biden or Wray. However, with enough information going around the main stream press, that part of our information economy might be forced into action.
Therefore, through a thousand cuts, the liberal press might be killed and a more reasonable press might be fed to the point where it can help sustain our republic.
Then, from information provided by that more reasonable press, the American people might see a valid reason to dump the party of Biden and insist on the removal of Wray.
…
Senator Chuck Grassley reveals he’s read Biden bribe claim and says FBI offer is “not good enough”
Sen. Chuck Grassley condemned FBI Director Christopher Wray Thursday for refusing to make public an informant file alleging President Biden was involved in a bribery scheme while serving as vice president — revealing that he had read the document but declining to describe its contents further.
Grassley (R-Iowa) acknowledged on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” that he “read that document” privately but was “not going to characterize it” before it was made public and said “it was “not good enough” for the file to be seen by only a handful of politicians given the allegation facing the president.
“They’ve got to produce this document,” the 89-year-old said. “They’re up against what the Durham report has said about the shortcomings and the political bias of the FBI, and this is just one more example of them not being forthcoming to the public because the public’s business ought to be public, and there’s no reason for a non-classified document to be held in secret.”
A Grassley spokesman confirmed to The Post that the senator “has reviewed the FD-1023 form pursuant to legally protected whistleblower disclosures,” but remains concerned about potential retaliation against the individual who made Grassley aware of its existence.
“The Department of Justice and its components have a sordid track record of reprisal against whistleblowers, so he’s limited his public description of the document in order to prevent bad actors at the Department from identifying and retaliating against these whistleblowers,” said Taylor Foy. “The document contains serious allegations implicating then-Vice President Biden in a criminal scheme, and it’s important that the FBI explains what it did, if anything, to investigate further. We’re confident that we’ll get the document one way or another, and the American people will be able to read it for themselves.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that the FBI chief had confirmed the existence of the FD-1023 informant file detailing a June 2020 allegation that Biden engaged in a $5 million bribery scheme with a foreign national during the Obama administration.
Comer refused the FBI director’s offer Wednesday to privately review the file alongside Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and said he would initiate contempt proceedings.
Bud Light announced a $200,000 donation to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) on Tuesday as the company suffers from declining sales amid a boycott over the company’s partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Conservative activists launched a Bud Light boycott on April 1 after Mulvaney shared a video to social media showing off a Bud Light can that bore his likeness and claimed, “this month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood.”
Despite Bud Light sales plummeting and parent company Anheuser-Busch’s market value dropping, Bud Light will support the NGLCC’s Communities of Color Initiative.
The initiative is “designed to support the growth and success of minority LGBTQ+-owned businesses through certification, scholarships and business development in an effort to create equal opportunities for the economic advancement of small businesses in the LGBTQ+ community,” according to a press release.
Bud Light will also support the initiative’s “Biz Pitch” program, which allows minority LGBTQ+ business owners to compete for a $5,000 grant and the opportunity to compete for a $50,000 grand prize at the NGLCC’s annual business and leadership conference.
So, with the billions lost by Bud Light over Mulvaney, they are still willing to shell out another $200,000
Of course, when we are talking about billions lost in the Mulvaney transgender business, these hundreds of thousands only amount to a rounding error. However, they also have found a way (with this little move) to put another stick in the eye of conservative America.
I guess they figure they have lost their conservative consumers. I hope they are right.
…
Kohl’s becomes the newest Target with its center-stage LGBTQ displays for infants’ and childrens’ clothes
Kohl’s stock is down nearly 5% on Tuesday after a social media blitz called for a boycott of the department store based on its Pride Month merchandise.
The customer backlash follows a similar controversy at Target, where social media users criticized the retailer’s assortment of Pride Month products, including a transgender-friendly swimsuit. Videos tagged with #boycottkohls had about 280,000 views on TikTok as of Tuesday. Kohl’s and Target aren’t unique in selling Pride-themed merchandise. Walmart, JCPenney and Gap also sell such products and many retailers have done so for years.
Navigating such customer criticisms has been a thorny undertaking for retailers. Target last week said it would remove some items at all of its stores, noting that the outrage caused some of its employees to feel unsafe. That then prompted criticism from LGBTQ advocacy groups. Target shares are down nearly 16% since the retailer’s stronger-than-expected earnings results on May 17.
Over the past few months, we’ve watched as major corporations such as Disney , Anheuser-Busch, and Target have hopped on the LGBT train and alienated their traditional client bases as a result. Regardless of the often swift and brutal backlash they know will follow, others, including North Face, Nike, and Kohl’s, are always waiting in the wings to become the next sacrificial lamb.
It turns out there’s a reason for this counterintuitive behavior that goes far beyond virtue signaling: Companies are trying to raise their Corporate Equality Index. The more woke issues a company supports, the higher their score.
A CEI is essentially a “woke” credit score that is determined by the Human Rights Campaign, a 501(c)(4) organization that describes itself as “the largest LGBTQ political lobbying organization within the United States.” No one will be surprised to hear that George Soros’s Open Society Foundations is HRC’s largest donor. Other donors include the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the labor unions for the National Education Association and the United Food and Commercial Workers, according to Influence Watch.
Influence Watch reports HRC’s public charity arm, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, plays an influential role in Democratic Party politics by pressuring companies to comply with its social agenda.
A company’s CEI is derived from its performance in five areas:
Workforce Protections (5 points possible).
Inclusive Benefits (50 points possible).
Supporting an Inclusive Culture (25 points possible).
Corporate Social Responsibility (20 points possible).
Responsible Citizenship (-25).
Yes, you read that right. “A large-scale official or public anti-LGBTQ blemish” on a company’s record will result in the loss of 25 points. HRC explains that “scores on this criterion are based on information that has come to HRC’s attention.”
For example, Fox News, which for three years had scored 100%, lost its perfect ratingin April 2022 after several hosts defended Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) Parental Rights in Education Act, better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
HRCF’s 2022 reportshows that 842 corporations achieved CEIs of 100%, which earned them the apparently coveted distinction of being one of the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.”
So as long as we keep paying the ransom to the 2% or less of our population, we cand think happy thoughts about our company and stay on the brainwashed list
If anyone can think of a better reason for avoiding a company than their inclusion on this list. Sadly, just about any publicly-traded corporation will probably be on this list (especially any high tech corporation).
Actually, this goes quite a bit deeper. Thanks to banking rules put into place by Obama and Biden, corporations cannot get federal loans without a good CEI rating. Remember the banking law that Republicans failed to override Biden’s veto on? Well, this is the reason for that attempted override.
Additionally, with the support of Soros and Blackrock, the private funding for corporations has been locked up by the ultra-left. Unless you adhere to the nuttiest of the socialist/deviant world, you will not get a loan (which is something that all large corporations need).
To make things worse, as Democrats continue to get their way, this will be coming for common citizens. If you speak out against the demon state, you will be punished. If you march for freedom or donate to a church, you will be punished.
…
Another instance of liberals not allowing debate when they have no proofs
MSNBC guest says Target boycotts are “literally terrorism”
An MSNBC guest claimed that boycott threats against major retailers like Target amounted to “literal” economic terrorism.
The guest argued, in a video clip that surfaced on Twitter on Tuesday, that such boycotts were proof that a small number of people could control what a store like Target did or did not sell simply by refusing to shop there until the appropriate changes were made.
WATCH:
If you’re boycotting Target you’re a literal terrorist, says talking head on MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/TrlCCw0CAb
Chick-fil-A, the chicken sandwich chain long beloved by conservatives for its longstanding opposition to same-sex marriage, is now sparking boycott calls after announcing that it has hired an executive in charge of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Atlanta-based company announced on Tuesday that it was naming Erick McReynolds to the post of vice president of DEI — igniting angry denunciations on Twitter from conservatives who allege that the firm has “gone woke.”
McReynolds has been employed by Chick-fil-A since 2007.
He was promoted to the position of vice president of DEI in November 2021, according to his LinkedIn page.
Corporate America’s embrace of DEI, which seeks to diversify workforces, has been criticized by conservatives who claim that it is discriminatory based on race and gender.
“This is bad. Very bad. I don’t want to have to boycott. Are we going to have to boycott?” said conservative strategist Joey Mannarino.
Mannarino then posted an informal poll asking his 166,000 followers whether a boycott is in order.
As of late Tuesday afternoon, a little more than 47% of respondents voted in favor of a boycott while more than half — 52.4% — voted against it.
I support diversity that is backed by talent, education, and skill
I do not support inserting anyone of any color, sexual preference, or religion just so that the employer can check a box. On the other hand, if someone provides tangible value to the company by way of their education, talent, or experience — then I see not including them in a business stands as proof of bias.
“By their fruits, you will know them” does not only stand as a quote of Jesus, but also a business principle to include in your business plans. When applied to the view of a Christian examining spiritual fruits, it allows the Christian to avoid false teaching by teachers whose life-walk does not match their talk.
…
Do you like the in-your-face LGBTQ ads by Bud Light and displays at Target and Kohls? Buger King has committed to funding this type of effort by supporting the Human Rights Campaign for the past two years
Burger King commits to giving 40 cents of every sale from their Chi-King sandwiches to the Human Rights Campaign
On June 3, Burger King made a cheeky tweet saying it will donate up to $250,000 of the proceeds from its new premium chicken sandwich, Ch’King, to The Human Rights Campaign (HRC). For every hand-breaded chicken sold, 40 cents will go to the cause.
The company emphasized that the Ch’King is available on Sunday, taking a jab at Chick-fil-A which observes the Sabbath on Sunday.
Chick-fil-A is a fast food eatery known for its chicken-based meals. Before 2012, the restaurant regularly donated to anti-LGBTQ+ groups, and its CEO Dan Cathy said supporting same-sex marriage would invite God’s judgment on the country.
With its Ch’King receiving positive feedback, Burger King is confident it could send a message that love is love.
“This is a community we love dearly and have proudly supported over the years, so we couldn’t miss an opportunity to take action and help shine a light on the important conversation happening,” a Burger King spokesperson told USA TODAY via an email.
For the past few years, I have avoided Burger King like the plague
Some four years ago, I tried using their app and got cheated out of a burger. Since then, I attempted using their app to redeem rewards from a program (and experienced somewhat similar results).
Maybe that is the type of focus on excellence that you get with a company that hires by DIE standards rather than merit.
…
Now for the threats from the LGBTQ crowd
LGBTQ radicals send Target bomb threats after Pride month merchandise pullback
LGBTQ radicals reportedly deluged Target with bomb threats in retaliation to the retail giant pulling back on some of its Pride Month merchandise after significant backlash.
The bomb threats were allegedly made against several Target stores in at least three states: Utah, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. An email to one Cleveland store that Cleveland 19 News reviewed indicated that radical LGBTQ activists may have been behind the threats.
“Target is full of cowards who turned their back on the LGBT community and decided to cater to the homophobic right-wing redneck bigots who protested and vandalized their store,” the email reportedly read.
In Utah, Salt Lake City police communications director Brent Weisberg toldUSA TODAY that officers determined that no “credible threat” had been directed at the two stores in the city.
“Officers will continue neighborhood patrols around the Target locations in Salt Lake City out of an abundance of caution,” Weisberg said in a statement.
“We encourage anyone who sees anything suspicious to immediately call 911,” he added.
LGBTQ activists called for new campaigns Monday to warn corporate leaders not to heed opposing voices while chastening those who relent in the face of public pressure.
The call to action follows Target’s announcement last week it removed products and relocated Pride displays to the back of certain stores in response to public protest, as Breitbart News reported.
AP reports California State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) a member of the LGBTQ legislative caucus, led the call for corporations to stand firm by pledging:
We need a strategy on how to deal with corporations that are experiencing enormous pressure to throw LGBTQ people under the bus.
We need to send a clear message to corporate America that if you’re our ally — if you are truly our ally — you need to be our ally, not just when it’s easy but also when it’s hard.
Target is just one corporate entity to have fallen under continued criticism over the past several weeks due to its overt promotion of woke gender ideology and the LGBTQ agenda, despite the fact those who identify as such make up a small percentage of the U.S. population.
Customers voted with their feet – and their wallets – and simply ignored the Target outlets across the country.
If these activists can generate enough business to replace all of us who have had it with LGBTQ indoctrination, then let them
At this point, I do not care. The LGBTQ groups can have Kohls, Target, Budweiser, Burger King, Chick-Fil-A, and a whole menagerie of other companies. They can keep them.
…
Joe Biden threatens to cut some of America’s $1 billion-a-year Uganda Aid over anti-LGBT bill
The White House published a statement on Monday by far-left President Joe Biden, threatening to cut life-saving aid to Uganda through programs such as the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in response to the country passing its “Anti-Homosexuality Act.”
Dictator Yoweri Museveni signed the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” into law on Monday. The law brutally punishes those found guilty of “engaging in acts of homosexuality,” in some cases with life imprisonment or the death penalty. Individuals charged with “knowingly promot[ing] homosexuality,” despite their own sexual orientation, could be imprisoned for 20 years. Organizations, potentially including Western NGOs or government programs, could be banned from the country for a decade on the same charge.
The law also lumps in overt sexual crimes, such as statutory rape, with identifying as LGBT. The law uses the term “aggravated homosexuality” to mean an adult engaging in same-sex sexual relations with a minor, individuals infected with HIV engaging in sexual activity, or same-sex relations with “vulnerable” people, presumably individuals who cannot consent due to mental health issues. “Aggravated homosexuality” carries the death penalty.
The “Anti-Homosexuality Act” also punishes individuals believed to know of sexual assaults of children and the “vulnerable” but do not alert the police.
“The enactment of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a tragic violation of universal human rights—one that is not worthy of the Ugandan people, and one that jeopardizes the prospects of critical economic growth for the entire country,” President Biden said in a statement published on Monday. “I join with people around the world—including many in Uganda—in calling for its immediate repeal.”
If Uganda does not repeal the law, Biden warned, it could lose significant percentages of the $1 billion a year that American taxpayers send in aid to the country:
I have directed my National Security Council to evaluate the implications of this law on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda, including our ability to safely deliver services under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other forms of assistance and investments. My Administration will also incorporate the impacts of the law into our review of Uganda’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
Biden also stated that Washington was considering sanctioning Uganda and banning lawmakers responsible for the law from the country.
Around the time that the F.B.I. was examining the equipment recovered from the Chinese spy balloon shot down off the South Carolina coast in February, American intelligence agencies and Microsoft detected what they feared was a more worrisome intruder: mysterious computer code appearing in telecommunications systems in Guam and elsewhere in the United States.
The code, which Microsoft said was installed by a Chinese government hacking group, raised alarms because Guam, with its Pacific ports and vast American air base, would be a centerpiece of any American military response to an invasion or blockade of Taiwan. The operation was conducted with great stealth, sometimes flowing through home routers and other common internet-connected consumer devices, to make the intrusion harder to track.
The code is called a “web shell,” in this case a malicious script that enables remote access to a server. Home routers are particularly vulnerable, especially older models that have not had updated software and protections.
Unlike the balloon that fascinated Americans as it performed pirouettes over sensitive nuclear sites, the computer code could not be shot down on live television. So instead, Microsoft on Wednesday published details of the code that would make it possible for corporate users, manufacturers and others to detect and remove it. In a coordinated release, the National Security Agency — along with other domestic agencies and counterparts in Australia, Britain, New Zealand and Canada — published a 24-page advisory that referred to Microsoft’s finding and offered broader warnings about a “recently discovered cluster of activity” from China.
Microsoft called the hacking group “Volt Typhoon” and said that it was part of a state-sponsored Chinese effort aimed at not only critical infrastructure such as communications, electric and gas utilities, but also maritime operations and transportation. The intrusions appeared, for now, to be an espionage campaign. But the Chinese could use the code, which is designed to pierce firewalls, to enable destructive attacks, if they choose.
So far, Microsoft says, there is no evidence that the Chinese group has used the access for any offensive attacks. Unlike Russian groups, the Chinese intelligence and military hackers usually prioritize espionage.
In interviews, administration officials said they believed the code was part of a vast Chinese intelligence collection effort that spans cyberspace, outer space and, as Americans discovered with the balloon incident, the lower atmosphere.
New York Times, have you noticed that Chinese harrassment of Tiawan has ramped up during the Biden regime?
Of course, the Chinese are preparing to attack us and the Tiawanese while a weak president who is beholden to them remains in office. They wouldn’t want to try this while either Trump or Reagan were in office.
…
Democrat-controlled Senate takes actions that indicate a degree of worry regarding adverse events
Senate issues at least 50 satellite phones as security measure
More than 50 senators have accepted satellite phones for emergency communications as part of growing efforts to beef up security for lawmakers in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The phones were offered to all senators and at least half of the chamber accepted, according to CBS News, which cited people familiar with the program.
Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson told appropriators last month the phones would allow senators to maintain communications in case a man-made or natural disaster takes out standard communications in their corner of the country.
The report said the phone program is part of a broader effort to help lawmakers secure their homes and coordinate with local police departments after a series of concerning events.
Besides the Capitol riot, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attacked in his San Francisco home in 2022.
Amid growing concerns of security risks to members of Congress, over 50 senators have been issued satellite phones for emergency communication, people familiar with the measures told CBS News. The devices are part of a series of new security measures being offered to senators by the Senate Sergeant at Arms, who took over shortly after the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The satellite phone technology has been offered to all 100 senators. CBS News has learned at least 50 have accepted the phones, which Senate administrative staff recommend senators keep in close proximity during their travels.
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee last month, Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson said satellite communication is being deployed “to ensure a redundant and secure means of communication during a disruptive event.”
Gibson said the phones are a security backstop in the case of an emergency that “takes out communications” in part of America. Federal funding will pay for the satellite airtime needed to utilize the phone devices.
A Department of Homeland Security advisory said satellite phones are a tool for responding to and coordinating government services in the case of a “man-made” or natural disaster that wipes out communication.
Of course, if anything does go bad, you’ll have to remember what Congress (aka Nancy Pelosi) did when protesters attacked the homes of the justices
Joe Biden and his FBI and DOJ did nothing to enforce the law concerning how protests are supposed to be barred from the homes of court officials (especially the homes of justices).
Similarly, Nancy Pelosi (then the Speaker of the House and, therefore, the person in charge of the Capitol Police) did nothing to ensure the safety of the justices. …
In just one more happy coincidence, the federal government seems to have done more to prepare for a Chinese attack
The US government is buying $290 million worth of anti-radiation drugs
With the Russia-Ukraine war entering a new phase after Russian President Putin announced a “partial mobilization” effort, many around the world are worried the escalation could lead to an all-out nuclear way.
Maybe there is a reason to be worried. President Putin raised the nuclear threat and warned Western leaders that he wasn’t bluffing about the use of nuclear weapons if the security of Russia is at stake. Late last month, Poland distributed iodine tablets to its citizens as fears grow over Europe’s largest nuclear plant in Ukraine as fighting between Russia and Ukraine rages on.
Poland is not alone. The United States is also preparing for the potential of a nuclear war but insisted the procurement of anti-radiation drugs was not in response to the war in Ukraine.
Today, The United States Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it’s buying $290 million worth of drugs for Nuclear Emergencies and radiation sickness. In a statement, the HHS said,
“As part of long-standing, ongoing efforts to be better prepared to save lives following radiological and nuclear emergencies, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is purchasing a supply of the drug Nplate from Amgen USA Inc; Nplate is approved to treat blood cell injuries that accompany acute radiation syndrome in adult and pediatric patients (ARS).”
The HHS added:
“BARDA is using its authority provided under the 2004 Project Bioshield Act and $290 million in Project BioShield designated funding to purchase this supply of the drug.”
Add this to all of the things Joe Biden has received from the Chinese and it seems to mirror the two Biden walls
On the day that Joe Biden went into office, he set himself to destroying the effectiveness of the wall at the Southern Border. He stopped construction of it immediately. He opened the ports of entry all along the South. Additionally, he set at engaging the Border Patrol at tasks other than enforcing the border. However, when it came to the Biden compound in Maryland, Biden certainly did not shy away from spending taxpayer money when it came to protecting himself and his family.
Therefore, Joe Biden’s view of walls seems to be one of “security for me, not for thee.”
Lululemon fired two employees after they called the police on a group of looters who robbed the store four or five times in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. According to PJ Media, associate manager Jennifer Ferguson and Rachel Rogers, a sales associate, were given the boot for breaking the company’s “zero tolerance” policy for calling 911. Lululemon said that the women were instead fired for engaging with the thieves and confronting them.
“All of a sudden we see some gentlemen run into the store in masks and hoodies,” Ferguson described the scene. “They swiped until they couldn’t hold any more product and ran out the door.”
“We are not supposed to get in the way. You kind of clear path for whatever they’re going to do,” she added. “And then, after it’s over, you scan a QR code. And that’s that. We’ve been told not to put it in any notes, because that might scare other people. We’re not supposed to call the police, not really supposed to talk about it.”
Lululemon countered their employees’ claim, saying that their handbook on theft specifically states that employees should not put themselves at risk by trying to stop a theft, which includes refraining from filming or photographing the incident or the individuals involved. Employees are meant to acknolwedge their understanding of this policy annually. That handbook also states that employees should let theives leave, and should “always call 911.” Theft, a representative said, is always an issue.
Rogers told WSBTV, “I’ve experienced it probably five or six times, and I know it’s happened on other occasions when other people are working.”
MORE CORPORATE INSANITY: Two Lululemon @lululemon employees fired for calling the police on looters in an Atlanta, Georgia location pic.twitter.com/Hw781OgUHT
(Read the response of James Ferguson, husband of Jennifer Ferguson, at The Post Millennial)
I don’t know Lululemon from Adam’s apple, but given the chance, I will really avoid them
This type of idiocy needs to be starved out of existence. Maybe if we avoid doing business with them, they will learn enough avoid this type of behavior.
If starving them out doesn’t fully kill the progressive tendencies and instill some self-preservative, conservative ones, maybe it will at least relegate them to a minor position in the economic universe.
If this seems cruel, consider the alternative. By supporting a business that holds policies that encourage lawlessness, our society will at suffer as evil gets released to reek distruction. Those of us who are strong now must stand against this.
The Texas House of Representatives impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday by an overwhelming vote. Attorney General Paxton is immediately suspended from office as he awaits a trial in the Texas Senate.
During a hearing on the floor of the Texas House, more than 81 percent of the members voted to impeach Attorney General Paxton on the 20 articles of impeachment filed by the House General Investigations Committee. The final vote was 121 ayes, 23 nays, two present not voting, and three abstentions.
#Breaking: The Texas House has voted overwhelmingly to impeach AG Ken Paxton by a vote or 121-23.
The debate which lasted nearly four hours centered mostly around the process that some members believed was rushed and did not provide due process. Members of the General Investigations Committee laid out the facts they believe support the matter moving forward to a trial in the Texas Senate.
(Read more at )
I, for one, will be looking to see who voted to override my vote for Attorney General on the basis of testimony that would not make it into court
Since it seems that the forces lined up against Ken Paxton have aligned themselves in such a way as to present the case in a day (including debating the case on the floor of the Texas House) and voting it down in quick manner, then they had better be ready for an equally summary judgement of them.
As for myself, I am tired of Republicrats giving power over to Democrats. I am not voting for anyone who voted for this impeachment. I can skip that item on every ballot from now until hell freezes over.
Likewise, I am not donating money to any organization that includes these Republicrats (and I can keep this up for an equally long time).
…
Texas AG Ken Paxton condemns “profoundly unjust” House vote to impeach him
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lambasted the state House lawmakers who voted to impeach him on Saturday, calling the entire process “illegal, unfounded, and unethical.”
The Texas state House voted to impeach the GOP state attorney general by a vote of 121-23 on Saturday, which sets up the possibility that he could be permanently removed from office if the state Senate votes the same way. He’ll be temporarily removed from his post until the Senate trial concludes. Paxton responded to the news of the House vote with a lengthy statement condemning the effort to remove him as unlawful and politically motivated.
“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just. It was a politically motivated sham from the beginning,” Paxton said. “My office made every effort to present evidence, testimony, and irrefutable facts that would have disproven the countless false statements and outright lies advanced by Speaker Dade Phelan and the Murr-Johnson panel he appointed.”
“Unfortunately, they refused to consider anything that would interfere with their desired result,” he continued. “They disregarded the law, ignored the facts, and demonstrated contempt for Texas voters.”
The Texas AG has faced years of corruption accusations — including being indicted in 2015 on felony security fraud charges that he still has yet to beat. He’s largely survived those scandals up to now, during which time he’s established himself as a prominent conservative legal warrior and a known foe of the Biden administration.
He said in his statement that while he was displeased with the state House’s handling of his impeachment proceedings, he had “full confidence” that the “process will be fair and just” in the Senate. It is not yet clear if the state Senate will even hold a trial, as there is nowhere near the necessary two-thirds support to convict him in that chamber.
For something as important as this to happen in the span of two days — that smacks of the totalitarianism more common to Democrats
Recent debates on nationally-important topics started by the Democrats (like COVID, transgenderism, climate change, the effectiveness of eliminating fossil fuels, etcetera) have ended many times with a shutdown of free speech by Democrats.
With the obvious caving of the Texas House leadership to the Democrat minority, it sounds like the supposedly-in-majority Repubilicrats have fallen silent to the wiles of the Democrats.
…
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton impeached and suspended from duties
Defying a last-minute appeal by former President Donald Trump, the Texas House voted overwhelmingly Saturday to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, suspending him from office over allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office.
The vote to adopt the 20 articles of impeachment was 121-23.
The stunning vote came two days after an investigative committee unveiled the articles — and two days before the close of a biennial legislative session that saw significant right-wing victories, including a ban on transgender health care for minors and new restrictions on public universities’ diversity efforts.
The vote revealed substantial divisions within the Republican Party of Texas — the largest, richest and most powerful state GOP party in the United States. Although the party has won every statewide election for a quarter-century and has controlled both houses of the Legislature since 2003, it has deep underlying fissures, many of them exacerbated by Trump’s rise and influence.
Few attorneys general have been as prominent as Paxton, who made a career of suing the Obama and Biden administrations. One of Trump’s closest allies in Texas, along with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Paxton unsuccessfully sued to challenge the 2020 presidential election results in four states.
Attention now shifts to the Texas Senate, which will conduct a trial with senators acting as jurors and designated House members presenting their case as impeachment managers.
Permanently removing Paxton from office and barring him from holding future elected office in Texas would require the support of two-thirds of senators.
Impeachment was supported by 60 Republicans, including Speaker Dade Phelan and all five of the representatives from Collin County — where Paxton and his wife have lived for decades. All 23 votes in opposition came from Republicans.
Afterward, Paxton called the vote “illegal, unethical, and profoundly unjust,” adding that he looked forward to a quick resolution in the Senate.
The move to impeach came less than a week after the House General Investigating Committee revealed that it was investigating Paxton for what members described as a yearslong pattern of misconduct and questionable actions that include bribery, dereliction of duty and obstruction of justice. They presented the case against him Saturday, acknowledging the weight of their actions.
“Today is a very grim and difficult day for this House and for the state of Texas,” Rep. David Spiller, R-Jacksboro, a committee member, told House members.
If this could not wait until after the holiday weekend, it tells you something of the swampy nature of this act
If the people pushing this through the votes could not wait for the holiday weekend to be over, it tells you much. They wanted to hide this under the smokescreen of Memorial Day cookouts. They wanted us to ignore the elimination of one of the best voices in defense of liberty.
…
U.S. Senator Cruz defends Texas AG Paxton amid impeachment efforts from “swamp in Austin”
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz took to social media Saturday to defend Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ahead of a vote in the state House to impeach him, insisting Ppaxton has been the “strongest conservative AG” in America and that the “swamp in Austin” can’t handle it.
A vote to impeach Paxton, slated for 1 p.m. local time, came after the Texas House Investigative Committee unanimously voted 5-0 to adopt articles of impeachment for Paxton earlier this week, according to FOX 4.
“What is happening to @KenPaxtonTX is a travesty,” Cruz wrote in a series of tweets. “For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none. No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton.”
“That’s why the swamp in Austin wants him out,” he continued. “The special interests don’t want a steadfast conservative AG. I understand that people are concerned about Ken’s legal challenges. But the courts should sort them out.”
1/x What is happening to @KenPaxtonTX is a travesty.
For the last nine years, Ken has been the strongest conservative AG in the country. Bar none. No attorney general has battled the abuses of the Biden admin more ferociously—and more effectively—than has Paxton.
Further defending Paxton, Cruz wrote, “Virtually all of the information in the articles was public BEFORE Election Day, and the voters chose to re-elect Ken Paxton by a large margin. In my view, the Texas Legislature should respect the choice of the Texas voters.”
The committee vote came as Paxton, who commended Cruz for his comments, is under investigation in a corruption case being led by the FBI over accusations that the attorney general used his office to assist a donor. He was also indicted in 2015 on securities and fraud charges, but hasn’t yet faced a trial.
Multiple aides from Paxton’s office became concerned that the attorney general was misusing the office’s power to help donor Nate Paul regarding unproven claims of a conspiracy to steal $200 million of his properties was taking place.
This seems like a bow to the swamp members in Austin
Since the allegations that supposedly drove Ken Paxton from the position where he successfully argued against many COVID and other overreaches of the Obama and Biden regimes, this seems like a kowtow to the swampy powers in Austin. Since this fell as it did shortly after the House and Senate fought back at Harris County’s lawless election actions, it seems like a bowing to the lawless Democrats.
As part of its month-long focus on adolescent health, the Biden administration is promoting a document that tells Planned Parenthood and other taxpayer-funded family planning offices how to talk to minors about sex without their parents overhearing, and how to secretly deliver birth control to adolescents without parental knowledge or consent.
Federally-funded guidelines instruct adults to pause before discussing sex with minors and to ask, “Are you alone in the room?” These instructions specify tactics to follow “if you’re really having a hard time getting a parent” to leave the room during the sex talk. They suggest children as young as 13 discuss sex with groups like Planned Parenthood in a parked car or communicate in writing, so their parents cannot hear the adults’ side of the conversation. And they encourage offices to have vans roam neighborhoods giving minors federally funded contraceptives; to mail birth control to adolescents in “plain, unmarked packaging;” and/or to have teenagers receive contraceptives at public meet-up places.
A federal grant recipient admitted the cloak-and-dagger sex discussion is necessary, because “parents might not agree with some of the things that we’re talking about.”
The emphasis on shutting out adults comes as the Biden administration and 24 states are fighting against a lawsuit to recognize parents’ right to know if the government is enabling underage sexual activity by giving teens birth control.
Biden Admin: ‘It Takes a Village’ to Teach Teens about Sex
The Biden administration revealed that it aimed to “expand sexual and reproductive health information and services” for teens during National Adolescent Health Month (NAHM), which runs during the month of May. The announcement made it clear government-funded strangers would take a leading role in forming teens’ views of sexuality.
“The adage ‘It takes a village’ has been proven time and again,” said Jessica Marcella, deputy assistant secretary for Population Affairs and director of the Office of Adolescent Health in the official press release. “[T]his year,” the Biden administration is “amplifying the important role of youth-serving professionals and other caring adults in their interactions with young people.”
‘Why Are You Talking to My Young Person in the Bathroom with the Door Locked?’
The plan to speak about sex one-on-one with impressionable youth begins during scheduling. “Confirm with youth clients that you have their phone number/contact information rather than their parents’ contact information,” the document tells federal grant recipients. “At the beginning of the visit, do a privacy screen. Ask ‘Are you alone in the room?’ or ‘Can other people hear what you are saying?’”
The document links to a webinar which fleshes out these ideas in greater detail. A slide on “Ensuring Adolescent Privacy” tells Title X grantees to ask:
“1. Are they alone in the room? Always ask first! If a parent is present, ask to provide alone time during the appointment.
“2. Can people hear them outside the room? Can they relocate? Use headphones? Use yes/no questions or chat feature?” (Emphases in original.)
The written document tells teens who want to “protect their privacy” from their parents “during a virtual visit” to:
“Take the call in the bathroom, outside, or in a parked car.”
“Use headphones.”
“Schedule the call at a time when there are fewer people at home.”
“[P]arents might not agree with some of the things that we’re talking about and some of the services that our patients are looking for,” Safiya Yearwood, a nurse at Baltimore’s Star Track Clinic, told the webinar. Title X grantees must “mak[e] sure that patients are, number one, safe to even have these conversations, and determine[e] where they can do it.”
(Read how the Biden counselor gets teen approval at the Washington Stand)
Just like yesterday’s post on Target’s gay-friendly and trans-enabling displays, this turns me away
In fact, this motivates me to vote for anyone but a Democrat.
