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A journalist struggles to understand why anyone would like Trump
By Andrea Widburg
Eric Cortellessa, a Time staff writer who obviously dislikes Donald Trump, nevertheless scored a long interview with him. Time published both Cortellessa’s summary and the interview transcript. Sometimes, they are two different things. Mostly, though, Cortellessa, listening to what Trump says, sees as foul the points Trump makes and cannot comprehend that normal Americans could agree. The disconnect is stark.
You can tell immediately that Cortellessa dislikes Trump because he says the interview occurred in Trump’s “fever-dream palace.” Right there you have the snide take one expects from the journalist class. And then there’s his claim that Trump plans an “imperial presidency,” which is not true (especially compared to Biden’s lawlessness regarding borders, student loans, etc.). Lastly, Cortellessa is one of the class of “journalists” whose compulsive verbal tic is to deny that the election was stolen.
It’s worth quoting in full Cortellessa’s summation because these are the key points that show the disconnect between the media and Trump:
What emerged in two interviews with Trump, and conversations with more than a dozen of his closest advisers and confidants, were the outlines of an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world. To carry out a deportation operation designed to remove more than 11 million people from the country, Trump told me, he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military, both at the border and inland. He would let red states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans. He would, at his personal discretion, withhold funds appropriated by Congress, according to top advisers. He would be willing to fire a U.S. Attorney who doesn’t carry out his order to prosecute someone, breaking with a tradition of independent law enforcement that dates from America’s founding. He is weighing pardons for every one of his supporters accused of attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, more than 800 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury. He might not come to the aid of an attacked ally in Europe or Asia if he felt that country wasn’t paying enough for its own defense. He would gut the U.S. civil service, deploy the National Guard to American cities as he sees fit, close the White House pandemic-preparedness office, and staff his Administration with acolytes who back his false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.
I cannot compress Trump’s two-hour interview into a post, but I’ll sum up what Trump actually said and how Americans might view his points, without Cortellessa’s hostile filter in the way.
Trump on immigration. Trump says he intends to deport 15-20 million illegal aliens. He points to Dwight Eisenhower’s efforts for support. (Maybe he read my post.) Ordinary Americans will agree with Trump’s points about the rule of law and the destruction the illegal aliens bring with them.
When Trump says he’ll rely on states and the National Guard but will use the military if absolutely necessary, Cortellessa frames the latter possibility as a posse comitatus violation. However, Trump correctly counters that he wouldn’t be executing laws against Americans but would repel a huge invasion of around 20 million people, many of whom are fighting-age males from hostile countries.
Trump also rejects the resurrection of the Obama attack that he’d build “detention camps,” saying that one doesn’t need them if one deports illegal aliens. Regarding locales that want to be sanctuaries, he says that they can do it but kiss goodbye to federal funds—an appropriate response to lawlessness.
Finally, Trump emphasizes that he’s going to get that wall built and will follow Supreme Court rulings.
Trump on abortion. Trump says rightly that abortion is not a federal issue. Nor does he worry that he’ll have to veto a federal abortion bill because it’ll never happen. Trump refuses to say anything about mifepristone, the abortion pill, saying that he’ll have an official statement ready soon.
Trump also refuses to be baited into commenting on what states do to enforce their abortion laws. “It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It's totally irrelevant because the states are going to make those decisions.” In other words, to the extent Cortellessa implied that Trump was encouraging state police to monitor women’s pregnancies, that’s a serious misrepresentation.
My guess is that most non-radical Americans support Trump’s position—it’s a state’s rights matter—which also aligns with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
Trump on withholding funds appropriated by Congress. I can’t quite tell, but I think that this refers to Trump’s insistence that, as President, he has the constitutional mandate to guide foreign policy...and that means using allocated funds in the way that best effectuates goals that benefit America. This is probably constitutionally correct, and most people would agree with his insistence that America must come first.
Trump on controlling the U.S. Attorney. Trump says he would fire a rogue U.S. Attorney, and again, he’s correct. To the extent the FBI is under the control of the Justice Department, we’ve seen incredible abuses of power thanks to the US Attorney’s policies and procedures. When a U.S. Attorney engages in hyper-partisan political warfare, not on behalf of the Constitution and the law and regulations of the United States, but to use his office to achieve political goals, he needs to be brought to heel or ousted.
Trump on the January 6, 2021, protesters. Trump says he’d consider pardoning every one of them. That’s a good reason on its own to elect him. As Trump correctly says, we’re looking at a “two-tier system,” which is “sad,” I say it’s (a) unconstitutional and (b) the death of the rule of law in America. Moreover, as there’s increasing evidence that January 6 was a set-up followed by a cover-up, it’s even more outrageous that people’s lives are being destroyed for walking peacefully between the ropes through Congress.
Trump on withholding defenses from deadbeat European and Asian countries. Leftists hate America, but they love Europe, so much so that they believe America must defend Europe’s borders while abandoning its own. Trump rightly holds, and his supporters will agree, that America has no obligation to spend its treasure and blood for Europe when European countries can’t even be bothered to cough up their own money for their defense.
As for Asia—which is Taiwan—Trump was cagey and drowned Cortellessa in meaningless double talk.
Trump on gutting the U.S. Civil Service. The U.S. Civil Service is too big, too expensive, too inefficient, and way too partisan. This partisanship infects just about every agency except for the Border Patrol. From the FBI to the CIA to the National Park Service to the IRS, they all need to be trimmed, and most should be relocated to flyover country to break the D.C. Swamp’s hold on them. Again, while Cortellessa is shocked, most normal Americans would agree with Trump.
Trump on using the National Guard to protect American cities. Yes, of course. It’s eminently reasonable for a modern president to do the same when Antifa, BLM, and Hamas rioters (and whatever else the left cooks up) are destroying American cities, and leftist governors and university administrators refuse to call out their National Guard. (That’s why Eisenhower called the Guard to protect blacks in Alabama—the governor refused to act.)
Trump on closing the White House pandemic-preparedness office. Trump rightly points out that this is “giving out pork.” He adds that, with what COVID taught, the administration now knows how to mobilize the resources it needs if necessary. Correct.
Trump on who would staff his administration. As noted, Cortellessa gives away his leftist creds with his reflexive claim that the 2020 election, which has proven to be riddled with fraud, was totally honest. When asked whether he could staff his administration with people who deny election interference, Trump says that he “wouldn’t feel good about it” because it’s so obvious that it happened. In other words, people who deny the obvious are too stupid to work for him.
I strongly suggest you look at the whole interview, which covers many more topics than the ten above. I addressed only those ten because Cortellessa seemingly thought they’d be the most harmful to Trump.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/a_journalist_struggles_to_understand_why_anyone_would_like_trump.html
Dr. Hilary Cass socks it to the ‘transgender’ movement
By John Dale Dunn, M.D.
Biden uses tax policy to buy votes
By Warren Beatty
Joe Biden is buying votes again. His tax revenue proposal for fiscal year 2025 promotes targeted tax increases that affect white individuals more than other groups with the goal of helping to ease racial wealth inequality.
By raising taxes on accumulated wealth based upon income and capital gains, a Treasury Department analysis shows that black and Hispanic families could see a reduction in wealth disparity. The disparity cause: whites tend to own assets subject to capital gains tax and/or fall into higher income tax brackets.
As part of his tax proposal, Joe Biden proposes an expansion of the child tax credit, including a temporary raise in the per-child amount and a permanent restoration of the full refundability provision. The Treasury Department reports that this proposal will help alleviate the wealth racial disparity because a greater percentage of blacks and Hispanics have historically benefited from the credit.
Preston Brashers, research fellow for tax policy in the Heritage Foundation's Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, said, "Taxing capital gains at 44.6% at the federal level -- not to mention state taxes -- would be economic suicide... the net result would be less tax revenue, not more. The middle class and working class would be slammed with mass layoffs and lower real wages."
Chris Edwards, the Kilts Family Chair in Fiscal Studies at the Cato Institute, said, "Left-wing Biden economists seem unable to appreciate that raising taxes on capital hurts labor. Capital and labor work together to produce economic growth. They are complements. The Biden economists seem to hold the Marxist view that capital and labor are bitter enemies, and that the only way that labor can win is for the government to crush capital."
The Biden bunch is big on 'root causes.' Biden uses taxes to achieve parity rather than address the root cause of wealth and income inequality.
This is yet another manifestation of DEI. Equity focuses upon tailoring policies, in this case tax policy to the circumstances of specific individuals or groups to achieve an equal outcome. Biden is in favor of racial equity over racial equality. Whatever happened to everybody being treated equally? Not gonna happen on Biden's watch.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/biden_uses_tax_policy_to_buy_votes.html
NY Prosecuting Trump for Being Extorted
By John Cleer
None of the liberals calling for Trump's head know what he's accused of, they just know he did it. They don't remember how the previous accusations ended or even what they were, despite having taken the strongest of positions; and here they are, again, taking the strongest position on the one issue they want you to know they care about: Donald Trump is Guilty.
So that's the Manhattan jury pool. Almost all of them read the New York Times so it's no wonder. But to be fair, no one else knows what Trump's accused of, either. Not the lawyers, not the pundits nor the people they interview. Three weeks in, no one on either side or on the outside knows what the crime is. I heard a Politico reporter tell Brian Lehrer that a prosecutor doesn't have to say what the charges are, but can figure them out as he goes. Lehrer affected that this made perfect sense to him, and I think they're right: Alvin Bragg himself doesn't know what the charges are.
I asked my mom, a reliable barometer for MSM messaging, to explain the crime in Trump's “hush money” payments, and she said it's the cover-up. “That's what an NDA is, Mom. An contract to pay someone not to talk.”
“But Trump covered that up,” she said. “During an election.”
She thinks of the hush money as the crime and the cover-up, but simultaneously, thinks the crime is the cover-up of the hush money. In other words, she tracks Bragg's case perfectly. Michael Cohen paying Stormy Daniels and billing Trump for reimbursement could only have been directed by Trump as an illegal scheme to conceal the NDA.
The problem with that theory is that for the cover-up to be criminal, the act being concealed must also be; but NDA's are legal, routinely-made agreements, especially in N.Y. Knowing this, N.Y. prosecutors cobbled together a tiny Frankenstein of expired misdemeanors from different jurisdictions and brought them back to life by alleging they were done to interfere in elections, to create 34 felonies of a class no neutral judge would accept, which appear to be accounting decisions, and hurl them at a defendant who doesn't do his own accounting.
Never mind that the U.S. Attorney’s Office and FEC both declined the election case, and that Bragg, being a local D.A., has no jurisdiction. Never mind that without this federal crime which the feds deemed wasn't a crime, the underlying charges are expired. Never mind the prosecution's testimony violating the collateral evidence rule. Never mind the judge's family generating income from his rulings.
Ignoring these serious problems, the prosecution must not only prove that Trump ordered Daniels' “hush” payment to be structured in the way it was, but that he did so deliberately to conceal some other law that he broke, and further that he broke that law to influence the 2016 election and not to protect his marriage, family, or reputation.
With Daniels, as with Karen McDougal, the payment scheme had another layer. David Pecker at the National Inquirer paid McDougal for her story and didn't publish it. Pecker testified he did the same for Schwarzenegger when he ran for California governor and Rahm Emanuel when running for Chicago mayor. But somehow it became a crime when it benefited Trump.
Trump did not reimburse Pecker for McDougal, hence only being charged for Daniels. Whether or not that played a role, Pecker did not buy Daniels' story and Cohen couldn't convince Trump to, even with Daniels ready to cancel and go public with ABC. As Michael Avenatti told CNN, “ 'It's absolutely laughable' that Trump was not aware of attempts by Cohen to pay Daniels.”
On Day Nine of the Trial, Daniels' lawyer for the NDA, Keith Davidson, testified on Cohen missing deadlines to finalize it: “It was clear, Cohen didn't have the authority to spend money. Finally, he said, 'I'll just do it myself.'”
“So let me get this straight,” Avenatti tweeted. “Cohen now claims he borrowed $130k on his house and pays interest on it in order to give that same $130k (on behalf of a billionaire) to a woman who according to him was lying.”
It can be inferred from Trump's apparent refusal to pay that the allegation was a lie, as Cohen said, or otherwise nonthreatening. Trump didn't want to make the deal (nor did he make it), but Cohen did -- in fact, in Davidson's testimony he sounded desperate to.
Clearly threatened by Cohen with a lawsuit, One America News retracted and apologized for a March 27 story they'd covered with the Gateway Pundit of a self-described intelligence contractor, Tony Seragus, who tweeted that he'd shared a Newport Beach office building with Avenatti where Avenatti told him Cohen himself had slept with Daniels starting in 2006, and Cohen had hatched the hush money scheme to extort Trump.
Now if you look at Daniels' original 2011 tell-all interview, the supposed affair with Trump is almost an afterthought. She devoted few words to it and gave no idiosyncratic details: the deed was done in a normal way and didn't happen again, despite her likewise unverifiable claim that Trump called her for years afterward from a blocked number. She named Ben Roethlisberger as a witness to them not having sex the next time they met. So by the looks of things, she didn't expect this to go to court. She wanted the settlement.
