Washington lawmaker with past convictions introduces bill to pay state prisoners minimum wage.  A Washington state lawmaker who is a former convict is aiming to start paying inmates for working prison jobs.  Democratic Rep. Tarra Simmons said in a statement, "This is an evolution of slavery," and is proposing that the convicted felons be paid minimum wage for working in the kitchen or while producing other goods.  Simmons is an attorney and co-founder/director of the Civil Survival Project, an organization that advocates for former convicts.

Biden Admin Spent Over $300 Million In Taxpayer Money to Fund Illegal Migrants' Dental and Health Care.  By now it's not shocking to learn that President Joe Biden favors illegal migrants more than Americans after two of doing nothing as the southern border wreaked havoc on the U.S.  In an annual report released by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Biden Administration spent hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure illegal immigrants were well taken care of.  The ICE Health Service Corps' budget was about $324 million, which was an $8 million increase from the year prior.  According to the report, the money was spent on providing "direct care — including medical and dental health services — to over 118,000 non-citizens housed at 19 IHSC-operated facilities throughout the United States, which exceeded 1.1 million visits over the course of the fiscal year."

Biden Makes More of a Mess, Compares Illegal Aliens to Holocaust Victims.  We reported earlier about how Joe Biden had finally gotten around to making plans to go to the border.  Biden also made remarks about the border, with Kamala Harris trying to hold it together while standing behind him.  The remarks were just a confused mess.  Biden didn't seem to have any idea what he was talking about.  He didn't know what "CBP" stands for, that it is Title 8 that applies to immigration, or that Title 42 has helped to prevent the situation at the border from getting much worse.  His "plan" seems to be an app that would help people who apply for asylum.

The Coup We Never Knew.  Did someone or something seize control of the United States? [...] Since when did money not have to be paid back?  Who insisted that the more dollars the federal government printed, the more prosperity would follow?  When did America embrace zero interest?  Why do we believe $30 trillion in debt is no big deal?

The War On Truckers, Refrigerators, And Your Well-Being.  In the same way our "superiors" think that their food comes from the grocery store rather than a farm or ranch, they must believe that those items magically appear on the shelves.  Otherwise, why would the ruling class, made up of and zealously backed by elites, go to war against trucks?  Just before Christmas, the Biden Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that it calls a "key step toward accelerating zero-emissions future," and part of "the historic Clean Truck Plan, which is moving America's highly polluting heavy-duty trucking fleet towards low-carbon and electric technologies."  Enforcement of course will mean fewer trucks on the road.  For many drivers, the cost of working under the new regime will be too high.  "Truckers and manufacturers warn that the rule is too stringent and costly, and that compliance could send higher prices through the economy that is already suffering from high energy costs and high inflation," says the Institute for Energy Research.

We Must Convince People That The Fascist Far Left Wants To Destroy The US.  Events are part of an overall plan that has a specific purpose that proves it's not just incompetence.  Leftists desperately had to suppress the Biden laptop scandal because it showed that they were under foreign influence.  We know now that if the people had been aware of this, history would have been changed.  That influence explains why we are diminishing our energy capabilities while giving the red Chinese a free pass.  The purpose is to weaken us compared to them.  That influence explains why we are diminishing our military capabilities by shoveling cash and weapons into Ukraine.  That influence explains why we are committing national suicide with an open border that not only weakens us to the point of a Cloward-Piven implosion but also provides all manner of military infiltration opportunities.  That open border also is giving leftists a great opportunity to take a page from the history of the Opium wars and destabilize the US with a flood of Fentanyl.

The Tyranny in America.  The Left lives to see absolute destruction of freedom.  Communists exult when liberty is tattered.  Progressives rejoice in limiting freedom.  It is the epitome of dictatorship whether it is a jab for a poison or a useless mask or the destruction of the sanctity of one's property.  This is the picture of tyranny.  The media who have sold their souls to Satan neither care nor want to learn the truth of the dire situations that beset the United States.  The fact-checkers are usually the handmaidens of the very sources of evil. [...] Identity politics, incitement to violence, tolerance for anti-white bigotry, heralding corrupt school systems and defending the most egregious acts by communists are all palatable to Joe Biden and company.

Illinois Supreme Court puts end of cash bail on hold until further notice.  The Illinois Supreme Court has ordered courts statewide to continue operating on the cash bail system until further notice, according to an order issued by the court Saturday afternoon [12/31/2022].  A provision of the SAFE-T Act criminal justice reform bill scheduled to go into effect on January 1 would have eliminated cash bail across the state.  But a Kankakee County judge found that portion of the law unconstitutional last week.  The Supreme Court's action stems from a filing by DuPage County State's Attorney Robert Berlin and Kane County State's Attorney Jamie Mosser on Friday afternoon that sought guidance from the Supreme Court to clear up confusion about whether the Kankakee County judge's decision affected all 102 counties or only the 60-plus counties that were involved in the lawsuit that challenged the SAFE-T Act.

Brace yourself for mountains of pain and misery under Gov. Hochul's zero-emissions fantasy plan.  With the start of the new year, New Yorkers are set to have their worlds turned upside down — and all for a fanciful green-dream plan that comes with sky-high costs and mountains of other pain yet is almost certain to fail, and won't even do much good if successful.  Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state lawmakers triggered the nightmare back in 2019 with their delusional Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, setting wholly unrealistic "mandatory" milestones to force the state off fossil-fuel energy and dramatically lower greenhouse gas emissions.  Gov. Kathy Hochul eagerly picked up the ball, and in December, a panel stacked with rubber-stampers pushed through a plan they preposterously claim will enable the state to meet those goals.  Hochul's agencies will now spit out specific rules and regulations based on the plan.  It's pure delusion.

America's 'most dangerous law' goes into effect.  Illinois law enforcement is preparing new ways to best serve and protect law-abiding citizens as the state's new sweeping criminal justice reform bill takes effect Sunday, a local sheriff said. [...] Illinois' Safety, Accountability, Fairness and Equity-Today (SAFE-T) Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, overhauled Illinois' justice system with provisions like limiting when defendants can be deemed flight risks and allowing defendants under electronic monitoring to leave home for 48 hours before they can be charged with escape.  It was also supposed to eliminate cash bail, but the state's Supreme Court stayed that portion hours before the law was set to take effect.

Law Will Install Kill Switches In All New Cars.  According to an article written by former U.S. Representative Bob Barr, hidden away in the recently passed infrastructure bill, the very one I warned before would negatively impact drivers across the country if it were to pass, is a measure to install vehicle kill switches into every new car, truck, and SUV sold in this country.  The regulation likely won't be enforced for five years, so maybe there's time to do something about this.  As we've seen both in this country and others recently, what constitutes "law-abiding" can change drastically overnight.  For example, in September a car was pulled over in New Zealand and the occupants arrested when police discovered the trunk was full of Kentucky Fried Chicken meals.  They were smuggling the fast food to customers in locked-down Auckland, against quarantine measures.  Yet not too long before, delivering restaurant orders to people was considered a reputable, legal activity.  It gets even better:  Barr points out that the bill, which has been signed into law by President Biden, states that the kill switch, which is referred to as a safety device, must "passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired." In other words, Big Brother will constantly be monitoring how you drive.  If you do something the system has been programmed to recognize as driver impairment, your car could just shut off, which could be incredibly dangerous.  There is the possibility the kill switch program might measure your driving as impaired, then when you try to start the car up again the engine won't fire up.  That would potentially leave you stranded.

Biden's Unopposed Imposition of Stalinism.  The majority of Americans are against open borders.  Once again, what we want doesn't seem to matter.  A steady wave of illegal immigration is what Biden wants and no one seems the least bit interested in putting an end to it.  Millions of unvetted migrants are streaming across the border and being shipped to secret destinations in direct violation of U.S. immigration law.  This is nothing short of treasonous.  The import of deadly drugs, violent criminals, terrorists, and COVID spreaders constitutes the worst public safety issue since World War II.  At a time when runaway inflation is driving millions of Americans into the poorhouse, we are being forced to provide public assistance to millions of freeloading non-citizens.  Local communities are being torn apart by the influx of refugees. [...] None of this is happening by accident.  "It is becoming harder not to conclude that the border crisis is intentional," said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. "Nobody is this incompetent."  Of course it is intentional.  Biden knows exactly what he is doing.  He gets his stooges, DHS Secretary Mayorkas and Press Secretary Jean-Pierre, to deny that the border is open, but we know they are lying through their teeth.

What are Senate Conservatives Going to Do about McConnell?  The script is sickeningly familiar by now, isn't it?  Establishment Republicans — led throughout the '22 elections and in their aftermath by the notorious Kentucky senator-for-life Mitch McConnell — betrayed their party's base, which is staunchly conservative, increasingly in an America First sorta way. [...] RINOs are affirming Democrats coming out as authoritarians who mean to centralize ever-greater power in Washington, D.C.  The purposes are undercutting the people's liberties, radically altering the nation.  In fact, cementing alliances with elites in corporate suites, the leftist academy, and other major institutions to monopolize power.  RINOs, in turn, are "transitioning" to full statist.  Need we detail two years of Biden administration policies and Pelosi and Schumer-led efforts to have Uncle Sam control all elections, attack our 1st and 2nd Amendment rights, promote the unrestricted killing of babies in the womb, destroy conventional energy exploration and production, erase the southern border, spend like crazy drunks, and... oh, what else?  If you need convincing at this juncture about Democrats' and their allies' intentions, you've got some hard work ahead of you.

Could It Be That Our Rulers are 'Blithering Idiots?'.  I think that the present annual event of an annual one-size-fits-all omnibus spending package is not a sign of evil intent on the Pelosi and Schumer front, but a sign that we are governed by blithering idiots.  Because, you see, if the Pelosis and Schumers were really in control of things, they wouldn't need to fund the government by gussying up an annual government-shutdown emergency, and finalizing all their dirty deals with special interests high and low in the dark of 4,000 pages.  Every year.  Their spending plans would be gloriously broadcast in the light of day.  If our liberal friends were really confidently in charge, they wouldn't need to be oppressing us with their cancel culture.  You don't need cancel culture when you already own the future.  Cancel culture, like Reigns of Terror and Great Purges, is a backhand admission of failure.  If our Democratic friends really felt that they owned the future they wouldn't need to bother about chasing Trump around and stigmatizing his followers as "armed insurrectionists," and going to enormous effort to prosecute January 6 rioters.  They would just know that they would win at the next election.

Department of Energy ramps up the war against their tax slaves (us).  On December 19, 2022, the Biden White House released a statement briefing the public on a newly proposed rule by the Department of Energy which would require lightbulb manufacturers to comply with new "climate change" efficiency standards.  In fact, the move was just the latest transgressions against the American citizenry:  ["]This is the 110th action to strengthen energy efficiency standards that the Administration has taken in 2022.  These 110 actions span a range of household products — everything from air conditioners and furnaces, to clothes washers and dryers, to kitchen appliances and water heaters — as well as commercial and industrial equipment.["]  The move brings two major issues to the forefront of my mind:  The first being the complete disregard for the constitutional rule of law, and separation of powers.  The second, the contemptuous display of elitism and immodest display of climate communism.

The Gigantic Defense Bill Does More Harm than Good.  On Friday, President Joe Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for 2023 into law.  Conservative lawmakers like Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) — for whom the bill was formally named — and liberal lawmakers like Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) overwhelmingly supported it in the House and the Senate.  The bill has much to like. [...] But as is normal when considering monstrous bills that come out of D.C., the good in the law may be outweighed by the bad, including but not limited to the following:
  •   Over 8,000 servicemembers who objected to the vaccine's moral compromises and risks were summarily dismissed from the military.  A Republican compromise means they will not be reinstated.
  •   The budget itself is unnecessarily enormous.  The proper role of good government includes support for a strong military because without a functioning national defense, there's no security for markets, businesses, and economic movement.  However, our country's military spending leaks like a sieve.
  •   There's no accountability for those who use and abuse taxpayer dollars.
  •   Abortion funding was left in.

18 Absurdities of the McConnell-Schumer Omnibus Spending Bill.  [Scroll down]  [T]he spending bill includes provisions that are cause for concern for pro-life Americans.  In perhaps the clearest example of the frame of mind of the authors, the $575 million in a global health section allocated for "family planning/reproductive health, including in areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species."  This section quite literally puts plants before people.  This provision sees humanity as a parasite, as a threat to the plants and animals that the bill's drafters clearly see as vastly more important than the Americans and their families who Congress is supposed to protect.

Duplicitous media suggests a 'Republican Biden' for a GOP win.  [Scroll down]  Why would journalists support leftist politicians and their policies when statistics show the majority of people unhappy and distressed?  A recent poll conducted by USA Today revealed that "two-thirds of respondents... say the country has gotten off on the wrong track."  Well, because the journalists and the rest of the Democrats apparently live their lives in a fantasyland:  They pretend they care about Blacks by supporting "reparations" — but with other people's money.  They pretend they care about Blacks but "expand abortion care."  They pretend they care about education but prevent the poor and minorities from having the freedom of school choice.  They pretend they want women to control their own bodies yet will fire them if they don't take a vaccine still currently in clinical trials.  They pretend they support women and privacy, but they make them compete and shower with biological men.  They pretend they can control the climate, so long as the poor and middle classes hand over more money.  They pretend that they never tried to block election results.

America's Growing Political Impotence.  [Scroll down]  Paradoxically, this highly visible impotence occurs at a time when America is displaying its bedazzling technical skill.  Thanks to the James Webb telescope, we can peer into the beginning of time even as the same TV show might feature videos of feral teenagers pillaging Nordstrom's jewelry department while "security" haplessly watches.  Even more ironic, as government fails in its most fundamental responsibilities, it embarks on the most Utopian missions such as altering the climate and imposing racial and sexual equality.  A visiting Martian might suspect that these odd priorities reflect mental illness, an inability to separate the Quixotic from the practical here and now.  Why not first stop the mentally ill from pooping on the street before building a moon base to explore the cosmos?  Who established these bizarre priorities?

Not Your Grandfather's Election Day.  Republicans are still recovering from the midterms hangover after suffering a stiff dose of how probabilistic mathematics, statistics, blood-red election maps, armchair predictions, and century-long historical trends are collectively no match for the underhanded ground game of one's opponent.  Giddy Democrats have again put one over on the American people, somehow dodging retribution for a miserable economy and two years of demonizing half the electorate.  Even with majorities in both houses, the Dems faced stiff political and public resistance in their failure to pass H.R. 1, For the Peoples Act, a misnamed Democrat effort to federalize state elections.  Undeterred, state Democrat parties have teamed up with Democrat national campaigns to achieve a permanent, quasi-legal destruction of the election process and institutionalized fraud through the pursuit of early mail-in voting and extended ballot deadlines in states that prohibit or curtail these practices.  This campaign is virtue-signaled through baseless and easily refuted claims of voter suppression, racism, and vintage pandemic concerns.

Biden administration boating proposal would be 'greatest regulatory overreach' of its kind, critics warn.  "This would be the greatest regulatory overreach in American maritime law" — that's how Frank Hugelmeyer describes a proposal by the Biden administration to limit the speed of all motorboats over 35 feet from Florida to Massachusetts.  "Not only are they creating a serious safety issue, they are creating a massive negative economic impact."  Hugelmeyer is president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), and he is just one of a growing number of voices expressing outrage over the proposal put forward by the U.S. Commerce Department under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  "It's stupid," said Jeff Angers, the president of the Center for Sportfishing Policy.  "It's not what government is supposed to do."

The Democrats' Slow Motion Insurrection.  The Jan. 6 Capitol ruckus is not one of our country's greatest moments.  But if the objective of a few of the protesters was to overthrow the federal government, they planned and executed poorly.  The same can't be said of the Democrats.  Their mostly bloodless coup to suspend constitutional limits and seize unchallenged power has been thoroughly calculated and expertly executed.  For decades Democrats at all levels have been moving the U.S. from the civil society it was designed to be to the political (that is, coercive) society they want to be in control of.  They have waged outright war on the first, second and 10th amendments to the Constitution; robbed us of our economic liberty through punitive taxation and strangling regulation; created environmental policies that have made innocent men criminals for making use of their own property and taken that property whenever possible; and destroyed independence by fostering more dependence on the state.  They spend other people's money as if it were, well, other people's money and there is therefore no governor on their actions.  "The Democrat Party has a long history of ignoring the Constitution when it impedes their government-expansionist objectives.  Which is nigh constantly — as the Constitution is a government-limiting document," says Seton Motley, president of Less Government, who cites some of the more egregious examples in a Heartland Institute essay.

In a last act of inverted morality, Oregon's outgoing governor commutes death sentences for criminals, but not babies.  Oregon is (currently) one of the handful of states in the country that allows abortion through all the months of pregnancy, and for any reason.  Democrats hold majorities in both legislative chambers, and the governor's seat, and with their lax approach towards the sacredness of humanity, one which results in "unrestricted" abortion, they're rightfully pinpointed and labeled as belonging to the "party of death" — but it turns out that's not entirely true.  More accurately, the Democrats should be noted as the "party of innocent death."

Dem Gov. Kate Brown Commutes all 17 of Oregon's Death Sentences.  Kate Brown, Oregon's Democratic governor, has commuted the sentences of the state's 17 death row inmates during her last month in office, changing the prisoner's sentences to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  This order, which takes effect on Wednesday, has angered the victims' families as well as government officials.  A prisoner has not been executed in Oregon since 1997.  In a statement, Brown explained the reasoning behind her new order.  She said, "I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people — even if a terrible crime placed them in prison."

The Editor says...
[#1] Did you get that?  One of the leaders of the Abortion Party says, "justice is not advanced by taking a life."  [#2] Keep this in mind if you ever have to spend a week or two on jury duty in a capital murder trial:  Years from now, all your thought and deliberation could be thrown out the window by a left-wing governor.

Oregon Governor Commutes the Sentence of Every Death-Row Inmate in State.  Oregon governor Kate Brown said Tuesday that the state's 17 death-row inmates will be spared execution and will instead have their sentences downgraded to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  "I have long believed that justice is not advanced by taking a life, and the state should not be in the business of executing people — even if a terrible crime placed them in prison," the outgoing Democratic governor said in a statement.  She added: "This commutation is not based on any rehabilitative efforts by the individuals on death row.  Instead, it reflects the recognition that the death penalty is immoral.  It is an irreversible punishment that does not allow for correction."

The Editor says...
I'm not inclined to listen to one of the leaders of the Abortion Party as she pontificates about what's immoral.

Joe Biden Signs Same-Sex Marriage Bill: 'Nothing More Decent, More Dignified, More American'.  President Joe Biden signed a bill making same-sex marriage legal nationwide on Tuesday, describing it as a victory for freedom in America.  "There is nothing more decent, more dignified, more American about what we are doing here today," Biden said during his speech at the White House before the signing.

The United States of Fascist America.  Fascism is a political ideology which, unfortunately, is mischaracterized by both media and academia.  For example, Wikipedia describes fascism as, "A far right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, central autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation and race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy."  The definition is mostly correct, except for the first words, claiming fascism is a "far right" ideology.  Hitler was considered a fascist but his party, contrary to the political science experts (disguised as journalists), was far left.  The Nazi Party is the Nationalist Socialist German Workers' Party.  Note the name "socialist," an ideology of the left, not the right.  Another famous fascist, Benito Mussolini further clarified, "Fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power."  That's where America is now, corporate and government power merging into a totalitarian behemoth, crushing any and all dissent.

Biden's EPA Prepares To Crack Down On Home Appliances.  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new rules on Friday that would restrict the use of refrigerators, air conditioning equipment and heat pumps that utilize hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).  The EPA's proposed rule would crack down on the manufacturing and importing of goods containing HFCs, which would restrict the use of HFCs in refrigeration units, air conditioning systems and heat pump equipment starting in 2025, according to an agency press release.  In accordance with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a global climate treaty that the Senate ratified in September, the agency intends to reduce the production and consumption of HFCs by 85% by 2036.

Guaranteed to lose money:
Washington DC is leading the pack with fare-free bus rides next summer.  Washington DC will permanently offer free bus rides on all routes from next summer and other big cities like Boston and Denver may follow suit in what would be America's biggest public transport shakeup in years.  Under a plan agreed unanimously by Washington DC's council last week, the city will expand its transport services and waive the $2 fares for riders boarding Metrobuses within city limits [beginning] around July 1.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, cities from Los Angeles to Missouri and New York stopped collecting bus fares to cut human contact and ensure residents could reach jobs and services at hospitals, grocery stores and offices.

DHS Partnered Social Media Surveillance Systems Delivering Mutual Benefits.  Pelosi and Reid intentionally did not advance a budget in 2008 (for fiscal year 2009) because their plan included installing Barack Obama (and all that came with him) with an open checkbook made even more lucrative by a worsening financial crisis and a process called baseline budgeting.  Baseline budgeting means the prior fiscal year budget is accepted as the starting point for the next year budget.  All previous expenditures are baked into the cake within baseline budgeting.  Massive bailouts preceded Obama's installation due to U.S. economic collapse, and massive bailouts continued after his installation.  This is the 'never let a crisis go to waste' aspect.  TARP (Troubled Asset Recovery Program), auto bailouts (GM), and the massive stimulus spending bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, ie. those shovel ready jobs) were all part of the non-budget spending.  The federal reserve assisted with Quantitative Easing (QE1 and QE2) as congress passed various Porkulous spending bills further spending and replacing the formal budget process.  Note: There has never been a budget passed in the normal/traditional process since September of 2007.

The terrible consequences of stolen elections and government corruption.  The minute Biden took office he tanked the recovering economy he inherited.  This had to be purposeful; no economic adviser is that stupid.  He destroyed the energy independence Trump had made possible which has given us the gas prices we now endure.  He doubled down on all the COVID restrictions, all of them specious, harmful and unnecessary; these mandates and the vaccines killed more people that COVID itself.

Congress Quietly Slips Ukraine Debt Relief into 4,400 Page National Defense Authorization Act.  When it comes to congress and the graft that is Ukraine, nothing should come as a surprise.  Last month, the Biden administration asked Congress for another $37.7 billion in support for Ukraine.  If that passes, and it certainly will, Congress will have approved more than $100 billion in Ukraine-related spending.  To wit, yesterday congress slipped Ukraine Debt Payment Relief, into the 4,400 page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which will make the Senate happy as the intent of the upper chamber is to continue the laundry operation.

Democrats Want to Abolish Prisons.  Following the midterm elections, Democrats gained two new members who have already been outspoken in their progressive beliefs.  Rep.-elect Summer Lee (D-PA) has openly advocated for socialist policies.  "Instead of 'thanking' Black women, Black voters, and especially, Black organizers... give us the investments we need and deserve, redistribute wealth, ends police violence, abolish the carceral state, commit to building Black directed political power... and reparations," Lee said.  Last year, Lee introduced a bill that would end cash bail in Pennsylvania.  She has insisted that the majority of those who are arrested don't pose a threat to society, therefore shouldn't have to go to jail just because they can't afford their bail.  In 2016, Lee classified Pennsylvania's system of bail as "a flaw in our system of justice" and "a threat to equal justice under the law."

Federal Court Blocks Biden Mandate Forcing Religious Hospitals to Facilitate Gender Transitions.  A federal court on Friday blocked a Biden administration mandate that would force religious hospitals and doctors to facilitate gender transitions against their sincerely held moral convictions.  The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's decision to block enforcement of the rule on the grounds that "intrusion upon the Catholic Plaintiffs' exercise of religion is sufficient to show irreparable harm," the filing reads.  Catholic nuns, clinics, a university, and hospitals were among the plaintiffs in the case, represented by the Becket Fund.  The plaintiffs all provide medical care for transgender patients but refuse to provide gender-transition surgeries because they believe them to be harmful.

Schumer defies voters, urges Dems to squeak by massive spending bill before House GOP takes control.  Proving once again that he could care less about the will of the American people, Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) admitted that he wants Democrats in Congress to use the lame-duck period between now and January, when Republicans regain control of the House, to pass an omnibus spending bill that will fund government spending for the entirety of next year, preventing Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from "having any control" over the amount of taxpayer money that will be thrown at liberal causes, such as climate change and the war in Ukraine.

Biden's 401(k) Heist.  President Joe Biden's going after 401(k) retirement accounts, risking millions of workers' comfortable retirements.  If you put money into a 401(k), beware.  Until now, the law always required fund managers entrusted with your savings to invest the money where it's expected to get the top return for you.  Period.  But on Nov. 22, Biden's Labor Department announced a rule change that goes into effect the end of January.  It will allow fund managers to invest your money in the stocks of companies that favor left-wing policies, even if they earn a lower return.  It's legalized theft.  The future return on your retirement nest egg is being sacrificed to advance a woke agenda.

2020: The Year the Ruling Class Took Control.  Manipulation is the key word when it comes to the Democrats.  Calls to pack the Supreme Court and the Senate, eliminate the filibuster, and change the way the Electoral College works all point to the fact the Democrats and the Left never rest in their nonstop efforts to manipulate the political and judicial systems to their advantage.  In a way, they really are geniuses in identifying ways to manipulate the system.  They're not always successful, but they're always trying, and for now they've succeeded in changing the way elections work in many states by making mail-in voting, ballot drop boxes, and ballot harvesting legal.  Democrats can get away with these ongoing shenanigans, especially the coverup of the coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop story, is because nearly every major institution in the country is controlled by progressives in positions of authority at those institutions, most in the corporate mainstream media.

What Democrats Are Trying to Pass Before Their House Majority Ends.  Jamming through controversial legislation through Congress during a lame-duck session is a troubling practice to begin with.  It's becoming increasingly common to bring up more hotly contested legislation that didn't have a chance of passing when vulnerable legislators had to face an election — and the voters.  Democrats are so concerned with "democracy" that they are scrambling to head off the results of last month's elections, it seems.  As is often the case, the Left cares little about the proper functioning of government when its priorities are at stake.  The Washington Post editorial board called on Democrats in Congress to make this lame-duck session a "mighty one."  Imagine how The Post would describe the situation if it were Republicans seeking to push a conservative agenda through.  In addition to "the Respect for Marriage Act," here are four more of the most controversial pieces of legislation being considered by the current lame-duck Congress: [...]

Wyoming Sues Biden Administration, Alleges Suspensions of Oil Lease Sales [are] Illegal.  The State of Wyoming filed a second lawsuit against the Biden Administration, alleging that its suspension of oil lease sales were illegal.  Gov. Mark Gordon (R-Wyom.) announced that his state filed the lawsuit against the Interior Department for the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) decision to halt oil and gas lease sales in the state.  "This litigation is timely and vital to the interests of Wyoming citizens," said Gordon in a statement.  "Beyond that, Wyoming's energy resources can help power the nation and bring down costs at the pump.  BLM's decision to cancel lease sales sure seems to be a violation of both the letter and the spirit of the law.  "I firmly believe the pause in lease sales was politically driven and not based in law or fact," the governor continued.

The Democrats' Contempt for the American People.  [Scroll down] The American people deserve a government, not a clown show.  When asked by Zeke Miller "What do you intend to do differently," following the midterms, Biden replied "Nothing."  Biden appears to have forgotten that the democratic process is supposed to be about the well-being of the American people, not that of the Democrat Party.  The facts that his party, via its ballot-harvesting schemes, its bankrolling of "extremist" Republican candidates that it knew would not win in the general election, its dishonest representation of the consequences of overturning Roe vs. Wade, and Biden's cynical buying votes with his unconstitutional student loan forgiveness scheme has managed to avoid a large "red wave" does nothing to solve problems for the American people. [...] Biden and the Democrats clearly do not care about the suffering of the American people or the immigrants, but only for their own money and power.  They obviously see the American people as sheep to be played with one hoax after another rather than answering their questions.  The fact that the Democrats managed to stave off the "red wave" has literally nothing to do with Joe Biden's enormously unpopular policies.

If You Really Wanted to Destroy the U.S., Then...  First, you would surrender our prior energy independence.  Reduce new gas and oil leases on federal lands to the lowest levels of any president in history.  Cut back production at precisely the time the world is emerging from a two-year lockdown with pent-up consumer demand.  Make war on coal and nuclear power.  Drain the strategic petroleum reserve to make the pain for consumers more bearable for midterm election advantage.  Cancel the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas field.  Block pipelines like the Keystone oil pipeline and the Constitution natural gas line.  Overregulate and demonize frackers and horizontal drillers.  Ensure there is less investment in their exploration and production.  Making use of internal combustible engines or fossil fuel power generation is prohibitively expensive.  Achieve a green oil dependency along the lines of contemporary Europe.

Biden Defends Multi-Trillion Dollar Scam: 'We Did So Much, Nobody Knows the Effects Yet'.  Oh, Joe, bless your clueless heart; you don't even see the irony. [...] Biden, on Tuesday [11/29/2022], defended his ill-fated "American Rescue Plan" for the zillionth time by arguing that the (at least) $1.9 trillion spending spree helped enable local governments to keep paying their employees (which does zero to help productivity).  He also boasted of his additional trillions in spending for government-subsidized health care, manufacturing, infrastructure, and so-called "green energy."  Biden's claim was not only nonsensical; it was a direct contradiction of Economics 101:  Injecting trillions of dollars into a struggling economy to chase a relatively limited supply of goods and services generally leads to an increase in inflation — not a decrease, as Team Biden disingenuously continues to claim.

The Guilty Justify Their Cruel and Anti-Social Values.  We see the incessant communist rantings of Bernie Sanders for decades.  Once a marginalized member of the Democratic caucus in the Senate although he self-designated as a Democratic Socialist [euphemism for communist], Sanders has steadily gained in popularity over the decades until he reached a high point of signing a 110-page pact with the Biden wing of the party in July of 2020.  Of the eight sections in that pact, six sections appeared with slightly different wording shortly thereafter in the 90-page Democratic Party Platform.  He says that he is "non-authoritarian" but that is bull.  He honeymooned in Moscow in 1988, and his visible enjoyment revealed that he felt he was at home-sweet-home.  More importantly, the socialists in the USA starting in 1912 included ownership of the means of production in their platform and this same principle is expressed in the Communist Manifesto of 1848.  The progressives who were both Republicans and Democrats at the beginning of the 20th century preferred expanded regulation of certain industries (for example, the pharmaceutical industry through the FDA and the railroads through the ICC) rather than ownership.

Senate Passes vote to make same-sex marriage federal law - with 11 Republicans cooperating.  The United States Senate voted to enshrine the right to same-sex and interracial marriage into federal law on Tuesday [11/29/2022].  The Respect For Marriage Act passed on a 61-36 vote.  Eleven Republicans voted with Democrats on the measure.  It now heads back to the House of Representatives, where it's likely to pass the Democrat-controlled chamber swiftly enough to head to President Joe Biden's desk before the current Congressional term is over.

Language warning!
Four nefariously managed events meant to harm us.  [#3] Wokery, the Marxist campaign to disorder society in order to overthrow existing institutions and replace them with a utopian dictatorship of the intersectionally oppressed — also known as The Revenge of the Losers. [...] It laughs at the idea of redemption.  Its adversaries are never forgiven, only dealt additional punishments for asking.  The mystery here is how Wokery was incorporated into the operating system of the Democratic Party.  The answer is the party needed something to replace its erstwhile corpus of organized industrial workers, gone with the winds of Globalism, and so it valorized the various categories of the mentally ill, the permanently downtrodden, and sundry persons who had become economic hostages to its corrupt system of payments and grants.  High above that ragtag-and-bobtail of crazies reigned an aristocracy of the so-called cognitive elite, people of unquestioned virtue, college professors, the creative class, the credentialed echelon — super-busy signaling their good intentions to their vassals to keep them in line.

The coup-attempt party.  A political light bulb went on regarding Adam Schiff's remark on CNN's "State of the Union" as reported by Breitbart's Pam Key.  In the interview, Schiff again mentioned the Russia hoax he has promoted for five years, if not longer.  (Note that Dana Bash did not call Schiff on this huge lie.).  With Schiff continuing to assert this gross falsehood, the Democrat Party has, for years, switched from being a loyal opposition party to priding itself as a party of the permanently-attempted coup.  How dumb of me not to have taken seriously the Democrat cries of "Resistance," as of the Trump inauguration, January 20, 2017 — but I then understood such cries to be figurative and fanciful references of a politically romantic nature.  But where were the Republican political experts like House Speaker Paul Ryan back in early 2017 when the "Resistance" was gearing up?  Alas, the anti-Trump Ryan was silently supporting the Resistance.  How could the Democrats have succeeded with the Mueller probe if Ryan had spoken out forcefully against what was apparently a coup attempt to oust the legitimately-elected president?

Seattle Councilmembers are trying to defund the police again.  Despite a rise in crime, some on the City Council are trying to defund the Seattle Police Department again.  Too bad it's getting scant or disingenuous coverage.  The council is currently debating Mayor Bruce Harrell's budget.  Anti-police councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who once defended a man threatening to murder police, is looking to cut funds from the SPD permanently.  She just doesn't want you to realize it's part of the defund movement.  Harrell's budget temporarily cuts $11 million dollars from the budget.  The money would have been used to fill 200 open staff positions, but it was cut to fund only 120.  The SPD is dangerously understaffed, so why would they cut the budget?

Has the Democrat party converted to Islam?  On October 21, U.S. reps.  Ilhan Omar and Jan Schakowsky issued a press release introducing a bill titled the "Combating International Islamophobia Act."  According the release, the purpose of the bill is "to address the rise in incidents of Islamophobia worldwide."  Specifically, it would require "the State Department to create a Special Envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia, [which would] include state-sponsored Islamophobic violence and impunity [sic] in the Department's annual human rights reports."  The bill was supported by the White House, which, notwithstanding its focus on Islam alone, described it as a measure committed to "defending freedom of religion and belief."  On Dec, 14, 2021, the bill, H.R. 5665, passed in the House, 219 to 212.  No Democrat voted against it; no Republican voted for it. [...] Under this clause, no reports of any violence and killing committed not against Muslims, but by Muslims against other religious groups, nor the suppression of non-Muslims in Muslim-ruled nations, would be authorized.  Only acts against Muslims. [...] Need it be said that H.R. 5665 violates the First Amendment at two different levels?  First of all, in addressing not the alleged hostile actions themselves, but rather the media that are supposedly instigating those actions, the bill runs afoul of such media's freedom of speech.  Secondly, in focusing on issues relating specifically to Islam and to no other religion, the bill is "respecting an establishment of religion," which, under the Amendment, is prohibited.  One has to wonder if the 219 House members are aware that we have a Constitution, or whether it has a First Amendment?

Biden's Not So Subtle Lurch Toward Dictatorship.  In the wake of the midterm elections, President Joe Biden was asked during a rare press conference — in reference to Twitter's new owner — whether he thought Elon Musk was a threat to national security.  With a pause and a smirk, the president said that topic was "worthy of being looked at."&n bsp;With those words, Biden made it clear that if you even seem to oppose his politics, your private life will be under the direct scrutiny of the state.  Despite his constant prattle about saving our democracy, Biden seems to think he's running an authoritarian police state.  In truth, the federal government already maintains entities that review acquisitions such as Musk's for anything from foreign influence to anti-competitive business practices.  After many months in which Musk's negotiations to purchase Twitter happened in full public view, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last week that she sees no basis for the government to investigate that purchase.

Senate candidate Raphael Warnock, 2009: I'm "SICK AND TIRED" of hearing people criticize socialism.  Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock holds a slight lead over his GOP challenger, Herschel Walker, in a runoff election poll released Tuesday morning.  In a video from 2009, preaching from the pulpit, Warnock states he was 'sick and tired' of hearing people criticize socialism.  [Video clip]

Are You Freer than You Were Two Years Ago?  Make no mistake:  it is despotism that we face in Biden's proposal to double the size of the IRS; in the political weaponization of the FBI, CIA, and DOJ; in the amassing of information by technology giants; in the corporate surrender to woke ideologies; in the takeover of schools by progressive activists; in the proliferation of "hate speech" laws; in the self-censorship that so many Americans practice to appease political correctness; and in the influence of media on our thinking.  We live in an age of fear and conformity, and those who are weak have become enslaved and have willingly relinquished their freedom to the powerful forces of government, media, "expert" opinion, and corporate venality.  The practical effects of this despotism can be seen everywhere.  Rising taxes are used to transfer more and more of an individual's earnings to government, where it is used with little accountability to enrich those who support ever greater government spending and who make campaign donations to ensure this happens.