…
Now some Democrats have started to attack Crazy Joe’s attack on gas stoves
We may have secured some local wins in the struggle to keep our gas stoves, but that hasn’t deterred the Left from trying to ban the common household appliance over global warming concerns. While the courts striking down the attempt to nix gas stoves in Berkeley, California is a welcome sign, New York has moved to ban the appliance starting in 2026. We’re about to weigh into a death funnel of linguistic gymnastics and insanity. While other lefty localities and states might not outright say a gas stove ban is coming, they’re just gutting all the infrastructure permitting their continued use. Take Architectural Digest’s take on this culture issue: “No, the federal government isn’t coming for your gas stove. But new legislation and research could point the way to an electric future.”
Democrat Rep. Cori Bush: "I can only imagine the number of my constituents who are unknowingly being poisoned by their gas stove" without the Biden administration's proposed appliance regulations pic.twitter.com/dr8rdmcQX1
That’s like saying one is guilty of the crime but not responsible.
The gas stove debate is dismissed as tin foil hat material by the liberal press, but the secret is out. The Left knows they cannot pass the Green New Deal wholesale at the federal level. There will never be enough votes. But they can implement it piecemeal at the state and local level, though House Republicans are trying to get the wheels moving on a bill that would curb stomp these radical measures nationwide. The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a piece of legislation yesterday that would put the kibosh on the gas stove shenanigans, and it garnered some Democratic support (continued).
(continued)
Over in the Senate, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) temporarily sidelined a Biden nominee who would oversee a gas stove ban policy.
A shocking new report alleges that not only is Fox News headquarters woke and radically pro trans ideology, but that producers had been warned to avoid criticism of Dylan Mulvaney.
A producer for Tucker Carlson Tonight told Daily Signal that “When trans-identifying TikTok star Mulvaney was first gaining prominence last year, producers for ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ had to fight to be able to refer to Mulvaney with male pronouns in the show’s chyrons.”
A source confirmed the directive to The Post Millennial, saying “The mandate is to ‘not be spicy.’”
Mulvaney, a trans TikToker who embarked on a public gender transition journey via short videos called “365 Days of Girlhood,” refers to women’s vaginas as “Barbie pouches,” and did an early segment on how great it is to be a “bimbo.”
The star, who also said it’s time to “normalize the bulge,” and that “some women have bulges,” referring to the bump in Mulvaney’s pleather shorts, brought Bud Light, along with the profits of parent company Anheuser-Busch, to its knees after a marketing affiliation between product and influencer went sideways.
Beyond Mulvaney, it turns out Fox is obsessed with its pro-LGBTQ score doled out by trans lobbyist not-for-profit the Human Rights Campaign, which went hard trans after the legalization of gay marriage in 2015. Fox touts that score in employee trainings, gives employees the option to use preferred pronouns and to transition at work, making others comply with the new speech requirements that come with it.
Women’s bathrooms at Fox are open to men who identify as women, as the handbook reads that employees “may access the restroom corresponding to their gender identity.” They also help employees come up with a workplace “gender transition plan,” according to a 2021 company handbook shared with The Daily Signal.
Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox, and his wildly successful show, on April 24. It was a sudden move and one that left the prime time news spot in flux. Carlson has since said he would continue his show on alternative platforms, such as Twitter.
At one time, Fox News at least aimed toward the middle. Now it seems intent on supporting as much left-wing lunacy as the other three-letter propaganda agencies.
…
Fox News ratings fall off a cliff after Tucker Carlson‘s departure
Fox News’ ratings for primetime slots among key demographics of cable television viewers have declined sharply since the departure of Tucker Carlson, with the latest figures showing rival MSNBC overtaking the conservative juggernaut.
Cable news ratings show that in the two weeks since the host was fired, figures for Carlson’s former spot have dropped by around 50 percent, while the network’s audience among 25- to 54-year-olds had shrunk by two thirds.
The previously successful news presenter left the network after it settled a defamation casebrought against it by Dominion Voting Systems over claims by Trump allies that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, Fox News announced on April 24. In a statement, it said the two parties had “agreed to part ways” and thanked Carlson for “his service to the network.”
Carlson has said little about his departure as yet. According to a report by news website Axios on Sunday, his team is “preparing for war.” His lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told the outlet: “The idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.”
In addition to losing Tucker, it will be interesting to see how long the Christian voices on Fox remain or start to be silenced
For Monday through Friday, I don’t consume much daytime television. I work during those hours. However, as I edit drawings for use in manuals and complete other tasks not centered on writing, I do listen to the audio of Rumble and YouTube videos and podcasts. Due to that, I run across the words of Harris Faulkner, Shannon Bream, and Kayleigh McEnany. Therefore, I do know that those three (and, I think, several others) have authored Christian books and taken stands on air.
It will be interesting to see the degree to which these voices get allowed to speak from this piont on.
…
At Target
Target facing boycott over Pride collection with Satan-loving designer
Target is facing a consumer boycott over its Pride Month collection which features transgender swimsuits for children, books called ‘bye bye binary’ and a handful of items made by a British designer whose slogans include ‘Satan respects pronouns.’
While there were some initial grumbles about the ‘tuck-friendly’ swimsuits in the women’s section, much of the expansive collection of clothes, books and home décor has gone unnoticed.
But attention – and outrage – has now turned to one of the designers whose works are showcased, and his apparent penchant for the satanic.
Eric Carnell is the British designer behind Abprallen, an LGBTQ brand that sells t-shirts, sweaters, bags and badges.
Target is selling two of the brand’s items – a $25 slogan sweater with the words ‘cure transphobia not trans people’ wrapped around a sword, an $18 ‘too queer for here’ tote bag, and a ‘we belong everywhere’ fanny pack that now appears to be sold out.
Eric – a transgender man – proudly shared photos of the collaboration on Instagram.
‘These have already got the transphobes infuriated with me and I feel like quite the celebrity to think that they believe this is all some big conspiracy and I have any power to brainwash anyone when I’m just some guy drawing pictures!’ he said.
A closer look at his other work reveals some more sinister material.
Badges with slogans like ‘Satan Respects Pronouns’, ‘Young, Queer and Willing’ and a lighter pin with the words ‘burn down the cis-tem’ are among other products.
To my knowledge, Target has never caved to the first boycott based on their allowing anyone who “feels like a woman” into the woman’s changing areas.
Maybe a number of Christians have been cowed into submitting to the LGBTQ+ agenda. Maybe they have not seen the need to protect children from exploitation.
If that is the case, have those Christians looked at the labels at Target?
Why is “tuck-friendly construction” needed except to hide the fact that clothes made for a boy are being worn by a girl? Why is “extra crotch area” needed except to allow a boy to wear clothes made for a girl?
Calls to boycott Target have spread on social media after the retailer released another line of LGBT clothing for kids, including for newborn children.
According to Target’s website, it recently released its so-called “Pride Collection” for 2023, including onesies for infants that feature pro-LGBT content coming in sizes of zero to three months. One onesie includes the text “Bein Proud,” while another features what appear to be LGBT rainbows and hearts along with the transgender flag colors.
The Minneapolis-based retailer is also selling child LGBT books, including “Bye-bye Binary” and “What Are Your Words,” which tells kids how to use transgender pronouns. Some products for kids also appear to feature drag queens, according to products sold on the company’s website.
Broadcaster Megyn Kelly wrote this week that “we don’t need our kids seeing this [expletive] when we walk down the aisle at Target,” while Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren added that “Target has gone full woke and it’s repugnant.”
Conservative commentator Candace Owens was more explicit in her criticism and suggested a boycott of the retailer.
“I cannot state enough how important is for people to choose not to shop at target. There has never been a company that has been more pro-transgenderism than Target,” she wrote. Meanwhile, another conservative commentator, Steven Crowder, simply wrote: “Boycott Target.”
The “Bein Proud” onsie for infants as young as 0-3 months sold via Target’s website. (Target.com screenshot via The Epoch Times)
And more controversially, Target is allegedly selling so-called “tuck-friendly” swimwear for children, according to videos posted online from inside a Target location. “Did you know @Target also sells ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits for children in the Pride section? Well now you do,” reads one social media post.
A spokesperson for Target told The Associated Press that the “tuck-friendly” swimsuits are only offered for adults and the children’s line of clothing doesn’t feature that label. “The ‘tuck-friendly’ swim suits are for adults only,” the spokesperson told the newswire service.
But in response to the controversy, Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh wrote that “what Target is doing is far worse than anything Bud Light did,” referring to the controversy and boycott of Bud Light after it produced a can with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s face on it. “They are selling chest binders and ‘tuck-friendly’ bathing suits for children,” he added.
Obviously, the gay-themed onsies for newborns are directed at ultra-liberal new parents who want to proclaim their allegiance to the gay agenda
Clothes for babies and toddlers with messages on those clothes are really only proclamations by the parents. Just as no one-year-old has expressed an interest in some football team or college, not one of them has debated for the queer cause.
However, when it comes to Target selling “tuck-friendly” clothing for children or “binding” for young girls, then that seems to point to an effort of grooming on the part of forces aligned with Target.
…
Target to pull some LGBT-themed merchandise after customer backlash
Target said Tuesday it would remove some products related to Pride Month from stores after a backlash from customers caused employees to feel unsafe, becoming the latest company to get drawn into the U.S. culture wars.
Times that there have been offenses against the Left, the announcement has been “store shelves have been cleared overnight”
If Target really has committed to divorcing itself from this attempt to let the LGBTQ+ forces use their shelves to groom our children, then why the slow-motion removal of LGBT-themed merchandise? Is it merely a shuffling of products to stores situated in gay-friendly communities?
…
After sowing the wind, Target never expected to reap the whirlwind
“Violent incidents are increasing,” Target CEO says.
Target CEO Brian Cornell offered a sobering warning to investors during the company’s post-earnings conference call on Wednesday.
“The unfortunate fact is violent incidents are increasing at our stores and across the entire retail industry,” Cornell said. “Beyond safety concerns, worsening shrink rates are putting significant pressure on our financial results.”
If you plant a row of corn seeds, you don’t wake up several weeks later with apple trees.
As Galatians 6:7-10 reminds us, we get what we put out there. If we plant lawlessness (as in ignoring condemnation of homosexuality, effemininity, and other sexual sin), then we cannot expect to gather a harvest of lawfulness (as in not having your stores experience stealing). Additionally, planting one seed usually doesn’t result in getting one seed back. If you plant a corn seed (and who just plants one?), you usually get at least five cobs of corn per plant (and each cob holds up to 200 seeds).
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. (Galatians 6:7-10 NASB)
…
Target told Christians to butt out when it came to morals. Now they complain about the immoral behavior of those who frequent their stores
Target expects profits to take $1.3 billion hit from “theft and organized crime”
The New York Post outlines a case study in idiocy when it comes to picking a market to base a business upon. You see, Target chose to drive away customers with morals that prohibited cross-dressing and homosexuality. Nonetheless, Target somehow expected their remaining customers to retain morals like “do not steal.” Looks like Target missed its target.
Crime-battered retail giant Target said it expects to suffer as much as a $1.3 billion hit to its bottom line because of “theft and organized crime,” according to the company’s first-quarter earnings report released Wednesday.
The Minneapolis-based chain said its profit will be squeezed by “$500 million more than what we saw last year” – when the company lost as much as $800 million from “inventory shrink.”
“While there are many potential sources of inventory shrink, theft and organized retail crime are increasingly important drivers of the issue,” the company said. “We are making significant investments in strategies to prevent this from happening in our stores.”
Inventory shrink is an industry term that refers to fewer products being on its shelves than what’s reported in its inventory catalog.
“We are working with legislators, law enforcement and retail industry partners to advocate for public policy solutions to combat theft and organized retail crime,” a company spokesperson told The Post on Wednesday.
Despite the rampant shoplifting, Target recorded a 0.5% growth in sales — which it attributed to new locations — and a nearly 1% growth in traffic, the earnings report said.
Rather than working with lawmakers (since I think stealing is already illegal), why doesn’t Target try an alliance based on Biblical standards?
Since I am fairly sure that stealing ranks as one of the most common illegal activities (maybe just behind crossing the border illegally) and people obviously do it frequently at Target, why don’t they try another tack?
Why not completely drop the immoral clothing (and, yes, there are t-shirts with naked women and transitioning men on them)? Why not then create alliances with local churches to support traditional values like the value of mothers and fathers who direct their children?
…
At Budweiser
Anheuser-Busch has lost a staggering $15.7 BILLION in value since Bud Light controversy began
Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch has seen its market value plunge $15.7billion since the disastrous campaign with transgender-influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Since April 1, the company has consistently been dropping down the rankings, with experts saying it ‘just keeps getting a little worse each week’.
But their competitors have added $3.2billion in market value to their brands in the same time.
Molson Coors, which owns Coors Lite, has seen an increase of $2.2billion market value, around 20 percent, while Heineken has a spike of $1billion – an increase of 1.7 percent.
Sales of Bud Light are down more than 23 percent as of the week ending May 6, according to JPMorgan beverage analyst Jared Dinges.
He said the bank expects a 12 to 13 percent volume decline over the course of a year in the US.
‘We believe there is a subset of American consumers who will not drink a Bud Light for the foreseeable future,’ the analysts said on Tuesday.
He added: ‘Shares have underperformed EU Beer peers by 15% since the start of April.
‘We believe this is due to U.S. uncertainty, as investor focus has shifted squarely to the potential impact from the Bud Light controversy.’
The expected decline in earnings, before interest and tax, will follow a 12 percent drop in volume and a 10 percent decline in sales.
In the company’s latest attempts to deal with the backlash, Anheuser-Busch has told wholesalers it will buy back unsold cases of Bud Light that are past their expiration date.
Obviously a portion of the beer-drinking public has tired of the liberal/progressive indoctrination that has come to the forefront of a lot of advertising
Since the Bud Light fiasco has been going on for over a month, it seems that beer-drinking America has informed Bud Light and the rest of progressive, corporate America of something: consumers in America don’t like to be the subject of un-invited preaching. If we don’t run in the trans crowd, we don’t like having it waved in our faces.
…
LGBTQ group slashes Anheuser-Busch’s “perfect rating” after AB backtracks on the Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light controversy
The hits keep on coming for Anheuser-Busch after the largest LGBTQ advocacy group told the Belgian beer giant on Thursday that they will be stripping the company of its former “perfect rating” after they decided to back peddle following the Bud Light controversy with Dylan Mulvaney.
USA Today reports that the Human Rights Campaign, which rates companies based on their policies towards the LGBTQ community through a Corporate Equality Index (CEI), told Anheuser-Busch that they will be losing their 100 percent perfect score, according to a leaked letter that the outlet obtained.
“Anheuser-Busch had a key moment to really stand up and demonstrate the importance of their values of diversity, equity and inclusion and their response really fell short,” Human Rights Campaign senior director Eric Bloem told the outlet.
Anheuser-Busch was previously listed on the website under “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” after being issued a perfect score in the categories that include protections from workplace discrimination, inclusive benefits, corporate social responsibility and responsible citizenship.
While HRC did not inform them of what their new rating will be, the group told the beer giant that they have 90 days to respond, according to the outlet.
On Friday, HRC updated its website which displays a “points deducted” notice on Anheuser-Busch’s page.
An Anheuser-Busch representative told the outlet, “Our ERGs (employee resource groups) are intended to be a safe space for those who identify with a given community and those who wish to be allies.”
Maybe, just maybe, AB might now see the problem of marketing for the 2% when you want sales from the 98%
We will see how much pull the Human Rights Campaign continues to have once the entire Bud Light episode completes. So far, we are only in the first month or so of it.
I don’t know about you, but I have never consulted the Human Rights Campaign before buying anything.
…
With the Los Angeles Dodgers
Dodgers’ latest reversal on anti-Catholic group’s invite to Pride Night draws backlash
The Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday decided to invite the Sisters of Indulgence back to their Pride Night event next month after initially removing the left wing group of so-called “trans nuns” from their honoree list.
“After much thoughtful feedback from our diverse communities, honest conversations within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and generous discussions with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Los Angeles Dodgers would like to offer our sincerest apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community and their friends and families,” the organization said.
“We have asked the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to take their place on the field at our 10th annual LGBTQ+ Pride Night on June 16th. We are pleased to share that they have agreed to receive the gratitude of our collective communities for the lifesaving work that they have done tirelessly for decades.
“In the weeks ahead, we will continue to work with our LGBTQ+ partners to better educate ourselves, find ways to strengthen the ties that bind and use our platform to support all of our fans who make up the diversity of the Dodgers family.”
The MLB team announced that it would be honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a group of “queer and trans nuns,” during a June 16 event, but quickly received backlash from religious groups for the decision given the history of anti-Catholic messaging and shocking performances.
The team said last week it would no longer be honoring the group during the upcoming LGBTQ event.
“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we’ve seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees,” the Dodgers said Wednesday.
The next day, LA Pride announced it would no longer be participating in the event.
The Dodgers received backlash from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and religious advocacy group CatholicVote for allowing the group to participate in its festivities.
The Dodgers’ decisions on the anti-Catholic group come amid a trend of well-known companies being called out for sponsoring individuals with controversial viewpoints and lifestyles.
(Read more at Fox News if you need a review of April-May 2023)
This is not just anti-Catholic. You cannot have someone stomp on the toe of the body of Christ and not feel it throughout.
Doctrinal differences aside: they worship Christ and depend on His sacrifice for their salvation. That makes them Christian. Therefore, to have a group denegrate my brothers and sisters like this will not go overlooked.
Bye, Major League Baseball. When you have cleaned up your association, maybe I might visit again.
…
Now for the Big Guy and sniffer of little girl’s hair
First day in office, Biden lifts transgender military ban
President Joe Biden signed an executive order to repeal a Trump-era ban on most transgender Americans joining the military on Monday alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“This is reinstating a position that the previous commanders and, as well as the secretaries, have supported. And what I’m doing is enabling all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” Biden said, speaking from the Oval Office just before signing the executive order.
President Donald Trump’s ban has been rebuked by the Democrat-led House of Representatives and condemned by LGBTQ activists as discriminatory. Austin voiced his support for overturning the ban in his Senate confirmation hearing last week.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that cases in which transgender service members were discharged from the military because of their gender identity would be reexamined.
“No one will be separated or discharged from the military or denied reenlistment on the basis of gender identity, and for those transgender service members who were discharged or separated because of gender identity, their cases will be reexamined,” Psaki said during a White House briefing.
“President Biden believes gender identity should not be a bar to military service and that America’s strength is found in its diversity,” Psaki said. “America is stronger around the world when it is inclusive.”
The federal Department of Education concluded an investigation into a Georgia school district Friday, arguing that the removal of several books containing pornographic material “created a hostile environment” for LGBTQ and nonwhite authors and readers, according to a letter.
The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into the Forsyth County School District after a complaint was made by an individual, whose identity has not been released, that the district had purposefully gotten rid of books about the LGBTQ community in January 2022, according to The Washington Post.
The department sent a letter to the school district’s superintendent, Dr. Jeff Bearden, on Friday that its investigation had concluded the district was attempting to remove books with “diverse authors and characters, including people who are LGBTQI+ and authors who are not white.”
“Indeed, one student commented at a district school board meeting about the school environment becoming more harsh in the aftermath of the book removals and his fear about going to school, and evidence OCR (the Office of Civil Rights) reviewed to date reflects other students expressing similar views,” the letter read.
“District witnesses reported to OCR that the district has not taken steps to address with students the impact of the book removals. In light of these communications and actions, OCR is concerned a hostile environment may have arisen that the district needed to ameliorate.”
The district had removed eight books after multiple parents complained about the content matter being too pornographic for children, according to The Washington Post. One mother was initially banned from board meetings after trying to read out loud a scene from “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” by Jonathan Safran Foer, that describes how to give oral sex.
“All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson follows the story of a black boy growing up and learning about different sexual experiences. It goes on to describe several graphic sexual situations, including two boys performing oral sex on each other.
Another book removed by the district was “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison, about an 11-year-old African American girl who enters puberty in the 1940s, because of its “heavy sexual content,” according to a review from Squeaky Clean Reviews.
“Sexual content includes but is not limited to incest, pedophilia, a graphic description of one married woman’s distaste for intercourse with her husband, an odd description of the same woman’s affinity for masturbating with a pet in her lap, and a graphic flashback in which Pauline recalls when intercourse with her husband was pleasurable,” the review read.
The book was one of several that President Joe Biden defended in a video announcing his reelection campaign in April, in which he called out “MAGA extremists” for banning certain books from the classroom due to pornographic material.
Biden declares himself “blameless” if US defaults on debt, says “MAGA Republicans” are trying to crash the economy to sabotage his re-election bid
Biden: “I’m looking at the 14th Amendment as whether or not we have the authority”
The Daily Mail quotes Dementia Joe as he tries to weasel out of the homework he should have been doing since January (but didn’t start until last week).
President Joe Biden on Sunday said he would consider using the 14th amendment to solve America’s debt limit but conceded it is probably too close to the June 1st default deadline to use it in this round.
‘I’m looking at the 14th Amendment as whether or not we have the authority,’ he said at a press conference in Hiroshima.
‘I think we have the authority. The question is could it be done and invoked in time that it would not be appealed and, as a consequence, pass the date in question and still default on the debt?’
(Read more at the Daily Mail)
Rather than inventing a 14th Amendment authority, why not return to policies that work and allow Americans to recover from Biden’s first two-plus years?
Rather than spending us into oblivion and spurring who-knows-how-much-more inflation, why not go to the model that recently brought us out of the “Great Recession?”
…
Pelosi tantrum on the 150th Anniversary of the 14th Amendment
In a toothless poke by Nancy Pelosi at President Trump on 9 July 2018, San Fran Nan suggested that the 14th Amendment primarily made us equal before the law (thus somehow invalidating President Trump’s then-recent appointment of a conservative to the Supreme Court in favor of a LGBTQ-friendly selection she would have made).
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement to mark the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 14th Amendment, which lays out the rights of citizenship, access to due process and guarantees equal protection under the law to all people in the United States:
“One hundred and fifty years ago, with the ratification of the 14th Amendment, our nation took a monumental step forward in its ever-advancing march toward a more perfect union. By expanding the rights of citizenship and due process and guaranteeing equal protection under law, the 14th Amendment righted historic wrongs by overturning the outrageous, immoral Dred Scott decision. This landmark amendment soon paved the way for many of our nation’s most important legal and legislative victories, including the desegregation of schools, a woman’s right to choose and marriage equality.
“On this historic day, the protections guaranteed in the 14th Amendment are under dire threat from a Republican Administration and Congress determined to undermine the health, safety, civil rights and financial security of hard-working Americans. President Trump’s nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy places a generation of progress for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, voting rights, workers’ rights and health care in peril. All of President Trump’s potential nominees are prepared to dismantle our nation’s promise of liberty, equality and opportunity for all, and to radically alter the course of American justice for decades to come.
“The rights enumerated in the 14th Amendment are fundamental to our democracy and to our values as a nation where all are created equal. While Republicans work to undermine these values and weaken our democracy, Democrats will stand firm against these outrageous attacks as we continue our work to build a freer, fairer and more just future for everyone.”
At a lunch roundtable with columnists earlier today, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi urged President Barack Obama to avoid a new debt-ceiling showdown by stating that a statutory borrowing limit is inconsistent with Section 4 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned.”
She at first referred to this possibility obliquely while making a larger point about the lack of cooperative spirit between the Republican Party and the Obama administration but clarified her stance in response to further questions saying, “I would like to see the Constitution used to protect the country’s full faith and credit.” She didn’t offer a legal argument in favor of the position but argued on policy grounds that “you cannot put the country through the uncertainty” again, noting that America’s sovereign debt was downgraded by ratings agencies in the wake of the standoff even though it was successfully resolved.
“This isn’t just about credit ratings,” she said, “it’s about the dynamism of our economy.”
Speaking last summer, former President Bill Clinton also endorsed this approach and anonymous members of Congress alleged that Pelosi privately supported it. Obama, however, has indicated that his administration’s lawyers are not persuaded the constitutional argument is correct. In my experience discussing this with constitutional scholars, the key point is less about the merits of the argument per se than it is about whether there’s anything the courts could or would do to prevent a president from acting unilaterally in this regard. Most people I’ve spoken to feel that this would be a classic nonjusticiable political question and no court would issue a restraining order enjoining the Treasury Department from issuing additional debt.
However, this agreement comes from polar opposite stances politically. Hers seems to be one of figuring how to twist the Constitution to fit a modern/progressive/socialist agenda. Mine comes from trying to figure what the founders meant as I read it during work breaks.
While I don’t hold a degree in Constitutional law, my reading of the Constitution finds enough commonality between the Word of God and our founding document that there would be common themes. And, while I cannot prove it, one of those themes seems to be a chance for forgiveness. Because, on one hand, our nation was largely founded by people seeking to start anew and, on the other hand, our God is the model of the Father of the Prodigal son (running out to meet him and covering his rags with luxurious robes), our Constitution would offer to its people the chance to start over. However, in order to maintain the stability needed for such forgiveness, such a standard would not be afforded to the government. Our government must operate at a higher level.
…
President Obama backs away from invoking 14th Amendment on debt ceiling
Obama backs away from invoking the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling, but would it even worked if he tried to do it?
At a press conference Monday, President Obama confirmed that he would not use the 14th Amendment to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling unless both houses of Congress gave him the express authority to do so.
“If [Congress] wants to put the responsibility on me to raise the debt ceiling, I’m happy to take it,” he said. “But if they want to keep this responsibility, then they need to go ahead and get it done.”
While top Democrats have urged him to look more closely at unilateral options, Obama continues to hold Congress responsible for making good on the debts its own appropriations have incurred.
But if Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling, as some have suggested doing, Obama may have to act unilaterally if he wants to avoid a government shutdown. In this scenario, would the President have legal authority to raise the federal debt limit via the 14th Amendment?
Here is the section in question, Section 4 of the 14th Amendment:
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
A Reconstruction-era Amendment, Section 4 was added for two reasons. First, Union lawmakers were eager to affirm that debts incurred by the Confederate South would not be honored by the United States or any other country. This safeguarded Congress from years of disruptive politics. Second, they saw the necessity in guaranteeing the federal debt in case rebel sympathizers returning to Congress threatened to repudiate it for political ends.
Section 4 includes “pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion” as an illustrative example of the kind of debt that would be guaranteed. In other words, compensation for soldiers and their widows was safe from the whims of future Congresses.
As for myself, I trust Obama not to get himself in such a bind that the majority of Republicans in the House impeach or override him
If there is anything I trust about Obama, it resides in his self-interest. Therefore, if Dementia Joe has any reason or any reasonable advisors, it would be a good idea for him to steer clear of using the 14th Amendment to stave off what he sees as a problem. Of course, by increasing debt, he will likely increase our inflation and might push the US out of the market of being the world’s reserve currency.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins is planning to resign after a lengthy investigation by the Department of Justice into her alleged misconduct found that she unethically attended a partisan Biden fundraiser last summer and “falsely testified under oath” about leaking “sensitive DOJ” information to the press in an effort to help a Democrat win elected office.
Details of Rollins’ misconduct – highlighted in the report released Wednesday by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s office – showed that Rollins attempted to swing an election by assisting “Ricardo Arroyo with his Democratic primary campaign for Suffolk D.A.”
Rollins, according to the report, went so far as to offer Arroyo advice on how to handle the sexual assault allegations levied against him during his campaign and also provided media outlets with “negative information” about his challenger, Kevin Hayden.
“Rollins’s efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy included providing negative information about Hayden to The Boston Globe and suggesting where the Globe could look to find more information,” the report stated. “The evidence demonstrated that at a critical stage of the primary race, Rollins brought her efforts to advance Arroyo’s candidacy to the MA USAO, when she used her position as U.S. Attorney, and information available to her as U.S. Attorney, in an ultimately unsuccessful effort to create the impression publicly, before the primary election, that DOJ was or would be investigating Hayden for public corruption.”
The efforts, the report noted, included Rollins “trying unsuccessfully to convince her First Assistant U.S. Attorney to issue a letter that would have created the impression that DOJ was investigating Hayden and, when that effort failed, disclosing non-public, sensitive DOJ information directly to a Herald reporter before the primary election.”
“Then, after the Herald did not publish the story before the primary election and Arroyo lost to Hayden, Rollins disclosed additional information to the Herald to damage Hayden’s reputation while he was an uncontested candidate in the general election,” the DOJ report stated.
The Justice Department also concluded that Rollins “falsely testified under oath during her OIG interview when she denied that she was the federal law enforcement source that provided nonpublic, sensitive DOJ information to the Herald reporter about a possible Hayden criminal investigation.”
Rollins later admitted to being the source after she “produced relevant text messages, which definitively showed that Rollins had indeed been a source for the reporter and had disclosed to him the internal DOJ recusal memorandum quoted in the story,” the report said.
In addition to providing the press with sensitive information about Arroyo’s challenger, Rollins helped Arroyo last summer with a response to sexual assault allegations he faced on the campaign trail.
(Read further of the specifics of the data leaked and those implicated at Fox News)
Even the top-level Biden appointee slights the Biden DOJ does action occur
Maybe this ultra-lib thought that she was working for the underdog by releasing DOJ secret information to the press, but all she got was onto the bad side of Biden and the DOJ.
…
Police officer from Virginia charged with lying about leaks to Proud Boys leader
A Washington, D.C. police officer was arrested Friday on charges that he lied about leaking confidential information to Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio and obstructed an investigation after group members destroyed a Black Lives Matter banner in the nation’s capital.
An indictment alleges that Metropolitan Police Department Lt. Shane Lamond, 47, of Stafford, Virginia, warned Tarrio, then national chairman of the far-right group, that law enforcement had an arrest warrant for him related to the banner’s destruction.
Tarrio was arrested in Washington two days before Proud Boys members joined the mob in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Earlier this month, Tarrio and three other leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy charges for what prosecutors said was a plot to keep then-President Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election.
A federal grand jury in Washington indicted Lamond on one count of obstruction of justice and three counts of making false statements. A magistrate judge ordered Lamond’s release from custody after he pleaded not guilty to the charges during his initial court appearance Friday.
The indictment accuses Lamond of lying to and misleading federal investigators when they questioned him in June 2021 about his contacts with Tarrio. The indictment also says Tarrio provided Lamond with information about the Jan. 6 attack.
Of course, as District Attorney Bragg proved with President Trump, you can indict a ham sandwich
You may be able to indict anyone (even a ham sandwich). Additionally, with Washington’s biased juries and liberal/communist judges, you might be able convict a policeman for walking the beat. However, if this policeman really did violate the wall and the prosecution can prove it, then he should get the punishment he deserves. Still, if leaniency has been offered to some criminals, consideration for the situation and history of this policeman should come into play.
“Worse than Watergate” has become a Washington cliche that is both inescapable and meaningless. Dozens of political scandals since then have been objectively worse, but the scandal still looms large. This is because of the mythos it created involving a press corps and a Washington establishment allegedly concerned with moving heaven and earth to get at the truth, even when the story involved little more than “third-rate burglary,” as Richard Nixon’s secretary famously called it.
Watergate also marked a sea change in how we held presidents accountable. Prior to his downfall, Nixon’s sentiment that “if the president does it, it’s not illegal” was to some extent the informal understanding, even if that sounds outrageous to contemporary ears. A corrupt president could either be impeached by Congress or thrown out of office by voters, but there was no constitutional middle ground to hold them accountable. Since Watergate, the FBI and the Department of Justice more broadly have increasingly found themselves in the awkward and untenable position of being subject to the president’s constitutional authority while simultaneously being tasked with investigating White House corruption.
So 50 years on, the post-Watergate question remains: How is empowering the FBI and unelected deep-state bureaucrats to hold the president accountable working out for us? With last week’s release of special counsel John Durham’s 306-page report into the origins and development of the Russia collusion investigation that engulfed Donald Trump’s presidency, the question has been definitively answered. The corruption it has enabled has been calamitous, and no one in Washington seems to care about the truth anymore.
Thanks to the report, the public finally has a clear and reliable accounting of possibly the most complicated scandal in American history. The big-picture conclusions of the report sound almost understated: “Senior FBI personnel displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor towards the information that they received, especially information received from politically affiliated persons and entities.” But make no mistake, the details in the report that buttress those conclusions are devastating to the credibility of the FBI and those who championed the collusion investigation into Trump.
Take, for example, the story of the so-called Steele dossier and its origins, which is laid out in detail in the report. The Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign hired a disreputable opposition firm known as Fusion GPS, though the hiring was done using a law firm as a cutout so that they could hide their connection to Fusion GPS via attorney-client privilege. Once hired, Fusion GPS retained the services of former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who began compiling evidence of Trump’s links to Russia via his supposedly extensive network of sources. But according to Durham’s report, a single person, Igor Danchenko, claimed he “was responsible for 80% of the ‘intel’ and 50% of the analysis contained in the Steele Dossier.”
Danchenko, a Russian citizen working at the Brookings Institution in Washington, had previously been the subject of counterintelligence by the FBI between 2009 and 2011. According to the Durham Report, “In late 2008, while Danchenko was employed by the Brookings Institution, he engaged two fellow employees about whether one of the employees might be willing or able in the future to provide classified information in exchange for money.” Despite this, the results of the counterintelligence investigation into Danchenko were inconclusive — after the FBI ended the investigation in 2011 having erroneously believed Danchenko had returned to Russia.