Viva Frei thinks “it looks like Cohen might have been involved in a fabricate-to-get-paid scheme, where he would find a scandal” and arrange to cover it up. Robert Barnes elaborates, “here's the problem with 'fixers': they often have to create problems that they say they fixed for you, that often are not problems, for you.” He then lists the reasons Daniels is not Trump's type, suggesting she was not a problem, for Trump -- which matches up with Trump not paying. But Cohen really wanted to fix it, didn't he?
Barnes thinks Cohen “definitely” had relations with Daniels. If so, that could be how Cohen found the problem to fix. Why else would he take a loan on his own house to lend the borrowed money to a billionaire? Is it possible that Daniels extorted him originally and they made a deal to extort Trump? Remember, she and McDougal each approached the Inquirer with the same lawyer, Keith Davidson.
Davidson has been sued for extortion by Hulk Hogan, Tila Tequila, Charlie Sheen, and Robert Herjavek of Shark Tank. When The Smoking Gun wrote their profile on him, Davidson was fighting three extortion lawsuits at the same time and allegedly attempted to extort the reporter.
Davidson brought the women to Pecker, who we're told published negative stories about Trump's opponents but “caught and killed” stories about Trump, because he wanted Trump to win.
Barnes continues: “Pecker was involved in his own extortion scheme. That's really what he admitted to on the stand. The scam was, go and buy up stories that could embarrass someone, and then get them to pay you. He's pretending it was always the other way around. Let's just assume it wasn't.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/ny_suing_trump_for_being_extorted.html
America’s Jenga Tower of Power
By J.B. Shurk
Immigration Might Just Trump Abortion for the 2024 Election
Dems are counting on abortion, but another issue is dominating the polls.
by Joe Schaeffer | May 4, 2024
What if deportation, and not abortion, is the keyword of the 2024 election? A new poll finds more Americans across the political spectrum support strong action to resolve the illegal immigration crisis.
“Half of Americans – including 42% of Democrats – say they’d support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll,” Axios reported. Yes, the news site still couldn’t resist using the loaded term “undocumented immigrants” as it related the growing exasperation of the American people on an issue the big-box media would dearly love to play down in an election year.
“Americans are open to former President [Donald] Trump’s harshest immigration plans, spurred on by a record surge of illegal border crossings and a relentless messaging war waged by Republicans,” the establishment outlet continued. “And 30% of Democrats – as well as 46% of Republicans – now say they’d end birthright citizenship, something guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution,” Axios noted with obvious astonishment.
“I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations,” Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll, said of the results. “I think they’re just sending a message to politicians: ‘Get this under control.’”
Blue Flight on Immigration
Democrats seeking re-election do not want to be tied to the Biden administration’s disastrous inaction on border security. On April 24, five “centrist” House Democrats released a statement declaring their staunch support for increased Border Patrol funding. “[W]e strongly agree with the National Border Patrol Council that Congress and the president must act and bring order to the southern border,” the statement by Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA), Jared Golden (D-ME), Mary Peltola (D-AK), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), and Don Davis (D-NC) read. “That is why … we all voted last month for $19.6 billion for Border Patrol so that it could ramp up its efforts to secure the border.”
It isn’t only the “moderate” Democrats feeling the heat. In woke California, elected officials are having to deal with mounting anger over the unchecked wave of refugees allowed into the United States during the Biden years. And it’s not just coming from the white middle class, either.
“Even in his heavily immigrant district, which contains large Latino and Vietnamese communities, the ‘visceral reaction to the refugees, it’s universal,’ state Rep. Lou Correa told the Los Angeles Times in February. “I have Latinos, I have [illegal aliens] saying, ‘Why are you letting in so many people when I busted my a** for 30 years, and I can’t get a work permit?’” Correa said. “You cannot sit there and explain to people … You’ve got to come up with a slogan. Is the slogan going to be, ‘kick them all out’? That’s the challenge we have.”
‘Single Biggest Issue’ in Massachusetts
The story is the same in Massachusetts.
Immigration “is the ‘single biggest issue’ facing Massachusetts, according to the poll of 1,002 Massachusetts residents conducted by MassINC with GBH News and Commonwealth Beacon,” the Boston Herald reported in April. “Twenty-one percent of those polled said immigration was on top of their list of concerns, followed by 15% for housing and 12% for the cost of living.”
It’s not a mystery why this would be so. “The ongoing influx of illegal immigrants, lured to Massachusetts because of its generous welfare benefits, is threatening to wreak havoc with the state budget, let alone with the social fabric of some cities and towns which are housing the immigrants,” the paper stressed. “State services are being cut and money being transferred to accounts to cope with the needs of the needy immigrants, many of whom are women and children.”
National polls reflect this acute state of alarm as well.
In each of the first three months of 2024, Gallup asked poll respondents: “What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?” Immigration was the top answer in February and March, garnering a whopping 28% of the 20 different answers given, and it came in second by one percentage point (21% to 20%) in January to “the government/poor leadership.”
How vital a concern was abortion? It garnered 2% of responses in January and February and then jumped all the way to 3% in March.
The overarching question is twofold. First, how long can a manipulative big-box media shy away from honestly conveying the reality of a core issue that can demolish blue electoral hopes in November? Second, what can Democrats do to dodge this potential ballot disaster of their own making?
https://www.libertynation.com/immigration-might-just-trump-abortion-for-the-2024-election/
Young Democrats Warn Biden to Stand With Gaza – Or Else
Young voters seem fed up with Biden for now, but will it matter come November?
by James Fite | May 4, 2024
Young Democratic voters have a warning for President Joe Biden: Change course on the issues that matter to them – like Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza – or say goodbye to re-election in November. Recent polling shows young voters have been souring on Biden for a while, but the president’s comments Thursday, May 2, condemning violence at the protests happening on college campuses across the nation were a tipping point for many. Will these young voters really abandon him come November – and will it be enough to cost him a second term?
Biden Asks for Peace, Gets Another War Instead
While he spoke up in defense of peaceful protest in his Thursday speech from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, President Biden also criticized protesters for the violence and anti-Semitism on display at so many campus demonstrations. He specifically condemned trespassing, vandalism, and personal violence – and that’s simply unacceptable for some.
“Destroying property is not a peaceful protest; it’s against the law,” Biden said on Thursday. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduation, none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people … Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder.”
Elise Joshi, the executive director of Gen-Z for Change, a “collective of Gen-Z activists that leverage the power of social media to drive progressive change,” called Biden’s remarks “shameful” and issued a warning to the president:
“To paint us as violent when police are the ones tear-gassing, shooting, and beating students, especially knowing he was elected in large part due to Black Lives Matter, is utterly shameful,” Joshi said. “He will lose the election if he decides to roll the dice and assume that Gaza isn’t at the top of minds right now.”
Kidus Girma, campaign director at the Sunrise Movement, a political action organization dedicated to fighting climate change, said it’s “in the interest of the president to run on a progressive mandate” to show young voters he’s on their side. “I don’t think the president is currently meeting young voters enough. We are paying attention,” Girma said. “It’s critical that President Biden recognize the voices of young people calling for peace in Gaza. The Americans are calling for the end of unconditional military aid and a permanent cease-fire.” Girma advises that the quickest way to end unrest on the nation’s college campuses is to “listen to the majority of Americans and young students fighting for what is right.”
None of these words of warning or advice acknowledge that the president has also spoken out against anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim hate or that many of the protesters have, in fact, been threatening Jewish students, damaging property, and preventing others from attending school peacefully. Instead, they latch on to the president’s call for peace and order and criticism of anti-Semitism and present it as pro-Israel, anti-Palestine sentiment.
Survey Says: Young Voters Are Bailing on Biden Anyway
Biden’s waffling between support of Israel and calls for a cease-fire aside, it turns out this particular demographic is hard to satisfy anyway. While young voters showed up for Biden in 2020, they have been souring on him ever since.
Matt Duss, executive vice president of the Center for International Policy, called the Biden administration “the most progressive administration of my lifetime,” citing initiatives like the student loan forgiveness program as evidence of Biden’s catering to young voters. And polls going back as far as 2021 have shown that young voters were abandoning Biden before the Israel-Hamas war or the protests at American colleges.
The reality of the situation may well be that the president won’t please Gen-Z and Millennial Democrats no matter what he does. But while Biden’s actions may not make much of a difference in whether this demographic currently supports him, that, in turn, might not make much of a difference in the election. Some of these disenchanted youths will either vote third party or leave the ballot blank. Many, however, are expected to “come home to Biden” during the election, as Duss put it. And on top of that, fewer young people vote than any other age group anyway.
According to the Census Bureau, 57% of eligible voters aged 18-34 voted in 2020, up from just 49% in 2016. But the 35-64 age group saw 69% turnout in 2020 and 65% in 2016. And turnout was 74% in 2020 and 71% in 2016 for voters 65 and older. And about half of all voters – 48% in 2020 and 50% in 2016 – fall in the 35-64 range. Just 29% of voters in 2020 and 24% in 2016 were in the “youth” range of 18-34, with even fewer, of course, falling in the narrower college age range of late teens through early 20s.
This doesn’t mean that the increase in young voters didn’t help put Biden over the line in 2020 – or that their newfound apathy couldn’t cost him a win now. But knowing that young voters make up the smallest portion of the American electorate and that they have the lowest turnout of any other age group may be some small comfort to Biden and his supporters since it seems he can’t please them anyway.
https://www.libertynation.com/young-democrats-warn-biden-to-stand-with-gaza-or-else/
The Green-Driven Surrender of the West
David Blackmon
May 04, 2024
·
Members of the G7 economic alliance, meeting in Turin, Italy, agreed Tuesday to end usage of coal for power generation by the year 2035, a mere 11 years into the future. But, as with so many international deals like this one, there’s a catch.
Really, there are two catches. The first is the addition of a qualification stating the member countries will phase coal out by 2035, or “in a timeline consistent with keeping a limit of 1.5°C temperature rise within reach, in line with countries’ net-zero pathways”. That’s a pretty major exception in and of itself yet the ministers agreed to add a second qualifier, stating the deal will apply only to what they refer to as “unabated” coal plants, defined as any plant that is not accompanied by a probably hugely costly and energy-hungry carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
The pair of major qualifiers were reportedly needed to obtain sign-off by the US, Germany and Japan, all of whose power grids still rely on coal to provide a significant share of baseload power. The usage of CCS to provide abatement for coal-fired plants is also conveniently consistent with the new Clean Power Plan issued by the Biden EPA a week earlier.
Even with those caveats, however, this effort to rob power grids in the West and Japan of so much affordable, stable, round-the-clock baseload generation comes at an inauspicious time. Electricity demand is rising at an accelerating pace, driven by new demands by AI, electric car charging needs, and new industrial plants for the manufacturing of EVs and renewable energy parts and equipment. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told a gathering in January that the power needed for AI and its data centers alone will require a doubling of generation capacity in barely a decade.
The G7’s announcement highlights the divide between the climate alarm-driven machinations by western governments and the ongoing growth of coal usage by China, India, Indonesia, and other developing countries in Asia. The contrast is especially stark where China is concerned, given its continuing permitting of more and more new coal plants despite public pledges to start cutting back. Indeed, Greenpeace claimed China permitted more new coal plants during Q3 2023 than it did in all of 2021.
In its annual global survey of coal usage published this month, the Global Energy Monitor finds that worldwide operating capacity for coal rose by 2 per cent last year, led by China’s domestic growth. China accounted for fully two thirds of the 69.5 gigawatts (GW) of global coal-fired power generation capacity growth during 2023. And, despite its pledges to focus on reducing its carbon emissions, the Xi Jinping government appears set to exceed its 48.4 GW expansion during 2023 over the course of 2024.
Indonesia came in second on that list of 2023 coal capacity additions with 5.9 GW for the year. India was third with 5.5 GW, with Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Greece and Zimbabwe rounding out the top 10.
As mentioned above, the US EPA has endorsed CCS as the best available “proven” solution for abating carbon emissions from both coal and natural gas power plants, but it also bears pointing out that no power plant in the United States today is currently abated using this technology. The marriage has been attempted at 5 different US coal plants, but none of the projects have proved successful. No one has yet attempted such a wedding between CCS and a natural gas plant. Thus, the utility of attempting to abate emissions in this way remains entirely speculative.
Meanwhile, as the US and many fellow G7 countries are now moving to try to eliminate natural gas plants, China and other developing economies are simultaneously demanding more and more of the abundant and cheap commodity. Just this past week, China State Shipbuilding Corporation announced a deal to build 18 new LNG tankers for Qatar, as that nation moves boldly to expand its own LNG export capacity. That move comes just three months after the US government placed an indeterminate hold on the permitting of domestic LNG export terminals.
What it is all boiling down to is an appearance of unilateral surrender of energy security – and of all industries which need energy, especially including AI – by the western world to China. History will not look kindly on the leaders of this forced march to subservience.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/the-green-driven-surrender-of-the?publication_id=712558&post_id=144302308&isFreemail=false&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
Automakers Confirm Warrantless Location Data Sharing With US Agencies
Modern cars transform from mere transport to tools of surveillance, challenging notions of privacy on the streets.
