Category: media bias

A good place for the House investigations to begin


The ultra-lib (Sam Bankman-Fried) who took the millions invested in crypto with him to become the second-largest Democrat donor goes bankrupt

Breitbart reports on the fawning adulation of Sam Bankman-Fried by the New York Times.

The New York Times appears to be treating disgraced crypto CEO and Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried, accused of mishandling FTX customer investments on a massive scale, with kid gloves.

With questions still swirling about the amount of customer money lost and potentially misused by Bankman-Fried, the New York Times obtained access to the crypto CEO for a one-on-one interview, only to deliver little but softball questions.

Throughout the article, the Times presented Bankman-Fried’s downfall not as the result of irresponsible and potentially criminal decisions, but as honest investment mistakes.

The Times switches between softball characterizations of the crypto CEO’s activities as “expand[ing] his business interests too quickly,” and highlighting his “ambitious philanthropic operation,” along with an inexplicable ending focused on his personal hobbies, such as playing the video game Storybook Brawl, without mentioning FTX owns the game’s developer.

(Read more at Breitbart)

Since the media has convinced so many that, with the FBI holding onto the Hunter laptop since before 2020, the FBI must surely have a case in waiting — surely starting on this would not cause problems for the Democrats

If those Democrats have problems with digging into the Biden’s money tree, surely now the Democrats will not have a problem with an investigation of their most recent money tree.

…

Beleaguered crypto billionaire was hobnobbing at White House just six months ago

Washington Free Beacon points out how Sam Bankman-Fried came to be a Democrat powerhouse.

A cryptocurrency billionaire facing federal investigation for mishandling customer funds had high-level White House meetings just months ago, as Congress was debating how to regulate his company—and just weeks before he pledged to donate up to $1 billion to Democrats ahead of the midterm campaign.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the owner of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, met on April 22 and May 12 with top Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti, according to White House visitor logs reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. At the time, FTX was lobbying Congress and federal agencies to shape regulation of the crypto industry.

The meetings are likely to raise questions about the extent to which Bankman-Fried used the promise of political donations to nudge Democrats toward helping his firm. FTX is teetering on the brink of insolvency after announcing it could not fulfill its customers’ withdrawal request due to lack of funds. Bankman-Fried lost nearly all of his $16 billion fortune in the liquidity crunch. And his troubles might get worse. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are investigating whether FTX mishandled customer deposits in order to prop up the 30-year-old entrepreneur’s hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to Bloomberg News.

It is a remarkable fall for Bankman-Fried, who has emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s biggest campaign donors. He gave more than $5 million to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, and has given millions more this cycle to the Democratic Party. In early May, between his first two visits to the White House, Bankman-Fried doled out $865,000 to the DNC, according to Federal Election Commission records. Earlier, in March, he cut three checks totalling $66,500 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, and later in June he sent $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He said in June, weeks after his most recent White House meeting, that he might give up to $1 billion to support Democrats in the midterms, though he backed away from that pledge in September.

Amid the political spending, Bankman-Fried has led an aggressive lobbying campaign in Washington related to cryptocurrency regulation. He met with Ricchetti, the White House counselor, on April 22 and May 12, according to visitor logs. He met on May 13 with Charlotte Butash, a policy adviser to the White House deputy chief of staff.

Bankman-Fried was accompanied in some of the meetings by Mark Wetjen, the head of policy and regulatory strategy at FTX, who served as commissioner on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under former president Barack Obama. Eliora Katz, FTX’s chief lobbyist, also attended the meetings but did not mention lobbying the White House in disclosures filed with Congress.

Bankman-Fried’s meetings came weeks after White House officials met with his brother, who directs the billionaire’s political operations. Gabe Bankman-Fried visited the White House on March 7 along with Jenna Narayanan, a Democratic strategist who once worked for Tom Steyer and the Democracy Alliance, a network of wealthy liberal donors who fund left-wing causes. Gabe also attended the May 13 meeting with his brother and FTX’s lobbyists.

Bankman-Fried has made no secret of his plans to influence policymakers. He told former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in an interview last month that he has traveled to Washington, D.C., “every two or three weeks for the last year” to lobby for cryptocurrency regulations. Omitting the fact that he had donated significant amounts of money to the lawmakers he lobbied, Bankman-Fried said he was pleasantly surprised at the progress he had made.

(Read more at the Washington Free Beacon)

Odd that Bankman-Fried only came to light once he ran out of money and after financing the last Democrat defense against the red wave

You would almost think that Democrats are more worried about retaining power than they are about protecting the wealth of common people who invest with guys like Bankman-Fried.

…

Oops. Sam Bankman-Fried’s implosion took down Democrats’ second-biggest donor with it as the party gears up to regulate crypto

Fortune Magazine lays out how Sam Bankman-Fried distributed money through the Democrat machine (to the loss of his investors).

Fewer names have been bigger in cryptocurrencies this year than Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of crypto exchange FTX. So when it became clear this week that the curly-haired billionaire and his exchange faced a liquidity crunch, he was no longer a billionaire, and his exchange likely wasn’t solvent, it cast a shadow over the entire crypto space and sent digital currencies plummeting.

It cast a shadow in Washington, D.C., too.

The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried has been a major force in Democratic politics, ranking as the party’s second-biggest individual donor in the 2021–2022 election cycle, according to Open Secrets, with donations totaling $39.8 million. That ranks only behind George Soros (about $128 million) but ahead of many other big names, including Michael Bloomberg ($28.3 million). What’s more, he had promised to spend far more on Democrats moving forward, predicting in May that he’d fund “north of $100 million” and had a “soft ceiling” of $1 billion for the 2024 elections.

That doesn’t look nearly as likely now. He backed away from the prediction last month, describing it as “dumb” to Politico, and on Tuesday his net worth fell from $15.6 billion to potentially below $1 billion, which Bloomberg called the biggest one-day collapse it had ever seen among billionaires. Rumors are now flying in the cryptosphere that he may even go bankrupt.

Federal regulators are now reportedly investigating FTX to determine whether it harmed clients or broke financial regulations after FTX’s implosion, as it saw $5 billion of withdrawals on Sunday alone, many of them prompted by a tweet from the CEO of rival exchange Binance that he was dumping FTX-linked coins. Binance then seemed to come to FTX’s rescue on Tuesday before ditching its 11th-hour bid to buy FTX the very next day. Cryptocurrency prices fell amid concerns about FTX’s solvency and fears of a possible contagion. It’s a head-spinning turn of events for FTX, which was valued north of $30 billion at its peak; and for the crypto space, which has declined in value from $3 trillion to below $2 trillion during this year’s Crypto Winter.

(Read more at Fortune Magazine)

Therefore, as soon as the first bills come up, we need to be hyper-vigilant to make certain that crypto does not get deregulated

We already see the problems with crypto that has not been closely regulated.

We just need to make certain that this does not morph into a “Democrats release felons” story.

…

 

Wray refuses to answer questions regarding FBI entrapment on 6 January 2021


Wray refuses to answer whether he had FBI agents dressed as Trump supporters on 6 January 2021

The Epoch Times reports that FBI Director Wray has refused to answer a key set of questions regarding the 6 January 2021 riots.

The FBI’s director on Nov. 15 declined to answer when he was asked whether the bureau had confidential informants among the supporters of then-President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Did the FBI have confidential human sources embedded within the Jan. 6 protesters on Jan. 6 of 2021?” Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) asked Christopher Wray, the director and a Trump appointee, during a hearing in Washington.

“As I’m sure you can appreciate, I have to be very careful about what I can say, about when we do and do not, and where we have and have not used confidential human sources,” Wray said.

“But to the extent there’s a suggestion, for example, that the FBI’s confidential human sources or FBI employees in someway instigated or orchestrated Jan 6th, that’s categorically false,” he added.

Higgins then asked, “Did you have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol on January 6th prior to the doors being opened?”

“Again, I have to be very careful about what I can say,” Wray said.

“It should be a no!” Higgins said.

“Can you not tell the American people: ‘no, we did not have confidential human sources dressed as Trump sources positioned inside the Capitol on January the 6th?’” Higgins said.

“You should not read anything into my decision not to share information about confidential human sources,” Wray said.

(Read more at The Epoch Times)

If the FBI had not recently predominated the team that kidnapped Governor Whitmer, then maybe we could skip this.