In other words, when the FBI repeatedly cited the Steele dossier as evidence to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to get warrants to spy on a future president, it was relying on the word of someone who may or may not be a Russian spy. Remember that the next time a government agency gives the people a lecture on succumbing to disinformation.
But the problems of the dossier are so much worse than that. Danchenko “maintained a relationship with Charles Dolan, a Virginia-based public relations professional.” Dolan had worked with “key Russian government officials,” and it was Dolan who supplied Danchenko with much of the information he gave to Steele. In fact, Dolan was the source of the dossier’s infamous claim that Putin had “kompromat” on Trump in the form of a surreptitiously recorded video of him getting micturated on by Russian prostitutes.
However, Durham noted that in addition to working with the Russian government, Dolan “had previously held multiple positions and roles in the Democratic National Committee (‘DNC’) and the Democratic Party.” So, the two biggest sources of the dossier were a possible Russian spy and a former employee of the DNC, the entity ultimately paying for the creation of the dossier.
To put the final capstone on this dispiriting mix of corruption and credulity, in March of 2017, long after the FBI had tried and failed to prove the accuracy of the dossier and had good reason to believe Danchenko had lied to the bureau, Durham noted that the FBI hired Danchenko as a “confidential human source” and paid him $220,000 over the next 3 1/2 years. Why? The FBI bought his silence. If Danchenko were forced to answer questions publicly about the dossier, it would be humiliating for the FBI. As long as Danchenko was on the FBI payroll, he was not subject to congressional oversight due to policies preserving the secrecy of FBI investigation “sources and methods.”
(Read of CH-1, pulling MI6 into damaging candidate Trump, and more at the Washington Examiner)
Aggrivating – yes. Reason to vote conservative – yes. Damning – no (nobody is going to jail over this, much less having a greater chance of hell from this)
While this might be fodder for conversation and may push up the chances of some Republicans into action, the only good thing that might come out of this might be the restructuring of the FBI by the House.
Washington FBI field office confirms that undercover officers, confidential informants, and FBI assets were embedded in the crowds at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6th
Rep Matt Gaetz confirmed today that the government was running several assets in the crowds during the January 6, 2021 protests in Washington DC.
As the Gateway Pundit as previously reported — Dozens if not hundreds of government operatives infiltrated the protests at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The Gateway Pundit previously identified 20 different confirmed incidents and operations involving federal, state, and local government operatives who infiltrated the massive Trump crowds on January 6, 2021.
Each one of these incidents has been confirmed by the far-left press or the government in court documents.
We currently have no idea how many federal, state and local government operatives were working undercover on January 6 but it looks like it is close to 100 operatives leading the charge on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Recent court documents reveal the Biden Department of Justice admitting to at least 40 undercover operatives with the Proud Boys on January 6.
In September 2022, TGP learned the FBI was running operatives inside The Oath Keepers on January 6th. The DOJ sprung this on the Oath Keepers members before their trial in Washington DC before a Kangaroo Court. The US government finally admitted in this letter they sent out before the trial that they were running Confidential Human Sources (CHS) inside the Oath Keepers organization on January 6.
In November 2022, the FBI finally admitted they had 8 informants inside the Proud Boys organization on January 6 and likely more.
(continued)
SHOCK: The DoJ now admits that another 40 undercover agents were with the Proud Boys on J6 - from HSI - Homeland Security Investigations. The vast majority of the group was paid by the government as either W2 employees or CHS. pic.twitter.com/tCKZubpJmq
FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.
(Read the rightful response from Republicans at the Associated Press)
Who wants to try the “But reforms have been made” at your next red light ticket court?
If you even went a mile or so over the speed limit, would the “reforms have been made” defense work?
Why do they expect it to mend any torn fences here?
…
At this late date, the courts find the FBI improperly used surveillance tools on 6 January 2021 protesters
FBI officials repeatedly violated their own standards when they searched a vast repository of foreign intelligence for information related to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and racial justice protests in 2020, according to a heavily blacked-out court order released Friday.
FBI officials said the thousands of violations, which also include improper searches of donors to a congressional campaign, predated a series of corrective measures that started in the summer of 2021 and continued last year. But the problems could nonetheless complicate FBI and Justice Department efforts to receive congressional reauthorization of a warrantless surveillance program that law enforcement officials say is needed to counter terrorism, espionage and international cybercrime.
The violations were detailed in a secret court order issued last year by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has legal oversight of the U.S. government’s spy powers. The Office of the Director of the National Intelligence released a redacted version on Friday in what officials said was the interest of transparency. Members of Congress received the order when it was issued last year.
“Today’s disclosures underscore the need for Congress to rein in the FBI’s egregious abuses of this law, including warrantless searches using the names of people who donated to a congressional candidate,” said Patrick Toomey, deputy director of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “These unlawful searches undermine our core constitutional rights and threaten the bedrock of our democracy. It’s clear the FBI can’t be left to police itself.”
At issue are improper queries of foreign intelligence information collected under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which enables the government to gather the communications of targeted foreigners outside the U.S. That program expires at the end of the year unless it is renewed.
The program creates a database of intelligence that U.S. agencies can search. FBI searches must have a foreign intelligence purpose or be aimed at finding evidence of a crime. But congressional critics of the program have long raised alarm about what they say are unjustified searches of the database for information about Americans, along with more general concerns about perceived abuses of surveillance.
So, in the international court, we have at least sunk to the level of the banana republic
If we are not at the level of the banana republic, it is only because they see us either as the drunk sugar daddy republic or the sadistic banana republic holding the gun to their heads. Both, I would argue, are on significantly lower levels than just the banana republic.
…
Obama roasted for answer to what keeps him up at night: “Starving for attention”
“The thing that I’m most worried about is the degree to which we’ve now had a divided conversation, in part because we have a divided media,” he said. “When I was coming up, you had three TV stations. And people were getting a similar sense of what is true and what isn’t, what was real and what was not. Today, what I’m most concerned about is the fact that because of the splintering of the media, we almost occupy different realities. Now, people will say, ‘Well, that didn’t happen, or I don’t believe that.’”
Watters roasted the former president for his answer on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” saying it’s not China, fentanyl, or “dirty nukes,” but a “divided media” that keeps him awake.
Now that a precedent has been set for local District Attorneys charging former presidents of unprovable crimes …
Now that District Attorney Bragg has opened pandora’s box, Obama might want to consider that presidents can be charged for jaywalking. Additionally, former presidents like him (and there are a few) might want to consider that they might get charged for real crimes that can be proven.
Therefore, it might be a good time for Democrat presidents to purchase beachfront property in a country where America does not have an extradition treaty.
The marks of spiritual immaturity — Hebrews 5:11-14
The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the comments of the class.
Spiritual maturity
How long have you been a Christ-follower?
Do you consider yourself a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ today? How do you think spiritual maturity is measured?
Do you believe you are spiritually mature or immature? Explain.
What do you believe happens when we lag behind in spiritual progress?
After some prompting by the class teacher, one member defined “betweeners” as those who follow Christ and have accepted his covering for sin, but have not started living as followers. Another class member contrasted the “betweener” to the one who says “examine me” and “I will follow your instructions.” Another class member contrasted them to the believer who is obedient to the Holy Spirit and the Bible. Yet another pointed out that such a follower would have a hunger for sharing the Word. Another pointed out that Christians may pick up our crosses, but (as ‘natural men” with fallen natures) we might prove to be immature.
The writer mentioned Melchizedek’s ministry in Hebrews 5:10 and he is concerned that many in his audience have not grown enough spiritually to grasp his explanation about the comparison at Christ’s ministry with that of Melchizedek. So, he issues a warning to the spiritually immature. In the process, he reveals four marks of spiritual immaturity for us to guard against.
Marks of spiritual immaturity
Apathy towards the Word — Hebrews 5:11
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. (Hebrews 5:11 NIV)
These believers started on their “back sliding journey” by “drifting from the Word” (Hebrews 2:1- 4) and then, “doubting the Word” (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). As a result, they are “slow to learn” or “dull of hearing”. In other words, they were unable to listen to the Word, receive/accept it and then, act on it. They did not have the attitude of the Thessalonians:
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV)
One of the first symptoms of apathy towards the Word is “dullness to the Bible.” Adult Bible Fellowship is boring: preaching is dull, anything spiritual is not interesting.
Would you say that you fall in the church of the Thessalonians or the Hebrews? Explain.
Inability to share the truth — Hebrews 5:12a
In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. (Hebrews 5:12a NIV)
Not all of us have the gift of teaching but we can all share what we leam from the Word of God. The recipients of this letter had been saved long enough to be able to share God’s truth with others, but, instead of helping others to grow and mature in their faith, they were in need of learning the basic teachings of the Christian life all over again.
Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. (Matthew 13:12 NIV)
This is why I speak to them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. (Matthew 13:13 NIV)
We need to ask ourselves these questions: Do I know the elementary truths of my faith well enough to share and help others? Am I growing and maturing as a Christian? if not why not? Why do you think it is important to be spiritually mature? Do you see what the writer is trying to accomplish? Through his loving compassion for his brothers and sisters as believers – he knows they will be overwhelmed by the storms of life if they are spiritually immature or spiritual babies.
Inadequate diet — Hebrews 5:12b-13
You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. (Hebrews 5:12b-13 NIV)
There is no such thing as a static Christian. We are either moving forward or backward, either climbing or falling; winning or losing. The “milk” described here is the first principles of the Word of God — the birth, life, teachings, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. The “meat” or “solid food” is what Jesus is doing now in heaven — we begin our Christian life on the basis of His finished work on the cross and His unfinished work in heaven. Our study of Revelation opened the door to heaven to see the work of Jesus from the seven letters to the churches to His promised return of redemption and sovereignty. There must be an understanding of the righteousness of Christ through us and the practicality of righteous living through the power of the Holy Spirit and to the glory of God.
Would you say that you are satisfied with just drinking the milk or do you have a desire for the meat/solid food that the author speaks about?
When asked what happens when we lag in our spiritual growth, the class responded in many ways. One class member noted that we get attacked by Satan. Another noted that we become vulnerable to attack (by Satan and our own nature). Another noted we make excuses. Another noted that we lose the joy and peace of our relationship with God. Finally, one class member pointed the class to the struggle between the spirit and the flesh as discussed in Romans 8.
Inability to apply the Word — Hebrews 5:14
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:14 NIV
As we grow in the Word, we learn to apply it in our daily life. As we apply it, we develop spiritual discernment. An immature believer will listen to any preacher and not be able to identify what is true or false based on the Scriptures. The ability to discern good and evil is a vital part of our faith. Our spiritual discernment is taxed daily. We must take God’s Word seriously by listening with all we have and becoming “doers of the Word and not merely hearers who deceive ourselves” by applying the principles and precepts of God’s Word to the decisions in our daily life.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22 NIV)
Warren Wiersbe tells the story of a preacher who said most Christians are “betweeners.” What in the world does that mean? Here’s his explanation and answer: “They are between Egypt and Canaan-out of the place of danger, but not yet in the place of rest and rich inheritance. They are between Good Friday and Easter Sunday- saved by the blood of Jesus but not enjoying the newness of the resurrection of life” Would you describe yourself as a “betweener”? If so, take to heart, the warnings of the author of Hebrews.
For days I have referred to the work of a Christian dissident from the USSR
Recently, I presented the thoughts of Christian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn. But then I had to consider the well that Solzhenitsyn and other Christian and Jewish dissidents drew from as they stood against the onslaught of violence and lies common to our world.
Then I started considering the foundations of the Bible. I considered how an initial story of humanity centered on Adam and Eve falling to the deception of the Serpent.
Beyond that, one central theme came out: truth. It started when thoughts of David’s quest for God’s illuminating truth came to mind. It continued as verses came concerning the embodiment of Truth: Christ.__
Psalms 86:11
Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. (Psalms 86:11 NASB)
Psalms 51:6
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. (Psalms 51:6 NASB)
John 14:6
Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6 NASB)
John 16:13
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. (John 16:13 NASB)
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NASB)
John 1:17
For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17 NASB)
John 3:21
But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” (John 3:21 NASB)
John 4:23
But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. (John 4:23 NASB)
John 4:24
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24 NASB)
John 8:32
and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:32 NASB)
John 8:40
But as it is, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do. (John 8:40 NASB)
John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NASB)
Ephesians 6:14
Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (Ephesians 6:14 NASB)
While these do not make up an exhaustive listing of verses on truth (or even scratch the surface of the subject), it does point us to the centrality of truth in Christianity
From just this short selection of verses, we can tell truth to be a central portion of the gospel. We can tell that (as in John 8:44) truth has an opposition in the devil and that devil and his followers speak lies by nature. Finally, we are called to take on truth and wear it.
Oddly, when people came to us saying, “There is no truth,” we (or at leat I) did not respond with “Is that true?” Instead, I shared my own experiences and skirted around the problem of directly attacking the false accusation.
Now that things have progressed to the point where anti-Christian forces have seemed to have taken over swaths of the government, it seems we find ourselves having to defend that there really are just two genders. We have to argue constantly that all sides deserve a hearing. We have to fight to just suggest mathematical precision is not just a saying.
Truth is truth. We need to get back to objectivism.
…
On the side of subjective news, we have the New York Times
Durham Report finds the New York Times peddled fake news
The blockbuster report released by Special Counsel John Durham Monday found The New York Times published fake news peddled by federal intelligence officials in 2017.
In February 2017, the Times reported the Trump campaign had routine contact with Russian officials.
“Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence,” read the headline.
(continued with a quoted lie from the New York Times — which I find no need to repeat)
The entire story, however, was fabricated, according to the bombshell report published by Durham.
“As early as 2017, the FBI still did not possess any intelligence showing that anyone associated with the Trump campaign was in contact with Russian intelligence officers during the campaign,” Durham noted.
Indeed, based on declassified documents from early 2017, the FBI’s own records show that reports published by The New York Times in February and March 2017 concerning what four unnamed current and former U.S. intelligence officials claimed about the Trump campaign personnel being in touch with any Russian intelligence officers was untrue.
The Durham report out Monday caps off a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the origins of the Russia hoax established by Attorney General William Barr. The report found “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
(Read the entire article at The Federalist — including the lie from the Times)
Since the Times has exposed itself as one of many bastions of Democrat propaganda, I am open to only considering them that
I am more than willing to let them wither on the ash heap of history.
Admittedly, I do quote them on numerous occasions. However, each of those quotes surely illustrates the degree to which I see them as a purveyor of Democrat propaganda.
…
After the Durham Report, the FBI addresses “missteps” (but only after the Special Counsel review was released)
The FBI said it has “implemented dozens of corrective actions” to reform “missteps” highlighted in the report from special counsel John Durham on Monday.
The agency issued a statement shortly after the release of the 306-page report that looked into the origins and conduct of the FBI investigation regarding alleged ties between former President Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
“The conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time. Had those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented,” the statement said
“This report reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” the statement continued.
Durham’s report slammed the FBI’s conduct in opening an investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Durham said if the bureau had taken simple steps, then “the FBI would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject.”
Republican lawmakers have gone after the Department of Justice and FBI for their conduct highlighted in the report, and Democrats have mostly brushed off the report, citing the lack of convictions stemming from the investigation.
News that the IRS ousted its entire team probing Hunter Biden simply to sideline a whistleblower, coming the same day as the Durham Report on massive Justice Department malfeasance promoting the Russiagate smear, allows for only one conclusion: Much of the federal government is now permanently weaponized to protect Democrats and undermine their enemies.
This political rot in the federal government runs deep, as Durham has tirelessly documented in his investigation of the special FBI probe of ex-prez Donald Trump’s alleged Russian collusion.
His final, damning report reveals not only that the agency fabricated a case against Trump without ever having any actual evidence, but also actively shielded candidate Hillary Clinton despite damning evidence.
Top ranks at the FBI and Justice Department fought tooth and nail to kibosh any investigations of Hillary over both the hundreds of millions in shady donations her foundation raked in while she was Secretary of Stateand her casual, repeated violations of federal law around classified documents.
Then they turned around and opened the Russiagate probe on the basis of third-hand rumor, soon using the Clinton-paid Steele Dossier to fraudulently justify surveilling the Trump campaign.
This, though the entire top of the US government had been warned that the Clinton camp intended to create a bogus Trump-Russia scandal to distract from her misdoings.
From the dropping of the Hunter IRS investigation, it seems obvious that the Deep State remains on the offensive
When they have been caught dead to rights by the Durham Report, but have not been punished, they seem so emboldened as to drop investigations while it still seems evident that there is a double standard for the Biden family.
Special Counsel John Durham on Monday released a 300-plus page report critical of the FBI, Justice Department and the entire U.S. intelligence community for its pursuit of an investigation into alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government without evidence to substantiate the underlying allegations.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
Government Had No Evidence
“Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Durham wrote. Crossfire Hurricane is the FBI codename for the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign.
Durham contended that, had the FBI followed its own procedures, the bureau “would have learned that their own experienced Russia analysts had no information about Trump being involved with Russian leadership officials, nor were others in sensitive positions at the CIA, the NSA, and the Department of State aware of such evidence concerning the subject.”
No New Charges
Durham did not recommend that any additional people face charges stemming from his investigation.
He previously pursued cases against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann and Steele Dossier contributor Igor Danchenko, but was unsuccessful.
U.S. Foreign Allies Refused to Aid in the Effort
United Kingdom intelligence service officials were unwilling to aid in the investigation, contending that it was devoid of predicating evidence.
“Later in the Fall of 2016, UK ALAT-1 was at FBI Headquarters with some of his British Intelligence Service-I counterparts,” Durham notes, referencing a UK intelligence official. “While there, members of the Crossfire Hurricane team played the audio/visual recordings of CHS-1 ‘s August 20, 2016 meeting with Carter Page. UK ALAT-1 said the effect on the British Intelligence Service-I personnel was not positive because of the lack of any evidence corning out of the conversation.”
“UK ALAT-1 told the OIG that after watching the video one of his British colleagues said, ‘For [expletive] sake, man. You went through a lot of trouble to get him to say nothing,'” Durham continued. “At a later point in time, after the Mueller Special Counsel team was in place, UK ALAT-1 said that ‘the Brits finally had enough,’ and in response to a request for some assistance ‘[a British Intelligence Service-I person] basically said there was no [expletive] way in hell they were going to do it.'”
Former Intel Officials Promoted the Narrative Despite Knowing There Was No Evidence
Former CIA Director John Brennan came into Durham’s crosshairs for his repeated public remarks supporting the narrative that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government.
“I encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between Russian officials and U.S. persons involved in the Trump campaign,” he told the House Intelligence Committee in 2017. President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash” Brennan wrote for the New York Times in 2018.
Key Foreign Affairs Officials Saw No Evidence
Victoria Nuland, who served as undersecretary for Political Affairs at the Department of State, and is one of that agency’s “most experienced Russian observers,” told Durham’s team she “never saw any U.S. government proof of the allegations contained in the Steele reporting regarding Trump and Russian officials, and further stated that to her recollection no information regarding a well-coordinated conspiracy between Trump and the Russians had ever come across her desk, with one exception.”
“Nuland advised that she had received a two-page summary of the Steele allegations from Jonathan Winer,” Durham wrote. The Steele dossier has been thoroughly discredited.
Yes, it was 306 pages of information bad for the FBI and DOJ. However, it began with six pages of effusive praise of the DOJ
After those six pages of gushing praise of the DOJ, I only got started on the praise of the FBI when I quit.
However, I have consumed commentary from Kash Patel (of the Trump administration) – who noted that the two plea deals worked out could have been forced to testify.
Furthermore, since liberal interests seem able to shop for courts, surely Durham could have taken this all to a more friendly venue (for example, a trial in rural Texas).
Finally, to suggest (as is central to point ten) that the FBI and DOJ only need a few rule changes is beyond ludicrous.
So what if the Durham report sharply criticizes FBI’s 2016 Trump campaign probe — the continuation of that probe was a lot of what cost President Trump the office in 2020 and will still be cited by “news” reporters in the 2024 race.
We need to raze the FBI and DOJ and then spread salt on the ground on those two sites.
Excerpts from the last essay to the people of the USSR by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Yesterday, I presented the entire essay of Alexander Solzhenitsyn (not in Russian). However today, for those who did not see yesterday’s post, I will pull out a few highlights and go on to articles covering the examples of lies in our American society.
Now that the axes have done their work and everything that was sown has sprouted, we can see that the young and presumptuous people who thought they would make our country just and happy through terror, bloody rebellion and civil war were themselves misled. No thanks, fathers of enlightenment! Now we know that infamous methods breed infamous results . . . Let our hands be clean!
(continued)
When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ‘I am violence. Run away, make way for me — I will crush you.’ But violence quickly grows old. After only a few years it loses confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally — since violence can conceal itself with nothing except lies, and the lies can be maintained only by violence. Violence does not lay its paw on every shoulder every day: it demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies. And this submissiveness is the crux of the matter. The simplest and most accessible key to our self-neglected liberation is this: personal non-participation in lies. Though lies may conceal everything, though lies may control everything, we should be obstinate about this one small point: let them be in control but without any help from any of us. This opens a breach in the imaginary encirclement caused by our inaction. It is the easiest thing for us to do and the most destructive for the lies. Because when people renounce lies it cuts short their existence. Like a virus, they can survive only in a living organism.
(continued)
But let us refuse to say what we do not think. This is our path, the easiest and the most accessible one, which allows for our inherent, well-rooted cowardice. And it is much easier (it’s shocking even to say this) than the sort of civil disobedience that Gandhi advocated. Our path is not that of giving conscious support to lies about anything at all.
(continued)
So in our timidity, let us each make a choice: whether to remain consciously a servant of falsehood (of course, it is not out of inclination but to feed one’s family that one raises one’s children in the spirit of lies), or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect from one’s children and contemporaries.
And from that day onward he:
will not sign, write or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth
will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation nor in public, neither on his own behalf nor at the prompting of someone else, neither in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, nor as an actor
will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea in which he can see a distortion of the truth, whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science or music
will not cite out of context, either orally or in writing, a single quotation to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not completely share the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue
will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations and meetings if they are contrary to his desire
will immediately walk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda
will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed.
(continued)
Some will lose their jobs. But there are no loopholes for anybody who wants to be honest. On any given day, any one of us, even those securely working in technical sciences, will be confronted with at least one of the above choices. Either truth or falsehood: towards spiritual independence or towards spiritual servitude.
And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul – don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.
(continued)
Therefore you will not be the first to take this path, you will join others! It will be easier and shorter if we embark on it in great and friendly numbers. If we are in thousands it will not be possible for them to do anything to anyone. If we are in tens of thousands we will not recognise our own country!
Since the opposition has made sport of changing the definition of truth, we cannot sit on the sidelines. We cannot just stand by and allow immutible facts like those established by XX and XY chromosomes to be ignored. We cannot sit while robed, lifetime appointees to the court rule our elections, jail certain people, and let felons on the other side go.
…
The man who eulogized Senator Byrd and fought school busing seems to reverse course
Biden calls white supremacy “most dangerous terrorist threat” in speech at Howard
President Joe Biden denounced white supremacy as the “most dangerous terrorist threat” to the nation in his commencement address to Howard University’s graduating class Saturday.
“White supremacy … is the single most dangerous terrorist threat in our homeland,” Biden said. “And I’m not just saying this because I’m at a Black HBCU. I say this wherever I go.”
(blather on the part of Politico continues for a bit)
“Fearless progress toward justice often means ferocious pushback from the oldest and most sinister of forces,” Biden said. “That’s because hate never goes away. … It only hides under the rocks. And when it’s given oxygen it comes out from under that rock. And that’s why we know this truth as well: silence is complicity. We cannot remain silent.”
(more blather occurs before Politico makes note of the pot calling the kettle black)
“Let’s be clear: There are those who don’t see you. Who don’t want this future,” Biden said. “There are those who demonize and pit people against one another. There are those who would do anything and everything, no matter how desperate or immoral, to hold onto power.”
(Read the whole blather and nothing but the blather at Politico)
Somehow, Biden has forgotten the annual attacks by Islamist terrorists during the Obama/Biden regime
America has now averaged one serious Islamic terrorist attack a year on President Obama’s watch, yet he still insists the threat from radical Islam is overblown and that he’s successfully protecting the nation.
If only hubris could be weaponized!
In the wake of Omar Mateen’s Orlando massacre, Obama whined about growing criticism of his terror-fighting strategy. But boy, does he deserve it. His record on terrorism is terrible, and Hillary Clinton should have a tough time defending it.
Here we are in the eighth year of his presidency, and the nation has now suffered eight significant attacks by Islamist terrorists on US soil or diplomatic property — an average of one attack a year since Obama’s been in office, with each new attack seemingly worse than the last.
And there’s six long months left to go.
Obama said Orlando “marks the most deadly shooting in American history.” Actually, it was the second-worst act of Islamic terrorism in American history, replacing in six short months the San Bernardino massacre as the deadliest terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11.
Here are the previous seven:
December 2015: Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married Pakistani couple, stormed a San Bernardino County government building with combat gear and rifles and opened fire on about 80 employees enjoying an office Christmas party. They killed 14 after pledging loyalty to ISIS. A third Muslim was charged with helping buy weapons.
July 2015: Mohammad Abdulazeez opened fire on a military recruiting center and US Navy Reserve center in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he shot to death four Marines and a sailor. Obama refused to call it terrorism.
May 2015: ISIS-directed Muslims Nadir Soofi and Elton Simpson opened fire on the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas, shooting a security guard before police took them down.
April 2013: Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Muslim brothers from Chechnya, exploded a pair of pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding more than 260. At least 17 people lost limbs from the shrapnel.
September 2012: Terrorists with al Qaeda in the Maghreb attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing the US ambassador, a US Foreign Service officer and two CIA contractors. Obama and then-Secretary of State Clinton misled the American people, blaming the attack on an anti-Muslim video.
November 2009: Army Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13. Obama ruled it “workplace violence,” even though Hasan was in contact with an al Qaeda leader before the strikes and praised Allah as he mowed down troops.
June 2009: Al Qaeda-trained Abdulhakim Muhammad opened fire on an Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark., killing Pvt. William Long and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula.
US border control said it had arrested five migrants on Friday who were later discovered to be on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database watch list.
The apprehensions, which took place at the Tucson Sector of the United States Border Patrol, occurred shortly after Title 42 expired on Thursday.
The migrants were then referred to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task for further investigation and to confirm their identities, a source from the Customs and Border Protection claimed.
The source said the arrests took place throughout the day and evening on Friday after foreign nationals illegally crossed the border and attempted to avoid detection and apprehension.
Information regarding the demographics and nationalities of the arrested migrants was not available.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Wednesday arrested an Afghan national who was on the FBI’s terror watchlist crossing into the United States from the southern border, Fox News reported, citing sources within the agency.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who represents the district where the man was apprehended — near Otay Mesa, California — told Fox News the Biden administration’s border policies are a national security concern.
(continued)
The apprehension took place a day before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump administration policy invoked during the COVID-19 pandemic that allowed for the rapid deportation of illegal immigrants because of health concerns.
Texas law enforcement officials recently encountered 30 Chinese citizens near the southern border as pressure mounts to address the flow of migrants illegally crossing into the United States.
A trooper with the Texas Department of Public Safety found the group walking along a road in Roma, in the Rio Grande Valley.
The trooper was able to get them off the road and called the U.S. Border Patrol. Agents responded and processed the group.
The Rio Grande Valley has been a hotbed of illegal crossings into the U.S. from Mexico.
Maybe Joe did not want to insult his Chinese benefactors by recognizing this threat
Maybe just as he could not bring himself to shoot down the spy balloon until it had zig-zagged across Alaska and the continental United States of America, maybe now Joe wants to keep silent on these 30 (and the thousands of Chinese army-age men that have been videoed at various check points).
If he did, he might endanger those paychecks from his Chinese benefactors that the press keeps ignoring.
…
Somewhat related to Biden’s promotion of race warfare and willful ignorance of threats against America is the Biden regime line on border security
DHS Secretary Mayorkas gives bizarre definition of a “secure border”
Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave an odd definition of what he considers a “secure border” during a Sunday interview on NBC.
“It is, in the context in which we are working, it is maximizing the resources that we have available to us to deliver the most effective results,” Mayorkas said after NBC host Chuck Todd asked him to define the term. Mayorkas has consistently maintained throughout his tenure in the Biden administration that the border is secure, even as there have been record numbers of illegal border crossings and drug smuggling.
Security footage taken along the US-Mexico border in Texas showed a US soldier opening a gate to let migrants in just days after Joe Biden let Title 42 expire.
The video, shared by FOX LA‘s Bill Melugin, showed a large group crossing from the Mexico side of the border into the U.S. as a large white bus appeared to wait for them.
The one-minute clip showed the female Army officer standing by as the horde shuffled onto private property Monday morning.
She’s said to have done so at the direction of the federal government.
When asked by reporters about how he believes things were proceeding after Title 42 expired, Biden responded: ‘Much better than you all expected,’ with a chuckle.
NEW: Security video from a contact in Eagle Pass, TX shows a large group of migrants crossing illegally onto private property this morning. Crossings have been down big in Texas last few days, but are expected to rise again as cartels/smugglers figure out the post T42 border. pic.twitter.com/6iLcIeUkuY
According to Melugin, the Texas National Guard confirmed the female seen opening the gate in the video was not a Texas soldier or a Texas National Guard member.
The last essay to the people of the USSR by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
At one time we dared not even whisper. Now we write and read samizdat and sometimes when we gather in the smoking room of the Science Institute we complain frankly to one another. What kind of tricks are they playing on us, and where are they dragging us? There is gratuitous boasting of cosmic achievements while poverty and destruction exist at home. Propping up remote uncivilised regimes. Fanning up civil war. And we recklessly fostered Mao Tse-tung (at our expense) — and we shall be the ones sent to war against him and we will have to go. Is there any way out? They put anybody they want on trial and put sane people in asylums – always they; we are powerless.
Things have almost reached rock-bottom. A universal spiritual death has already touched us all and physical death will soon flare up and consume us and our children. But, as before, we still smile in a cowardly fashion and mumble with our tongues tied. What can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength. We have been so hopelessly dehumanised that for today’s ration of food we are willing to abandon all our principles, our souls and the efforts of our predecessors, as well as all the opportunities for our descendants, Just don’t disturb our fragile existence!
We lack resolution, pride and enthusiasm. We don’t even fear universal nuclear death, nor do we fear a third world war — perhaps we can hide in crevices. We just fear acts of civil courage. We are afraid to lag behind the herd and to take one step alone — and suddenly to find ourselves without white bread, heating gas and a Moscow registration. What was drummed in our ears at political courses we have now internalised: live comfortably and all will be well ever after. You cannot escape your environment and social conditions. Existence determines consciousness. What does it have to do with us? We cannot do anything about it.
But we can! We lie to ourselves to preserve our peace of mind. It is not they who should be blamed but ourselves. One can object, but cannot imagine what to do. Gags have been stuffed into our mouths. Nobody wants to listen to us and nobody asks our opinion. How can we force them to listen to us? It is impossible to change their minds. It would be logical to vote them out of office, but there are no elections in our country. In the West people resort to strikes and protest demonstrations, but we are too downtrodden and it is too horrifying for us. How can one suddenly renounce a job and take to the streets? Other fatal paths tested during the last century by our bitter Russian history are even less suitable for us, and truly we do not need them.
Now that the axes have done their work and everything that was sown has sprouted, we can see that the young and presumptuous people who thought they would make our country just and happy through terror, bloody rebellion and civil war were themselves misled. No thanks, fathers of enlightenment! Now we know that infamous methods breed infamous results . . . Let our hands be clean!
Is the circle closed? Is there really no way out? Is there only one thing left to do – to wait without taking any action? Maybe something will happen by itself. But it will never happen as long as we daily acknowledge, extol and strengthen — and do not sever ourselves from — the most perceptible of its aspects: lies. When violence intrudes into peaceful life, its face glows with self-confidence, as if it were carrying a banner and shouting: ‘I am violence. Run away, make way for me — I will crush you.’ But violence quickly grows old. After only a few years it loses confidence in itself, and in order to maintain a respectable face it summons falsehood as its ally — since violence can conceal itself with nothing except lies, and the lies can be maintained only by violence. Violence does not lay its paw on every shoulder every day: it demands from us only obedience to lies and daily participation in lies. And this submissiveness is the crux of the matter. The simplest and most accessible key to our self-neglected liberation is this: personal non-participation in lies. Though lies may conceal everything, though lies may control everything, we should be obstinate about this one small point: let them be in control but without any help from any of us. This opens a breach in the imaginary encirclement caused by our inaction. It is the easiest thing for us to do and the most destructive for the lies. Because when people renounce lies it cuts short their existence. Like a virus, they can survive only in a living organism.