Didi Rankovic
May 3, 2024
The New York state of mind, for once, may be winning – New Yorkers never really cared to drive. And with the new developments in the car industry, and its all but formal collusion with the constantly surveilling government – perhaps others might take some pointers?
(Of course, not driving or owning a car does not exempt you from surveillance or censorship, even if you’re just walking down the street – but owning and using one on a daily basis, if it’s a modern, “internet-connected car with hundreds of censors” – surely significantly lowers your chances of preserving your personal security and data integrity.)
In any case, it’s not looking good out there, as far as privacy and other civil rights are concerned, the way the automobile industry is going. Cars slowly turned from just machines to get people from A to B – into, “potential spying machines acting in ways drivers do not completely understand.”
That’s a big jump, on any “annoyance scale.”
In the US, this is still a hard pill to swallow, and so there are initiatives from certain lawmakers to capture the “angst” of the truth developing around cars, freedom, and autonomy, and capitalize on it among their expected voters.
And so, Democrat Senators Ron Wyden and Edward Markey wrote to the Federal Trade Commission, regarding car manufacturers sharing data with the police. Some of the arguments, however, were rather narrow – where the developments are affecting everybody.
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
https://docs.reclaimthenet.org/signed-wyden-markey-letter-to-ftc.pdf
But – wrote Wyden – “As far-right politicians escalate their war on women, I’m especially concerned about cars revealing people who cross state lines to obtain an abortion.”
Other instances include cases of stalking, etc – but why isn’t a person’s right to privacy any longer protected as a given, whether or not a violation may be suspected?
And now for the reality affecting everybody, at different points of their experience: Toyota, Nissan, Subaru, Volkswagen, BMW, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, and Kia all have confirmed that they have tech embedded in their vehicles allowing them to turn over location data to US government based solely on a subpoena – that it, without a judge having to sign off on an approval.
Volkswagen is the “outlier” here, in that this company will do the same if the data is six days or less old – a subpoena will do. But an actual warrant will be needed to turn over data that spans data collected over a week, according to reports.
https://reclaimthenet.org/automakers-confirm-warrantless-location-data-sharing-with-us-agencies
Documents Reveal Facebook Described Its Struggle with Biden White House on COVID-19 Censorship as a “Knife Fight”
Newly released documents shed light on Facebook's internal turmoil and sharp exchanges with the Biden administration over COVID-19 speech.
Cindy Harper
May 3, 2024
Documents released by the House Judiciary Committee this week reveal that Facebook executives felt embroiled in a bitter conflict with the Biden administration regarding the latter’s call for more aggressive COVID-19 censorship. What the Facebook team compared to a “knife fight” was sparked by President Biden’s public chastising of the platform in July 2021, holding it responsible for “killing people” due to a perceived lack of action against COVID-19 “misinformation.”
We obtained a copy of the report for you here.
WhatsApp messages exposed by the inquiry disclose the inner discontent of Facebook executives following Biden’s critical comments.
Then-Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg expressed her dissatisfaction with Biden’s statement, according to the report, by stating “Ugh on Biden today.” The company’s global affairs president, Nick Clegg, was more explicit in his frustration, describing the White House’s recent conduct as “highly cynical and dishonest” and their interactions as a “knife fight.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEO, seemed to suggest that the administration was exerting undue influence on content control, asking if it was viable to discuss how the White House pressured them to censor the lab leak theory about the origins of the pandemic.
The narrative of censorship was further reinforced by former Biden Director of Digital Strategy Robert Flaherty’s recommendation to alter the platform’s algorithm to favor corporate news publications over conservative ones – a detail gleaned from documents the House Judiciary Committee scrutinized in August.
https://reclaimthenet.org/fb-biden-white-house-on-covid-19-censorship-as-a-knife-fight
NY vs. Trump: Bragg's own witness, Hope Hicks, implodes case against Trump
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg should turn himself in to authorities for impersonating an honest lawyer
Gregg Jarrett
Published May 4, 2024 7:00am EDT
In an epic miscalculation that backfired spectacularly, prosecutors in the Manhattan hush money trial of Donald Trump called Hope Hicks to the witness stand. The moment cross-examination began, their misbegotten case against the former president began to collapse.
Hicks, who served as press secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign, explained that Trump’s motive for suppressing salacious stories was to protect his wife, Melania. "Absolutely…I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed about anything on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him."
The account by Hicks demolishes District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s primary claim against Trump that he paid porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence with the intent to benefit his campaign and, thereby, influence the election by "unlawful means." To the contrary, it nicely corroborates the findings of a federal investigation that no crimes were committed, or campaign finance laws broken because there was another purpose for the non-disclosure agreement that Daniels signed.
Like the prosecution witnesses before her, Hicks disparaged Bragg’s planned star witness, Michael Cohen, Trump’s one-time personal lawyer. "He used to like to call himself Mr. Fix-It, but it was only because he first broke it." Ouch! But that denigrating remark is tame compared to the other derisive comments that have been leveled thus far at the insufferable Cohen, who is a convicted liar who went to prison.
It was foolhardy for Bragg’s legal team to call Hicks. A rank amateurish mistake. Her testimony was redundant and unnecessary. But under the theory that no dead horse will be left unbeaten, prosecutors seemed determined to have her tell the jury what they already knew.
If polling data is correct, Americans are offended by this big top spectacle. They resent seeing the leading candidate for president taken off the campaign trail and tied up in court by a partisan enemy.
Hicks confirmed that Trump was aware that Cohen paid off Daniels to end what can fairly be described as aggressive blackmail demands. When the election drew near, Daniels ratcheted up her greedy scheme to profit from Trump by threatening to go public about a supposed affair, which he denied. Not incidentally, she renounced the purported tryst. Then, in a head-spinning maneuver, she recanted her repudiation.
The payment to Daniels, regardless of its intent, proved to be a waste of money. While the National Enquirer never published her story, Hicks testified that other news outlets did so in advance of the election. In the end, it didn’t seem to matter much to voters who were more invested in policy ideas rather than personal issues. The unlikeable Hillary Clinton was also a factor.
It is worth repeating that the jury already knows all about the Daniels transaction. It has been the subject of endless discourse by other witnesses since the trial commenced. This makes Hicks’ testimony superfluous, and it proves nothing. Of course, Trump knew about the payments. He doesn’t contest it. He says he followed his lawyer’s advice, who handled everything. So what?
The payments made were not illegal. Non-disclosure contracts in exchange for silence are not unlawful. Killing negative stories violates no statutes. More to the point, it is not a crime for Trump to know about a non-crime. That would be a senseless syllogism.
So, where exactly is the crime? To quote a memorable line from "Shakespeare In Love," "I don’t know…it’s a mystery!"
There is, however, no mystery behind Alvin Bragg’s politically driven prosecution of Trump. Out of thin air, the DA conjured up expired misdemeanors, dumped them into a Cuisinart, tossed in a garbage state statute that doesn’t apply to a federal election, hit the "puree" button, and then poured out an absurd concoction of faux felonies.
The only crime here is Bragg’s grotesque abuse of the law.
The legal wrangling between two lawyers who executed a legal contract on behalf of their respective clients is what attorneys do every day. It was booked in Trump’s private business records as "legal expenses" because that is what they were. Nothing was falsified, as Bragg claims in his indictment. But the D.A. wants to put Trump in prison for following his attorney’s legal advice.
Bragg must have skipped his law school class when the "doctrine of impossibility" was taught. You can’t pick an empty pocket. Nor can you unlawfully influence an election after the election. In his charges, Bragg contends that Trump falsified business records in 2017. But the presidential contest occurred in 2016, making it impossible to even complete the intended crime for which he stands accused.
This is just one of the many fallacies embedded in Bragg’s frivolous case. The alleged facts and evidence do not amount to a crime. On this basis, any objective or neutral judge would have long ago granted the defense motion to dismiss the case. Regrettably, Juan Merchan is on the bench. It’s as if he jettisoned his black robe to assume the function of a willing accessory to Bragg’s phony charges.
With Hicks on the stand, prosecutors dwelled interminably on the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape. It has no bearing on the case, mind you, except to smear Trump with irrelevant and prejudicial information. Merchan’s ruling to permit it as admissible evidence is a reversible error, just as it proved to be in the recently dismissed sex crimes conviction of Harvey Weinstein.
Bragg should turn himself in to authorities for impersonating an honest lawyer. To fulfill his campaign promise to nail Trump, the D.A. has manipulated the law and mangled evidence to engineer a wrongful conviction. He targeted Trump in a textbook case of selective prosecution. This is an affront to the principles of fairness and equal justice.
If polling data is correct, Americans are offended by this big top spectacle. They resent seeing the leading candidate for president taken off the campaign trail and tied up in court by a partisan enemy. Bragg’s legally anemic case only accentuates the injustice.
There is no mistaking the boomerang effect here. Voters see this for precisely what it is: a pathetically weak case designed to damage Trump politically to the benefit of President Joe Biden’s reelection chances.
Let’s hope the jurors see that, too.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/ny-vs-trump-braggs-witness-hope-hicks-implodes-case-against-trump
GM Gmenfan-
Every foreign anti American protester should be deported. The US protesters that became violent or refused lawful orders to disperse should be expelled. Handling these hoodlums and thugs with kid gloves is the wrong way to do it. The non students causing mayhem and trouble should be prosecuted and locked up. This is no way to run a country.
...................al
US taxpayers shouldn’t be subsidizing idiotic college extremism
By David Harsanyi Published May 3, 2024, 5:55 p.m. ET
Of course, the United States is such a hellhole of capitalist imperialism that 13,838 students out of 36,649 at Columbia University are here on foreign visas. (I planned on arguing that this policy was unfair to high-achieving American students, until I realized that 13,838 Americans have been spared Columbia.) ... the US government has zero constitutional duty to keep active visas for foreigners who agitate against the system, celebrate Hamas or target American Jews (or anyone else) on campuses.
Mohamed Abdou is a pro-Hamas “anarchist interdisciplinary activist-scholar of Indigenous, Black, critical race, and Islamic studies, as well as gender, sexuality, abolition, and decolonization” at Columbia University.
Now, I don’t mean to pick on Abdou; it’s just that he happens to teach virtually every trendy pseudo-intellectual identitarian twaddle concocted by modern man.
Ultimately, we make Abdou’s job possible.
Nearly every student loan taken in the United States is either given by the government or fully guaranteed by taxpayers.
This sounds wonderful in the abstract, since it allows every student a chance at higher education.
The reality, however, is that we have incentivized universities to create hordes of debt-ridden, credentialed nitwits.
I assure you no bank in the world would ever lend any young person tens of thousands of dollars — much less hundreds of thousands — to pursue studies in either indigenous, black, critical race, Islamic, gender, sexuality, abolition or decolonization studies if those loans were not backed by the federal government.
The state-guarantee policy has created a massive moral hazard that allows schools not only to ignore the real-world needs of their students but to charge astronomical tuition rates.
Many, if not most, students still pursue degrees in fields that have promise.
They’ll get loans.
But if Ivy League schools believe that those political science and journalism degrees are going to pay off in careers, then they should cosign on the loans instead of taxpayers.
If Columbia wants an anarchist interdisciplinary activist-scholar on staff, it should be funded by school endowments (a $13 billion hedge fund that should be taxed) or through charitable donations provided by the Soros Foundation to End Western Civilization, or whatnot.
It is true that universities are not meant to be wholly utilitarian institutions.
We need well-rounded, intellectually engaged citizens.
Does anyone believe that’s happening?
There’s nothing wrong with studying art or culture or philosophy.
There is nothing wrong with earning a liberal arts degree.
The student loan racket game, however, solidified silos of extremism and buffoonery, with decades of compounding radicalism and “diversity, equity and inclusion” racism smothering genuine intellectual diversity.
Every discipline is infected.
Now Democrats want to go from backing this racket to decreeing that taxpayers should just pay off all these bad choices, creating even greater moral hazard.
You can inject all the class-war emotions you like into this debate, but the rules of economics are clear.
Bailouts disincentivize schools from acting responsibly and incentivize some students to keep chasing degrees that will do them very little good.
Speaking of credentialed nitwits, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a bachelor of arts degree in both international relations and economics, recently noted that one of the many things loan “forgiveness” would do is allow people to “go back to school.”
The rate of first-time, full-time students at four-year institutions who graduate from the school they started at within six years stands at 64%.
We need people out of school, finishing degrees that allow them to work and pay back their loans, not going back to school.
Of course, the United States is such a hellhole of capitalist imperialism that 13,838 students out of 36,649 at Columbia University are here on foreign visas.
(I planned on arguing that this policy was unfair to high-achieving American students, until I realized that 13,838 Americans have been spared Columbia.)
Schools love foreign students because they are wealthy and pay in cash. And that’s fine. Most of those kids are probably serious students in business and STEM programs.
Still, the US government has zero constitutional duty to keep active visas for foreigners who agitate against the system, celebrate Hamas or target American Jews (or anyone else) on campuses.