If the majority of those who went in to “kidnap” Governor Whitmer had not been on the payroll of the FBI, then maybe we could overlook this. If the FBI had run raids on other presidents before they showed up at Mar-a-Lago, then I might be more sympathetic to them.

If it had not just been a few years since the FBI entrapped General Flynn for doing the duties of his job, then maybe. However, since there has been a pattern of entrapping Americans while releasing terrorists (time and time again), we should consider dissolving this department. There are law enforcement branches out there with honest leadership.

…

 

Stories about election night that will brighten the conservative’s day


GOP takes out 6 January panel member Representative Jan Luria

The Hill informs us of the additional benefit of having removed 6 January panel member Representative Jan Luria.

Virginia state Sen. Jen Kiggans (R) is projected to win the race for the Old Dominion’s 2nd Congressional District, defeating incumbent and Jan. 6 panel member Rep. Elaine Luria (D).

The Associated Press called the race at 11:03 p.m.

Luria’s loss is likely to be hailed by former President Trump, who had attacked her in various rallies for GOP candidates as he criticized the panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Kiggans, a U.S. Navy veteran who was first elected to the Virginia state Senate in 2019, largely focused her campaign on economic issues, with inflation at a decades-high level. She also tied Luria to President Biden, who has faced low approval numbers amid the poor economic environment.

The race was rated a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. Trump won the district by just over 3 percentage points in 2016, while Biden in 2020 secured a victory by almost 5 percentage points.

This year’s redistricting, however, made the district more Republican, moving it from an R+2 lean to an R+6 and creating a more difficult environment for Luria to prevail. The new lines also include Suffolk, Va., which has a Black population of 40 percent.

Luria largely focused her campaign on military and veterans issues, tapping into her background, and abortion, which became top of mind for Democrats this summer after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.

She has also warned about the threat to American democracy, leaning into her spot on the Jan. 6 panel.

(Read more sniveling and whining at The Hill)

From the numerous photos of the former candidate and the glowing description of her, one has to wonder whether these writers also worked for her campaign

You would think that the Democrats at this media outlet still want to convince us to keep out eyes off of the economy and watch the 6 January show trial.

Truth is, I think that the get-out-the-vote software companies funded by Hidalgo and similar Democrats will prove a bigger influence and a bigger story.

…

GOP grows support among Black, Hispanic, youth voting blocs according to exit polls

The Daily Wire points to an exit poll showing increased support for the GOP among Black, Hispanic, youth voting blocs.

The 2022 midterm elections didn’t exactly go as expected for Republicans, but there was some good news in the data collected in exit polls.

While Democrats won 76% of the black men’s vote in 2018, that margin was cut to 65% in 2022, an 11% boost for the GOP. Republicans also picked up an additional 7% from black women, according to exit poll data collected by CNN.

Democrats enjoyed a 29% edge among Latino men in 2018, but that was slashed to just 8% this time around. Latino women support also rose 14%.

Republicans also cut their margin of support from voters aged 18-29. In 2018, Democrats were +35% from that voting bloc, but that was cut to 28% in 2022. Support from 30-44 years old also went from +19 to +4.

The GOP made other inroads. Democrats enjoyed a +19 margin from women in 2018, but that fell to just +8 this year.

“When Democrats took control of the House after the 2018 election, a little more than half of voters were women and the party had a huge advantage among them. Even though women represented a similar majority of voters in 2022, Democrats’ lead appears to be cut noticeably,” CNN reported.

Republicans grew their support among men. In 2018, Republicans were +4 over Democrats. This time around, that number soared to +14.

There was another startling finding in the exit poll data. Democrats enjoyed a +33 margin among urban voters in the last midterms, but that fell to just 17% this midterm.

(Read more at the Daily Wire)

Don’t you know that CNN was galled to report this?

They likely buried the lead on this one very quickly.

…

Here’s how much campaign cash Beto O’Rourke has burned losing races up and down the ballot

Fox News reports on how much money Robert Frances “Beto” O’Rourke has gone through in all of his failed attempts at office over the years.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, has burned roughly $175 million running unsuccessful campaigns for a series of different offices in just four years.

O’Rourke — who previously represented a congressional district in El Paso, Texas, between 2013 and 2019 — lost his most recent bid for higher office Tuesday, falling to incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, by a significant margin, the Fox News Decision Desk projected. The failed run for governor of Texas marks O’Rourke’s third unsuccessful bid for a high-profile political office since 2018.

The former congressman lost a race to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, by more than 200,000 votes in 2018 and bowed out of the 2020 presidential race in November 2019 before the Democratic primaries started due to his low polling numbers.

“With each new race he loses it becomes more difficult to convince voters and persuade them that he can still win the next race,” Sharon Navarro, a University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist, told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday evening. 

“That’s a very difficult barrier to overcome for a third-time loser.”

While O’Rourke has lost three different races in three consecutive election cycles, he has racked up massive, and sometimes record-breaking, campaign contributions.

In 2018, O’Rourke’s campaign for Senate raised a whopping $80.3 million, according to Federal Election Commission data. The massive sum included a record-shattering $38.1 million quarterly haul raised between July 2018 and September 2018. 

O’Rourke raised another $18.6 million during his short-lived presidential campaign, which lasted a mere seven months.

And during the 2022 gubernatorial campaign, O’Rourke set more records, pulling in more than $76 million in the year since he announced his intention to run for the seat, The Texas Tribune reported. The $27.6 million his campaign raised between February and June was the largest quarterly figure ever recorded in Texas.

(Read more at Fox News)

People can almost warm their hands to that pile of burning Democrat cash

It warms the cockles of your heart to think of the successful Democrat campaigns this money might otherwise been sent. It seems that Beto might actually be an answer to Republican prayers (in that he killed more dreams of Democrats by burning the money himself).

…

 

More news repressed by the liberal media


News that shows the Biden regime cannot quit from fail mode

The Biden regime launches an “Environmental Justice” office

The Washington Free Beacon reveals the Biden regime’s launch of its “Environmental Justice” office.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Saturday launched a new office that will be focused on the needs of minority communities overburdened by pollution and oversee the delivery of $3 billion in environmental justice grants created by the recent passage of new climate legislation.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, which will be staffed by 200 EPA employees and led by a not-yet-announced Senate-confirmed assistant administrator.

He launched the new office at an event in Warren County, North Carolina, which was the site of protests 40 years ago that is regarded as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement.

“With the launch of a new national program office, we are embedding environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of EPA and ensuring that people who’ve struggled to have their concerns addressed see action to solve the problems they’ve been facing for generations,” Regan said in a statement.

It was the latest move by the Biden administration to prioritize environmental justice in its policymaking. The Justice Department in May announced the launch of a new office to help low-income areas and communities of color battle the disproportionate impact of air and water pollution.

President Joe Biden has often cited protecting poor and minority communities from industrial pollution as a top priority and has pledged that 40% of federal clean energy investments will be channeled to the cause.

(Read more at the Washington Free Beacon)

If Joe cannot get his eyes onto the real target (the economy), he always has the press to cover for him

It seems that, if bumbling Joe cannot do anything to improve the economy (or at least take steps toward doing that), he only has the main stream press to cover for him. Hopefully the alternative press will be able to pull back the curtain (as it has with these articles and the ones that find their ways into conservative blogs like Bunkerville, Not of this World, and others).

…

News that obviously untrustworthy due to the history of lies within Facebook

Meta says it disables the Russian and Chinese propaganda permeating Facebook

The Los Angeles Times blindly parrots the claims by Meta (formerly Facebook) as it claims to clean up its act prior to the 2022 mid-term elections.

A sprawling disinformation network originating in Russia sought to use hundreds of fake social media accounts and dozens of sham news websites to spread the Kremlin’s talking points about the invasion of Ukraine, Facebook parent company Meta said Tuesday.

The company, which also owns Instagram, said it identified and disabled the operation before it was able to gain a large audience. Nonetheless, Facebook said it was the largest and most complex Russian propaganda effort that it has found since the invasion began in February.

The operation involved more than 60 websites created to mimic legitimate news sites including the Guardian newspaper in Britain and Germany’s Der Spiegel. Instead of the actual news reported by those outlets, the fake sites contained links to Russian propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine. More than 1,600 fake Facebook accounts were used to spread the propaganda to audiences in Germany, Italy, France, Britain and Ukraine.

The findings highlighted both the promise of social media companies to police their sites and the peril that disinformation continues to pose.