Biden tells 401k investors to prioritize green investments over profit.  The Biden administration will allow employers to invest pension money in green industries that could provide lower returns for Americans.  The move, which was announced on Tuesday, reverses a rule imposed by Trump in 2020 that forced employers to prioritize profit when making 401(k) investments.  The new rule introduced by US Department of Labor will allow retirement plan investors to focus on ESG investing — which considers the environmental and social impacts of investments.

Biden Extends Student Loan Pause Again After Declaring 'Pandemic Is Over'.  President Joe Biden reportedly plans to extend the pause on federal student loan payments through the summer of 2023 as his student debt cancellation plan faces legal challenges.  The Department of Education will soon announce the extension of the freeze, according to a report from CNN.  The first payments will be due two months after June 30, unless the Supreme Court greenlights the administration's debt forgiveness program beforehand.  A similar report from Bloomberg quoted multiple unnamed sources.

Also posted under Using handouts to buy votes.

Energy Policy Roadmap 2023.  Since the start of his presidency, Biden has indulged in apocalyptic concerns about climate change at the expense of American energy production, workers, and consumers.  Early in his presidency, aping the constant refrain from climate Chicken Littles, Biden signed an executive order, which stated, "There is little time left to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory."  Therefore, Biden grandly declared, "it is the policy of my Administration that climate considerations shall be an essential element of United States foreign policy and national security."  Moreover:  ["]We must combat the climate crisis with bold, progressive action that combines the full capacity of the Federal Government with efforts from every corner of our Nation, every level of government, and every sector of our economy.["]  Federal agencies acted quickly to implement Biden's reckless order, and their policies continue to wreak havoc on American energy, consumers, and the economy.  For example, the Interior Department, led by radical former Rep. Deb Haaland (NM), banned new federal onshore and offshore oil and gas leases.  This is significant, because oil and gas production from federal lands and waters comprises about 24 percent and 11 percent of total U.S. oil and gas production, respectively.  To put those figures in context, "if U.S. federal land/waters was treated as its own country, the 2.67 million barrels of oil it produced daily in 2019 would have made it the 11th largest daily oil producer in the world that year."  Several states sued Interior to overturn the ban, and a federal district court recently ruled (again) that it is illegal.

As Shortages Persist Under Biden, It's Time To Ask: Is This On Purpose?  Did the United States suddenly become a socialist basket case?  It's hard not to come to that conclusion after reading about the endless shortages plaguing the nation.  Each of which President Joe Biden either seems clueless to resolve or determined to make worse.  Let's start with the biggest one: the shortage of diesel fuel.  While Biden was busy draining the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to tamp down gas prices before the midterm elections, the real worry was that supplies of diesel fuel have been running short.  Two years after the short-lived COVID lockdowns ended, diesel inventories continued to trend downward to their lowest levels since 2008.  The cost for a gallon of diesel fuel is 46% higher than it was a year ago, according to AAA, and now costs more than $5 a gallon.

The White House can end the energy crisis by next year if it wants to.  Power the Future is an American energy advocacy and research organization that promotes solutions to energy-related crises currently facing the United States.  In a report simply titled Energy Policy Roadmap, the group sets forth ten basic steps that President Joe Biden and/or Congress could begin taking immediately before we run out of diesel, experience more rolling blackouts, and all the rest of the very real threats America is facing because of the current destructive energy policies that are now in place. [...] Here is the bullet list, and every item on here could be put into motion tomorrow if Joe Biden has the will to take action or if the new Congress is willing to stand up to him and put corrective measures in place.
  •   Repealing Joe Biden's Natural Gas Tax
  •   Ending Biden's Oil and Gas Leasing Moratorium/Return Power to States
  •   Approving the Keystone XL Pipeline
  •   Blocking Biden's ESG Regulations
  •   Repealing the California Waiver
  •   Ending Activist-led "Sue and Settle" and "Citizen Lawsuits"
  •   Banning Use of the "Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases"
  •   Issuing Automatic Approvals for LNG Export Terminals
  •   Overturning Massachusetts v. EPA
  •   Stopping Biden's War on Coal

Free America: We're already dealing with a fascist regime.  Where does the Democrat Party want to be in five years, or ten or twenty?  We saw that very clearly on September 1, 2022, when Joe Biden made his infamous speech with the red and black background.  Biden gave a speech that was without parallel in American history.  It was an extraordinary departure from 200 years of American political tradition, and it was extremely important.  It reveals what the Left is trying ultimately to do. [...] In his red and black speech on September 1, 2022, the 83rd anniversary of the beginning of World War II, Biden said that Trump and his supporters represented a grave threat to the Republic itself.  That was what was so unprecedented in American life, and why his speech was more like Hitler's Reichstag speech than any speech of an American president.  Biden was saying that essentially half of the electorate was a threat to the Republic and outside the bounds of acceptable political discourse.  Do you think that they are going to peacefully allow those whom they have thus branded to recapture the White House or the House or the Senate?  This is an effort to rule Trump supporters, that is, America First patriots, out of the bounds of acceptable discourse, and to criminalize their perspective.

The Run on Guns and Legal Battle Begin After Oregon's Gun Grab Passes.  The joke these days is that if you put the Bill of Rights to a vote, it would lose.  The latest example of this decline in intelligence is Oregon, where voters narrowly passed an anti-gun measure so ghastly that the Second Amendment has been "rendered superfluous."  Now, there's a run on gun stores, and civil liberties advocates have begun the fight to once again "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity" and reclaim the rights the Declaration of Independence stated were "self-evident" and "endowed by our Creator."  Don't kid yourself:  It'll be a tough sell in Oregon, where wokeness doesn't recognize "self-evidence," and "our Creator" has been replaced by godless communist dogma.  It's a place where young adults believe free rent, cheap weed, and college loan forgiveness are civil rights.

The scary part is that the students fell for it.  Some time ago, President Biden announced an executive order aimed at helping students with college debt, promising $10,000 in debt relief from federal student loans for most and $20,000 in debt relief from the poorest recipients who qualified for Pell grants.  It was "Pandering 101" and really aimed at getting college students to vote Democrat ahead of the midterms.  What else was it?  Well, it worked and the young voted for Uncle Joe and his loan-forgiving ideas.  They probably saved the U.S. Senate for the Democrats and cut losses in the House.

America was built on coal.  Now Biden wants to abolish it.  The one promise that President Joe Biden has faithfully kept is his pledge to "close down" fossil fuels.  We get two-thirds of our energy in America from fossil fuels, and almost one-third of our power comes from coal.  That's quadruple the amount of energy we get from wind and solar, which are niche forms of energy.  But Biden doesn't see it that way.  He recently reiterated his pledge to end coal production altogether.  "No one is building new coal plants because they can't rely on it," Biden said on Nov. 4 while in California. "We're going to be shutting these plants down all across America and having wind and solar."  I hope the people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming are listening because thousands of mostly union jobs are associated with the coal plants he wants to shutter.  Biden says we need to "shut down" these plants and the jobs that come with them because we need to combat climate change.  One problem:  Most of the rest of the world is using more coal even as we use less.  Even the sanctimonious Europeans are turning to coal because their natural gas supplies from Russia are no longer reliable.

U.S. Reverses Course, Now Says It Will Pay Climate Extortion Money to Poorer Nations.  It had been an article of faith since the 1990s when the idea of "climate reparations" was first proposed that the United States would never participate in such an extortion scheme.  Then Joe Biden got elected.  At the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, wealthy nations agreed for the first time to a framework that would pay poorer countries for "damages" that are caused by climate change.  Droughts, storms, heat waves, excessive cold — all can now be itemized as part of the cost poor countries pay because rich countries are responsible for the changing climate.  Of course, storms and droughts have been occurring for millions of years in these regions, but that doesn't matter.

The Editor says...
[#1] If there are any actual damages, do they not affect all countries?  [#2] If there is any actual change in the world-wide climate, is none of it caused by smaller, undeveloped beggar countries?  [#3] Was Joe Biden really elected, or was he installed as the result of a fraudulent election?

US will pay up to $1BN to compensate developing countries for global warming - but China Won't have to pay.  The United States will take part in the creation of and contribute to a fund that will pay developing nations to tackle climate change.  The fund, negotiated at the United Nations' COP27 Summit, was originally known as a 'loss and damage' fund and had been blocked by previous American administrations.  With a final climate accord already more than a day overdue, representatives of nearly 200 nations were anxious for an agreement they could bill as a step forward in the fight against climate change.

The Editor says...
[#1] Any "fight against climate change" is futile and unnecessary.  Yet the news media seems to think it's a fact of life.  Personally, I adapt to the weather when it changes and don't try to fight it.  Nobody can stop the climate from changing, and the climate changes so little, from one year to the next that it is imperceptible and nearly impossible to measure.  [#2] This is obviously just a shakedown and wealth redistribution scheme.  [#3] Why are "developing nations" uniquely able to keep the climate from changing?  [#4] Here's an idea:  Let's pay the "developing nations" after they prove their ability to stop climate change.

A Little Learning on Methane and Climate Change.  Before leaving for a week of virtue-signaling at the COP27 climate conference with other world elites, President Joe Biden would have done well to reread Hans Christian Anderson's story "The Emperor's New Clothes." [...] In Biden's case, the new clothes are the nonsense that there is a climate emergency.  But who would want to be considered "unfit for his office" or "unusually stupid" by questioning whether there really is an emergency?  So, resplendent in his new regalia, President Biden has proposed regulations on methane emissions by the U.S. oil and gas industry, at a direct cost of more than $1 billion annually, to deal with a nonexistent problem.

Maybe denial is the driving factor in the 2022 election outcome.  Democrat voters are not a monolithic bloc.  Yes, some are hard-core ideologues who swooned over Bernie Sanders.  Some are recipients of public assistance and dependent on Democrat party largesse.  Some are students and recent graduates majoring in insurrection.  But they're not all community organizers, and they don't all hate America.  Most are normal, center-left people who habitually vote Democrat. [...] But consider for a moment what the habitual Democrat would have had to acknowledge to vote Republican on November 8th:
  [#1]   That the President of the United States is a doddering mediocrity.
  [#2]   That the person (or persons) responsible for the policies and decisions emanating from the White House is a matter of conjecture.
  [#3]   That the administration's policies are blatantly extremist and being implemented with ruinous effect.
  [#4]   That proper stewardship of the nation's fiscal and energy resources is utterly lacking — to the point of precipitating a foreseeable crisis.
  [#5]   That large numbers of inner-city youth, trapped in broken homes or broken schools, are not being taught respect, self-control, or the difference between right and wrong.
  [#6]   That the freedoms, values, and checks and balances on which this country was founded are being left grossly unprotected.
  [#7]   That despite mounting challenges we are not presently capable of deterring our adversaries or defeating them on the battlefield.
Perhaps it's all too much to contemplate.  The habitual Democrat voter prefers to remain incongruously oblivious.

Biden Attempts to Revive Student Loan Forgiveness Plan By Asking Supreme Court to Restore It.  The Biden Administration is desperately trying to restore its failing $400 billion student loan forgiveness plan after it keeps getting blocked by federal judges.  According to a legal filing, the Biden Administration plans to ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the president's canceled student loan debt program.  In the court documents, President Joe Biden is warning the Supreme Court that if it doesn't reverse the cancellation of the plan, millions of Americans will face a financial burden when the payments are scheduled to start again in January.

Joe Biden's Transgender Insanity Gets Crushed in Court.  One of the most deranged aspects of the Biden administration has been its pushing of radical transgender ideology in the medical field.  Well past just letting people do what they want, the president and his handlers have sought to force doctors to partake in activities that violate their principle to do no harm.  That includes being forced to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone blockers to those who have no medical need for them as well as having to refer patients for "gender-affirming" surgeries that permanently harm them.  Thankfully, in a blow to the transgender lobby, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has ruled that Biden's edict on those matters is not lawful.

Tenacity by itself will not make this idea constitutional.
Biden admin seeks to take student debt cancellation to Supreme Court.  The Biden administration will soon ask the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court decision blocking the implementation of the president's student loan debt cancellation plan.  The Department of Justice on Thursday asked a federal appeals court to end the injunction on the plan's implementation while indicating in the same filing that it would turn to the Supreme Court to list a separate appeals court ruling, the Associated Press reported.  Biden announced his plan in late August to forgive student debt up to $10,000 for those earning less than $125,000 annually and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.  The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the plan will cost taxpayers approximately $400 billion.

The 2022 Mid-Terms Exposed the Existence of Two Americas and the Overwhelming Importance of the 2024 Election.  The United States is currently plagued with uncontrolled inflation spiraling into a severe recession, crime is rampant in the nation's cities, the borders are open and uncontrolled, the standard of living is rapidly deteriorating, society is sinking into a morass of premeditated cultural decline, and an increasingly bleak future awaits the vast majority of Americans.  Yet fifty percent of 2022 voters chose to continue this state of affairs by opting to elect or re-elect the politicians that have created or abetted this ongoing national devastation.  Far too many, particularly the younger generations who voted overwhelmingly Democrat, dwell in mindless loyalty to a collectivist tribe, its leaders and its attendant ideology.  In their addled thinking this fidelity outweighs the well-being of themselves or the nation and its citizenry.

Federal Court Blocks Biden's Student Loan Forgiveness Nationwide.  The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a nationwide injunction pending appeal against President Joe Biden's student loan debt forgiveness program Monday, adding to previous legal action blocking the plan.  The program seeks to forgive $10,000 in federal student loan debt for individuals with incomes under $125,000 and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, with the Biden administration claiming it had the authority to institute the program under the HEROES Act of 2003 and an emergency situation sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas and South Carolina had filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration in late September over the program, and the court issued a stay on the debt cancellation last month before granting an emergency motion for the injunction Monday [11/14/2022].

Federal Judge Strikes Down A Key Part Of President Biden's Transgender Agenda.  A federal judge has reversed a Biden Administration rule that directed the Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to sex change surgeries and hormone therapies, including to children, in a Friday ruling.  Biden's HHS said in May 2021 that it would interpret a section of the Affordable Care Act, which bars doctors from discriminating on the basis of sex, as covering sexual orientation and gender identity.  Two doctors represented by the America First Legal Foundation brought a class action lawsuit against the Biden administration after the HHS took the action, arguing that the rule would interfere with their ability to properly practice medicine.  The judge argued that the Biden administration's interpretation of Title IX to include "gender identity," was faulty and could not be changed until Congress passed a law to that effect, or the Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

UN considers trying to outlaw all fossil fuels on the planet.  The COP27 globalist gathering that recently took place in Egypt came with open calls for a global phase-out of, and eventual ban on, all fossil fuels.  Were this to actually happen, billions of people would die.  A tiny, failing island in the South Pacific called Tuvalu (ever heard of it?) made the proposition using the following quoted statement:  "We, therefore, unite with 100 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and 1000s of scientists worldwide to urge world leaders to join the fossil fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, to manage a just transition away from fossil fuels."  One wonders:  what does Tuvalu mean by the term "just transition?"  Is ending most human life on earth considered by the globalists to be the "just" thing to do?  Because that it what eliminating all fossil fuel usage would do.

Another Stolen Election.  [Scroll down] Polls show that Biden suffers an approval rate of only 36% and that a large majority of Americans do not want Biden to run for reelection in two years.  How is this preference consistent with the vote count of Tuesday's election?  Consider also that the party in power loses representation in midterm elections, but despite the substantial turn away from Democrats revealed by CNN, this normal result did not occur on Tuesday.  Consider also public dissatisfaction with: record crime, record inflation with high food and gasoline prices, rising interest rates and falling home values, massive illegal immigration, forced indoctrination of school children with transgender theory and critical race theory, Biden's Covid vaccination mandates that caused health injuries, deaths, and destroyed careers, Biden's Covid lockdowns that destroyed businesses, jobs, supply chains and raised prices, Biden's "Russian" sanctions that disrupted energy supply and raised the price of everything. [...] Now, ask yourself, what is worse, a stolen US election or an American electorate so insouciant and out to lunch that they would keep a political party in office that is leading us into war with Russia and China, that hates white people and persecutes them, that has politicized the FBI and Department of Justice turning them into Gestapo agencies serving Democrat power, that fervently believes that parents are bad for children and should have no say in their education (brainwashing), that is demonizing normality and normalizing perversity, that ... I could go on and on.  Here was a chance for voters to register their dissent, and according to the vote results they failed to do so.  If the vote count is honest, then the conclusion is that we must write off the American people as beings too stupid to survive as a free people.  This is why I much prefer to believe that the election was again stolen.  What can be done about stolen elections?  Nothing.  Especially when a previously stolen election has left Democrats in control of the executive branch.  The executive branch is the police branch.  It is not going to enforce election or any law against itself.

Federal judge: You'd better believe that Biden's Academia bailout is unconstitutional.  You better believe that Joe Biden and his team knew that already, too.  He managed to buy midterm votes without spending a dollar, and now he can play the victim for another couple of years to hang onto those voters, who will end up with nothing at all.  At least one judge decided that the Constitution might be a little more important than "standing" when it comes to Biden's unilateral appropriation of several hundred billion dollars.  In fact, the insult to the separation of powers and Congress' exclusive power of the purse is grave enough that Judge Mark Pittman decided to dispense with the plaintiff's request for an injunction and proceeded to decide the case immediately, vacating Biden's executive order.

John Kerry Spills the Beans at U.N.'s COP27 Meeting: They Want to Replace Capitalism with a New Economic System.  The World Economic Forum's climate change agenda was "modeled" off the effort to roll out vaccines during the Covid pandemic, John Kerry said during a COP27 panel discussion in Egypt on Tuesday.  That means we can all look forward to high-pressure, coercive government tactics, and not only from the government but from corporate elites.  Appearing alongside WEF President Børge Brende and various corporate executives, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said that it is urgent for the private sector to pair with governments to realize the goal of preventing the global temperature from rising and to save lives in the allegedly looming global climate crisis, Breitbart reported.  Kerry said in a speech before the panel:  "We have an enormous challenge before us to bring to scale new technologies and to harness the deeply capable capacity of private sector entrepreneurs in order to bring them to the table because without it, no government has enough money... we need everybody behind this."  King Charles has made similar statements, that we need nations to pool their resources and raise a trillion dollars to combat climate change.
[Emphasis added.]

Biden's student loan handout struck down by federal judge in Texas.  A federal judge in Texas struck down President Biden's student loan handout in a Thursday night ruling.  Biden's plan, which aims to cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients in college and up to $10,000 for others who borrowed using federal student loans.  "Whether the Program constitutes good public policy is not the role of this Court to determine.  Still, no one can plausibly deny that it is either one of the largest delegations of legislative power to the executive branch, or one of the largest exercises of legislative power without congressional authority in the history of the United States," United States District Judge Mark Pittman wrote.

Physicals, Virtuals, Machines and Overlords.  WEF chief [Klaus] Schwab has proclaimed that a key element of the COVID crisis-fueled "Great Reset" will be to advance and shape this "Fourth Industrial Revolution."  And in public statements, he has explained what this means: merging man with machines.  "What the fourth industrial revolution will lead to is a fusion of our physical, digital and biological identity," Schwab explained in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.  This is not a conspiracy "theory".  Schwab even wrote a book on the subject in 2016 entitled Shaping the Future of The Fourth Industrial Revolution.  In it, he explains how looming technological changes will allow governments to "intrude into the hitherto private space of our minds, reading our thoughts and influencing our behavior."  The title is a tell.  This vision is not inevitable, but rather will have to be shaped if it is to develop in the way that he and his WEF colleagues envision.

Biden's America is actually a democratic autocracy.  President Biden recently spoke about the need for democracy rather than autocracy, pointing out that the American midterm elections would save democracy only if the Democrats got the majority.  In other words, those who vote Republican are against democracy, as only the rule of one party with complete control over the government promotes democracy.  Biden thereby defined his attitude as autocratic, pointing out that "autocracy is the opposite of democracy.  It means the rule of one, one person, one interest, one ideology, one party."  It is clear that autocracy — not democracy — is what the Democrats are pushing for.  If you are not for the rule of one interest, namely the socialist, ultra-rich corporate class that now controls the very political theater Biden is a part of, you are the enemy of democracy.

Democrats Are Losing Voters They Took for Granted, Thanks to Misplaced Priorities.  Over the weekend, new data showed Democrats that minorities are migrating to Republican candidates in a historic shift, and the electorate sees them as focused on all the wrong things.  All Democrats had to do was not be crazy.  Biden inherited an economy in recovery and a nation looking to take a collective deep breath.  Instead, Democrats decided to destroy the economy and push transing the kids.  Voters noticed.

Manchin's rebuke shows how toxic Biden's energy views are.  It's not often that a senator launches a brutal, frontal assault on a president from his own party.  It's even rarer when he does it just before a national election.  But that is exactly what West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin just did to Joe Biden.  At issue was Biden's recent speech attacking coal, a bedrock of the West Virginia economy.  Manchin was furious over Biden's promise to shut down all of America's coal-fired power plants.  That view might be red meat for Biden's audience of green-power advocates and rich California donors, but it is poison in West Virginia.  And it is those West Virginians who elected Manchin, the only Democrat still standing in a state that is now deep red. [...] President Biden's comments are not only outrageous and divorced from reality, they ignore the severe economic pain the American people are feeling because of rising energy costs. [...] Shutting down coal-fired plants is hardly a new position for Biden.  He said as much while campaigning for president.  But why return to that theme just before an election when high energy prices are already a political burden?  Some combination of Biden's usual foot-in-mouth disease, his quest for rich donors, and an effort to spur turnout among base voters.

Biden Says the Quiet Part Out Loud About Climate Change And His Handlers Are Trying To Save The Situation.  In a move that surely had his tapioca dealers talking themselves back from the ledge, the President stated that they would be shutting down coal-fired power plants 'across America'.  West Virginia may be the first state that comes to mind when one thinks of coal country, but Pennsylvania is a close second and is home to one of the key senate races of this election.  Democrat senate hopeful, Fetterman, was likely stunned by Biden's recklessness ... and her husband probably was too.

Energy Inflation Was by Design.  This essay will demonstrate that the energy supply and price crisis was a deliberate outcome of a policy that Biden promised to implement, the same one that Obama had supported during his time in office.  It will review how and why we arrived here, why record energy prices were not happenstance, why domestic conventional energy supplies are inadequate in relation to levels of demand seen in recent years, and how the entire thrust of Obama's — and now Biden's — energy policy was designed to deliver these results.  It's not a bug but a core feature of his program.

Inflation By Design.  Gas is as ordinary as a pencil.  We fill up our tanks every day, or jump in a rideshare, hop on a plane, jet ski around a lake, without taking any notice of the miracle of this fuel.  Gas is the result of the labor of innumerable individual contributions, from geologists to tanker drivers; it begins miles underground and ends at the local filling station, yet it is cheaper than bottled water.  Pencils and gas are both marvels of free market capitalism, as are countless petrochemical products, from plastics and rubber to laundry detergent and cosmetics.  The only non-market force capable of disrupting this well-oiled machine is government.  That's exactly what Joe Biden did.

Who has really been running our country?  On the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, he signed dozens of extensively radical executive orders.  Then the Biden administration began populating the federal government and the federal Judiciary — including the new Supreme Court vacancy — with hundreds (probably thousands) of the most extreme anti-American people imaginable.  The administration has re-crafted an enormous number of laws and regulations — often illegally — to push the hard-left, woke, LGBT agendas throughout business, government, education, and society in general.  U.S. foreign policy, including the hideous abandonment in Afghanistan and unhinged Ukrainian response, has clearly been coordinated to weaken America and strengthen our enemies.  Our military is being emasculated — and proselytized to consider patriotic Americans as the enemy.  The Biden administration ignores our immigration laws and welcomes millions of illegal aliens to swarm across our southern border, and then methodically ships them to cities across the country (and even gives them cell phones to use).  The administration's aggressive "green new deal" is paralyzing our transportation system and causing crippling inflation never seen in this country before.  Federal agencies, spearheaded by the Justice Department and FBI, have viciously become weaponized against conservatives, at the same time allowing "Antifa" and other left-wing hoodlum groups to terrorize citizens at will.  As many have observed, it's a controlled demolition of America.

'Moderate' Democrat Tim Ryan Backs Free Sex Changes for Illegal Migrants.  The Democrat party's candidate in the Ohio Senate race promised to provide taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries and hormones to illegal migrants who say they are transgender.  Tim Ryan, who portrays himself as a moderate, made the wildly unpopular pledge in 2019 to one of the party's most radical constituency groups, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  Ryan made the pledge while he was running for president in 2019.

Don't Cry For Me, America.  We've seen this movie before.  The Democrats' populist giveaway plans can't possibly work, because government bankrupts everything it touches.  History teaches us that ObamaCare and the myriad of government's unfunded entitlement programs will be utter, complete disasters.  Today's Democrats are guilty of more than stupidity; they are enslaving future generations to poverty and misery.  And they will be long gone when it all implodes.  They will be as cold and dead as Juan Perón when the piper must ultimately be paid.  Throughout history, Democrats' Marxist templates for wealth redistribution have proven fatal for civilized societies.

The Democrat War on Fossil Fuels.  On October 19, in the heat of an election campaign, President Biden told the American people, "We need to increase oil production."  He went on to say, "My administration has not stopped or slowed U.S. oil production."  It was a disingenuous statement from a man whose sense of reality, fact, and fiction have become an undecipherable narrative.  Biden failed to mention the executive order he issued which stipulates, "the Secretary of the Interior shall pause new oil and natural gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters."  This pause is ongoing.  Biden uses the same executive order as an instruction to the secretaries of State, Treasury, Energy, Defense, and Homeland Security, "to organize and deploy the full capacity of its agencies to combat the climate crisis."  Millions of Americans are employed by businesses supporting the fossil-fuel industry.  Others choose to invest in fossil-fuel businesses.  All Americans rely on fossil fuels to power their businesses, transportation systems, and utilities.  Democrats will destroy these people's jobs, capital, and imperil the U.S. economy.

Could [Democrat] Politics Be Even More Childish?  In contrast to the left's campaign of disinformation, we present some facts:
  •   Fascists don't cut taxes, deregulate, and shrink government.  Republicans, even "MAGA Republicans," run on those issues, and are devoted to the principles, even if too often the policy agenda fails (because of Democratic and media opposition).
  •   Fascists are socialists, and it's the Democrats who are wed to socialist policies.  They constantly agitate for higher taxes, more government control of the means of production, ever-deeper government intrusion into private affairs, and incontestable political power.  They don't want voters to know that fascism's father Benito Mussolini said that "socialism is in my blood," or that the Nazis were national socialists.
  •   Politicians and media figures hungry for raw power will call those who question an election that they won "deniers" while themselves denying that they did exactly that in previous elections.
  •   A party that wishes to destroy America would, as Walter Russel Mead wrote a month after Donald Trump took office, limit fracking as much as possible, block oil and gas pipelines, and try to tamp down tensions with Russia's ally Iran.  The GOP has done none of that.  The Democrats are guilty of all three.
  •   A party that would abolish democracy would crush dissenting voices and opinions, and constantly smear its opponents — which is what the Democrats have done.  (And yet again we have to reiterate that the U.S. is not a democracy.  That is an infantile construction used to deceive.  We are a republic.)

The Left Were the Mad Scientists, We Were Their Lab Rats.  We are now headed for a decisive midterm election.  Strangely the hard-left architects of the last two years neither offer a defense of their failing agendas, nor agree to change them.  No Democratic congressional candidates brag about the 3 million people who illegally crossed an open border.  None boast that they helped cancel key pipelines, reduced federal leasing of gas and oil, and shut down the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  None take credit for hammering investments in fossil fuels.  None preen over the no-bail and defund-the-police policies of left-wing, big-city prosecutors and mayors who have spiked crime.  None insist that an annual 8-9 percent inflation rate is a desirable spreading of the wealth.  And yet odder still, no Democratic candidate, state or national — and most certainly not Joe Biden — offers to alter these toxic policies.  If they won't defend what they have done, they apparently will not undo what they have wrought either.

Back to the Carter economy.  The latest edition of "Joe Biden: Bad Ideas" came yesterday when Biden stepped up his attacks on Big Oil and suggested that unless they lower prices he would push to implement a Windfall Profits Tax on the companies, essentially seizing their profits as a punishment for making money.  Such taxes are notoriously idiotic, and even the dimwits in the White House must know that.  It seems like Biden is trying to ruin the economy, and we have hit the point where we have to actually consider that to be a possibility.  Everything he has done to the economy has made things worse, and after a while you have to consider whether it is intentional.

A second attempt to block Biden's student-debt cancellation lands at the Supreme Court.  Opponents to President Joe Biden's student-debt relief took their legal battle to the Supreme Court on Tuesday in the latest attempt to get the nation's highest court to block the plan.  Indiana student-loan borrowers Frank Garrison and Noel Johnson are seeking to halt the program, claiming it's unlawful and requires them to pay more in taxes because the debt cancelation is considered taxable income under state law.  "The administration is attempting to erase half a trillion dollars in debt without any legal basis," Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative law firm representing the two applicants, said in a statement.  "The Court ought to put the brakes on this lawless action while it's considered by the courts."

Los Angeles and L.A. County buy into guaranteed income movement.  Following a national trend, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County have embraced the popular guaranteed income concept to combat poverty by offering low-income residents no-strings-attached money.  The city of Los Angeles offers a guaranteed income program to 3,200 participants chosen at random to receive $1,000 per month for 12 months.  Los Angeles County has responded with two guaranteed programs of its own.  The county's pilot guaranteed income program involves 1,000 participants who will receive $1,000 monthly payments for three years.  The budget is $16.3 million, and the county will use federal COVID-19 relief money to pay for the program, according to Los Angeles County.  The program began in August.

A Stunning Number of Americans Believe the Country Is 'Out of Control' Thanks to Democrats.  A look at the Democrat tote board reveals that this party's policies have resulted in more dead people.
  •   Democrats believe women should be able to kill their babies up to the moment of birth.
  •   The murder rate has spiked in Democrat-run cities where police are "de-funded."
  •   Democrats are willing to sacrifice your life at the altar of their global warming religion by depriving you of reliable, cost-effective energy.  Good luck heating your home this winter!
  •   They've required you to drive electric cars that don't work in the deep cold or when you're stuck in traffic trying to escape a hurricane.  Good luck with your evacuation plan!
  •   Democrats' policies have made food much more expensive, forcing some to choose whether to eat or spend on other necessities.
  •   Democrats have opened the borders, releasing vast amounts of fentanyl and meth into the country, killing more people than our wars.
The upshot is that Democrats are an existential threat to human life.  Maybe that's why nearly 80% of the people in a new CBS News/YouGov Battleground Tracker poll say that the country is "out of control."

No such thing as a 'Christian Democrat'.  This past week Matt Walsh posted the following comments on Twitter.  "The Democrats have settled on their closing argument:  'Vote for us so that we can castrate children, use your money to pay for abortions, and put pornography in the schools.  If you don't vote for us, then you are a Nazi and democracy will die.'  Fascinating political strategy."  In these few words, Mr. Walsh highlighted a sad and sobering fact:  The Democrat party is now so extreme that no serious follower of Christ can align with it.  There is no longer any such thing as a "Christian Democrat."

The 'Hands Off Our Kids!' Election.  Obama sold "hope and change."  Trump promised to "Make America Great Again."  With control of Congress and the presidency heading into the 2022 midterm elections, what future are Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats offering to lure voters toward their side?  It appears to be one in which boys are celebrated as girls, education is reduced to political indoctrination, and Green New Deal policies continue to exacerbate food and fuel costs.  What is the Democrats' argument for re-election?  Despite staggering inflation, crime, and illegal immigration, things could be much worse?  If you loved masks and lockdowns, get ready for more?  You'll forget about the pain at the pump once war with Russia officially begins?  Celebrate the future by mutilating and aborting the children of today?  Whatever future Democrats are selling voters, it is bereft of hope, is riddled with pain, steals from Americans' depleted savings, and leaves those growing up today with little but spare change.

The Democrat party is evolving as a tool of the deep state.  Who is in charge of the Democrat party?  Democrat voters?  Supporters of politicians who vow to abolish socioeconomic injustices, but who instead tacitly perpetuate them so they can continue to promise to abolish them, in exchange for continued support at the ballot box.  Voters do not control the Party -- they are manipulated by it.  The media?  No.  Devoid of original thought they are the propaganda arm of the Party, promoting the Party narrative to give vent to their own personal grievances.  They merely amplify the Party agenda.  Democrat politicians?  Traditionally probably so, but that appears to be changing.  The Party has evolved, installing an unprincipled, senile president and an incompetent vice president, now touting a senatorial candidate who is patently impaired by post-stroke aphasia, and propping up a senile senior senator from California.  And it has no bright shining stars as potential future leaders.  It appears to be staffing its policy-generating apparatus with puppets.  If they can read the cue cards, they can run for office.

Have Democrats Lost Interest in the Working Man?  Perhaps the most telling example of the Democratic Party's abandonment of what used to be called "the working class" was the transparent effort of this regime to have the federal government illegally absorb a trillion dollars in college student loans this fall.  These are largely people earning six figures per year, a high percentage of them with advanced degrees.  These aren't the hardworking longshoremen, railroad engineers, and factory assembly line workers who used to form the core of the Democratic Party.  A lot of these college loan defaulters wouldn't know a lathe, conveyor belt, or arc welder from the background in their video games.  But blue collar workers' taxes (and their children's and grandchildren's taxes) will be paying off the masters degrees and doctorates of these latte-drinking vegans for the next 100 years.  How easily the Biden-Harris regime threw their old base overboard to take care of their new base.  The greenies and academics, the counter-culturists and bureaucrats.  These are the Democratic Party's base today.

If Republicans win, it's the end of democracy.  We should hope so.  Democracy is mob rule.  Democracy is rule by majority.  We do not have a direct democracy.  We never had one.  America was never set up for that. [...] If you want a resuscitated America in November, you must vote for representatives who will:
  •   Open oil pipelines.
  •   Close the borders.
  •   Educate in our schools and remove drag queens and anti-white racist teachers.
  •   Secure elections by going back to paper ballots and one-day voting.
  •   Resuscitate the military as a fighting force, not a social experiment.
  •   Remove every vestige of CRT, SEL, DEI, ESG in government agencies.
  •   Clean out the FBI, CIA, FCC, NEA, IRS, and the EPA and strip them of all but the most innocuous powers.  Better still, eliminate these agencies.
  •   Stop spending and printing money.
  •   Stop paying people not to work.
  •   Bar men in women's sports.
  •   Revoke Section 230 and make websites like Twitter and Facebook legally responsible for their unrepentant censorship against conservatives.
This is a no-excuses election.  Everyone must vote.  We have the choice in a few days to either keep a free America or acquiesce to the Great Resetters who want a one-party system.  If you want more of what we've been getting the last two years, vote Democrat.  If you want your freedom back and want to stop self-censoring, vote Republican.

Bad Energy Policy Ideas Never Die.  Thus far in 2022, political actors and their acolytes are dusting off, again, every bad idea that has ever permeated political debate in the United States regarding energy.  Among them:
  •   Price caps, which do nothing to provoke demand response or salient investment.
  •   Export bans, which only shrink the global supply pie, worsening price pressures.
  •   Tapping strategic oil reserves, originally reserved for emergencies — a tactic too often deployed to manage or attempt to manage prices.
  •   Appealing to OPEC (and OPEC+) to open spigots while also investigating and/or invoking sanctions against, and/or attempting to legislate against, OPEC.
None of these are new, or even clever, or even useful, but they are being presented to voters here and abroad as such.