Let us admit it: we have not matured enough to march into the squares and shout the truth out loud or to express aloud what we think. It is not necessary. It’s dangerous. But let us refuse to say what we do not think. This is our path, the easiest and the most accessible one, which allows for our inherent, well-rooted cowardice. And it is much easier (it’s shocking even to say this) than the sort of civil disobedience that Gandhi advocated. Our path is not that of giving conscious support to lies about anything at all. And once we realise where the perimeters of falsehood are (everyone sees them in his own way), our path is to walk away from this gangrenous boundary. If we did not paste together the dead bones and scales of ideology, if we did not sew together rotting rags, we would be astonished how quickly the lies would be rendered helpless and would subside. That which should be naked would then really appear naked before the whole world.
So in our timidity, let us each make a choice: whether to remain consciously a servant of falsehood (of course, it is not out of inclination but to feed one’s family that one raises one’s children in the spirit of lies), or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect from one’s children and contemporaries.
And from that day onward he:
will not sign, write or print in any way a single phrase which in his opinion distorts the truth
will utter such a phrase neither in private conversation nor in public, neither on his own behalf nor at the prompting of someone else, neither in the role of agitator, teacher, educator, nor as an actor
will not depict, foster or broadcast a single idea in which he can see a distortion of the truth, whether it be in painting, sculpture, photography, technical science or music
will not cite out of context, either orally or in writing, a single quotation to please someone, to feather his own nest, to achieve success in his work, if he does not completely share the idea which is quoted, or if it does not accurately reflect the matter at issue
will not allow himself to be compelled to attend demonstrations and meetings if they are contrary to his desire
will immediately walk out of a meeting, session, lecture, performance or film if he hears a speaker tell lies, or purvey ideological nonsense or shameless propaganda
will not subscribe to or buy a newspaper or magazine in which information is distorted and primary facts are concealed.
I have not enumerated, of course, all possible and necessary ways of avoiding lies, but whoever begins to cleanse himself will easily apply the cleansing pattern to other cases. It will not be the same for everybody at first. Some will lose their jobs. But there are no loopholes for anybody who wants to be honest. On any given day, any one of us, even those securely working in technical sciences, will be confronted with at least one of the above choices. Either truth or falsehood: towards spiritual independence or towards spiritual servitude.
And he who is not sufficiently courageous to defend his soul – don’t let him be proud of his ‘progressive’ views, and don’t let him boast that he is an academician or a people’s artist, a distinguished figure or a general. Let him say to himself: I am a part of the herd and a coward. It’s all the same to me as long as I’m fed and kept warm.
Even this path — the most moderate of all paths of resistance — would not be easy for those of us who have become too set in our ways. But it would be far easier than a hunger strike or a self-immolation. The flames would not touch your body, your eye would not burst from the heat and your family should always be able to get black bread and fresh water.
Has not the great European nation Czechoslovakia — betrayed and deceived by us — demonstrated how even an armourless breast, if it holds a worthy heart, can stand up to the onslaught of tanks?
This would not be an easy path, but the easiest of all possible ones. Not an easy path — but there are people among us, dozens of them, who have been observing all these conditions for years and who live by the truth.
Therefore you will not be the first to take this path, you will join others! It will be easier and shorter if we embark on it in great and friendly numbers. If we are in thousands it will not be possible for them to do anything to anyone. If we are in tens of thousands we will not recognise our own country!
If we are too frightened, then we should stop complaining that we are being suffocated. We are doing this to ourselves. If we bow down even further and wait longer, our brothers the biologists may then help to bring nearer the day when our thoughts can be read and our genes restructured.
If we are too frightened to do anything, then we are hopeless and worthless people and the lines of Pushkin fit us well:
What use to the herds the gifts of freedom?
The scourge, and a yoke with tinkling bells
— this is their heritage, bequeathed to every generation.
As proven here by Solzhenitsyn, silence is not an option in the face of evil
When we know the right, keeping silent to save our skins is not an option.
So, to allow children to be chemically altered or physically mutilated due to social pressure and the concept that someone with an XY chromosome can will themselves into the ability to function as a woman, that should not be an option.
…
The LGBTQ lobby uses few words in its argument to prove that children can choose their gender
In an “article” that includes some 40 photos of protesters, there seem to be a scant 2 paragraphs repeated
Belynda Montgomery … and other LGBTQ activists protest Senate Bill 14 at the Texas Capitol Friday, May 12, 2023. SB14 would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.
LGBTQ activists … embrace as they protest Senate Bill 14 at the Texas Capitol Friday, May 12, 2023. SB14 would ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children.
In Texas, we don’t allow the school nurse to despense aspirin to students. Why would we allow the chemical castration of those children?
In Texas, we have been rightfully in the place of protecting those who cannot protect themselves (including children). Therefore, we do not allow children to receive aspirin from school nurses without the approval of the child’s parents. Why, then, would we allow the chemical castration of those children? Or why would we allow the mutilation of those children by the removal of healthy flesh when it is done in persuit of changing the gender of the child?
Our just entertaining the concept that a person with an XY chromosome can will themselves into the ability to function as a woman (or vice versa) stretches the laws of credulity beyond their means of operation.
Therefore, just to have this press outlet calling it “gender-affirming medical care” is a lie. It is chemical and surgical changes to a child’s body that will prevent that child from ever going back from this decision.
…
The American press shows its soul by ignoring the scandals of Biden
It’s been a second since we’ve given the press a well-deserved proper beat-down for their mendacity on how the Media(D) have been covering for their preferred candidate instead of, you know, reporting on him.
The fish slap Ted Cruz gave to a sock-puppet pretending to be a journalist in his Presser on the Border just hours before the end of Title 42 has just whet our appetite for some more of the same.
As it happened, the good folks of NewsBusters put together a handy-dandy list of how the media have been mendacious — quietly shielding No-Malarky Joe from even the slimmest ray of sanitizing daylight. With an emphasis on ‘quietly.’
Selective reporting that magnifies negative red stories and positive blue stories sure looks an awful lot like the way Time Magazine says various groups cooperated to ‘fortify’ (Trump prefers the word ‘rig’) that election in 2020, doesn’t it?
Let’s look at what the news outlets have been doing with the various scandals swirling around Biden’s head, shall we?
As we like to say, ‘Hunter’s Laptop Matters.’ The old BLM slogan served as a source of inspiration for our ClashDaily exclusive HLM merch. And for anyone wondering why yes, those little white lines ARE what you think they are!
With that as a backdrop, let’s look at TWELVE Biden Scandals that MRC is tracking the media reporting for… and see if you can guess how much airtime the news networks allocated for each of these stories.
James Comer Oversight Committee press conference showing Biden family received upwards of $10M from foreign parties, including new revelations of $1M from someone in Romania during Biden’s time as VP.
Revelations about the active participation of the CIA in the bogus ‘Russian interference’ letter that changed the course of 2020’s election. [By way of the Prepublication Classification Review Board]
Sen Johnson claiming evidence that Hunter paid money to a sex trafficking ring for prostitution.
NYPost being blocked from attending a White House event
CIA chief misleading signers of infamous ‘Russian Misinformation’ letter.
Devon Archer (Hunter’s partner) dishing dirt on Hunter to avoid jail
Biden claims Hunter ‘did nothing wrong
WH and Hunter’s lawyers clash over defense strategies
Bogus ‘Russian Disinformation’ IC memo was deliberately made by CIA chief — to give Biden a debate talking point to help his election chances
Grassley & Comer subpoena FBI docs showing bribery allegations against Biden relating to his time as Obama’s veep.
WH refuses to acknowledge Hunter’s illegitimate daughter during a child support case
The proposed GOP budget passed by the House cuts Social Security and Medicare.
Total minutes any of those were covered on the networks, per MRC reporting?
While I would limit my list to 11 scandals and might list the final entry as a repeating of a Democrat lie against the GOP, I still agree
I might shorten this list. However, as a blogger, I am quoting (not rewriting) their article. Therefore, I will stick to the truth and stick to agreeing with the 98% of their article (while only throwing pitchforks at the semantics of the last point).
That is to say, I agree that the press has done its best to lie by omission and keep the American public in the dark concerning the crimes of the Biden regime
Instead of doing her job as the border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris headed off to a Democrat-filled soiree as Title 42 expired, causing chaos at the southern border.
On Friday, Harris kicked off the expiration of the Trump-era policy by attending a spring soiree hosted by the Democrat National Committee (DNC) in Atlanta, which is the start of the Biden Administration’s push to raise money for their 2024 campaign.
As thousands of illegal migrants storm the border, wreaking havoc as the U.S. sees a historic surge at the cost of President Joe Biden’s lax open border policies, Harris had herself an evening filled with booze and swanky appetizers.
Harris’s absence at the border caused Republicans to ignite their past criticism of the vice president’s job at securing the border, which she has done little to nothing to stop the flow of illegal immigration.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) tweeted, “Title 42 ended last night at midnight. Since then, absolute chaos has erupted at the southern border, yet Joe Biden and Border Czar Kamala Harris are nowhere to be found.”
As I mentioned in a comment to Bunkerville, the articles available seem slanted and the news servers seem to only direct in one direction
I guess that the Democrat press are ramping up for the 2024 election. We may have freedom of the press, but that may only mean that they are fully free to be completely socialist.
However, when I hear reports on my local right-leaning AM station, I hear of shelters in Brownsville being over-run by illegal aliens. I hear of one shelter that was constructed to hold 1,000 and now holds just short of 4,000. On the other hand, when I search the web, I find rosy stories centered on under-used shelters in El Paso (just over 800 miles from Brownsville).
Either nothing is really happening in Brownsville or the left-leaning press and left-leaning search media have worked to keep us away from the right information.
…
Drug overdoses now killing the equivalent of a classroom of high schoolers EVERY WEEK – and nine out of 10 are fentanyl
Deadly fentanyl is killing the equivalent of an entire classroom of children every week, staggering figures show.
Fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that’s 100 times stronger than morphine, is ravaging America’s youth.
A recent study found that fentanyl was responsible for the death of 1,557 children in 2021 — the equivalent of 30 children every week.
Just two milligrams of fentanyl – imagine 10 to 15 grains of table salt – can prove fatal, and it is increasingly contaminating the illicit drug supply in the US because it is cheap, potent, and keeps many users coming back for more.
Drug overdoses now rank third among the top killers of children every year, behind gun violence and car crashes.
The nation’s drug overdose crisis has struck everyone, with a record 107,622 Americans dying of a drug overdose last year. More than 70 percent of deaths were caused by synthetic opioid like fentanyl.
Overdose deaths due to fentanyl far outstrip those caused by other drugs including benzodiazepines, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and prescription drugs.
A report published in JAMA last year showed fatal overdoses caused by benzodiazepines increased by about seven percent from 2010 to 2021, while deaths caused by cocaine, prescription opioids, and heroin declined.
Dr Julie Gaither, a pediatrician at the Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, wrote in JAMA Pediatrics: ‘Mirroring trends seen among adults, pediatric deaths from fentanyl began to increase substantially in 2013, resulting in a more than 30-fold increase in mortality between 2013 and 2021.
‘A surge that began in 2018 has led to a nearly 3-fold increase in deaths among older adolescents and a nearly 6-fold increase among children younger than five years.’
In total, there were 13,861 opioid deaths in youngsters under 20 of which 5,194 – nearly 38 percent – involved fentanyl.
The vast majority of these fatalities, almost 90 percent, occurred in teens aged 15 to 19 while two percent occurred in infants under one and 4.6 percent in toddlers one to four.
Since “for the children” is a favorite Democrat mantra, don’t believe it with the backdrop of sacrificing youth to drugs and babies to abortion
While the Democrats have made abortion all about “a woman’s right to choose” and have gotten us to forget about the child, it seems beyond the pale that they might be able to pull it off with their allowing the border to be flooded with drugs. This time, “for the children” cannot stick for any of their other measures as long as they allow an open border and allow the flow of fentanyl.
…
Franklin Graham says our Southern Border is “in chaos” and that we must “pray that our country will survive”
The southern border is “in chaos,” Christian evangelist Franklin Graham said on Thursday ahead of the official expiration of Title 42, which opens the door for a flood of illegal border crossers.
“Everyone agrees that our southern border is in chaos, and it’s not just people from Mexico and Central America pouring across, but from all around the world,” Graham said in a social media post.
“And this administration is doing nothing except encouraging it,” he added. “Pray that our country will survive”:
Everyone agrees that our southern border is in chaos, and it’s not just people from Mexico and Central America pouring across, but from all around the world. And this administration is doing nothing except encouraging it. Pray that our country will survive.
Graham’s remark came hours ahead of Title 42 — the Trump-era policy allowing the speedy removal of illegal aliens for the sake of public health — expiring on May 11.
As the Trump administration expected, Title 42 has become an immensely effective border control to stem waves of illegal immigration that otherwise could have seen millions of illegal aliens released into the U.S. interior.
Since Trump imposed Title 42, the authority has ensured that close to three million illegal aliens have been quickly removed from the U.S. following their crossing the border.
A number of citizen journalists have captured images of the growing number of individuals crossing the border, which some have described as “nonstop” illegal crossings:
Up to 400,000 migrants could arrive at the U.S. border every month in the aftermath of Title 42’s expiration, according to estimates from President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Therefore, as long as there is an opposition to Democrats, I expect that this blatant bending of the truth and eventual censure of conservatives will continue.
President Biden may have quietly admitted Wednesday evening what he and the White House have refused to say publicly about the worsening situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden said Tuesday the border situation will be “chaotic for a while” as his administration works to restore order — but speaking with reporters the next day on the tarmac at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, Biden admitted there has been “chaos at the border for a number of years.”
“Well, we’ve had chaos at the border for a number of years,” the president said before boarding Air Force One. “We have to fully fund the border security effort.”
He added, “Look, the purpose of what we’re doing now is making legal immigration more streamlined, illegal immigration shorter term and moved — and moving in a direction that people know that there’s a legal way to get here and not legal way. That is what’s underway now.”
Local officials keep a refrigerated truck to hold the bodies of migrants who drown in the currents of the Rio Grande while trying to cross the border into the U.S.
Across the river, families having picnics or walking along the waterfront promenade of Piedras Negras, Mexico, say they sometimes see bodies floating by or bobbing among the reeds under a bridge. “We had times when we received four or five bodies a week,” said Hugo González, owner of Funerarias González in Piedras Negras. “At one point, there were a lot of corpses and there was nowhere to put them. We just didn’t have enough refrigerators at the funeral home.”
Rose Lee said her nephew left his native Peru and journeyed to the U.S.-Mexico border in search of his “American dream.” But she said she did not think the quest would cost him his life.
Alan Paredes Salazar, 37, drowned trying to cross the Rio Grande in early September alongside nearly a dozen other migrants whose bodies were found in the river by U.S. Border Patrol agents, his family said. The Medical Examiner’s Office in Webb County, Texas confirmed it processed Paredes Salazar’s body.
“My nephew’s death has left us devastated. It’s a very tragic death, to travel so far and die in an unknown place,” said Lee, who lives in southern California.
Paredes Salazar’s death was not an anomaly. At least 853 migrants died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border unlawfully in the past 12 months, making fiscal year 2022 the deadliest year for migrants recorded by the U.S. government, according to internal Border Patrol data obtained by CBS News.
The figure, which far exceeded the previous record of 546 migrant deaths recorded by Border Patrol in fiscal year 2021, is likely an undercount due to data collection limits, migration policy analysts said. An April report by a federal watchdog found that Border Patrol did not collect and record “complete data on migrant deaths.”
The number also does not encompass all deaths of migrants who died trying to reach or cross the U.S. border, since Border Patrol only counts migrants it identified or processed on U.S. territory. Still, the record deaths reported by Border Patrol offer a grim glimpse into the dangerous, and sometimes deadly, trek millions of migrants have undertaken over the past years in hopes of reaching the U.S.
Many migrants have drowned in the Rio Grande. Others have perished due to the extreme heat in the inhospitable desert terrain along some parts of the U.S. southern border. U.S. officials have also reported deadly falls from border barriers that migrants sometimes climb.
Beside the 170 SAR’s (Suspicious Activity Reports) turned over by the Treasury Department so far, the following is the best supporting argument for the House Oversight Committee report
Even though ABC put a smiley-face caption on the story, Hunter Bidend repsonded to “what qualifications got you into Burisma” with “I don’t know. I’m the Vice President’s son.”
ABC News definitely selected the spin for this story when they titled it as an “exclusive Hunter Biden hit back at Trump taunt” However, down about half-way into the story, we get the admission that props up the claims this week by Representative Comer.
“If your last name wasn’t Biden,” Robach asked, “do you think you would’ve been asked to be on the board of Burisma?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Probably not, in retrospect,” he said. “But that’s — you know — I don’t think that there’s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn’t Biden.”
“Because my dad was vice president of the United States. There’s literally nothing, as a young man or as a full grown adult that — my father in some way hasn’t had influence over. …” Biden continued.
(Scoop up enough fertilizer for three farms at ABC News)
If all else fails, this video should start at 2:30.
Representative Comer reveals new evidence in Biden Family’s influence peddling schemes
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today released a bank records memorandum detailing new information obtained in the committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling and business schemes. The Oversight Committee has obtained thousands of pages of financial records revealing the Biden family and associates’ complicated network of companies set up during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and the millions the Bidens received from foreign sources. The financial records also reveal how the Bidens used complicated transactions to hide payments from foreign nationals, including CCP-linked associates, and provide clear indications of influence peddling schemes during then-Vice President Biden’s tenure.
“The Bidens intentionally sought to hide, confuse, and conceal their influence peddling schemes, but bank records don’t lie. The Bidens made millions from foreign nationals providing what seems to be no services other than access and influence. From the thousands of records we’ve obtained so far, we know the Biden family set up over a dozen companies when Joe Biden was vice president. The Bidens engaged in many intentionally complicated financial transactions to hide these payments and avoid scrutiny. In at least one instance, the Bidens’ CCP-linked associates took steps to conceal the source of the payment to the Bidens.
“The Bidens’ foreign entanglements are breathtaking and raise serious questions about why foreign actors targeted the Biden family, what they expected in return, and whether our national security is threatened. We will continue to pursue additional bank records to follow the money trail and inform legislative solutions to prevent this type of corruption. Americans deserve answers, transparency, and accountability,” said Chairman Comer.
The Complicated Web of Biden Family and Associates’ Companies: Biden family members and business associates created a web of over 20 companies—most were limited liability companies formed after Joe Biden became Vice President.
The Biden Family Received Millions of Dollars from Foreign Sources:Bank records show the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals’ and their related companies. The Committee has identified payments to Biden family members from foreign companies while he served as Vice President and after he left public office.
The Biden Family Used Business Associates’ Companies to Receive Foreign Funds: Despite creating many companies after Vice President Biden took office, the Biden family used business associates’ companies to receive millions of dollars from foreign companies.
Attempts to Conceal Large Financial Transactions: After foreign companies sent money to business associates’ companies, the Biden family received incremental payments over time to different bank accounts. These complicated financial transactions appear to be meant to conceal the source of the funds and reduce the conspicuousness of the total amounts made into the Biden bank accounts.
Chinese Nationals Hid the Source of the Money:Chinese nationals and companies with significant ties to Chinese intelligence and the Chinese Communist Party hid the source of the funds paid out to the Bidens by layering domestic limited liability companies. The Biden family and associates’ activities in coordination with Chinese nationals and their corporate entities appear to be an attempt to engage in financial deception. Multiple Biden family members received money from the Chinese after it passed through an associate’s account. Additionally, Hunter Biden received money directly into his company’s account from a Chinese-controlled entity.
Biden Family and Associates’ Activities in Romania Indicate Influence Peddling Scheme: The Biden family and associates’ activities in Romania bear clear indicia of a scheme to peddle influence from 2015 to 2017. While Vice President Biden lectured Romania on corruption and ethics, the Bidens received over a million dollars from a company controlled by a Romanian individual accused of corruption, Gabriel Popoviciu, through a Biden family associate.
Read the second bank records memorandum here. The first memorandum can be found here.
I have to admit that I never considered any subscription to the paid liberal lecture service called Star Trek and other Paramont shows
Since the new version of Star Trek made its chops by establishing itself as the home of same-sex kissing and off-screen promotion of alternative lifestyles, I decided I could find my science fiction fix through a source that I did not have to pay to receive.
Furthermore, since CBS, NBC, and ABC follow along in the same spirit – putting out drama and comedy that denegrates the right, I don’t see much reason to subscribing to much of anything. While I have to recognize that Paramont consists of CBS (the network of Dan Rather and the faked letter), Showtime (of so many left-leaning issues that I don’t want to weigh down the blog), and other groups.
MTV News to shut down as Paramount announces layoffs
MTV News, once home to the hippest anchor desk of Generation X, will shut down after 36 years, according to multiple reports.
Its parent company, Paramount Global, told staff Tuesday that layoffs would affect 25 percent of employees at Showtime, MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, according to a memo cited by the Hollywood Reporter. The cuts will greatly affect MTV News, which will shutter completely.
Paramount and MTV did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Although it hasn’t been a major news organization in decades, MTV News joins many other outlets that have faced severe reductions or shutdowns in recent months, including CNN, BuzzFeed News and Vice Media.
The popular music channel launched its news operation in the late 1980s, and for a time found popularity with Generation X and older millennials tired of traditional anchors. “We know the latest, hippest music to put something with. That’s our strength,” Dave Sirulnick, the news operation’s then-27-year-old director, told the New York Times during the 1992 presidential race.
Two years later, the Hollywood Reporter wrote, President Bill Clinton appeared on MTV’s “Enough Is Enough,” hosted by former Rolling Stone writer Kurt Loder, in an attempt to reach younger audiences.
The channel brought news and analysis to the music generation for years afterward, reporting on Kurt Cobain’s suicide and the deaths of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.
“In [its] prime, MTV News was one of the most influential programs in existence,” podcaster Brandon “Jinx” Jenkins tweeted after news of the layoffs broke Tuesday.
But the years took their toll. After three decades of helping oversee MTV’s news and documentary operation, Variety reported, Sirulnick left the company amid a wave of cost-cutting several years ago.
Staffers with MTV News took to Twitter on Tuesday to mourn the organization’s final blow.
“This is a very sad day for a lot of friends and colleagues. Many great people lost their jobs,” tweeted Josh Horowitz, who has been the face of MTV’s movie coverage.
(Read more bilge at the )
Maybe if the overall company had not insulted so many potential customers, things might be different
While Paramont did not get a Bud Light moment where it found the spotlight by associating itself with a far-left cause, it seems to have lost audience due to not providing what its audience wants. Whether that came through a slow bleed caused by Biden’s economy, I don’t know.
First, anyone with reason sees how the Biden family hides incriminating information
Hunter Biden and his lawyers are ripped into by Arkansas judge for “sealing and redacting” his financial information – as he faces his baby mama in court over payments for four-year-old daughter
The judge presiding over Hunter Biden‘s child support trial on Monday ripped into the First Son for ‘sealing and redacting’ his financial information.
‘The ability to redact is somewhat being abused,’ Judge Holly Meyer fumed. ‘I’m seeing a lot of things filed, especially by Mr. Biden’s counsel, sealing things, redacting things, that are not confidential.’
She suggested that lawyers for the First Son’s baby mama should subpoena a downtown Manhattan art gallery to find out exactly how much he has made from selling his art.
And the judge ordered the First Son to produce more financial documents to back his claim that he should be allowed to reduce the amount he gives Lunden Roberts each month.
(continued)
Wearing a dark suit and tie, Biden listened intently but said nothing as Roberts’s attorney Clint Lancaster reeled off a list of items that he claimed Hunter’s team had not answered or explained properly in their discovery responses.
He said these included a line in Hunter’s tax returns referencing a $9 million investment in a Chinese entity which came with no further explanation.
‘He’s wrong, that’s not what it states,’ Biden’s hotshot DC lawyer Abbe Lowell shot back. The judge said the exchange was a perfect illustration of why Hunter had to be more forthcoming.
Lancaster then asked Hunter’s team why he had not listed any hotel stays over a five-year period aside from a single occasion when he slept ‘on a cot in his dad’s room’. His lawyers insisted that was accurate.
Lancaster said he was also missing the names of Hunter’s art buyers and the valuations of his pricey paintings which are on display at the upscale George Berges Gallery in Manhattan.
Attorneys for the First Son have tried to explain that he does not know the identities of his art buyers as part of a purported arrangement to ensure they are unable to ‘influence’ his father’s administration.
But the judge said she found it ‘incredible’ his lawyers couldn’t give an idea of the prices. She then told Lancaster he could subpoena the gallery to find out more.
Hopefully, the Comer investigations will yeild some evidence of checks
Considering the announced investigations by Comer and others, there hopefully will be for even the press to ignore; however, the press seems to have considerable powers to ignore the facts.
…
Second, leading Republicans allege proof of wrongdoing by the Biden clan
James Comer to present evidence of a “criminal scheme” involving Joe Biden and family
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) claimed that the House has collected evidence showing the Biden family’s involvement in a “criminal scheme,” which will be presented on Wednesday.
He made the announcement in an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, on Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo. During his appearance, Comer alleged that he had compiled evidence purporting to show that President Joe Biden and eight other members of his family had received payments from the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for lobbying for Chinese interests. The payments and lobbying reportedly came during Biden’s time as vice president.
“Based on the fact that nine different Biden family members have been receiving payments from a web of LLCs that are receiving payments from adversaries around the world, this fits a pattern of questionable behavior that the Biden family members have been doing to receive funds,” Comer said. “So we take this whistleblower claim very seriously. We know it exists. We know the FBI has the document. I can tell you this, the Biden family have received a lot of payments from the Chinese Communist Party, from entities that are state-owned entities”
Comer announced that he had subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray over a document that apparently shows direct evidence of then-Vice President Joe Biden receiving direct payments from a foreign national in exchange for policy decisions.
🚨 A very credible whistleblower has provided info to Congress.
I will press forward in my @GOPoversight investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling to determine if @POTUS is compromised.
Next, known liars in the Biden power circle are called for testimony
Senators Johnson and Grassley demand Secretary of State Antony Blinken produce all records related to Hunter Biden following his false testimony to Congress
On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Committee on the Budget, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding that he produce and preserve all records related to his correspondence with Hunter Biden. This request follows recent revelations that Blinken lied to Congress when he participated in a December 22, 2020 voluntary transcribed interview with Sens. Johnson’s and Grassley’s staff.
During that interview, Blinken provided false testimony when he denied corresponding with Hunter Biden via email when he served as Deputy Secretary of State during the Obama Administration. Recent reports based on emails contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop have revealed that Blinken did in fact email Hunter Biden on at least two occasions, from his personal email account, contradicting what he told congressional investigators. Blinken’s blatant lie to Congress calls into question the veracity of his entire December 22, 2020 testimony, including his denial of having any awareness of Hunter Biden’s association with the corrupt Ukrainian gas company, Burisma Holdings.
Additionally, emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed that Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, corresponded directly with Hunter Biden (from her personal email address) in an apparent attempt to connect Blinken with representatives of Burisma’s U.S. lobbying firm, Blue Star Strategies.
The senators wrote, “Because your testimony is inaccurate, Congress and the public must rely on your records as the source for information about your dealings with Hunter Biden. As such, you must preserve and provide all records, referring or relating to Hunter Biden, his business dealings, or his family’s business dealings, including but not limited to correspondence sent or received from your personal email accounts and phones, to include those of Ms. Ryan.”
The senators added, “These records will help provide the public a complete picture and understanding of the extent of your apparent deceptions.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is claiming the political version of the immaculate conception.
In a Fox interview, Blinken suggests that he is free of blame in the creation of the 2020 letter from former intelligence officials claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop story was likely Russian disinformation.
Despite the primary organizer of the letter naming him as the Biden campaign adviser who first raised the claim, Blinken insists that he remains without sin.
All of the letter signatories are taking the same position.
No one is at fault in one of the most calculated false stories ever planted in the midst of an election cycle.
That would be hard enough to believe, but it’s not even the only lie Blinken is accused of telling in relation to Hunter Biden.
Blinken is also facing questions over allegedly false statements made to Congress related to Hunter Biden.
He claims he never emailed Hunter, when messages on the president’s son’s laptop show he did.
Let’s start with the letter.
With an enabling media, Joe Biden was able to use it to dismiss the evidence of possible influence peddling and criminal conduct on the laptop.
During the presidential debate, an irate Biden cited the letter as proving that the laptop story was “garbage” and part of a “Russian plan.” He added that “nobody believes” that the laptop was real.
Media and social media companies then buried the story, including some like Twitter banning its discussion before the election.
In the close election, the false story worked to negate a damaging scandal of corruption involving millions of dollars from foreign sources, including some involving figures associated with foreign intelligence.
After the Republican takeover of the House, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell was called before Congress to give a statement.
When pressed on how this letter came about, Morell reportedly did not hesitate: Blinken.
He said Blinken was “the impetus” of the false claim.
Morell then organized dozens of ex-national security officials to sign the letter claiming that the Hunter laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
On Monday, Blinken told Fox News State Department correspondent Benjamin Hall that “with regard to that letter, I didn’t — it wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it. And I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morell, put forward confirms that.”
Morell called him the “impetus” for the letter. So perhaps Blinken is trying to dance on the semantic pinhead of being the “impetus” as opposed to the “solicitor” of the claim. Morell did not appear to have any doubts or hesitation after speaking with Blinken and quickly assembled an array of experts to make the false claim. Morell admitted to Congress that one of his goals was “to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election.”
So it turns out no one is at fault. Not the “impetus,” not the organizer, not the signatories, not the media. Indeed, maybe it is the public for being chumps in buying this scam.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this week to immediately release all suspicious activity reports related to President Joe Biden’s family after Republicans in the House raised the alarm this week after visiting the Treasury Department over the matter.
“The US Department of Treasury needs to release every Suspicious Activity Report related to the Biden family,” Cruz said. “If Janet Yellen doesn’t release the reports, she is complicit in the coverup.”
The US Department of Treasury needs to release every Suspicious Activity Report related to the Biden family.
If Janet Yellen doesn’t release the reports, she is complicit in the coverup. #Verdict
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and other GOP members announced on Monday that they paid a visit to the Treasury Department following a breakthrough agreement allowing access to suspicious activity reports (SARs), which financial institutions can use to flag possible criminal behavior, for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions.
“Thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family, their companies, and associates’ business schemes were made available to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which confirm the importance of this investigation,” Comer said in a statement.
“The Biden family enterprise is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family,” he added. “We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.”
Two top congressional Republicans say they want to know what, if any, information the FBI has about an alleged bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, while the White House accuses the lawmakers of an “unfounded political attack.”
House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley, of Iowa, say a whistleblower has provided information about the alleged scheme, and they have issued a subpoena to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding a document that they say contains information about the allegation..
In their letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, Grassley and Comer said that it had come to their attention that “the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) possess an unclassified FD-1023 form that describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.”
“It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose,” their letter said.
Grassley, in a joint press release with Comer described the FD-1023 form as “an unclassified internal document.” The FD-1023 is an FBI record of an interaction with a confidential human source.
The subpoena to Wray orders him to produce all FD-1023 forms, “including within any open, closed, or restricted access case files, created or modified in June 2020, containing the term ‘Biden’.”
Comer and Grassley said in their letter they believe there is enough “specificity” in the allegation to determine whether it’s true, but “it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter.”
Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said in a statement, “For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”
And Sams added, “When it comes to President Biden’s personal finances, anybody can take a look: he has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public.”
Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member and long-time whistleblower advocate Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today are demanding the FBI produce an unclassified record alleging a criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national. The document, an FBI-generated FD-1023 form, allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions. Comer issued a subpoena today following legally protected disclosures to Grassley’s office.
“We believe the FBI possesses an unclassified internal document that includes very serious and detailed allegations implicating the current President of the United States. What we don’t know is what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these claims or investigate further. The FBI’s recent history of botching politically charged investigations demands close congressional oversight,” Grassley said.
“The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national. The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself. Senator Grassley and I will seek the truth to ensure accountability for the American people,” Comer said.
Grassley has long raised concerns about political bias infecting high-level investigative decisions at the FBI, including investigations related to the Biden family’s foreign business arrangements and bank records. While FBI Director Christopher Wray pledged to prevent any retaliation targeting whistleblowers, the FBI and Justice Department have thus far refused to voluntarily provide responsive records or answers to congressional inquiries related to its handling of these politically sensitive investigations.
Comer and the Oversight Committee are investigating the Biden family’s suspicious business schemes to determine if the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors, if President Biden is compromised, and if there is a national security threat. The Oversight Committee has obtained thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions. Recently, the Committee revealed one deal that resulted in several members of the Biden family and their companies receiving over $1 million in more than 15 incremental payments from a Chinese company through a third party.