“Video: False Staging in Bucha Revealed!” claimed one of the fake news stories, which blamed Ukraine for the slaughter of hundreds of Ukrainians in a town occupied by the Russians.

The fake social media accounts were then used to spread links to the fake news stories and other pro-Russian posts and videos on Facebook and Instagram, as well as platforms including Telegram and Twitter. The network was active throughout the summer.

“On a few occasions, the operation’s content was amplified by the official Facebook pages of Russian embassies in Europe and Asia,” said David Agranovich, Meta’s director of threat disruption. “I think this is probably the largest and most complex Russian-origin operation that we’ve disrupted since the beginning of the war in Ukraine earlier this year.”

The network’s activities were first noticed by investigative reporters in Germany. When Meta began its investigation, it found that many of the fake accounts had already been removed by Facebook’s automated systems. Thousands of people were following the network’s Facebook pages when they were deactivated earlier this year.

(continued)

Researchers at Meta Platforms, which is based in Menlo Park, also exposed a much smaller network that originated in China and attempted to spread divisive political content in the U.S.

(Read more at the Los Angeles Times)

Of course, this may be a shell game

As many times as Facebook has lied, worked against us, and worked for the communists, this deserves a second and third consideration before giving them slack.

…

News that reveals the deception inherent to Facebook

Facebook spied on private messages of Americans who questioned the 2020 election

The New York Post tells how Facebook dug into private messages that centered on rejection of the 2020 election.

Facebook has been spying on the private messages and data of American users and reporting them to the FBI if they express anti-government or anti-authority sentiments — or question the 2020 election — according to sources within the Department of Justice.

Under the FBI collaboration operation, somebody at Facebook red-flagged these supposedly subversive private messages over the past 19 months and transmitted them in redacted form to the domestic terrorism operational unit at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC, without a subpoena.

“It was done outside the legal process and without probable cause,” alleged one of the sources, who spoke on condition of ­anonymity.

“Facebook provides the FBI with private conversations which are protected by the First Amendment without any subpoena.”

These private messages then have been farmed out as “leads” to FBI field offices around the country, which subsequently requested subpoenas from the partner US Attorney’s Office in their district to officially obtain the private conversations that Facebook already had shown them.

But when the targeted Facebook users were investigated by agents in a local FBI field office, sometimes using covert surveillance techniques, nothing criminal or violent turned up.

(Read more at the New York Post)

Facebook, like the FBI, does not deserve too many more chances

I believe in second chances. However, I also believe in discernment and wisdom.

When it comes to organizations, there is a time for disbandment.

…

News that would show how easily the Biden actions would be to overturn

New lawsuit challenges the legality of Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan

Reason.com reports on a lawsuit filed against the Biden student loan forgiveness plan.

President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars in student loan debt violates both federal law and the Constitution, according to a just-filed lawsuit from the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a libertarian law firm.

“This isn’t how laws are supposed to be made,” Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney for PLF, tells Reason. “Only Congress has the power to pass laws and spend money under the Constitution. The administration’s actions here are flagrantly illegal.”

This is the first serious challenge to Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, which he announced last month. The lawsuit’s plaintiff is Frank Garrison, who’s also an attorney at PLF. Garrison borrowed federal student loans to pay for law school, but according to him, Biden’s debt forgiveness plan will actually subject him to a financial penalty in the form of a state tax. This gives him standing to sue the U.S. Education Department, his lawsuit argues.

“Despite the staggering scope of this regulatory action, it was taken with breathtaking informality and opacity,” the lawsuit claims. “In the rush, the administration has created new problems for borrowers in at least six states that tax loan cancellation as income.”

(Read more at Reason.com)

With this lawsuit being filed on 27 September 2022, I hope it will work in time

Considering the magnitude of the Biden dictum, I hope that the Supreme Court puts this on a fast track.

…

News that shows the naked partisanship within Biden

Biden calls Florida mayors but not DeSantis as Hurricane Ian nears

The New York Post points out how Biden called Democrat mayors in Florida but refused to call (my original wording due to the original story early in the evening of 27 September) held off a call to Governor DeSantis as Hurricane Ian approaches.

President Biden called three Florida mayors Tuesday as Hurricane Ian nears Florida’s western coast — hours before reaching out to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, with whom he has clashed on issues such as COVID-19 policies and migration.

As the devastating Category 3 storm approached, Biden first spoke with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch and Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard. Castor and Welch are Democrats, while Hibbard is a Republican.

The president waited until Tuesday night to phone DeSantis.

The two discussed “the steps the Federal government is taking to help Florida prepare for Hurricane Ian,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. “The President and the Governor committed to continued close coordination.”

DeSantis is a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate and has frequently criticized Biden’s performance.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her regular press briefing that Biden “held separate calls” with the mayors and “discussed planning and preparation for Hurricane Ian.”

Biden “underscored his commitment to the people of Florida and made clear that impacted communities will have the full support of the federal government to augment state and local emergency response efforts,” Jean-Pierre added.

Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, joined Biden for his calls with the mayors and Criswell said Biden delegated to her the responsibility of liaising with DeSantis on Friday.

“The president directed me to contact the governor early on before we even did the declaration. I did that,” she said. “My regional administrator is with the governor right now making sure that we’re understanding what the needs are and our focus is on the current life safety needs.”

(Read more at the New York Post)

Can you imagine the backlash had George W. Bush refused to call a Democrat governor?

If Reagan had refused to deal with a Democrat governor during his last year of his presidency, would we still be hearing about it in the press?

…

News that shows the dictatorial tendencies of Joe Biden when he uses executive orders more than Trump

Biden-era Democrats learn to love emergency powers after hating them under Trump

The Washington Examiner lays out a case for the over-use of executive orders by Joe Biden.

A sizable group of Democratic politicians have pressured President Joe Biden to declare national emergencies on the climate and abortion rights in recent weeks, but nearly 80 of those lawmakers attacked his predecessor’s use of emergency powers.

Former President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border in February 2019 as a means of bypassing Congress and securing funding for the completion of his campaign-promised border wall. The move was heartily opposed by Democrats at the time as an abuse of executive power.

“The President’s unlawful declaration over a crisis that does not exist does great violence to our Constitution and makes America less safe, stealing from urgently needed defense funds for the security of our military and our nation,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a joint statement at the time. “This is plainly a power grab by a disappointed President, who has gone outside the bounds of the law to try to get what he failed to achieve in the constitutional legislative process.”

Even Trump’s final White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows , then a North Carolina Republican congressman and the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus , suggested Trump’s border emergency was a “slippery slope” and predicted “the potential for national emergencies being used for every single thing that we face in the future where we can’t reach an agreement.”

The House passed a bill in late February 2019 seeking to block Trump’s declaration, as outlined in the National Emergencies Act of 1976, but the measure eventually died in the Senate. Biden ended the border emergency in February 2021, shortly after entering office. A year and a half later, he is facing pressure from Democrats to invoke similar emergency powers on abortion and climate.

Eighty-three members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to the president and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on July 12, urging him to declare an emergency in response to “the Supreme Court’s radical and dangerous decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.“

Sixty-eight of the letter’s signatories voted to overturn Trump’s border emergency back in 2019, and only two of the lawmakers who did not vote yes were sitting members of Congress at the time. Reps. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) both abstained from voting.

The White House is weighing declaring a public health emergency to shield doctors, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers who offer access to abortion pills in states with stringent abortion bans, but officials are reportedly concerned about the prospects that Republicans would attempt to file lawsuits over any such declared emergencies. Biden himself said he was open to reevaluating the idea during a meeting with state governors who took action to protect abortion access following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling.

Similarly, Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) all called on Biden to declare climate change a national emergency this past week.

(Read the whole article at the Washington Examiner)

Odd how things change

Trump used the executive order to advance the wall and secure the border. Although the press loves to overlook the murders perpetrated by illegals and the damage done by border crossers (like the 2,200 deaths, 118,000 rapes, and 138,000 assaults recorded).

Now Biden wants to allow abortion (a.k.a. baby murder) up until birth in all 50 states under his (devoutly Catholic) watch.

…

 

<

A service for CBS (who can’t expose the lies of Joe Biden)


Deconstructing arrogance and idiocy in reporters of CBS

Admittedly, when I saw Scott Pelley of CBS and Sixty Minutes bumbling and blathering on with Biden as they walked through a mostly-empty Detroit Auto Show (as a Sixty Minutes ad), I was not intrigued. I could not care less what that doddering old fool might say or what the incurious “journalist” might ask; therefore, I never watched that once-respectable news show. However, when Bunkerville built a blog post from Miranda Devine tweets that encapsulated the interview, I started to wonder, “How many verifiable lies could CBS have caught had they been an honest news organization rather than a branch of the Democrat propaganda machine?”