The 'SAFE-T Act' Is the Epitome of Political Hypocrisy.  Based on the title, you might expect that this law would have something to do with keeping people safe, right?  Think again.  What the SAFE-T Act really does is eliminate cash bail for people who commit heinous felonies such as second-degree murder, arson, drug-induced homicide, robbery, kidnapping, aggravated battery, burglary, intimidation, aggravated driving under the influence, fleeing and eluding, drug offenses, and threatening a public official.  And just in case you were wondering — no, that doesn't mean that people who commit those crimes will be sitting in jail until their trial.  Just the opposite, in fact.  Under the SAFE-T Act, starting on January 1, 2023, accused murderers, arsonists, kidnappers, and other violent criminals will not be in jail at all before their trial.  They will be free to roam the streets as before, despite the fact that they are potentially dangerous and undoubtedly desperate.

Progressives Have Descended Into Madness, And Are Dragging The Rest Of Us With Them.  [Scroll down] One needn't prattle on like a conservative cable news host to list the ways in which our current polity and culture are, in fact, "demented" in its worst sense:  utterly depraved.  It's demented for a political party to pin its election hopes on going all-in on snuffing out more than 930,000 lives in the womb annually.  Especially when America is plunging (despite a small COVID baby bump) into demographic winter with its attendant economic and social consequences.  And depraved to mutilate and chemically deform children based on a seeming sudden surge, largely among impressionable teenaged girls, of a condition previously believed to affect far less than 1% of the population — up to 80% of whom also suffer from "personality disorders."  Not to mention to subject kindergartners to drag queen performances.  But it's also perverse to plunge entire populations into energy insecurity and poverty to humor a doomsday cult obsessed with an unproven and unprovable hypothesis about climate apocalypse.

Every House Democrat just voted against parental rights legislation.  House Democrats on Thursday unanimously voted to block legislation that would have required informed parental consent before a school provides mental health services related to sexual orientation or gender identity to students.  In a 220-208 vote, the House rejected an attempt by Republicans to amend a bill that seeks to bolster mental health care for students, educators, and school staff negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Titled the Mental Health Matters Act, the legislation would award grants to build a pipeline of school-based mental health services providers and increase the number of professionals providing mental health services to elementary and secondary schools in high-need areas.  The Department of Education would be responsible for allocating those grants.

Violent Crime Is Driving a Red Wave.  Since crime is essentially a local issue, why does it hurt Democrats running for national or statewide office?  Because the Democratic Party has associated itself with the notion that "social justice" and "racial equality" require fundamentally changing policing and incarceration.  The problem, they say, is police, not criminals.  In practice, that means Democrats, especially progressives, favor weaker law enforcement, easier conditions for bail (even for those charged with violent offenses), and less funding for police officers.  That message was encapsulated in the slogans "defund the police" and "reimagine policing," which took hold in 2020 after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis cop.  Not all Democrats embraced this self-defeating fad.  Joe Biden, notably, spoke out against it.  But progressives marched in lock-step, and their policies became the party's dominant message on crime.  Not just dominant, uncontested.

Biden Wants Your Kids to Be Gender-Transitioned Whether You Like It or Not.  President Joe Biden wants your children to make life-changing gender transitions, and the only reason you want to stop him is bigotry and fear.  At least, so he says.  In a NowThis media roundtable aired Sunday, Biden discussed issues of the day with progressive activists and social media personalities.  Most notable was his interview with transgender TikTok celebrity Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who is transitioning to "girlhood."  In the interview, Biden said state attempts to restrict gender transitions are immoral and based on "fear."  He was asked if states had the right to place restrictions on "gender-affirming care," as the Left likes to call hormone therapy and reconstructive surgeries.  "I don't think any state or anybody should have the right to do that.  As a moral question or as a legal question, I just think it's wrong," the president said in response.

The Economy Will Never Prosper Under Biden: Here's Why.  The White House has also promised to use "every lever at its disposal — including regulatory action — to deliver on the president's priorities, including containing the pandemic, driving a durable economic recovery, advancing equity, and combating climate change."  We are already seeing the fruits of Biden's approach.  A recession in the first half of the year.  Sky-high inflation.  Widespread despair.  What the left can't seem to understand is that when government gets active, businesses get passive.  They become more risk averse.  Compliance costs weigh them down.  Long-term investments become problematic if you don't know what the rules will be down the road.  This is one big reason why energy production has never recovered after the pandemic — the oil and gas industry has no idea what lies ahead.  So, as Biden's regulators descend upon the land, the economy will — as it was throughout Barack Obama's eight years — be on a long and dreary slog.  Indeed, Biden's regulatory zeal will probably ramp up if Republicans win big in November, since his legislative agenda will be caput.

Biden's Marijuana Pardons Did Not Free a Single Federal Prisoner or Deliver the Expungement He Promised.  Edwin Rubis has served more than two decades of a 40-year federal prison sentence for participating in a marijuana distribution operation.  Taking into account "good time" credit, he is not scheduled to be released until August 2032.  Rubis is one of about 3,000 federal prisoners whose cannabis-related sentences were unaffected by President Joe Biden's mass pardon for low-level marijuana offenders.  A protest at the White House today called attention to their predicament.  Biden's October 6 proclamation applied only to U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents convicted of simple marijuana possession under the Controlled Substances Act or the District of Columbia Code, none of whom was still incarcerated.  Although his pardons could benefit as many as 10,000 or so individuals, that represents a tiny percentage of all simple possession cases, which typically are charged under state law.  And Biden's action will not release a single federal prisoner.

Biden's Destroying the Economy.  Is It Intentional?  Here are seven Biden administration steps to undermine an economy and a society from within. [...]
  [#1]   Dismantle the nation's energy supply
  [#2]   Don't enforce the border
  [#3]   Devalue the nation's currency through inflation
  [#4]   Destroy the nation's finances by running up the debt by multiple trillions of dollars
  [#5]   Divide rather than unite the nation
  [#6]   Dumb down and indoctrinate our children with anti-American propaganda in the schools and media
  [#7]   Decriminalize a lot

Why some progressive Democrats are urging Biden to rethink his Ukraine strategy.  Since the beginning of the war, the US has sent over $60 billion in aid to Ukraine.  These aid packages have received rare, almost unprecedented bipartisan support.  Only a small contingent within the GOP, i.e. 57 of 212 House Republicans and 11 of 50 Senate Republicans, voted against the aid packages.  Among them was Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) who proposed essential transparency and accountability, but that idea was summarily rejected.  Quite often when asked how long the US can be expected to spend billions on the war effort, Biden, and his top aides respond with "as long as it takes."

Why Biden Went Far Left.  One must never forget that most politicians are not like ordinary people.  Most of us are such that if we told a big public lie, for example, that we had finished in the top half our law school class when we had actually finished in bottom 11% of the class, or that we had been arrested protesting for civil rights with Nelson Mandela when we had not, or that Mitt Romney had not paid any taxes for the past decade when we knew he paid taxes, or that one's political opponent had colluded with Russia in order to steal the 2016 presidential election when we knew that is false, or say under oath that the southern border is secure when everybody knows it is not, we would, once we had been exposed, be ashamed and have difficulty showing our faces in public for a long time.  Similarly, most of us would feel deeply ashamed if we enacted policies that led to 800+ deaths at the southern border ... and so on.  In fact, many politicians feel no shame whatsoever when they are exposed for telling big lies or perpetrating destructive hoaxes or enacting deadly policies.  The immediate reaction of most politicians when their enormous lies, hoaxes, and body-counts are exposed is to start plotting how to get away with it.  That is, most politicians are concerned with securing their own wealth and power, in Joe's case, being "the Big Guy," truth never even being in the mix.  My diagnosis of Joe Biden's sudden lurch to the far left is that Joe pretty much never believed in much at all.  He said what he said and did what he did to secure his grip on power.

Biden Is 'Buying Votes' Ahead of Midterm Elections With Policy Decisions: Rep. Lauren Boebert.  As the Nov. 8 midterm election draws near, some see recent moves by President Joe Biden as a desperate means to "buying votes."  [For example,] Pardons for Marijuana Offenses:  On Oct. 6, Biden announced a blanket pardon for some federal marijuana possession convictions.  "No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden said.  "Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.  Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities."  He went on to say that minorities are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement for marijuana offenses.

North America Goes South: The Plan To Dismantle USA.  People are starting to realize that the collapse of the American border is not an accident.  It can't be.  When the vice president of the United States says the border is "secure" at the same time that illegal border crossings have surged to more than a million a year, then one of two things must be true. [...] Unfortunately, there was no way to determine what the Biden administration was up to — until now.  Two weeks ago, we learned that Biden's Secretary of State Antony Blinken is actively engaged in a campaign to break down all barriers between the United States and Mexico.  In other words, the huge influx of Mexicans and other foreigners across the U.S. border is just the first stage in a globalist effort to blur the lines between not just the United States and Mexico, but also Canada.

Fact-Checking 4 Biden Claims on His Student Loan Bailout.  President Joe Biden used his home state of Delaware on Friday to promote his "forgiveness" of student loan debt, which he did through executive action in August rather than through Congress.  Some of Biden's assertions during 24 minutes of remarks at Delaware State University in Dover were factual, and some less so.  Biden spoke at the event one day after the Supreme Court opted not to immediately block the student loan forgiveness program from going forward, and after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by six states to block the plan.  "They've been fighting us in the courts," Biden told the crowd.  "But just yesterday, a state court and the Supreme Court said no, we are on Biden's side."  However, on Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit barred the Biden administration temporarily barred from discharging student loan debt while the appeals court weighed the states' request to halt the bailout.

Congress Trying to Ram Through $50 Billion More for Ukraine Before GOP Takes Control of the House.  Lawmakers from both parties are reportedly seeking to lock in a staggering $50 billion in additional military aid for Ukraine before a new Congress is sworn in this January.  The move is yet another indication that your elected senators and representatives no longer view the American people as their top priority, but rather, the government of a corrupt Eastern European nation is their new baby.  NBC News reports that multiple sources have confirmed ongoing discussions regarding a government funding bill during the lame-duck session following the election.

Here's proof Biden knows his student loan bailout is illegal.  Basically, in order to sue, you have to have been directly harmed by the program.  And, on paper, it's hard to see who is harmed by the bailout because, unfortunately, just generally being a taxpayer whose money is being illegally wasted is not considered sufficient justification to bring a lawsuit.  So, for a while, it seemed that even though Biden's plan was glaringly constitutionally suspect, nobody would be able to challenge it in court, meaning it wouldn't be struck down even if it was unconstitutional.  Thankfully, various right-of-center plaintiffs have come up with creative ways to challenge the plan in court.  One such lawsuit that has emerged is a suit by six states claiming that their finances would be harmed by Biden's bailout because they're heavily invested in private companies that service loans and will take a big hit from the president's cancellation initiative.

Bizarro president destroys the economy.  Reagan drove a wooden stake through inflation in the 1980s and his successors carried a crucifix afterward.  Then came Biden.  He emptied the Treasury by borrowing trillions of dollars to spend on the Green New Deal (ironically labeled the Inflation Reduction Act) and on an infrastructure program called the American Rescue Plan.  Democrat Senator Mark Warner of Virginia told Bloomberg, "Was there too much in the American Rescue Plan on a relative basis?  Absolutely."  This is the first infrastructure program that actually tears down interstate highways in the name of equity.

Cancel This.  President Biden premised his cancelation or forgiveness of student loans of up to $20,000 per person on "the financial harms of the pandemic."  However, a Wall Street Journal editorial duly noted that "the government had halted student loan payments since 2020, holding borrowers harmless.  A month before he declared the pandemic 'over,' Biden extended that student loan pause through Dec. 31."  Biden's "plan," as he calls it, is blatantly unconstitutional.  It's not unfair to say that everything about it is wrong.  The only question is whether any party has legal standing to challenge it.  Indeed, Biden has altered the "plan" since the original announcement to exacerbate the standing issue for possible challengers.  At last word, the estimated cost of the plan was $400 billion.

In Ukraine, The Democrats Have Locked Us Into A Pointless, Dangerous War.  This war should have ended months ago.  It was simply a matter of allowing Ukraine to stay out of NATO.  Given that option or the continuing devastation of their country, it seems clear which way the Ukrainians would have gone.  If pressure wasn't brought to bear from outside, the whole crisis would probably be a fading memory.  Now, however, we'll continue to funnel billions of tax-payer dollars into a military operation that has no legitimate justification in terms of American interests and no clearly defined resolution other than, perhaps, ousting Putin.  Will he allow that to happen before using every weapon at his disposal?  It seems unlikely. [...] Joe Biden says we will support Ukraine for "as long as it takes."  As long as it takes to do what?  What is the objective?

Americans Shell Out Or Shiver While Biden Ships Our Energy Off To Europe.  A trend is emerging in the Biden administration's foreign policy, a perpetual obsession with supporting Europe above and even at the expense of U.S. needs at home.  In response to attacks on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline system, Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the situation in Europe a "tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy."  Blinken went on to tout the ability of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) producers to meet heightened European demand, conveniently forgetting it was the Biden administration's executive actions that stifled production capacity within its first 100 days in office.  Careful, Mr. Secretary, with too much premature boasting.  Blinken's naïve comments, practically salivating at the idea of saving Europe, indicate just how much the Biden administration does not want the war in Ukraine to end.  The conflict has become the administration's sacred cow, allowing it to cover up domestic political blunders and receive heaps of praise from European elites, perhaps the toughest crowd globally for the U.S. post-Trump.  What goes unsaid is that all this European love comes at the expense of the interests and bank account balances of American households.

A conservative group just asked the Supreme Court to block Biden's student-loan forgiveness.  A conservative taxpayers group wants President Joe Biden's student-loan forgiveness plan blocked as soon as possible — and it's taking matters to the Supreme Court.  The Brown County Taxpayers Association in Wisconsin filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking to temporarily pause Biden's student-debt relief plan before Sunday, when the group expects the administration to start officially canceling borrowers' debt.  The conservative group, represented by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), initially filed a lawsuit against the debt relief on October 4, arguing that it has an "improper racial motive" by seeking to help Black borrowers and advance racial equity.  It said Biden exceeded his constitutional power by enacting the loan relief without congressional approval.  Two days later, a federal judge tossed out the lawsuit.  While that decision is being appealed, the group is now escalating the issue to the Supreme Court in an effort to block Biden's plan from taking effect.

Biden's Closing Moves.  President Biden's handlers seem to me not to have chosen well so far.  The Biden economy inflicts pain on a daily basis.  What have they got for that?  They served up the Inflation Reduction Act.  In other words, they have nothing to mitigate the inflation they ignited.  On the contrary, they have more kindling for the fire.  And they count on their ability to play on the stupidity of voters abetted by their media adjunct.  Democrats haven't done much bragging about the IRA on the campaign trail.  One can reasonably infer that, insofar as it was enacted to serve their immediate political needs, it has proved a bust.

Eight things that killed the Democrat Party.  The old Democrat Party is gone.  In its place is a radical Libertine Party, full of itself and full of radical sexual, cultural, and economic ideas that have all but killed their chances of ever getting legitimately elected again.

Pritzker Democrats and the Safe-T Act, Releasing Violent Criminals Upon the People and Pretending There is No Cost.  Most Americans are workers.  They're not afraid of hard work.  And they believe in being fair.  It was unfair to deny fellow Americans a seat at a lunch counter based on the color of their skin.  The unfairness of such racism compelled Americans to support civil rights.  And now, even those who haven't studied the Constitution or criminal law, there is basic fairness in the idea that all Americans when charged with crime, have the right to bail.  I don't know who doesn't support this.  I support it.  I don't want to live in a country where people are charged and hauled off without a chance for bail.  But what Pritzker and the Democrats have done with their SAFE-T ACT is a perversion of fairness.  They use guilt and the fear of being called a racist to push it down the people's throats.

Virginia Democrat Lawmaker Backs Down From Bill That Would've Made It a Crime for Parents Not to Affirm LGBT Child.  A Democrat Virginia state delegate has backed down from introducing a bill to expand the definition of child abuse to include inflicting "physical or mental injury" on children due to their gender identity or sexual orientation.  In her interview with local ABC7 on Thursday, Del.  Elizabeth Guzman (D-Prince William) said parents who didn't affirm their children's choice of gender identity could incur Child Protective Services (CPS) charges that might cause harm to the parents' employment.  She added that she wanted to do this to counter the transgender student policy recently released by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).  The draft policy requires public schools to acquire written parental consent before treating a student as a different gender.

The Democrats are responsible for the hardships faced by citizens.  Inflation is at a 40-year high making essential commodities expensive.  Even the price of candy reached its highest recorded mark which will impact Halloween celebrations.  The price of gasoline continues to rise.  The border is open causing over 4.9 million migrant to enter the US since Biden took over, and the smuggling of illicit narcotics is resulting in numerous drug overdose deaths.  The rate of violent crimes in the U.S. is rising while the murder rate spiked by 30%, the highest increase since record-keeping began in 1960.  Democrats are placing restrictions on firearms, which are the only affordable means of defense for citizens.  The Democrats were responsible for the lockdowns that infringe upon the right of movement and the right to earn a living.  The Democrats impose vaccine mandates that eliminate the right of choice.  The Democrats desperately want to change the topic.  Hence the focus on the 'insurrection'.  The goal of the January 6th committee was never to find facts, it was instead to persecute their main political opponent, Donald Trump.

Wasn't Legalizing Pot Supposed To Reduce Crime?  [A]nyone pushing for legalized marijuana should look at what's going on in California before cheering this on.  That state, as have several others, legalized marijuana on the promise that it would reduce crime, improve public health, increase traffic safety, and stimulate the economy.  Instead of wasting time prosecuting people for possession or for selling pot, states could capture a new revenue source by taxing it.  Legalization would also mean that states could regulate it, presumably making the marijuana safer and free of adulterants.  So far, 19 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for nonmedical use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Americans Must Permanently Marginalize the Perpetual Adolescents of the American Left.  Currently in the United States, less than 8% of Americans identify as very liberal or essentially Marxist and another 11% identify as liberal.  Yet this small subset (19%) of Americans dominates the culture, entertainment, education, the federal bureaucracy and most importantly, the Democrat party.  In November of 2022, the 81% of Americans who do not identify with the left must begin the process of permanently defeating the radical left and their fatuous acolytes if the nation is avoid the precipice toward which it is headed.  The United States must not be destroyed by the American Marxists and their attendant gaggle of egotistical and perpetual adolescents; therefore, the counter strategy is to denigrate these buffoons by never missing an opportunity to call them out, and above all by ignoring their infantile tactics as they have no weapon other than words and idle threats.  In other words, treat them as the adolescents they are.

Summers: We Can't Have 'Strategy of Total Hostility to Fossil Fuels' That We've Had.  During an interview aired on Friday's broadcast of Bloomberg's "Wall Street Week," Harvard Professor, economist, Director of the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama, and Treasury Secretary under President Bill Clinton Larry Summers reacted to OPEC+'s production cut by stating that "we made a mistake by canceling the Keystone pipeline.  We made a mistake by slowing down all kinds of permitting activity.  We made a mistake by being hostile as a country to natural gas."

Former Obama Adviser Demolishes Joe Biden's Energy Moves With Simple Truth.  Gas prices are starting to creep up again.  Despite Joe Biden going hat in hand to Saudi Arabia to beg for more oil production, OPEC gave him the finger and announced that they would be cutting production by two million barrels a day.  Joe's response?  He's going to continue to empty the Strategic Petroleum Reserve by 10 million barrels when it's already at dangerously low levels and pretend like that's doing something besides robbing our security for the future.  He's also canceling sanctions on the dictatorial state of Venezuela (who cares about human rights?) so that they can pump more and give some to us.

November Surprise?  We are barreling into an election that will determine the composition of Congress.  There is much chatter about whether this election will be allowed to happen.  Signs and portents point to a grievous loss of power for the Party of Chaos.  Power is all they care about — certainly not the public interest or the common good — and a particular sort of power:  the power to coerce, persecute, and punish.  It is obvious in everything they do, from the FBI swat-team home invasions of select opponents and the gross mistreatment of the January 6 defendants, to the craven censoring of public speech, to the imposition of medical tyranny and the deadly fraud of Covid shots, to the degenerate insults of their race-and-gender hustles, to their assault on the value of our money, to their sabotage of the oil-and-gas industries, to their treasonous abandonment of border control, to the deliberate perversion of policing and public order, to their promulgation of a faithless and unnecessary war, sharply against our national interests, in faraway Ukraine.

OPEC Humiliates Biden While the UK Increases Domestic Oil Production.  It hasn't been a good week for Joe Biden. [...] OPEC+ announced that it would be cutting oil production in the weeks leading up to the 2022 midterm elections, despite his repeated pleas for them to boost production.  It was the latest in a long line of humiliations for Joe Biden — and, of course, entirely his own doing.  He's the one who put the brakes on domestic oil production and drilling, outsourcing our energy to foreign nations — including our enemies.  Now, gas prices are going to shoot up just before the midterm elections because of Biden's war on domestic energy.  For sure, increasing domestic energy production would go a long way toward fixing this problem, but Biden either hasn't figured that out yet or just doesn't care.

A massive indictment of the Democrat party.  The U.S. Constitution, by limiting federal power, is designed to protect the individual citizen from external coercion. [...] By supporting big government at the expense of the individual, Democrats threaten to transform America into a totalitarian nightmare.  President Biden has declared that the "most lethal elements" in our society are political conservatives.  In true Stalinist fashion, the DoJ, the FBI, and the media are being weaponized to go after Biden's political opponents.  Armed FBI agents raided the homes of Roger Stone, James O'Keefe, Paul Manafort, and dozens of other Trump-supporters, to say nothing of the raid on Mar-a-Lago.  "The FBI is now an organization solely focused on destroying the domestic enemies of the Democratic Party," said radio host Jesse Kelly.  The implication is that if you distrust Biden's government, you are considered a terrorist and must be hunted down.  Democrats will not hesitate to deprive you of your basic rights if it suits their purpose.  In their war on free speech, Democrats have attempted to silence anyone who denies global warming, criticizes Islamic terrorism, advocates a stronger military, or questions the validity of the 2020 election.

One Vote Over the Line.  Congratulations, potheads.  Once again, your friends the ultra-liberal Democrats have lived up to their reputation as primo vote-buyers with Joe Biden's in-flight, Air Force One order to liberate you from your previous criminal acts.  I'm talking about his pardoning of those of you who have been convicted of federal drug charges for possession and use of cannabis, marijuana, weed, ganja, Mary Jane and all those other code words you used to describe your 'cool' unplugged habit.  Somewhere parties are being planned by ponytailed aging hippies and drug pushers who see this as but the first step in a journey to legalize all drugs for public use.  Flags emblazoned with the green cannabis leaf are going up as Cheech and Chong roll their joints for a parade down Main Streets all over the country.  But wait! There's one caveat.  This pardon only covers those marijuanians who were prosecuted under federal laws and does not include those convicted by state courts.

Biden administration demands Alabama embrace genderless schools or else, but we aren't giving in.  Undeterred by repeated losses, the Biden administration's war on red states and our "Neanderthal thinking" rages on.  This month, my colleagues and I are fighting Biden and his comrades at the United States Department of Agriculture in court to protect the right of states to run their public schools as they see fit.  This time, the fight isn't over curriculum or masking — it's whether states still possess the paltry authority to require boys to use the boys' bathroom at school.  The United States Constitution leaves no doubt as to the states' broad authority over their own public schools, but the Biden administration supposes that everything — even schoolchildren — has a price.

The Democrats Wrecked My Retirement.  On Day One, Biden cut the legs out from under American energy independence.  Oil, gasoline, and natural gas prices skyrocketed.  Why did the administration do this?  Because they think it's cool and woke to be Green.  The Squad likes Green, and the administration wants to be "in" with that ilk and with the extreme voters who support that.  Green energy and renewables can't come close to supporting our energy needs and won't for the foreseeable future.  Remember, Biden, Pelosi, Kerry, Obama, Gore, etc., etc. — none of them lives by Green rules.  But they expect you to.  All I know is, now that I'm a retiree, gasoline has gone from $2.11/gallon to $3.76/gallon.  And it'll be back over $4.00/gallon shortly, as soon as Biden's game-playing with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve runs out of tricks.

Letting marijuana offenders off isn't going to make us any safer.  A day after the FBI released its yearly crime data showing that murder rose yet another 4% in 2021 after rising almost 30% in 2020, President Joe Biden announced that he is pardoning everyone convicted of marijuana possession.  Rampant crime has been a major focus of Republican campaign advertisements against Democrats this election year, and Democrats deserve every single attack.  Across the country, Democrats have been defunding police departments, decriminalizing offenses like bus fare jumping, and supporting prosecutors that refuse to prosecute gun possession and other misdemeanors.

Joe Biden Pardons Thousands Convicted of Federal Marijuana Possession.  President Joe Biden announced Thursday his decision to pardon some federal marijuana offenses as part of his effort to satisfy criminal justice and drug policy activists.  "As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana," Biden said in a statement released by the White House, noting that marijuana crimes had "upended too many lives."  Biden said he would pardon all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, directing his attorney general to set up a system to pardon all eligible individuals.

Biden Administration's Manipulated Energy Policy Demonstrates Ignorance of History.  Consumed, as they have been, with the work of pushing revisionist woke ideology in the schools, it seems the Left missed the lesson that those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.  They've learned nothing from the past, not even the recent past.  Yet here we are, looking at the possibility we could repeat the same mistakes Europe made in the late 90s and early 2000s when they failed to realize the real motivations behind the green energy propaganda they were being spoon fed as truth.  Back in the early 2000s, Russia did a phenomenal job with a disinformation campaign pushing anti-fracking in Europe.  We know this because NATO admitted that this "green energy" advocacy was funded by the very people who stood to gain from the enacted policies: [...]

Some Helpful Ideas For Biden's Impeachment.  In his conduct while president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. has shown a habitual contempt for the rule of law, on numerous occasions willfully violating his constitutional oath by corrupting and manipulating the power of the executive branch. [...] Biden again knowingly subverted the will of Congress when he transferred loan payments for millions of affluent students to taxpayers in hopes of affecting the 2022 midterms.  The president does not possess the statutory power to "forgive" or "cancel" loans.  Just ask congressional leaders like Nancy Pelosi, who correctly noted that "[p]eople think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness — he does not."  He did it anyway.  Unilaterally.  The president used the emergency powers found in the HEROES Act, passed after 9/11 to help U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, to justify his decree.  We know that Biden cynically exploited the bill, because, by his own recent admission on "60 Minutes," he concedes there is no emergency.

Why some polls show a dead heat for a generic ballot.  The Afghanistan withdrawal was perhaps the most serious foreign policy mistake in U.S. history.  It left the Taliban billions of dollars of state-of-the-art military equipment and the Bagram air base which is in spitting distance from China.  Joe Biden's ill-conceived spending kicked off the inflation that is currently sullying the lives of millions of Americans.  Drunk with power, Biden gleefully imposed mask and vaccine mandates on millions of Americans — law enforcement, military, federal employees, etc.  Those who were wisely skeptical and refused the experimental jab lost their jobs.  As it turns out, they were the smart ones; the vaccines were ineffective and have caused countless deaths and vaccine injuries far more devastating than COVID.  The mortality rate among young people is up by forty percent.  Biden gleefully put an end to our energy independence that President Trump had won.  He cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada and ended drilling on most federal lands.  He has drained our strategic oil reserves at a most inopportune time.  This can only be a purposeful plan to destroy America as founded.

Hunger In America: Why Hasn't It Already Been Ended?  As you may know, the Biden Administration is planning to hold its big "White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health" this coming Wednesday, September 28.  Apparently, we are to believe that "hunger" is and remains a significant problem today in the United States. [...] But wait a minute — hasn't hunger in the United States already been ended?  I seem to remember multiple prior government promises to end hunger in America, each of them followed by massive funding, and/or increases in prior already-massive levels of funding to achieve the goal.  Are we only now learning that none of these prior efforts worked?  If not, that would represent a huge failure of the government bureaucracies that had been charged with dealing with and solving this problem.  Those same bureaucracies are still in place today, spending tens and even hundreds of billions of dollars annually and, if we are to believe President Biden, failing miserably in their prime responsibility of ending hunger.  Shouldn't those bureaucracies be held accountable for that failure?

Biden says White House has secured $8 billion in public and private sector funding to help end hunger in the U.S. by 2030.  President Joe Biden's administration secured $8 billion in commitments from public and private entities to end hunger in the United States by 2030, announcing them Wednesday ahead of the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.  Participants include grocery stores like Hy-Vee, Meijer and Publix, tech and media companies including Google, Warner Bros.  Discovery and Doordash and familiar brands like Chobani.  'We're announcing over $8 billion in commmitments from over 100 different organizations to help reach our goals,' Biden said as he opened up the conference Wednesday morning.

The Editor says...
Nobody is ever going to eliminate hunger or poverty.  Look carefully, and you'll see they're spending billions of dollars to "help end hunger in the U.S."  You can do that much every time you eat lunch.  The Democrats are hoping you don't notice the difference.  They're just re-distributing money.

Pacific Legal Foundation sues to block Biden's student debt cancellation effort.  A libertarian group of attorneys based in Sacramento filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden's plan for student debt cancellation on Tuesday, calling it an illegal overreach that would increase state tax burdens for some Americans who get their debt forgiven.  The lawsuit, believed to be the first targeting Biden's plan, was filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a Sacramento law firm.  It was filed in federal court in Indiana, one of several states that plan to tax any student debt canceled by Biden's plan.  "Congress did not authorize the executive branch to unilaterally cancel student debt," said Caleb Kruckenberg, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation.

56 GOP Members Beg Their Colleagues To Do Anything To Stop Biden's Destructive Agenda.  Fifty-six congressional Republicans are urging their colleagues in the House and Senate to vote against a wasteful, stopgap spending measure that would fund the federal government — and a number of Democrats' wasteful wish-list items — through the middle of December.  In a letter sent to his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives, Texas Rep. Chip Roy explained how Congress's current spending habits are "fueling rampant inflation and funding the Biden administration's radical agenda," which includes "empowering authoritarian bureaucrats at agencies like the IRS and FBI, implementing open-border policies that are threatening [American] communities, imposing COVID-19 mandates that shut down schools," and "forcing [U.S.] military servicemembers out of their jobs, and advancing self-destructive energy policies."

Biden's plan to end U.S. hunger by 2030 and tackle obesity: Monthly benefits for Americans to buy food.  The Biden administration is laying out its plan to meet an ambitious goal of ending hunger in the U.S. by 2030, including expanding monthly benefits that help low-income Americans buy food.  The administration, in a plan released Tuesday, is also seeking to increase healthy eating and physical activity so that fewer people are afflicted with diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other diet-related diseases.  It said it would work to expand Medicaid and Medicare access to obesity counseling and nutrition.

Wasn't the "War on Poverty" supposed to have ended hunger in the 1960's?
Biden Plans To 'End Hunger' In The US Through The Power Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion.  The Biden administration is working to end hunger and "diet-related diseases" by hiring more minority nutritionists, according to a White House plan released Monday [9/26/2022].  The administration says that hiring more non-white registered dietitian nutritionists will help minority communities that experience higher rates of "food insecurity," obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.  The Health Resources and Services Administration will begin collaborating with Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities in 2023 to recruit and train a diverse crop of nutrition experts as part of the White House's plan. "A more diverse health care workforce would better serve communities of color, which suffer from higher rates of food insecurity and diet-related disease," the memo states. "Patients are less likely to seek care or share information if they perceive ethnic or social differences with their health care providers."

The Editor says...
Of course!  The whole hunger problem is that there aren't enough non-white nutritionists.  Imagine all the people who have starved because their nutritionists were white!  Oh, if only the whole country was non-white, every problem would disappear.  Wait — isn't that what they used to say in Zimbabwe?  How's that working out?

Dems Stuffed Billions In Reparations For Black Farmers In 'Inflation Reduction Act'.  The Democrats' massive climate spending and tax bill gave the Department of Agriculture (USDA) $2.2 billion in loans to pay farmers, many of whom are black, who have previously been denied USDA loans due to discrimination.  The provision, which was backed by Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, is intended to provide financial assistance to farmers, ranchers or forest landowners that the department determines to have experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs before Jan. 1. 2021, according to the bill's text.  Although the funding could go to any farmer that the government has discriminated against, such as white women or members of the LGBTQ community, the money is primarily intended to rectify the historic denial of loans to black farmers, accordingto The Wall Street Journal.  Another of the bill's provisions will allocate $3.1 [sic] to help farmers of any race who are facing financial hardship and also have a direct or guaranteed loan with the USDA.

A Congress full of contempt for the American people.  Since inflation is currently the major issue for the American people, the Democrat Congress, with much fanfare and the usual self-congratulation, passed the "Inflation Reduction Act."  Since, however, one is here talking about Congress, one should not assume that anything is what it is claimed to be.  No sooner was the bill passed than former Secretary of State and current "climate envoy" John Kerry, one of the D-Mass bunch, who purchased his massive seven bedroom carbon footprint mansion in the fake liberal "sanctuary destination" of Martha's Vineyard in 2017, slipped up and told the truth to the International Energy Agency's Global Clean Energy Action Forum:  "I'm not sure how much it has to do with inflation, but that's O.K." [...] The reason this deception is "O.K." with Kerry is that the real purpose of the bill is to spend 375 billion taxpayer dollars on the Left's "green new deal" agenda to "tackle" climate change and double the number of IRS agents to harass the remaining fraction of Americans that still have a job or small business.

Biden's student debt forgiveness will cost taxpayers $400 billion over 10 years, non-partisan Congress office says.  Joe Biden's student loan relief plan could cost the country $400 billion over the next decade as the administration prepares to unveil next steps for borrowers to apply for forgiveness as early as next month.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted in a letter to the Senate and House Labor committees noting the high cost of the president's relief plan, as well as reporting the plan would cause outstanding student loans to increase by $20 billion.  In August, Biden announced his plan to cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making less than $125,000 individually and $250,000 jointly.  That forgiveness would rise to $20,000 for those with Pell Grants.

Running the World into the Ground.  Who can claim to be better off under Biden?  The economy has tanked, inflation is at a 40-year high, people can't afford to heat their homes or fill up their cars with gas, crime statistics are off the charts, and confidence in America is at an all-time low.  Biden's open-border policy, which is opposed by a majority of American citizens, is leading to social unrest and economic chaos.  A country without a functioning border is not a country, yet that is where Biden has taken us.  America is marching toward totalitarianism as Biden empowers the DoJ and FBI to go after his political opponents, i.e., at least half of the population.  His worst offense, however, is following the climate dictates of the World Economic Forum.  Biden is torpedoing the robust U.S. economy in service of a totally false assumption — that human beings are able to change the planet's climate.  He is raising taxes so that billions of your dollars can be wasted on ridiculous anti-fossil fuel projects.  Biden has declared war on the energy industry in the name of global warming.  He wants us to believe that oil, gas, and coal are killing the planet.

Check Out What New Dem Legislation Offers Military Members To Get Abortions.  Some House Democrats have joined forces to introduce a new piece of legislation that would require the United States military to provide a leave of absence for service members to get abortions, which also includes payment for travel expenses for those who would need to go out of state to receive the procedure.  According to the Daily Wire, the legislation is called the "Access to Reproductive Care for Service Members Act," which was introduced as a response to requests for abortions that were being made by individuals within the armed forces after the Supreme Court overturned the sick and twisted Roe v. Wade decision this past June.

Bad news for Dems: The border crisis is the new Roe in Google searches.  My, how quickly the plot changes with just a single flight to Martha's Vineyard!  To be fair, the media's interest in the border crisis began spiking upward before then, but not much before Ron DeSantis sent 50 illegal immigrants to the wealthy Massachusetts enclave.  When buses began arriving in "sanctuary cities" like New York City and Washington DC, thanks to the efforts of DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and Doug Ducey, the media went into full freak-out mode.  They excoriated these Republican governors endlessly, and still do.  And you can guess what that did for public interest in the border crisis.  Axios reports this morning that it has now eclipsed interest in abortion, a topic that mainstream media spent the summer flogging for the midterms, as well as the Mar-a-Lago kerfuffle.