We should be pulling visas for anyone suspended for ignoring university rules, breaking laws, invading buildings or stopping other kids from attending class.
Go to school in your excellent home country instead.
Universities have always been hotbeds of radicalism.
That’s fine.
Those are the years to act like an imbecile.
But extremism is no longer on the margins.
These days, our once-respected institutions are increasingly producing little totalitarians and clueless fellow travelers, who end up populating important real-world institutions.
Society would be better served lighting up a giant cash bonfire than subsidizing this corrosive trend.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/03/opinion/us-taxpayers-shouldnt-be-subsidizing-idiotic-college-extremism/
Biden to Let 100,000 Migrants Enroll in Obamacare
https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/health-care-insurance-migrants/2024/05/03/id/1163349/
Friday, 03 May 2024 06:29 AM EDT
Roughly 100,000 immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children are expected to enroll in the Affordable Care Act's health insurance next year under a new directive the Biden administration released Friday.
The move took longer than promised to finalize and fell short of Democratic President Joe Biden's initial proposal to allow those migrants to sign up for Medicaid, the health insurance program that provides nearly free coverage for the nation's poorest people.
But it will allow thousands of migrants to access lucrative tax breaks when they sign up for coverage after the Affordable Care Act's marketplace enrollment opens Nov. 1, just days ahead of the presidential election.
While it may help Biden boost his appeal at a crucial time among Latinos, a crucial voting bloc that Biden needs to turn out to win the election, the move is certain to prompt more criticism among conservatives about the president's border and migrant policies.
The action opens up the marketplace to any participant in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, many of whom are Latino.
Xavier Becerra, the nation's top health official, said Thursday that many of those migrants have delayed getting care because they have not had coverage.
“They incur higher costs and debts when they do finally receive care," Becerra told reporters on a call. "Making Dreamers eligible to enroll in coverage will improve their health and well-being and strengthen the health and well-being of our nation and our economy.”
The administration's action changes the definition of “lawfully present” so DACA participants can legally enroll in the marketplace exchange.
Then-President Barack Obama launched the DACA initiative to shield from deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents as children and to allow them to work legally in the country. However, the immigrants, also known as “Dreamers,” were still ineligible for government-subsidized health insurance programs because they did not meet the definition of having a “lawful presence” in the U.S.
The administration decided not to expand eligibility for Medicaid for those migrants after receiving more than 20,000 comments on the proposal, senior officials said Thursday. Those officials declined to explain why the rule, which was first proposed last April, took so long to finalize. The delay meant the migrants were unable to enroll in the marketplace for coverage this year.
More than 800,000 of the migrants will be eligible to enroll in marketplace coverage but the administration predicts only 100,000 will actually sign up because some may get coverage through their workplace or other ways. Some may also be unable to afford coverage through the marketplace.
Other classes of immigrants, including asylum seekers and people with temporary protected status, are already eligible to purchase insurance through the marketplaces of the ACA, Obama’s 2010 health care law, often called “Obamacare.”
NATO War, Biden Still 8%, CV19 Vax Crazy
By Greg Hunter On May 3, 2024 In Weekly News Wrap-Ups 41 Comments
https://usawatchdog.com/nato-war-biden-still-8-cv19-vax-crazy/
https://republicansenatenews.com/guess-who-interfered-in-u-s-elections-39-times/
Trump Should Sleep Through Manhattan Show Trial - Trumpet Daily | May 3, 2024
Trumpet Daily
5.58K followers
https://rumble.com/v4t1e7h-trumpet-daily-may-3-2024.html?e9s=rel_v1_b
WORLD NEWS - FORMER VP UNDER TRAITOR O, JOE BIDEN, EXECUTED 4 TREASON &
COVID PSYOP BURIED 1/20/21 JGANON, SGANO
https://www.bitchute.com/video/74Gwvzy0YDlu/
WORLD NEWS - Trump JUST WON THE 2024 PRESIDENCY with Supreme Court Dismantling of Special Counsel Arguments
H. A. Goodman
229K subscribers
Notice the way they just throw the American flag on the ground. Such Patriots. #LockThemUp
Hey Jim Jordan, He Lauren Boebert,
— J Blue (@BlueGirl714) May 2, 2024
WHY THE SILENCE ABOUT THIS? https://t.co/v9IJDrnHBT
Secret Service Detail finds Wiretapping Device in Trump’s Office
ByJillian Bennett
Apr 26, 2024
Trump’s Secret Service guards uncovered a recording device in the former president’s office, presumably planted after the FBI conducted searches at his residence in August 2022. Previously, Trump had accused President Obama of wiretapping his 2016 election campaign office.
The alleged weaponization of the judicial system by the current administration against political opponents is a central theme of the 2024 election cycle. While the nation’s attention is drawn to the hush money trial, it’s worth noting that in other lawsuits against Trump, his opponents’ actions can hardly be considered fair play. The most high-profile case, apart from the January 6 investigation, involved Trump’s alleged improper storage of classified documents. In August 2022, the FBI searched Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida residence while he was in New York. As the elections approach, new details emerge in these cases.
Recent information suggests the FBI raid on Trump’s estate wasn’t solely for searches but also for planting wiretaps. The Phil’s Podcast author cites a leaked September 2023 phone call where Greg Robertson, a Secret Service officer, informed his boss about discovering a recording device. Robertson was one of 24 Secret Service agents “subpoenaed to testify before the Grand Jury in the summer of 2023 when Trump was investigated for mishandling classified documents.”
The recording device was found in Trump’s office in the same wing of the Mar-a-Lago estate from where the FBI seized boxes of documents. The blogger says there are three possible ways the bug ended up in Trump’s office: “planted by someone from the Secret Service, implicating the DHS; by someone from the Mar-a-Lago staff; or by FBI agents who could have wiretapped the room during the August 2022 searches.”
The blogger believes “we can safely discard the first two options. Indeed, there are many people from different departments that do not obey each other at Trump’s residence: Secret Service protection, Mar-a-Lago personnel and guests, Trump’s personal assistants and their substitutes. However, very few of them have access to the aforementioned Trump’s living quarters. Everybody passes serious background checks before they’re hired, plus, the club’s security regularly conducts inspections of the personnel. It’s doubtful that the Secret Service could order the wiretapping. It’s not their job, and presidential protection has never been spotted doing something like this.”
It turns out that despite the large number of visitors and employees at the resort, the FBI could have both a motive and opportunity to install wiretapping, given their role in searching for documents. Additionally, the FBI has experience with such surveillance tactics. The main question now is who within the FBI authorized planting the recording device?
Discussing Biden’s involvement, the blogger draws parallels to similar cases from the past. “Let’s go back a few years. In March 2017, Trump accused former President Obama of wiretapping his office in Trump Tower. According to Trump, Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump’s New York residence prior to the 2016 presidential election. Interestingly, the head of the FBI at the time, James Comey, was the main defender who dismissed Trump’s accusations as false.
The blogger notes that this situation mirrors the Watergate scandal, which is well-known. They argue that while such political espionage scandals were once national shockwaves, they are now “shamefully hushed up by the media and special services.” The blogger suggests that while Obama was not the first to wiretap political opponents, his actions created an environment where Biden could believe he could act with impunity and order surveillance on Trump.
Additional evidence has recently surfaced that points to Biden’s involvement in the secret documents case. Despite Biden and the White House press office attempting to deny their role in the Mar-a-Lago searches, it has since come to light that the current administration actively participated in the planning and preparation of these search operations.
This revelation came after Judge Eileen Cannon ordered the release of an unedited version of previously published court documents. The unredacted files show that the Biden administration closely cooperated with Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, and that the White House made multiple requests to the National Archives, which is responsible for the safekeeping of classified materials. These facts contradict the administration’s prior denials of any such involvement.
Today, Trump is involved in several court proceedings at once, most of which were set up or rescheduled by the efforts of Democrats to coincide with the main events of the 2024 election race. So, for example, the hearings in the January 6 case were supposed to begin the day before the Primaries Super Tuesday, and only public outrage and the colossal efforts of Trump’s defense allowed the hearing to be postponed.
Author of the Phil’s Podcast ends the video with a disappointing conclusion. “And so, history repeats itself again. Again, the upcoming elections, again the current president orders the wiretapping of a political opponent, again the FBI plays along with the White House in a political struggle.”
Considering how the presidential administration has behaved in similar cases before, in can be confidently assumed that the White House will deny accusations of installing wiretapping and actively weaponizing the judicial system against Trump.
https://houstonpost.org/2024/04/26/secret-service-detail-finds-wiretapping-device-in-trumps-office/
Oh no! Solar Panels!
Pennsylvania Republican Got Solar Panel Money From Biden Bill He Opposed
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said the Inflation Reduction Act was “loaded with bad policy and wasteful spending.”
Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), an outspoken critic of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, used the law to receive a grant to install solar panels at one of his car dealership locations.
Kelly already underwent scrutiny for opposing student debt cancellation after accepting nearly $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans during the COVID-19 pandemic that were forgiven.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-kelly-inflation-reduction-act-solar-grant_n_6631c4bae4b0279447aca046
The Charlotte GOP accidentally mocked a word-for-word transcript of Donald Trump's incoherent speech without realizing it was Trump's words.
How humiliating. The Charlotte GOP accidentally mocked a word-for-word transcript of Donald Trump's incoherent speech without realizing it was Trump's words. pic.twitter.com/djVmrOcZPk
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 17, 2024
Hey Gmenfan-
Great classic comedy. A shame the wokeholes can't appreciate them.
....................al
Two TV icons ... Sanford and Son and All in the Family.
Oh darn! You're missing some really exciting games. You should tune in.
9 Reasonable Demands From Students Occupying Campus Buildings
Much has been made about the student protesters occupying spaces on college campuses recently -- but what do these masked, wanna-be revolutionaries actually want? The Babylon Bee has obtained the following list of completely reasonable demands being made by students occupying campus buildings:
Later bedtimes: And no more naps!
Dunkaroos: With extra creme. They never give enough creme.
For the Jews to just stand still, surrender, and agree to be eradicated: And no defending themselves. That's not fair.
Some Red Vines: Get out of here with your Twizzler offers.
No accountability or consequences for anything they do or say at any point in their lives: Obviously.
Several pints of Ben & Jerry's "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free" Pistachio Ice Cream: Freeing the people of Gaza one scoop at a time.
That campus be designated a gun-free, banana-free, and Jew-free zone: It's just common sense.
An extra 30 minutes of screen time on weekends: Schindler's List is a long movie, okay?
The total dismantling of all Western society and also some Pop-Tarts: Frosted strawberry and the complete end of the Western world. Delicious.
As soon as these demands are met, the protesters have agreed to keep rooting for the destruction of Israel and America, but back in their dorm rooms. Your move, University President!
https://babylonbee.com/news/9-reasonable-demands-from-students-occupying-campus-buildings
Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar expected to be indicted >
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democratic-texas-rep-henry-cuellar-expected-indicted-doj-sources
Congressional Democrats Demand $40 Billion For UCLA Protest Border Security
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A legislative stalemate appeared to be brewing on Capitol Hill as congressional Democrats put forth a resolution that demanded $40 billion to pay for UCLA student protest border security.
The measure, intended to use taxpayer funding to create a secure border around the violent mob of protesters gathered on UCLA's campus, included the building of a state-of-the-art border wall, as well as cameras, motion and thermal sensors, and the hiring of hundreds of armed guards to patrol the border and ensure no one crosses it illegally.
"The safety and security of these protesters is at stake," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. "We cannot run the risk of having unidentified people entering the Gaza Liberation Autonomous Zone — many of them without any documentation — and just wandering around without knowing where they are going or what they are planning to do. Allowing people to do that would be irresponsible and a dereliction of our duty. It's too preposterous to even imagine."
Democrats in the Senate agreed. "The border must be secured," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "Do you just let people walk in the front door of your home without knowing who they are? Of course not. Letting people walk right into the protest area unvetted and without any checkpoints or security measures in place is just asking for something horrible to happen. We must do everything we can to make sure we protect the protesters, their safety, their culture, and their way of life."
At publishing time, Democrats were negotiating a deal in which congressional Republicans would agree to tear down the existing wall along the southern U.S. border and place it around the UCLA protesters for protection.
https://babylonbee.com/news/congressional-democrats-demand-40-billion-for-ucla-protest-border-security
Moments From Victory Against Democrats, Republicans Decide To Start Attacking First Amendment
WASHINGTON, D.C. — With Democrats across the country embroiled in vicious infighting, antisemitism, and takeovers of college campuses, Republicans have decided to remedy their impending victory by attacking the First Amendment.
"We realized that things were going well for us, so we took corrective action immediately," said Mike Johnson, while at the bank cashing his latest check from a Ukrainian lobbyist. "We thought: 'What can we do that will immediately enrage our most loyal voters while simultaneously preventing the self-destruction of the Democrat Party?' Of course, the most obvious choice was to pass a law against free speech. Mission accomplished!"
Sources say the new antisemitism bill passed by the House will soon be struck down by federal courts, but should still do the job of necessarily injuring the Republican Party in an election year.