Therefore, I dug into the CBS transcript and compared that to reality in order to create the following table. Thence, hopefully the top-rated journals linked in the table might expose either Joe’s lies or his incompetence.

Pelley/Biden exchange Headlines disproving Biden
Scott Pelley: Sir, with the Federal Reserve rapidly raising interest rates, what can you do to prevent a recession?
Joe Biden: Continue to grow the economy. And we’re growing the economy. It’s growing in– in a way that it hasn’t in years and years.		 The Wall Street Journal reports in a 28 July 2022 article that Biden faces recession worries after six months of economic contraction
The Daily Mail informed us in a 21 August 2022 article that 97% of US executives believe US is now in a recession or close to one, despite Biden’s denials

Biden should consider the common voter

Biden’s statement does not stay in touch with the reality that people who pump gas or buy food have to experience. Wake up, Joe and Scott.
Scott Pelley: Mr. President, first Detroit Auto Show in three years. Is the pandemic over?
Joe Biden: The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lotta work on it. It’s– but the pandemic is over. if you notice, no one’s wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.		 Politico says in a 17 August 2022 article that HHS says it plans to extend Covid-19 public health emergency
ABC News point in a 19 September 2022 article to Democrats who buck Biden’s case for the pandemic being over due to pandemic aid

Too many powerful groups (including cheating Democrats) will stand against this

I’m sorry, but I cannot believe that the Democrat machine that Biden has set up in pharmaceuticals, education, and the voting systems will go away that easily. I don’t believe that people will let the money that was allocated be turned to something out of their control.
Scott Pelley: Have you been briefed, sir, on the top-secret documents that were found at Mar-a-Lago?
Joe Biden: No.
Scott Pelley: No one has come to you to warn you that important national security secrets were revealed by the storage of those documents at the former president’s home?
Joe Biden: I have not personally spoken to anyone on that– in that regard. I’m sure my administration is aware of all of that, and so is the National Security Council. But I have not.
Scott Pelley: were you notified of the FBI’s execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago?
Joe Biden: No. Not ahead of time.		 The New York Post outlines in a 23 August 2022 article What did Biden ‘really’ know about the drive to raid Mar-a-Lago?
Fox News quotes a former Supreme Court clerk who says in a 24 August 2022 article that “It’s not believable” Biden didn’t know about FBI raid

Biden has attended too many briefings for me to believe this

If all other presidents since Lincoln have had daily briefings on the events occurring within their administration, why wouldn’t that happen with Dementia Joe and his FBI? Even if you ignore the report from the New York Post, I just don’t buy the idea that he was not involved.
Scott Pelley: Which leads to my next question. You are more aware of this than anyone. Some people ask whether you are fit for the job. And when you hear that, I wonder what you think.
Joe Biden: Watch me. And ma– honest to God, that’s all I think. Watch me. If you think I don’t have the energy level or the mental acuity, then– then, you know, that’s one thing. It’s another thing, you just watch and– and, you know, keep my schedule. Do what I’m doing. I– I think that– you know– I don’t– when I sit down with our NATO allies and keep ’em together, I don’t have ’em saying, “Wait a minute, w– how– how old are you? What are you– what say?” You know, I mean, it’s a matter of, you know, that old expression: The proof of the pudding’s in the eating. I mean, I– I– I respect the fact that people would say, you know, “You’re old.” And– but I think it relates to h– how much energy you have, and whether or not the job you’re doing is one consistent with what any person of any age would be able to do.		 The New York Post showed us in a 14 April 2022 article and video how Biden shakes hands with thin air after North Carolina speech
The New York Post shows in a short video how Joe Biden trips again as he goes up the stairs to Air Force One

Inserting a video of Biden stammering would be overkill

But I do like SocialistMop.
Scott Pelley: What should Chinese President Xi know about your commitment to Taiwan?
Joe Biden: We agree with what we signed onto a long time ago. And that there’s one China policy, and Taiwan makes their own judgments about their independence. We are not moving– we’re not encouraging their being independent. We’re not– that– that’s their decision.
Scott Pelley: But would U.S. Forces defend the island?
Joe Biden: Yes, if in fact there was an unprecedented attack.		 The New York Post reports in a 19 September 2022 article that Biden says US troops would defend Taiwan; White House backtracks remarks
The New York Post pointed out regarding a previous flub (23 May 2022) that White House walks back Biden Taiwan defense claim for third time in 9 months
Politico reported in a 23 May 2022 article that Biden’s Taiwan defense pledge inflames U.S.-China relations

A little push back would have been nice

Even if they provided only half of the push back that they gave to President Trump when he mentioned the proven hoax started by Hillary, I might start to watch them for 10 minutes. But I will not watch Sixty Minutes.

 

Trump allies raided by FBI


First, Congressman and Trump ally Scott Perry said the FBI seize his cellphone

The Guardian tries to talk up the seizure of a Congressman’s phone by the FBI (painting Representative Perry as a threat to the Biden regime).

Federal investigators seized the cellphone of the Republican congressman Scott Perry on Tuesday, his office said, suggesting the justice department is examining the communications of a close ally of Donald Trump and person of interest to the House January 6 select committee.

The move by the FBI to take Perry’s phone came a day after federal agents executed a search warrant on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and seized boxes of documents, though it was not clear whether the two events were connected.

Perry, the prominent Republican from Pennsylvania who is also the chair of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus and has been subpoenaed by the select committee, confirmed that his phone was taken by federal investigators in a statement earlier reported by Fox News.

“This morning, while traveling with my family, 3 FBI agents visited me and seized my cell phone. They made no attempt to contact my lawyer, who would have made arrangements for them to have my phone if that was their wish,” Perry said in the statement.

“My phone contains info about my legislative and political activities, and personal/private discussions with my wife, family, constituents, and friends. None of this is the government’s business.”

The congressman – one of Trump’s most vociferous defenders on Capitol Hill – compared the seizure of his phone to the FBI’s search of Trump’s Palm Beach resort, claiming, without evidence, that the moves were politically motivated overreach by the Biden administration.

“As with President Trump last night, DoJ chose this unnecessary and aggressive action instead of simply contacting my attorneys. These kinds of banana republic tactics should concern every citizen,” Perry said of the court-approved warrant used by the FBI.

(Read more at the Guardian)

When I heard of the FBI seizing a Representative’s phone, I didn’t know what to think

I hoped that it would be a one-off — and maybe it would have been the only other banana-republic tactic of the FBI had the real press sprung into action. However, we do not have a real press. The conservative media has been suppressed to the extent that they cannot get their message out.

Try searching on Google or Bing for a headline out of today’s Breitbart top five articles. You will not find anything from Breitbart.

On the other hand, try looking at your standard main stream media article for both sides of a story (for example, the second and third articles quoted in this blog post). At best, you may find a pretense or a tease at presenting the conservative side. Rarely does the article address both sides.

…

Second, Bannon announces that 35 Trump allies have been raided by the FBI

Newsweek reports on the announcement by Steve Bannon where he claimed 35 Trump allies had been raided by the FBI.

Steve Bannon, former adviser to ex-President Donald Trump, says the same day he was arraigned on criminal fraud charges, the FBI carried out raids on the homes of nearly three dozen allies of the former president.

Speaking to conservative talk show host Charlie Kirk Friday, Bannon made the explosive allegation, saying law enforcement is part of a broader conspiracy to hobble opponents of President Joe Biden. Bannon’s remarks come a day after he pleaded not guilty in a New York court to fraud charges and amid efforts by conservative figures to cast the FBI as being politically weaponized.

Bannon told Kirk that the FBI “rolled in on” 35 “senior members of MAGA, Republican supporters of Donald Trump.” Saying the alleged searches were unnecessary because their targets have lawyers, he called the FBI the “jackbooted Gestapo,” a reference to the secret police of Nazi Germany.

“This is this globalist apparatus,” Bannon said. “This is the American arm of that: the Biden regime.”

Bannon added, “They’re trying to use lawfare, financial terrorism, law—you know, everything legally—and quite frankly, up to assassinations.”