Are Democrats Deliberately Choosing Impaired Candidates?  Once could be excused.  Twice is suspicious.  Three times seems like a strategy.  Are Democrats choosing infirm, intellectually challenged, feeble people to run for office so that they can be easily manipulated?  Joe Biden was and is clearly infirm, physically, psychologically, and cognitively.  John Fetterman is also clearly infirm due to two things: He has had a recent stroke which seems to have left him cognitively impaired, and he also has a rather prominent swelling on the back of his neck, which could be the sign of several very serious conditions.  Kamala Harris is intellectually suspect, linguistically incontinent, and verbally incoherent.  Why are these people being chosen by the Democrat Party for the highest offices?  My observation leads me places I would rather not go.

The war isn't against 'fossil fuels' but rather the people.  Democrats in Congress just passed a slush fund — also known as the Inflation Reduction Act — which gives massive amounts of money to their political interests who claim they can control temperatures, sea levels, and storm activity forever.  Politicians are waging a war against the people, which are made manifest in their attempts to force everyone to get rid of their cars, trucks, lawn mowers, and everything else powered by gas combustion engines, based on the unproven theory that they cause rising temperatures, storms, floods, and droughts.  They want the poor and middle class to be forced to buy inefficient, impractical, and unaffordable options, or go without.  What they don't put limits on are private jets, yachts, or the number and size of mansions that emit massive amounts of carbon compared to the rest of us. [...] What we never see in testimonies, articles, and news programs is any direct correlation between crude oil consumption, coal consumption, methane emissions, CO2 content and temperatures because there is none.  The temperature has fluctuated the last 160 years cyclically and naturally as it always has.

As Biden Closes in on 100 Executive Orders, He's Costing Taxpayers an Astronomical Amount of Money.  Biden is a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat who's lived in the pretend world of D.C. politics for nearly 50 years, has no concept of life in the real world, has never seen a wealth redistribution scam he didn't wholeheartedly embrace, and has become a multimillionaire in the process.  It doesn't take a proverbial rocket scientist to figure out that disastrous combination.

Democrats' push for guaranteed income is a slap in the face to working people.  Democratic politicians across the United States are pushing for guaranteed monthly cash handouts to the poor.  No strings attached.  No work required.  Taxpayers foot the bill.  This scheme — already being rolled out in Los Angeles, Chicago, Providence, Denver and numerous other cities — needs to be stopped.  It's turning people who work and pay taxes into suckers.  Los Angeles County will soon begin handing out $1,000 a month to random applicants.  The Los Angeles Times editorial board applauds the unconditional nature of the payments, naïvely claiming the recipients "know far better than the government what their challenges and priorities are."  Translation:  It's okay to forgo work and have children you can't support.

Six States Allow Abortions Up to Birth But Protect Bald Eagle Eggs.  A host of land, sea, and freshwater animals are more protected under American laws than unborn babies in some states across the nation.  In at least six states, an unborn child legally may be killed up until the moment of birth.  In these same states, it is illegal to kill or even transport the eggs of a bald or golden eagle without a proper permit.  Under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, it is illegal to:  ["]take, molest or disturb, possess, sell, purchase, barter, offer to sell, purchase or barter, transport, export or import, at any time or in any manner any bald eagle commonly known as the American eagle or any golden eagle, alive or dead, or any part, nest, or egg thereof of the foregoing eagles.["]  The law defines "take" as kill or capture.  If a man or woman were caught carrying an egg of a bald eagle without a proper permit to do so, he or she could face up to a $5,000 fine or a year in prison, or both.

Summers: "Insane" that Biden's blocking pipelines for oil transport.  Is there anything sane about Joe Biden's energy policies?  For that matter, was there anything sane about Barack Obama's energy policies while Larry Summers served as Obama's National Economic Council chair?  Answer:  not really.  We got continually lectured during that administration that we couldn't drill our way to energy independence, an argument proven false almost as soon as Donald Trump took office.  Biden and his team haven't made that argument, at least not explicitly, but they have made it very clear that they have no intention of drilling more to re-acquire energy-independent status.  Even with that, however, Summer considers hostility to pipeline creation "kind of insane."  The oil still has to get transported, no?

MAGA's Real Crime?  Spotlighting Government Failure.  The midterm elections are only weeks away.  The Democrats are in complete control of the House, Senate, and presidency.  Donald Trump's name appears nowhere near a November ballot.  Yet the only things Democrats talk about are the former president and his "Make America Great Again" voters.  It is as if Joe Biden's and Nancy Pelosi's political troops have no interest in touting their successes in opening the Southern border to endless illegal immigration, promoting divisive lockdowns and "vaccine" mandates, passing a Green New Deal spending extravaganza, encouraging transgender drag queen shows for elementary-schoolers, emptying prisons of criminals, eliminating cash bail for felony arrests, leveraging Americans' pain at the gas pump to push them into expensive electric vehicles, or presiding over the highest rates of inflation in over forty years.

The Coming Outlawing of the Republican Party.  Republicans want to hold the majority and co-exist with Democrats, while Democrats, under the influence of the Left, want to eliminate Republicans.  This fundamental difference between the two sides was on display during Biden's fascist rant in Philadelphia where he denounced half the country as a threat to democracy.  And it would be a mistake to imagine that all the talk of a "threat to democracy" is mere rhetoric.  Another basic difference between the two parties is that Republicans are politically unserious.  Politicians, pundits and influencers spend so much time virtue signaling that they think words don't matter.  Democrats are quite serious.  The Republican refusal to take them at their word, to believe that their histrionic rhetoric represents a serious policy agenda, is why things are so bad.  Surely, Beltway GOP figures will reassure, Democrats aren't serious about adding states, Supreme Court seats, a trillion dollar coin or using unlimited dictatorial executive authority.  But what if they are?

The DOJ Is Hiding Biden's Voter Registration Plan.  The Justice Department (DOJ) has refused to release its mandated strategic plan about ways to champion voter registration and participation, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.  President Joe Biden's March 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting required every federal agency head to submit a plan within 200 days outlining methods the agency could use to promote voter registration and participation.  A Federal District Court decided earlier in summer 2022 that the DOJ must release documents on this matter to the FGA by Sept. 8, but the department withheld the plan, citing executive privilege, and revealed heavily redacted versions of other documents, the FGA revealed.  FGA President and CEO Tarren Bragdon said Americans "deserve to know if the Biden Administration's unprecedented action is fair and non-partisan."  He argued the DOJ must reveal the documents to ensure fair elections.

Legislation Within the Biden Green New Deal, Inflation Reduction Act, Has Created a Domestic Carbon Trading Platform.  Deep inside the legislative language of the falsely titled "inflation reduction act", aka The Green New Deal legislative vehicle constructed by lobbyists and passed by congress, people are now starting to realize a carbon-trading system was created.  Ultimately, a carbon trading system has always been the holy grail of the people who run the western financial system and want to create mechanisms to control wealth by using the 'climate change' agenda.  A carbon trading system is a very lucrative financial transfer mechanism with a potential scale to dwarf the derivative, Wall Street betting, market.  Secondarily, such a market would cement the climate change energy policy making it very difficult to reverse.  The new creation as explained by the Wall Street Journal, holds similarities to the EPA ethanol program.

Now Biden's Trying to Redefine Pregnancy.  The actual purpose of the 1972 law known as Title IX was to prohibit sex-based discrimination in school sports and programs.  But now, the radical left is abusing Title IX to impose radical gender theory.  Much has been made of how Joe Biden seeks to redefine "sex" under Title IX to include gender identity.  Less attention has been paid to the fact that Biden's 700-page-long proposed rules changes also include redefining actual pregnancy, the Heritage Foundation found.  "The Biden administration wants to redefine pregnancy to include childbirth, lactation, and 'termination of pregnancy' — that is, abortion," explains Melanie Israel of the Daily Signal.  "The administration's three-pronged definition of pregnancy makes a notable departure from previous ones.  Under Title IX now, women are protected from discrimination if they get an abortion.  This means that with a doctor's note, women receive medical leave from class or a sports team to recover."

New Poll Spells Disaster For Dems Who Backed Student Loan Forgiveness.  A majority of voters are saying they are less likely to support candidates running for office if they favor the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, according to a Convention of States Action poll.  More than 55% of voters are "less likely" to back a candidate who is in favor of the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness plan, with about 31% saying they are "much more likely" to support those who backed the president's plan, according to a Convention of States' Action poll.  Among independent voters, 64.6% say they are "less likely" to choose candidates who back the forgiveness plan.  "We're seeing this reflected not just in the polling but on the ground as well with grassroots activists we talk to in every state," Convention of States President Mark Meckler said in a statement shared with Daily Caller News Foundation.  "Voters — particularly those must-win Independents — are appalled by Biden's plan and will respond at the ballot box.  This is looking like the sleeper issue that may have more impact in November than people suspect."

IL SAFE-T Act goes into effect 1 Jan: No cash bail and lots of other good stuff.  Chicago's Mayor Lori Lightfoot, while torquing off the suburbs by dumping bused-in illegal migrants on them, might be doing those migrants the biggest favor they've had yet.  She's getting them out of the city before Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's latest and greatest experiment in equitable justice becomes enforceable, and the city proper [gets bad]. [...] To their credit, Republicans in the statehouse are fighting this tooth and nail, asking law enforcement for input in an effort to force revisions, and outright calling for repeal in one instance.  Mayors around the state are absolutely apoplectic and with good reason.  "No cash bail" after a judge okays your release sounds... well, not great, but reasonable enough.  Until you hear the list of offenses that qualify for "no cash bail" consideration — [indeed], your jaw will hit the floor.  Listen up, as Mayor Keith Pekau of Orland Village elucidates:  [Video clip]

Ernst Bill Would Force Biden Admin to Set Thermostats in Solidarity With Californians.  Republican Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is pushing for the Biden administration to play by the rules it expects Americans to follow with a new bill aimed at turning up the heat — literally — in solidarity with residents in California who have been plagued by energy shortages and the threat of rolling blackouts as a result of the left's so-called "green" energy policies.  "During a hot summer, liberal leaders told folks to set the AC to 78 degrees to compensate for failed Democratic policies," Sen. Ernst said of California's energy crisis that saw days of power shortages and power officials tell residents statewide to set their thermostats to 78 degrees or higher, avoid using large appliances, turn off unnecessary lights, and avoid charging their electric vehicles.  "Secretary of Energy Granholm praised the move, saying states like California are leading by example," Ernst reminded.

The Editor says...
[#1] There are 50 states.  They are "united" to a certain extent, but "solidarity" is not required by law.  [#2] California is going over a cliff, and their one-party tax-and-spend political system is ruining a once-great state.  That is not what "leading by example" means, in any positive way.

Inflation Rises After Joe Biden Signs 'Inflation Reduction Act' and Prepares White House Celebration.  The White House is planning a celebration of President Joe Biden's "Inflation Reduction Act" on Tuesday, even as consumer prices rose again in August, according to the latest numbers from the federal government.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index released Tuesday morning shows that inflation in August rose one-tenth of a percentage point from July and up 8.3 percent from the previous year.  Grocery prices continue rising fast, as prices rose 0.7 percent from July and 13.5 percent from the previous year.  Restaurant prices are up 0.9 percent from July[.]

"Sue And Settle': Biden Admin Agrees To Cancel Oil And Gas Drilling After Settling With Eco Activists.  The Biden administration will stop oil and gas drilling on more than 58,000 acres of federally-issued land after reaching a legal settlement with environmental activist groups on Sept. 6.  The Interior Department's (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agreed to halt drilling permits on 113 oil and gas leases across 58,617 acres of land in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, according to the settlement.  The DOI agreed to stop drilling after a coalition of environmental nonprofits led by WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the agency in January 2021.  "This is a sue and settle case," Paul Seby, a lawyer who specializes in environmental issues at Greenberg Traurig, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.  "It's an abuse of the system and is being used to advance the policy goals of the Biden administration at the expense of the law."

Biden Celebrates 'Inflation Reduction Act' as Market Plummets over August Inflation.  President Joe Biden celebrated the passage of the "Inflation Reduction Act" by hosting an event at the White House Tuesday, the same day the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a report showing inflation had continued to rise in August, causing markets to plummet.  "This bill cut costs for families.  Helped reduce inflation at the kitchen table, because that's what [people] look at — how much of their monthly bills they have to pay out for their necessities," Biden said in a speech delivered outside the White House, thanking West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin for voting for the bill.

Biden chooses unions and green energy boondoggles over free market.  As the Nov. 8 midterm elections approach, President Joe Biden and his minions will be traveling the country celebrating statism.  That is to say: ignoring what made the nation unique and great, capitalism and the freedom to contract.  Capitalism, free markets, and the consistent application of the rule of law are what brought prosperity to 97% of Americans.  Unfortunately, Biden wants to emulate the policies of Europe, a geography fast becoming irrelevant in the arena of geopolitics.  Last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen touted top-down industrial policy.  Does anyone remember Solyndra?

Would You Please Stop Being Stupid?  Think about it:  Democrats are supporting men participating in women's sports and being in girls' bathrooms.  Democrat district attorneys are releasing criminals without bond who go out and commit theft, murder, and rape.  Democrats are letting in tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and giving them thousands of dollars.  Democrats are causing the biggest rise in food prices and gas prices in 40 years.  Democrats are imposing censorship on television, the internet, in schools and businesses.  Democrats used the COVID farce to destroy people's livelihoods and destroy small businesses.  Democrats are forcing people to take defective vaccines that have killed many.  Democrats have turned television networks into propaganda outlets.  Democrats are conducting drag queen shows in schools and libraries.  And are Republican candidates forcefully bringing this up in ads?  Of course not!  That would be rude.  The prissy conservatives don't want to offend anybody.

End Of Renewables Craze Is Near.  The global energy crisis appears to have strengthened the resolve of Western political leaders to not just continue but accelerate the transition toward green energy.  Last month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation that aims to spend $370 billion on wind, solar, electric cars and other forms of green tech.  California legislators and regulators recently decided to spend $54 billion on clean tech, restrict oil and gas drilling, and ban the sale of internal combustion cars by 2035.  And the President of the European Commission affirmed yesterday the European Union's "massive investments in renewables" because "they are cheap, they are home-grown, they make us independent."  But appearances can be deceiving.  In truth, the energy crisis is rapidly exposing the limits of renewables and the need for fossil fuels.  Recognizing the political threat of high gasoline prices, Biden has released so much petroleum from the public's Strategic Petroleum Reserves that they are at their lowest level in nearly 30 years.  Six days after California regulators banned the sale of internal combustion engines, the state's grid operator urged residents to not charge their electric vehicles from 4 pm to 9 pm for fear of blackouts.  And European governments will spend over $50 billion this winter on new and refurbished coal and natural gas supplies and equipment.

Why Joe Biden can't change course on greenie madness.  In many ways, Joe Biden's presidency is a baffling one.  He's down in the polls, and his policies are disasters, but unlike, say, Bill Clinton, he can't change course, or moderate his direction, not even to save his presidency.  He's particularly rigid on some of these policies, such as the green agenda, even as the voters say "no" and the obvious political consequences of that are coming for him.  So what gives?  Is he simply too old to change?  That doesn't explain it, because he's been a political weathervane for the duration of his career. [...] Biden is a cash- and prestige-obsessed nobody of zero accomplishments and ideas, which makes him the perfect palimpsest for a foreign manipulator such as Wyss to get his hands on America and remake it his way.  His money animates the policy, and since he's got no obligation to the American people, he can be as rigid as he pleases.  Billionaires insist on value for their money, after all.  That's why Biden can't change course.

This is utterly delusional energy policy:
Janet Yellen: U.S. Must Look to 'Wind, Sun' for Energy, Not Oil and Gas.  U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday the United States must look to "the wind, sun, and other clean sources of energy" instead of relying on oil and gas.  Yellen's remarks came during a trip to Detroit, Michigan, where she boasted about the Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act.  "Our plan — powered by the Inflation Reduction Act — represents the largest investment in fighting climate change in our country's history," Yellen told the crowd.  "It will put us well on our way toward a future where we depend on the wind, sun, and other clean sources of energy."  "We will rid ourselves from our current dependence on fossil fuels and the whims of autocrats like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin," Yellen added.

The Editor says...
The U.S. under Donald Trump was not dependent on Russia, because we were utilizing our own petroleum resources to the maximum possible extent — or at least we were moving quickly in that direction.  Joe Biden has made domestic energy production far more difficult, in every way that he can, for no reason other than the political appeasement of environmental fruitcakes.

Are Democrats looking to provoke riots by arresting President Trump?  To try and head off a likely loss of the House of Representatives and prepare for the next presidential election, Democrats create situations which raise anxiety in citizens, and this increases the chances their candidate will prevail because voters know discord will then subside.  An example is Kathy Griffin's widely read statement:  "If you don't want a Civil War, vote for Democrats in November.  If you do want Civil War, vote Republican."  They make it very clear your life will only be peaceful if you keep Democrats in power, and they think that this is persuasive enough to tip elections. [...] In the past, Democrats fought a war inside the U.S., killing hundreds of thousands of Republican-backed Union soldiers in a grim civil war in order to keep humans as slaves.  Lately, legislation they filed shows they're for killing unborn babies right up until the moment before birth, or perhaps even after.  Most people would say owning slaves and killing babies is evil, so Democrats have shown what they were and are.

The Political Party That's Built On Lies.  The Democrats have to lie.  They have to accuse the other side of doing exactly what they're doing, of being the extremists that they themselves are.  They can't openly admit who they are nor the truth about their agenda.  Most Americans would not be comfortable voting for candidates whose objective is to establish a single-party regime across the country, and whose ideology is much closer to that of history's worst despots than the Founding Fathers' vision of freedom and independence.  The Democrats have a party that couldn't exist without being held up by a support structure of calculated fabrications.

Biden's DOJ embraces bias and anti-religious bigotry.  Do you believe a baker has the right not to bake cakes for same-sex weddings?  Do you believe church daycare programs have just as much of a right as other such programs to apply for state grants?  Do you think pregnancy centers should not be forced by the government to tell pregnant women where to get an abortion?  If you support the First Amendment rights of any of these entities, then President Joe Biden's Department of Justice believes you're a bigot unworthy of associating with — or at least that is the message the department sends by protecting a senior DOJ official who attacked the nation's leading legal advocate of religious liberty.  The DOJ Civil Division's assistant director of commercial litigation is Eric Bruskin.  Last week, Bruskin labeled a reputable organization, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a "hate group" and told a former colleague online, "Are these beliefs you hold?  If so then it's time we end our professional association."

The U.S. also needs a sane policy for immigration, law enforcement, energy production, and election security.
The U.S. Needs a Safe, Sane Energy Policy.  Western democracies are under assault by a Russia determined to bring the United States and its allies to their knees.  It is time our response was nuclear.  As in nuclear power.  Improvements in nuclear power have now reportedly made it a safer source of energy, providing an additional source of power free from the posturing blackmail of leaders such as Putin. [...] The French are not content to sit in the cold this winter.  In recognition that wind and solar cannot possibly replace lost Russian natural gas, their response has been to restart their nuclear reactors.  They seek a clean, reliable source of power that is indifferent to Putin's energy war on the West.  That is not to say nuclear will replace fossil fuels or its "green" alternatives, solar and wind.  Aircraft engines may one day run on hydrogen, but the scores of aircraft now in the air at any given hour will rely on fossil fuels for years to come.

The 'Inflation Reduction Act' [will] Increase Inflation and Impoverish Middle Class Americans.  The IRA [Inflation Reduction Act] is revolutionary in what it purports to do for the climate.  The only impact it will have on inflation is to increase it.  The IRA deliberately sets about impoverishing many Americans by increasing taxes "on everyone" and increasing tax audits at the same time as prices are skyrocketing.  Imposing steeper taxes at a time of steeper prices may not mean that much to the rich, but has the effect of a stealth double-tax that crushes especially middle- and working-class families, who now find themselves forced to choose between necessities such as food, gasoline or rent.  Reports state that 42% of Americans are struggling financially.

After $370 Billion Climate Spending Spree, Biden Charts 'Nationwide Shift Away From Oil'.  Less than one month after President Joe Biden approved nearly $400 billion in climate spending, the Democrat is plotting a "nationwide shift away from oil" through executive orders that could "effectively ban" internal combustion engine production.  In the next year, Biden is expected to unveil executive actions aimed at reducing vehicle and power plant emissions, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.  Those actions "have the potential to drive a nationwide shift away from oil and natural gas," according to the Chronicle.  Biden, for example, is weighing new emissions standards for vehicles made in the 2030s, and environmental activists are pushing the Democrat to "set a standard rigorous enough to effectively ban the production of internal combustion engines."  There's reason to believe the Biden administration could support such a policy.  After California banned the sale of new gas-powered cars as of 2035, Biden's energy secretary expressed support for the move and said the policy "could be" a "national model."

COVID Authoritarianism Paved the Way for Biden's Socialist Tyranny.  It seems as if the more Biden assumes the role of a dictator, the more inclined he is to proclaim himself democracy's "savior."  This kind of Napoleon complex is hardly unusual with Marxists.  Socialist regimes always arrive under the pretense of protecting the people, yet, as Lord Acton persistently warned, socialism remains "the worst enemy freedom has ever had to encounter."  White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said explicitly this last week that not agreeing with the majority "is an extreme way of thinking," while simultaneously accusing Trump-supporters of representing an "extremist threat to our democracy."  Anyone who doubts that majorities can be just as vicious as brutal dictators need only survey the aftermath of a torch and pitchfork mob.  Mob rule is democracy at its simplest and no friend to human liberty.  It is worth noting that after the elections of both President Donald Trump in 2016 and Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019, socialists, Antifa domestic terrorists, anti-Brexiteers, and other leftists took to the streets in huge mobs, clashing with police and chanting, "This is what democracy looks like."  Protest mobs have no illusions about what democracy means.

Biden Administration Plans to Ask Congress for Another $14 Billion For Ukraine.  This has become absurd.  According to an AP report, Joe Biden is planning to ask congress for an additional $13.7 billion for Ukraine within a budgetary request for $47 billion spending package.  According to the report the Ukraine spending request will be inside a package for additional COVID-19 spending, Monkeypox spending and other domestic relief.

Student Debt Relief: Reparations for Rich White People.  To reduce inflation, battle climate change, reduce gas prices, stem rising crime, and protect our southern border, President Joe Biden has forgiven $10,000 in federal student loans and extended $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients for borrowers making less than $125,000 a year.  A study by the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School found that "between 69% and 73% of debt forgiven accrues to households in the top 60% of income distribution" and the total cost could reach $1 trillion.  Even many Democrats are outraged.

These Back-Busting Americans Paid For College Themselves And Think You Should, Too.  Upon news that Joe Biden had decided to completely ignore U.S. laws to attempt to force taxpayers to assume the debts of people who chose to attend college, I reached out to Federalist writers for stories of how other Americans paid their own way.  Calling this particular pile of government handouts for the privileged "forgiveness" is just a way to try to hide the fact that it's fundamentally wrong and unfair.  As the Bible says, he who doesn't work shouldn't eat.  He who takes on obligations should pay them.  Taking something without paying for it is stealing.  Forcing other people to work so you can enjoy luxuries is called enslavement.

Long-term con: Obamacare was 'paid for' by nationalizing student loans.  It may be hard to recall these days when a Democratic White House proudly rejects any guiderails from things such as economics or the Constitution.  But back in the Obama years, they considered themselves the wonks.  And Obamacare was supposed to be the triumph of the wonks.  As the law aged, its rickety construction became clearer, which is why most of the top-tier Democratic presidential candidates in 2020 ran on replacing Obamacare.  Among other problems, the bill's "pay-fors," the revenue enhancements that would supposedly dampen the law's effects on the deficit and on inflation, all evaporated.  More specifically, Democrats repealed them, showing that they never really intended for the bill to reduce healthcare spending or pay for itself.

Biden's Teetering House of Cards.  On day one of his administration Biden put an end to the energy independence achieved under Trump.  He cancelled the Keystone Pipeline and cut off most new drilling and fracking on federal land.  That single action kicked off the highest inflation in forty years; our economy depends first and foremost on fuel.  Biden pretends that there is a climate crisis (there is not) but he will spend billions on green projects, billions that will end up in the pockets of grifters like all those companies who got millions from the Obama administration, companies like Solyndra.  The companies fail, the money disappears.  Biden has sent billions to Ukraine, the third most corrupt nation on the planet (Russia is number seven).  Now he wants to "forgive" (transfer the debt to citizen taxpayers) nearly a trillion dollars of student loans to buy votes.  This is monstrous and should cost him the votes of millions of Americans who will bear the cost of this irresponsible executive order.

Expect More Democrat Hail Marys.  It's pretty obvious to me that the Biden Student Loan Handout is a midterm Hail Mary.  With a 40 percent approval rating, why wouldn't the president throw some free stuff at the gender studies graduate vote?  What has he got to lose?  Notice that I said: "what has he got to lose."  I didn't say:  what has the average American got to lose by adding $300 billion to $1 trillion to the national debt?  It helps me understand how the Peronistas wrecked Argentina, and the Chávezistas wrecked Venezuela.  When your policies have wrecked the economy, why not double down, throw money at your supporters, and call your opponents names?

Writing Off Student Debt.  President Biden's plan to forgive student debt is clear:  most students will get a $10,000 debt reduction, while lower-income students will be eligible to double the amount (an element that went unmentioned inmost reports).  Biden's August giveaway adds half a trillion dollars to the federal government's debt deficit by some estimates.

The Editor says...
If you went to college, why do you have "lower income?"

Inflation Reduction Act won't reduce inflation or climate change.  Just 1 in 4 Americans believe that President Joe Biden's so-called Inflation Reduction Act will actually reduce inflation, while 71% say the law will either have no impact or make things worse.  The majority is right to be skeptical.  The nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model found that the bill's effect on inflation will be "statistically indistinguishable from zero."  This is not surprising.  The real purpose of the bill is not to reduce inflation but to reduce climate change.  Fully 85% of the law's spending goes toward climate and clean energy.  So, what will the bill's effect be on the climate?  Answer:  Statistically indistinguishable from zero.

Conventional Wisdom is an Oxymoron.  This week's fairy tale, now that the raid on Mar-a-Lago seems to have fizzled — except as further evidence of DoJ and FBI overreach and incompetence — is that the president has legal authority to forgive a substantial amount of school loans.  In fact, long before the courts rule on this — and I believe they will find it an unconstitutional expenditure never authorized by Congress — the ill-considered plan will die aborning.  No administration calculation of the cost was made.  While the figure of $500 million has been bandied about, a trillion dollars is more like it.  And almost all of it this fiscal year. [...] The editors of both the lefty Washington Post and Newsweek have opposed it and several vulnerable Democratic congressmen are walking away from it.  Worse, the administration of this is in the hands of the Department of Education, which lacks the underlying income information from applicants, the manpower, or expertise to handle it.

Student loan transferral ought to be the nail in the coffin for Democrats.  President Biden's decision to buy the votes of people who accumulated student debt they cannot pay off — the cost of which could range from $500 billion to one trillion when the country is already over $30 trillion in debt with sky high inflation — is a compelling argument to "Use Your Head and Vote Red" this November.  Why should you pay for this agenda if you are among the following people?
  •   People who never went to college
  •   People whose tuition was paid by the Armed Forces for service to our country
  •   People who worked their way through college and did not incur debt
  •   People who have already paid off their college debt
  •   People whose parents were willing and able to pay for their college, perhaps because they chose inexpensive community colleges for their freshman and sophomore years, and in-state universities for their junior and senior years, over pricey private schools

Is there a more subtle reason behind the student loan money grab?  All honest people understand that the Democrats' plan to pay off $10,000 in student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 is incredibly corrupt.  However, aside from the obvious vote buying, one reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, suggested to me that there's a more nefarious purpose to all this.  I thought he had a point, so I'm sharing it with you. [...] ["]The Left's plan does not depend on the current scheme.  It's a red herring.  Their goal is to rev up their clueless base, pit people against one another, enflame class warfare, and then come to the rescue to put out the flames with their free college goal.["]

Biden's Student Loan Bailout.  A new model just published by the prestigious — and non-partisan — Penn-Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania shows that rather than the $300 billion number being thrown around by Democrats as the cost of the student debt bailout plan, the true cost is at least $519 billion for debt cancellation alone.  And there are other factors to consider, making the total cost of the plan at least $605 billion and perhaps as much as $1 trillion.

Bill Gates Investment Fund Cheers Biden's $350 Billion in Green Pork.  As reported exclusively by Frontpage Magazine, Americans can expect to see their chances of an IRS audit increase fourfold under the Biden-Manchin 'Inflation Increase Act'.  The massive upsurge in IRS enforcement was justified as a way to pay for the massive spending in the bill.  Much of that spending consists of green pork for Democrat donors and special interests.  While the media had spent the past month persuading Americans that they will see economic benefits from the green pork, now that the bill was passed through lies and dirty tricks, we know that it offers as much as $350 billion in loans, subsidies and guarantees to green companies.  Overseeing the Department of Energy's loan program is Jigar Shah:  the founder of SunEdison.  SunEdison was one of the biggest of Obama's subsidized green energy bankruptcies, receiving $1.5 billion in government grants and subsidies.  While Solyndra's bankruptcy, after receiving a $535 million loan from the Obama administration, is infamous, there were quite a few disasters.  The $350 billion that the 'Inflation Increase Act' is playing with will be far worse.

"Doctor" Jill's trillion-dollar gift to the educational-industrial complex.  First Lady Jill Biden asked to be called "Doctor" after her husband was elected president.  She's not actually a doctor.  She's also not nearly as smart as one and so she thought the title made her look like she was, at least to stupid people who don't know better. [...] Since then, she's been lying low.  Most of her public displays of authority are limited to whispering in her husband's ear to tell him where he is and who he is, and unsuccessfully instructing him not to talk.  But she scored big this week behind the scenes.  She whispered in Joe's ear that he should cancel billions in loans that students voluntarily took on to pay six-figure tuition bills to the education establishment.  The published cost of this giveaway is $300 billion, but most objective observers think the real cost is more like triple that.  The people whose debt is being cancelled are, naturally, people with college degrees.  A large proportion of them have Master's degrees.  These are not the downtrodden of society; these are the privileged.  They are people who either have excellent earnings prospects or used the money loaned to them to voluntarily purchase worthless degrees.  Either way, they don't deserve this freebie.  But I'm sure they'll take it.

Parents wonder: Does Biden's student debt handout include college loans taken out by moms and dads?  After President Biden announced his student loan handout plan on Wednesday, August 24, 2022, many parents immediately wondered about the status of the college loans they took out in their own names on behalf of their children.  Many moms and dads took out Parent PLUS loans, the federal loans available to parents of undergraduate students to handle college expenses not covered by financial aid.  Currently, at least 3.4 million Parent PLUS borrowers owe at least $87 billion, according to the Brookings Institute.

Axios: Biden and team stunningly unprepared for their trillion-dollar Academia bailout.  After nearly two years of talking about it, Joe Biden finally rolled out his student-loan forgiveness plan ... and apparently nothing else.  According to Axios, the White House didn't bother to gather the data on eligibility, didn't create a system which would check it, and has no system yet in place to fully complete the process.  Did Biden drop the ball again — or did he never expect to be allowed to run with it in the first place? [...] I mean, why not wing it?  The executive-order-driven policy will only cost between $605 billion and $1 trillion, most of which will land in this fiscal year while inflation's already raging.  No biggie!  More seriously, this looks like a lot of Joe Biden's policymaking — impulsive, unprepared, and entirely reactive.  Biden and his team have had seventeen months to get these pieces in place for this policy decision.  Instead, it looks like someone just pulled together a few talking points at the last minute and bundled it into a memo for Biden to wave at a presser.

The True Cost of Student Loans.  Much like the illegal migrants waiting for the next amnesty, there will now be waves of people signing up for student loans and college courses, confident the government will bail them out in the next round of amnesty/debt forgiveness.  This is how the current situation is comparable to the amnesty act and mostly impacts the prospective students.  But it is not just the students who will be implicated.  The announcement to cancel debt is comparable to the mortgage schemes of Clinton, as it will change the behavior of the colleges.  They had to be slightly careful in terms of college tuition fees, as they needed to make sure their prospective students could actually get a loan.  Now that the government has announced student debts will be cancelled, the colleges will be incentivized to increase their fees.  After all, now the government will come to the rescue of students who owe the college.  Much like the banks being confident that the government would bail them out over mortgages to credit-risky customers, colleges are confident that the government will bail them out for the costs of tuition racked up by students.  So why not rack the fees up some more?

Is Biden even able to bail out student loans?  As almost everyone has heard, Biden announced his plan to spend $360 billion to forgive student loans for up to 43 million Americans.  Groups estimate that the actual cost may be $440 to $600 billion, but who's counting?  Legal experts have reported that although Biden may have some authority to postpone payments, he clearly doesn't have the power to cancel debts. [...] The reaction from many different sides to his plan has been overwhelmingly negative.  People who have already paid off their student loans are angry because they did the right thing and kept to their obligations, and people who didn't get loans, or didn't go to college at all, are even angrier at the idea of paying more taxes to fund doctors, lawyers, and academics who should be able to pay what they owe.  The inflationary aspects of the debt forgiveness mean that the $7,000 Americans are paying extra each year for Biden's high prices will continue to increase, with no end in sight — and this includes the people getting the cash in the first place.

The Lawless Executive.  Biden thinks he can get away with tossing three hundred billion dollars, more or less, on the taxpayer's tab with his "student loan" cancelation order.  He's relying on a post-9/11 law which applies to times of national emergency and attempting to piggyback on the Covid one which was declared in 2020 along with the HEROES act — and of course that "emergency" has not been lifted. [...] I would expect that in any fair hearing this goes up in smoke in the courts.  But — there's a problem:  Standing to sue.  You see, to bring a case before the courts you must have particularized injury.

Biden's Education Secretary dodges questions on how student loan relief will be paid for.  Education Sec.  Miguel Cardona on Thursday refused to say how much the White House had projected President Biden's student debt cancellation would cost — despite repeated asks.  'The projections are still coming out depending on how many people take advantage of it,' Cardona said when asked by CNN's John Berman for a number.  'Mr. Secretary what's the range?' Berman pressed.  'Well, like I said, those projections are still coming out,' Cardona said again.  'What we're finding is when the loan payments restart $4 billion is going to go back into it because people are going to start paying.  Anyone making over $125,000 will resume payment into their loans.'  'It won't offset the total cost of this over time, how will this be paid for?' Berman asked.  'The president has been very clear about reducing the deficit, ' Cardona said.  'Whatever funds go to this loan forgiveness will be offset by the increase in loan payment restart for those making over $125,000.'

Watch Nancy Pelosi Say President Doesn't Have The Power To Do Debt Forgiveness.  Back in April, Nancy Pelosi admitted Biden didn't have the power to bail out student loan debt.  [Video clip]

Joe Biden Wakes up to Democratic Mutiny on Student Loan Forgiveness Plan.  President Joe Biden's unilateral move to implement a student loan forgiveness plan that "will include at least $10,000 in loan forgiveness for borrowers who make less than $125,000 annually, as well as another payment freeze for roughly four months" has understandably set off a firestorm nationwide, with Republicans lining up to express their outrage over Biden's actions.  But Republicans aren't the only ones ripping Biden.  He's also faced intense criticism from some surprising corners, including from Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) who as we previously reported said on Wednesday that "This announcement by President Biden is no way to make policy and sidesteps Congress and our oversight and fiscal responsibilities."  "Any plan to address student debt should go through the legislative process, and it should be more targeted and paid for so it doesn't add to the deficit," Pappas, who is said to be in a tough reelection battle, also stated.

Biden's Student Loan Giveaway Is 'Unconstitutional Flimflammery'.  The White House "Fact Sheet" speaks of the horror and hardship students are experiencing.  It talks of the "significant burden" of student loan debt, how some borrowers are in default, and that the share of debt falls disproportionally on black students.  But this debt burden was not mandatory.  It was optional.  And racking up $100,000 in student debt was an option these former students willingly accepted.  So now, the biggest beneficiaries of the loan forgiveness program are going to be those who don't need it.