Now to introduce the companion to Biden graft: Democrat cheating at the polls
The TRUTH About Election Fraud | Texas AG Ken Paxton at #Heritage50
In a presentation to the Heritage Foudation (but obviously done invisibly to the press), Texas Attorney General laid out the methods used by the Democrats to cheat at elections and the efforts by Texas Republicans to thwart such cheating.
Well it’s great to be here.
This is the second time this has happened to me. What I mean by that is this: about five Years ago I was asked to speak at Padre Island in South Texas. For those who don’t know who what Padre Island is it’s a barrier Island in Texas. Beautiful beaches.
I stood up to speak and I had the audience in front of me. Behind me was the ocean and I realized that nobody was listening to me: they were they were looking at the water.
So this is a very similar feeling to that. So I just want you to know I’m going to be looking at your eyes. I’m going to see if we have little eye contact here.
So Kevin Roberts: what a great guy you’ve gotten from Texas Public Policy Foundation. He did such great work in Texas/ So you guys are very blessed to have him. He did great work in Texas and we certainly miss them, but we also know he’s doing fantastic work here.
They’veasked me today to talk about a very controversial topic. I’m actually going to say these words you’re not really supposed to say in American politics anymore. you can get censored. You can be criticized by the media.
The words are election fraud and I’m just going to say them out loud, because it’s happening not just in my state but all over the country and I only have a few minutes to talk about it. I could talk about it for a very long time and I don’t think that would be productive. But I can tell really one quick story that will sum up the issues that we are struggling with as it relates to election fraud in my state and I believe across the country.
So in Texas we have very specific laws about how you could do mail-in ballots. And I can talk about voting machines all kinds of different ways that election fraud occurs but the one that I know happens very significantly at least in my state I think across the country is mail-in ballots.
Our legislature passed when I was in the Texas house we passed a photo ID law it’s been very effective because when you have to show up with a photo ID it works pretty darn well (as opposed to showing up at the utility bill).
And it’s interesting because the argument has been that that that that’s discriminatory now as we all know to check into this hotel you had to show a photo ID.To get here on a plane you had to show a photo ID. Pretty much everything you do and no one looks at it as discriminatory or illegitimate (except when you vote), For some reason the argument is that’s discriminatory even though we all have to provide the same thing.
Well fortunately in Texas we passed it and it it has been it’s been over a decade. It’s been very successful and despite the claims that that voter participation would go down voter participation has gone up because people trust the system. They’re more likely to go vote. Deemed very reasonable and it’s actually worked very well it works very well in states that require photo ID.
If you do not have that in your state, you have a high risk of voter fraud.
So in Texas they’re very specific and I think this is true in other states now. I’m not talking about California or Oregon. I’m talking about states that actually care about election integrity like Utah, senator.
We require that you can only use mail-in ballot for certain reasons: You have to be disabled. You have to prove that you’re out of town. You have to be over 65 or you are in prison but you’re not a felon. These are the only reasons.Those are still pretty broad reasons for for voting by mail, so when you vote by mail (and I want to explain to some of you might know this but it’s really important to understand this) because the argument isyou guys can’t proof fraud and guess what the other side (because of the way they do this) is absolutely correct. Because when you typically mail out of mail-in ballot you have to you have to request by application you sign that mailing bill and say “I need this mail-in ballot because I’m over 65” or “I’m going to be out of town” and you send it in and they send you a ballot, you you vote you stick your ballot into an envelope you sign that envelope and you send it back in.
They don’t have a photo ID, but they can compare signatures. that’s what they do. It’s called signature verification. It is not ideal. It is not the most safe process, but it is something and it it it it works okay
Well what happened during COVID and it happened in my state. And I want to tell you that story because I think it. I think we were able to stop what other states didn’t see or didn’t try to stop.
We ended up having judges in about 12 different counties basically ignore our state law and say “No, because of COVID. we’re not going to follow state law.” And by the way, these were all very liberal counties. This was Travis County (which is Austin), Harris County (which is Houston), Bexar County (which is San Antonio), They decided they would just mail out ballots to everyone. Well that means (in Harris County we’re talking about close to two and a half million ballots) (in Travis County over a million ballots) (in Bexar County over a million ballots) Donald Trump won our state by 620 000 votes and so we realized that we had a huge issue,
We had 12 lawsuits all in the worst counties all with judges that were going to rule against us including the Court of Appeals in each area and I all I could do was say “Wow, what a genius strategy by whoever put this together. Whether it was George Soros or somebody else.”
Somebody thought this up because it was too well organized and it was it was a drain on our resources because we were having to fight in all of these different counties. and I had to go to my
team my legal team (very good) (and by the way the the win wasn’t 75 percent against the federal government was more like 80).. I just want to correct that. So I have a very good legal team and I said, “Look we cannot lose a single case, We have 12 cases. If we lose one case, they win.”
I said “It’s a genius strategy. We are in liberal courts where we’re going to lose. We’re in courts of appeals where we are going to lose. It doesn’t matter what the law says. If we can’t figure out how to win all of those cases we’re going to lose the state.”
And so we we went after it and we had to maneuver around our courts of appeals who were trying to hold up (Travis County was trying to hold up — until the ballots got mailed out) a decision on the merits of the case. And so if that happened (if the if the ballots go out) the genie is out of the bottle and we lose. Game Over, Texas. The legislature very likely turns Democrat.
Some of the Supreme Court members (four of them were up). We lose four of the nine. We were in trouble and very likely Donald Trump loses the election. So I called the President in May and I said, “Hey, you need to know this.” I said, “I don’t have time to deal with other states, but very likely you’ve got a very good chance of losing Texas by mail-in ballots.” He said, “There’s no way I lose Texas. I won by nine points.”
I said “Yes, but if they have a chance to mail out all these ballots.” And I said, “I’ve got 12 cases if I don’t win every single one of them, I have a feeling you will lose. If Harris County can send out two and a half million ballots, they will just count ballots until they get to the right number.” Because when those ballots get mailed out, we don’t know who sends them in (because there’s no signature verification). Anybody can sign those ballots. They can grab as many of them as they want send them in claim that they’re legitimate and we can’t prove that they’re not and so there’s nothing we can do. So you better hope that I win.”
And I said “The reason I’m calling you is not to tell you about the trouble I have in Texas. The reason I’m calling you is because I’m worried that this is going on in other states.”
I can’t deal with other states. I can’t deal with wherever this is happening. But I’m guessing (if it’s happening in Texas and it’s such a significant strategy that I can plainly see in front of me) it’s got to be happening nationwide.
So I went on my business. And in the end we fought these people. We had some very creative ways of getting around. and we had to try maneuvers we’d never tried before to get to the Texas supreme court (because four of them were up) and I was hoping that (if we could get to them) they would see that they were in trouble. And so we filed this thing called the mandamus of the Local District clerks (never been tried that I know of) and we mandamused the district clerks in each of those counties (where they were trying to mail out the ballots) directly to the Supreme Court saying, “Hey, this is an emergency.” We also found our way to the fifth circuit and fortunately the court took it (totally novel way of getting to them) and they ruled in our favor. And we (one by one) we won all 12 of those lawsuits.
And so what happened on Election Day I’m sitting there watching the election results and for the first time in my life election counting stopped in numerous states (particularly obviously battleground states) and it was very clear to me I knew immediately what was going on.
It was very clear to me that what they were doing, They were figuring out how many real votes they had (just like they would have done in Texas) and they were just going to count as many mail-in ballots (because you don’t know where those mail-in ballots came from) (there’s no way to prove that they came from the person that supposedly signed it).
And so when I saw what happened in all of these states.
And I’ll give you an example: Georgia
Georgia (if you go back four years prior to that election when Trump won) the margin of victory in Georgia was the same as it was in Texas — almost exactly same demographics.
This time Trump won by almost nine percent in Texas and he lost Georgia by what whatever it was (40,000 votes 12,000).
How did that happen?
Well guess what they decided to sign a consent decree that said that they would accept mail-in ballots with no signature verification, mail-in ballots that weren’t following state law, and drop boxes.
I can tell you what’s going to happen when that happens. You’re going to lose because there’s no there’s no ballot security for those for those votes,
And so I wish I could say this story was over for me in Texas.
We just had our Court of Criminal Appeals (which in our in our state — we have a bifurcated system where the Texas Supreme Court does civil cases. The Court of Criminal Appeals is the final say (the Supreme Court so to speak) on criminal matters. And they all — (Republican and by the way) (these are these are members of the court that no one knows — even Republicans) (and as a setup I should say that Soros has done a very good job he has elected his DA’s in Austin (which is Travis County) he’s done it in Bexar County (which is San Antonio) has done it in Houston. And the reason I know is I used to work with the DA’s in these counties who were Democrats who used to prosecute cases and now suddenly Soros went in knocked all of them out put his own people in.
So I know that they’re not going to prosecute voter fraud. That’s what we used to do. We did it from 1951 (and by the way I was not the AG in 1951). I have not been there that long I mean I’ve been there a while
In 1951 the legislature passed a statute and (and by the way my job I have four jobs) and one of them is to do such things as are required by law. Well what things are required by law: the things that the legislature passes.
The legislature directed the Attorney General (probably because of political reasons with local DA’s not prosecuting voter fraud) to prosecute voter fraud. So we had about 900 cases going at the time.
The Court Criminal Appeals stepped in a year and a half ago (all all Republicans except one) and said it’s unconstitutional for you to prosecute voter fraud. They said (and and maybe Mike Senator Lee can explain this to me) they said “It’s a the Constitutional violation: separation of powers. Because I’m in the executive branch, I do not have the authority to go to court at all (which by the way if that’s true no AG in the country be allowed to go to court if it truly is a separation of power). It was the most bizarre finding. After 72 years of precedent and so we’re trying to get that fixed, but I can tell you if we do not get that fixed they will accomplish what they were trying to do with mail-in ballots.
And so I’m here to tell you my time is up. I’m here to tell you Lynn Fitch is amazing. What she did with the Dobbs case (we came in and we wrote the Amicus for that) what she did was save thousands of lives. What the representative was talking about transgender issue is important. These are all important issues, but if you do not take care of election integrity, we do not in our own states.
Focus on protecting (and this is a strategy that isn’t going away for the for the left). They’re going to continue to try to steal elections.
And I know it’s controversial to say it and somehow they get to cheat and I I’m telling you I had 900 cases in Texas I only have three or four lawyers that can do them.
So if we had more lawyers we’d be doing more prosecutions of course that’s been ended for now.
I’m just telling you there’s lots of voter fraud going on we have proof of it and don’t let people make you feel stupid for bringing up the obvious (which — why can’t we — if you’re so sure there’s no voter fraud — make sure that you vote with a photo ID makes that mail-in ballot is more secure?) Why would anybody that cares about fair and free elections in a democracy actually criticize you for wanting to protect your elections? so God bless you all for being here.
Please go back to your states and make sure that this issue is a priority because if we don’t do it, we are going to lose this country. God bless you and thank you for work.
The gunman who killed at least eight people and wounded a half-dozen more at a Dallas-area outlet mall was a 33-year-old suspected neo-Nazi sympathizer, two senior law enforcement officials said Sunday.
Allen police on Sunday identified the shooter as Mauricio Garcia. Garcia was killed Saturday by a police officer who happened to be at Allen Premium Outlets, about 25 miles north of Dallas, police said.
The gunman, who lived in Dallas, was armed with an “AR-15 style assault weapon,” President Joe Biden said.
He was wearing a tactical vest and also had a handgun, one of the senior law enforcement officials said.
Mauricio Garcia, the gunman in a shooting Saturday at an outlet mall in the Dallas suburbs, was discharged from the Army after three months of service due to a mental health condition, according to Army officials.
Garcia, 33, entered the Army in June 2008 and was terminated three months later without completing initial entry training, said Heather Hagan, a service spokeswoman.
“He was not awarded a military occupational specialty. He had no deployments or awards,” Hagan said.
The Army discharged Garcia using a 2005 regulation for separations, citing “other designated physical or mental conditions.”
Considering the numbers of people that Joe Biden has allowed into America and the percentage we know to be disturbed in our own population, we must now thank Democrats for more of this
We know that mental illness runs at a certain level within our society; likewise, we know that mental illness exists at other rates in other societies. While it may vary between nationalities, it remains there and, as Joe Biden has done his dead-level best to open America’s borders to the world, we are going to necessarily expect more of this. Not less.
Note, however, that as the main stream media painted its initial narrative, they worked to demonize White men and scary guns. Although the perpetrator of the shooting was not White and the gun only worked as a tool (as would a car or a knife or a chain saw), they pushed their narrative and tried to pressure Governor Abbott to commit to gun control.
Additionally, even after the picture of the perpetrator became widespread, they still kept the neo-nazi references when talking of the man.
…
Next, the deadly event that initially garnered little space in the news feed
Eight, many of whom were Venezuelans, are killed outside migrant shelter
A driver ran into pedestrians who were standing at a bus stop outside a migrant shelter in South Texas on Sunday, killing at least eight people, in an incident that police are investigating as possibly intentional, authorities said. Another 10 were injured, according to Brownsville police.
Authorities identified the driver as George Alvarez, a 34-year-old Brownsville resident “with an extensive rap sheet,” at a news conference on Monday. He faces numerous charges, including eight counts of manslaughter and 10 counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Alvarez is currently in custody of Brownsville police, with bond set at $3.6 million.
Investigators have determined that Alvarez, while driving a grey SUV, ran a red light and and struck 18 individuals, according to Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda. Officers arrived at the scene and found seven people dead and another 12 people suffering from critical injuries, he said. An eighth victim died Sunday night. They also found the grey SUV, which was heavily damaged, and the driver. Sauceda said that Alvarez attempted to flee the scene after the deadly crash, but was “held down” by a group of people who had witnessed it.
Police did not share detailed information about the victims, but Sauceda told reporters that all of them were men and “several” were originally from Venezuela.
The chief declined to answer reporters’ questions about a possible motive for the driver, adding that they have not yet determined if the crash was intentional. He said witness accounts suggesting that Alvarez was cursing at the pedestrians whom he struck and “saying that they were invaders” were unconfirmed. A toxicology report is underway to clarify whether Alvarez was intoxicated at the time of the crash, Sauceda said.
Might this have been the end of a night of partying for Mr. Alvarez? If so, it might have been observed by those looking on and reported by the “reporters.”
Could this have happened because small Texas towns are being overburdened by Joe Biden’s flood of migrants? We know that multiple times the current levels of illegals are about to flood in. Could this have been enough to push a man over the edge?
Just supposing that Mr. Alvarez had a tendency to act out; that is, just suppose that Mr. Alvarez had a long rap sheet (as reported above) — might that point toward a mental issue yet unaddressed?
Oddly, though, Democrats want to focus on gun control. Not truck control (even though trucks, like guns, are just a tool). And surely not mental health — although I cannot imagine a sane person that has not over-imbibed to aim a truck at people and run them over.
Critics of Justice Clarence Thomas are working overtime to cancel him. That’s no surprise. A longtime thorn in the side of liberal causes, Thomas has evoked a particular hatred from the proponents of cancel culture since he put them on notice over a decade ago.
Thomas not only blasted their unseemly tactics, but he tried to do something about them. In a concurring opinion in the 2010 case Citizens United v. FEC, Thomas called for stronger privacy protections to fight this toxic trend.
The core of Citizens United was not about privacy at all. The case primarily concerned a nonprofit group’s ability to promote and distribute a documentary criticizing Hillary Clinton. But the Supreme Court also reaffirmed by an 8-1 margin its past decisions allowing certain invasions of privacy when citizens contribute to a campaign for election. The lone holdout was Thomas.
Terms such as “cancel culture” and “doxxing” were still years away from catching on, but Thomas described something almost identical. He wrote of political activists using new internet tools to wreak havoc on the lives and careers of ordinary people. He told the stories of everyday people who had lost their jobs, reputations, and even their sense of safety after supporting a California ballot proposition on traditional marriage in 2008.
“Some opponents of Proposition 8 compiled this information and created Web sites with maps showing the locations of homes or businesses of Proposition 8 supporters,” Thomas warned . “Many supporters (or their customers) suffered property damage, or threats of physical violence or death, as a result. … The success of such intimidation tactics has apparently spawned a cottage industry that uses forcibly disclosed donor information to pre-empt citizens’ exercise of their First Amendment rights.”
The risk of harassment and retaliation may be even higher today, thanks to our hyperpolarized political climate. A majority of people hold political views they do not feel comfortable sharing and believe that our growing culture of silence and intimidation is a problem.
Fortunately, our history offers solutions. In 1958, the Supreme Court ruled that the NAACP could conceal its members’ names and home addresses from state officials in Alabama. The court noted that disclosing this sensitive personal information would result in NAACP members suffering “economic reprisal, loss of employment, threat of physical coercion, and other manifestations of public hostility.”
That precedent was reinforced and strengthened in subsequent cases. The court struck down laws forcing political pamphlets to list who sponsored them or public school teachers to report what organizations they belonged to. Causes on the Right and the Left benefited from the ability to meet and speak with one another in private.
(Read of the specifics of the Citizens United case at the Washington Examiner)
Just as when Senator Joe Biden led the opposition to the confirmation of Justice Thomas, this is a high tech lynching
Democrats, in large part, do not wander far from their racist past. It was Democrat Senator Joe Biden that eulogized Democrat Senator Byrd (formerly of the KKK).
Furthermore, it was Joe Biden who led the opposition to the confirmation of Clarence Thomas, stooping so low as to recruit Anita Hill along with her “pubic hair on the Coke can” story (despite the fact that she had followed Thomas from legal job to legal job).
The current investigations into trips sponsored by other people (something that all of the justices have taken part in, including RBG) stands as more of the same.
…
Liberal-leaning USA Today tries to swipe conservatives with the “cancel culture” brush
When Republican lawmakers and talking heads speak these days, this is what I hear:
“I HATE liberal cancel culture and believe in absolute free speech! I would also like to ban, do away with or silence Disney, NPR, Bud Light, the FBI and CIA, this big pile of books over here, M&Ms, Mr. Potatohead, college professors, any Democratic lawmaker I don’t want to hear speak, “wokeness,” any mention of diversity, drag shows, people who defend drag shows, people who defend people who defend drag shows, any mention whatsoever of the existence of LGBTQ people, this other big pile of books over here, the entire Department of Education, PBS and Oreos.”
It all makes perfect sense if you have too much time on your hands and too few functioning brain cells to process the meaning of the word “hypocrisy.” And it confirms that today’s mainstream Republican Party — the party of Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — has become the party of cancel culture, a bubble-dwelling collection of right-wing caricatures who speak an intolerant and often conspiratorial language most regular Americans, and particularly most younger Americans, can’t understand.
And it’s happening all over the country.
DeSantis would welcome Twitter to Florida, but not any woke employees
Consider a recent comment from DeSantis when he was asked about the possibility of Elon Musk relocating Twitter’s headquarters to Florida: “You know, I know Elon Musk, and what I would tell him is like, ‘Ok, if you’re going to move Twitter to Florida, are you bringing woke employees to Florida or are you bringing just your people?’ If it’s just his people then it may be good.”
So the “woke” are unwelcome. People who disagree with DeSantis’ anti-woke stance — whatever that happens to be, since it changes from day to day — are unwelcome.
Conservatives need to follow the same playbook as liberals; therefore, they should expect more
In order to at least get on close-to-equal footing with the liberals, a number of conservative organizations and individuals have come to understand that we need to incorporate some of the tactics of the left. Therefore, Rules for Radicals will get applied to both sides.
Expect a mega-whine from the liberal press when they realize that they will get subjected to things they have been dumping on conservatives.
Conservatives have a habit of playing by the rules: passing laws and boycotting products
Up to this date, conservatives have been passing laws and using the market to punish those who put unreasonable constraints on conservatives. If the “woke unwelcome” really had any teeth to it (like the times that a small liberal group goes to Google and gets Parler deplatformed or one person complains to Facebook and gets a group banned), then they might start to scream. But it will not happen and they will not say anything beyond this little self-promoting complaint.
…
I cannot promise that a Democrat will oppose cancel culture, but this one opposes one facet of it
“I don’t think it’s fair:” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. voices opposition to transgenders in women’s sports
Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has come out in opposition to transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, a departure from the Biden administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who will be opposing Biden in the 2024 primary, told CNN on CNN on Saturday that “biological males” threaten women’s sports.
“I am against people participating in women’s sports who are biologically male,” Kennedy said. “I think women who have worked too hard to develop women’s sports over the past 30 years I watched it happen and I don’t think that’s fair.”
Kennedy said his opposition to trans athletes in women’s sports represents another area where he and Biden “differ really dramatically.” The politician also recently came out in opposition to cancel culture because his wife, actress Cheryl Hines, allegedly lost jobs for supporting his candidacy.
President Biden has been a fierce supporter of transgenders in women’s sports. As Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration’s Education Department has been moving to block schools that receive federal funding from “categorically” banning biological males from girls’ sports.
In its proposed rule, the Department of Education said it would “establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are.” However, the proposed rule also says that it will recognize “in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation.”
(Read more of Biden’s evisceration of Title IX at Breitbart)
So, we will see if a sane Democrat can stand up to a Democrat who wants to make men eligible for women’s rights
The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the comments of the class.
The cry for a mediator
Has anyone read the book of Job? In the midst of Job’s moans of pain and grief and from deep within his soul, he yearned for someone – anyone – to present humanity’s case before the throne of God. Job longed for an advocate, a mediator, a representative who could stand up for his cause. Listen to his plea:
“He is not a mere mortal like me that I might answer him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot. (Job 9:32-35 NIV)
The class responded to “If you have specifically studied the book of Job, what came to the forefront of your mind?” These were their responses:
The first class member responded that she was taken aback with how she felt the children of Job were punished although they had done nothing. Other class members reminded her that all have sinned and that God does not grade on a sliding scale.
Another class member pointed out how the story of Job emphasized to him the importance of relationship to God.
One other class member said that what came through to him was “how not to be a ‘Job friend’.” That is, how to not be judgemental after having been a loyal for quite some time.
Finally, one class member focused on the plea of Job to God (above, in Job 9:32-35): how man needed a mediator.
The good news is that we have such an Advocate.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, (1 Timothy 2:5 NIV)
As both God and man, Jesus Christ is the perfect Advocate. The One for whom Job searched has appeared.
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. (Galatians 4:4-5 NIV)
As our great High Priest, Jesus Christ mediates between God and us, continually interceding on our behalf. What does this mean to you? Does it have any significance to you?
One class member responded that having Christ as his advocate reassured him as he dealed with his fallen nature. Another class member responded by saying that it comforted him that Christ argued for him in the courts of heaven.
The qualifications for a priest
Appointed by God from among men — Hebrews 5:1, 4
Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. (Hebrews 5:1 NIV)
And no one takes this honor on himself, but he receives it when called by God, just as Aaron was. (Hebrews 5:4 NIV)
A true priest had to be taken from men and, therefore, he had to be a man. God did not choose angels to be priests. They could not truly understand men nor did they have open communications with men. Only a man could be subject to the temptations of men, could experience suffering like men and to be able to minister to men in an understanding and merciful way. The author makes this basic point: the Messiah, who is God, could not be a true high priest unless he was a man. Unless God could feel what men feel and go through, He would have no experiential understanding of those he represents. Therefore, the incarnation was an absolute necessity and imperative if men were to be saved. How does this effect you knowing that Jesus, being fully God, became a man to experience temptation, suffering and the full emotions of mankind?
A true priest could not be just any man. He had to be appointed by God.
One class member noted that King Saul stepped out of his appointed role by not waiting on God and God’s servant Samuel when made an offering to God in 1 Samuel 13:9.
Another class member noted how some of the people of Israel attempted to take over the priestly role of the brother of Moses (Aaron) and were swallowed up by the earth in Numbers 16:20-35.
Sympathetic with mankind — Hebrews 5:2
He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. (Hebrews 5:2 NIV)
When Jesus came to earth, He was omniscient – all knowing – but, He chose to participate in mankind’s feelings personally so that He could also be sympathetic, all feeling, so that He could deal gently with them. The Greek term, “metriopathein” (μετριοπαθεῖν) means “to deal gently” but also means “to treat with mildness” which translates here as being fully involved and knowing and understanding by being patient but not condoning wrong behavior; understanding but not indulgent. The priests dealt gently with those were ignorant and misguided, not with those who were unrepentant, deliberate and defiant lawbreakers.
Offering sacrifices — Hebrews 5:3
This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 5:3 NIV)
The sacrifices were made for the forgiveness of particular sins — therefore, they had to be continually repeated — day after day, year after year. Offering sacrifices was the main work of the priest. Sacrifices for himself as well as for all the people.
The Perfectly Qualified Priest
Appointed by God — Hebrews 5:5-6 and 6:10
In the same way, Christ did not take on himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.” And he says in another place, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 5:5-6 NIV)
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. (Hebrews 6:10 NIV)
Jesus was chosen, appointed, sent and honored by God, the Father.
I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have become your father. (Psalms 2:7 NIV)
The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” (Psalms 110:4 NIV)
The Jewish readers knew both passages referred to the Messiah and that the Messiah was to be a great king and priest, appointed by God. We will discuss Melchizedek in detail in Hebrews 7 but just a few comments. His name means “King of Righteousness”. Melchizedek was a king-priest who lived in the time of Abraham and whose ancestry is completely unknown. He was the king of Salem (the ancient name for Jerusalem) and was a priest of the true God.
Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, (Genesis 14:18 NIV)
His priesthood was unending, unlike that of Aaron, which ended in 70A.D. when the temple was destroyed.
Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever. (Hebrews 7:3 NIV)
Melchizedek was a king; Aaron was not and his priesthood was perpetual, while Aaron’s was temporary. Melchizedek’s priesthood is a better picture of Christ’s priesthood than even that of Aaron.
This was the first time Jesus was ever identified with the mysterious priesthood of Melchizedek and Jesus’ priestly office was prophesied in Psalm 110:4 according to the author. Jesus is both eternal King and eternal Priest. Since He is the Priest forever, He gives His people salvation forever.
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. (Hebrews 7:25 NIV)
What does it mean to you that Jesus, our great High Priest, intercedes in your behalf?
Sympathetic with mankind — Hebrews 5:7-8
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered (Hebrews 5:7-8 NIV)
Jesus offered up prayers with loud cries and tears because of the anguish He faced in becoming sin for those who believed in Him. His heart was broken at the prospect of bearing sin. He felt the power of sin. He felt temptation. He cried. He hurt. He grieved. He learned all of this by experience.
A more accurate translation of “save Him from death” is to “save Him out of death” meaning to be saved from remaining in death. He was not asking to avoid the cross but to be assured of the resurrection.
He was heard because of His reverent awe. Jesus recognized God as sovereign and committed Himself to the Father.
In Hebrews 5:8, we see that Jesus was called to suffer and through His suffering, He learned the full meaning of the cost of obedience, all the way to death and God affirmed Him as the perfect High Priest. This is the kind of high priest we need – one who knows and understands what we are going through.
__
Sacrificing for mankind — Hebrews 5:9
and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him (Hebrews 5:9 NIV)
Jesus offered the sacrifice of Himself and thereby became the perfect High Priest and source of eternal salvation. Jesus was not made perfect in the sense of having His nature improved. He was eternally perfect in righteousness, holiness, wisdom, knowledge, truth, power and every other virtue. Neither His nature nor His person changed. He became perfect in the sense that He completed His qualifications for becoming the eternal High Priest.
By His death, He opened the way of eternal salvation. By one act, one offering, one sacrifice, Jesus Christ perfected forever those who are His.
“Those who obey Him” refers to “the obedience of faith”.
Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. (Romans 1:5 NIV)
God wants us to obey Him by believing in Christ. Trust in Jesus is the work of faith and the obedience of faith. Sadly, whoever does not believe does not obey.
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:8 NIV)
The awe-inspiring message for believers is this: We have Jesus and Jesus has us!
“Why is it always women fighting against sex-based protections?” Riley Gaines wondered. “That will forever be beyond me.” The former All-American swimmer could only shake her head at the latest attack on girls’ sports by Congresswoman Katie Porter (D-Calif.), the latest high-profile Democrat to throw her sex overboard in the raging battle for transgenderism.
“It’s an extraordinary state of affairs,” “Fox Nation” host Piers Morgan said afterward, “when two middle-aged men, me and Bill Maher, were standing up vociferously for women’s rights to fairness and equality, and a congresswoman who wants to be a senator was incapable of doing that. And that, to me, exposed the fragility at the heart of this woke position on this whole transgender debate.”
Porter was a guest on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” when the conversation turned to Gaines’s push to save girls’ sports. The California Democrat announced that she disagreed with the former University of Kentucky athlete “strongly.” When Morgan pressed her about what Gaines had done or said that she disapproved of, Porter claimed Riley was “using things to kind of get likes and get clicks.” “That’s not what she’s doing,” Morgan fired back. “It’s not?” Porter asked incredulously.
The Brit insisted, “All I’ve seen her do is stand up for women’s rights to fairness and equality. She competed against [biological male] Lia Thomas, and it was obviously unfair.” Then “our sporting bodies should be dealing with it,” Porter argued, before claiming she respects Riley’s “free speech.”
Later, Morgan seemed appalled by the whole exchange, arguing on his home network, “It’s time that female politicians, in particular in America, Democrat politicians, stop this nonsense and stood up for women’s rights.”
As for Porter’s allegation that Riley was “speaking up for herself,” Gaines clarified, “I’m not speaking up for myself… I’m done playing sports. I’m not fighting for me. I’m actually supposed to be in dental school this year. But I’ve changed my life plans because I see what’s at stake if someone doesn’t fight for the present and next generation.”
Someone who’s obviously not fighting for present and future generations is President Joe Biden, who announced Monday that if Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) girls’ sports bill makes it to his desk, he’d veto it. In the White House’s Statement of Administration Policy, the president’s team called the proposal “discriminatory.” Siding with the woke ideology that’s erasing women from fields, courts, and diamonds across America, the White House claimed, “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams.”
Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer, has made been making headlines for using her voice to push back on men competing in women’s sports. On Thursday evening, that led to a group of militant transgender activists violently assaulting her and holding her hostage.
Gaines, a 12-time All-American, entered the spotlight over the last year after being one of the few in her sport with the courage to publicly object to Lia Thomas’ domination of women’s swimming. Thomas is a biological man.
While he was at the University of Pennsylvania, Thomas’ teammates suffered oppression and humiliation, being made to share a locker room with a man who would reportedly walk around flaunting his genitals. Instead of listening to the concerns of the actual women on the swimming team, the university forced them into sensitivity training and threatened them. UPenn then nominated Thomas for NCAA “Woman of the Year.”
Gaines was appearing at SFSU to give a speech as part of her tour promoting safe spaces for women in sports. Unfortunately, things reportedly got violent.
The prisoners are running the asylum at SFSU...I was ambushed and physically hit twice by a man. This is proof that women need sex-protected spaces.
Still only further assures me I'm doing something right. When they want you silent, speak louder. 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/uJW3x9RERf
We strongly condemn the violence perpetrated against @iwf spokeswoman @Riley_Gaines_ on @SFSU campus. Riley was violently accosted, ambushed, and physically assaulted during a speech on sex discrimination women face in their own single-sex sports category. pic.twitter.com/uhND8UY2jX
According to her husband (Fox News), Gaines was assaulted by a “man in a dress.”
Louis Barker, Riley’s husband, said he had brief conversations with her while she was barricaded in the room for nearly three hours.
“She told me she was hit multiple times by a guy in a dress. I was shaking. It made me that mad. It makes me sick to feel so helpless about it,” Barker said. “She was under police protection and was still hit by a man wearing a dress.”
On Twitter, Gaines shared footage she took showing her being rushed out of the venue by police officers amid an onslaught of verbal attacks from the detractors who surrounded her.
Things apparently were so bad that police could not fully remove Gaines from the situation and instead had to barricade her in a room for three hours. The above videos show the militant transgender activists accosting her as she is rushed away by law enforcement. In yet another video, some of the activists are seen trying to hold Gaines hostage, demanding money to allow her to leave the area.
Transgenderism in sports will spell the end of womens’ sports
If transgenderism reigns, there will only be top-tier men’s competition, second-tier men’s cometition (also known as transgender or womens’ competition), and nothing else.
…
On the front of the safety of our girls
Student calls out school board for ‘putting women in jeopardy’
An 18-year-old California student called out her school district for ‘putting women in jeopardy’ after a video emerged of a trans female student assaulting two girls following an apparent locker room encounter.
Megan Simpkins, a senior at Martin Luther King High School, denounced the Riverside Unified School District board at its recent meeting for allowing the transgender student – who was born a biological boy – to use the girls’ locker room and bathroom.
She asked the board why the female students ‘don’t ever get a say in whether or not we are comfortable with this.’
Simpkins suggested the school board needs to make changes to ensure the safety of its students in the aftermath of the video, which showed a trans girl pushing and punching two smaller girls at the school.