(Read more at Newsweek)

[ tweet https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1568319829719027712 ]

Oddly, Newsweek (falling short of its name) does not dig into who the FBI has raided

Would this happen were it not Biden benefitting? This lack of curiosity seems almost as compelling as the lack of curiosity the press seems to have in the stabbing murder of an investigative reporter by a Democrat.

…

Read allusions to the FBI’s Mike Lindell search warrant “items to be seized”

Newsweek teases us with a promise of a look at the FBI warrant for Mike Lindell’s phone, seized while he was in a Hardee’s drive-through.

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell shared details of an FBI search warrant for his cell phone despite being told not to “disclose the existence” of the subpoena.

Lindell, a Donald Trump supporter and one of the most prominent pushers of 2020 election misinformation, said his cell phone was seized by federal agents on Tuesday while he was at a Hardee’s fast-food drive-thru in Mankato, Minnesota.

Lindell said he was questioned by the FBI about Tina Peters, a Colorado clerk who is under indictment over allegations of tampering with election voting equipment. Lindell said he was also asked about Dominion Voting Systems, and fellow 2020 election denier Doug Frank.

(Read more at “Newsweek“)

Here, again, the press promises much and delivers nothing

The sad thing is (for just the story presented by this main stream media outlet) that the media promises, but does not deliver. Although their headline reads Read FBI’s Mike Lindell Search Warrant ‘Items To Be Seized’, no links appear in the article to the warrant. No quotes of the warrant. It talks about a letter from the U.S. Attorney District of Colorado which they claim accompanied the search warrant. Further, they claim the warrant calls out an official criminal investigation of a “suspected felony” in Colorado.

I will call a BS on this one regarding any claim of objectivity or thoroughness by the press or any claim of lawfulness by the FBI.

…

 

How have Democrats provided industrial-level gaslighting? (continued from this morning)


The Big One: Media Gaslighting

CNN’s pro-Biden hype, the NYT’s “evidence-free” ignorance and more

The New York Post lays out a list of hype, lies, and ignorance parading as reporting in main stream media.

Diary of disturbing disinformation and dangerous delusions

This tweet:

We say: CNN is doing its darnedest to help President Biden and Democrats ahead of the November midterms, arguing that based on an average household consuming 90 gallons a month, the recent drop in gas prices equates to a $100 monthly tax cut from the government. Yet did CNN mention at the same time that the spike in prices, from $2.42 when Biden took office to $5.03 in June, was like a $235-a-month ($2,820-a-year) tax hike, based on that 90-gallon figure — far more than offsetting the $100 “cut”? Of course not.

This statement:

“Without evidence, the mayor [Eric Adams] has blamed the bail reform law for letting repeat offenders out of jail.”

— The New York Times, Saturday

We say: Uh, it’s the Times that’s making that claim “without evidence.” If the paper actually took an interest in the city (instead of focusing on, say, where Mayor Adams eats dinner), it might’ve noticed the endless stream of recidivists being freed soon after arrest, thanks to bail reform. Indeed, Adams has held pressers flagging NYPD data to back up his claim. And The Post, too, has cited countless  examples — like the sex fiend whose unprovoked sucker punch knocked out an innocent bystander. Or the guy arrested 41 times left free to pummel a subway worker. Indeed, we flagged 10 career criminals who alone racked up 500 arrests since “bail reform,” with most still out on the streets. So much for “without evidence.”

Spot the difference:

“[The president] does not have that power [to cancel student debt].”

— Speaker Nancy Pelosi, July 28, 2021

“Now clearly, it seems he has the authority to [cancel student debt].”

— Pelosi, Tuesday

We say: Give Speaker Pelosi credit for flexibility. One day the president lacks the power to cancel debt, the next day he doesn’t. What changed? Nothing, except President Biden’s decision this week to buy votes from progressives and college kids by . . . forgiving their debt. If only the rest of us could change the rules whenever we wanted.

(Read two more cases of liberal gaslighting as exposed by the New York Post)

While this may be the big one (and the gaslighting on Hunter’s laptop probably gave many undeserved votes to Biden), anyone who is awake expects it

While only the 2,000 mules know whether they would have been able to manufacture enough ballots to overcome the truth had the news on the Hunter laptop been released. I would like to think that they might have been overwhelmed and forced to go back to their “Trump stole the election” narrative.

…

Gaslighting by silence

Biden just refused to answer simple questions on the loan forgiveness program

Townhall exposes Biden’s attempt to gaslight through silence when he and his minions refuse to answer simple questions on his student loan forgiveness program.

It has been four days since the Biden administration announced the cancellation of student loan debts, causing a massive wave of mixed reactions. 

In true Biden fashion, the White House has yet to clarify who will be responsible for paying off those cancelled loans, skirting around the questions at every chance. 

Perhaps it will be taxpayers ultimately paying for the loans, since the plan calls for the government to forgive the debt, which will only add to the nearly $31 trillion in existing U.S. debt taxpayers are already on the hook for.

During press briefings earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre struggled to answer basic questions on where the money will be coming from. 

At one point, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy and Jean-Pierre had a heated exchange where he had to ask six times about who will be paying for the loans, to which she refrained from ever really answering. 

During a segment on CNN, the Biden administration once again dodged questions on the plan that will forgive thousands of dollars in federal student loans.

“New Day” host John Berman incessantly asked Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona how much the plan was going to cost. 

Offering no firm answer, Cardona insisted that the cost of the plan would be offset and that there should be no concerns about inflation. 

However, the Biden administration has yet to even explain how the added spending will be offset. 

Meanwhile, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation predicts that the cost of student debt cancellation could average $2,000 per taxpayer, and that’s on the low end.

(Read more on the billions of dollars of additional costs predicted at Townhall)

Do you think inflation is bad when just a $1,400 to almost everyone got mailed out?

Just think of what a bailout of who knows how many student loans (each at $10,000 or $20,000) might do. No wonder Biden has dodged this question. No wonder he is building a wall around his compound.

…

More free money gaslighting: The true cost of “free money”

A new Penn-Wharton model goes beyond the media gaslighting and shows the true cost of Biden’s student-loan bailout

Townhall comments on the way a Penn-Wharton model cut through the gaslighting on Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan.

New analysis shows estimates predicting President Joe Biden’s student loan bailout will cost taxpayers $300 billion are grossly underestimated. 

According to the University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton business school, the reallocation of student debt payments from wealthy degree holders to the working class could cost up to $1 trillion. 

“President Biden’s new student loan forgiveness plan includes three major components. We estimate that debt cancellation alone will cost up to $519 billion, with about 75% of the benefit accruing to households making $88,000 or less. Loan forbearance will cost another $16 billion. The new income-driven repayment (IDR) program would cost another $70 billion, increasing the total plan cost to $605 billion under strict “static” assumptions. However, depending on future IDR program details to be released and potential behavioral (i.e., “non-static”) changes, total plan costs could exceed $1 trillion,” Penn Wharton released Friday morning. 

The White House has not conducted an official assessment about how much Biden’s bailout will cost but officials continue to insist the move is “fiscally responsible” and won’t add to inflation.

(continued)

Economic experts, including Democrats, disagree. 

(Read the four methane-filled tweets I omitted at Townhall)

Most of us got $1,400 in “COVID stimulus,” that got invalidated by $5,000 of inflation

Was the $1,400 COVID funds worth the $5,000 inflation that we have suffered since? Of course, not all of the COVID were the cause for the inflation, but it contributed. So, was it worth it?

Will it be worth it when the college loans (each at about $10,000) go on the federal free-money system?

…

Gaslighting at its greatest: A regime that contradicts itself within the same day

Jerome Powell’s speech tanked the market just as Biden claimed credit for a great market

Townhall discusses how the a speech from the Federal Reserve tanked the stock market while Joe Biden was saying “the economy is great.”

Central bankers gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, this week for an annual Federal Reserve symposium and to hear a highly anticipated Friday speech by Chairman Jerome Powell as the Fed plans for how it will continue to grapple with inflation at 40-year highs and a recession kicking in ahead of the midterms. 

“Restoring price stability will take some time and requires using our tools forcefully to bring demand and supply into better balance,” Powell said, actions that will “bring some pain to households and businesses.” No kidding.

Powell reiterated the Fed’s aim, saying “we are moving our policy stance purposefully to a level that will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2%.” That means stomping on the current 8.5 percent inflation shown in July’s Consumer Price Index with more interest hikes that are more aggressive in the months ahead. “We will keep at it until we are confident the job is done,” Powell pledged.