Biden Shops For Critical Minerals In Canada While Shutting Down Mining Projects On American Soil.  President Joe Biden is looking north for critical mineral supplies to meet government-inflated demand for clean-energy initiatives while the administration shuts down major mining projects on American soil.  In March, the president invoked the Defense Production Act to expedite the expansion of U.S. mining operations behind lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese as demand rises for the raw materials.  Not only are the critical minerals central to the administration's subsidized wind and solar farms, but they are essential for defense technologies and popular products from cell phones to laptops.  Biden triggered the Cold War-era law to reconfigure supply chains of critical minerals away from dependence on China, which dominates refining capacity and production of rare earth elements.  The president invoking the Defense Production Act offers federal financial assistance to "domestic" projects securing American mineral supplies, and in June, the administration published a report identifying Canada as a "domestic source" under the Defense Production Act.

Biden announces student loan handout as national debt soars.  President Biden announced Wednesday that he will cancel $10,000 of federal student loan debt for certain borrowers making less than $125,000 per year, and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients, while extending the pause on federal student loan payments through the end of the year.  "In keeping with my campaign promise, my Administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room as they prepare to resume federal student loan payments in January 2023," Biden tweeted.  Biden gave remarks on the plan Wednesday afternoon [8/24/2022].  The nation's federal student debt now tops $1.6 trillion after ballooning for years.  More than 43 million Americans have federal student debt, with almost a third owing less than $10,000 and more than half owing less than $20,000, according to the latest federal data.

Theorems on the Student Loan Cancelation.  Invoking the HEROES Act as the legal justification for student debt forgiveness reminds of Franklin Roosevelt invoking the World War I-era Trading With the Enemy Act as legal ground for his "bank holiday."  At the time everyone was so dumbstruck and panicked that no one thought to raise a legal challenge, but that's surely not the case today, though I do wonder if legal challenges may founder for lack of standing. [...] But there's an even deeper logic at work.  Young voters tend to drop off a lot in mid-term elections, and Biden has just given the college cohort a reason to turn out this fall — especially if a judge inhibits this blatant vote-buying scheme.

Pelosi Does Complete 180 as Biden WH Reveals Where Debt Relief 'Authority' Purportedly Comes From.  As expected, President Joe Biden made a unilateral move Wednesday [8/24/2022] to implement a student loan forgiveness plan that "will include at least $10,000 in loan forgiveness for borrowers who make less than $125,000 annually, as well as another payment freeze for roughly four months."  While Republican members of Congress are understandably outraged, most of the ones openly speaking out against Biden's move seem to be studiously avoiding the "i" word (impeachment) even though that is an option that should definitely be on the table considering Biden does not have the authority to carry out this plan, which does an end run around Congress and the required legislative process.  But according to a statement from Biden's Education Dept., he indeed has such authority, something that was pointed to by reporters Wednesday after many raised questions as to where he thought he was getting his power from: [...]

Biden's Student Loan Bailout Adds Insult to Working-class Injury.  President Joe Biden is set to announce student loan forgiveness of $10,000 — and perhaps more — for lower-income debtors on Wednesday, in a move that is unconstitutional, unfair, and dangerous for the stability of our economy and our democracy.  There is no doubt that some borrowers would benefit from student loan relief — especially young people, low earners, borrowers in the black community.  It would help them avoid default, and perhaps allow some to enter the housing market.  Some of these debtors can truly be seen as victims of a system that urges young people to attend college when other paths might be better suited to their talents and interests; that jacks up federally-subsidized tuition costs; and that steers students toward highly-ideological majors that provide few marketable skills, but train them as future left-wing voters and activists.

Biden Announces His Illegal Student Loan Move With Senility and Casual Racism.  Joe Biden made it official on Wednesday, confirming reports that he was going to "forgive" tens of thousands of dollars of student debt for federal borrowers, many of which are the most privileged and well-off in our society.  As I wrote previously, I think the move is morally reprehensible, forcing an electrician who paid for their technical training to now pay for the gender studies degree of some far-left kook making $100K a year in an academic position.  For his part, Biden took to the podium to announce his move while taking a precious few questions.  Those he did field received some of the most non-sensical answers of his presidency.  Before we get there, though, here was the president attempting to set things up in a way absolutely no one understood.  Really, what in the world is he talking about here?  [Tweet]

Biden's Student Loan 'Forgiveness' Is An Unjust, Cynical Abuse Of Power.  "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law."  That's what it says right there in the Constitution.  And yet, without any legislation, Joe Biden now promises to "cancel" up to $10,000 in student loans per borrower ($20,000 for Pell Grant borrowers), limited to those with annual incomes of less than $125,000.  Let's start by pointing out that President Joe Biden isn't "canceling" or "forgiving" any student loans.  Those are preposterous euphemisms favored by Democrats and the media.  The debt in question already exists, it has been lent and spent, and those who borrowed the money of their own volition have already received services.  This debt isn't cancelable.  The president hasn't "forgiven" loans, he's unilaterally broken existing contracts and transferred the responsibility of payment to taxpayers — many of whom have either repaid their own student loans or never borrowed any money to begin with.  Now, if you're opposed to repaying some stranger's loan, that's too bad.  A new batch of IRS agents will be there to ensure that you do.

White House poised to cancel up to $10K in debt for some student loans: Report.  The Biden administration is leaning toward canceling up to $10,000 in student loan debt for those who make less than $125,000 a year, according to a new report.  CNN reported that the announcement could come Wednesday, and that additional forgiveness for specific parts of the population are on the table as well.  Liberal Democrats such as Sen.  Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have pressed for a far more sweeping loan forgiveness program.  The income cap was seen as a way of insulating the White House from criticism that the debt relief is benefiting those who can afford their payments, per CNN.

Biden Is About to Commit an Impeachable Offense, Republicans Must Respond With Fury.  As my colleague Brandon Morse reported, President Joe Biden is about to blatantly break the law to "cancel" thousands of dollars of student loan debt accrued by some of the most privileged members of society.  Of course, nothing will actually be canceled.  Instead, because the government will simply be out that money, the burden of those debts will be transferred from those who accrued them to hundreds of millions of taxpayers who didn't.

Hochul's Compelled Speech Bill is Just the Beginning.  Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill last year that will compel certain speech be used when addressing or referring to LGBTQ or trans people.  It is not constitutional and will be overturned.  Legislation S.5325/A.6193 is very strange because it mandates that utility companies "allow customers to use what preferred name and pronoun they want."  I was not aware that utility companies ever forbade customers their silly pronouns and preferred names, but apparently Kathy believes this has been the case.  That is just a red herring.  Here is the disturbing part.  She clearly thinks that failing to use the right pronouns is a problem.

Death of a 'salesman' in New York.  Willy Loman is no more, at least in New York state law.  Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation Thursday replacing the word "salesman" with "salesperson" — the latest in a series of moves by Albany toward gender-neutral and other woke language.

Why is the Biden administration paying off Ukraine's debt but not ours?  "Biden administration allocates billions to pay down the budget deficit ... in Ukraine."  This sounds like a parody headline from the Babylon Bee, but it is actually a real thing that's happening under President Joe Biden's watch.  On Monday, the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, announced that it is sending an additional $4.5 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to Ukraine.  And it's not going to humanitarian aid or even weapons for fighting off Russia's brutal invasion — debatable but at least understandable forms of U.S. aid — it's going to reduce the Ukrainian government's budget deficit.

Joe Biden Signs $430 Billion Climate and Health Care Spending Bill to 'Fight Inflation'.  President Joe Biden signed a $430 billion climate spending bill on Tuesday, insisting it would fight inflation.  "We're cutting deficits to fight inflation by having the wealthy and big corporations finally pay their fair share," Biden said at the signing ceremony at the White House.  The bill raises the corporate minimum tax to 15 percent and spends more money on bolstering the ability of the IRS to enforce taxes.

Can a GOP Congress Stop the New IRS Gestapo?  Other than Mar-a-Lago and the Jan. 6 committee, the latest — and ultimately quite possibly the biggest — elephant in the room is the legislation that's nearing passage with a name straight out of Orwell's Ministry of Truth:  the Inflation Reduction Act.  Forget for a moment all the ridiculous "green" featherbedding in this legislation.  The administration's version of "the science" is about as scientific as the Greek myths, possibly less.  It's the same pro forma collection of hand-outs to the usual pseudo-environmental suspects that ultimately add up to more orders for, frequently defective, Chinese solar collectors.  That's bad enough but the real danger in this legislation is the massive infusion of cash ($80 billion) into the IRS, yielding an extraordinary expansion (an army of 87,000 new agents) and the literal weaponization of the tax agency.

Job One For The GOP: Kill The Inflation Reduction Act.  Joe Biden's $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed both the Senate and House without a single vote from Republicans.  It has zero redeeming value and is the most wretched bill out of Washington since Obamacare was approved in 2010.  The GOP has to take it off the books.  As we pointed out in this space weeks ago, the entire bill is a lie.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with inflation and, in fact, won't reduce it at all.  The University of Pennsylvania's Penn Wharton Budget Model says the IRA's "impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero."  Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank, says it won't rein in rising prices "over the short run."  Even the Congressional Budget Office says it does nothing to address inflation.

Biden Puts IRS Funding Ahead of Military and Border Security.  Is this about the most warped set of national priorities you've ever heard?  If this $80 billion were rerouted to the Army and the Border Patrol, we could easily stop much of the tide of illegal immigration and staff up our military so we have the soldiers we need to defend our country.  According to official budget numbers, the overall cost of border security at the Department of Homeland Security is roughly $55 billion a year.  That is less than just the increase in IRS funding to harass the public.  Or consider this:  The epidemic of opioid and other drug overdoses is killing close to 100,000 a year.  We spend about $11 billion a year to prevent these tragic deaths.  But the ironically named Inflation Reduction Act calls for 30 times more than this, or more than $300 billion, to try to combat climate change, while the number of those who die from CO2 emissions each year is close to zero.

Buckle Up:  Tough Times Are Coming.  With each passing day, Biden's and Democrats' failures become more apparent and painful to average Americans.  The economy is shaky; inflation and energy costs will resume rising.  Crime spikes in big cities.  Woke and sexual indoctrination of schoolkids is meeting with growing backlashes.  Democrats' police state gambits repel people who'd otherwise take a pass on politics.  Their sheer incompetence, serial failures, and tyrannical overreach are undercutting their authority.  So Democrats and the establishment are afraid and anxious.  Looming ahead is the fall of the establishment's thousand-year Reich.  Desperation will drive establishment factions to more and, perhaps, even greater acts of illegally and shows of force — or worse.  After all, the ends justify the means.

Pelosi-Biden's Inflation Bill Passed with 35 Percent of the House Voting Remotely and the CBO Not Finished Scoring Its Impact.  It was a mad rush to pass Biden's "Inflation Reduction Act" and now we know why.  This act from the corrupt and now communist left is named like other bills they manufacture in that it is the opposite of what it claims.  This bill will not reduce inflation and will likely add to it.  The funding will occur by taxing Americans of all classes and increasing the US debt. [...] According to Redstate around 35 percent of those voting, did so remotely.  But the bill charged ahead.  Now you have to wonder what's really in it.

Analysis suggests Inflation Reduction Act will reduce annual inflation by only 0.1 percentage points.  The Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act is expected to have almost zero impact on inflation, according to a new analysis.  A University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton analysis released Friday [8/12/2022] revealed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would do little to reduce the annual rate of inflation in the midst of the economic recession.  The bill would only reduce annual inflation by 0.1 percentage point over the next five years.

Do The Political Elites Intend To Starve People To Death?  What happened in Sri Lanka — "the systematic destruction of Sri Lankan agriculture by a regime so focused on appearing environmentally conscious that it blinded itself to the humanitarian disaster it was creating" — is also taking place in the Netherlands, one of the world's top producers of farm products.  There, policymakers have placed limits on agricultural waste emissions, which the eco-zealots are now at war with.  The "tractor-riding rebels" understandably rose "up against their government."  What else should be expected when the rules could force as many as 30% of producers out of business?  Farmers in Spain, Ireland, and New Zealand are also rising up.  It's more than enough for any open-minded lawmaker anywhere on Earth to look at these events and rethink the policies that have caused such turmoil.  But not Justin Trudeau, Canada's Boy Prime Minister, who like the rest of the immature left is fixated on making points with the "right" people, as if he never left high school.

Democrats continue to wage war against the oil industry in the name of 'climate emergency'.  What else might a political party do if the goal was actually to destroy a country, besides destroying affordable energy in the modern world?  Would they have open borders, destroying the rule of law, and creating a scenario where human and drug trafficking rates skyrocket?  Would they support district attorneys who refuse to prosecute violent criminals, instead placing them back on the streets?  Would they tell our children that racism is the very underpinnings of our nation?  And therefore patriotism equates with oppression?  Would they confiscate a greater share of wealth from the private sector and transfer it to the hands of an ever-growing federal government?  Would they slowly erode the three branches, allowing courts and unelected bureaucrats to pass de facto laws instead of the legislature?

The complete Sovietization of the Democrat party.  The Democrats are so determined to destroy Trump, they are willing to reveal their true colors:  They are all Stalinist communists now.  They've just rammed through a nearly $800 billion bill that will obviously exacerbate inflation, as well as transform the IRS into a Gestapo-like agency, armed and dangerous to all Americans but for the very wealthy.  Small businesses that survived the lockdowns will now be stamped out by the higher taxes, audits, and regulations within this destructive bill.  The billions of green agenda requirements in the bill will force us all into energy deficits that will further devastate our already ruined economy and our quality of life.  That is their goal, their endgame.

Another Key Fundamental Contradicts the Democrat 'Comeback' Narrative.  Democrats are riding high right now, at least in their own minds.  On Sunday, the Senate passed the Manchin-led reconciliation deal, blowing hundreds of billions of dollars on "climate change" provisions, including subsidies for well-off people to buy electric cars and solar panels.  The other part of the bill was a sizeable tax increase for the middle class.  As to it being called the "Inflation Reduction Act," even Bernie Sanders admits that's hogwash.  Still, Democrats rejoiced, citing it as a major accomplishment that will help lead them to victory in the mid-terms.

Why Is No One Using the Inflation Reduction Act's Actual Name?  This was never an Inflation Reduction Act.  This is Build Back Better v2.0.  It is a handout to the IRS so Democrats can fund their pet projects by harassing and fleecing small businesses and middle-class Americans.  It is a handout to upper-class Americans who want to make the switch to electric vehicles.  It is a handout to pet companies that produce those vehicles.  You are giving massive subsidies during high inflation and raising taxes during a recession.  It is a violation of basic economic principles at a time when the economy is extremely unstable.  This bill was the end result of Democrats negotiating with themselves.  At no point was there any Republican input.

Here's the Truth About What 'Inflation Reduction Act' Would Do.  As Senate Democrats achieve their goal of jamming through the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, reality is becoming clear:  The bill will likely increase near-term inflation, depress household incomes, and produce the long-term deficits that fuel long-term inflation.  Using the Congressional Budget Office's latest scoring, estimates of the most recent changes, and accounting for very expensive gimmicks, it's likely that the bill will produce deficits.  The cumulative deficit would be around $52.5 billion over the next four years, at least $110 billion through fiscal year 2031, and more beyond.  That would mean adding to near-term and long-term inflationary pressures, in contrast to what proponents such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., claim.  In short, the bill is about as far away from a genuine Inflation Reduction Act as possible.  Though it would be harmful under any circumstances, signing it into law during a period of stagflation would be the worst possible timing.

Democrat Senators Advance Biden's Massive Tax-and-Spend Bill — Kamala Harris Casts Tie-Breaking Vote.  Senate Democrats on Saturday night advanced Biden's massive tax-and-spend bill dubbed the 'Inflation Reduction Act.'  Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote Saturday night [8/6/2022]. [...] After casting the tie-breaking vote, Kamala Harris claimed the massive bill will "lower costs" for families and "address some of the basic needs families have been having for generations."

Kamala Harris casts tiebreaking vote as Biden's massive spending and tax package advances in Senate.  Vice President Kamala Harris cast a tie-breaking vote Saturday [8/6/2022] to advance President Joe Biden's massive spending, tax and climate legislation in the Senate.  The 51-50 party line vote allowed senators to begin debate on the legislation, which includes $400 billion in spending and $700 billion in taxes and revenue increases.  Republicans planned to offer about four dozen amendments to force vulnerable Democrats like Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Raphael Warnock of Georgia to take a series of tough votes on everything from border security to taxes.  Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell argued the legislation "will kill American jobs and hammer our manufacturing sector" and "have no meaningful impact on global temperatures whatsoever."

The Congressional Budget Office Hasn't Finished Scoring the Manchin's Inflation Reduction Act.  While the Senate's "Vote-a-Rama" for Build Back Better v2.0, better known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is underway, it seems that the Congressional Budget Office hasn't even finished scoring the bill we've been assured reduces inflation. [...] I'm not a stellar math student, but that seems like a lot of deficit increasing.  No wonder the Democrats want to pass the bill before the CBO finishes scoring it.  There is still a new 30-page section to score, which was amended in recently.  This is going to be another big spending bill that the Democrats will use to fund pet projects and not actually reduce any inflation with.  Full steam ahead.

Biden administration's farcical climate policies to devastate farmers, exacerbate food shortages.  Democrats are rabidly pro-abortion.  Their policies foster violent crime.  They tend to favor assisted suicide.  And the legalization of even hard and hallucinogenic drugs.  They were/are all-in on vaccine mandates.  Apparently, they never met a population control measure they didn't like.  So, it's not surprising they want to curtail our food supply.

A Glance Ahead.  [Scroll down]  Meanwhile, the Party of Chaos is about to unleash its "Inflation Reduction Act," which proposes to spend three quarters of a trillion dollars created from thin air into an economy already hyperventilating on three years of multi-trillion-dollar injections derived from no productive activity.  At the same time, the act will raise taxes especially for low-end wage earners and small businesses, completing the regime's destruction of the middle-class.  The cherry-on-top is the provision to double the size of the Internal Revenue Service by hiring 87,000 new employees to harass ordinary American taxpayers.  Is that what you voted for in 2020?  I thought not.

Get Ready For The 100 Year Long Climate "Emergency".  Since the Supreme Court's decision in West Virginia v. EPA on June 30, the bureaucracies in the "climate" space, together with all the environmental activists, have been thrown into a tizzy.  The Supreme Court just declared that the bureaucracies have no power to fundamentally transform the use of energy in the economy without a clear direction from Congress, which on the climate issue cannot be found in existing statutes.  And it has become clear that no further such statutory direction is likely to emerge from Congress before the mid-term elections in November.  After November, changes in the make-up of Congress will probably make further such legislation even less likely, if not completely off the table for years if not decades.  So what is a self-respecting climate alarmist to do?  To those over there on the left, the answer seems obvious:  Demand declaration of a "climate emergency."  With that declaration, the statutory gap could perhaps be filled by another whole category of laws providing special powers in the event of a declaration of "emergency."

Democrat Spending Bill Will Bring Nothing But More Economic Hardship.  After months of trying and failing to get enough votes in the Democrat-controlled Congress to pass sweeping social spending legislation, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) finally convinced Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to abandon their previously stated principles and put their party over what's best for their constituents.  Since the result of Schumer's closed-door negotiations was announced, it's been clear that the bill — referred to unofficially as "Build Back Better Jr." but officially named the "Inflation Reduction Act" — will not do anything it's being proclaimed to do.  As Townhall reported, the "Inflation Reduction Act" won't actually reduce inflation.  In fact, it might even add slightly to inflationary pressure for the next two years.  That false name is enough to prove the legislation is a trojan horse for radical Democrat policies and would be better dubbed "Democrats' Job-Killing Middle-Class Tax Hike for Woke Nonsense."

The Meaning of Bidenomics.  Everyone senses that the American economy under Joe Biden is in a rut.  Inflation is at a 40-year high.  Energy prices are skyrocketing.  The prices of all goods and services going up.  Meanwhile, the administration does little to alleviate these regular everyday problems.  This is by design. [...] This is precisely what the Biden administration, their apparatchiks, and the proponents of the Green New Deal seek:  a thorough top-down command-control system of the economy.  Whether in the more benign bureaucratic-managerial form of the modern welfare-state of the West, or the more viciously brutal socialistic, fascistic, or communistic cousins, the goal remains the same: centralized command-control.  By permitting economic malaise, the Biden administration deliberately seeks to punish the independent spirit of American freedom in order to subjugate it to its federal vision of regulatory control (that's what regulation is always about).

Dems Tell the American People "The Inflation Reduction Act" Won't Raise Taxes.  Democrats love taxes.  The never-ending promise that they won't raise taxes almost always leads to more taxes.  So why should we believe the Inflation Reduction Act won't lead to a hideous tax burden on the American people?  Well, we shouldn't. [...] The Inflation Reduction Act is going to increase taxes on every American income tax bracket, large, or small, regardless of the lies told to us by the Biden administration and the arguments from Democrats that regular Americans will not see their taxes increase under this proposal, according to data from the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).  The cap, we were told, was $400,000.00, but this is not the truth.  This legislation is just the Green New Deal and Build Back Better repackaged into one colossal disaster.

Student loan cancellation is a slap in the face to working-class families.  There are few policy proposals more backward than President Biden's and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's farce of "canceling" student loan debt.  Debt cannot be "canceled" or erased — it can only be shifted to someone else.  Truck drivers, farmers, bartenders, electricians and plumbers shouldn't have to pay for someone else's degree.  Those who have sacrificed and worked hard to pay off their own student loans shouldn't then have to take on someone else's debt.  But that is exactly what Mr. Biden's plans would force hardworking Americans to do.

Why We Lost Trust in the Expert Class.  Recently, a group of 55 distinguished pro-administration economists assured us that President Joe Biden's massive borrowing and new entitlements agenda were not inflationary.  In September 2021, these economists with 14 Nobel prize winners among them declared that Biden's inflationary policies would actually "ease" inflation.  Last month, inflation spiked to an annualized rate of 9.1%.  None of these "blue-chip" economists have offered any apologies for lending their prestige to convince Americans of the absurd: that inflating the money supply, spiking new government spending, incentivizing labor non-participation, and keeping interest rates artificially low would not cause inflation.

This is what finally puts an end to Australia.  There is an ominous buzz in the new Australian Parliament — Albo and the Greens are planning to pass 40 new bills, quick smart.  Each bill will probably need 100 new regulations and 200 new inspectors, auditors, and enforcers plus many new taxes and fees. [...] Probably the worst bill in Green-Albo's legislative avalanche is "The Climate Change Bill."  This dreadful piece of legislation gives the government the ability to "ratchet up" green targets without new parliamentary approval but makes it difficult for future governments to ratchet back these targets.  This will clutter rural Australia with imported solar panels and windmills and destroy forests and grasslands with spider-webs of roads and transmission lines.  It will make blackouts more likely and destroy any heavy industry we have left.  Filling our cities with electric cars will stress the electricity grid and add greatly to urban fire risks.  And in 15 years (or after every cyclone), we will have an enormous problem trying to dispose of the worn out, non-degradable wind and solar generator debris.

The Inflation Reduction Act increases inflation.  On July 28, President Joe Biden announced his "support for a historic agreement to fight inflation and lower costs for American families.  It's called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022."  He added, "This is the strongest bill you can pass to lower inflation ... while reducing the burdens facing working-class and middle-class families."  So, according to Biden and Senate Democrats, who apparently live in a fantasy world, when the federal government increases taxes and spending, we are supposed to believe that inflation will be reduced.  Back in the real world, where one plus one still equals two, recessions are defined by two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, and indisputable laws like gravity and supply and demand reign supreme, the Inflation Reduction Act would actually increase inflation.

The only inflation-fighter in Dems' new bill is the name.  Why have Democrats taken to calling everything what it's not?  The word games from "woman" to "recession" are bad enough, but Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer now offer an "Inflation Reduction Act" that doesn't actually reduce inflation.  Oh, if it works out as they claim, the Penn-Wharton Budget Model indicates it might do a little inflation-reducing in a decade, but would actually goose it a bit first.  The White House's favorite experts, Moody Analytics, read the bill as lowering the Consumer Price Index by a third of a percentage point — by 2031.  That really shouldn't surprise, since this wasn't remotely written to combat inflation.  It's simply another cut-down version of the Build Back Better package, which President Biden put on the table early in 2020, when no one in Washington was looking for ways to fight soaring prices.

Rigging the War on Fossil Fuels.  [Scroll down]  In September 2020, a Gallup poll likewise found that climate change ranked eleventh in a list of registered voters' top concerns — well behind such items as the economy, terrorism/national security, the COVID-19 pandemic, health care, education, race relations, gun policy, crime, abortion, and immigration.  Notwithstanding the public's consistent and overwhelming lack of concern about climate change as an urgent problem, the main concern of the Biden administration and the entire agenda of the Democrat Party has been, and continues to be, driven by this issue.  In the words of President Joe Biden, "climate change poses an existential threat" — in fact, the chief existential threat to the United States — greater than terrorism, or Chinese expansionism, or the invasion by 2,400,000 unvetted illegal migrants annually across America's broken southern border.  So obsessive is the focus of Democrat leaders on the alleged "existential threat of climate change," that a centerpiece of their policies to oppose it is a war on fossil fuels, beginning with the cancelling of the Keystone pipeline, the shutting down of the ANWR oil field in Alaska, and the refusal for more than 17 months to sell oil-and-gas drilling leases on federal lands.

'Build Back Better' Bill Would Fund 86,000 Additional IRS Agents To Sic On American Taxpayers.  If you think that Democrats' tax-and-spending bill wouldn't expand government, have I got news for you.  Believe it or not, the Build Back Better legislation would more than double the size of the IRS.  That's one of the hidden details in the agreement that Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., cut with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., behind closed doors.  And of course, Democrats want to ram it through Congress within a matter of days.  As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., once said about another big-government scheme, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it."  The draft bill contains an $80 billion "investment" in the Internal Revenue Service.  Of that amount, more than half, or over $45.6 billion, will go towards enforcement activities.  Even as it doles out such vast sums for the IRS, the bill contains only a few short pages of text explaining the provisions.  In other words, the IRS will have a relatively wide berth to spend the new funding as it likes.

Virginia AG Sues Biden for Pushing Transgender Ideology on Children.  Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is accusing the Biden administration of using children to win more votes at the ballot box.  Miyares filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration's Department of Agriculture, which is threatening to take away funding for school lunches if schools refuse to adhere to the left's radical transgender agenda.  "They're essentially saying, 'We are requiring you to have biological males in women's sports, we are requiring you to allow biological males to use women's bathrooms, female bathrooms, and if you don't, we're going to withhold nutrition assistance for needy children,'" Miyares said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.

Pay Attention To The Dutch Farmer Protests Because America Is Next.  Why is the Netherlands, of all places, experiencing such unrest?  Americans need to understand what's happening over there because the ruinous climate policies that triggered these protests are precisely what President Joe Biden and the Democrats have in mind for the United States.  Specifically, Dutch farmers are protesting a government plan to cut fertilizer use and reduce livestock numbers so drastically that it will force many farms out of business.  Earlier this month, farmers used tractors and trucks to block highways and entrances to food distribution centers across the country, saying their livelihood and way of life are being targeted by the government. [...] The goal is to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia, which are produced by livestock but which the government is labeling "pollutants," by 50 percent nationwide by the year 2030.  The only way to do that, many Dutch farmers say, is to slaughter the vast majority of their livestock and shutter their farms.  The government knows this and admitted as much earlier this year, saying in a statement, "The honest message ... is that not all farmers can continue their business," and that farmers have three options:  "Becoming more sustainable, relocating or ending their business."

Canada's Trudeau Declares War on Fertilizer, Following the Footsteps of Sri Lanka.  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ignored cries of anger and desperation from farmers and provincial officials last weekend by pressing ahead with a climate change agenda that will dramatically reduce Canada's use of fertilizer — the same ruinous strategy that drove Dutch farmers into revolt and destroyed the agriculture of Sri Lanka.  The Toronto Sun reported on a dismaying Friday meeting of federal and provincial ministers, in which the latter could not convince the Trudeau administration to show any "flexibility" in its emissions targets, not even with a global food crisis on the horizon.

Canada Joins The Netherlands In Declaring Climate-Crazed War On Farmers.  In his latest bid to amass greater control of Canadian society, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is set to move forward with his government's plan to reduce nitrogen emissions by limiting fertilizer use among Canadian farmers.  The revelation came following a Friday meeting between Trudeau and Canadian provincial ministers, where the prime minister unexpectedly announced his decision to cap fertilizer emissions by unilaterally targeting the country's agricultural sector. [...] As referenced in the press release, the targets set by the federal government include a bid "to reduce absolute levels of [greenhouse gas] emissions arising from fertilizer application by 30% below 2020 levels by 2030," which the Trudeau administration previously announced in December 2020.  While Trudeau has not publicly released specific mandates, the provincial governments of Alberta and Saskatchewan are blasting the prime minister for advancing the policy.  "We're really concerned with this arbitrary goal," said Saskatchewan Minister of Agriculture David Marit.  "The Trudeau government has apparently moved on from their attack on the oil and gas industry and set their sights on Saskatchewan farmers."

What Biden's 'climate change emergency' is REALLY about.  Glenn Beck reveals how climate academics and activists have been gaming this out for years.  They know exactly what they are going to do once Biden pulls the trigger.  So many scary options become available once a national emergency is declared.  [Video clip]

How Long Until Democrats Storm the Capitol?  Are Democrats trying to incite an insurrection?  The party's rhetoric on the "existential threat" of so-called climate change has grown increasingly radical and vitriolic of late, its policy solutions alarmingly anti-democratic in nature.  Given the way some Democratic politicians have implicitly endorsed subversive tactics to enact their controversial agenda, one can't help but wonder why outraged liberal voters aren't storming the U.S. Capitol building at this very moment.  "This is our last chance to prevent the most catastrophic — and costly — effects of climate change," Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) told the New York Times earlier this month.  "We can't come back in another decade and forestall hundreds of billions — if not trillions — in economic damage and undo the inevitable human toll ... failure really is not an option here."

The Editor says...
[#1] There is no reason to believe any assertion that "we only have ten years left" to fix global warming, when many similar predictions have failed over the last 50 years.  The weather cannot be altered by legislation and taxes.  Global warming — or cooling — is gonna happen whether we like it or not.  And nobody will ever notice any warming or cooling, because it will be so gradual.  Summer will be hot and winter will be cold, and the best defense against the weather is lots of electricity, which can be produced by the combustion of hydrocarbons.  [#2] Any assertions about "trillions in economic damage" are highly speculative.

How To Erode the World's Greatest Military.  A year ago, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley were assuring the country not to worry over Joe Biden's strange ideas of abruptly pulling out all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. [...] The shame of defeat and the cloud of incompetence from Afghanistan has continued to harm recruitment efforts of the military.  About a year ago Austin and Chairman Milley took time out from assuring Americans that all would be well in Kabul, to testify before Congress about the Pentagon's effort to address "white rage" in the six-month aftermath of the January 6 riot.  Both were also asked to explain why the armed services were recommending soldiers read inter alia the often-discredited "antiracist" theories of Ibram X. Kendi.  His polarizing doctrine asserts that the entire U.S. system of government, all social and political life, and our very culture are racist to core.  As a result, Kendi's solution requires radical and overt racial preferencing and discrimination supposedly to fight such an insidious system.

Socialism Is a Deal with the Devil.  America was founded on the principles of capitalism.  But there are those who think communism is the solution for every problem, from bad weather to old Joe's dementia.  In their book, In Their Own Words, Terry Turchie and Donagh Bracken document that organizations such as the Weather Underground, the Black Panther Party, Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and The Democratic Socialists of American have been agitating for communism for decades.  We've even got one senator who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union and a whole squad of congresswomen who openly support it now.  They don't use the word "communism" very often, but their manifestos and stated goals are 100 percent aligned with that ideology.  Instead, they use seductive terms like "social justice," "guaranteed income," and "equality."

The Left Should Be Happy with Biden.  [Scroll down]  Strangely, leftists do not grasp that Biden's current record and unpopularity are due not just to his unmistakable cognitive decline.  The problem is not just his often-toxic personality, or his creepy habits of trying to shake the hands of invisible people or violating the private space of younger women.  Instead, the Biden Administration has become an utter failure because voters detest its agendas.  They recoil at $5-a-gallon gas.  They feel their lives are being destroyed by 9.1 percent annual inflation and supply chain shortages.  The public is tired of near record annual increases in murders and other violent crime.  They are sickened by the tsunami of dangerous drugs pouring across the border and unvetted millions of foreign nationals entering their country without their permission.  They are irate that the Biden cabinet never responds to these disasters.  Instead, the administration denies the crises even exist.  Or it blames its own self-created messes on the Russians, or Trump, or their own Democratic senators who balked at printing more trillions of dollars.

Democrats Are Now Begging Biden To Act Like A Dictator.  Democrats are using the latest heat wave to push Biden to declare a climate "emergency" so he can bypass the legislative branch.  Biden is reportedly considering doing just that.  The left is freaking out because Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., won't sign onto a bill that includes carbon emission mandates at a time when gasoline prices are way up, inflation is rampant, and the economy is almost certainly in a recession.  Plus, the Supreme Court just tossed an attempt by the EPA to control the nation's power grid in the name of fighting "climate change."  On Monday, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, told reporters "There is probably nothing more important for our nation and our world than for the United States to drive a bold, energetic transition in its energy economy from fossil fuels to renewable energy."  Merkley said time is of the essence because it's not clear when Democrats will be able to pass a climate bill.

Biden fixates on nonexistent 'climate crisis' while ignoring actual problems.  On July 20, President Biden gathered with his climate change super friends at Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts to relay this message to the American people:  "As President, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger.  And that's what climate change is about.  It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger."  To emphasize just how dire the "climate crisis" has become, Biden added, "The health of our citizens and our communities is literally at stake."  Of course, Biden offered no evidence or data to support these outrageous claims of imminent doom.  Instead, he relied on fearmongering and less-than-truthful statements to incite a sense of panic among the American people.

Dem Sen. Heinrich: 'We're Going to Solve Inflation with a Climate Bill' and 'Every Bill' Should Deal with Climate.  On Wednesday's broadcast of NBC's "MTP Now," Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) argued that Democrats should say that "we're going to solve inflation with a climate bill" and that in Congress, "we need to be doing climate all of the time now" and that "every bill we do, whether it's an appropriations bill or whether it's a policy bill," should have climate provisions because "we've reached a point where our climate is truly at a tipping point.  We're losing this battle and losing control of the weather."  Heinrich stated, "[I]t really is our addiction to fossil fuels that is driving the out-of-control frustration and inflation that our constituents are feeling."

The Editor says...
Take it easy, Senator Heinrich.  You're not "losing control of the weather."  You've never had control of the weather.  Turn off your television and look around.  There is no extraordinary climate change.  Global warming has stopped, all by itself.  It's hot outside because we're in the middle of summer.  Where's the emergency?  Also, where are the masses of constituents whose number one concern is global warming?  What do the Democrats intend to do, to stop the weather from changing?  Their only solutions are new taxes and more government bureaucracy.

Democrats hope Biden uses the climate to take over and destroy the economy.  If there was one lesson the Democrats learned from 2020 forward, it was that, if the government convinces voters there's an emergency, the voters will let the government get away with murder.  That's why there is a huge push from the left for Biden to declare a "climate emergency" and, under that rubric, end fossil fuels in America on an accelerated timeline.  If Biden were to do this — and to get away with doing it — America is over.  Kaput.  The great experiment will have ended.

Biden Pledges Increases in OSHA Workplace Inspections as Part of Climate Change Compliance System.  Joe Biden has pledged to increase his use of executive power in order to deconstruct the U.S. energy system and recreate a Green New Deal energy economy using windmills and solar power to generate electricity.  Today, Biden kicked-off the first round of executive orders.  [Tweet]  The first round of executive orders is essentially payments to low income Americans for the increased costs of Biden's new energy programs.

Biden Blasts Republicans for Failing to Recognize Climate 'Emergency,' Vows to Use Executive Action.  President Joe Biden called climate change an "emergency" during a Wednesday speech and vowed to use executive powers to bypass Congress, days after Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) dealt a death blow to his sweeping legislative agenda.  "Since Congress is not acting as it should, and these guys here are, but we're not getting any Republican votes, this is an emergency," Biden said from the podium in Somerset, Mass., apparently gesturing at Democrats around him.  The president stopped short of issuing a national climate emergency, but said he would use executive powers to address the issue.  "As president I'll use my executive powers to combat climate crisis in the absence of Congressional action," Biden added.