The fight came as students said the transgender female had a history of showing her genitals in the bathrooms and locker rooms.
(See video of the attack and read more at the Daily Mail)
“Her genitals” might better be termed
When the Daily Mail refers to the transgender’s showing “her genital in the bath room and locker rooms” it might be better termed as “her penis” if you have to use “her” when referring to this person.
…
On the fronts against our lawmakers
ACLU of Montana files lawsuit challenging Zephyr censure while Zephyr speaks in committee
The American Civil Liberties Union of Montana announced it has filed a lawsuit against the state Monday challenging the censure of Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, alleging it was a violation of First Amendment rights and the representation of her constituents.
The lawsuit names Speaker Matt Regier, R-Kalispell, and Sergeant of Arms Brad Murfitt as defendants.
Monday also marked the first day Zephyr has been able to speak in her official capacity in the state House since her censure.
She spoke during a House Judiciary committee hearing on a study bill from Sen. Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County, after Chairwoman Rep. Amy Regier, R-Kalispell, recognized her. Zephyr asked a question of an informational witness.
Bills that were scheduled to be heard in House Judiciary were “blasted” from committee or re-referred to other legislative committees last week, a move criticized by Democrats as a way to further cut Zephyr from the process.
Chairwoman Regier told the Daily Montanan last week that she had no bills to schedule and did not have a plan for the committee. On Friday, she said on the House floor that the committee would be meeting.
Zephyr told the Daily Montanan following the hearing Monday the committee meeting was a result of pressure from her caucus.
“My constituents sent me here to represent them in every facet of the legislative process. It feels good to be able to do that this morning,” Zephyr said.
In response to a request for comment from House Republicans, a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office, Emily Flower, sent a statement via a link to a Fox News story.
“This is performance litigation – political activism masquerading as a lawsuit,” Flower told Fox News Digital following publication. “The ACLU is trying to use the courts to interfere with the legislature as it carries out its constitutional duties on behalf of Montanans. Any relief granted by the court would be a gross violation of the separation of powers.”
Murfitt told the Daily Montanan he had not been served anything relating to the suit.
Zephyr’s censure came after a protest was held in the House gallery last Monday after Speaker Regier did not allow Zephyr to speak for a third consecutive time on the floor.
Zephyr wasn’t recognized after she made comments that legislators who voted in favor of a bill to ban gender affirming care for minors had “blood on (their) hands,” in reference to the youth suicide associated with denying such care.
The Speaker said her remarks that Republicans who voted for the bill should be “ashamed” crossed a line, and he refused to recognize her. Her supporters in the gallery then demanded she be recognized, chanting “let her speak,” and Zephyr didn’t quiet them, which Republicans argued merited the censure.
Zephyr defended her decision to amplify their voices.
Had a conservative politician brought activists into the capital, there would be charges (not just censure)
As the Proud Boys trial shows, when a conservative suggests that you “peacefully and patriotically let your voices be heard,” but someone one the right breaks windows and throws punches (as opposed to Antifa’s known butning of buildings, shootings, lootings, and physical attacks), then the right gets convicted of sedition in a kangaroo court.
…
On the fronts against the military
US Navy hires active-duty drag queen to be face of recruitment drive
The US Navy invited an active-duty drag queen to be a “Digital Ambassador” – as part of a recent drive “to attract the most talented and diverse workforce” and combat plunging recruitment.
Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who identifies as non-binary, was appointed as the first of five Navy Digital Ambassadors in a pilot program that ran from October to March.
Kelley, whose stage name is Harpy Daniels, has shared their journey on TikTok and Instagram, where they described how they began performing onboard and became an “advocate” for people who “were oppressed for years in the service.”
“From joining to 2016 and being able to share my drag experience on my off time with my fellow sailors has been a blessing,” Kelley wrote on Instagram in November when announcing their appointment as a digital ambassador to their more than 8,000 followers.
“Thank you to the Navy for giving me this opportunity! I don’t speak for the Navy but simply sharing my experience in the Navy! Hooyah, and let’s go Slay!” they added.
The “Digital Ambassador” program that Kelley took part in ran from October to March and was “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates” as the Navy battles “the most challenging recruiting environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force,” a Navy spokesperson told Fox News.
The service branch is evaluating what form the program, which included five active-duty personnel, will take in the future, the rep added.
“The Navy did not compensate YN2 Kelley or any others for being Navy Digital Ambassadors,” the spokesperson also noted.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are preparing to miss their recruiting goals by thousands this year, service leaders said Wednesday.
The Army is projecting the largest shortfall of all,as it did last year,proving to be the bellwether for recruiting crunches across the armed services, at a time when the Defense Department is trying to grow its overall ranks by about 12,000.
The Marine Corps will meet its fiscal 2023 goal of 29,000 new Marines, Assistant Commandant Gen. Eric Smith told the House Armed Services Committee, while Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David Thompson told the panel his service’s recruiting challenges will depend entirely on what happens with the other services. The Space Force depends on the other military branches to transfer experienced officers and enlisted troops to grow as a new service.
“While we’re doing very well in recruiting off the street, as the other services have challenges in their recruiting, it becomes more difficult for them to release folks for interservice transfer,” Thompson said of the Space Force’s goal to bring in 700 personnel from the other branches, in addition to 700 new recruits.
The Army, with roughly five months left to meet its FY23 goal, is projecting to bring in about 55,000 active duty soldiers, well short of its 65,000 target.
“Right now we’re doing better than we were doing,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told lawmakers.
That goal is higher than last year’s, George added, when the service ended up 15,000 short of its 60,000 goal for FY22, sparking a rash of national headlines about the military’s struggle to bring in an ever-shrinking pool of young people.
The Navy expects to fall about 6,000 short of its goals, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti said, which is better than what her service projected earlier this year.
“ ‘Leave no one behind’ has been the American warrior’s ethos” — or was “until Joe Biden became commander-in-chief,” rails Hung Cao at The Spectator. Last year, “the Army missed its recruitment goals,” and the Navy barely met its own. With Biden’s “mistakes,” such as in Afghanistan, there’s “no wonder” why. When the remains of 11 US servicemen killed there by a suicide bomber were “paraded off a C-17,” he was “seen checking his watch.” His administration is “obsessed” with diversity, equity and inclusion, and the Pentagon ranks climate change and right-wing extremism among its top issues. Young Americans don’t join to “obsess over gender, sexual orientation and skin color”; that’s “for weird humanities professors.” To restore recruitment, “military leaders” must control “the creep of naked politics into a once apolitical institution.”
…
On the front of transgender activists in our government pushing their bias on other nations
Kamala Harris kicks off Africa tour with $100M pledge
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Ghana Sunday night to kick off a three-nation tour of Africa her first visit to the continent since taking office. She was greeted by schoolchildren waving Ghanaian and American flags as she walked off the plane in Accra, and quickly announced a significant new U.S. financial support package for Ghana and a handful of other nations in the region.
Harris smiled at the dancers and said she was “looking forward to this trip as a further statement of the long and enduring and very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on the continent of Africa.”
The vice president said she was “very excited” about the future of the continent, and “the impact of the future of Africa on the rest of the world, including the United States of America.”
Harris held a bilateral meeting with President Nana Akufo Addo in Accra in her first high-profile encounter as she begins the nine-day tour of central African nations.
“The U.S. is strengthening our partnerships across the continent of Africa, and they are guided not by what we can do for Africa, but with Africa and our African partners on this continent,” Harris said at a news conference with the Ghanaian leader after their meeting, lauding his leadership for having made Ghana a “beacon of democracy.”
Harris announced $100 million in new support for Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo, to help the nations address security, governance, and development issues in the region. White House officials said Harris’ trip and meetings would focus on democracy, climate change, security, the economy and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Harris’ tour is part of the Biden administration’s bolstered efforts to strengthen ties on the continent. She is the fifth top administration official to visit Africa this year, following Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The flurry of official visits follows the U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit in December, where President Biden announced a $55 billion commitment to the continent over the next three years.
Thank God that the Word has spread to many African nations and that those nations will not accept Biden’s warped morality
As shown by the split between the American Episcopalian chruch and the Anglican church in Africa, there are still churches across this globe that hold to the Word of God. Furthermore, even those in the Muslim faith will not stoop to Biden’s twisted sense of “equity” for money.
…
America attempts to push transgender rights on poor African nations by dangling a $65 million payoff
…
Further, on the free speech front, we all sacrifice when there is no line between obvious truth and gaslighting
JMU debate team refuses to debate transgender ideology
James Madison University’s Debate Team recently released a statement explaining it will not debate topics its members feel are “exclusionary, discriminatory or hostile.”
Additionally, the team said its members will not debate the topic of transgender ideology because those who identify as such should be “free from discriminatory attacks on their identity, motives, and character.”
The statement was released in response to Young America’s Foundation hosting of conservative pundit Liz Wheeler’s talk “The Ideology of Transgenderism” at James Madison University.
The talk drew a large protest Wednesday evening outside the venue, but Wheeler was able to give her entire speech.
The JMU Debate Team supports the flourishing of transgender people at JMU & beyond. We oppose the support given by groups on the JMU campus to bring Liz Wheeler to speak and we encourage any group offering her support to cease that support immediately.
Wheeler responded to the JMU debate team’s stance with a statement of her own.
“They think that they are the arbiters of truth and therefore ‘truth’ cannot be debated,” she said in response.
The @JMU debate team doesn’t want me to speak on their campus tonight, so I’m going to talk directly to them and the transgender activists. Attend in person or watch online: https://t.co/XcWGyTxXRapic.twitter.com/xESaqj6m0X
The debate team’s statement also produced a lively debate on Twitter, with several commentators criticizing the stance, with comments such as:
“So the JMU debate team is afraid of debate?”
“Agree with her or not, her positions are objectively mainstream and worthy of discussion regardless of how you subjectively describe them.”
“This is a blatant contradiction. You say: 1) “No person” should be denied free speech 2) “Debate exists” to challenge bad ideas. But you want to censor @Liz_Wheeler because you’ve judged her views as being bad bad. This is subjective reasoning. It’s illogical.”
Leading up to her talk, Wheeler and YAF received backlash on social media, with vulgar and explicit comments denouncing the event and one commenter even telling her to commit suicide.
Newsmax, the niche conservative news channel that has long played David to Fox News’s Goliath, has seized on Tucker Carlson’s shock dismissal from its rival network and declared itself the true TV home for right-wing Americans.
So far, the strategy is showing some promise.
Viewership of Newsmax remains far below that of Fox News. But its audience at certain hours has doubled, and in some time slots tripled, in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Carlson’s exit — an abrupt spike that has turned heads in conservative circles and the cable news industry.
On Monday evening, Eric Bolling’s 8 p.m. Newsmax program drew 531,000 viewers, according to Nielsen. One week earlier, it had 146,000. On Tuesday, Mr. Bolling’s audience grew to 562,000 viewers, equal to about 80 percent of Anderson Cooper’s CNN viewership that evening. Newsmax’s other prime-time shows also experienced big jumps.
The sharp rise in viewership can be timed almost to the minute of Fox News’s announcement on Monday that it was parting ways with Mr. Carlson, in part because of private messages sent by the anchor that included offensive and crude remarks.
Executives at Newsmax quickly sensed an opportunity.
Starting on Monday, Newsmax programming has aggressively pushed a narrative that Mr. Carlson’s dismissal was a capitulation to the left by Fox News and the Murdoch family.
One pundit mused on the air that Lachlan Murdoch, the executive chairman of the Fox Corporation, was “much more liberal” than his father, Rupert. Andrew Napolitano, a Newsmax pundit who was fired by Fox News in 2021 over a harassment allegation, said Fox News dismissing its top-rated anchor “is like the 1927 Yankees firing Babe Ruth for his table manners — I don’t get it.”
Anchors and guests harped on a recent appearance by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, in which she called for Mr. Tucker’s firing. “A.O.C. speaks, and now Fox listens,” grumbled the Newsmax anchor Chris Salcedo. “These really are end times.”
(continued)
At the time, Newsmax saw a burst in viewership, even recording higher ratings than the Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum one evening in December 2020. (Ms. MacCallum was switched to a different time slot not long afterward.) But its audience eventually shrank. And despite Mr. Trump’s complaints, Fox News continued as the undisputed ratings king of cable news, powered in part by Mr. Carlson’s increasingly provocative program.
The Tucker viewers will not go to CNN, no matter how much the Times wishes
No matter how much body english the Times applies to its words, they will not be able to bamboozle conservatives by twisting the facts. First off, any conservative reading the Times is doing it with an eye not to be fooled. They know the constant Marxist diatribe to be expected from the Times. Second, in sheer numbers, those numbers of conservatives reading the Times are small.
…
Now we know how much more Tucker knows his brand than Fox
One thing is for sure: Tucker Carlson understands branding. Whether you like him or not, the conservative firebrand knows his brand and appreciates all its benefits.
His departure from the “fair and balanced” network — FNC, has prognosticators speculating on what happened, leading to the news of why he left the Fox News Channel.
Some have identified his moving on from being one of the casualties of the Dominion Voting Machines lawsuit, where Fox had to pay over a half-billion dollars in damages, to speculation there were additional lawsuits that Carlson was involved in, to the simple old idea, that Rupert Murdoch didn’t like Tucker.
It is no secret that the news business is a personality industry replete with egos that can turn a career faster than a speeding bullet or, for that matter, a news cycle.
There is also the theory that Mr. Murdoch was over Carlson’s prima-donna antics. His airing of additional January 6 footage challenged the Democrat’s insurrection theory, his anti-Ukraine anti-war position, and his many other nonconventional opinions that only reinforced his brand to his countless and loyal audience.
This series of events didn’t wear well with the elder Murdoch and led to the parting of ways between these grand brands.
If Tucker understands his brand, what can be said about the Fox News Channel? It doesn’t say a lot. From a branding perspective, Fox has lost sight of its brand and appeal to its loyal audience over the years.
I do hope that Tucker enjoys greater success, at least for the short term, than Fox.
Additionally, there is the input of Victor Davis Hanson
To get the outside perspecitive of the Telegraph, here is a long-format interview of Victor Davis Hanson by the Telegraph on the firing of Tucker Carlson.
Sixteen-year-old scholar Dennis Maliq Barnes has been offered a record-breaking 125 college acceptances and more than $9 million in scholarships – which may be more than any other college-bound senior in U.S. history.
“This whole experience that I’m having right now has given me a sense of gratitude for everything that I do,” Barnes, a senior at the International High School of New Orleans (IHSNO), told Fox News Digital.
“I give all the glory to God because he played a huge role in everything that I’m doing today and all of my success. I thank him for allowing me to get through, even when I didn’t want to. Days may be hard. I may be tired. I may be having a bad week, but he always lifted me up to be able to move forward.”
Barnes, who plans to announce his college decision by Wednesday, May 3, has acceptances and scholarships from all over the country – from Louisiana Tech and Kansas State to the University of Arkansas and the University of Iowa, just to name a few.
He started the college application process last August and everything just started to add up, Barnes said.
“Breaking a record wasn’t necessarily a goal or something I set out to do,” Barnes said.
“I am just a college-bound student seeking somewhere where I’m comfortable that has a great program in my major and that’s going to compensate me financially,” he added.
Brother Mark Lowery, a recovering alcoholic himself, befriended and helped to save hundreds of alcoholics and addicts in the Pittsburgh area.
To honor his unusual knack for helping others battle substance abuse, Addiction Recovery Ministry on Friday dedicated the Brother Mark Lowery Memorial Library at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Harmar.
A member of the De La Salle Christian Brothers for 65 years, Brother Mark died at the age of 84 in 2021. He grew up in Greenfield and graduated from Central Catholic High School, returning to work as a teacher, development director and drug and alcohol counselor for more than 30 years.
He also served as a teacher and principal at Catholic schools in West Philadelphia and Cumberland and as a recovery counselor for the former Michael’s Place in East Liberty and Greenfield Organized Against Drugs.
“Brother Mark was a genuine, happy person and was very well aware of his brokenness. He was generous to show his own brokenness and other people got comfortable with him,” said Father Mike Decewicz, 72, a recovering alcoholic, parochial vicar and director of Addiction Recovery Ministry.
Good Recovery
He met Brother Mark when he attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in 2005. They found they had a lot in common and worked together to develop services for Addiction Recovery Ministry. The new library includes some of the tools Brother Mark used in his work: books and a computer to help with job searches, resume writing and other skills needed to secure a better life.
Among the people who knew Brother Mark well is Casey Mullen, an attorney running for magistrate judge in Upper Lawrenceville and East Liberty. He has been in recovery for over 23 years.
Mullen, 48, of Morningside, got to know Brother Mark after he served prison time for selling 9 ounces of cocaine while he was a student at Duquesne University. As a Central Catholic graduate, Mullen was very familiar with the De La Salle Christian Brothers who operated the school. He was 20 years old when he was introduced to Brother Mark in 1996 and their friendship continued until his death.
While some purists might point at his alcoholism, I might point out that he took a bad place and improved on it
None of us are perfect. But if we can acknowledge our imperfections while improving the world by caring for those in a hard place, then we can do much to improve it.
If any of this includes pointing another human to a relation with Christ and the eternal hope available only through Him, then it constitutes the best effort possible.
Biden sticks to attacks on MAGA extremism and abortion restrictions in first outing as 2024 candidate
The Washington Times points out how Dementia Joe has not strayed from the teleprompter talking points of blaming everything on MAGA Republicans and abortion restrictions. With all sorts of crises to rally around, our “uniter in chief” chooses to divide again.
President Biden’s recently announced 2024 reelection bid is sticking to the same themes that helped Democrats fare better than expected in last year’s midterms: MAGA extremism and abortion rights.
Mr. Biden honed in on the dual topics during an address to more than 150 of the Democratic National Committee’s top donors on Friday. The 80-year-old White House incumbent said the upcoming presidential campaign would be a choice between “freedom” and “extremism.”
“MAGA Republicans are trying to take us backward,” said the president. “But together, we’re not going to let them do it. Not an inch back. Instead, our agenda is going to continue to bring us forward and build on the progress we made. And we must finish this job.”
The speech was one of Mr. Biden’s first as an announced candidate for reelection. Mr. Biden told the assembled donors their support would be necessary up and down the ballot in 2024, especially as Republicans were mobilizing behind new abortion restrictions.
“This is not your father’s Republican party,” said Mr. Biden. “Let’s protect a woman’s right to choose and codify Roe v. Wade.”
While Mr. Biden has touted his administration’s “12 million brand new jobs” and capping the price of some prescription drugs, the president said MAGA extremism and the GOP’s push for abortion restrictions presented a renewed battle for the “soul of the nation.”
Mr. Biden relied heavily on such rhetoric during his 2020 White House race and the 2022 congressional midterm elections. During both campaigns, Mr. Biden repeatedly invoked former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement as a foil.
Just as I have commented before, Joe Biden’s socialistic Democrats are not your father’s or grandfather’s Democrat party
The Democrat party of Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy reduced taxes. That party, while it had a radical Hubert Humphrey wing, did not alienate the massses of America. That party, while it competed for the minds of America, fought for our rights on the battlefield.
Where that party went, whether it was subverted to Biden’s greed or just gradually diminished by the division brought into American families by Johnson’s great society (or the continuance of that through Obama’s and Biden’s promotion of transgenderism), I don’t know. However, we could use a party that would not spend itself to divide our nation.
…
New York on verge of being the first state to ban natural gas
Natural gas may become a fuel of the past — at least in New York. And more than gas stoves will be discontinued, with New York Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul agreeing to a deal with Democratic lawmakers that would bar natural gas statewide.
The preliminary deal, the New York Post reported, would mandate all new buildings under seven stories to be fully electric by 2026. Larger structures would be affected in 2029, and it’s part of a wider $229 billion spending plan.
“Everyone knows we’ve seen the effects of climate change, the storms, the hurricanes coming to New York, record snow amounts,” Hochul told reporters Thursday. “Our budget prioritizes nation-leading climate action that meets this moment with ambition and the commitment it demands.”
Although restaurants and other commercial establishments would be exempt from the new restrictions, some in the construction industry believe the change could seriously accelerate population losses.
“People are apt to make choices of whether they are located in New York state or somewhere else, and this will provide a further strain on the market until there’s certainty about the availability in the grid as we move forward, so that’s a real concern,” said Joseph Hogan, vice president of building services at the Associated Contractors of New York State.
Will this continue the trend by pushing the people who are in the process of relocating anyway into looking at locations outside of New York state? New Jersey seems pretty close (even for someone on a budget).
…
California pushes diesel big rigs to the curb by announcing a full ban by 2036
Diesel big rigs form the backbone of the U.S. commercial road transportation industry and their days are now numbered – at least in California.
On Friday state regulators banned the sale of new diesel big rigs by 2036 and also passed new rules requiring all trucks be zero-emission vehicles by 2042.
The announcement came on the same tame day CARB enacted regulations that will require “zero emissions” trains to be introduced after 2030, focusing on a sector often seen as a “green” alternative to cars and trucks, as Breitbart News reported.
UPI reports the Advanced Clean Fleets rule, which is the first in the world to require new commercial trucks, including garbage trucks, delivery trucks and other medium and heavy-duty vehicles, to be electric, was unanimously approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
“This is an absolutely transformative rule to clean our air and mitigate climate change,” said Liane Randolph, chair of the board, according to the Mercury News.
Environmental groups praised the new rules for taking diesel heavy trucks off the road at the same time CARB works on a host of other measures to ban fossil fuel usage across a host of other areas.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) voted unanimously last week to pass a plan to ban natural gas heaters and furnaces by 2030. https://t.co/X1A5eG9uR7
So will there be headlines of the homeless starving in San Francisco?
Will there be headlines telling of people starving due to this decision? Or will there be stories of electric big rigs having to re-charge every 25 miles while produce spoils?
Since Obamacare produced so many unforeseen consequences, what will this bring on?
A high school librarian in New Jersey is suing two mothers for raising objections about sexually-graphic books in their children’s school library. The mothers declared that they would not be intimidated and urged other guardians to speak out alongside them.
The parents involved in the unanticipated defamation lawsuit are Kristen Cobo and Christina Balestriere of Roxbury, New Jersey.
Roxbury High School librarian Roxana Russo Caivano sued the mothers after they spoke out at a Board of Education meeting about sexually explicit books that were available in the school library. Caivano claimed that they had defamed her by questioning her “content” choices and calling her a “child predator,” as well as accusing her of “luring children with pornography.”
Cobo and Balestriere said that they first brought up the problem after learning that some library books, which they say amounted to “hardcore pornography,” were available to pupils as young as 13-years-old.
The book “Gender Queer: A Memoir,” which has drawn major criticism from parents across the country and has been challenged in several districts for describing masturbation and explicitly depicting sexual acts, is the subject of their complaint.
While local laws govern decency standards, sharing porn with a minor is a crime in my town
Usually, decency standards are somewhat consistent across these United States. Usually, sharing pornography with a child will get a person brought up on charges. Why this librarian has been exempted from this standard (other than the fact that maybe this librarian resides in the district of a Soros District Attorney who picks and chooses the laws that D.A. will enforce), I cannot know.
However, one thing I do know is this: Democrats have made the parent (or anyone who protects childrens’ innocence) an enemy.
…
“Parental crap”: Virginia Democrats keep stepping in it as hot microphone moments capture them demonizing parents
Virginia Democrats lost monumentally in November 2021, when now Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) ran on and was elected on education and protecting parental rights. While the governor looks to make good on his promises, state Democrats keep getting in the way.
As Fox News reported on Wednesday, state Sen. Monty Mason and state Del. Shelly Simonds, both Democrats, can be heard on recordings shared by the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) criticizing Republicans over S.B. 1515, which requires pornography websites to verify a user’s age to be at least 18 before content can be accessed. Mason also mocked an amendment from the governor–which failed–that would have required children to get parents’ permission to set up social media accounts and use websites that collect user data.
Speaking about bills that were “of consequences,” Monty pointed out that Youngkin “slapped that online parental garbage pornography bill.” He also mocked extra steps to require verification for making online purchases as “stupid.”
HOT MIC:
VA Democrat Sen. Monty Mason was caught saying Virginia parents protecting their children's online data was "parental garbage" and "stupid". pic.twitter.com/wWx6y7wCqD
(Read about ironic the source of the recordings at Townhall)
If Merrick Garland and Joe Biden sending the FBI after parents didn’t relay a message, maybe this will
If you are a parent who wants the best for your kid, you are likely a target of the Democrats. If you are a parent who doesn’t want your girl dressing in the presence of boys who proclaim themselves as girls, you are likely a target of Democrats.
…
Texas fugitive accused of killing five was illegally in US and deported five four times
A suspect on the run in Texas after allegedly killing five neighbors execution-style Friday night when they complained about him firing a rifle on his property has been deported from the country five times, a source from ICE told Fox News Digital.
The FBI said Sunday afternoon authorities have “no leads” in the search for Francisco Oropesa, 38, a Mexican national who is accused of the quintuple murder in Cleveland, Texas, outside Houston.
The Texas governor’s office, state agencies and the FBI are offering a combined $80,000 reward for tips leading to his capture.
“We do not know where he is, that’s why we’ve come up with this reward,” FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge James Smith told reporters on Sunday, adding that he’s sure Oropesa has contacted friends since becoming a fugitive, but they need to know who.
Oropesa was in the country illegally at the time of the shooting and had previously reentered the country illegally “multiple” times following his deportations, another ICE source told Fox News Digital.
The source added that Oropesa was last encountered by ICE in 2016.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he wouldn’t “comment” on Oropesa’s immigration status after Todd said there was a question about him having a “consulate card, meaning he was here legally, but perhaps he had overstayed?”
Mayorkas replied, “I won’t comment on it because it is an active case. The tragedy that occurred is … just absolutely horrific.”
Not mentioned here: Democrats hid that both the murderer and the murdered were here illegally
Something not brought out in most main stream reports on this sad event is that both the accused and the victims in this crime were here illegally.
As you might note from the Fox News story above, Biden regime representatives like DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were asked (even on liberal outlets like NBC) about the status of the perpetrator and those representatives would not respond.
The additional sad thing about these murders is this fact: this could have been any law abiding American. With Joe Biden’s open borders, we have no protection. With Joe Biden’s open borders, the criminals have all the protection of running across the border, of going to a nation where drug cartels rule, of going to a nation where there is no death penalty for murder, and much more.
Finally, since the main stream media seems intent on the fact that the crime was committed with an AR-15, they likely will want to call for gun control. However, since this person was both a criminal and a non-citizen when he procured this weapon, I can assure you that (if he bought it or stole it) it was procured illegally. How does passing one more law change this?
The wailing you heard across the land Tuesday afternoon was the sound of thousands of journalists lamenting the settlement of the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. An entire industry of reporters has been denied the schadenfreude of seeing their hated political and media competitor in the dock. An hilariously revealing courtroom account in Politico laments that “hopes were dashed — dreams torpedoed” by the settlement.
(continued)
As much as the media ached for a Fox defeat in court, they ought to thank the company for settling. A verdict against the network might well have hurt the rest of the press by making it harder to defend against defamation claims.
(continued)
Journalism is an imperfect craft, and mistakes are inevitable. That’s why the bar for proving libel should be high. But the obligation of a journalist is to discern the truth, or at least as close as one can get to knowing it, and tell it to your audience straight.
This should open other outlets to suits
Since Chris Wallace certainly defamed President Trump by favoring Joe Biden (unless you have another name for interrupting Trump 35 times while never interrupting Biden), surely Trump has a grounds for suing Chris Wallace and Fox News. …
Dominion Voting Systems is in big trouble after the filing by FOX News in its case with Dominion yesterday. FOX News uncovered through its discovery in the case that Dominion’s own employees expressed serious concerns about the security of its machines.
Dominion Voting Systems sued FOX News for $1.6 billion in a defamation lawsuit in March 2021. The AP reported on the suit in a very nasty and biased report.
Dominion Voting Systems filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, arguing the cable news giant falsely claimed in an effort to boost faltering ratings that the voting company had rigged the 2020 election.
The lawsuit is part of a growing body of legal action filed by the voting company and other targets of misleading, false and bizarre claims spread by President Donald Trump and his allies in the aftermath of Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden. Those claims helped spur on rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in a violent siege that left five people dead, including a police officer. The siege led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.
The AP included numerous falsities and biases in its report, so much so that it looked like it was written by Dominion.
(continued)
Mark Beckstrand, a Dominion Sales Manager, confirmed that other parties “have gotten ahold of [Dominion’s] equipment illicitly” in the past. Beckstrand identified specific instances in Georgia and North Carolina and testified that a Dominion machine was “hacked” in Michigan. Beckstrand confirmed that these security failures were “reported about in the news.”
And just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Dominion’s Director of Product Strategy and Security, Eric Coomer, acknowledged in private that “our shit is just riddled with bugs.” According to the brief, in 2019, Coomer noted that “our products suck.” He lamented that “[a]lmost all” of Dominion’s technological failings were “due to our complete f— up in installation.”
In another instance, he identified a “*critical* bug leading to INCORRECT results.” Ex.H4, Coomer Email (Jan. 5, 2018). He went on to note: “It does not get much worse than that.” And while many companies might have resolved their errors, Coomer lamented that “we don’t address our weaknesses effectively!”
Other internal documents noted that a glitch identified by a security expert in Antrim County should be detected in the software. Coomer shared that the expert isn’t entirely wrong.
In addition, after the 2020 Election, Dominion received complaints from Georgia noting irregularities with machine counts that required employees to reprogram the machines.
Today, former Flint Township Clerk Kathy Funk, 59, of Flint, was sentenced in Genesee County Circuit Court by Judge Mark Latchana, for her attempts to render ballots ineligible for a recount process, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced.
Funk was sentenced to 2 years probation, 6 months of house arrest and tether compliance, a $1,000 fine and $1,000 in court costs on one count of Misconduct in Office, to which she pled no contest. Funk purposely broke a seal on a ballot container so that the votes inside, under Michigan Election Law, could not be counted in an anticipated recount. After the fact she contended the damage may be the result of a break-in, but no break-in hadoccurred, and the story had been fabricated. Funk was running for re-election, and narrowly prevailed in the unofficial count. The crime occurred during the August 2020 primary elections.
“The integrity of election officials is crucial to the survival of our democracy,” said Nessel. “We remain committed to prosecuting offenses against free and fair elections regardless of the offender’s political party. Any attack against our elections, from the local level and beyond, is an affront to our core American values.”
In 2021, Funk left her position with Flint Township to become the Genesee County elections supervisor, a role she no longer holds. As a term of her probation, Funk must issue a written letter of apology to the voters of Flint Township.
This does not prevent this Democrat from running again
This does not prevent another run for office. This doesn’t put a significant financial burden on her.
This only marks her entry into the big Democrats club. …
Who do you believe on claims of election fraud? Use some logic.
On the right, we have those quoting the former CIA chief
Ex-CIA chief says Blinken “triggered” letter to discredit laptop
A former top CIA official who helped write and sign the infamous October 2020 Hunter Bidenlaptop letter baselessly claiming Russian involvement has testified a phone call with now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken “triggered” its creation.
Mike Morell, a former acting CIA director under President Barack Obama, said in a recent transcribed interview with congressional investigators that, before his Oct. 17 phone call with Blinken, he had no intention to write the Oct. 19 Hunter Biden laptop letter. He testified “yes” and “absolutely” when asked if the call with Blinken, who was then a top adviser for Joe Biden’s2020 campaign, was what “triggered that intent in you.”
Morell also testified that one of the two reasons he helped put the letter together was to help Joe Biden defeat former President Donald Trump.
These revelations came in a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner that was sent to Blinken on Thursday by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
The October 2020 laptop letter contributed to the baseless narrative that the Hunter Biden laptop stories were nothing but a product of Russian disinformation. This line was happily seized upon by Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and spread by some of the laptop letter signers. Hunter Biden himself later tried to falsely claim the intelligence community concluded his laptop was some sort of Kremlin smear campaign.
Jordan and Turner told Blinken that Morell revealed the secretary of state had “played a role in the inception of this statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor” and that “according to Morell, although your outreach was couched as simply gathering Morell’s reaction to the New York Post story, it set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.”
The congressmen wrote that, the same day of the Blinken-Morell call, Blinken “also emailed Morell an article” published in USA Today the same day that alleged the FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a “disinformation campaign.” Jordan and Turner told Blinken that “the very bottom of the email you sent to Morell included the signature block of Andrew Bates, then-director of rapid response for the Biden campaign.” Bates is now a deputy press secretary in the Biden White House.
Former senior CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulossaid in 2020 that he and Morell helped put the letter together.
The congressional letter said Morell received a call from then-Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti after the Oct. 22 presidential debate to thank him for writing the statement. Richetti is now a counselor to Joe Biden. Morell said, “Steve thanked me for putting the statement out.”