Notably, Powell’s awaited declarations on the state of the U.S. economy and what the Fed would be doing in response ran less than 10 minutes, far less than the half-hour speech that was expected.

The shortness of the Fed chair’s remarks did not, however, limit their impact on American markets. Powell’s words saying previous interest rate hikes are “not a place to stop or pause” shook markets and sent the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 tumbling more than two percent on Friday.

(continued)

So what does Joe Biden have to say?

“The economy’s looking good.” That’s was the president’s take as he was departing the White House on Friday afternoon — before he spends another weekend at home in Delaware. “I feel good about it,” Biden added of the economy his tax-and-spend policies have ruined.

(Read the whole article at Townhall)

If they are going to lie, at least they should talk so they don’t kill the talking points

At least they could coordinate enough to make the world think that one of them was doing more than reading prepared notes from a prompter.

…

Gaslighting on gasoline

Dementia Joe cites lowering gas prices while ignoring how low gas prices during Trump’s time

The New York Post reports on how Joe Biden’s gaslighting on gasoline prices earned him some well-deserved mocking.

President Biden was mocked online for touting falling gas prices — although they are still nearly twice as high as when he took office — in a tweet that contained a typo.

​”​For American families looking for a little more breathing room, these savings matter,”​ the president said in a post on Monday.

The tweet included a graphic showing that “At current prices, the average driver will spend $35 less per month for one peson [sic] or $70 less per month for a family with two cars than they would if gas prices stayed at their peak.”​

The average gallon of gas on Monday, according to AAA, was ​$4.35, nearly twice the $2.37 a gallon it was when Biden entered the White House in January 2021.

Gas prices hit their peak of $5.01 nationally, according to AAA, on June 14.

Some critics pointed out the hypocrisy of Biden taking credit for falling gas prices even as his administration blamed others, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, when they spiked, dubbing it the “Putin Price Hike.”

(Read more at the New York Post)

Three proofs that Biden has crushed oil/gas drilling

First, a dashboard on oil-and-gas leasing and drilling

First, Western Priorities lays out a dashboard regarding onshore oil-and-gas leasing and drilling under the Biden regime.

As war rages in Ukraine and debate over drilling on American public lands is once again in the news, a new dashboard from the Center for Western Priorities provides an at-a-glance look at onshore oil and gas activity under the Biden administration, including permitting and production that has occurred on leases sold prior to the start of the administration and statistics from past and upcoming lease sales. The dashboard will be regularly updated with the latest information available from federal agencies.

Data for federal lands only

While many politicians are using the current crisis to call for opening more public lands for drilling, publicly-available data compellingly shows why watering down drilling safeguards is exactly the wrong path to take. Combined, the oil and gas industry holds leases to more than 26 million acres of publicly-owned minerals, more than half of which sit unused. Companies now hold more than 9,000 approved but unused drilling permits on federal and tribal lands, all of which could be put to use today. Further, oil production on public lands has reached levels not seen in nearly two decades, despite industry claims that the Biden administration has suppressed domestic production.

The Biden administration inherited a federal oil and gas program that is broken and rigged in favor of the oil and gas industry—allowing companies to anonymously nominate public lands they want to drill, purchase leases at bargain rates, lock up public lands, and pay below-market royalty rates that shortchange taxpayers. It has been this way for decades, as documented repeatedly by the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office, and the Interior Department’s Inspector General. And it reached a low point during the Trump administration, which tried to make oil and gas drilling the “dominant” use of America’s public lands.

“The system for drilling on our public lands is wildly outdated and fundamentally broken,” said Jennifer Rokala, Executive Director of the Center for Western Priorities. “Oil companies have amassed a massive stockpile of unused drilling permits and idle leases, essentially using public lands to pad their books at bargain rates.”

Upon taking office, President Biden ordered a pause on new oil and gas leasing to allow time for a comprehensive review of the federal oil and gas program. A federal court halted that pause in June, ordering the administration to resume leasing. Since then, the Biden administration has taken steps to resume leasing; however, another federal judge ruled in February that the department could not use the social cost of carbon to analyze the effects of future oil and gas drilling, contradicting previous rulings that the Interior Department could not offer oil and gas leases without analyzing the climate impact. Taken together, these rulings have left the administration in a legal bind, unable to proceed with lease sales either with or without climate analyses.

(Read more at Western Priorities)

Second, a summary of the state of drilling on federal lands

Second, NewsMax describes oil drilling on federal lands up to August 2022 under the Biden regime.

resident Joe Biden’s administration has leased far fewer acres for oil and gas drilling offshore and on federal land at the early stages of his presidency than has any other leader since Harry Truman at the end of World War II, according to a new analysis. 

“The president said he was going to stop leasing, and he’s been remarkably successful,” former Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, an energy lawyer, told The Wall Street Journal in response to its analysis, which shows Biden’s Interior Department has leased 126,228 acres for drilling in his first 19 months of office, through Aug. 20. 

Only Truman, at this stage of his presidency, leased fewer acres, coming in at just 65,658 in 1945-46. However, notes the publication, at that time, the federal government did not control the deep-water leases that now make up the largest part of the federal energy program, and offshore drilling was just starting.

(Read at NewsMax how you’ll have to go back to Nixon to get it more screwed up)

Finally, a lay out of the state of drilling permits

Breitbart tells us how drilling permits have plummeted under the Biden regime.

Data from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) shows that approved permits to drill oil and gas on public lands have seen a substantial drop off under President Joe Biden’s administration after peaking in April of 2021, according to a report.

Last April, approved permits topped out at 643 but gradually declined since, with two minor increases in September and November of last year, Environment and Energy Publishing (E&E News) reported. In January — the month that saw the second-lowest permit approvals during the Biden presidency — only 95 permits were granted, marking an 85 percent drop-off since April 2021, according to E&E News. February produced a minor increase in permit approvals, registering at 186, which was still the fourth lowest in a single month during Biden’s term to date.

Moreover, outputs from New Mexico and Wyoming have gradually tapered off, according to the states’ BLM offices, per E&E News.

Spokesperson Melissa Schwartz of the Interior Department, which supervises the BLM, told E&E news via email that the agency is efficient, noting approval turnaround time had dropped more than 50 percent over the last decade. “Schwartz also noted that the oil and gas industry holds significant drilling rights already,” E&E News reports. “Many of the drilling permits held by industry — and 60 percent of the acreage leased to oil producers — sits unused, she said.”

(Read more at Breitbart)

…

 

How have Democrats provided industrial-level gaslighting?


Budget Gaslighting

Biden tries to brand himself as deficit cutter, not big spender

The Washington Examiner pulls back the curtain on Joe’s reinvention of himself as he tries to brand himself as a deficit cutter (despite all of his deficit spending).

President Joe Biden has been trying to convince voters he is a deficit cutter and not a big spender before November’s midterm elections.

But although Biden’s hyped student loan debt forgiveness announcement this week has energized Democrats, it has also rankled Republicans, independents, and budget experts as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warns the public to expect “some pain” as the central bank attempts to tame inflation.

Biden’s executive order this week canceling $10,000 in federal student debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 a year and $20,000 for eligible Pell Grant recipients came after the White House Office of Management and Budget‘s midsession review.

The OMB amended its projected budget gap this week to $1 trillion in fiscal year 2022, $1.7 trillion less than last year, $400 billion less than March, and the lowest deficit since 2019 before the pandemic. But that was before the White House bowed to pressure Friday and provided an estimated cost for Biden’s student debt forgiveness proposal. The administration predicts the program’s price tag will be roughly $24 billion a year for the next decade if 75% of eligible borrowers participate. That $240 billion number is short of the Penn Wharton Budget Model’s $300 billion to $980 billion forecast.

Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Vice President Bill Hoagland ripped the OMB’s update, which was due July 15, as unhelpful. That is because it does not account for new legislation, including the $280 billion manufacturing and innovation CHIPS and Science Act and the $430 billion climate and healthcare Inflation Reduction Act, in addition to the student debt cancellation scheme, according to Hoagland.

“I don’t know what value it has other than, as I said, they can check the box that they released this report,” he told the Washington Examiner. “For those of us who follow these things, it’s not helpful but maybe for the PR purposes out there having another opportunity to say the deficit’s coming down. I just don’t know how they get away with that today when they turn around and potentially add back another $300 billion.”