The Editor says...
There is no climate emergency.  There is no climate crisis.  Long-range weather forecasts are impossible.  Changing the weather through legislation is also impossible.

Brick by Brick, Courts Build a Roadblock Against Biden's Administrative State.  As the Biden administration reels from a string of recent legal defeats, political analysts hail the U.S. Supreme Court's latest ruling, West Virginia v. EPA, as but one component of a new, broad-based approach that the courts are taking to halt a century-long effort by progressives to empower the administrative state and rule Americans by bureaucratic decree.  Dating back to President Woodrow Wilson 100 years ago, progressive presidents, including Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, have worked to transfer law-making authority from Congress to their executive agencies.  Wilson, the father of modern-day progressives, believed the Constitution, with its separation of powers, was an outdated document and that professional bureaucrats were superior at decision-making, compared to the time-consuming and compromise-ridden process of passing laws through elected representatives.  Wilson wrote in the 1887 article "The Study of Administration" that "the many, the people, who are sovereign [under the Constitution] have no single ear which one can approach, and are selfish, ignorant, timid, stubborn or foolish."

Bye-bye, Biden.  Joe Biden has done more to drop-kick America back to the political, fiscal, and energy Stone Age than any president in memory.  Under Biden, our social and economic infrastructure has been all but decimated.  It is almost as if he has signed on to an America-last agenda.  For that matter, does he even know what his agenda is?  Or has he delegated his presidency to pre-Trump power brokers?  Worst of all, Joe Biden's policies regarding racial matters have reignited a previously placid racial state.  He is now exacerbating a simmering situation between white and black that hasn't been seen since the '60s.  While doing this, he has turned our once illustrious military into a race-based adversarial social experiment, pitting our fighting forces against one another instead of against our enemies abroad.  How can the American military defend our country against a vicious socialist, communist, or radical Islamic threat if our own fighting forces are pitted against each other by color?  This is treasonous because what he has not directly promoted, he has allowed.  If Biden does not remove himself, he should be removed for terminal gross incompetence.  The people who are actually running this administration need to be removed as well.

Biden holds off on climate emergency declaration.  President Joe Biden will travel to Massachusetts on Wednesday to promote new efforts to combat climate change, although he will not declare an emergency that would unlock federal resources to deal with the issue despite increasing pressure from climate activists and Democratic lawmakers.  The White House said Tuesday [7/19/2022] it has not ruled out issuing such a declaration later, which would allow the president to reroute funds to climate efforts without congressional approval.  On Wednesday, Biden will announce other new climate actions when he visits a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, which shuttered in 2017 but has since been reborn as an offshore wind power facility.

Trans Biden Official Wants To 'Empower' Kids To Get Sex Changes.  Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine said transgender youths need to be empowered to get "gender affirmation treatment" on MSNBC Monday [7/18/2022].  Levine, who is transgender, said transgender youths are threatened by mental health issues, bullying and political attacks, and that treatment of these youths should affirm their perceived gender identity and empower them to get sex change treatments.

The Left's Blackmailing of Biden has Unleashed National Chaos, Stagflation and Systemic Uncertainty.  In July of 2020 Biden signed on to a unity platform with Bernie Sanders that would seal his fate.  He could never deviate from it and he would have to agree to any and all further demands for fear of being not only exposed but abandoned by the American Marxists, which would end his life-long narcissistic ambition to be another Franklin Roosevelt.  Among the commitments made and kept in the unity platform:
  •   The repeal, by executive order, of all of Trump's border policies including the stoppage of the wall construction, the elimination of the "Remain in Mexico" policy, a moratorium of deportations, and an immigration reform package that includes amnesty and a path to citizenship.  In essence an open and uncontrolled border to allow millions to pour in illegally and enter the electorate.
  •   The elimination of fossil fuels by 2030.  Using executive orders:  to stop the construction of new pipelines, to curtail leases on public lands, to force financial institutions to stop investing in fossil fuel companies and to promote limitless government investment in so-called "renewable energy" and impractical electric vehicles.
  •   Unlimited spending on new and existing social programs, which included housing, infrastructure, welfare, as well as the left-wing's wish list of funding for left-wing non-government organizations and unions, the nationalization of K thru 12 education, the elimination of charter schools and private school vouchers, and higher taxes on business and the nebulously defined wealthy.

Judge rules Biden administration's LGBTQ directives [...] infringes on states' rights.  A judge in Tennessee has temporarily banned two federal agencies from enforcing directives issued by the Biden administration that extended protections for LGBTQ people in schools and workplaces, like allowing transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice.  US District Judge Charles Atchley Jr. on Friday ruled for 20 state attorneys general who sued last August claiming the Biden administration directives infringe on states' rights.  The ruling could prevent students from participating in sports based on their gender identity or requiring schools and businesses to provide bathrooms and showers to accommodate transgender people.  Atchley, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020, agreed with the attorneys generals' argument and issued a temporary injunction preventing the agencies from applying that guidance on LGBTQ discrimination until the matter can be resolved by courts.

The war on fossil fuels is concluding — and the good guys are losing.  There are several entities that saw a benefit in declaring war on fossil fuel: the environmentalists who are so historically illiterate that they believe that a world without fossil fuels will be a bucolic paradise rather than a Hobbesian nightmare; the leftists who want to break the West to rebuild it as a socialist paradise; the Great Reset/New World Order crowd, which envisions happy, possession-free serfs; and the Chinese, who foresee a bloodless conquest of the West, which, believe me, will not be anybody's paradise.  While the winner among these groups isn't clear, the loser is coming into focus: ordinary people across the Western world.  The latest example comes from Germany.

There's a low-cost way for the oil companies to respond to anti-petro Biden.  I like fossil fuels.  I like that everything from coal to clean natural gas has raised most of humanity out of abject misery in my lifetime.  I like that parts of the world that seemed to have nothing to offer only had to look down to find a gift that has blessed us all.  I'm glad that some form of the dinosaurs continues to roam the earth if only as a part of the car I drive around.  And I'm glad that we can grow our food, cook our meals, drink clean water, heat our homes, have satisfying careers, and raise our children in relative comfort compared to my great-grandparents' generation.  Thank you, Oil Companies.  All of us depend every day on what you have done and continue to do.  It must be a staggering shock to be told — in the face of all evidence to the contrary — that your services will no longer be required in a few years.  Everyone knows it's a lie, but a hurtful one.  Especially coming from some of the most listened-to voices at the highest levels of our government.

Socialists Rising in L.A..  The Los Angeles chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has emerged as the clear winner of the city's June 7 primary in the weeks since ballot counting began.  Five out of the nine candidates on the ballot for city office to earn the DSA's endorsement have either won outright (garnering more than 50 percent of the vote) or advanced to the general election with leads over their rivals.  The results reveal the expanding political might of L.A.'s socialist Left.  Los Angeles primaries usually see low turnout.  Well-organized groups with a solid ground game stand to do best.  This year, every registered voter was mailed a ballot, and 84 percent of ballots were cast by mail.  The city now permits ballot harvesting and unguarded drop boxes, and it doesn't check signatures.  The DSA took advantage of these rules, got boots on the ground, and reaped the rewards.

Never-learn Dems pushing a zombie Build Back Better to wreck our economy even more.  Despite even more crushing inflation news — 9.1%, a level not seen since 1981 — congressional Dems are again flogging their recipe for deeper disaster: a new version of Joe Biden's ill-fated 2021 "Build Back Better" bill.  Have they learned nothing?  More spending is the last thing we need.  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) was right to kill the first one, a mishmash of social outlays, green poppycock and tax hikes (plus giveaways to the wealthy).  The zombie-BBB Dems are moving to bring to the Senate floor is, allegedly, smaller than the original — the promised cost is "only" $1 trillion — with many specifics still up in the air.  But it's near-certain to include federal bucks for green boondoggles as well a tax hike on businesses.  A tax hike on businesses, as a recession looms and jobless claims rise.  What planet are these people living on?

The Left's obsession with transgenderism is barbaric.  How to explain the Democrat party's obsession with transgenderism, with shoving it down the throats of every American, from ages five and up?  It's inexplicable.  Does every registered Democrat support confusing small children with gender identity indoctrination?  That can't be true.  But school districts across the country are using books about all manner of sexual issues, including pornography, topics way beyond the grasp of small children.  And they are using those books without parents' knowledge.  When parents discover these books and object, they are threatened.  Grooming, a word that once applied to other cultures or the worst sadists, grooming young children for sex with adults, now applies to public schools in America with the full support of American Democrats in Congress.

The revolt against green tyranny has toppled its first government, as farmers' protests spread across Europe.  Green tyranny has finally provoked mass reactions, and the first government has fallen after imposing insane policies that wrecked the food supply for its people.  Both the president and the prime minister of Sri Lanka are resigning in the wake of massive mobs storming and occupying their residences, burning the PM's private house and refusing to leave the presidential palace until both men are out of office. [...] Sri Lanka foolishly signed on to the green initiative in farming, going organic and limiting the importation and use of chemical fertilizers.  Food production, including tea, a vital export earner of foreign exchange, collapsed, and now the government is broke, people are hungry. [...] Farmers in Holland, in open revolt against government plans to destroy their livelihoods by limiting nitrogen application for fertilizer, are tying up that country's roads and cities.  And the revolt is spreading to Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland.

If They Lose, You Will Eat Bugs — Dutch Farmer Spokesperson Explains How EU Climate Change Goals Will Reduce Farm Production.  Despite the U.S. media not giving any time, attention or discussion to the rise of farmer protests in Europe, everyone should pay attention because the same climate change goals being enforced in the European Union are coming to North America.  The global food manipulators within the World Economic Forum have established the farming policy that aligns with their climate change goals.  As noted in [a] Sky News discussion this is the Great Reset.  It's not just Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte pushing the agenda, in 2020 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave an identical outline, with an identical timeline, for the exact same process.  The collective WEF political leaders are all singing from the same hymnal.

Yeah, "GOP Leadership."  That's a good one.
When Will GOP Leadership Come Out and Say It?  Biden is a Traitor.  He Must be Impeached, Then Indicted for Treason.  No one is even bothering to hide it.  Biden is clearly a suicide bomber, owned by the Chinese Communist Party and the Mexican Drug Cartel, and put in place to destroy America, American exceptionalism, capitalism, and most importantly, the great American middle class.  I learned this plan at Columbia University, Class of '83, alongside my classmate Barack Obama (who was never actually seen in any class at Columbia[,] but that's a story for another day).  The plan we learned at Columbia was called "Cloward-Piven."  The goals of Cloward-Piven were about overwhelming the system, collapsing the US economy, destroying capitalism and turning America into a socialist/communist country.  It's happening right now — with Biden as the frontman and brain-dead puppet, and Obama as the real president, lurking in the shadows, pulling all the strings.  Except now Obama has updated Cloward-Piven to include open borders and massive inflation to bankrupt the middle class.

The Great Regression.  A word of caution is needed about the pretentious and supposedly benign signature title of the Great Reset project.  Assume the worst when the adjective "great" appears in connection with envisioned fundamental, government-driven, or global political changes.  What was similar between Lyndon Johnson's massively expensive but failed "Great Society" and Mao's genocidal "Great Leap Forward" was the idea of a top-down, centrally planned schema, cooked up by elites without any firsthand knowledge, or even worry, how it would affect the middle classes and poor.  So often, the adjective "great" is a code word of supposed enlightened planners for radical attempts at reconstruction of a society that must be either misled or forced to accept a complete overhaul. [...] The same linguistic suspicions hold true of the use of the noun "Reset."  It assumes a year-zero arrogance that all that came before was flawed.  And all that will follow, we are assured, will not be so defective.

President Biden and His Admiral Have Boarded a Sinking Ship.  Admiral (not a Navy admiral) "Rachel" Levine is a so-called transgender woman, a pediatrician, and now a U.S. asst. secretary for health.  Levine has joined President Biden and many others in the LGBT campaign to promote "gender-affirming care" for youths.  "There is no argument among medical professionals — pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. — about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care[.]"  Levine's "no argument" assertions are hogwash for many obvious reasons. [...] In the same vein, President Biden has climbed on board with the admiral by announcing his social transition proposal that K-12 schools must allow males who claim to be females to access female private spaces, such as showers, bathrooms, and sleeping areas.  In addition, schools must require staff to use false and confusing pronouns when referring to so-called transgender people and must allow male staff to dress as women while on the job.  Specifically claiming reliance upon reasoning of the Supreme Court in the Bostock Title VII employment case, Biden proposes to accomplish his goals by applying Title IX prohibitions of sex discrimination in education also to sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.

Where Science Ends and Morality Begins.  Under the Biden administration, we are getting a foretaste of a green future.  The high costs of gasoline, heating oil, and electricity; the consequent high prices of everything else; the food shortages; and economic recessions will all be permanent features of a green America.  Tried flying lately?  Consider the phase-out of air travel to be already underway.  Supply chain problems causing empty shelves at the store?  Not to worry; when "buy local" is your only choice, you won't have to worry about supply chains.  Don't like arbitrary government mandates?  Don't like what the COVID lockdowns did to your constitutional rights?  Don't like seeing the rule of law abandoned before your eyes — from our open southern border to the homes of our Supreme Court justices?  Consider all this your introduction to socialist governance.

Democrats' Anti-Democratic Delusions Require Population Control.  Population control — whether seen as the strict limiting of a population's growth or as the strict regulation of a population's freedom — touches every hot-button political issue of today.  Will taxpayers be forced to fund abortion?  Will female athletes be forced to compete against men?  Will citizens be forced to take experimental vaccines?  Will Americans be forced to pay soaring gas prices until they either become too impoverished to own a personal vehicle or reluctantly choose to invest $60,000 in a new electric automobile dependent upon an aging electrical grid powered by natural gas and coal?

Senate Democrats Pushing $500 Billion Climate, Obamacare Package.  Senate Democrats want to pass a $500 billion package that would include major reforms to health care, climate change, and taxes, according to a report.  NBC News reported that Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who was primarily responsible for tanking the Build Back Better Act, continues to hold talks with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a reconciliation package that would spend $500 billion and raise $1 trillion in revenue.  The package would primarily focus on health care, energy, and taxes.  One source told NBC News that the "ceiling" for climate change funding would be capped at $300 billion, making it a significant fixture of the package.

The LGBT Hostile Work Environment.  On May 31, 2022, President Biden delivered to the American people "A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, And Intersex Pride Month 2022."  A presidential proclamation is a directive that grants to the chief executive of the United States certain powers of mandatory ceremony and observance.  The power of presidential proclamations is especially operative in enforcing mandatory observances in the federal military and civilian workplaces, as those are the domains over which the president holds direct constitutional authority. [...] Biden rages:  "An onslaught of dangerous anti-LGBTQI+ legislation has been introduced and passed in States across the country, targeting transgender children and their parents, and interfering with their access to health care.  The unconscionable attacks have left countless LGBTQI+ families in fear and pain."  The unconscionable attackers whom Biden's proclamation vilifies are otherwise known as the American people.  He is outraged at the diversity of viewpoint about the needs of children, and he attacks the American people in the strongest terms for resisting sexuality indoctrination of children.

Democrats don't want anyone to succeed.  The number one projection you hear from Democrats today is how Republicans are extremists who threaten democracy and individual rights.  But if one takes a close look at Republicans and the Right, their positions have remained consistent over the years — promoting small government, lower taxes, and individual responsibility.  It's the Democrats who have become the extremists by calling for bigger and more government every election cycle, more spending and more regulation.  And now calls for censorship by the Left continue to grow.  It's the stuff of socialism that's morphing into a kind of soft communism, which would explain the Democrats' affinity for all things China.  The final proof is the fact that the Biden presidency is really the Sanders/AOC presidency that totally controls the agenda primarily in the form of the Green New Deal.  It is nothing but big government socialism disguised as planetary salvation.

Biden Is Going Green, Even if It Kills Us.  Hubris can get us all killed.  The Biden administration's determination to make its climate agenda a central factor in U.S. foreign policy could be the greatest threat to human survival in our times.  This leap into the climate-change rabbit hole has distracted the White House from the old-fashioned — but painfully present — task of making sure Americans are not devastated by a major war.  By stirring partisan politics and dubious science into their recipe for national security, this administration risks getting the single most important responsibility of the federal government horribly wrong.  For starters, their climate agenda lacks legitimacy.  Declaring that it is validated by "settled" science neither settles the science nor validates their agenda.

Despite Record Gas Prices, Biden Rejects New Drilling in Atlantic and Pacific.  Joe Biden has proven once again that he has no interest in reducing the record-high costs of gasoline, which have gone up throughout his time in office.  Biden not only wants to block all new oil drilling in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but he's also taking steps to shut down exploration of oil and gas on federal lands.  "A plan released Friday shows the White House proposed no more than 10 potential lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, an option for one potential lease sale in the northern portion of the Cook Inlet of Alaska, and no lease sales for the Atlantic or Pacific planning areas over the 2023-2028 period," reports Breitbart.  This plan is not finalized, however, but any potential areas of exploration or sale not mentioned in the proposal will reportedly be off-limits from 2023-2028.

Biden administration unveils oil and gas drilling plans, gutting Trump-era framework.  The Biden administration published its long-awaited five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan Friday one day after missing its June deadline.  The Department of the Interior (DOI) plan included the possibility of the federal government holding up to 11 lease sales off the coast of Alaska and in the Gulf of Mexico over the five-year period between 2023-2028.  However, the plan also put forward the option of the federal government holding no lease sales in that same time period.  "From Day One, President Biden and I have made clear our commitment to transition to a clean energy economy," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement. [...] The plan didn't include any potential sales in the Atlantic or Pacific, effectively blocking drilling off the east and west coasts.  In the first version of the DOI plan, the Trump administration sought to hold a total of 47 sales across the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska's coasts.

New York Moves to Nullify Supreme Court Decision Upholding Gun Rights.  Writing for the majority in Bruen, Justice Clarence Thomas struck down New York's century-old requirement that an applicant for a handgun carry permit demonstrate a "special need" if he wanted to carry for self-defense.  New York's licensing process was entirely discretionary and arbitrary, and in many jurisdictions, licensing officers simply refused to issue permits for self-defense.  This was particularly true in New York City, where applicants were routinely and summarily rejected unless they were politically connected or celebrities — such as Howard Stern, Donald Trump, and Don Imus.  In other jurisdictions, licensing officers simply invented acceptable reasons on a whim, often issuing handgun licenses for "hunting and target shooting" only, if at all.  (In one rural upstate county, a former judge who had authority as a licensing officer invented a requirement that he would not allow any permit-holder to have more than five handguns without appearing before him personally and giving a "good reason.")  In Bruen, Justice Thomas ruled that these arbitrary restrictions were unconstitutional and violated the Second Amendment's guarantee to keep "and bear" arms for self-defense, ordering New York State and New York City to issue concealed carry permits to qualified applicants for that reason.

New York Democrats Ignore Supreme Court Ruling and Ban Guns Just About Everywhere.  New York Democrats in the state legislature were called into special session by Gov. Kathy Hochul in order to deal with an emergency situation.  The U.S. Supreme Court had thrown out New York's restrictive gun licensing law that made it nearly impossible for a citizen to carry a weapon for self-defense, and Democrats were experiencing near-apoplexy.  Their paradise was about to be invaded by a bunch of gun-toting, whiskey-swilling, cowboy-hat-wearing yahoos.  (That's their vision of anyone wanting a concealed carry permit, anyway).  They solved their problem by passing another gun law.

New York moves toward enshrining abortion, LGBTQ rights in state constitution.  New York is taking the first step toward enshrining abortion access and LGBTQ rights in the state's constitution following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.  The Democrat-led Legislature began the process of passing an amendment Friday to expand the state's constitutional protections during a special session initially called by Gov. Hochul to strengthen the state's gun laws in response to a separate Supreme Court ruling.

The Cry-Baby Leftist Mind.  Modern progressives assume moral and intellectual authority.  Consequently, their supposedly superior ends naturally justify almost any means necessary to achieve them.  Among the elite, the Democrats' "blue-wall" states were once considered a testament to the wisdom of the Electoral College.  When that wall crumbled in 2016 to Donald Trump, the Electoral College suddenly was blasted as a relic of our anti-democratic founders.  The nine-person Supreme Court was once beloved.  On issues like abortion, school prayer, same-sex marriage, pornography, and Miranda rights, the Left cheered the Court as it made the law and ignored legislatures and presidents.

Delusional Democrats Advance 'Transgender Bill of Rights'.  A group of House Democrats made the politically questionable decision to advance a proposal they call the "Transgender Bill of Rights" on Tuesday.  Apparently, it's not enough that all signs point to them getting utterly crushed, destroyed, wrecked, and annihilated in the November midterms; these Democrats must want people to poke their party's smoldering corpse with sticks afterward. [...] Can these Democrats really be this willfully blind to the deep resentment Americans feel for being forced to "celebrate" a freaky, creepy delusional mental illness?  For example, recent polls have shown that U.S. voters overwhelmingly (61%) approve of Florida's Parental Rights in Education law and oppose "transgender" females competing against girls and women in athletics.

Five Things The GOP Must Do To Win In November And Stay In Power.  Among other unforced errors, Biden and the Democrats have destroyed our economy, irrevocably damaged our national security by opening our borders, and have thoroughly deprived millions of Americans of their basic rights in an alleged attempt to protect us in an unwinnable battle against a Chinese virus.  One need not look any further than the devastating surge we're currently seeing in gasoline prices for evidence of the Democrats' complete implosion, and it seems clear the results they're achieving were indeed intentional.  As a result, and coming as no surprise to anyone other than Democrats themselves, Americans are vocally rejecting the Democrats' socialist, climate alarmist, and racist agenda.  In virtually every demographic that is tracked — including a remarkable renunciation of their policies from Hispanics, traditionally one of the most loyally Democratic groups in the country — Americans are abandoning Democrats in droves.

It's more than just pain at the pump.  Despite the United States being energy independent when President Biden assumed office, we are now paying record prices for petroleum products that are contributing to near-record inflation once termed by his administration as only "transitory."  The mere fact that the President is now blaming Putin for the energy crisis and begging Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for gasoline illustrates his administration's extreme naiveite and disjointed energy and national security strategy.  Even if his administration desires to go "green," his means to achieve that goal is both foolhardy, disjointed, and dangerous to our national security.

Is the Green Agenda Being Forced Upon Us by Accident?  The Left hates oil and gas, beef (and chicken, and all meat), and coal [and concrete and air conditioning and DDT and nuclear power and CO2 and natural gas and styrofoam and plastic bags].  But millions of Americans don't believe the hysterical Leftist claims that these things are destroying the planet.  What to do about these folks?  A number of suspicious recent incidents suggest that some people have decided to take matters into their own hands and force compliance with the green agenda by leaving us no other choice.

How can we fix things if you don't get involved?  Joe Biden and his puppet masters want to destroy fossil fuel use in the name of an unproven theory called "man-made global climate change."  Not only do they refuse to admit their guilt for the current crisis, but they don't seem to understand the unintended consequences of their actions.  Or the backlash in future elections.  In order to solve a problem, one must first understand complicity.  There is no redemption if there is no admission of guilt, and then remorseful contrition.  Every problem has a solution, and every error can be rectified.  Redemption would be signaled by gas prices returning to Trump-era levels, including energy independence.  Since the party in power doesn't understand cause and effect, or the Democrats intentionally sabotaged a successful economy, redemption won't grace our nation until the culprits have all left Washington.  On both sides of the aisle.

Biden sneaking amnesty through for a million illegal border crossers.  Who says crime doesn't pay?  When you can cross the border illegally, and not only be allowed to stay here, collect big benefits, and actually be allowed to apply for citizenship as a reward for your lawbreaking, why wouldn't you come without papers instead of come the legal way?  You'd be a fool not to.  Applying legally and waiting years for entry at great personal expense with no adjacent benefits is a fool's errand, given the Biden administration's current policies.  That's the shocking reality revealed in a report from the Washington Examiner showing that the Biden administration is now .... ever so quietly ... dropping charges against tens of thousands of unvetted illegal border crossers and visa overstayers, leaving them with clean records and incredibly, the "right" to apply for green cards and U.S. citizenship.  If the current pace of that continues, at least a million are going to be effectively amnestied by 2024, the Examiner reports.

Biden declares war on nicotine while giving addicts crack pipes.  As Americans grapple with sky-high prices at the pump, the worst rate of inflation in more than four decades, increasing crime, a wide-open southern border, a surge in fentanyl deaths, a baby formula shortage, a looming food crisis, a plunging stock market, rolling brownouts, and many other pressing problems, the Biden administration has set its sights on waging war on nicotine.  This week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it "plans to develop a proposed product standard that would establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products" and that it has "issued marketing denial orders (MDOs) to JUUL Labs Inc. for all of their products currently marketed in the United States."  For those keeping track, these anti-nicotine measures follow the Biden administration's proposal to ban menthol cigarettes, which was announced by the FDA in April.

Biden Administration Moves to Expand Title IX to Eliminate Gender-Exclusive College Facilities, Sports Teams.  The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed changes to the federal civil-rights statute banning sex discrimination in federally funded education programs, including expanding protections to sexual orientation and gender identity.  One proposed change "would make clear that preventing any person from participating in an education program or activity consistent with their gender identity would subject them to more than de minimis harm on the basis of sex and therefore be prohibited, unless otherwise permitted by Title IX or the regulations."  If adopted, the rule change would bar universities any other federally funded institutions from maintaining men and women's sports and sex-segregated spaces like locker rooms and dormitories.

Now That Country's Problems are Solved, the Democrats Pass One of the Most Useless Bills in American History.  Now that America's problems are solved and there is no more rampant inflation, gas prices are at reasonable levels, the border is secure, and the economy is picking back up, House Democrats have decided to pass a thoroughly unnecessary bill for no other reason that optics.  It turns out women can become president, the bill states, as if we didn't already know from Geraldine Ferraro and Sarah Palin running as vice presidential candidates or the candidacy of the Trump-vanquished Hillary Clinton.  The Democrats also wanted to make sure that LGBTQIA+ people could become president, as if there were any doubt about their eligibility for the office.  "The House passed a bill on Tuesday that seeks to revise federal law and clarify that women and LGBTQ Americans can be president of the United States," the Hill reported.  "The legislation, dubbed the 21st Century President Act, passed by voice vote.  It also passed the House by voice vote in the last Congress."

Biden Celebrates His Green Policies that Will "Take Millions of Cars Off the Road".  Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered remarks on soaring gas prices from his fake White House set in the South Court Auditorium.  Biden repeated the same lies in his speech and blamed Vladimir Putin for high gas prices.  "Let's remember how we got here:  Putin invaded Ukraine," said Biden.  This is a lie.  Gas prices spiked before Putin invaded Ukraine.

Biden Admin Quietly Nukes Trump-Era 'Transparency' Initiative Tracking Settlements And Payouts To Left-Wing Activists.  President Joe Biden's Department of the Interior (DOI) has quietly rolled back a Trump-era "transparency and accountability" order creating a public litigation website so people can track details pertaining to lawsuits from outside interest groups that Republicans argue cost taxpayers unwieldy sums.  Interior Secretary Deb Haaland revoked the order, which was issued in September 2018, on Friday.  The order made details concerning settlements and consent decrees, as well as cash amounts paid to lawyers of private entities, accessible online.  The website was scrubbed following the Biden revocation order and sought to "alleviate" any concerns by the public that it may not have a voice in "policymaking."  It made the Office of the Solicitor and the Office of the Chief Information Officer "post" a "searchable list" of final decrees and settlements "that continue to govern departmental actions," according to the Trump order.

Congressman Troy Nehls To Introduce Bill To Rescind Biden's Executive Order Requiring All States To Offer Gender Transition Therapy To Minors.  This week Congressman Troy Nehls will introduce the "Stop Child Abuse Act," seeking to rescind the Executive order signed by President Biden on June 15, which prohibits individual state governments from banning the use of gender transition therapies in minor children and removes the states' right to govern independently.  Biden signed the Executive Order on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals as part of his administration's plan to further the cause of the LGBTQI+ community in America.  According to the executive order, the administration seeks to "protect LGBTQI+ individuals' access to medically necessary care," including gender transition therapies such as hormones and surgical intervention for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria.

Biden's energy hypocrisy.  Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail in 2020 that he would "transition away from the oil industry," convert to 100 percent "clean" energy by 2035, and "end fossil fuels."  Shortly after taking office, he started to make good on this pledge by suspending all new gas and oil leases on federal property and ending the Keystone XL pipeline.  Now, faced with gas prices at a record high $5 per gallon and runaway inflation — aka the consequences of his own actions — Biden is looking for an off-ramp.

The Dem's Inflation-Fighting Plan Is A Cruel Joke.  "Today the Democratic House takes a strong step to bring down crucial kitchen table costs of the pump and grocery store and across the board."  That's the transcript of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor before all but five of her fellow Democrats voted for the "Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act" last week.  Pelosi's garbled syntax aside, the only thing this bill would lower is the public's trust in anything Democrats say these days.  Despite its title, this bill would expand government but do nothing — repeat, nothing — to lower prices today, tomorrow, or any time in the future.

The Democrats vs.  Morality.  The list of debaucheries Democrats' champion is long.  They offer a dark, vulgar, inverted world:  Criminals are victims, and victims are disregarded.  Democrat-run cities teem with hoodlums and worse.  Cities are becoming illicit drug sanctuaries.  The homeless (mentally and emotionally disturbed, drug and/or alcohol addicted) roam streets like extras from the Walking Dead.  Abortion is no longer about being "legal, safe, and rare."  It's naked infanticide.  Institutional corruption appears endemic (the FBI, DoJ, and much of corporate America, for example).  Decades-old sexual permissiveness was the gateway to today's spreading sexual perversion. [...] Marxism, including its offshoots (fascism is one such), wherever tried, has led to ruin.  Traditional Russia was destroyed by communists.  Lenin and Stalin killed millions, smashed faith and family, relentlessly terrorized populaces, and bequeathed to generations of Russians a gutted society.  Recovery will be long coming, if ever.

Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor to Host Webinar on the 'Power of Trans Inclusion' in the Workforce.  The Women's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Labor is set to hold a webinar titled "Equity in the Workplace — The Power of Trans Inclusion in the Workforce," where attendees will hear from leftwing activists.  The Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, which is hosting the event, was created "to safeguard the interests of working women; to advocate for their equality and economic security for themselves and their families; and to promote quality work environments."

The Editor says...
Encouraging the acceptance of transvestites in the workplace does not "promote quality work environments."

The Biden Administration's Push to Normalize Drug Use Will Result in More Deaths.  We have been covering several stories related to the escalation of drug deaths across the country, namely due to fentanyl (now the leading cause of death for young Americans).  In a normal world, there would be a push to stem the recreational use of powerful narcotics.  However, the Biden administration and progressives across the country are pressing to normalize drug use.  For example, we reported that Biden's Health and Human Services department provided $30 million in funding to dole out crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its 'Harm Reduction Plan.'  In the same piece, we noted that Biden's Department of Justice says it might be open to allowing safe injection sites, which are places where people can shoot up heroin and other narcotics.

Why Biden's Attacks On Energy Are "Absolutely Insane".  Last month, Biden officials eased sanctions on Venezuela with an eye to increasing oil imports.  Next month, Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia with the intention of improving relations and increasing oil production. [...] But none of those actions will lower energy prices.  Increasing oil production in Venezuela would take years and it wouldn't be nearly enough to make up for the reduction of oil imports from Russia.  Even Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates together could not produce enough oil to offset declining supply from Russia.  And it's not clear how antagonizing American oil and gas companies will result in more production and lower prices.  U.S. refineries are already operating at 94% of their capacity and Exxon invested $50 billion over the last five years to expand oil production by 50%.

Joe Biden to sign order for LGBTQ+ inclusive schools, foster system.  President Biden will mark Pride Month Wednesday by mandating that federal agencies craft "inclusive" school policies and ensure that same-sex couples and transgender adults can foster children.  Biden will sign an executive order that includes various other gay and transgender rights initiatives at an afternoon White House event with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the first Senate-approved openly gay cabinet member.  Other provisions instruct the Federal Trade Commission to look into whether the phrase "conversion therapy" amounts to deceptive marketing and order the Department of Health and Human Services to draft a "Bill of Rights for LGBTQ+ Older Adults."  A Biden administration official told reporters that the president will use the signing event to condemn recent legislation in Republican-led states that restricts the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity.  A Florida law restricts such topics in kindergarten through third grade.

Team of Fools:  Biden's Cabinet Picks Prove He is Unfit to Lead.  I have written extensively about Biden's shortcomings.  Nothing exceeds his capacity for choosing the wrong people. [...] Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, for example.  "Granholm's credentials for the job appear to be that she has swallowed Biden's climate agenda hook, line, and sinker, and especially his affection for electric vehicles," says Liz Peek.  "It certainly wasn't her deep understanding of U.S. energy markets.  She apparently knows nothing about U.S. oil production or how world energy markets work." She believes that climate is the nation's number one challenge.

American Individualism Is Being Extinguished By The New Elite.  [Scroll down]  One doesn't have to look too deeply to see the manifestations of this puppet society.  From carbon copy propaganda outlets masquerading as news agencies to outrageous bureaucratic efforts to snuff out the rights and autonomy of the individual.  The aristocracy that we fought long and hard to be rid of is back with an unholy vengeance.  The new aristocrats demand a renewed acceptance of their superior station along with a vastly diminished standard of living for the average person.  Their war on the middle class and the Bill of Rights is so thoroughly immoral that it's difficult for most people to believe it's happening.  Their arsenal includes endless crises, wars, pandemics, social unrest, and fraud.  The very air we breathe is their greatest weapon.  They frighten people into believing that it will not sustain a livable environment for even ten more years if we can't learn to live without meat, heat, freedom, and autonomy.  They then renew the threat every decade with a slightly different tenor and tone.

Biden Senior Climate and Energy Policy Advisor Demands Social Media Companies Immediately Block Content Identifying Biden Policy as Source of Energy Inflation.  As things in society start to collapse; and as people begin to really feel the inflationary consequences of the Biden energy policy in action; suddenly all of those 'talking points' about shutting down the fossil fuel industry take on a new meaning.  People didn't realize the Green New Deal was going to mean $10/doz eggs, $15/gal milk, $20 happy meals at McDonalds, or $150/tank of gasoline.  Now they are paying attention.  For former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the current senior climate and energy policy advisor within the White House, all of these 'in your face' surfacing Green New Deal consequences have become problematic for the Biden administration.  Her proposed solution, however, is rather remarkable.  In this interview discussing the skyrocketing inflation and consequences created by the Green New Deal policies, Gina McCarthy urgently begs all of the social media companies to start removing the content from American people who are giving real world examples of the pain and economic hardship they are feeling.  McCarthy says that if social media do not start to help Joe Biden hide the pain, the climate change agenda might be at risk.  [Video clip]

The Green New Deal crashes into the rocks.  What a surprise!  Carbon-based energy is much more important than we were led to believe.  A slight reduction in domestic resource development has sent seismic shock waves throughout our economy.  Bottom line:  Folks are often willing to go along with calls for sacrifice... unless and until they are made to really suffer. [...] The obvious question is:  how will this all play out?  The corrupt news media will likely go even farther in its over-the-top hysterical portrayal of ordinary weather events, trends, and hiccups.  As in [Michael] Crichton's novel, [State of Fear,] what used to be a typical seasonal phenomenon — hurricanes — are now being portrayed as cataclysmic events, even though the last 140 years have seen no significant trend up or down in frequency.  And yet, the EPA claims the opposite, even though most of its sources show stability instead.  That's what you get when you rely on corrupt government scientists.