The phone call to Morell had come from Jeremy Bash, another Hunter Biden laptop letter signer, who then got Richetti on the line. Bash, a former chief of staff at the CIA and Pentagon, was picked by Joe Biden to be part of the president’s Intelligence Advisory Board last year. Bash himself had suggested on TV in October 2020 that the laptop story was “Russian disinformation.”
What proofs out there stand on the side of this evidence and what might disprove it?
If all of this comes together to point toward an underhanded means of using the trust Americans undeservingly place in their intelligence agencies, then show that for what it is. Likewise, if this seems to be a shell game to keep the American public from picking up on the corruption of the Biden family before they made their way into government, then expose it for what it seems to be.
Furthermore, if all of this seems to be an orchestrated effort between voting machine manufacturers, intelligence officers, election officials, left-wing judges, and more — then expose that on every level.
…
On the left, the main stream media once claimed they could not investigate what might be Russian disinformation
Here’s what happened when NBC News tried to report on the alleged Hunter Biden emails
The complaints from President Donald Trump and his allies have been growing louder as the election approaches: Why isn’t the mainstream media covering the Hunter Biden laptop story?
Trump and his allies say there is evidence of corruption in emails and documents allegedly found on a laptop belonging to Democrat Joe Biden’s son. They say those and other documents show that Hunter Biden used his father’s influence to enrich himself through business deals in Ukraine and China, and that his father not only facilitated that, but may have benefited financially.
But the Wall Street Journal and Fox News — among the only news organizations that have been given access to key documents — found that the emails and other records don’t make that case. Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son’s dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded.
As to Ukraine, a single email published by the New York Post suggests Joe Biden may have had a meeting with a representative of a Ukrainian company that employed his son. Trump and his allies alleged that means Joe Biden has lied when he said he never discussed his son’s business roles. The Biden campaign denies the meeting happened.
The lack of major new revelations is perhaps the biggest reason the story has not gotten traction, but not the only one. Among others: Most mainstream news organizations, including NBC News, have not been granted access to the documents. NBC News asked by email, text, phone call and certified mail, and was ultimately denied.
And, although no evidence has emerged that the documents are the product of Russian disinformation, as some experts initially suggested, many questions remain about how the materials got into the hands of Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who has met with Russian agents in his effort to dig dirt on the Bidens.
U.S. intelligence agencies have informed the White House that Giuliani has been in contact with alleged Russian intelligence agents. The FBI has been looking into whether the Russians played any role, and no official has ruled that out.
At the same time, dozens of former intelligence officials have said the story has the hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation. After the election interference of 2016, the news media is especially wary of doing anything to further an effort by a foreign government to intervene in a presidential campaign.
Another factor tamping down coverage of the story is that there isn’t much new in what the laptop documents appear to reveal. The allegation that Hunter Biden has traded on his family name has been thoroughly explored in previous news stories, including a lengthy New Yorker investigation last year in which Robert Weissman, the president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, said, “It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that Hunter’s foreign employers and partners were seeking to leverage Hunter’s relationship with Joe, either by seeking improper influence or to project access to him.” Reports published while the elder Biden was still vice president raised ethical questions about the Burisma deal.
(Read more of their arsenic-laced pabulum at NBC News)
I would have these retorts to the claims within this Democrat propaganda
If NBC News really fancies itself to be a “news” organization (one that reports it, not fabricates it on behalf of their favorite socialist), then they might consider making moves like the ones listed below the next time the above situation comes around:
First, do the simple things (like digging up known examples of Hunter’s signature and comparing those to the signature provided by the computer shop or like looking at the video the computer shop provided that showed Hunter dropping off the computer).
Scour the other media (where you might find a gem like where Hunter admitted the laptop “might be” his).
Next, get with your colleagues around the world and verify the allegations on both sides. Had you tried that, you might have found pictures of Hunter with multiple bad actors.
If you, NBC News, cannot do these simple things, then those of us in thinking America will have to assume that you are only propagandists and hacks for the Democrat party.
Therefore, all of your protests against things that now turn out to be true become a small part of the proof of the overall conspiracy to hand it all to Joe. …
If you are ready to see the Tucker Carlson that you have missed, follow these instructions
First, pull your phone out (or whatever you use to send and receive text messages).
Text tucker to 44055. Upon sending that text, you will receive a response asking for your email address. Send that.
Once that is complete, go to TuckerCarlson.com for a link of the video of the last show broadcast on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Also available shows from 19 and 20 April 2023 and three videos labeled Tucker Carlson Originals.
Fox News Bleeding: $500M Drop in Market Cap, $77M Advertising Revenue in Jeopardy | Facts Matter
Two days ago, in a truly shocking move, Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News or, as the official statement claims, “Tucker Carlson and Fox News have agreed to part ways.”
Now, to anyone that was actually paying attention to the media landscape over the last several years, this was indeed a shocking development because Tucker’s show was far and above the most popular program over on Fox. Actually, it was one if not the most popular news progam across all of cable tv.
For instance, if you (bringing up the 24 April 2023 edition of TV Newser) look at the ratings on the very weke that Tucker was canned — well (showing Tucker with 270 as opposed to Cooper with 94 and Hayes with 133), you’ll see that in terms of viewership, he was blowing CNN and MSNBC completely out of the water. That’s (of course) not even mentioning ABC, CBS, and all of the different networks.Furthermore, financially, this is going to hurt Fox News quite a bit, because not is only the Tucker show bringing in a cool $77.5 million in advertising per year — but also, right after his departure was announced Fox‘s share price just tanked. Within a matter of hours, they lost close to a billion worth of market value. Eventually, it did bounce back a little bit, but as of this recording, it was still down about $0.5 billion.
Furthermore, you may not know this, but Fox News has a subscription platform called “Fox Nation.” And, while the number of Fox Nation subscribers isn’t publically known, what is publicly known is that (right after Tucker was gien the boot) the hashtag: #CancelFoxNation trended on Twitter.
Attorney General Merrick Garland is the unnamed official whose sworn testimony to Congress is being challenged in a bombshell letter from an IRS whistleblower’s attorney alleging a cover-up in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation, The Post has learned.
Attorney Mark Lytle wrote Wednesday that the longtime IRS employee wants to provide information to congressional leaders to “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee” — Garland — and also to detail “preferential treatment” in the criminal probe of the first son.
The whistleblower already made disclosures to the inspectors general of the Treasury and Justice departments.
However, due to a quirk of federal law, he needs congressional approval to more fully describe his allegations to his own lawyers, which he wants to do before testifying to lawmakers.
Garland has repeatedly claimed under oath that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, a Trump administration holdover recommended in 2017 by the state’s Democratic senators, is able to criminally charge Hunter Biden without the permission of other Justice Department leaders, despite Republicans challenging the factual accuracy of that claim.
Garland in April 2022 told Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) that “there will not be interference of any political or improper kind” in the investigation of Hunter Biden led by Weiss.
“He is the supervisor of this investigation,” Garland said of Weiss, adding that “we put the investigation in the hands of a Trump appointee from the previous administration, who is the US attorney for the district of Delaware, and … you have me as the attorney general, who is committed to the independence of the Justice Department from any influence from the White House in criminal matters.”
In March, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) pressed Garland on whether Weiss was truly able to bring charges without the approval of other Justice Department officials, specifically if the alleged crime occurred outside Delaware.
“In April 2022, you testified to Sen. Hagerty that the Hunter Biden investigation was insulated from political interference because it was assigned, as you just now told me, to the Delaware US Attorney’s Office,” Grassley said at the time.
“However, that could be misleading.
“Without special counsel authority, he could need permission of another US attorney in certain circumstances to bring charges outside the district of Delaware.
(Read the words between Grassley and Garland that may constitute perjury at the New York Post)
Hunter Biden, the crack-crazed nere-do-well, is not the kingpin nor who we should focus upon
We cannot let this become about Hunter Biden’s misactions. Likewise, (even though it is tempting to think about how Garlnd may have perjured himself before Congress) we cannot get our eyes off of the real prize.
We cannot let this be about anything but the Biden crime organization and the “Big Guy” at the top.
…
IRS whistleblower has told Congress that Hunter Biden probe is being mishandled
A supervisor at the IRS has told lawmakers that he has information that suggests the Biden administration could be mishandling the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
In a letter to lawmakers obtained by ABC News, the lawyer for the IRS whistleblower says his client is an IRS criminal supervisory special agent “who has been overseeing the ongoing and sensitive investigation of a high-profile, controversial subject since early 2020 and would like to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress.”
The letter does not name Hunter Biden specifically, but lawmakers have been made aware he is the “high profile, controversial” subject that the lawyer is referring to. In addition, while the letter refers to preferential treatment that Hunter Biden has allegedly received, there are no specific examples provided to support the accusations.
The letter says that “The protected disclosures: (1) contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee, (2) involve failure to mitigate clear conflicts of interest in the ultimate disposition of the case, and (3) detail examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions and protocols that would normally be followed by career law enforcement professionals in similar circumstances if the subject were not politically connected.”
The lawyer for the whistleblower didn’t immediately respond to ABC’s request for comment. A spokesperson for DOJ declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the letter.
“It’s deeply concerning that the Biden Administration may be obstructing justice by blocking efforts to charge Hunter Biden for tax violations,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), said in a statement.
If this investigation does not look into the impropriety of the Biden family, it misses the mark
The primary focus of this investigation cannot be Hunter. It cannot be the other eleven family members identified by Representative Comer as having received foreign monies. The focus must be on Joe and the entire organization.
Still, one has to wonder whether the Wall Street Journal‘s breaking of this letter was the only reason that ABC News got off of dead center to investigate Hunter.
…
Ex-top spy admits Hunter Biden laptop letter designed to influence 2020 election, Blinken involved
A former acting CIA director has admitted to Congress that he helped organize the letter that falsely portrayed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation in an effort to influence the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden and that his role was “triggered” by a call from current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a letter released Thursday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
The extraordinary admission by career intelligence officer Michael J. Morell provides stunning evidence that the now-infamous letter from 51 security officials in October 2020 was not an organic intelligence community initiative but rather a political dirty trick originating with Blinken and the Biden campaign.
Jordan sent a letter demanding Blinken answer a series of questions about Morell’s stunning testimony, as lawmakers weighed the enormity of America’s top diplomat being willing to accuse a nuclear-armed superpower of interfering in the 2020 election without evidence. That letter included major snippets of Morell’s testimony.
Morell, who retired as deputy CIA director after a long and storied career and served as its acting chief, was on the short list in fall 2020 to be Biden’s CIA director when he became involved in the letter. He ultimately did not receive the job.
In a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary government weaponization subcommittee, Morell admitted he got involved with the letter after a conversation with Blinken and later received a call from the Biden campaign thanking him when Joe Biden used the letter and its false implication to blunt criticism of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings
The transcript of Morell’s interview showed he had no intent to write the statement and that Blinken’s “call triggered” his actions.
The same day Blinken reached out to Morell, an article was published in USA Today alleging that the FBI was looking into the laptop as part of a “disinformation campaign.”
“Morell testified that his communication with you was one of a few communications he had with the Biden campaign, explaining that he also received a call from Steve Ricchetti, Chairman of the Biden campaign, following the October 22 debate to thank him for writing the letter,” Jordan wrote Blinken.
(Go to Just The News for a link to the letter and more details)
Secretary of State Antony Blinken would really, really prefer to talk about grain in Ukraine this week. But many people are less interested in what Blinken is doing as secretary of state than in what he did to become secretary of state... https://t.co/VGlJEUZw24
There is a reason that Blinken directed attention away from the laptop. It had nothing to do with Hunter.
Of course, everyone with a brain knows that the only reason Blinken had the letter generated was to win Biden the Oval Office. Likewise, the only reason Blinken is Secretary of State is that he had the letter created.
With that loop closed, we also know that only the brain dead will be voting for Joe. Therefore, I guess Joe can count on swampy Republican votes and Democrats.
…
Hunter Biden may be living at the White House to evade legal papers from his baby mama
Roberts claims Hunter, 53, is “flaunting the dignity and authority of the court” by failing to provide “one single item or word [of] discovery” and says, “This court should incarcerate the defendant in the Cleburne County Detention Center until he complies with this court’s orders.”
Roberts, 32, had to get a court-ordered paternity test to prove Navy was Hunter’s, and last year Hunter applied to have his monthly support payments reduced.
She also has enlisted Biden nemesis Garrett Ziegler as an expert witness for the trial expected in July.
The 27-year-old former Trump adviser is founder of the nonprofit Marco Polo, which published a 644-page analysis of Hunter’s infamous laptop last year, identifying hundreds of alleged crimes.
Morris generously paid off Hunter’s $2.8 million IRS bill, which is part of a federal criminal investigation by the US attorney in Delaware, David Weiss, into the first son’s overseas business dealings.
Things were brought to a head last week when a career IRS criminal supervisory special agent who has been investigating Hunter for three years came forward with claims that federal prosecutors are preventing tax charges from being brought against the president’s son.
“Preferential treatment and politics [are] improperly infecting decisions” in the case, the whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Lytle, alleged in a letter to Democrats and Republicans leading various congressional committees.
(Read more on legal maneuvers and the Secret Service at the New York Post)
One thing Joe really doesn’t want exposed is the money that flows through Hunter and from whom that money flows
Having those money transfers and checks exposed might be impeachment material. However, since the Chinese bank has already provided enough for that, maybe this would be worrying over nothing.
…
Now for the story that comes closer to the real topic
Closer to the mark: ex-Obama staffer blows whistle on Biden “kickback scheme” after Hunter joined Burisma – “Malfeasance in office”
A former Obama administration staffer is blowing the whistle on the Biden family’s business dealings, accusing President Biden of being involved in a “kickback scheme” in connection with his son Hunter’s overseas business dealings while he was vice president.
Mike McCormick, a stenographer for the White House for 15 years, told “Fox & Friends First” the FBI has been ignoring his alarms on the matter despite his willingness to testify under oath before the federal grand jury investigating Hunter.
“In February, I went to the FBI and filed one of their tips on their website. If you do that, and you’re lying to them, you go to jail. I’m not lying. I’m telling the truth, and I’m not going to jail,” McCormick said Thursday. “Joe Biden is a criminal. He was conducting malfeasance in office to enrich his family. Jake Sullivan is a conspirator in that, and there’s more… Obama officials involved in it, I believe.”
McCormick, who worked with Biden from 2011 to 2017, detailed a key dialogue involving the vice president, aide Jake Sullivan and the press on Air Force Two before a trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 21, 2014.
Sullivan, who is the current national security adviser, outlined in a White House transcript Biden’s priorities for his trip to the country, which included U.S. investment in the Ukrainian energy sector days after Hunter joined the board of Burisma, according to the New York Post.
Months later, and well after the trip, Congress allocated $50 million to Ukraine’s energy market.
“I’m sitting back there with a tape recorder. Jake Sullivan comes back and somebody asks about fracking. His answer is, well, we’re bringing a lot of American assistance over for fracking. Burisma was the direct beneficiary of that fracking, and that’s what I recorded, and that’s in a White House transcript,” McCormick said.
“In the transcript, you don’t know who Jake Sullivan is. It’s a senior administration official. I’m the witness that says Jake Sullivan is the guy who said it and he should be investigated because at the time Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma and Joe Biden is bringing American taxpayer money to enrich that company and himself and his family,” he continued.
Hunter joined the board of the Ukrainian natural gas firm on April 18, just three days before Biden and his team traveled to Kyiv. But that critical piece of the puzzle was not made public until May 12.
McCormick argued the timeline of the events suggests that Biden funneled American money overseas to “enrich” himself and his family, and used his own influence to aid his son’s rookie energy career.
The former stenographer made it clear he wants to present the information under oath before the grand jury in Delaware probing Hunter’s business dealings, which is led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
(Read of additional federal investigations into Hunter at Fox News)
Here is the point where we learn two things
At this point, we learn:
Whether or not Republicans of any stripe have gonads and
Whether or not any Democrats have morals remaining in their otherwise mush-filled skulls.
Spiritual surgery by our sympathetic Surgeon — Hebrews 4:12-16
The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the comments of the class.
Spiritual surgery
What are some major handicaps in our journey to spiritual rest and victorious living in Christ?
How do we avoid following “their example of disobedience?” (Hebrews 4:11 — the Israelites in the wilderness did not believe God and rejected His promises).
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:11 NIV)
When the class was asked how we avoid the Hebrews 4:11 example, they produced several responses. One class member noted that the Israelites made spun following God around and made it all about themselves. Another class member noted that, instead of focusing on God, they focused on the giants (and there were giants). Finally, a class member noted that God’s Word to lead us. They may have had a memory of miraculous columns of fire and cloud, miraculous wear of clothes, and miraculous manna and quail (along with other miracles). However, they could not go at any time to read about those miracles again.
The writer turns our attention to God’s Word, examining its identity, its characteristics, its abilities, and its implications for us.
What does the “word of God” refer to in Scripture?
In John 10:35 and 2 Peter 1:19-20, it refers to the written Word of God, Holy Scripture.
If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— (John 10:35 NIV)
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. (2 Peter 1:19-20 NIV)
In John 1:14, it refers to the ultimate embodiment of Truth, the Word of God incarnate, Jesus Christ.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NIV)
In Philippians 1:14 and 1 Thessalonians 2:13, it refers to the spoken word of God or the message of God proclaimed.
And because of my chains, most of the brothers and sisters have become confident in the Lord and dare all the more to proclaim the gospel without fear. (Philippians 1:14 NIV)
And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV)
When the writer refers to the “word of God” in Hebrews 4:12, we should think of God’s revealed truth, however he has chosen to deliver it to us. In the strictest sense, it is the inspired words of the prophets and apostles and by various means that God conveys His revealed truth to motivate His people.
In contrast to things that would create spiritual growth, the class was asked what might handicap spiritual growth.
One class member noted that life circumstances could handicap spiritual growth. Another said that the time restraints of raising children and keeping food on the table could be a handicap. Yet another class member said that misplaced priorities might work against spiritual growth. One person chimed in to say that certain people who pull us in the wrong direction might fight against out spiritual growth. Anti-God distractions (like certain political movements on both sides) were added to the list of things that could hurt your spiritual growth. Finally, social media was named as a possible harm to our spiritual growth.
The characteristics and impact of the Word of God — Hebrews 4:12-13
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13 NIV)
Living – The Word of God is alive. Jesus is alive! The Gospel saves! The Bible is always relevant to everyday life. How would you explain that the Word of God is alive? When the class was asked how they knew the Word was alive, they responded. One said that the effect of the Word changed his life. Another noted that, by focusing on the Word that told her to “take my thoughts captive,” she was able to live the Word. A third class member noted that the Holy Spirit had provided revelation that changed circumstances. Another noted that nothing but a living Word would be able to make and fulfill prophecies over thousands of years. Another noted that true conviction (as opposed to guilt) is produced by the Holy Spirit through the Word. Finally, a class member noted that our being able to understand “Let me diminish and Christ increase” comes only through a living word and an active Holy Spirit.
Active – the Greek word is “energes” (ejnerghvß), in which we get the English word “energy.” God’s Word is effective and powerful. It accomplishes what it sets out to do.
so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11 NIV)
Would you describe the Word of God as active? What does the Word of God accomplish in its power?
Sharp – it penetrates and judges. It penetrates deeply into the innermost life – our immaterial parts – soul and spirit and our material parts – joints and marrow – it affects our whole being in a comprehensive manner. It also judges – the Greek word is “kritikos” (kritikovß) which means a mental sense of discerning or analyzing, not a legal or judicial term. The Word exposes our deepest feelings, desires, instincts, passions and motives. Knowing this, imagine what this razor-sharp spiritual instrument can accomplish in the hands of a loving Master Surgeon? Nothing can be hidden from such an Almighty God.
You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. (Psalms 139:1-4 NIV)
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalms 139:23-24 NIV)
Do you believe this? How does this impact you? One class member pointed toward John 15:1, where God would remove anything that prevented growth of fruit.
“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. (John 15:1 NIV)
Our sympathetic surgeon
Jesus Christ, the Word of God Incarnate, is the One who bears the blade of the inspired word of God – not as a sword to punish, but as a scalpel to heal. By delving deeply into our lives to uncover the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Hebrews 4:13), Jesus Christ can strengthen our faith and lead us into God’s spiritual rest.
Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:13 NIV)
Do you believe this?
Hebrews 4:14 – the priests of ancient Israel were appointed by God to be mediators between Himself and His people.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. (Hebrews 4:14 NIV)
Only the high priest could offer the highest sacrifice and he did that once a year on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kipper). All the sins of the people were brought symbolically to the Holy of Holies, where blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat as a sacrifice to atone for them. The high priest represented God before the people and the people before God. To enter the Holy of Holies, the priest had to pass through three areas in the Tabernacle or Temple. He took the blood and went through the door into the outer court, through another door into the Holy Place, and then through the veil into the Holy of Holies. He did not sit down or delay. As soon as the sacrifice was made, he left and did not return for another year. Between these yearly sacrifices, every day, sacrifices were made. The sacrifices never ended and were never completed. Why did they have to continue making these sacrifices?
Jesus, our Great High Priest, after He made the one-time, perfect sacrifice on the cross, also passed through three areas.
When Jesus “passed through the heavens”, He passed through the first heaven (the atmosphere); the second heaven (outer space) and into the third heaven (God’s abode – 2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. (2 Corinthians 12:2-4 NIV)
This is the Holiest of all Holies. Guess what? He didn’t have to leave. His sacrifice was made once for all. The sacrifice was perfect and the High Priest was perfect and He sat down for all eternity at the Father’s right hand.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.(Hebrews 1:3)
He had made the perfect atonement for sins, the purpose for which He had come to earth and the work was completed.
The Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and no sacrifices have been made since. Consequently, there has been no need for a Jewish priesthood.
We are reminded that Jesus is the “Son of God” which emphasizes His divine, heavenly nature. We are told to “hold firmly to the faith we profess” – we are to confess and embrace our Great High Priest – proudly confess it, own it publicly, clearly declare your belief publicly as well as privately that Jesus did everything to procure your salvation. Does this encourage you to profess your faith publicly?
Hebrews 4:15 – here, the fullness of His humanity is displayed as Jesus, like us, was tempted throughout His earthly life.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15 NIV)
The same circumstances, situations and allurements that bombard us daily also assaulted Him. But, unlike us, He didn’t sin. Because of His genuine experiences as a real human being, He can “sympathize with our weaknesses”. Jesus has unequalled capacity for sympathy because it is truly experiential – He feels it. The word for “sympathize” here means “to share the experience of another.” How does this impact you?
Hebrews 4:16 – as the incarnate God-man, Jesus is both willing and able to give us mercy in our time of need.
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16 NIV)
We can approach the throne of grace without hesitation or tentativeness but with confidence — what a contrast to the High Priest who entered the Holy of Holies with trepidation. When we approach the throne with confidence, we receive mercy for our past failures and grace to meet our present and future needs. We are healed from our sins and given grace in our time of need.
How is your confidence when you face life’s storms?
Tucker Carlson, Fox News Channel’s biggest prime time star, has left the cable news giant.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” Fox News said in statement. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
The network said Carlson has already hosted his last episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday April 21st” the statement continued. “Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.
Carlson was almost always at the top of the ratings in prime time, drawing a massive audience that often dwarfed several of his competitors combined. As The Daily Wire previously reported, Carlson’s show in reruns often eclipsed the audience of original programming at other networks.
A source told The Daily Wire Carlson’s staff was blindsided by the news and only learned late Monday morning when members received an email from the prime time star.
(Read of other media consutant input on Tucker’s exit at the Daily Wire)
So is this how Biden gets back into the White House — by silencing the major voices?
Has Fox just self-neutered itself as part of the cowardly Dominion settlement? Ot was this the action of a nework convinced that it should provide equity, not excellence, in news reporting?
If so, then what liberal outlet should we sue for their suppressing the Hunter laptop story? Should PBS or CBS be the first?
Isn’t a call for the silencing of Tucker Carlson a call for violence?
Even while gangs increasingly mug, carjack, and gun people down on the streets of many major cities, fentanyl poisoning deaths take 100,000 American lives, and mass murder incidents happen with unsettling regularity, perceptions of crime are highly influenced by partisanship. Gallup finds that when a Democrat is president, Republicans see crime as more of a problem than do Democrats, with the reverse happening when a Republican is in the White House.
Competing narratives and poor information plague the national discussion over public safety. This makes it difficult to reach a political consensus on what should be done. Even as Gallup’s polling shows the belief that “crime is increasing locally is now at the highest point,” it notes, “In absolute terms, Americans have for decades exhibited a marked tendency to say that crime is increasing rather than decreasing, year in and year out.”
It’s difficult enough that public perception of crime is often untethered from reality, it’s even worse when the government agencies that are supposed to report, gather, and analyze crime are failing at an alarming rate.
The left-leaning criminal justice nonprofit The Marshall Project, in commenting on the FBI’s annual release of crime statistics last November, noted, “The nation’s most thorough crime data collection program concluded it’s possible crime went up, went down or stayed the same.” Why the uncertainty? It “largely stems from the fact that 2021’s data was more incomplete than any in recent memory. … This year about 7,000 police agencies, covering about 35% of the U.S. population were missing.” To address the massive holes in the data from large cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, the Justice Department simply made an estimate.
“In some cases,” Marshall noted, “the FBI didn’t even have enough information to make an estimation.”
Why the huge amount of missing arrest data? Two reasons. First, the FBI finally switched fully over to a new reporting system, the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). The FBI had been accepting data in a format that was nearly 100 years old, and 2021 was the first year the reports from police departments — entirely voluntary — had to be in the new format. But there’s another disturbing reason some police departments don’t report data: It could make them or the left-wing politicians overseeing them look bad.
As a result, the FBI did not publish any state-level violent crime numbers for California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Pennsylvania. Further, the entire West region lacked an estimate of violent crimes, murders, and aggravated assaults. Thus, when some, mostly on the left, argue that crime is going down, it’s a highly suspect claim.
I asked Julie Warren, my colleague at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, who works as the deputy director for the Right on Crime initiative, about persistent non-reporting of crime data by police departments. She said that a non-reporting department, such as the San Francisco Police Department, could be dissuaded from reporting arrests because the district attorney refuses to press charges on most arrestees, resulting in a dismal closure rate for the department — 100 suspects arrested, three charged, one convicted.
Until he was recalled in a July 8, 2022, election, San Francisco’s DA was Soros-backed radical leftist Chesa Boudin. One can easily imagine the San Francisco PD simply throwing in the towel on all but the most egregious crimes in the City by the Bay.
In addition, Soros DAs run several other major prosecutorial offices, with Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, St. Louis, New York, Baltimore, Albuquerque, Orlando, and three urban counties in Northern Virginia suffering increases in crime as DAs quickly allow the accused to walk.
Unsurprisingly, there’s a big overlap between entities that don’t report crime statistics to the FBI and Soros prosecutors — no report, no crime.
Yet, even with the incomplete 2021 FBI crime statistics showing what appears to be little change in crime rates from 2020 — murder up 4 percent, overall violent crime down 1 percent — only half of violent crimes are even reported. In addition to the FBI’s arrest database, since 1973, the Justice Department runs a separate crime victimization survey. This less well-known measure has consistently shown higher rates of violent crime than law enforcement agencies report to the FBI.
(Read of Soros District Attorneys and their no-bail/low-bail issues — along with conservative solutions to this all at the xas Public Policy Foundation)
Time to remind Democrats that “Separate, but equal” is not equal
Segregation of data will not work. Segregation and beating down of truth will not work. Having your own truth will not work.
Instead have an objective, provable truth that has a wide base of facts.
And do not hide those facts in a blurring of the lines.
The following comes through the notes of Mark Ramsey and the comments of the class.
Rest versus anxiety
Our society is dominated by anxiety, which includes feelings of apprehension, uneasiness, depression, worry, and dread. Do you find yourself wandering in the wilderness of worry about the present and future of our country, our families and even our church or over the regrets of your past?
Have you crossed into God’s promised rest or are you pacing back and forth, biting your nails over what you perceive as giant obstacles in your path of spiritual progress/maturity? God’s rest is the solution to our anxiety in this world.
When you think of rest, what kinds of images do you envision?
Our minds and bodies scream for intermissions from the unending dramas of life, don’t they?
The same is true for our souls. In these verses, we see that God has made provision for us to enjoy genuine spiritual rest every day. The problem is that, seemingly, few believers enter into that rest. Why do you think that is the case? Why do you think we have a problem with believing and trusting?
Solomon tells us that there is nothing new under the sun and the writer of Hebrews is addressing these issues directly with the believers in this Hebrew group and indirectly with the unbelievers. The believer’s experience of Christ was not living up to their expectations. Instead of rest, there was turmoil. They were suffering because of their new faith. Rest in Christ seemed like a cruel delusion.
How would you describe rest or peace in Christ?
To enter God’s rest means to be at peace with God; to be free from guilt and unnecessary feelings of guilt; freedom from worry and to know the total forgiveness of God. Would you say that you have entered God’s rest in this sense?
The availability of rest — Hebrews 4:1
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. (Hebrews 4:1 NIV)
“Therefore” refers to Israel’s unbelief and consequent failure to enter God’s Canaan (Promised Land) rest. God had promised the people of Israel that they could enter and possess the land of Canaan but once they reached the border to enter, they resisted Him in hardness of heart and unbelief. God offered them rest and they refused it. Why do you think they resisted Him and did not believe Him? Do we also resist Him and not believe Him when He offers this “rest”?
What kind of rest do you think the author is writing about? What produces anxiety in your life?
One class member responded that he had anxiety due to what, over the past few years, has become “not my country.” Another class member said that she felt anxiety from the Marxism springing up in our government and being taught in our schools. A third class member said that he felt anxiety from the lies being taught through misleading and bent words (“gay” once meant happy, “woke” meant awake or aware). Another class member related how their family was being taken in by the schemes mentioned previously. Yet another class member spoke of the anxiety created by the mocking nature of evil forces as they create “Satan clubs” at schools. Another class member told of anxiety created by observing other churches being listless and even cooperative with the forces of evil (as they have homosexual pastors, host trans reading hours, and more).
He is emphasizing a present reality that is available for believers – a spiritual condition that impacts and influences our inner peace, joy and hope.
Personal faith — Hebrews 4:2-3
For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. (Hebrews 4:2-3 NIV)
The ancient Israelites heard God’s good news of rest but they did not trust God. It does us no good to hear if we do not really believe. That is the point here. There is no benefit unless the hearing is united by faith. The principle is simple: the more we trust, the more we rest.
Our hearing and believing, evidenced by obedience/trust, equals rest. Had the Israelites truly believed, they would have acted with confidence (only two of them did). Similarly, Christians have been called from their spiritual bondage (Egypt) yet they find themselves wandering in the wilderness because they fail to trust God to completely deliver them to the place of rest. Do you find yourself wandering in the wilderness? It is by believing that we enter into God’s rest and it is by obeying God by faith and surrendering to His will, that His rest enters into us. The first is “peace with God” (Romans 5:1) and the second is the “peace of God” (Phil.4:6-8). Do you believe that you have both?
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1 NIV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:6-8 NIV)
These were the answers in response to the question, “Are we resting or seeing giants?” (as well as I could hear):
The first class member related that, rather than being worried, she felt concern. There is a difference between worry and concern. A second class member noted that his mom worried that she did not worry enough. A third class member noted that he knew his place in things (that he could change what he could, but only God is God).
Our attitude — Hebrews 4:4-8
For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. (Hebrews 4:4-8 NIV)
The discussion of “rest” prompted the writer to think of God’s own work of creating the world in six days before resting on the seventh day.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. (Genesis 2:2 NIV)
Now God sits in His place of rest with open arms, inviting us into an intimate communion with Him. However, the Israelites saw giants in the land and were terrified and their lack of faith led to failure to obey. They wouldn’t enter the land which is why God pronounced that they would not enter His rest. Instead of fearing the things of this world, shouldn’t we trust in the Lord and act on His promises? What prevents this?
One class member noted that resting in God prevents us from fearing. Likewise, fearing keeps us from resting.
It is never too late but the promise of rest can be realized TODAY. The tone is one of urgency. When we hear His voice and read His word, we have a choice: harden our hearts in unbelief and disobedience or surrender in faith and action. This is a constant, ongoing every moment decision – not a one-time event in the past or future. Does anyone struggle with this? Explain.
The invitation of Jesus still stands:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Matthew 11:28-29 NIV)
Our experience of rest is proportionate to our trusting in Him.
Class members noted the following concepts in resting:
While the disciples strained against the waves, Jesus slept in the back of the boat
We are in the hand of the Father; therefore, in his embrace
God offers us peace throughout the Bible
God offers us forgiveness by the blood of His Son
The wrinkle in this includes the fact that we want to be in control.