For Hoagland, who did credit the OMB for “being more honest with the economic assumptions,” the next-best deficit projection would be published by the Congressional Budget Office in January.

“It’s come down, but I would be a little bit skeptical of how much of that reduction was associated with actual policy,” he said. “It was associated with not doing another stimulus package to deal with COVID.”

More broadly, Cato Institute’s tax policy studies director, Chris Edwards, dismissed Biden’s deficit messaging as “idiotic” and “bulls***,” agreeing with Hoagland that this summer’s legislative flurry will exacerbate it in the coming years.

Edwards, who similarly criticized former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) spending, compared the current political moment to the 1980s and ’90s, when lawmakers “feared running big deficits” in case they contributed to high inflation and interest rates. Consumer prices rose by 8.5% in the 12 months ending July 31, and Powell foreshadowed another 50 or 75 basis-point rate hike in September on Friday during a speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

“The landscape has changed so much in Washington now that, even with 9% inflation, politicians are opening the floodgates to spending,” Edwards said, contrasting Biden with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. “That’s politically remarkable.”

“It’s completely wrong for the executive branch to take such a big spending action without the legislature being involved,” the Downsizing Government editor continued on student debt. “This is going to put $300 billion on the federal government’s tab that young people are going to have to pay back in the future in the form of higher taxes.”

Biden repeated his deficit talking points this week during his first Democratic National Committee fundraiser and rally of the 2022 midterm cycle after his summer vacation.

“You hear Republicans always talking about the deficit, right? About big-spending Democrats?” he said Thursday night during the Maryland rally. “Well, guess what? When the last guy was president, he increased the debt by $2 trillion in tax cuts, not a penny of it paid for. OK? Well, guess what we did? We’ve reduced the deficit.”

(Read more at the Washington Examiner)

If you are voting for Biden, something other than everyday reality has your mind

If, after almost two years of Biden disaster, you are still considering Democrats, then what reasoning stands for you? Is it that you depend on government subsidies? Are you a self-loathing Fetterman-clone who lives off the family trust fund and bought your house for a dollar from your sister? Are you a single-issue voter that has decided to zone in on transgenderism, destroying the police, abortion through all nine months in all states, or some other nebulous Democrat cause?

Why, at this point, does anyone put any credit in the Democrat message? 

…

Gaslighting by affixing names

Biden calls on the mob

The American Thinker exposes the way Biden started his name-calling trend by dubbing the opposition as “fascists.”

The Dems decided they needed a little presidential revival before the midterms to fire up their base — which isn’t looking very motivated at the moment. They gave President Gremlin a few days of vacation to rest up, a couple of shots of Adderall to switch on long-dormant brain cells, and a few hits of oxygen so he could walk out onto the stage without collapsing.

They trotted Biden out to a friendly audience in a suburb of Washington, D.C., and he gave a real barn-burner of a speech. He was angrier than an old coot screaming at the neighborhood kids to get off of his yard. Apparently, the Democrats think that is a good look for them. I wonder if they’ve considered that this speech may come to define the Biden presidency?

The speech was about those that voted for Donald Trump, but it revealed a great deal more about our presidential sock-puppet himself. We learned that Joe has an advanced case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. He said:

We’re seeing now either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA agenda. It’s not just Trump… It’s almost semi-fascism.

Our uniter in chief believes anyone who could be counted among the MAGA movement is a fascist — sorry, semi-fascist, if that makes any difference. He doesn’t just hate Donald Trump. He hates anyone who doesn’t hate Donald Trump. And the Democrats endorse this attitude because they’re no longer in the business of winning the competition of ideas. They’re in the business of amassing and applying raw governmental power.

(Read more at the American Thinker)

The only thing I have not seen so far has been a side-by-side video of Joe and Adolf

As you can see from the following tweets, the idiocy of Joe’s “Red Speech” was not well received by any but the dyed-in-the-wool (or would that be “died-in-the-wool” for the die-hards?).





…

Democrats acknowledge their gaslighting over President Trump’s claim that the documents had been declassified

The affidavit acknowledges the Trump administration official’s claim that President Trump had previously declassified the seized documents

One America News Network outlines how the documents at the center of the Mar-A-Lago raid were already declassified.

Lawmakers are outraged at the heavy redactions in the highly anticipated affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for the raid on Mar-a-Lago.

20 of the 38-pages that were released on Friday were either significantly or fully redacted. However, page-19 of the affidavit may point to the can of worms that the Department of Justice (DOJ) knows it opened by ransacking the 45th President’s Florida home earlier this month.

Page 19 cited a Breitbart article from May 5, 2022. That article stated that former Trump administration official, Kash Patel, said the 15-boxes of documents had already been declassified but that the classification markings had not been updated.

Patel maintained that President Trump retained and declassified those documents in anticipation of leaving government. He said that Trump did this because he thought the American public should have the right to read it for themselves.

“The President, by law, is the ultimate arbiter of the classification authority. If he says it, it’s declassified,” stated Patel. “It doesn’t need to go through the bureaucratic rigmarole (and) be written down in appropriate style. That’s not what the constitution says.”

Patel also vocalized that reports claiming that Trump took classified information are completely false and is just another disinformation campaign against him.

Trump appointed Patel alongside John Solomon in June as his representative for access to Presidential records. As the former Pentagon Chief of Staff, Patel explained that all previously classified documents have classification markings on them. This simply means they used to be classified. He added that “government simpletons” did not follow the President’s orders to have them marked as “declassified,” which he did and has the unilateral authority to do.

“When these rubes get in the way because they say ‘ohh well you know so-and-so didn’t sign the letter, White House counsel didn’t do this’ that’s a farce,” remarked Patel. “And not only did the President do it by writing in October of 2020, he did it verbally at least, to the best of my recollection, multiple times in the whole sets of documents.”

Patel did not go into specifics about the document, but he said they contain information on Russiagate and the Ukraine impeachment fiasco which Trump wanted the public to have access to. The former Pentagon Chief of Staff suggested that the documents may have selectively be leaked to advance a false political narrative. Patel posted a statement on Truth Social shortly after the redacted affidavit was released.

(See the closing tweet at OANN)

A passing acknowledgement is not enough for most

Because the press has continued to push the “Russia” angle for years after it was disproven by Mueller, just one admission in an affidavit will not be enough.

…

Joe Biden mocks President Trump’s ability to declassify documents while in office and, when challenged, responds with “I don’t know.”

The New York Post caught Joe Biden gaslighting on presidential powers to declassify — until he gets a challenge.

President Joe Biden on Friday mocked Donald Trump’s claim to have declassified all of the documents targeted in an FBI raid on his Florida estate earlier this month.

Biden — asked about his predecessor’s stance after a judge released a heavily redacted version of the feds’ affidavit seeking the search — scoffed to reporters, “I just want you to know I’ve declassified everything in the world.

“I’m president, I can do — c’mon,” Biden said as he was leaving the White House for the weekend.

Pressed further about the case, he quickly added, “I’m not going to comment because I don’t know the details.

“I don’t want to know,” Biden added. 

(Read more on Biden’s ignorance at the New York Post)

If Biden includes any documents in his library, then we will need to investigate

Obviously, the “procedures for declassifying” mentioned by “experts” must be believed (at least according to the Biden-supporting group).

Never mind that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in March 2012 (and it has never been challenged in any higher court):

Under the statutory scheme established by the PRA, the decision to segregate personal materials from Presidential records is made by the President, during the President’s term and in his sole discretion.

(continued)

Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal records.

Yep. Never mind legal precedent that has never been challenged. Just go with what these idiots say and apply it fully to them for eternity.

…

 

Mass shooting and self-defense news made silent by mass media


Bad news for the anti-gun lobby

Armed bystander hailed as hero (but not by the main-stream media)

Indianapolis, Indiana NBC affiliate WHTR reports that a good guy with a gun put down the perpetrator of a mass shooting (where three or more people were shot and killed in a single event).

At 5:57:03 p.m., Elisjsha Dicken, an armed bystander, fired on the shooter from 40 yards away, according to police. Within 15 seconds from when the shooting began, Dicken fired 10 rounds hitting the shooter as the shooter tried to retreat into the bathroom but collapsed and died.

(Read of the thug who killed three others and more of the hero who stopped him at WHTR)

Oddly, unlike the Uvalde event that happened two months ago, this story has not been picked up by the main stream media

Unlike the Uvalde event, where we are getting nightly reports on how dissatisfied the local population has become with the situation, we hear nothing of this story on main stream media.