Is Biden Purposely Raising Gas Prices to Fuel His Green Agenda?  The national gas average hit a new record of $5.00 a gallon this week, and it doesn't look like prices are going to fall anytime soon.  Americans are frustrated with President Joe Biden's lies about the economy, and many believe he is at fault for their wallets shrinking.  A new poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group found that over 53 percent of people "believe the Biden administration is intentionally letting gas prices rise to make Americans use less fossil fuels."  While 56 percent of voters agreed that the high fuel prices is Biden's fault.  Gas prices have nearly doubled since Biden took office just over a year ago when the national average price was just $2.39.

Your Pain at the Pump Is Biden's Plan.  June 9, 2022 — a day that will live in infamy.  That's the day that the national average for gasoline officially broke $5.00 a gallon.  And, yes, Joe Biden did that!  Gas prices have more than doubled since Biden took office, and they have been breaking new records day after day after day.  Some California gas stations are approaching $10 a gallon.  Sadly, your pain at the pump is only going to get worse.  But here's what you must understand and what you must help your friends and family members to understand:  Your pain at the pump isn't an accident.  It's all part of Joe Biden's plan.  High energy prices are the predictable, desired, and deliberate result of the Democrat jihad against the American energy industry.  They are an essential element of their "climate change" agenda.

Biden's WHO Takeover.  The Biden administration's bid to surrender American control over public health emergencies in the United States to the World Health Organization fell short at the UN's 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva last month, but there is no reason to believe Biden won't try again.  This drive is part of our illegitimate placeholder president's effort to undo all the good things that former President Donald Trump accomplished.  Trump slashed U.S. funding of WHO and served notice the country would pull out of the Communist Chinese-influenced agency, but Joe Biden aims to super-charge WHO's authority in world affairs by amending an international pandemic treaty known as the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005.  Of course, WHO is a bureaucratic monstrosity, a purveyor of leftist horror propaganda that, like its parent, the United Nations, should not exist.

The Subordinate Citizen.  The Biden administration blasted the Trump southern border wall and canceled all further funding.  Yet it just appropriated $40 billion to Ukraine to ensure that it does not lose its border war against Russian aggression.  That is a tiny percentage of the federal budget.  But the aid is full of symbolic irony, nonetheless.  The multibillion-dollar appropriation would have more than covered the completion of the entire wall along our own southern border.  An outside observer might conclude that the U.S. government intends to uphold the universal idea of national sovereignty, internationally recognized borders, and the security of citizens inside their own country — as long as they are not American citizens.

How Democrats and dark money are plotting to blow up the Supreme Court.  After Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election to Donald Trump, Brian Fallon needed a job.  Fallon had served as Clinton's national press secretary during the campaign, and before that he had done the same job for my colleague Chuck Schumer in the Senate.  For a while, his reputation around Washington, DC, was stellar.  He was, according to a lengthy profile in the Daily Beast, "one of the most sought-after operatives in Democratic politics: a brass-knuckle brawler with experience at the highest levels of government, a cellphone filled with the top journalists in town, and a reputation for being preternaturally on message." But something changed in Fallon after Clinton's loss to Donald Trump.  He became less interested in traditional politics, giving up a role as a commentator on CNN, and more interested in ways of putting pressure on Democrats to take radical action.  By 2018, two years into President Trump's first term, Fallon and his friends in Democratic politics had seen some of their party's core ideas repudiated time and time again at the ballot box.  They had lost the game of electoral politics.  So, they figured, they would change the rules of the game to give themselves a better chance of winning.

Bernie Sanders Thinks Democrats Need to Spend Trillions More or Lose the Midterms.  There's a blessed consistency to the solutions radical left-wing Democrats have offered for America's problems.  As far back as the 1960s, liberal Democrats have been agitating for the government to "spend more money."  In the '60s, it was spending six zeroes more for the government's schemes.  But that just won't do for today's government Gargantua.  Today we must speak in terms of nine zeroes to solve any problem created when the government was spending only six zeroes.  Senator Bernie Sanders remembers when he was agitating for the government to spend billions of dollars on the welfare state in the 1960s.  There were warnings from mainstream economists back then too — that such massive spending would lead to inflation.  Of course, it did.  The creation of the welfare state in the '60s — and the monopolistic practices of the OPEC oil cartel — led to the last "Great Inflation" of the late 1970s and early 1980s.  It was a no-brainer then and it's a no-brainer now.

The Biden administration's feckless diesel policy.  Ordinary Americans are feeling the pain from high gas prices but the real problem is skyrocketing diesel prices and, helped along by looming shortages.  Nevertheless, the Biden administration is doing nothing to solve the problem.  How can Biden and his buddies on the left not realize that America runs on diesel fuel in the over-the-road trucks that deliver our food, pharmaceuticals, building supplies, and even the gasoline and diesel delivered to filling stations?  The short answer is that they do realize the harm that they are doing to the economy but they do not care.  Perhaps thanks to Hunter Biden's business plans, Joe Biden plans to force Chinese solar panel power on Americans, whether they want it — or can afford it — or not.  There's no room in that plan for addressing the high fuel costs that the "great unwashed" are enduring.  Biden and his administration may avert their eyes but, when the price of diesel fuel soars, trucking and material supply companies will pass those rising costs directly to consumers in the form of rising food prices.

What would it take for the White House to commit treason?  A number of prior actions by the Biden administration directly harmed rather than helped the U.S.  These injurious executive decisions include suppression of domestic oil and natural gas production (note current gas prices); opening the southern border to a massive wave of illegal immigration, deadly drugs, and human-trafficking; fabricating a COVID scam that destroyed public trust in Washington; mandates that nullified the Bill of Rights; printing trillions of fiat dollars; abrogation of rule of law causing the current crime wave; and promotion of anti-white racism CRT (Critical Race Theory).  While all these actions hurt the American people and are frankly anti-American, they do not satisfy the definition of treason:  "betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government."  But what the White House is currently planning behind closed doors may be a different story.

Biden Continues Obama's 'Fundamental Transformation' of America.  [Scroll down]  Obama's gaslighting strategy has become the Democrats' overall approach.  We're told that we don't actually see what we see.  Or if we do see it, it's not their fault.  Or if it is their fault, it's for our own good.  On every issue — job creation, gas prices, inflation, immigration, crime, foreign policy — Democrats aren't telling us what can't happen; they're telling us what they won't let happen.

Just Stop It!  Donald Trump left us with production elasticity and as net exporters of energy.  Biden deliberately blew it up because the administration fully supports the big lie that is the Climate Change/Green agenda.  The Climate Change movement has nothing to do with saving the environment and has everything to do with the collapse of our economy and the rise of globalist domination once America is neutered.  Greens, to that end, use misguided and disproven arguments that fossil fuel use must be immediately curtailed to save the planet.  Greens do not care if people starve or freeze, even though they have no workable replacement for our total energy needs.  Greens block all nuclear power options, which would be a clean solution, further demonstrating that their goal is economic collapse and not climate.  Biden cut, and now refuses to expand, US energy production, yet he is trying to convince the Saudis to pump more oil to alleviate the crisis he created.

If Biden Intended To Destroy America, What Would He Be Doing Differently?  [Scroll down]  He set off a 40-decade-high inflation spiral with his $2 trillion "rescue" plan.  He exacerbated supply-chain problems by paying people not to work.  He threw open the borders to millions of illegal immigrants.  He needlessly kept COVID mandates and restrictions in place.  He worsened shortages of baby formula and spiking gasoline prices.  He encouraged foreign adversaries with his disastrous Afghanistan retreat.  In every instance, Biden has said he and his top officials were "caught off guard."  In other words, his is pleading incompetence.  The public has picked up on this, which is why most Americans now believe that "incompetent" is the word that best describes this president.  But incompetence doesn't do Biden justice.  In every case, Biden knew, or should have known, what would happen if he pushed his policies.  Yet he did so anyway.  On inflation, even liberal economists were warning that Biden's reckless $2 trillion "rescue" plan — which he signed after the economy had already roared back to life — would set off a '70s-style inflationary spiral.

The dystopian state of our nation.  The illegitimate Biden administration is the worst thing that has ever happened to the United States.  He, his handlers, and his mind-numbingly incompetent Cabinet appointees have brought this country to its lowest point in modern history, domestically and internationally.  We are suffering a massive third-world invasion on our southern border.  The Russian incursion into Ukraine was incited by Biden and his cronies, the ones who get rich on war.  We were energy independent under Trump, but Biden put a stop to that on day one and so must go begging to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela for oil.  Meanwhile, the price of gasoline for Americans has doubled.  The Democrats are thrilled.  They have wanted this for a decade.  The new press secretary-reader thinks that because gas prices are high in other nations, we should be happy; we've caught up with the rest of the world.  But the greenies in this administration could not care less about the environment.  They are interested only in power and control over us all.  The "climate crisis" is as big a hoax as Russian collusion.  Like the "pandemic" and all its unconstitutional restrictions, it's all about power, control, and greed.

Biden Accelerating Obama's Push for a 'Woke' Military, Undermining Combat Readiness, Analysts Say.  As the U.S. military rolls out its new Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT), which imposes different physical standards and requirements for men and women, longtime defense analysts and observers say that the military's push for diversity and inclusion — a trend that accelerated under President Barack Obama and that the Biden administration aggressively carries forward — undermines combat training and readiness.  "The Biden administration has assigned priority to diversity, inclusion, and equity as the primary criteria.  That is a key decision and from it flows everything else that is problematic" in the military today, said Elaine Donnelly, founder and president of the Center for Military Readiness, a public policy organization in Livonia, Michigan.  Donnelly views the Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2021 released by the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) as providing a good measure of the new priorities.  The plan's "Strategic Objective 2" is "Educate USSOCOM professionals and leaders to help facilitate and sustain a diverse and inclusive culture."  Another of its goals is to "Increase hiring rates of diverse applicants."

Progressive America is the Twilight Zone.  Real Clear Politics' average for "Direction of Country" polls is currently an eye-popping wrong track, 70.7%, while right direction stands at a paltry 22.4%.  Other than D.C. lifers, welfare moochers, and people wanting their college debt loans erased, who are these 22%?  And who, this side of lobotomies, is the smaller percentage of "not sure?"  America's accelerating tumbling is the handiwork of a corrupt, ideologically driven, incompetent — dare say, venal — elite.  Don't doubt that most of the incompetence stems from an irreparably flawed leftist worldview and age-old, mind-twisting power- and money-lust.  A calamitous, destructive, painful descent is happening before our eyes.

Biden Administration Declare[s] National Emergency for Clean Energy Production.  Earlier today [6/6/2022], Joe Biden, working toward the agenda of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Wall Street multinationals, and the radical climate change activists within the far left of the socialist democrat party, declared a national emergency around the issue of U.S. energy prices and policies.  On the front side of the justification, the people in control of the Biden administration, claim that current and future increases in energy prices are likely to do severe damage to the economy and the lives of all Americans.  However, in the background of the issue, this is the 'never let a crisis go to waste' phase of an energy crisis the administration has intentionally created.  The real goal is to fundamentally transform the foundation of the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels and into a new era of clean renewable energy.  This is what all of the Biden cabinet officers now refer to as the "economic transition" phase.

National Socialist Media:  It's Only A Coincidence We Want To Confiscate Guns Like The Nazis.  We're not supposed to notice that the collectivist actions of one nation's socialist party just happen to mimic the actions of other nation's socialist parties or one particular National Socialist German Workers' Party, that's just a coincidence, don't pay any attention to that.  Have you ever noticed that our esteemed national socialist media spends an inordinate amount of time attacking anyone who dares to compare their collectivist actions to other collectivists?  Have you also noticed that you can be sure a socialist nation has failed when our nation's socialist media suddenly decides that it was somehow, someway 'right-wing'?  Their severe difficulty in always trying to push these lies is that all of these socialist nations have certain characteristics in common that simply don't exist with countries imbued in the pro-freedom right.  The most glaring example is the parallels with the government of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, with gun control.

Of course it's intentional, but Biden is only doing what he's told.
GOP sharpens a new attack line:  What Biden is doing to America is 'intentional'.  Rep. Jim Jordan is never one to mince words.  So when asked why President Joe Biden was willing to risk children losing their federally subsidized school lunches just to force schools to adopt new LGBTQ-plus agendas, the Ohio Republican gave a razor sharp answer.  "It makes no sense," Jordan told Just the News during an interview Friday on the John Solomon Reports podcast.  "That tells you this is intentional."  After more than a year of attacking Biden as a commander in chief who is bumbling, incompetent, prone to foot-in-mouth, rambling until he is lost, and mentally challenged, Republicans have changed tack as they head into crucial midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.  Now, the most unpopular features of the current American scene — high gas and food prices, transgender mandates and the open border among them — are relentlessly painted as part of the president's and Democrats' deliberate policies.

This country doesn't need solar panels.  It needs petroleum.  QmlkZW4gaXMgYW4gaWRpb3Qh
Biden will trigger DPA, waive tariffs for two years on solar panels to boost productions.  President Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to spur domestic production of clean energy technology and order a two-year tariff exemption on solar panels imported from Southeast Asian countries in a bid to tackle rising energy prices.  The move will accelerate production of solar panel parts, building insulation, heat pumps that more efficiently regulate the climate in buildings and equipment for making fuel cells and other electricity-generated fuels.  Mr. Biden also will waive tariffs on solar panels imported from four Southeast Asian countries in a move to nudge Americans toward green alternatives amid rising energy prices.

Tucker Carlson:  Biden's Lunatic War Against Putin [is] Crushing The U.S. Economy.  Let's say just for the sake of a mind experiment, that you're the secretary of transportation for the United States of America.  That's a big job, but what would you do all day?  Well, [...] your first concern would be the price of diesel fuel.  Diesel fuel is what makes transportation possible in this country. [...] Your second concern, if you were transportation secretary, would be domestic air travel.  This is a huge country.  It's far too big a country not to have reliable commercial flights from one place to another. [...] So, that's what you would be worried about if you were the secretary — diesel and airlines — and yet, remarkably, in less than a year and a half under Joe Biden, both of these things, fuel costs and air travel have gone dramatically in the wrong direction.  The price of diesel is now hit its highest price ever recorded in history. [...] Wasn't it just the other day that the United States was energy independent?  Yes, but now we're begging dictatorships to sell us oil, but it won't be enough.  Industry officials are predicting shortages very soon.  [Video clip]

The Naked Truth about Energy Transitions.  Today's climate-mongers, led by ideologues such as Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Jennifer Granholm, Elizabeth Warren, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to name a few, are so mindlessly shortsighted that they apparently can't think beyond the tips of their noses.  They demand we give up fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy, and they want it right now!  [Disregard] the consequences to you, me, and our country during the transition.  They know that they'll all be dead in fifty years, so they're not willing to let change happen incrementally, plus they have only two and a half years left of Joe's presidency to complete their build-back-worse strategy, and if some of these ideologues are true to their stated belief, we will all be dead in the next nine years because of global warming.  Therefore, we absolutely must accept their scripture and change our sinning ways to save the planet.  All the more reason they push us toward presumed energy nirvana before our extinction occurs.  These people are not patient or logical, so they never think ahead to imagine what could go wrong if they succeed with their mission to rewire the world in their image.

Jim Jordan on Inflation: 'Part of Me Says This Is Intentional' by Biden WH.  Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Friday blasted President Joe Biden and his administration for having created the record-high inflation and gas prices across the United States.  Jordan told Fox Business Network's "Varney & Company" that he was not as surprised as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said she was that inflation followed the "crazy" spending, paying people not to work and doing away with energy independence.  He suggested it was "intentional" by the White House.

Dem Rep. Mondaire Jones:  We Will Abolish The Filibuster, Expand The Supreme Court If Gun Control Is Not Passed.  Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) said at a Thursday hearing on recent mass shootings that Congress would abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court if the Democratic party's proposed gun control legislation does not pass.  "You will not stop us from advancing the Protecting Our Kids Act today," Jones said.  "You will not stop us from passing it in the House next week and you will not stop us there.  If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it.  If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it.  And we will not rest until we have taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities.  Each and every day we will do whatever it takes to end gun violence, whatever it takes."  [Video clip]

Rhode Island Democrat, David Cicilline, [reveals what he thinks] About Constitutional Rights.  The Rhode Island representative refused to yield his time during the outburst, while discussing legislation related to "red flag" laws, that would allow the government and law enforcement to confiscate firearms from anyone deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.  Florida congressman Matt Gaetz attempted to insert an amendment to the legislation stating "Congress disfavors the enactment of laws that authorize a court to issue an extreme risk protection order, also known as Red Flag laws, in the States because such laws trample on an individual's due process and Second Amendment rights."  [Video clip]

Joe Biden Says Radical Gun Control Should Be 'Central' to Voting in November.  President Joe Biden unleashed another passionate call for gun control, using the bully pulpit of the White House to make his case.  "Nothing has been done," Biden said.  "This time that cannot be true.  This time we must actually do something."  The president spoke about his proposals during a prime-time address from the White House, surrounded by candles representing the victims of mass shootings.  "For so many of you at home, I want to be very clear, this is not about taking away anyone's guns," Biden said before announcing he wanted to ban all "assault weapons" including AK-47s and AR-15s as well as magazines holding 30 rounds.

JPMorgan Chase CEO Warns to Prepare for Economic Hurricane as Biden Administration Switches U.S. Economy to Green New Deal Agenda.  JPMorgan Chase & Co.  Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon warned of a "hurricane" as the economy struggles against fiscally induced growth, quantitative tightening and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.  Mr Dimon was delivering remarks at a conference sponsored by Alliance Bernstein Holdings Wednesday.  Higher oil prices, higher fuel prices, higher energy prices and much higher food prices are all looming over the horizon as the Biden administration switches the baseline for the U.S economy from oil and gas to the Green New Deal energy program.  Things are going to get worse, the question is, how much worse?

Our Economic Misery Isn't an Accident, It's the Plan.  Americans can't afford to buy a used car or even gas because the Left doesn't want them to drive.  They can't buy homes because the Left wants to destroy the suburbs and force everyone to live in megacities.  They have trouble buying meat because the Left wants them to eat soy.  The same is true for the whole exercise in planned economic misery that we're experiencing.  Take Hoover's "A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage" and reverse it.  That's the goal.  What we're living through is not an unintentional accident:  it's the American Holodomor.  The Left doesn't want you to be able to drive, buy a home, or enjoy a burger.

There Is No Plan.  On May 30, Biden published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that explained "My Plan for Fighting Inflation." [...] Biden's Journal op-ed is a masterclass in passing the buck.  He doesn't bring up his "plan for fighting inflation" until midway through his thousand-word piece.  My inner college professor wanted to send the article back to him with suggestions for revision.  Number one:  Always move your best material to the top!  The plan itself is gauzy and thin.  "The Federal Reserve has a primary responsibility to control inflation."  You wouldn't know that from listening to Progressives, including some of Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve, who argue that the Fed's interest in price stability distracts it from promoting full employment, green energy, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.  Now Biden wants the Fed to correct not only its mistakes, but his own.

Democrats' safety agenda demonizes gun owners, coddles criminals, and defunds police.  In order to understand what Democrats are doing to this country, one must first understand that their new push for gun control is just one element of a three-part agenda to reshape day-to-day life in the United States.  Facing a brutal midterm election this fall, they believe that the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is their opportunity to change the subject.  Their problem, however, is that they have already made it too difficult to discuss the gun control issue in isolation, the way they could back in the late 1990s.  That's because today's Democrats have gone so far to the left, embracing a radical anti-law enforcement and anti-incarceration agenda that has become too big a national news story to hide.  At this point, many voters feel unsafe in their communities and know that no number of new gun laws can fix the problem.

Democrat Mondaire Jones:  Abolish the Filibuster, Pack Supreme Court to Pass Gun Control.  Progressive Democrat Mondaire Jones (D-NY) said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday that Democrats would go to extraordinary lengths to pass major gun control.  Jones spoke before the Judiciary Committee as House Democrats continue to consider gun control legislation.  During his impassioned speech, he said that Republicans cannot stop Democrats from passing said reform because Democrats would go to extreme lengths to pass gun control legislation.  This includes breaking the legislative filibuster and packing the Supreme Court.

Green Energy Chickens Coming Home to Roost.  This year will graphically demonstrate the malign consequences of the misguided efforts to replace cheap, reliable fossil fuel energy with unreliable, inefficient "renewable" energy like wind and solar.  Never in history has a civilization willfully embarked on destroying its material foundations, based solely on a hypothesis rather than scientifically established fact. [...] Here at home, warnings of electricity blackouts across the country this summer have not slowed down many states' increased efforts to shutter electrical plants powered by coal, natural gas, and nuclear fission.  In New York, Governor Kathy Holchul has announced the state's commitment to enforcing a requirement that new power plants must achieve "zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions for new construction no later than 2027."  This policy of wishful thinking follows New York's Climate Act of 2019, which requires that all power generation comes from "green" sources by 2040, including 70% from renewable energy by 2030.

Joe Biden Creates 'Office of Environmental Justice' for 'Communities of Color'.  President Joe Biden's administration announced Tuesday a new Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) to preserve "communities of color" from zoning restrictions and pollution, among other objectives.  The OEJ will report to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and will sit within the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at HHS, according to Xavier Becerra, secretary of HHS.  Biden created the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity in 2021 to stop the warming of the globe.

The Editor says...
Does Joe Biden believe he can stop global warming by setting up another layer of bureaucracy?

Dem Congressman Warns America:  We Will Stop at Nothing Until We Confiscate Your Guns.  Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY) warned law-abiding gun owners that Democrats will do everything in their power to ensure AR-15s and similar types of firearms are confiscated during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday [6/2/2022].  The hearing was to consider H.R. 7910, the "Protecting Our Kids Act," which would raise the legal age to purchase "certain semiautomatic centerfire rifles or semiautomatic centerfire shotguns" from 18 to 21 with "exceptions."  The bill will also "modernize the prohibition on untraceable firearms [and] encourage the safe storage of firearms."

Joe Biden's Train-Wreck Economy.  [Scroll down]  The only thing we know today is that the pre-existing status quo is gone.  When Joe Biden and Brian Deese say they want to transition to an economy with more "stable and resilient" growth, they are describing their alternative to the prepandemic froth.  That vision has two goals.  The first is to use taxes and government-guided capital investments to compensate for the widening spread between the incomes of knowledge-economy workers and everyone else.  The other goal, of course, is their great white whale — a non-fossil-fuel economy.  Growth, they assume, will be slower in their economy but somehow steadier and more predictable.  Substance aside, the progressive economic model is on its way down the political drain.  Mr. Biden admitted as much in Tokyo when he remarked that passing his Build Back Better agenda would have lowered child and family-care costs and tempered the effects of inflation.  Of course, it's not happening.  Still, this grand progressive experiment — a final choice between the U.S. as a welfare state or a growth state — came within one Senate vote of reality.

Trudeau takes another major step towards totalitarianism.  Last week marked the conclusion of the annual conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos, an event with particular focus on the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.  These goals, collectively known as Agenda 2030, are a set of objectives designed to be a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future."  The Agenda includes seventeen Goals, like "No Poverty" and "Zero Hunger" — however, underneath the facade of humanitarianism is a malevolent truth:  Agenda 2030 is nothing more than an assault on national sovereignty and common people by the power-hungry global aristocracy.  As you may recall, Klaus Schwab, president of the Forum said, "The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world."  Goal 16, Target 8 of the SDGs, is this:  "Broaden and strengthen the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance" — enter Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.  According to Schwab, more than half of Justin Trudeau's Cabinet are members of the Forum.  Just yesterday, Trudeau announced his regime would be implementing a "national freeze" on gun ownership, ultimately capping the amount of legal guns within Canadian borders.

'In the crosshairs': Department of Navy releases climate change strategy.  The Department of the Navy this week released its strategy for how it will deal with climate change and proceed toward the government's goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.  "Climate change is one of the most destabilizing forces of our time, exacerbating other national security concerns and posing serious readiness challenges," Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said in the introduction to the 32-page report.  "Our naval and amphibious forces are in the crosshairs of the climate crisis and this strategy provides the framework to empower us to meaningfully reduce the threat of climate change."  Setting the department on a course to combat climate change is a main priority of Del Toro's tenure.  He called the issue "existential" for the Navy and Marine Corps.

The Editor says...
The climate is constantly changing, at an imperceptibly slow rate.  The changes do not threaten anyone, especially the military.  The pronouncement by the Navy Secretary is a power grab and a demand for a bigger budget.  If our armed forces can be defeated by bad weather, this country is finished.

Biden Plans To Cancel $10,000 In Student Debt Per Borrower Ahead Of Midterms.  As soon as this weekend, President Biden could announce a plan to cancel $10k in student debt per borrower, according to WaPo, citing three people with knowledge of the matter.  Biden could make the announcement at the University of Delaware's commencement ceremony on Saturday.  The plan would apply to Americans who earned less than $150k in the previous year or less than 300k for married couples filing jointly.  On April 6, the White House announced it would extend the pause of federal student loan repayments through August 31.  It wasn't clear if the administration would extend the moratorium beyond this.

Also posted under Politicians use handouts to buy votes.

Biden student-loan forgiveness plan: $20,000 for households earning $300K per year?  So much for Scranton Joe looking out for the working class, eh?  While Joe Biden crows about the "incredible transition" he's forcing lower- and middle-class households to endure with hyperinflation and record gas prices, Biden's about to offer Academia a bail-out.  College-loan recipients could get $10,000 taken off the top of their debt as long as they earn under $150,000 per year, and married couples with loans for both could see a $20,000 benefit as long as they earn under $300K.

Why Team Biden might be purposefully grinding down the middle class.  Inflation is running rampant.  The Producer Price Index, the most useful measure of general inflation, is up a whopping 16.3% from April 2021, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  That means that roughly $1 out of every $6 that people earn has been lost to inflation in a single year. [...] Inflation comes when you have too much money chasing too few goods.  The spending part provided the excess money, but the Biden team was right there helping to ensure fewer goods, too.  Gas prices going up?  Not only was Biden's spending program stimulating inflation, but at the same time Biden policies were reducing the amount of gasoline, diesel and heating oil those dollars could buy.  Biden went wild canceling pipelines, ending gas and oil leases, imposing stricter environmental rules and — in cooperation with big institutional investors — choking off the finances of people trying to produce new fuel supplies.

Democrats' Domestic Terrorism Bill Actually Goes After Political Opponents.  Democrats are calling for a crackdown on domestic terrorism, but Republicans say their colleagues want to pass legislation that endangers the privacy of all Americans.  Democrats' proposed legislation is "nothing more than empowering the federal government to police thought and speech in the United States of America," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, says.  The House last week passed the bill, dubbed the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, days after a gunman in Buffalo, New York, shot and killed 10.  The bill is now before the Senate, which is expected to vote on it Thursday [5/26/2022].

The Sinister Roots of Build Back Better.  The foundation of the New Deal was found in the economic theory of John Maynard Keynes.  Keynes was a British economist who developed the theory of 'deficit spending' — the idea that the government going into debt would jump start the depressed economy which, then, would experience reinvigoration. [...] However, the Keynesian model has been weaponized under Build Back Better in a most sinister way.  The present shift is to make us more amenable to the globalist fantasies gaining popularity in recent decades to ensure a transition towards world governance and a cooperative world economy (rather than a competitive one) under the cloak of "meeting needs" and "sustainability."  These two concepts are key pillars in a document written and published by the United Nations called Agenda 2030.

Cruz: Dems Blocked My Legislation to Harden Schools, Keep Guns Away from Criminals from Getting 60 Votes.  On Wednesday's [5/25/2022] broadcast of the Fox News Channel's "Jesse Watters Primetime," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated that Democrats blocked legislation he proposed in 2013 to bolster school security and keep firearms out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill by keeping it from reaching the 60-vote threshold.  Cruz said, "In 2013, I introduced legislation that would spend $300 million on federal grants to harden schools to make them safer, to make them more protected.  The Democrats filibustered that legislation.  I've introduced legislation to say schools like this elementary school behind me can get federal grants to harden their security, to put in bulletproof doors, bulletproof glass, to put in armed police officers to protect kids."

Never Forget Democrats Want to Remove Cops from Schools.  The Democrat party can never be allowed to forget how hard it has worked to expel police officers from schools.  At the state and local level, Democrats have and continue to push and push and push to remove police and leave schoolchildren defenseless. [...] Here's what we know for a fact:  We know Evil is going to shoot up schools.  We know the corporate media will never stop incentivizing shooting up schools.  Thanks to our pro-school shooting media, every school shooter knows that shooting up a school will give him exactly what he wants: the power to shake up the country.  We know the only thing that will stop a maniac with a gun is a good guy with a gun.  We know all this, and yet Democrats still want to remove cops from schools.  So the question is why?  And the answer is simple.  There is no greater propaganda tool to push to disarm the American people than school shootings.  Police in schools stop and discourage school shootings.  If school shootings stop, Democrats lose their best propaganda tool.

Biden's Climate Czar Threatens Airlines That Resist The Green Agenda.  White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy hit airlines with a thinly-veiled threat Friday, warning of consequences if they don't follow strict climate regulations.  "Who would've thunk that [airlines would] be all in?" McCarthy, President Joe Biden's top climate adviser, remarked during a speech at Tufts University.  "But they better be or they're gonna be out of here."  The White House has pushed policies that would increase sustainable jet fuel by three billion gallons, reducing aviation emissions 20% by 2030.  McCarthy also said the Biden administration is doubling down on a wide variety of climate regulations, noting the myriad rules on appliances the White House plans to introduce this year.

The Elites Are Plotting Against Us In Plain View.  Yes, it's that time of year, and the Neo-Malthusian global elites are meeting in Davos, plotting in plain view, scheming to get us normals under their thumbs — and make it hurt.  Not kidding — they're talking a lot about pain.  Zhou let the cat out of the bag the other day, when he said that high gas prices were part of the "incredible transition".  Incredible transition?  Great Reset?  Sounds the same to me — and it is. [...] Climate change.  That's what caught my eye.  The whole point of the electoral coup against Trump was to seize the moment to jam the Green agenda, the Great Neo-Malthusian Reset, down our throats.  Problem is, they've screwed up so badly that they can see approaching doom, in spite of the rigging.

Biden Wants Taxpayers To Fund Massive Mining Projects — Just Not In The US.  While minerals, like copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite and zinc, are essential for green tech, China and other hostile nations dominate global mineral supply chains.  In 2021, the U.S. produced just 6% of the global copper supply, 0.4% of global cobalt supplies, 0.67% of the world's nickel, 0% of global graphite supply and about 5.7% of the world's zinc, according to federal data.  "The Biden Administration continues to put American union workers last and look anywhere else but domestically for minerals, the opposite of what Biden pledged to do before taking office," Minnesota Rep. Pete Stauber, the top Republican on the Natural Resources Energy and Mineral Subcommittee, told The Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement.  "This Administration is unserious about securing our domestic supply chains by cancelling the Twin Metals leases in my district in Minnesota and standing in the way of mining projects in places like Arizona and Alaska as well," he continued.

Federal money always comes with strings attached.
Biden Admin:  K-12 Schools Must Put Boys In Girls' Bathrooms To Get Federal Lunch Money.  K-12 schools must allow boys into girls' private areas to obtain federal funds for lunches, breakfasts, and snacks, the Biden administration announced this month.  A U.S. Department of Education spokesman told The Federalist the Biden administration's press releases from several agencies announcing this policy will be followed by formal rulemaking in June.  "It seems to be playing politics with feeding poor kids, which is really unfortunate," John Elcesser, executive director of the Indiana Non-Public Education Association, said via phone amid weeks of attempting to sort out these new demands with government officials on behalf of private schools in his state.  "Because if a school feels like they cannot participate because it's in conflict with their mission or values, if a religious exemption is not granted, you're taking away a program that's feeding low-income kids."

No Way Out but War.  The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism.  No high speed trains.  No universal health care.  No viable Covid relief program.  No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. [...] No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.  The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.  The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $6 trillion more than the US GDP of $24 trillion.  Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year.  We spent more on the military, $813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.  We are paying a heavy social, political, and economic cost for our militarism.

Stark Raving Green.  2050: That's the deadline that President Joe Biden has set to decarbonize the U.S. power sector and supposedly save the planet from man-made climate catastrophe.  In issuing his December executive order prioritizing a "Clean Energy Economy," Eco-Joe pledged you, the American taxpayer, to spend billions in the next three decades to achieve net-zero carbon emissions "across federal operations" by mid-century.  Blue-state governors and some power companies hail the proposals as ground-breaking, according to the International Business Times.  However, Biden is facing hostility from Republicans and coal-producing states, who are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the Supreme Court about whether the administration has authority to implement the scheme.  What few are talking about is how unfeasible the plans actually are.

It Sure Looks Like Joe Biden Is Trying to Purposely Destroy the Country.  The last several weeks in the United States have been a wild ride.  Everything that could go wrong, short of a full-blown apocalyptic situation, has gone wrong.  The stock market is currently in the midst of a collapse, with the Dow Jones losing nearly 5,000 points over the last 30 days.  Inflation clocked in at 8.3% for April, representing another crushing blow to Americans.  Of course, gas prices continue to break milestones on a daily basis. [...] If the Biden administration were actually purposely trying to destroy the country, what would they be doing differently?  That's a question everyone should ask themselves at this point.  At every turn, on every issue, the president and his team are moving to do exactly the opposite of what has to happen to help, and they are doing so with blatant arrogance.

The Editor says...
Aha!  I think I know what they're up to.  Joe Biden is creating a series of preventable crises.  Someday soon, the Democrats will throw out Mr. Biden on the basis of his obvious senility, and replace him with Kamala Harris, who is as dumb as a box of rocks.  The news media will celebrate the coronation of the First Female President for a couple of weeks, and then... TA-DAAA all the country's problems will get fixed, one by one:  The Mexican border will be sealed up, the oil companies will be given every possible incentive to produce, ship, import and sell gas as cheaply as possible, the money supply will be tightened, career criminals will be locked up for life, and baby formula will be flowing in the streets.  After a year of Reaganesque improvements — which is really just un-doing everything Biden did — Harris will be absolutely unbeatable in 2024.  You couldn't possibly vote against her with such a record of "achievements" unless you're some kind of racist.  And don't you dare question her citizenship, you truther!  Do you hate women, or something?  It's an enormous plot to make old white men look like the last people you should ever elect as president.  And, as Biden has proven, a Democrat president is just a figurehead anyway — the real power is behind the curtain — so it doesn't matter if the ostensible president is competent or not.  That's your cue, Michelle!

Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan pushing for NYC 'drag laureate'.  A Harlem councilwoman is pushing legislation that would require city leaders overseeing museums and nightlife to appoint a laureate of the Big Apple's growing drag performance scene.  Democratic socialist Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan introduced a bill Thursday that would require a "drag laureate" to be picked annually by the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs in consultation with the head of the Mayor's Office of Nightlife.  During Thursday's City Council meeting, Richardson Jordan said the drag laureate would serve as the city's "ambassador to LGBTQ nightlife."  "As a black queer woman, I know what it is to feel invisible," said Richardson Jordan, who has come under fire during her first year on the Council for bashing the NYPD as the city's "biggest gang" and blaming Ukraine — for being invaded by Russia.

Is The New Deal Unconstitutional?  Well, duh — the obvious answer is YES.  But that hasn't been a winning argument in the Supreme Court since 1935 unfortunately.  In the aftermath of the leaked Dobbs opinion, the left has been in a panic about what other "rights" the Supreme Court might take away, like the right to same sex marriage, inter-racial marriage, contraception, and watching European soccer in the middle of the night.

Pete Buttigieg says US backs new Marshall plan to rebuild Ukraine.  A leading figure in the Biden administration has backed a recovery programme for Ukraine in the style of the Marshall plan, which helped rebuild Europe after the second world war.  Pete Buttigieg, the US transportation secretary, said there was plenty of political will at home and internationally towards cooperating in long-term reconstruction efforts including to buttress existing infrastructure in Ukraine.

The Editor says...
[#1] The war's not over yet, Peetie.  [#2] Why is it up to the U.S. to rebuild Ukraine?

Fed Chair Jerome Powell:  We won't hesitate to raise rates to tame inflation.  The US central bank is in the midst of a "whatever it takes" moment when it comes to inflation, but if Fed officials had known how high inflation would rise, they would have changed their course on policy earlier, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday.  "In hindsight, it would have been better to raise rates earlier," Powell said in an interview at the Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything event.  The central bank raised its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point earlier this month, following a smaller rate hike in March, in order to get a handle on the highest inflation in 40 years.