However, as one class member pointed out:
and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Deuteronomy 30:20 NIV)
The challenge to rest — Hebrews 4:9-11
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. (Hebrews 4:9-11 NIV)
If we learn anything from this text, we must understand that the rest is there if we want it. We are told to “make every effort to enter the rest.” How do we do that? We must do our utmost to focus on the rest. It is a divine rest – joyous, satisfying and productive.
Secondly, we must do our utmost to combine the hearing of the good news of the offered rest with genuine faith belief plus trust. There is no rest without trust. Do you believe that? If so, God’s Word offers rest – “now we who have believed enter that rest” (Hebrews 4:3)
A new rule from the Biden administration will have good-credit home buyers paying more monthly to subsidize costs for high-risk buyers.
The changes, which will begin in May, have many experts worried about the impacts both on buyers and the economy.
Real estate expert and Madison Ventures+ managing director Mitch Roschelle unpacked the “madness” on “Varney & Co.” on Thursday.
“It’s bizarro world,” he said. “That fee that’s charged, PMI, which is personal mortgage insurance, that fee that FHA [Federal Housing Administration] charges is intended to punish those with lower credit scores and riskier loans to basically level the playing field from a risk perspective. Well, what are we doing? We’re doing the opposite.”
On “Mornings with Maria” earlier, Strategic Wealth Partners CEO Mark Tepper also slammed the measure arguing that it is “socialism for homeowners.”
“We mentioned the student loan issue. Cab drivers who never went to college are subsidizing that student loan debt, and in this situation, this Biden administration more and more often, they are making decisions to reward bad decisions,” the financial expert said.
Experts believe that borrowers with a credit score of about 680 would pay around $40 more per month on a $400,000 mortgage under rules from the Federal Housing Finance Agency that go into effect May 1 — costs that will help subsidize people with lower credit ratings also looking for a mortgage, according to a Washington Times report Tuesday.
“If you have a high credit score, and 680 is a good credit score, you have to pay more. And we’re talking about real money. This could be $100 a month more, depending on the size of your loan. So it makes no sense,” Roschelle said. “And by the way, this isn’t about first-time homebuyers. There’s nothing in this rule that says it applies to first-time homebuyers. It applies to anybody borrowing money that’s insured by FHA. It’s madness.”
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees federally backed home mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has long sought to give consumers more affordable housing options.
Under the new rules, consumers with lower credit ratings and less money for a down payment would qualify for better mortgage rates than they otherwise would have.
Real estate is where the America’s middle class and lower upper class stands different from Europe
By trying to throw money to people and corporations with poor credit ratings, Biden is sinking the rest of us. Rather than building on the good thing about America, where we have made owning a home more attainable for people of all stripes — Biden goes the socialist route.
Does Biden mean to throw so many regulations into the mix (as opposed to President Trump, who freed us from the greatest number of regulations) in order to kill the economy? Does he think that he will then be able to save our economy before being blamed for its demise?
…
Here’s the awful thing Biden just did to the mortgage system
A new Biden administration mortgage rule set to take place on May 1 will force loan applicants with good credit to pay higher fees and subsidize applicants with poor credit in the name of “equitable” access to home ownership.
“Basically it is redistribution,” Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiroma explained Thursday morning. “What you’re doing is you are redistributing high risk mortgages and high risk loans.”
“This is what we did back in 2005 and 2006 which led to the biggest blow off ever in terms of the housing market and took us down the road of the worst financial recession in a generation,” she continued. “Basically what you have going on is larger down payments and credit scores to redistribute risky mortgages so those people with a strong and good credit score actually pay the bill for the mortgages that are much riskier for those people who don’t have that kind of credit score.”
"REDISTRIBUTION OR YOU COULD CALL IT SOCIALISM" - @MariaBartiromo
Mortgage fee rules quietly get overhauled, resulting in discounted rates for riskier-credit homebuyers & forcing higher-credit homebuyers to foot the bill...@BillHemmer@DanaPerinopic.twitter.com/VolYIQjXUU
(See one more tweet and a quote of an Obama official on Joe’s deleterious effects at Townhall)
I hold to the “can” theory on Biden’s recent real estate action
According to the “can” theory:
Get all you can.
Can all you get.
Sit on the can.
Since Biden has his homes that he will not sell and has his walled compound, what does he care about your credit score that you worked for over the years? He has canned his.
Or is there an even more evil plan in the works?
Considering that this seems like just the time to put in a rule that would benefit people with ruined credit (since Joe Biden has put so many Democrats in the position of having to ruin their credit), do you think that Biden has done this so that they will then absolve him and vote him in again?
What can I say? People still watch The View.
…
Not only real estate, but also crypto and the oil industry
Biden targets crypto, real estate, and the oil industry
President Joe Biden on Thursday called for ending tax subsidies for cryptocurrency investors, the real estate industry and the oil and gas sector, as he formally rolled out his proposed budget for the 2024 fiscal year.
Biden is aiming for “cutting wasteful spending on Big Pharma, Big Oil and other special interests,” said Shalanda Young, director of the president’s Office of Management and Budget, during a call with reporters.
His proposed budget would deliver an estimated $24 billion in savings by eliminating a tax subsidy for crypto investors that allows them to sell a cryptocurrency such as bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.02% at a loss and take a tax loss to reduce their tax burden, but then buy back that same asset the next day, according to the White House.
The budget would provide savings of $19 billion by closing a “like-kind exchange” loophole for real estate VNQ, -0.99% investors, which lets them put off paying taxes on profits from deals indefinitely as long as they keep investing in real estate.
It would get $31 billion in savings by eliminating special tax treatment for oil and gas XOP, -1.58% company investments, as well as other fossil fuel tax preferences, the White House said.
Many of the president’s budget proposals aren’t expected to find much traction in the Republican-run House of Representatives, but they could help provide the Democratic incumbent with talking points in a 2024 re-election campaign.
In addition, Biden’s proposals — which discussed in a speech delivered Thursday in the swing state of Pennsylvania — are likely to factor into his discussions with House Republicans over raising the U.S. debt limit.
The president would increase spending on things like the Social Security Administration, which would see a rise of $1.4 billion over the 2023 enacted level to fund spending on staff and IT or other improvements. Schools in low-income communities would get a $2.2 billion increase, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) would score an increase of $1 billion.
The proposed budget has overall outlays totaling $6.88 trillion, up from an estimated $6.37 trillion in spending for the current fiscal year. There would be $5.04 trillion in revenue, resulting in a deficit of $1.85 trillion.
Biden’s budget takes aim at the pharmaceuticals industry PJP, -0.12% in part by aiming to build on the Inflation Reduction Act’s move to allow Medicare to negotiate prices for some drugs. It calls for letting the program negotiate prices for more drugs and bringing drugs into negotiation sooner after they launch.
His budget targets wealthier Americans’ retirement investments, as it proposes limiting the amount that those making over $400,000 a year can hold in tax-favored retirement accounts, in a move that would deliver estimated savings of $23 billion.
It calls for ending the carried-interest loophole, which allows managers of private-equity funds to pay lower tax rates, even as Biden’s push on that issue flopped last year when Democrats had slim majorities in both chambers of Congress.
It features fresh attempts by Biden to raise taxes on U.S. companies, as it proposes hiking the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, lifting the tax rate on foreign earnings to 21% from 10.5%, and quadrupling the 1% levy on stock buybacks.
So, Biden’s promise to not tax anyone not making $400,000 takes another hit
If you have worked to keep your credit score good no matter what you make, then Biden has taken another swipe at you. Add that to his “inflation” tax (that has resulted in record amounts brought in to the IRS). Add that to the fact that most IRS audits under Biden have been against middle and low income citizens. Add that to the additional 87,000 new IRS agents Biden is bringing in to his politicized IRS.
…
Now for a view from those focused on the liberal side of news
Biden’s proposed tax law changes and the rental market
President Joe Biden has unveiled a plan for higher taxes on inherited homes to help fund the $1.8 trillion American Families Plan.
The proposal would tax inherited property gains at death, targeting generational wealth transfers.
But financial experts say the measure may impact more families than just affluent ones.
“I think it could become a quagmire from a couple of different fronts,” said certified financial planner Ken Van Leeuwen, founder and managing director of Van Leeuwen & Company in Princeton, New Jersey.
Currently, heirs may defer taxes on inherited home gains until they sell the property.
They also secure a so-called “step up in basis,” which adjusts the home’s purchase price generally to the value on the date of death.
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the current law saves taxpayers $41 billion per year.
By comparison, Biden wants to treat home inheritances like a sale, making the heirs pay for gains that occurred before they received the property.
While most of this has definite socialist intentions, there likely rests in many crannies of this “decision” some unintended consequences. Considering the fact that Joe has maintained he has a “good economy” and inflation was (at least according to the Biden talking points)'”transitory,” this might have some really big unintended consequences.
Considering the unintended consequences that grew out of Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation, what do you think might happen here?
…
One way this Biden’s attack on real estate might screw things up might come through the elimination of breaks to the employing class just as we enter a recession
Biden proposes eliminating real estate investor tax break, while Republicans discuss cuts to housing programs
On Thursday, the Biden administration released its $6.9 trillion budget proposal for next year that’d cut deficits by nearly $3 trillion over the next ten years via tax increases.
In the budget, the administration claims that closing “tax loopholes that overwhelmingly benefit the rich and the largest, most profitable corporations,” will save billions of dollars. With that, President Joe Biden proposed to close the so-called “like-kind exchange loophole,” as his administration refers to it, arguing that it “lets real estate investors defer tax indefinitely.” But it’s not the first time Biden’s proposed to close the “like-kind exchange” benefit, and it’s unlikely that it’ll be included once Congress approves spending levels.
The “like-kind exchange,” or 1031 exchange, basically allows real estate investors to sell their property and acquire another and defer any capital gains taxes from that initial sale. Referring to it as a special tax subsidy, the White House wrote: “This loophole lets real estate investors put off paying tax on profits from real estate deals indefinitely as long as they keep investing in real estate. This amounts to an indefinite interest free loan from the government. Real estate is the only asset that gets this sweetheart deal.”
University of Southern California professor of public policy and director of the Homelessness Policy Research Institute, Gary Painter, told Fortune it’s likely that Biden is attempting to show that “people who have rental properties as investments ought not to be treated differently than people who are owner occupiers of their homes,” as notion of tax fairness, so to speak.
If the rules regarding how easily it is to move from one investment property to another change, you might just see fewer of those exchanges because investors won’t want to pay capital gains multiple times, Painter said. Not to mention that changing the law could make it more difficult to obtain financing because profit is essentially being reduced, which changes the value of properties like multifamily buildings. Painter later added that closing the 1031 exchange “doesn’t seem like the right thing to do right now,” and there are other opportunities for the government to close loopholes that don’t potentially impact the building of multifamily housing.
If an investor cannot afford to both pay the gun-weilding IRS and hire an employee, who do you think will come out on the short end of the stick?
The investor will keep as much money as he or she (and those, yes, are the only choices). The 87,000 IRS agents and their guns will get as much money as they can.
However, the person looking to hire on a secretarial help or whatever will be out of an opportunity.
On a crowded speedboat making a night crossing in rough waters off Colombia in January, Daniel Huang, a former Shanghai fitness trainer, began to regret his decision to try to enter the U.S. via Latin America.
He was soaked through by the crashing waves and he feared the boat would tip over. On his cellphone, he said he typed up a farewell note to his father to send if it seemed he wouldn’t make it to the shore on the Panamanian side, where he would start an arduous jungle trek.
(continued)
In the first three months of this year, 3,885 Chinese migrants crossed the Darien Gap, the 60 miles of so of treacherous terrain connecting Soouth and Central America. That compares with 2,005 for the full year in 2022, and just 376 Chinese total in the years from 2010 to 2021, according to Panama migration data.
A reporter released new video that appears to show hundreds of military-aged Chinese men in Panama heading toward the U.S. border.
Muckraker.com founder Anthony Rubin said on “Fox & Friends First” Wednesday that every day, multiple times a day, groups of men are lining up and getting on buses to continue their journeys.
Rubin described why these individuals are taking this route to get into the United States.
“This would be for people who can’t fly into the U.S. directly. So what they do is they get on a flight, and they fly into some South American country. Then from there, they would go to Colombia, they would go across the jungle, pop out in Panama, and then they would head up to the United States. But this is going to be for people that can’t fly into the U.S. directly. … You’d rather just fly into the U.S. and overstay your visa. This is for people that don’t have that access for whatever reason.”
Rubin said it’s fair to be concerned about the groups showing up at the Darien Gap at the Panama-Colombia border.
He said many of the people he filmed “do not want their faces on camera.”
“Either they are foreign actors that are coming over here for nefarious reasons. … or number two, these are people that are afraid of some sort of retribution by the Communist Chinese Party.
“If it’s number two, well then what does that mean? That means that these people are going to be beholden to the Communist Chinese Party once they’re here. Oh, you’re in the United States. Okay, well, we’re going to threaten your friends and family back home in China unless you do X, Y, and Z.
“Either way, it’s very dangerous. You can’t allow this to just continue and have all these people cross the border. I mean, it just will not work.”
Chinese nationals are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border into the U.S. in unprecedented numbers this year, with the first few months of FY 2023 already eclipsing the total for 2022.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reports that just under 2,000 Chinese nationals crossed the border in FY 2022, but the first few months of FY 2023 have already seen 4,300 encounters, according to federal data.
We cannot forget the 900% increase in illegal crossings by Chinese nationals reported by the CBP or the 183 Chinese nationals recently released into one sector of Texas
As reported by NewsNation, there has been a 900% increase in illegal crossings by Chinese Nationals.
Likewise, we cannot overlook the 183 Chinese nationals released by the Biden regime into the Brownsville (Texas) sector.
How can there be “just too little space to house” these illegal aliens from China?
…
Our second entrant has been going at it since July 2022
Nearly 22,000 Russians have tried to enter the US since Putin’s war draft
Nailia Manzurina’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered the moment she and her two young sons had to separate from her husband in their native Russia.
“Praise God it was just temporary,” she said as she wiped away tears.
It was late September 2022 and emotions were high in Russia because President Vladimir Putin had just imposed the country’s first military draft since World War II. Social media videos showed mothers and wives wailing as their loved ones were dragged into the war in Ukraine. Young men rushed to neighboring countries in droves to avoid getting pulled into the fight.
(continued)
They would become part of a vast wave of Russians seeking shelter from the war in the United States. Over the past six months, data posted by American border authorities shows that the number of Russian citizens they have encountered has nearly tripled: from 1,645 Russians in August 2022 (the month before Russia’s draft began) to 4,509 in January.
In total, nearly 22,000 Russians, including the Manzurins, have tried entering the United States through the country’s southern border since October 2022, the first full month after the draft was announced, according to the latest US Customs and Border Protection data.
When CNN starts painting Russians as victims, we know that the “Russia, Russia, Russia” narrative has been abandoned
Certainly, now CNN has found another cudgel for conservatives. Also, they seem to have created a new tack at trying to distract conservatives from the important points.
…
Now for the “other” category
The US southern border saw a growing number of migrants from Russia, Ukraine, and other distant countries last month
A growing number of migrants from Russia and Ukraine were discovered at the US-Mexico border last month, according to Department of Homeland Security data.
Axios reported that migrants from Mexico and the Northern Triangle – which consists of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador – have historically been the largest group of people at the border, but last month an uptick was caused by people traveling from other countries including some oceans away.
In December, over 2,000 Russians and 300 Ukrainians made their way to the border. Axios reported most of them had either arrived or were found at a legal port of entry in San Diego, California.
By comparison, only 53 Russians were found at the US-Mexico border in December of the previous year.
Russians and Ukrainians aren’t the only demographic of migrants making their way to the Southern border in large numbers: Over 800 people from India illegally crossed the border into Yuma, Arizona, Axios reported.
More than 500 Turkish migrants also crossed into El Paso, Texas. Migrants from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Venezuela made up close to 53,000 people who crossed the border, according to DHS data.
This trend also contributed to the record-breaking arrests at the Southern border in the 2021 fiscal year where 1.66 million people were arrested, Forbes reported.
During that fiscal year which ended in September 2021, Mexicans made up 36.6% of people apprehended at the border, Migrants from the Northern Triangle made up another 40%.
However, there were significant increases in migrants from other countries in Central America, as well as South America, Haiti, Cuba, and even far more distant countries.
While only 2,000 Nicaraguans were apprehended in 2020, close to 50,000 were apprehended in 2021, Border Patrol data showed. In another instance, close to 57,000 migrants from Brazil were apprehended in 2020, compared to just 7,000 in 2021.
I will vote for the “other” category and put forward the evidence of un-American “immigrants” mentioned in the speech by Senator Marsha Blackburn
Following is the entire speech by Senator Blackburn given on 17 April 2023. The bolded portions indicate the Biden regime’s tendency to bring in un-American illegal aliens. You need to get informed if you care about:
Americans,
Those who served in our armed services,
People overdosing on drugs that are not what they seem,
Children being trafficked.and
Gangs and criminals.
Speaker
Testimony
Sen. Marsha Blackburn
Just before Easter, the Biden administration released a report that they claim vindicates their role in our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. But, rather than laying out the facts and embracing accountability, the Biden administration returned to its default setting of blaming Donald Trump for their problems.
They claim that, because Trump did not provide them with a plan for every contingency, the Biden White House should be allowed to wash its hands of the mess that they’ve made. Now you would think that anyone who witnessed mothers throwing their children over barbed wire fences into the arms of our soldiers would at least hesitate before making excuses for the terrible decision-making that led to those images.
Biden and his team are kidding themselves if they think we’ve forgotten what happened, but the American people are not fooled. They remember that it was Joe Biden who chose to close Bagram Airfield, that it was Joe Biden who set an arbitrary evacuation deadline even though his military generals begged him not to do will-this (and that is was Joe Biden who surrendered control of Karzai International Airport and handed over the names of American citizens, green card holders, and our Afghan partners) — handed this information over to the Taliban.
We saw the catastrophes unfold at the airfield and in the cities and we’ve seen what the Biden administration has done. They have ignored it ever since. Afghanistan fell back into the Dark Ages, 23 million people are going hungry, 20 million Afghan women are subjugated under the Taliban’s medieval boot.
On the day the evacuation officially ended, there were at least 4,000 Americans left behind (that’s right, Madam President) LEFT BEHIND in Afghanistan and today our best guess is that there are around 175 still stranded there. Some of them are being held captive by the Taliban — 78,000 of our Afghan partners remain in hiding, many being hunted by the Taliban.
Yes, Madam President, that is the mess that this administration that Joe Biden made, and on his way out the door, Biden also left behind at least $7.2 billion of American weaponry, including aircraft, vehicles, and guns. Some of which has cropped up in the hands of militants in other countries. That is $7.2 billion of equipment, part of the $80 billion investment there at the airfield. What did Joe Biden do? There you go (waving hands to indicate giving away) there you go, take it: Bhagram, the investment in training, the investment in the troops, in the infrastructure, and all of that equipment.
Now, just imagine for a moment that you are one of our allies watching all of this unfold. It would cause you to be worried, and rightfully so. Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan damaged America’s image on the world stage and sent once-strong alliances into a tailspin. Some of our most important allies now believe that the United States is weak, that we’re unreliable, that we’re undependable.
Now, this is what has emboldened what i term as the new axis of evil: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. They think they’ve got running room because of the way the Afghan withdrawal was conducted.
Beijing wasted no time normalizing relations with the Taliban by offering multimillion dollar investments through the Chinese belt-and-road initiative. The CCP knows what it’s doing here. Afghanistan has $1 trillion in untapped resources that communist China has already signed a deal to extract.
Since then, they have increased their aggression against Taiwan and elsewhere around the globe and the Biden administration has had very little to say about it. An emboldened China going after the $1 trillion — lithium (Afghanistan) — rare earth minerals (Afghanistan). That is why the Chinese communist party has inked that deal.
Oh, what did they do with it? Let’s make chips, let’s make batteries. Oh, what are we making those batteries for? Electric vehicles. How about that? How about that? This is what has emboldened the CCP. Afghanistan was a disaster. It was based on the decision-making of this administration. So the CCP is encouraging Russia, Iran, North Korea to join them in that axis of evil and push to global dominance.
The CCP even let a spy balloon sashay all the way across this country. We know it pulled intelligence. We know it went across much of our critical infrastructure. What do my colleagues across the aisle have to say? Not much. Not much. They don’t want to challenge the CCP and communist China and Russia and Iran and North Korea. It makes you wonder.
Meanwhile, North Korea has leaned into their ballistic missile program and Iran has openly celebrated a dangerous milestone: they are now technically cable of building multiple nuclear weapons. That’s right. They are pushing their nuclear development program. Not to be outdone, just six months after Biden surrendered to the Taliban, Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine and launched the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
This is not a coincidence. Biden knows he has no one to blame but himself and his officials for this. This is the mess that they have made because of the decisions that they have made. But there’s been no accountability. There has been no justice for the 13 service members murdered by terrorists during those final chaotic days in Kabul. And, Madam President, I think it’s clear if things keep going the way they are, there won’t be accountability because this administration will not admit they made a mistake.
If there’s any truth to be gleaned from the administration’s report, it’s that Joe Biden hasn’t learned any lessons from what will certainly remember as one of the worst foreign policy disasters in our nation’s history. The Biden administration will go down in history for failing our allies and our partners. They’re questioning — they’re questioning if they should be our ally and partner. The Biden administration will be remembered for destroying what was a robust economy, for kowtowing to social justice warriors, and — of course — committing to outrageous policy proposals that insult the intelligence of the American people.
The Department of Homeland Security’s recent budget request is no exception to the rule. This year instead of asking for more money to equip law enforcement and secure our southern border, Joe Biden and Secretary Mayorkas decided to undercut that mission by $600 million. That is right.
The border’s wide open. We have a Secretary of Homeland Security that does not believe in securing the homeland. So what does the Secretary and the President do? They cut the budget for securing the border by $600 million.
This is something that is so unfair to our border patrol. We’re only halfway through the fiscal year and already customs and border protection has recorded more than one million migrant encounters at the Southern border, that’s right one million. That’s not counting the got-aways, the ones they see but can’t get to, or the ones later where they find where they’ve been but they could not get to them. This is one million encounters on that border.
Now, they have also seized 105,000 pounds of drugs, including enough fentanyl to kill several cities. Almost 11,000 pounds of fentanyl in five short months. And, get this, they caught 268 gang members, more than 11,000 criminal noncitizens and almost 300 terrorists trying to sneak into this country. Now, this those are not my numbers. Those are not some pundit’s numbers. Those are the stats that are coming from the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol. That’s their numbers. They’re telling us this.
Do people agree with this? Do they think this is secure border policy? Listen to these numbers again. 105,000 pounds of drugs, 11,000 pounds of fentanyl, 268 gang members, 11,000 criminal noncitizens. These are people that have been convicted of crimes. Madam president, these are the people that are being turned out of the jails in countries. Last year 176 different countries had people present at that southern border. This year so far you’ve got 11,000 criminal noncitizens and almost 300 terrorists trying to come in this country.
Now, ask yourself a question. What in heaven’s name do you think they are coming here for? Why are they sneaking in the country? Do you think it’s because they know they wouldn’t be able to come in? Do you think they’re coming for a job or are they coming to do us harm?
We should be outraged — outraged and concerned. Alarms should be blaring at the department of homeland security. Right now the Biden administration is just rolling out the red carpet.
They are issuing an open invitation. Indeed, they said we’ve got an app to make it easy for you to come. Go on your iPhone, sign in on the app, we’ll be waiting for you when you get here. Does that sound like securing the country?
Criminal noncitizens, terrorists, gang members. These are the people that are coming in. Cartel smugglers who will taking this administration up on their invitation. Come on in. Now, every year in Tennessee, I visit with each one of our 95 counties. I’m on the ground in every county in the state. And this year, without exception, the mayors and the sheriffs, and the other officials that I’m speaking with, talking with principals, talking with citizens. And you know what? Border security comes up in every single one of these meetings.
And the reason it comes up, Madam President, is because of this administration’s policies turning every town into a border town and every state into a border state. And now it is the local officials and local law enforcement officers who are left to deal with the broken policies of this administration. If you ask them what the biggest problem is, they’re going to tell you, “Well, Marsha, it connects back to the border because the drugs we’re apprehending are coming across the southern border and 95% of those drugs, they’re fentanyl, and it drives crime in our communities. There are gang members coming into these communities.”
Now, here’s a great example of this. Hamilton County, Tennessee, that is Chattanooga, a great city. And their District Attorney (Cody Wamp) and Sheriff Garrett, there in Hamilton County, they were showing me some pictures from one of their drug busts. These rainbow fentanyl pills that were specifically manufactured to look like oxycontin. Rainbow fentanyl. Now, officers there in Chattanooga found more than 1,000 of these pills in a single search. That is enough to take out the entire city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. They weren’t expecting to find fentanyl when they were executing that warrant, but that doesn’t mean they were surprised. This is a persistent problem in Chattanooga. Thank goodness a great sheriff, a great D.A. working together, great officers, and they conducted this bust. This is what they found. And we have great local law enforcement all across the state of Tennessee.
And they will tell you fentanyl overdose deaths are occurring at such a rate that law enforcement does not have all the resources they need to investigate all the cases. Now, this is just one story from one law enforcement entity in one city. But, Madam President, the danger is this is occurring in every city, in every county, in each of our states. And it is happening because President Biden and my Democratic colleagues have refused to support securing the border. And they refuse to hold themselves accountable for the humanitarian crisis that this has created.
When Secretary Becerra testified before the finance committee about the department of health and human services budget request, he betrayed the same disregard for basic human decency as Secretary Mayorkas had. He used the opportunity to push his woke agenda items rather than focus on core operations of the agency. Frankly, it’s sad that even a question about whether a senate-confirmed secretary is familiar with his own job description, especially when he can’t answer basic questions about what’s happening at the agency he supposedly controls.
At the end of February, the New York Times reported that over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration has lost — that’s right, lost more than 85,000 children who were under the care of the office of refugee resettlement. You heard me right. This administration has lost 85,000 children who were under the care of the office of refugee resettlement. To be clear, this is the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that is directly responsible for unaccompanied children who come across the border. And now we know that this agency has lost immediate contact with one-third of the children they’re responsible for.
The Times also reported that the office of refugee resettlement may have approved sponsors who were under investigation for labor abuses and that case management officers may have been aware of children in dangerous situations, but they chose to do nothing. During his hearing, I asked Secretary Becerra about this frankly horrifying revelation. And he did exactly what his compatriots have done when confronted with their failures. He feigned ignorance. He claimed he never heard of those 85,000 missing children. Joe Biden and the democrats may be happy to pretend that we don’t have a problem down on the border but the American people are not pretending that this not a problem. They watched President Biden throw away border security policies that were working in favor of an open border’s agenda that benefits no one except the drug cartels, the sex trafficking rings that are abusing women and girls.
The human traffickers that are smuggling people, preying on people, and physically, mentally, emotionally, drug, sexually abusing them as they make their journey. It’s time to put politics aside and get serious about securing this border, and I encourage my colleagues, please join us in securing this border. Join us in saying let’s enforce the laws we have on the books. Join us in saying let’s eliminate the policies that incentivize breaking the law. Let’s stand for the rule of law.
Earlier this year, I introduced the Stop Taxpayer Funding of Traffickers Act which would prohibit anyone charged with drug or human trafficking from receiving federal government benefits while they await trial. We could pass this bill today and we should pass it because it would make a difference. When i talk to local law enforcement, when i say what would be a way to help, this is the idea they gave me. It’s a problem that they have because many of these traffickers are getting government benefits. And we need to stop that today.
We should also return to the Remain in Mexico policy. We should end Catch and Release.
And last but not least, let’s get back to building that barrier. Border patrol has told us for 30 years they need a physical barrier where they can have a barrier and where they can’t, they need better technology. They need more officers, more agents, more manpower, and resources so that they can do their job, so they can protect this nation’s sovereignty, so they can protect our citizens. That’s it. These are the things that would be a solution to helping rid this country of this fentanyl crisis, to helping rid this country of the gangs, the terrorists that are flooding into our country, the criminals coming into this country. This is something that should have bipartisan agreement. We should do this. Now, the Biden administration has touted its various white house staff and cabinet nominees as being the most diverse in our nation’s history. But they also have one thing in common.
Their priorities are at odds with what the American people are saying they want. Secretary Mayorkas refuses to do his job and secure the border, even though local law enforcement officials are begging him for help. Secretary Becerra can’t be bothered to offer so much as a talking point on behalf of 85,000 missing children. Attorney general garland has weaponized the law against conservatives and created two tiers of justice, one for the liberal elite and one for everybody else. Biden’s nominee to lead the FAA withdrew in disgrace. His most recent nominee to the FCC has dedicated her career to violating the first amendment. His transportation secretary is perpetually missing in action. And the pentagon has yet to hold anyone accountable for one of the worst foreign policy disasters in American history. And, yes, that would be Afghanistan. The mainstream media loves to complain that the American people have lost all faith in institutions. But i would ask that media to just stop, look at what joe Biden’s government has done to the country, and ask themselves are we safer and more secure than we were four years ago. I yield the floor.
Harris County has filed a lawsuit against the Texas attorney general to fight ABC13 from getting records related to the November midterm elections.
In less than four weeks, Harris County voters will once again head to the polls. It comes at a time when we’re waiting to find out what happened during the previous election.
During the midterm, some polling locations opened late, and others ran out of paper. An election assessment was vague on specifics.
This is why Eyewitness News asked for documents. Now, the county may use taxpayer money to fight us from getting the records.
“Ninety-nine times out of 100, the government agency turns the information over,” Associate Attorney Kelsey Galbraith explained. “Unfortunately, that 1% of the time, things like this happen.”
Five months ago, ABC13 asked for midterm planning documents and communication between county leaders. The county asked the Texas attorney general to decline our request citing lawsuits the county faced during the election.
Last month, the attorney general ruled against the county. This means the county had 30 days to release records or file a lawsuit.
Wednesday was the deadline. ABC13 learned the county filed a lawsuit against the attorney general.
“They can ask a court in Travis County to look at all of the documents in camera, basically in the judge’s chambers, not publicly, and decide if the attorney general got it right or got it wrong,” Galbraith said.
This doesn’t happen often. Last year, the attorney general made 40,000 of these rulings. Less than 1% were challenged.
Legal experts said a lawsuit could mean the records aren’t released for months or even years.
If it smells like cheating, feels like cheating, looks like cheating, sounds like cheating, and tastes like cheating
There have to be reasons beyond the coming lawsuits by the candidates. Mind you, if the county feels nervous about having to disclose matters to the candidates who feel they got cheated out of an election, then maybe there might be some reason for that nervousness.
The problem with having cheaters in charge of a county is that the system was (as John Adams observed) “made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” If you would look at the junkets that Ms Hidalgo takes on a weekly basis and the monies she lays aside for her personal protection (well above the protection previously provided by the County Constables to other Commissioners Court judges), you would know that this government in Harris County does not fall under the jurisdiction of a moral nor religious leadership. …
Houston CBS affiliate KHOU joins lawsuit filed to release Harris County election records from 2022 midterms
State investigations leading up to the election and election-day issues with paper ballot shortages and turned-away voters promoted KHOU 11 Investigates to file eight public records requests with Harris County in October and November of last year. The county appealed to the Texas Attorney General, which ruled that the information should be released. Instead, Harris County filed a lawsuit against the AG to continue to withhold records.
KHOU 11 intervened in that lawsuit last week, asking for the release of records related to its eight requests.
Seven of KHOU 11 Investigates’ requests were listed in the lawsuit as of April 12. Those requests include information about the complaints made to the Elections Security Hotline, call logs for the election judge and technician support lines, a list of election workers and assignments, activity logs for election technicians, information about paper ballot allocation, text messages and emails by the Harris County elections administrator and records of write-in votes.
Aside from the requests cited in the lawsuit, Harris County has also refused to release the remaining request for payroll records for county employees who worked the election.
The county argued that the records should not be released because of ongoing litigation and the Secretary of State’s ongoing Harris County election audit, which it claims makes many records “audit working papers” exempt from the Texas Public Information Act, according to court records.
The Attorney General denied these claims in court filings and asked the judge to declare the information is subject to disclosure.
Along with KHOU’s requests, 32 other election-related requests from unnamed people and organizations are challenged by Harris County in the lawsuit.
Many migrants have 
The gunman who 
Sixteen-year-old scholar Dennis Maliq Barnes has been offered a record-breaking 
A high school librarian in New Jersey is suing two mothers for raising objections about sexually-graphic books in their children’s school library. The mothers declared that they would not be intimidated and urged other guardians to speak out alongside them.
The wailing you heard across the land Tuesday afternoon was the sound of thousands of journalists lamenting the settlement of the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News. An entire industry of reporters has been denied the schadenfreude of seeing their hated political and media competitor in the dock. An hilariously revealing courtroom account in Politico laments that “hopes were dashed — dreams torpedoed” by the settlement.