"This is the decisive leadership our party needs," said Congressman Crenshaw while adjusting his brand-new clown nose. "Hey check out how loud my clown nose can honk! HONK HONK!"
At publishing time, Republicans had announced next week's plans to also attack the Second Amendment.
https://babylonbee.com/news/moments-from-victory-against-democrats-republicans-decide-to-start-attacking-first-amendment
Boeing Sadly Announces Whistleblower Shot Self In Back While Falling Off Skyscraper Directly Into Wood Chipper While Wearing Cement Shoes
ARLINGTON, VA — In a press conference held this morning, Boeing sadly announced that a whistleblower had shot himself in the back while falling off a skyscraper directly into a wood chipper while wearing cement shoes.
Though the shocking incident is the second such death of a Boeing whistleblower in as many months, the company saw no correlation between the two terrible tragedies that were in no way the results of any type of foul play and were clearly instances of suicide.
"We received awful news this morning," said a Boeing spokesperson at the press conference. "It has been brought to our attention that the individual who came forward as a whistleblower regarding our company using defective and dangerous products has died. He apparently took his own life by shooting himself in the back as he jumped from a tall building and landed straight in a perfectly positioned wood chipper, all after going to the effort of fitting himself with a pair of cement shoes. It's sad that he was so despondent that he felt the need to end his life in such a needlessly complicated way. In completely unrelated news, the investigation into the safety standards of our design and manufacturing processes has been put on indefinite hold due to the lack of any witness testimony. Thank you."
At publishing time, Boeing had distributed a company-wide memo to all employees to warn them about the tragic effects of suicide and to keep their yappers shut if they knew what was good for them.
https://babylonbee.com/news/boeing-sadly-announces-whistleblower-shot-self-in-back-while-falling-off-skyscraper-directly-into-wood-chipper-while-wearing-cement-shoes
On oil prices, Biden between a rock and a hard place
By Warren Beatty
For the appeaser-in-chief, lower gasoline prices are becoming politically expensive.
Joe Biden finds himself, as a “political and world leader,” between a rock and a hard place when it comes to rising gasoline prices, despite record U.S. oil output and his raiding of the Strategic Oil Reserve (SRO). The scale of Biden’s SRO releases, roughly 200 million barrels, dwarfed those of his predecessors, sending stores in the reserves to their lowest levels since the 1980s. Pressure by Congress is building to actually enforce sanctions against Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
If (and this is a big “if”) Biden does enforce existing sanctions, prices will increase. That’s bad politically. A YouGov and Economist March poll suggests that inflation is the most important issue to voters, with 24% of them considering it their top priority. An April Gallup survey found that rising gasoline prices this year have lowered voters’ economic outlook. Lower oil prices boost economic outlook because lower prices benefit most consumers with cheaper gasoline, cheaper travel, and lower prices of many manufactured goods. But Biden appears to ignore poll results as he continues his appeasement routine.
After Iran launched an attack on Israel, Biden (once again) did nothing regarding Iran oil sanctions. Russian oil and Venezuelan oil is shipped to Southeast Asia, then transferred from tanker to tanker, then relabeled as coming from a non-sanctioned oil producer. Biden knows that this has been going on for years. Does he stop this by enforcing sanctions? No! Why? Maritime security expert Jan Stockbruegger says Biden has an overarching reason not to apply oil sanctions. “Without Russian or Iranian oil, our oil price would be higher. Elections are usually decided through the price of gas. ... [Biden] has an incentive to make sure oil prices are low.”
Here’s the bottom line: hesitant to increase oil prices in an election year, Biden has been reluctant to use the oil sanctions weapon, to enforce sanctions so as to bring misbehaving countries into line with our view.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/on_oil_prices_biden_between_a_rock_and_a_hard_place.html
America's immigration nightmare: The economic and social fallout
By Joseph Ford Cotto
The April pronouncements of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at Stanford University have sparked a crucial discourse about the ramifications of mass immigration on the American economy. Powell's observations emphasized the significant role of immigrants, particularly within lower-paying sectors of the labor market, prompting economists to hastily reconsider their projections.
The forecasts presented by the Congressional Budget Office (C.B.O.) paint a stark panorama: an astounding 3.3 million individuals entered the United States in 2023 alone, with similar figures anticipated for 2024.
While some champion these statistics as heralds of economic expansion, the underlying reality is bleak. The majority of this influx comprises individuals entering the country unlawfully, imposing an undue strain on local communities and stretching public services to their limits.
What is particularly disconcerting is that much of this purported economic growth stems from illicit employment practices, perpetuating an underground economy riddled with exploitation and criminality.
Instead of acknowledging the harm wrought by unchecked immigration, policymakers and commentators persist in extolling its alleged benefits while turning a blind eye to its adverse impacts on American workers and communities.
Consider the predicament of New York City, where Mayor Eric Adams has beseeched for federal aid to manage the surge of illegal aliens. Such pleas merely skim the surface of the deeper issues arising from misguided immigration policies and porosity at the borders.
Furthermore, the discourse on mass immigration conveniently sidesteps the crucial question of assimilation and self-sufficiency. How swiftly can these newcomers integrate into American society and become productive contributors to the economy? The answer remains elusive, shrouded in wishful thinking and baseless optimism.
While proponents of mass immigration laud its role in propelling economic expansion, they ignore its stifling effect on innovation and sustained productivity. Enterprises drawn to low-cost labor are disinclined to invest in technology and automation, perpetuating a cycle of stagnation and dependence.
Policies aimed at artificially boosting wages, such as California's $20 minimum wage mandate, exacerbate the issue by curtailing working hours and eliminating jobs. The influx of immigrant workers, concentrated in low-skilled sectors, further undermines the prospects of American workers striving to make ends meet.
Yet, perhaps the most damning indictment of mass immigration lies in its unintended repercussions, transcending the economic domain. The reliance on immigrant labor fosters social maladies ranging from criminality and social alienation to drug overdoses and economic despondency.
Contrary to grand assertions, the data paints a stark picture of native-born Americans being marginalized in their own nation's labor market. While immigrants secure a disproportionate share of employment opportunities, native employment continues to dwindle, imperiling the economic prospects of millions of hardworking Americans.
As America confronts the aftermath of misguided immigration policies, it is imperative to confront reality. Denial of the adverse effects of mass immigration only perpetuates the cycle of decline, relegating the American dream to a remote ideal for those who merit better.
Looking away from the mainstream media's rabid rantings, one finds sobering insights into the multifaceted impact of immigration on the American economy and society, challenging prevalent narratives and advocating for a reevaluation of immigration policies.
This paves the way for a broader examination of America's societal challenges, offering avenues towards a more harmonious and prosperous future.
The alternative borders on the unthinkable. My latest book, 'What Happened to America?: How—and Why—the American Dream Became a Nightmare,' deals with the social, economic, political, and cultural ravages of bad immigration policy. Needless to say, America is the victim of this policy, as has been the case for some time.
Indeed, the country's litany of pressing problems, which grow more severe without hesitation, can be traced back to immigration blunders. America itself stands, a house divided, as a cautionary tale about what happens when immigrants do not leave a land better than when they found it. After all, a nation is only as promising as its people.
If America is truly to be made great again, then bold actions, not idle words, are required to produce something in the way of a national turnaround. This cannot happen, under any circumstances, if the grim reality of Uncle Sam's immigration policy goes ignored.
Short of coming to terms with America's immigration madness, plans for a countrywide renewal are nothing short of conversations with imaginary friends.
One day, all of America might become something like New York City, which grapples with the influx of illegal aliens, while pathetically pleading for federal assistance. Of course, these humiliating stretches of the hand outward merely scratch the surface of the deeper issues—each stemming from porous borders and misguided immigration policies.
The failure to address the fundamental questions of assimilation and self-sufficiency further compounds the immigration problem. American workers grow sidelined in their own country's labor market, simultaneously finding themselves strangers in an ever-stranger land.
The cause of mass immigration, bolstered by legal and illegal aliens alike, is championed by homegrown proponents who turn a blind eye to its deleterious effects. They perpetuate a cycle of decline that erodes the very foundations of the American dream.
When that dream is completely dead, desperation sets in, and the consequences of that are certain to be horrifying.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/america_s_immigration_nightmare_the_economic_and_social_fallout.html
UCLA turned into a pigpen by pro-Hamas protestors
By Monica Showalter
Biden's political knife-woman also stabbed her husband, and lied about it to Congress
By Monica Showalter
Interior secretary Deb Haaland has no idea if ‘trash on the federal lands along the border’ is an issue because she’s never been there
By Olivia Murray
On ‘transgenderism,’ Germany goes crazy and the UK claws back sanity
By Andrea Widburg
Within the same one-month period, Germany passed the most insanely pro-“transgender” laws in the world, while Britain pulled back from the abyss and officially recognized that there are only two biological sexes. It remains to be seen which policy will gain traction in Europe...and in America.
Here’s what happened in Germany:
The German Parliament, or Bundestag, passed one of the world’s most far-reaching sex self-determination policies on April 12, despite protests from women’s rights campaigners. The Self-Determination Act (SBGG) establishes ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic and allows parents to change the sex marker on their children’s documents from birth.
Supported by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition and promoted and supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the SBGG also creates the potential for citizens to be fined up to €10,000 (approx. $10,800 USD) for revealing a person’s given name and birth sex without their permission – an action that trans activists staunchly oppose and refer to as ‘deadnaming.’
But arguably the most troubling aspect of the law relates to a portion of the bill which permits parents to alter the recorded sex of children beginning from birth. From the age of five years old, it allows for name and sex changes if there is “mutual consent” between the child and their parents.
Did you get that last bit about a five-year-old child “consenting” to have his sex changed on his birth certificate?
Meanwhile, in the UK, the National Health Service, which reflects official government policy, will finally back away from so-called “transgenderism”:
Changes to the health service’s written constitution proposed by ministers will for the first time ban trans women from women-only wards, and give women the right to request a female doctor for intimate care.
[snip]
In 2021, NHS guidance said trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards based on the gender with which they identified.
The new constitution will state: “We are defining sex as biological sex.”
The clarification means that the right to a single-sex ward means patients would “not have to share sleeping accommodation with patients of the opposite biological sex”.
Ah, normalcy, at last, at least in the country that bequeathed many of its values to us 250 years ago. There, at least, it seems that (a) the hysterical madness of the so-called “transgender” activists, (b) women’s realization that they are being subordinated to insane men, and (c) the emerging evidence that “transgenderism” was always a political and social con rather than a physical reality are slowly making themselves felt...at least in some areas.
I’m really not sure what to say at this point. Germany has opted for insanity while Britain is trying to claw its way back to normalcy. We see the same schism in America as the different states battle it out over whether to subject children to the mental and physical torture of so-called “transgenderism.” It’s to be hoped that we follow in Britain’s footsteps rather than in Germany’s.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/on_transgenderism_germany_goes_crazy_and_the_uk_claws_back_sanity.html
You pay so I win
By Richard Berkowitz
Here comes help to understand Biden’s evil approach to the Israel-Hamas war
By Andrea Widburg
We’ve all seen how Biden has been trying to manage Israel’s war against Hamas—and he’s been doing so in a way that hampers Israel’s ability to fight an openly genocidal enemy. The question is why he’s doing this. I know that I have inchoate ideas about Obama’s Iran policy and Biden’s long-standing animosity toward Israel, but Lee Smith drills deeper and comes up with something even more disturbing...and manifestly true.
The Tablet article is entitled, “Saving Hamas: The Palestinian terror organization refuses to release hostages while clinging to its last stronghold in Rafah. So why is the Biden administration throwing the full weight of the U.S. government at Israel to prevent it from routing Hamas?” The first two paragraphs clearly explain the essay’s premise:
Reports are circulating that the Israelis are planning an operation in Rafah to eliminate the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. If so, the Netanyahu government will be acting against the very public wishes of the Biden administration, which has spent the last half year moving heaven and earth to save a terrorist organization from destruction. Bizarrely, the White House’s statements and actions show that Hamas’ survival is more important than the security of a traditional American partner, Israel; more crucial to American interests than the preservation of the U.S.-led order of the Middle East; more precious than the dozens of American lives that Hamas ended on Oct. 7; more valuable than however many Americans and Israelis are still alive in the terror army’s tunnels.
Why? As the money and prestige that the U.S. has invested month after month in protecting Hamas demonstrate, the Biden administration sees the terror group as a valuable asset.
So many essays start out this well and then fall down on the job. Smith doesn’t make that mistake. In a beautifully organized series of paragraphs, Smith provides example after example of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel steps the Biden administration has taken, beginning the day after the October 7 massacre, when Secretary of State Blinken was already calling for a ceasefire—as in, Hamas gets to break a ceasefire and sadistically slaughter Jews, but Israel should be handcuffed before she can retaliate.