However, with the numbers of felons being released by Democrat district attorneys and the flood of drugs across our border, this problem proliferates to a degree unimaginable for many. Still, if you want proof, do a search (or three, as with this post) and see what stories you find. Just make certain to use a different search engine for each search (for most complete results).

…

A good person with a gun defends freedom from a knife-wielding intruder

An 80-year-old woman shoots and kills young intruder after he stabs her husband

The Washington Post conveys the story of a Sultan, Washington woman who was forced to defend herself and her son after her husband was stabbed.

Age is nothing but a number.

An 80-year-old woman in the small town of Sultan, Wash., proved that Thursday night when she shot and killed an intruder who broke into her home.

At the moment, details are thin.

A man from Gold Bar, Wash. — a town of about 2,000 — broke into the woman’s home around 8:30 p.m. Thursday while she was enjoying an evening with her husband, 75, and son, 45. According to a Komo News report, police said the man broke in through the back door. After hearing a noise, the woman walked into the back room, where the 25-year-old intruder stood, wielding a large knife.

Her husband was on the ground.

The intruder had stabbed her husband in the abdomen, felling but not killing him. Before calling 911, the woman took matters into her own hands, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office. She snuck in the back bedroom, presumably unnoticed, where she grabbed a gun she hides there.

She returned to the main room, took aim and fired several shots into the intruder, killing him.

She and her son managed to escape without any injuries, authorities said. Her husband was airlifted to the Harborview Regional Medical Center.

(Read of the drug-related motive for the stabbing at the Washington Post)

Whoever voted for the open borders of Biden voted for this drug epidemic

Let’s be clear: everyone who voted to open the Southern border to unchecked entry also voted for this drug epidemic.

If you don’t like Mexican opioids and Chinese synthetic opioids flooding the streets of your small town, then don’t vote for a Chinese/Mexican/Ukrainian/Russian-connected politician.

…

Another good person with a gun stops a thug with a knife

“I know I did the right thing:” Customer shoots and kills armed robber at gas station

Saint Louis, Missouri NBC affiliate KSDK tells us how a customer stepped in to stop an armed robber holding a knife to the clerk’s neck.

Most people would try to run away from a robbery situation, but one customer felt called to run toward it.  

His courageous effort ended in a deadly shooting, which possibly saved more lives than the one lost.

“Taking somebody’s life is not an everyday thing, neither is saving someone’s life,” the customer, who wished to remain anonymous said. 

Those thoughts now consume his mind after not only witnessing an armed robbery Saturday morning at a St. Charles QuikTrip but also stepping in to stop it.

“He grabbed a backpack and ran inside, looking for I guess the clerk. I saw him grab her and drag her to the front to the counter, something wasn’t right when I saw that, so me being concealed carry, I had my gun on me and I just waited,” the customer said. 

The customer saw it all unfold from his car, parked in front of the QT on First Capitol Drive.

 “I walked up to the door and I saw him with a knife to her throat. She was emptying out the cash register and I took a step in and peeked my head in to ask if everything was okay. I couldn’t see his face but he was saying yes, but I could see her face she was saying no, she was scared,” he said.

Police named the robbery suspect 26-year-old Lance Bush from St. Louis City. “I pulled my gun up and I asked him are you sure everything’s okay and that’s when the suspect said ‘no it’s not okay, but I got something for you and he grabbed his bag, ran from around the counter and started running towards me and that’s when I fired shots,” the customer said.

He recalls shooting four times before Bush fell to the floor. Shortly after he told the clerk to call the police, he did as well. 

“I don’t think I honestly had a choice. He already had a knife at her throat, he could’ve pulled out something bigger than what I had then you would’ve had two people dead instead of one,” he said. 

(Read of the robber’s crime spree at KSDK)

Despite the obvious evil of the robber, the “journalist” ends with one dig

Despite the following facts:

  • The robber was holding a knife to the neck of a female clerk while robbing the gas station
  • The robber had stolen a vehicle to get to the gas station
  • The robber had threatened and was running at the hero when the robber was shot
  • The robber was suspected of having committed two other armed robberies that morning

Still, the “journalist” ends with:

The customer was detained and released. 

At this time, he says he has not been charged.

Anti-gun bias, much? Wish for heroes to be punished and criminals released, much?

…

 

The lack of media confidence finally gets recognized


A year ago, Americans were showing their distrust in media

The US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media

A Poynter article dated 24 June 2021 reports on a Reuters survey that found little trust among Americans when it came to print and broadcast media.

The United States ranks last in media trust — at 29% — among 92,000 news consumers surveyed in 46 countries, a report released Wednesday found. That’s worse than Poland, worse than the Philippines, worse than Peru. (Finland leads at 65%.)

The annual digital news report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford also found some improvement in trust in nearly all the countries surveyed — probably thanks to COVID-19 coverage — but not in the U.S. where the low rating was flat year to year.

One explanation, though not necessarily the only one, is the extreme political polarization in the U.S. This study, like many others, found extremely high levels of distrust — 75% of those who identify as being on the right thought coverage of their views is unfair.

Local news, both print and broadcast, fared better than national news. However, the findings for struggling local print outlets were not all good.

Interest in local news and willingness to pay for it was not strong. Only 21% in the U.S. said that they pay for news online. Of those who do, 31% said they pay for The New York Times, 24% for The Washington Post and only 23% for the site of a local or regional paper.

The most popular local news topic, by a wide margin (62%), was weather. Staples of local newspaper coverage like politics (33%) and education (16%) lagged. Those surveyed indicated a preference for local broadcast (52%) as a source over newspapers (16%).

(Read more at Poynter)

As of the coronavirus media coverage, surely the shine had to come off from media

Because such a stark difference between reporting on coronavirus and observable reality (as could be seen by driving by hospitals), surely only the lazy and the really gullible continued believing the Democrat narrative.

After this year’s poll, the media starts to catch on

A Gallup poll indicates trust in television and newspapers has dropped to historic lows

Gallup reports that an annual poll of 1,005 respondents found that our trust of television and newspapers has fallen to record lows.

  • 16% of Americans have a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in newspapers
  • 11% have some the degree of confidence in television news
  • Democrats’ confidence low but higher than Republicans’, independents’

Americans’ confidence in two facets of the news media — newspapers and television news — has fallen to all-time low points. Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news. Both readings are down five percentage points since last year.

Gallup has tracked Americans’ confidence in newspapers since 1973 and television news since 1993 as part of its annual polling about major U.S. institutions. The latest readings are from a June 1-20 poll that saw declines in confidence ratings for 11 of the 16 institutions measured and no improvements for any.

Television news and newspapers rank nearly at the bottom of that list of institutions, with only Congress garnering less confidence from the public than TV news. While these two news institutions have never earned high confidence ratings, they have fallen in the rankings in recent years.

A majority of Americans have expressed confidence in newspapers only once — in 1979, when 51% did. But there is a wide margin between that and the second-highest readings of 39% in 1973 and 1990. The trend average for newspapers is 30%, well above the latest reading of 16%, which is the first time the measure has fallen below 20%. The percentage of Americans who say they have “very little” or volunteer that they have no confidence is currently the highest on record, at 46%.

Confidence in television news has never been higher than its initial 46% reading in 1993 and has averaged 27%, considerably higher than the current 11%. This is the fourth consecutive year that confidence in TV news is below 20%. And for just the second time in the trend, a majority of Americans, 53%, now say they have very little or no confidence at all in TV news.

(Read more at Gallup)

When their reporting did not line up with observable reality, what did they expect?

When the main stream media focused on stories that only supported their narrative, did they not expect Americans to seek out alternative sources and stop trusting the newspapers / Democrat TV news? When the most recent hire at the TV station reported the latest “surge” of coronavirus (that didn’t pack hospitals that we pass to and from work), did they expect we would just accept their word?

It seems that main stream media’s Katy Tur has started to feign some introspection. Maybe some actual soul searching that involved review of the bias on main stream media shows might have convinced a few of us.

One other thing that might make American news consumers a little less jaded would be if the media stopped covering staged “events” as real news (like where AOC acts like she is being handcuffed at a protest in front of the Supreme Court when no handcuffs were present).

The best part is how AOC exposes her fraud by raising her fist 10 seconds into doing her fake “perp walk.” Not even the most dedicated in the Democrat press can cover for these idiots.

…