Smith goes on from there, reciting chapter and verse about the Biden administration’s efforts, both subtle and overt, to throttle Israel’s ability to fight a terrorist organization on her doorstep. And lest anyone think I’m exaggerating about the organization’s explicit plans to exterminate the Jews living in their ancestral homeland (land that Muslims and Arabs later colonized), here’s a reminder of Hamas rhetoric, which Hamas has repeatedly paired with equally violent action:
Ahmad Bahr, former Deputy Speaker, Hamas Parliament: “Kill them all without leaving a single one.” (2012)
Fathi Hamad, Senior Hamas official: “You have Jews everywhere and we must attack every Jew on the globe by way of slaughter and killing.” (2019)
Sheikh Hamad al-Regeb: “Bring annihilation upon the Jews. Paralyze them, destroy their entity.” (2023) and,
Yaya Sinwar, at this writing crawling through sewers in Gaza, announcing that Hamas is winning the war: “We’ll take down the border and tear their hearts from their bodies.” (2018)
Having proven repeatedly the Biden administration’s pro-Hamas slant, Smith moves on to explain who the self-identified Palestinians are, separate from their genocidal antisemitic proclivities: They are terrorists. I know that sounds obvious, but many people have lost sight of what that means. Smith carefully explains how the Palestinians have been violent guns for hire who serve anti-Western despots around the world.
From there, it’s a short but important step to explaining Obama’s relationship with Iran, Israel, and other Middle Eastern nations, along with his problematic approach to the West Bank and Gaza. While Trump effectively halted Obama’s policies, Biden has slavishly returned to them.
But here’s the kicker: It’s not just hatred for Israel or love for Iran that’s driving the Obama and Biden train. There’s more...but you have to click on over to Tablet to get the stunning denouement.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/here_comes_help_to_understand_biden_s_evil_approach_to_the_israel_hamas_war.html
This Economy Does Not Look Good
By S.T. Karnick
The latest economic numbers show a precarious economy suffering the cumulative effects of years of bad economic policy.
GDP growth was 1.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, down from 3.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 4.9 percent in the third quarter. That trend is especially concerning because the economic fundamentals that coincided with the decline are still in place.
We have record-high government spending and borrowing (indulged by both political parties), major quantitative tightening by the Federal Reserve, decreases in the size of the American-born workforce (who are being replaced by immigrants), record-high credit card debt, very high housing costs (up by 37 percent since the first quarter of 2020 through the end of last year), and a record amount of federal regulation.
Core inflation rose at a 3.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter and 2.9 percent in March, the Commerce Department reports. Fearful of renewed inflation, the Federal Reserve will not ease up on the money supply and will keep interest rates at their highest level in more than two decades, as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell announced on Wednesday, which should slow economic growth further.
Meanwhile, President Biden is doing his very best to destroy the economy via regulatory brutality. The American Action Forum reports that Biden “agencies published $875.3 billion in total costs” on the U.S. economy in just one week in mid-April, including tighter emission standards for cars, tougher efficiency requirements for light bulbs, and silica exposure limits clearly meant to end coal mining.
Biden’s one-week regulatory bacchanal amounted to “[j]ust $20 billion less than what President Obama did in two terms!” notes AAF President Douglas Holtz-Eakin. The contrast between Biden and Trump is ten times as dramatic as that: $1.37 trillion by Biden to $30.1 billion by Trump by April of year four of their respective administrations.
State and local minimum wage increases are doing additional harm -- raising prices without increasing output -- while ever-tighter state and local land-use regulations are suppressing the production of new housing, the need for which is being exacerbated by mass immigration. Rising crime caused by reductions in law enforcement is creating havoc among retail businesses and causing many to shut down or move to other jurisdictions, creating costs that would be unnecessary if governments were doing their job.
In addition to all that, Congress and the president enacted into law $95 billion in what is being called foreign aid, though most of it ($57 billion) is really aid to domestic U.S. manufacturers of weapons whose products will be sent to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. That too is inflationary, and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson led the way, with nearly half his caucus supporting the Ukraine spending.
The Biden administration’s refusal to guard the nation’s border is increasing the cost of government in localities across the country, especially those self-designated as sanctuary cities, where Democrat mayors are screaming for more money from taxpayers elsewhere across the land. Regardless of who ends up paying, the additional expense is another dead loss for the country.
With such a gargantuan burden on economic production, private inventories and net exports were down in the first quarter, as was consumer spending on goods. The big upward movement was in spending on consumer services. It is difficult to believe that this resulted from great improvements having made those services more precious to the consumer. On the contrary, it is resulting from unnecessary cost increases caused by government regulations and higher interest rates. Consumers have been increasing their credit card debt to cover the price hikes.
Inflation-adjusted per capita income has decreased and is far below the 2017 to January 2020 trendline. After-tax income is even worse, because of the tax increases imposed by Biden and congressional Democrats in 2021 and 2022.
The rapid decline in GDP growth since last summer reflects serious problems with the U.S. economy. These have been papered over by expansive federal borrowing, which has spurred consumer spending -- and price and asset inflation. The borrowing, in turn, is a result of massive federal spending increases far above the January 2017 to January 2020 trendline. The nation is heading rapidly toward a debt crisis.
Biden now wants to double the capital gains tax, to 39.6 percent, and raise the payroll tax for Medicare to 5 percent from the current 3.8 percent, an increase of nearly one-third. Biden proposes also to raise the top income tax rate by 2.6 percentage points and place a minimum tax on billionaires. All of this will further suppress economic activity, and the billionaires will find ways to avoid the minimum tax, as always.
The markets had been hoping against hope that the Fed would declare inflation beaten and begin lowering interest rates to stimulate the economy. There is a strong case to be made that inflation is in fact already below the Fed’s 2 percent target. I agree with that assessment. The Fed does not, so there will be no monetary relief.
Inflation may look overly sticky, but the country’s real economic problem is the massive weight of government overspending and regulations on the economy. The American people cannot get anywhere near their potential production of goods and services when the federal government is doing so much to stop them and states and localities are piling up further encumbrances. That will not change before January 20 of next year, if then.
Until Congress and the president get serious about decreasing the burden of government on the nation’s productive people, America’s long-term economic prospects will continue to decline.
The upcoming November elections give the public a chance to comment on the situation with their votes. Unfortunately, we cannot expect much progress toward real reform when the choices are between More of the Same and Much More of the Same.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/this_economy_does_not_look_good.html
Boosting Dedollarization — From Within
By Peter C. Earle
Shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the U.S. Treasury ejected a number of Russian banks from the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messaging system and seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian-held U.S. dollar assets. Since then, the dedollarization trend has become a perennial topic in financial and economic circles. Anchored by the ten BRICS nations, efforts are underway to diversify away from the dollar, which has stood as the global reserve currency since the Bretton Woods agreement concluded in 1944. The U.S. dollar has retained its role as the center of gravity of global commerce despite wars, the loss of its link to gold in 1971, the rise of competitors, economic downturns, and other challenges. A recent blow to the dollar’s prestige has been the cavalcade of Federal Reserve pandemic policy errors, which include massively expanding the money supply in 2020, ignoring the outbreak of inflation by dismissing it as “transitory,” raising interest rates so rapidly that a handful of regional banks were destabilized, and now — quite possibly — not having raised rates sufficiently. The general price level is continuing to rise at rates nearly twice the Fed’s target range.
Recent data shows that dedollarization is indeed proceeding, but at a very slow pace. And that makes sense: the world is accustomed to doing business in dollars. Barriers to exit are high, owing to long-established financial institutions both formal (technology, accounting systems, and terms of settlement) and informal (customs and habits). All contribute to the deep entrenchment of the buck in global trade networks. But international reserve currencies have come and gone throughout history: the U.S. dollar replaced the British pound, which itself replaced the Dutch guilder, and so on.
The loss of the dollar’s reserve status, whether it takes years or decades, is likely to have severe consequences for both U.S. citizens and the government. Declining use of the dollar would result in a depreciation in its value, driving up the price of imports. A secondary effect of falling international use of the dollar would be a diminished source of interest in the U.S. Treasury securities, in which dollar reserves are invested. Given Washington D.C.’s increasingly insatiable (and bipartisan) appetite for spending, policies likely to lead to declining bidders for U.S. bills, notes, and bonds, as well as higher interest rates for those instruments, should be of concern. Questions are already being raised by credit rating agencies regarding the impact of trillion-dollar budget deficits, and tens of trillions of dollars of U.S. government debt on future U.S. economic growth and fiscal sustainability.
Yet a host of novel threats to the resilience of our longstanding financial cornerstone have emerged. Whether owing to a lack of understanding or the time-honored political habit of sacrificing tomorrow for today, the dollar’s centrality is as much at-risk from domestic as foreign sources currently.
Take the Biden administration’s March 11, 2024 General Explanations of the Administration’s Fiscal Year 2025 Revenue Proposals. Buried on page 80 — in a footnote — is the following blurb:
A separate proposal would first raise the top ordinary rate to 39.6 percent (43.4 percent including the net investment income tax). An additional proposal would increase the net investment income tax rate by 1.2 percentage points above $400,000, bringing the marginal net investment income tax rate to 5 percent for investment income above the $400,000 threshold. Together, the proposals would increase the top marginal rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends to 44.6 percent.
Combining state and federal taxes, the top marginal U.S. long-term capital gains tax rate currently ranges from 20 to 33 percent. Under the FY 2025 budget proposal, the combined long-term state-Federal capital gains tax burden would surpass 50 percent in numerous states.
That would significantly raise, and in some cases double, the tax burden in epicenters of corporate and multinational headquarters including California (to nearly 60 percent), New Jersey (to just over 55 percent), and New York (to over 53 percent).
Part of the appeal of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency is the presence of liquid, deep, and broad capital markets; not just in U.S. government securities but in equities, corporate bonds, and other investments. Governments and large corporations with large dollar holdings frequently invest those reserves, and often in U.S. Treasuries. The current weighted average maturity of U.S. Treasury securities outstanding is roughly 72 months, or six years: long enough that materially altering the tax code where long-term investments are concerned is likely to substantially alter investor behaviors. It’s more than a confiscatory measure being levied by a nation increasingly unable to live within its means. The imposition of the highest capital gains taxes on investment in over a century conveys open hostility to would-be investors.
Elsewhere, economic advisers to former President Trump are said to have recently discussed directing punitive measures against nations shifting their currency usage away from the U.S. dollar. Saleha Mohsin of Bloomberg reported last week that trade restrictions, tariffs, and penalties typically associated with currency manipulation are under discussion. As with a gargantuan increase in capital gains taxes, the very consideration of threatening punitive measures against countries increasingly convinced of the vulnerability of engaging in dollar-based commerce implies a lack of awareness bordering on inscrutability.
The oft-heard argument that there are no substitutes for the dollar does not ring true in an era of stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, and rising commodity prices. The recent bull market in gold has been in part driven by central banks diversifying away from the dollar and bracing for geopolitical uncertainty.
Drafting the U.S. dollar, America’s long-dominant global reserve currency, into foreign military service over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a fateful decision. It’s one that U.S. citizens and policymakers alike will have to live with the consequences of for decades. The least we can expect from U.S. public officials now is to not to exacerbate current trends by engaging in irresponsible, short-sighted policy suggestions which, while grasping for ideological points, further impair the utility of the dollar. And in so doing, confirm global suspicions about Washington D.C.’s increasing disconnection from economic reality.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/boosting_dedollarization_from_within.html
America Is Headed For A Civil War… Maybe
By Vince Coyner
Multiculti Chaos
By Alex Gordon
The Greek word ???? means “void, abyss,” from the verb ?a???, “to gape, to be wide open,” and the cognate Old English geanian, “to gape, to open.”
The relationship between spiritual collapse and the decay of moral and social order is a common theme in the prophets, especially Isaiah.
In election campaigns in democracies, struggling parties threaten voters that the victory of the enemy represents the end of democracy for their country and the advent of dictatorship in it.
But there is a far greater threat to a country than the weakening of its democracy -- it is chaos, anarchy, the loosening and even disintegration of civil society, and perhaps even civil war.
Anarchists threaten not the existence of democracy, but the existence of the state. The system formed after these perturbations will not necessarily become totalitarian, as the fighters for democracy threaten, i.e., it may not be about the loss of freedom, but about the loss of the order of governing the country. A functional dictatorship, like Singapore and even China, may be better for citizens than the chaos of state collapse, because it provides stabilization of society.
The pro-Palestinian demonstrations taking place in the U.S. are far more threatening to the U.S. than the Israel they target. The pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses oppose the Democrat party's vision of a solution to the Middle East conflict -- two states for two peoples -- as they fight for one state for the Arab Palestinian people instead of one Jewish state: they demand the liberation of Palestine from the Israelis, “from river to sea.”
In this way, they act as an opposition to the ruling Democrat party. But much more dangerously, these demonstrations are against democracy in general and, in particular, against American democracy. Technically, they are fighting against democracy in Israel and siding with the murderers and rapists of Hamas.
But he who fights against democracy in another country does not like democracy in his own country, either. Huge demonstrations create and legitimize anarchy: the establishment negotiates with anarchists to regularize anarchy. Anarchy in the U.S. comes from two sources -- from crowds of illegal immigrants and from crowds of protesting opponents of democracy. Chaos is worse than democracy because democracy has boundaries and laws, chaos has none.
Democracy is not always the power of democrats. In one speech, Joseph Stalin created a characteristically sly joke about democracy: “I thought democracy was the power of the people, but Comrade Roosevelt lucidly explained to me that democracy is the power of the American people!” Democrats are not those who think democracy is their power. Usually the opposite is true: anyone who monopolizes their right to power by calling it democracy is most likely an anti-democrat.
One can learn about the future in the United States by observing the results of the flood of Islamic immigrants into Europe that began as a result of the Arab Spring in 2010.
The huge flow of immigrants into Europe is creating social chaos. The leaders of European countries, thinking they were in control, created chaos that turned against the indigenous population of their countries. They proceeded from the theory of multiculturalism, but a few months after mass immigration began, they admitted the failure of their policy. They had created turbulent flows of populations alien to Europe.
In the summer of 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has been more active than any other European leader in promoting the resettlement of Arab refugees in Europe, summarized the German government's failure to integrate them: “Attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany, in which people of different cultures live in full harmony, have finally and irrevocably failed. The integration of foreigners is one of the main political tasks of the near future. Migrants should not only be supported, but also demanded, which has been given too little attention in recent times.”
In 2011, French President Nicolas Sarkozy summarized his country's experience with multiculturalism this way: “Yes, it is very clear that it was a failure. We have been too concerned with the identity of the person who comes to the country and have not paid enough attention to the identity of the country that receives the newcomer.”
Before the flood of immigrants into Europe, many Europeans thought the answer to Europe's social problems was multiculturalism, that is, the idea of a society that fully accepts foreigners who practice Islam, while preserving their religious and mental characteristics, without requiring them to integrate. But it turned out that multiculturalism facilitates not the integration of immigrants, but their consolidation, their isolation and promotes the creation of a state within a state. Then the European country becomes two states for two peoples, a state of natives and a state of immigrants who do not dissolve in the European democracy.
Society's tolerance and respect for immigrants who are intolerant and disrespectful of that society prepares the change of power. The arrival of huge numbers of immigrants turns the country into a turbulent system that can easily, by a small push, move into a state of crisis with unpredictable results. The destabilization of society can be more dangerous for it than deviations from the democratic regime. If a ship is rocked violently, it may go off course and slightly change its direction, but it is much more dangerous that this rocking may cause it to sink.
French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut writes in his book Unhappy Identity that French identity is disappearing amid the active multiplication of Muslims, which is a “danger to the republic." He links his fears to the formation of a multicultural and post-national France.
British journalist Simon Kuper reported in the Financial Times on his French observations: “Having moved to France in 2002, I witnessed first-hand the cultural revolution taking place in the country. Catholicism is virtually extinct (only 6% of French people now attend mass regularly). [...] The non-white population continues to grow.” French political scientist Jérôme Fourquet, in his book The French Archipelago: the Birth of a Multiple and Divided Nation (2019), describes the cultural collapse of French society as a “post-Christian era,” as the French parting ways with Catholicism, as a “self-de-Christianization.” A recent study shows that there are as many Muslims in France as Catholics. In The French Archipelago, Fourquet presents a picture of a fractured, fragmented French society, from a single and indivisible nation to a true multicultural “archipelago.”
In 2020, the concept of “Islamist separatism” entered the French political lexicon, which means the non-recognition of the fundamental principles of the French Republic by a part of the French population and the creation of a “parallel society”. Muslims in France make up 9% of the population. This percentage is enough to create a “parallel counter-society” and a state within a state.
In the U.S., Muslims make up about 1% of the population. How long will it take the U.S. to reach the level of the French crisis if political correctness, multi-culti (etymology from the German Multikulti) dialogue from a position of tolerance and respect with intolerant populations are the constant governing companions of the current U.S. administration?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/multiculti_chaos.html
Mail Theft and Crimes Against Postal Workers Rising
As the 2024 election looms, how secure are mail-in ballots?
by Kelli Ballard | May 3, 2024 |
Since 2020, there has been a major spike in mail crimes. From thefts to assaults on mail carriers, this pervasive wave of criminality shows few signs of abating. Keen observers may note that this growing problem had its birth alongside the COVID pandemic, which saw the US Postal Service replace its police force, the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and restricting it from guarding offsite properties like homes and businesses. As the November election approaches – and with it the use of absentee ballots – people are understandably concerned about mail security.
Mail Crimes
Postal carrier robberies increased 30% just last year, and crimes resulting in injuries doubled, according to a Freedom of Information Act requested by the Associated Press and provided by USPIS. Taking a broader look at the issue, these robberies now occur six times as often as they did ten years ago, and the number of mail carriers robbed at gunpoint has soared even higher. To put it in perspective, there were fewer than 60,000 complaints of mail theft in 2018 – but more than 250,000 in 2023.
The soft-on-crime approach by the postal service is partially to blame for the increase in lawbreaking, according to some. Frank Albergo, head of the Postal Service Police Association, told News 5 in 2021: “The postal service, inexplicably … defunded their own police force.” And as we have seen in blue states across the nation, defunding the police has led to more crime, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this is true for the post office as well.
It also doesn’t help that crimes against mail carriers don’t carry as much weight as they used to. Postal workers are federal employees and offenses against them used to result in more severe punishment as a federal crime. However, in February, a federal district court gave just a 30-day sentence to a person who had been found guilty of armed robbery of a USPS carrier in San Francisco, CA. In March, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement:
“This sends a concerning message of encouragement to our nation’s criminals and a message of disregard to our loyal public servants, who deserve better protection and reassurance that the law will take crimes against them seriously. America’s postal workers are entitled to feel protected as they go about their public service mission, and at a minimum should be able to take solace in knowing that the law protects them against crime as they perform their duties, and that any such crimes will be taken seriously by the courts.”
Restricting USPIS is only part of the problem, though. Mail carriers are targets because they deliver checks and prescription drugs and carry antiquated “arrow keys,” which are used for groups of multiple mailboxes, such as those used in apartment and condo complexes. Items that can’t fit in the regular mailbox are placed in a larger container that the arrow key can open. But carrier robberies aren’t the only way these keys are being lost; in many cases, it’s an inside job.
CBS News investigated and found some disturbing issues. For one, those in charge are not tracking or making sure the keys are secured. After reviewing audits of 84 postal facilities between 2019 and 2024, investigators found 76 facilities where the inspectors didn’t track or secure the keys across 25 states. “As of last month, inspectors found arrow key security issues at 10 of the 12 facilities inspected so far this year, including postal sites in California, Texas, Minnesota and Maryland,” the outlet reported. To make matters worse, “The inspector general also said the Postal Service does not have a national inventory of keys, does not know how many exist or how many are missing, stolen or broken. When asked how many keys are in circulation, agency leaders told the inspector general that they did not know – estimating only ‘in the millions.’”
There are a growing number of court cases against postal employees for stealing and selling the keys. In 2023, a sting was set up, and a postal worker was busted for trying to sell an arrow key and a half-million dollars in stolen checks to an undercover agent. Evidently, selling these keys is quite common and can be profitable. “Arrow keys can start at $1,000 and can get up to $7,000,” according to criminology professor David Maimon of Georgia State University.
Mail theft is especially concerning as we head into the 2024 presidential election. The US Election Assistance Commission released a report that showed voting by mail has been rising over the years. About a quarter of voters used an absentee ballot during the 2016 and 2018 elections, but in 2020, that jumped to more than 43%.
Last year, the USPS created Project Safe Delivery, a crime-prevention effort that focuses on protecting mail carriers and replacing arrow keys with electronic locks. Congress is also considering legislation that would boost penalties for offenses and possibly provide federal aid to help pay for the expensive upgrade to finally eliminate arrow keys.
https://www.libertynation.com/mail-theft-and-crimes-against-postal-workers-rising/
Democrat Divisions Laid Bare
Does a fractured party equal a fractured nation?
by Mark Angelides | May 3, 2024
It has become apparent that President Joe Biden’s own party is just as deeply divided as the nation when it comes to the issue of supporting either Israel or Palestine. The division will be weighing heavy as the incumbent seeks to use Democrat lawmakers as surrogates for his 2024 campaign message.
Making his first speech on the chaos erupting at campuses across the country Thursday, May 2, the president insisted that protest must be peaceful. But were his conciliatory efforts too late to quell the rising discord in his own ranks?
Democrat Warnings
Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) presented the chaos on college campuses across the nation as Biden’s very own Vietnam. Speaking with CNN on Thursday, the senator gave warning that these continued protests could be the downfall of the president’s re-election hopes. He said:
“I am thinking back and other people are making this reference that this may be Biden’s Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson in many respects, was a very, very good president domestically, and brought forth some major pieces of legislation. He chose not to run in ’68 because of opposition to his views on Vietnam and I worry very much President Biden is putting himself in a position where he has alienated not just young people but a lot of the Democratic base all in terms of his views on Israel and this war.”
But Sanders was not suggesting that Biden give full-throated support to one of America’s most important allies. Rather, he intimated that the president should be unequivocally on the side of those who are cheering on Hamas.
New banner Liberty Nation Analysis 1“So I would hope very much that from certainly a policy our point of view from a moral point of view that the president stops giving a blank check to Netanyahu,” Sanders continued, “and I would hope that they understand that from a political point of view, this has not been helpful. Quite the contrary.”
Not Less, More!
In what is almost certainly about to become a meme-worthy disassembling, Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) insisted to MSNBC’s Alex Wagner that the Columbia University protest was “completely peaceful.” An interesting interpretation when one considers the campus workers who claimed they were “kidnapped” by those breaking into and seizing Hamilton Hall. He explained:
“We want the protests to be peaceful. We do not want violent protests. I visited the Columbia encampment last week, and they were completely peaceful. There was a space for mental health supports, there was a library, there was food, there was coffee, there was water, and they were crystal clear on their demands. They are protesting the collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.”
In Mr Bowman’s view, who was responsible for the vandalism, scuffles, and fires? As a fully paid-up member of the Squad, he blames – perhaps unsurprisingly – the police. “Some of the images that we saw from UCLA and other places made it look like a bunch of disorder,” the congressman said. “But the majority of these protests are peaceful. When you send in hundreds of military-dressed law enforcement officers into a college, that brings the disorder and that brings the chaos.”
And in a bizarre final twist, he called for more of the same, saying: “We need more protests that are peaceful to hold us accountable towards what we should be working on in Congress.”
Those of a more suspicious bent might consider his summation as coded language to the protestors, telling them that the more they protest, the more likely it is that their grievances will make it to the House floor.
Is this the message President Joe Biden wants his party to deliver this close to an election? In 2020, then-candidate Biden tweeted:
“Remember: every example of violence Donald Trump decries has happened on his watch. Under his leadership. During his presidency.”
A Lesson from History?
For Joe Biden, he need not go too far back in time to find a parallel. It was only in 2020 that then-President Donald Trump tried to rally the nation under the banner of a fractured Republican Party. There was a battle for the soul of the GOP taking place that was detrimental to both his agenda, and ultimately, his re-election chances.
Fractious relationships among Trump and his fellow Republicans were red meat for the press, who took every opportunity to highlight the divisions, emboldening the narrative that his presidency was chaotic, and that the remedy was bringing the “adults” back. So far, the Fourth Estate has not applied the same standard in detailing every snipe and snarky comment offered by Biden or his fellow Democrats, but cracks are beginning to form.
The president’s speech on the campus protests and anti-Semitism was not simply aimed at the protesters; it was also a tentative outreach to members of his own party, an insistence that he can weather the current storm and keep both opposing factions happy. Sadly for Mr. Biden, straddling both sides of the fence is never a winning strategy. In fact, all it really does is weaken the fence and put you at risk of falling off entirely.
https://www.libertynation.com/democrat-divisions-laid-bare/
Biden Finally Spoke on Campus Chaos – But Did He Help or Hinder?
Perhaps this won’t be another “summer of love” after all.
by James Fite | May 3, 2024
After ten days, President Joe Biden finally broke his silence on the demonstrations causing chaos across America’s college campuses. The president declared that “order must prevail” on Thursday, May 2, but was it too little, too late?
Meanwhile, order continued to break down at what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning all over the nation as anti-Israel protesters clog up campuses and berate Jewish students with anti-Semitic slogans.
Biden Speaks – But What Is He Saying?
“We’ve all seen the images. And they put to the test two fundamental American principles,” Biden said at 11:07 a.m. EDT from the Roosevelt Room at the White House. “The first is the right to free speech and for people to peacefully assemble and make their voices heard. The second is the rule of law. Both must be upheld.”
This isn’t a time for politics, he said, but for clarity. And to be clear, Biden says that peaceful protest must be protected but that violence, property damage, and the violation of the rights of others can not be allowed. “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest.” He also denounced anti-Semitism, then followed up with a nod to the other side: “There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans.”
One might listen to the president’s speech or read the transcript and see a politician trying to appease both sides of the conflict. Liberty Nation Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner has made the point numerous times that Biden finds himself right in the middle of two separate groups that traditionally vote Democrat and that, should he stand firm for one, he’ll lose the other. Many of the most radical members of both groups passionately hate each other – and anyone who supports the other side. Maybe this is just Biden’s attempt to react to the situation without offending either the anti- or pro-Israel factions.
Yet Another Summer of Love?
But perhaps the best summary of the theme was when he said: “There’s a right to protest but not the right to cause chaos.” If this is the takeaway, then it may just answer another question that has been hanging in the air since these demonstrations began to turn ugly: Will this be another “summer of love” in which “mostly peaceful protests” lead to radical progressives destroying entire swaths of the nation’s major cities?
New banner Perpective 1In the wake of the killing of George Floyd in 2020, the radical left took to the streets. Businesses – many of which were black-owned small businesses – were looted and burned to the ground. Government buildings were blockaded and, in some cases, burned. Traffic was stopped, and people perceived to be Trump supporters – whether they really were or not – were brutally attacked. Yet the Democrat-friendly Fourth Estate narrative was that the riots were, in fact, “mostly peaceful protests” – just oppressed people exercising their constitutional right to be heard. By denouncing many of the very acts committed in 2020 specifically as crimes, Biden seems to be suggesting he wouldn’t – and Democrats and the left-wing media shouldn’t – support such actions this time. And perhaps that should come as no surprise, since he’s the man in the White House who has to own this as a part of his presidential legacy. It’s much easier to defend anarchy when a political rival can be blamed.
Maybe He Shouldn’t Have Spoken at All
The big news of Biden’s speech should have been that he denounced actual criminal behavior and violence, that he denounced discrimination and racism, and maybe even that he said, in response to a couple of questions from the press, that this situation does not affect his foreign policy and that he does not think it would be appropriate to get the National Guard involved. Indeed, many headlines of the day did include his declaration that “order must prevail.” However, just as many seemed to highlight that Biden “broke ten days of silence” in giving the speech or offer up answers to “why Biden decided to speak out” after “days of silence.”
One could say he was left with little choice as tensions escalated. If so, however, one would also have to admit that his words didn’t accomplish much, as the nationwide count of protester arrests surpassed 2,000 Thursday evening, just hours after his address.
A more cynical mind might assume he spoke up finally because of the criticism for not saying anything sooner. It’s understandable why Biden might want to avoid getting involved at all: No matter what he said, he was destined to upset and alienate either the Jewish Americans and pro-Israel students or the Arab Americans, Muslims, and pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas demonstrators.
As Graham J. Noble wrote, “For the White House, campus chaos has become a political hot potato.” Noble pointed out that former President Trump had plenty to say. “The Biden protests that are going on are horrible,” Trump said. “It’s all caused by him because he doesn’t know how to speak – he can’t put two sentences together.” The sitting president’s chief rival for the White House in 2024 went on to say that Biden would have to make a statement because colleges are being overrun.
No matter the effect criticism by Trump and others actually had on Biden’s decision to speak out, the president will never be able to shake the idea that he caved under pressure and only broke his silence because of it. It makes him look not just reactionary, but worse – slow to react. Far better it may have been to keep his silence, breaking it only if asked directly about the situation or at the next escalation in the news.
No matter the effect criticism by Trump and others actually had on Biden’s decision to speak out, the president will never be able to shake the idea that he caved under pressure and only broke his silence because of it. It makes him look not just reactionary, but worse – slow to react. Far better it may have been to keep his silence, breaking it only if asked directly about the situation or at the next escalation in the news. But he chose instead to deliver remarks from the White House ten days into the protests and after widespread criticism for his silence. And one must wonder if he did more harm than good.
https://www.libertynation.com/biden-finally-spoke-on-campus-chaos-but-did-he-help-or-hinder/
Nostalgia for the Mud
“Resentful childless harpies unconsciously longing for domination. Why else worship at the altar of Hamas? Why else would it be so overwhelmingly female?” — Dr. Jordan Peterson
James Howard Kunstler
May 03, 2024
Wasn’t it cute how the youngsters who “occupied” Columbia U’s Hamilton Hall — and were busy smashing things up inside — demanded restaurant-grade meals sent in to avert “starvation and dehydration” amongst their dauntless ranks? You could imagine a colossal mommy breast with three hundred nipples descending from the sky over upper Manhattan to nourish them back to action. "Feed me. . . !"
It turns out, actually, that at least half the troops inside were not students at all, but rather semi-pro activists paid up to $7,000 each by George Soros’s Open Society Institute and other overtly insurrection-themed orgs, so you’d think that the troops could afford to load-up their ever-ready backpacks with Cliff bars and bottles of Smart Water. The order-in food and beverage gambit suggests we should understand that this is not so much politics as the acting out of a game — which is exactly what you might expect of people who spend more time on video screens than in the real world — in which something like a half-time intermission for refreshments is de rigueur.
Alas, they were not obliged with Doordash servings of Alitcha (“Ensemble of potatoes, carrots, collard greens, and cabbage baked in turmeric,” $22.30) from the nearby Massawa Ethiopian bistro, or Firecracker Chicken from Junzi Kitchen over on Broadway and 113th Street. And then, when the cops came to roust them out into the big buses now used as paddy-wagons for such events, the occupiers were heard to whine, “I have finals and I need to go home!” You’ve got to wonder how they’ll make out when “Joe Biden” drafts their ass to go fight the Russians out on the Ukrainian buzzard flats, about which the White House is just now sending out early signals.
It has been observed that a clear majority of the pro-Hamas activists are young women — which makes sense considering that they are the largest demographic evincing mental illness on America’s social landscape these days. Thus, they are marching in support of a sect that specializes in the rape, mutilation, and murder of young women like themselves, or at least treats them as chattels, hidden under black bag-like garments. The group psychology on display has more occult angles than any movie by the Wachowski sisters.
Among the marching Columbia students who are not paid outside activists, a few are apparently Jewish, such as spokesperson Johanna King-Slutzky (actual name, hat-tip Alex Berenson, who ID’d her), the winsome creature who complained about the lack of order-in meals at Hamilton Hall. Another observer on “X” who styles himself @J9_ATX identified the syndrome in play as “oppression envy,” among women seeking compensatory validation for occupying such a privileged niche on Planet Earth as a cushy Ivy League college — featuring international cuisine stations in the dining halls — while their third world sisters trudge through the burning sands of Al-Kufra carrying water-jugs on their heads as they dodge the odious “wind scorpions” of the region.
Higher Ed in the USA was already chugging down the suicide track before this spring’s eruption of pro-Hamas fury. The college loan racket (government-backed) had the perverse effect of pumping up tuition costs beyond what even many pretty well-off families could afford, while loading up young people with life-wrecking obligations (debt which “Joe Biden is now shifting onto the creditors, US tax-payers). Decades of DEI have filled the faculties with incompetents and assorted malcontents teaching fantasy curricula with no real-life value, and burdened the schools with cadres of overpaid diversity busybodies and thought-police. Diversity college presidents are very publicly failing to cope. The whole rotten train is going off the rails.
I’m not at all sanguine that the society we are becoming will need this vast infrastructure for babysitting young adults who could otherwise make themselves useful and productive on-the-ground in lines of work that actually keep civilized life going. This is too self-evident now to belabor, though there is an awful lot of confusion about what kind of society we might become.
I doubt that it is to be the utopia of robots, A-I, and non-stop sexual titillation that the techno-narcissists dream of. Rather, it will be a society struggling to keep too much complex stuff running with insufficient energy resources and capital — that is, a society falling apart, losing knowledge, technical know-how, comfort, and convenience while having a hard time feeding itself.
The campus Hamas zealots ironically (and tragically) represent exactly the sort of rough medievalism that the citizens of Western Civ countries would be chary of sliding into. You’d have to sadly conclude that many young people really can’t take much more Modernity, and are now pretty avid to opt out of it, even as they gaze into the magic, glowing pixels of their iPhone screens.
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/nostalgia-for-the-mud?publication_id=2076970&post_id=144271546&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
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Assistants al44 |
It is Your Economy .. yours, mine, our family, friends and neighbors -- EVERYONE to some degree is touched by the markets and their behavior. So we should be aware of the various mechanisms that make the markets and our economy tick. We live in a new era where politics, rumor, weather and just about anything you can think of effects the markets and our economy in some way, shape or form. Like it or not we are globally tied at the hip and in this new era where the advent of technology and the internet pushes information to the edge of the envelope, we can only hope to keep up with the many challenges ahead and the speed at which they develop. Technology is a double-edged sword and unfortunately can be used for good as well as evil, it just depends on who is holding the sword. This board was created to follow news, markets, stocks, cycles, trends, indicators and most of all to communicate and share ideas. Humor and Cartoons are welcome here, it breaks up the monotony from time to time and I am alays game for a good joke. I enjoy data mining, especially for info that the MSM (Main Stream Media) fail to or are not allowed to report. We must see things from all angles and aspects in order to verify what is true and what is false, basically becoming more atune to separating the wheat from the chaff. Hopefully in the long run this will help us all to make better and more sound decisions. This board is/was basically an information board, but all are welcome to post, (actually I encourage it because looking through another's eyes gives more perspective on issues). We can never learn too much about these ever changing times and the economy at hand.
* I have only a couple of rules and that is if you should post; NO PURE POLITICS or RELIGION and as always expected, please PLAY NICE !!!
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NOTE: What is meant by "pure politics" as stated in this boards' iBox decriptiion is just that.., it has no real ties to the economy and is mainly a composition of political innuendo. As I assume most of you know, it is difficult at times to separate politics from the economy due to the fact that politics plays a very large part in our everyday lives; be it on an economical, personal or other level altogether. Therefore this has created problems in the discernment of which posts should stay or go due to their leaning too far toward the political side and are slight on economic issues. As hard as my assistants and I try, we cannot please everyone. But we do what we do and want to be fair, we do want what should stay as part of this forums curricular. Everyone has an opinion and/or wants to be heard and I will do whatever I can to help ensure that is what takes place and hopefully most will not feel as though they are being targeted or alienated.
In the end all I can ask is that you be patient if a post of yours has been deleted, yet it has economic undertones that state otherwise and you feel should remain. If you feel you have been wronged - relax, sit back and PM me and I will make a final judgement. I am rather liberal, therefore more times than not I most likely will restore your post if it has merit and/or fallen between the cracks. Things happen or are interpreted differently and sometimes incorrectly, we are human. So do NOT throw a hissy fit nor become a foul mouth fool. Also PM harassment is frowned upon and should carry a level of disciplinary action, but I will leave that up to iHub Admin. Besides all that life is too precious to spend in a tirade. These types of behavior will get you no where except a closer view of the exit.. Treat people as you would like to be treated and we can work through most issues. It all starts with civil dialogue, respect for another's opinion even if not agreed upon. An agreement to disagree is the way I like to see things conclude when minds cannot meld. Just because an agreement cannot be reached does not mean we automatically have to trash another for their views and/or opinions. Let's face it, we all want better, we all want to be part of something bigger than ourselves and we all want to gain an edge in the game of life. This cannot be accomplished without an open mind and a certain level of tolerance for all that speak out.
As a matter of fact I encourage as many of you as possible to post, even if it is just once a month. You don't have to take the world by storm, it could be about something as simple as a neighborhood observation such as more homes up for sale than in months past or how empty the parking lots are at a traditionally known hot spot. Post an article or commentary that hits close to home, test the waters and see if others have seen similar events around the country. We have at our fingertips virtually 100s of libraries of information and cyber chat connections we can use to find out how different aspects of the economy are doing all around the nation. I truly believe we all have a lot to contribute and share and while we all will never see eye to eye on every subject or then again maybe none at all, but different points of view may enhance our own outlook or the way we see and do things. Right or wrong, the world is constantly evolving and technology will begin to pick up speed by leaps and bounds So we could serve each other better if we take what is posted for face value instead of an opportunity to lambaste someone that sees things in a different light than our own preconditioned mindset. When opposing views are met with hostile impositions it is of no service to anyone. I certainly would not want a cult following or a bunch of "yes" men setting the tone for this forum, I want diversity !!! Variety is the spice of life !!! You cannot expand your horizons if you automatically shut down and feel as though you have it all figured out. I got news for you, you don't and you won't until you are lying on your death bed. I do not care who you are or how worldly and educated you may be, we never stop learning unless we hold ourselves back with preconceived notions. Knowledge IS Power...
AND if you should feel the need to post on an otherwise different, yet similar stage:
Your Economy OT - Conspiracy, Politics, Religion, Terrorism, War (whatever else you can think of) (YE2OT)
It's open and ready for business. Over there you can post whatever you like to your hearts content, especially political/economic articles and commentary that does not quite fit in at YE1. So now you have 2 boards - One for economics, markets, trends, data, news, commentary, etc. - a more serious site for those who want the straight dope. And now the YE2OT board for everything else. I will play Moderator, but I am taking applications for an assistant who would control 90%+ of the interaction over there.
If people choose, they can travel between boards if they need a fix of some controlled chaos at YE2OT and then want some cold hard facts as (YE1) was intended.
I want everyone to have a voice, now you have a choice .. enjoy
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