When it comes to energy production, the midterm elections matter.  The day before Joe Biden entered the Oval Office, America was a net energy exporter with a rapidly growing economy, despite the effects of the Democrat-demand lockdowns.  On his first day in the Oval Office, Biden immediately took steps to cut America's energy production and, by vetoing the Keystone Pipeline, its access to energy.  America instantly began an inflationary climb that accelerated with the War in Ukraine.  What a Senate Energy Committee hearing revealed is that the Biden administration is only just getting started.  If America is to survive, Biden's wings must be clipped and that can only be done with a veto-proof majority in Congress.

Biden invokes Defense Production Act to bring in the baby formula.  What could go wrong?  Joe Biden is suddenly serious.  He's taken control.  Instead of sending a spokeswoman to laugh off a question about who was "running point" on the baby formula crisis, or telling moms with hungry infants to ask their doctors for free samples, if not call their local community organizer, he's invoked the Defense Production Act to empower the federal government to take control of the baby formula shortages that have come as 50% of baby formula has disappeared from store shelves. [...] Biden created the crisis by allowing his FDA to hamfistedly shut down a major baby formula supplier over safety concerns after several infants got sick and one died after supposedly consuming Abbott's baby formula, a charge the company says was falsely attributed to its formula.  Biden hasn't proven otherwise, but the plant, which makes about a third of the formula consumed in the States, stays shut down.  The shortages that came of it were something the Bidenite FDA never considered.

The Editor says...
It's almost as if Joe Biden is creating a series of calamities in order to fix them all just before the next election.  Except he's not even that smart.  He's just creating calamities for the sake of destroying the U.S.

The Biden effect is real.  Over the past few weeks, Democrats seem to be having a revelatory experience, discovering that simply increasing demand through government spending doesn't work if there are limited products to buy.  The supply side of the capitalism equation is essential, and when government layers on excessive regulations, it holds back business and slows the production of goods.  The inability of the Biden administration to both create a constructive environment for producers and a dependable, efficient supply chain to get goods to market has produced the worst inflation in 40 years.  Without supply, all increased demand does is increase prices.  This administration needs to focus on fixing the supply side of the economy.  But instead, Biden tweeted Friday, "You want to bring down inflation?  Let's make sure the wealthiest corporations pay their fair share."  So, his solution to inflation is to increase taxes on businesses, who will then pass those costs on to consumers.  Sounds like a recipe for higher inflation.

Is Biden's 'Success' Our Mess?  If an administration deliberately wished to cause havoc on the border, to ensure fuel was nearly unaffordable, to create a crime wave, to spark 1970s hyperinflation, and to rekindle racial tensions, what would it have done differently than what Joe Biden has done?  So is Biden malicious, incompetent, or a wannabe left-wing ideologue?  When pressed about inflation and fuel price hikes, Biden either blames someone or something else, gets mad at the questioner, or claims Donald Trump did it.  His administration apparently believes things are going well and according to plan.  When polls disagree, his team either believes the American people are brainwashed or that they themselves have not supplied sufficient propaganda.  So they never pivot or compromise, but rededicate themselves to continued failure.  Why?  Apparently, what most in the country see as disasters, Biden envisions as success.

No help at our border, but Biden announces $5 billion going to bike paths, wider sidewalks.  In the world of Democrat delusion, they think $5 billion is necessary, at this point in time, to make bike paths and widen side walks.  You cannot make this up.  They have approved $40 billion in aide to Ukraine in a heartbeat under President Biden, while having rejected former President Trump's request for a mere $5 billion to secure our border.  The news also comes as fentanyl and the drug overdoses are the number one cause of death in the U.S. There's also an increase in human smuggling and extortion to pay to cross the border.  But no; let's make some bike paths and widen sidewalks.  That is an immediate emergency.

Liberalism and the Problem of Evil.  No one can speak of evil without mentioning its attraction to the Democrat Party, which is now the party of official racism in America.  Political evil is a contagion of psychological immaturity, self-delusion, and counterfeit justification, and its virus has spread throughout America's liberal ruling class.  Its influence has scoured our nation of its fundamental values, and leftists are intent on creating a state apparatus that facilitates the separation of children from their parents, criminals from justice, and citizens from the Bill of Rights.  This is a call to Marxist socialism that has no past and no possibility of a future.  This is evil come to do business with the Democrat Party, and it is evil on a national scale.  Civilization must protect the weakest, but leftist ideology targets and crushes those who are unable to resist the powerful forces of state coercion.  There is no civilization on the far side of Marxism.

Americans Send Biden a Resounding Message About His Policy on Gender Treatments for Minors.  The vast majority of American voters are against permanent "gender transition" treatments for minors, according to a new poll despite the Biden administration's endorsement of these procedures.  The poll, released Tuesday, found that 90% of respondents who had an opinion on the subject believed minors should not be allowed to undergo permanent "gender transition" procedures, in stark opposition to Biden's position.  The poll surveyed 1,000 likely voters from April 22-26 and was conducted by McLaughlin and Associates along with Summit Ministries.

As Baby Formula Shortage and Inflation Worsen, Democrats to Hold UFO Hearings.  America faces a series of worsening crises, including a major baby formula shortage, and growing economic and social unrest, and what are Democrats in Nancy Pelosi's House of Representatives doing?  They are pushing abortion bills and holding UFO hearings.  In a Fox News report last week, correspondent Chad Pergram noted that the priorities of the Democrats in Washington don't seem to be jibing with the needs of the American people.  Instead of concerning themselves with gas prices, inflation, and a baby formula shortage, Pergram reported, "Democrats are focused on abortion."

Senate Advances Bill to Give Ukraine $40 Billion in Aid During 40-Year High Inflation.  The Senate voted on Monday to advance legislation that would provide $40 billion in aid to Ukraine, while Americans continue to suffer from food shortages and reel from inflation.  The Senate voted to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed on H.R. 7691, the Ukraine Supplemental Aid Package.  The motion passed 81-11. This means that the Senate can begin debate on the Ukraine aid package.

Another COVID-19 Spending Bill Would Fuel More Inflationary Fire.  With the annualized inflation tax now around $8,500 per American household, the last thing we need is more fuel dumped on the inflationary fires.  Yet, that is exactly what President Joe Biden has asked Congress to do.  Congress is now considering a $48 billion corporate bailout disguised as COVID-19 spending that takes more of your money and gives it to Biden's chosen few.  This, of course, is on top of more than $6 trillion of taxpayer money that has been spent on COVID-19.  Of these funds alone, $40 billion (80% of the bill) would go just to backfill a single program from Biden's inflationary stimulus that gave out cash last year to businesses of the government's choosing.  However, who will backfill the bank accounts of the Americans robbed to finance this corporate giveaway?  Point of fact:  It is your money that they would be giving out.

Biden team's bright idea to get Venezuela to pump oil for us panned by senior diplomat.  A few weeks ago, the Joe Biden team, in response to Congress cutting off Russian oil imports, tried to get Venezuela to pump some oil for us.  The logic, of course, was to let bygones be bygones, and ignore the inconvenient little detail about Venezuela's oil company being full of drug dealers, which is among the things that got them sanctioned and cut off in the first place.  Why not have Venezuela replace Vladimir Putin for oil?  It sounded so logical, so easy.  Anything but pump our own.  Well, now the details of that caper are out and let's just say it isn't pretty.

The SEC climate change rule sidesteps Congress and voters.  The Securities and Exchange Commission's recently proposed rule is so complex and far-reaching it could reorient the entire U.S. financial system into one that prioritizes climate change over financial soundness.  The rule risks turning the SEC into a quasi-environmental agency in which climate "experts" have greater influence than financial regulators focused on preventing fraud and promoting fair returns to workers and retirees. [...] The proposed climate change disclosure rule is so complex that it runs 506 pages with 1,068 footnotes.  It would impose a $10.235 billion cost on society, putting further upward pressure on energy prices.  Rather than providing clarity to investors, it would require companies to report the unknowable and predict the impossible.

Chuck Schumer Is Hellbent On Destroying The Democratic Party.  The midterm elections in November will be decided by a lot of things, but abortion and the overturning of Roe v. Wade won't be among them.  The economy will be at the top of the list of voters' priorities in the fall.  Folks who have watched their 401K accounts evaporate and who are getting clobbered by inflation will be voting with their pocketbooks.  Many voters will consider the immigration crisis at the southern border when casting their votes, as well as the instability in Eastern Europe and President Joe Biden's incoherent foreign policy.

'Bread and Circuses' but without the bread.  Roman poet Juvenal purportedly said, "Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."  This phrase expressed the strategic blueprint of Roman officials, one which sustained civic approval through misdirection and diversion — attention was directed towards the pleasures of hedonism and entertainment rather than the neglectful government.  Sound familiar?  The presence of fast-food establishments, fully-stocked grocery stores, and microwaves, provide convenience to such a degree, few of us would be able to survive in the event of a total collapse of the supply chain.  We live in a world of perpetual distractions, from social media, to streaming services on the television, to a 24-hour news cycle of state-sponsored propaganda.  However, with Biden's usurpation of the executive branch, he and his accomplices are flipping the script.  Instead of pacifying the masses to maintain public support, Joe and company threw out half of Juvenal's equation — they forgot the food!

Gas lines, here we come:  Pelosi to push federal price caps on gasoline.  The 1970s came back so fast, I didn't even have time to buy some leisure suits.  Faced with massive inflation and an energy crisis, the obvious solution would be to incentivize more extraction and refining by lowering regulatory hurdles, a solution that eventually helped end the cyclical energy crisis 40 years ago.  Instead, Democrats have decided to act by canceling lease sales, erecting more regulatory hurdles, and attacking ... "price gouging."  Bloomberg Energy reporter Javier Blas reports that Nancy Pelosi will float a bill in the House that would give Joe Biden the authority to impose price controls on gasoline:  [Tweet]

The Leftwing Insurrection.  [Scroll down]  The real insurrection brewing in America isn't on the right despite the constant talk and promotion of this view.  It is meant to hide the reality.  It is from the left that the real insurrection is brewing and coming.  "Transformation" of the Supreme Court (destroying the Supreme Court).  "Transformation" of the Presidential election process (destroying the Electoral College).  "Transformation" of the First and Second Amendments (destroying the First and Second Amendments).  "Transformation" of the economy (destroying the market economy and replacing it with government control and cronyism).  The talk of "transformation" hides the insurrectionist mentality of the left.  The left wants to destroy and alter the organs and institutions of American government to suit their own tyrannical desires.  Patriotic conservatives, derided by Joe Biden as "ultra MAGA," seek the restoration of the promise of American self-governance and the autonomy of states and communities from the federal leviathan.  The left wants to implement its one-size fits all California politics across the entire country.

Biden's Climate Czar May Have Inadvertently Revealed Deep Dysfunction In The Administration.  Top White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy copied a CBS News reporter on an email chain Wednesday announcing the administration would cancel a series of oil and gas lease sales.  "The Cook inlet sale was canceled.  It is not proceeding," McCarthy wrote to other White House officials in an email, CBS reported.  Another official reportedly responded immediately saying that a decision hadn't been made yet.  Interior Department (DOI) officials then reiterated that sentiment to CBS, also saying the agency hadn't decided if it would move forward on the lease sales Wednesday evening.

Biden announces 20 internet companies will give 'free' high-speed broadband for almost 50 million low income families.  The Biden administration announced a plan to get high-speed internet to millions of Americans through subsidies and discounts agreed to by industry — putting work-from-home technology, plus educational and entertainment options into rural and low-income homes.  'High-speed internet service is no longer a luxury — it's a necessity,' the White House said in a fact sheet Monday [5/9/2022] announcing the program.  The funds come from the bipartisan infrastructure law that Biden is championing around the country.

The Editor says...
Low-speed internet service is good enough for email, high-school homework, and browsing the news.  High-speed internet is "a necessity" only if you watch a lot of movies and TV shows over the internet, or you constantly upload movies of your cat.

Congressional Democrats Say Biden Not Spending Enough on Ukraine.  The House of Representatives were concerned Joe Biden was not spending enough on the Ukraine laundry operation, so they took his $33 billion request and added another $7 billion making the Ukraine support package $40 billion.  Yes, you read that correctly:  'Unbelievable' is an understatement.  I mean seriously, does anyone in Washington DC even talk to their constituents any longer?  The DHS Customs and Border Patrol budget for our border security operations is approximately $4 billion, the Southern border is in crisis.  Meanwhile Biden and Pelosi send over $55 billion to Ukraine?

Biden Administration Sneaks Unlawful Immigration Benefits Into Ukraine Aid Request.  President Joe Biden recently sent an emergency supplemental funding request to Congress for $33 billion in aid to Ukraine.  However, the administration used the opportunity to sneak in unlawful immigration benefits for hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian, Afghan, and Russian immigrants — paid for by the American people and at the expense of lawful applicants who have been waiting years to properly immigrate to the U.S.  The emergency request includes $1.2 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services with a nod to the Department of Homeland Security's Uniting for Ukraine program.  This portion of the funding request includes robust and increased blanket immigration provisions for Ukrainians, Afghans, and Russians in the science, technology, engineering, and math — or STEM — fields.

Is the American Postmodern Left a Fascist Movement?  For my work in corporate social responsibility, I was recently reading The Great Transformation, Karl Polanyi's critique of capitalism, when something he wrote gave me one of those really uncomfortable "Aha" moments.  Polanyi was discussing the alternatives to capitalism — left socialism and right socialism (which we call "Fascism").  His point was that these two socialisms were created to undo the disruptions of capitalism which had privileged "money power" to degrade human sociality into atomic individualism driven by self-seeking greed.  When I read his observation that the Fascist phase of anti-capitalism brought about "Irrational philosophies, racialist aesthetics, anti-capitalist demagogy, heterodox currency views, criticism of the party system, widespread disparagement of the 'regime'," I thought "How odd, that sounds just like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the postmodern Left."

Disinformation Panels, Control over Social Media Content and Now DOJ Environmental Justice.  Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; instead, what they did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons only targeted one side of the political continuum.  This point is where many people get confused.  Prior to 9/11/01 the greatest threat to government was considered to be from outside the U.S, vis-a-vis terrorism.  After 9/11/01 the greatest threat was redefined, Americans were now considered the threat, the enemy tracking radar was turned around to look inside America.  In the era shortly after 9/11, the DC national security apparatus was constructed to preserve continuity of government and simultaneously view all Americans as potential threats.  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) were created specifically for this purpose.  DHS and ODNI were created because Americans were now the threat to government.  Stop.  Pause.  Think.  You are taking off your shoes at the airports because YOU are the threat.  You pass through body scanners because YOU are the threat.  Stop.  Pause.  Think.  How does that define your relationship with government?

Biden's gender-transition agenda is harming children.  "There is no argument among medical professionals — pediatricians, pediatric endocrinologists, adolescent medicine physicians, adolescent psychiatrists, psychologists, etc. — about the value and the importance of gender-affirming care," U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel Levine told NPR recently.  This was Levine's way of saying that it is actually harmful not to gender-transition boys into being girls and vice versa, even though that often means permanent mutilation of a child's body and irreversible hormonal treatments.  With the assertion that there is "no argument," Levine is using a fallacy called "proof by assertion" — as if the forceful repetition of a controversial statement can make it true.  This is a concerted effort by the Biden administration and the gender-transition industry to quell a raging debate among medical professionals and researchers, many of whom strongly disagree.

Biden's climate advisor threatens airlines they better comply or 'they're gonna be outta here!'.  White House National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy openly threatened airlines in true "Godfather" fashion on Friday during a forum at Tufts University, warning that they will no longer exist if they don't follow President Joe Biden's Green New Deal-style rules.  "Who woulda thunk that [airlines would] be all in?" McCarthy remarked.  "But they better be or they're gonna be out of here."  The White House is promoting exceedingly unrealistic policies that claim to increase sustainable jet fuel by three billion gallons and reduce aviation emissions by 20 percent by 2030.  McCarthy boasted that the Biden administration will be issuing over 100 new rules this year to regulate appliances.

Student Loan Bailout Is [a] Handout to [the] Ruling Elite.  Democrats are calling for more redistribution of wealth — this time for the benefit of their Ivy League-educated elites.  The COVID-19 pandemic and continual government-imposed lockdowns upended our way of life.  Many Americans found themselves unemployed or in financial trouble.  Now, inflation is eating away at everyone's wealth, making us all poorer.  Large swaths of Americans are hurting, but whose needs are being prioritized?  Apparently, the Biden administration wants to prioritize what amounts to welfare for the upper class.

King Joe Can't Transfer Student-Loan Debt.  Transferring hundreds of billions of dollars of student-loan debt — as Joe Biden is reportedly considering — would be unjust, indiscriminate, and remarkably irresponsible.  It would force everyday Americans who didn't take out those loans to shoulder their burden in the form of higher taxes or increased national debt (which, inevitably, leads to higher taxes).  But none of this matters as much as the worst thing about such a potential action:  It would be a naked violation of our constitutional forms, a move more monarchical than republican.  Both the Constitution and the founders' writings make it clear that Congress has the power to make federal laws (subject to a presidential veto) and the power of the purse.  Biden has neither, and yet he wishes to exercise both in this instance.

Samantha Power Admits Biden Admin Using Russia-Ukraine War to Push Green Energy.  Samantha Power, the administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), admitted to the world that the administration is using Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to push its green energy agenda.  [Tweets]

It's not debt forgiveness, it's debt transfer.  Laura Ingraham sparked intense outrage on the left (what's new) with her recent remarks criticizing President Biden's reported plans to push forward with his student loan debt "forgiveness" scheme.  Before we get to that, let's establish the obvious:  this isn't debt forgiveness, it's a debt transfer.  Since money can't be evaporated or erased, the existing debt — that is, money that has already been spent — will be paid by someone.  What the president is promising to do is to tell the people who took the loans that they don't have to fulfill their obligation to pay, while telling taxpayers they get to.

Congress Must Carefully Review Any Ukraine Spending Package.  President Joe Biden has requested a $33 billion supplemental spending package to provide additional aid to Ukraine.  These funds would follow the $13.6 billion appropriated in March as well as the $6.4 billion in security assistance provided since 2014.  This proposed level of funding is significant.  For context, $33 billion is about the same amount as the annual discretionary funding provided to the Department of Justice and is even greater than the funding for the Environmental Protection Agency plus the Department of Labor plus the Department of Commerce.  Compared to the $46.6 billion in Ukraine-related funding provided and requested this year, the entire fiscal year 2022 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill was $56.1 billion.  While the human impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is moving, and further U.S. support for Ukraine to defend itself is warranted, it is vital that Congress carefully evaluate Biden's request and ensure that any legislation is responsibly crafted.

Biden's Loan Forgiveness Fraud.  His popularity flagging, President Joe Biden is using the oldest trick in the book to return voters to the Democrats' fold:  Don't earn their future votes, buy them.  And that's exactly what Biden is doing with his $1 trillion plan to "forgive" student loans.  Biden had already allowed students to "postpone" paying their loans during the pandemic "emergency," even those who have jobs and could make the payments.  So why now forgive the loans?  The truth is, one of the biggest recent declines in Biden's support comes among Americans of college age and slightly older, the very group most likely to have a pile of student loans.  What better, or more cynical, way to revive their flagging political support than to bribe them with a "free" education?

Biden is circling closer to a student loan forgiveness executive order.  Despite the lack of any definitive proof that the President has the authority to simply cancel student loan debt without congressional approval, Joe Biden is reportedly in talks to do precisely that and he claims a decision will be coming in a matter of weeks.  The progressive lobby in Congress has been pushing Biden to take such an action, but he supposedly isn't prepared to give them everything they want.  The target figure for progressives is $50,000 in debt relief for everyone.  Biden said he's not going that high and there are expected to be income caps associated with any proposed relief.  What the exact figures are remains to be seen.  But if it's anything close to what's being suggested in this report from National Review, there are definitely going to be a lot of questions among the public.

A Bridge Too Far, the Demise of the Democrats.  The progressive socialist left has gone not just one, but several bridges too far in just these past 16 months.  They have sought to advance along a singular avenue of approach into the heart of America and are now facing a strategic demise.  There can be no doubt that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris represent the most incompetent duo that this Nation has possibly ever seen.  Of course, to leftists, all is just well, but they cannot hide this facade for too much longer.  The left's decision to end our energy independence and force Americans to their economic knees to accept their Green New Deal fallacy is failing.  America was not too long ago a net exporter of energy resources.  Along those lines, the astronomical rise in inflation, a 40-year high, is curtailing economic independence for many Americans.  Realize that inflation and the rise in energy prices are hidden taxation on Americans.

Biden Sues Alabama, Claims Ban on Transgender Child Abuse Violates 14th Amendment.  The Fourteenth Amendment states that, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."  At no point in time does it state that states are not allowed to ban child abuse simply because a particular group tends to practice that abuse.  For example, states can be raping 7-year-olds even though Mohammed married a 7-year-old girl.  Biden and his hack running the DOJ disagree.  The DOJ has sued Alabama over Senate Bill (S.B.) 184 or the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.  The filing is filled with woke gibberish that makes lots of assertions without ever meeting a basic legal standard.

Ad Campaign Reminds Voters of Reality in Blue States Under Biden, Democrats.  Earlier this week, the State Government Leadership Foundation (SGLF) launched its six-figure "Tale of Two Americas" ad campaign to highlight the stunning contrast between how states run by Republican leaders and those run by Democrats fare when it comes to issues such as economic opportunity, academic achievement, and safety in their communities.  The 54-second ad contains buzzwords such as "freedom and fear."  The ad distinguishes how "Our country is a tale of two Americas.  One full of freedom.  The other full of fear.  We have opportunity or hardship.  Education or indoctrination.  Rule of law or lawlessness.  Strength or weakness."  The narrator goes on to point out "Liberal failures are hurting Americans.  Conservative ideas are moving us forward," and closes by asking "Which America do you want to live in?"

The Taxpayer Con of the Century.  Remember how Democrats sold their student loan takeover as a money-saver?  Now millions of borrowers can't or don't want to repay their loans, so President Biden says he may cancel their debt. [...] Federal student loans were established as part of the Great Society to help low-income students.  Yet step by step, Democrats have turned student loans into an entitlement for academia and the affluent.  Rather than make college free on the front end — which might have failed to pass Congress — they want to waive the costs at the back end.  As the loan limit increased over time — now $57,500 a year for independent undergrads and $31,000 for those dependent on their parents — colleges raised their prices to sop up more federal largesse.  It doesn't matter to the schools if their philosophy grads work as baristas.  In 2010 Democrats nationalized the student loan market, eliminating guarantee fees for private lenders and using the "savings" to pay for ObamaCare.

White House considers excluding high earners and those who studied professional degrees such as law and medicine from student-loan relief.  The White House is considering using income caps to exclude high earners, and those who took out loans for medicine and law degrees, from being eligible for student-loan relief.  Officials of the Biden administration are looking at limiting the relief to people earning less than $125,000 to $150,000 for individual filers, or $250,000 to $300,000 for couples filing joint taxes, according to a new report released Saturday by the Washington Post.  A source told the Post that there are different proposals being floated around about how to structure this, but no final decision has been made on the plans.

Democrats are suddenly embracing a congressional stock-trading ban.  There are a number of nervous Democrats in Congress that are searching for some sort of "win" to put up on the scoreboard before the midterm elections come washing over them.  With most of their big-ticket (and widely unpopular) agenda items bogged down, some are looking at a possible ban on stock market trading by members of both chambers as one piece of low-hanging fruit that they might be able to get into the books.  This is an issue that shows up in the news from time to time but never seems to garner much momentum in Congress.  The underlying questions are the obvious issues of the propriety of members making bets on the stock market involving companies that they themselves are charged with regulating, potentially impacting the value of those stocks.

Why Biden pursues politically suicidal policies.  The politically insane plan to divert resources away from the Veterans Administration to care for illegal immigrants is only the latest example of the unpopular policies that have driven Biden's approval ratings into the toilet.  But it's not insane if the end game is to "fundamentally transform" the country in such a way that it can't be reversed, and politics will no longer play the same role.
  •   Once geopolitical alliances and relationships have been altered as they're being since Obama's first term and now on steroids;
  •   Once 4 years of an open border with possible 6-10 million illegal immigrants flood in and alter demographics and domestic policy including drugs, crime, welfare, education, housing, and of course voting;
  •   Once you destroy every major institution from academia and the media to the Democrat party and executive branch departments like State, DHS, IRS, DOJ, etc., not to mention the military.
You can't just reverse it.  So perhaps the end game, after Obama (and his handlers) realized that 8 years of slow change was the wrong method, is 4 years on steroids while gutting every constitutional protection that's kept us the greatest civilization in the history of the world.

What if Joe Biden forgives all student loans?  Perhaps the Democrats in Washington are beginning to realize that even their base, particularly the old school Democrats, are turned off by the Democrats' focus on peripheral issues such as climate change, abortion, and transgenderism, while they ignore the record-high inflation that is rapidly draining voters' savings, the supply chain crisis, the influx of illegal immigrants, and numerous other Biden-made crises.  With only six months left until midterms, the Democrats realize that the only way to enthuse and appease their base is to implement some of the very radical items that have always been on their list.  One of their most important voting bases are young voters, who frequently carry significant student loans.  They've been calling for debt forgiveness, which, of course, will amount to a freebie.  Freebies are often used to bribe voters prior to elections with the hope that a record of misgovernance will be overlooked.

Biden's student debt cancellation plans:  Who benefits and who is burdened?  President Joe Biden's student debt cancellation plan could end up providing millions of people with relief from monthly payments and be a vote winner ahead of the midterm elections — but it could also offer benefits disproportionately to those who are better off.  Biden said Thursday that he wasn't considering canceling as much as $50,000 worth of debt per borrower — which would be a significant sum, well beyond what he campaigned on doing — although he said little else about the shape his student debt plan will take.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki similarly offered few details Thursday when pressed about Biden's forthcoming plan.

White House shrugs off student debt cancellation inflation concerns.  The White House downplayed concerns that President Joe Biden forgiving certain federal student loan debt will worsen inflation.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment Thursday on modeling by nonprofit organizations, such as the Committee for a Responsible Budget, that Biden exercising executive power to cancel select student debt would exacerbate rising consumer prices, especially since the president had not presented any proposals yet.

The Editor says...
When does Joe Biden ever present a proposal of his own?  All he does is sign papers (and make speeches) that someone else has written.  Mr. Biden has one foot in a nursing home and barely knows what day it is.

Stagflation is staring Biden in the face — but he refuses to change course.  First we were told inflation was imaginary.  Then we were told it was "transitory," the result of COVID-inflicted supply-chain problems.  Then we were told it was Russian President Vladimir Putin's fault.  Now people are starting to admit the massive runaway spending of the Biden era has something to do with it.  But we're also facing stagflation, a mixture of inflation and slow growth, and the government also plays a role in turning inflation into stagflation.  As Milton Friedman famously warned, inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.  When the government pumps the economy up with excess dollars — something usually referred to as "printing money," though a too-literal USA Today fact-checker hastened to assure us that much of the money created isn't actually printed on paper — inflation results.  When you have more money in the system than goods, the price of goods goes up.  That's inflation, and it's what's happening now.

Exactly what Bernie Sanders would do:
Joe Biden unveils new plan to saddle Americans with $1.6 trillion in student loan debt.  Joe Biden is in trouble.  His Democrats are collapsing at the polls based on his disastrous first term and now midterms are around the corner.  What's a failed president to do?  Dole out the goodies, of course, some big ones in a desperate bid to win back younger leftist voters. [...] What could go wrong with that?  Well aside from the disgust that many Americans would feel at having scrimped and saved to pay off their own student debts as those who took on too much debt get off scot-free — the delayed home purchasing, the delayed vacation, the choice of a state school over a prestigious private one to avoid taking on too much debt, or the choice to take up a trade instead of a college education, there are also other problems with the entire process.  First, this one would probably bypass Congress.

Biden's open border:  One of the most successful voter drives in Democrats' history.  To fully understand how Democrats plan to turn America into a single-party state, take a look at two of their seemingly disparate actions shortly after President Biden's inauguration.  In Washington, Democrats immediately pushed legislation to fundamentally take over state-run elections to greatly loosen voter registration rules.  While GOP senators stalled the bill in January, Democrats have vowed to enact the unprecedented federalization, somehow, someday.  At the southern border, Mr. Biden has illegally opened the gates to just about anyone — be they drug and sex traffickers, or migrant job seekers, or sex offenders or other criminals.  The brutal Mexican drug cartels are getting richer.  Their Chinese-produced fentanyl is killing record numbers of Americans.  Official count of people illegally entering the U.S. is in the millions in 2021-22 and will go even higher the rest of Mr. Biden's term because he wants it to.  Take the two separately or together — federalized ballot counting and opened borders — and you've got yourself a successful Democratic voter drive.

The terrible unintended consequences of the Biden presidency (unless they were intended).  The Biden administration is consumed with wokery to the point that they value members of the LGBTQ++ "community" over all other Americans.  Biden was duty-bound by a promise to Jim Clyburn to select a black woman to the SCOTUS. He chose the most radical black woman he could find, a woman who said she was unable to define the word "woman" because she is not a biologist!  She has long made clear her sympathy for procurers and users of child pornography.  This would seem to line up with the left's agenda to sexualize, to groom, very young children.  The appointment of Ketanji Brown-Jackson does not bode well for the integrity of the Court nor does the DOJ's war on parents, AG Garland's "domestic terrorists," as if they have no right to be informed about what their children are being taught in school.  The criminalization of parents and the destruction of the nuclear family would seem to be fundamental to their goal.

Biden to ban traditional incandescent lightbulbs by 2023 in favor of LED alternatives that are $3 more expensive.  President Joe Biden is banning traditional incandescent lightbulbs in a push to be more energy efficient, but critics claim the switch to LED alternatives will prove costly for poorer Americans.  The Department of Energy (DOE) adopted two new rules Tuesday that strengthen energy efficiency standards for lightbulbs and will effectively phase out the sale of traditional bulbs by next year.  However, consumer analysts allege that not only are LED bulbs more expensive, costing nearly $4 each as opposed to $1 for an incandescent bulb, but are often not stocked in stores in lower-income communities.

Red tape:  The agencies pursuing major new rules for Biden's green agenda.  President Joe Biden promised the most ambitious green agenda ever, ending fossil fuels, pushing renewables, and forcing business to toe the line.  As Earth Day 2022 arrives, the Washington Examiner offers alternative coverage in light of record energy prices and widespread criticism of the administration's incoherent policy approach.  In one of his first acts in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order for a "whole of government" approach to combating climate change, drawing in not just the Environmental Protection Agency but a host of federal entities.  Later, he signed a second order mandating that agencies address financial risks stemming from climate change, further bringing financial agencies that in the past have had little to do with the environment, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, into the center of the green effort.

Jet-set Biden vows 'climate-friendly' military, flexes gas-guzzling Corvette.  President Biden on Friday [4/22/2022] celebrated Earth Day in Seattle with a rambling speech vowing to make "every vehicle" in the military "climate-friendly" while admitting his personal fleet includes a prized Corvette that "does nothing but pollute."  Biden didn't offer specifics while telling local Democrats in a park that he intends to cut the emissions of war machines like tanks, helicopters and fighter jets.  "I'm going to start the process where every vehicle in the United States military — every vehicle is going to be climate-friendly.  Every vehicle.  No, I mean it.  We're spending billions of dollars to do it," Biden said.  The president, who uses large amounts of fossil fuels for regular weekend trips home to Delaware, admitted he's had a hard time practicing what he is preaching.

In 13 months, Biden has just about finished the job of destroying America.  It has not taken long at all for fake "president" Joe Biden to finish the job of collapsing the United States.  In just 13 relatively short months, the Resident-in-Chief helped usher in the highest gas prices on record, along with soaring food costs.  Millions of Americans were also forced to get injected with mystery chemicals from Operation Warp Speed, and all for a manufactured plandemic that never really was.  The country went from a trend towards energy independence to becoming a net importer of crude oil ever since Geriatric Joe started occupying the White House.  Biden's destruction of the Keystone XL Pipeline project certainly contributed to this.  Americans are worse off than they have been for quite some time as housing prices skyrocket and wages stagnate.  Millions of them are now having to work multiple jobs just to barely stay above the poverty line.

How America Became La La Land.  [Scroll down]  Biden then concocted the perfect recipe for bringing back the inflation of the 1970s.  Print more money.  Run up multitrillion-dollar annual deficits.  Borrow trillions on top of a $30 trillion national debt.  Send generous checks to workers for staying home.  Shrug at historic disruptions of the supply chain.  When reminded that his deliberate policies are the classic roads to inflation, Biden went fetal and ignored the warnings.  Or he lashed out and blamed anyone and anything for his own suicidal agendas.  First, we heard inflation was transitory.  Then it was a mere concern of the elite.  Then it was only a matter of exercise equipment being in short supply.  Then it was solely because of Vladimir Putin.  Then, somehow, it was also the result of Donald Trump.  Then it was an organic phenomenon that presidents had little power to stop.

Despite Raging Inflation, Congress [is] Bent on Continuing [its] Spending Spree.  Congress is considering a $10 billion package to continue federal payments for vaccines, testing, and treatments related to COVID-19.  There's already talk of the Biden administration requesting even more in the coming weeks.  It was one thing for the federal government to respond initially when COVID-19 was an emergency.  However, after two years, it's time to return to normal.  Part of that involves not giving endless handouts to the health care industry to address the disease.  Worse, this new COVID-19 package is "paid for" using billions in fake savings.  The bill eliminates funds for a jobs-protection program that won't actually be used, and uses those "savings" to cover billions of dollars of new spending.  In turn, that means more inflationary deficit spending if it's passed.

America's emergency oil supply is heading to Europe.  Biden's executive orders ending the Keystone Pipeline, along with exploration and drilling on almost all federal land, when combined with the Democrats' and RINOs' uncontrolled spending (made possible by printing money), has created unprecedented inflation in America.  To try to stave off the worst of it before the mid-terms, Biden recently announced he was releasing 1 million barrels of oil per day from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.  However, it turns out that he's sending at least some of that oil to Europe!  When you have a government that destroys America's energy independence, you're going to have rising fuel prices.  (As an aside, Congress really needs to end the president's — any presidents' — power to have that kind of control over oil transport, drilling, and exploration in America.)  Maybe Americans could sustain those increased fuel prices but, if you add to that Modern Monetary Theory, which says that America can just print money forever and no one will notice, you've got trouble, big trouble.

Biden's Education Department will immediately wipe out out student loan debt for 40,000 borrowers.  President Joe Biden's Education Department again moved to ease the burden of U.S. student loans on Tuesday [4/19/2022], with the federal government claiming its latest reforms will wipe out debts for 40,000 such borrowers and bring 3.6 million Americans closer to ending their payments.  Education Secretary Miguel Cardona called the current system a 'life sentence' for millions of low-income borrowers and pledged to correct 'historical failures' that have plagued repayment schemes like the income-driven repayment program (IDR) and Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF).  Borrowers working as public servants are eligible for forgiveness under PSLF once they've made 10 years of qualifying payments.

Can Biden buy votes with student debt relief?  The 2020 Democratic presidential primary race was a bidding war in which the various candidates advocated spending trillions of dollars to enact sweeping progressive agendas.  Some agendas were a bit more sweeping than others, but they all amounted to unprecedented increases in federal spending.  Take the issue of student loans.  Sen. Bernie Sanders, the most progressive of the contenders, wanted to cancel all $1.6 trillion in student debt — just throw out all student loans for 40-plus million people and somehow make Wall Street pay for it.  Sen. Elizabeth Warren pledged to forgive everyone's student loans up to $50,000.  And President Joe Biden, the most cautious of the bunch, promised to "forgive a minimum of $10,000 per person of federal student loans."  But here's the thing.  It didn't happen, and yet no person with student loan debt has had to make a payment, any payment, for more than two years.  It is all in the name of COVID relief.  And it is still going on.

Also posted under Using handouts to buy votes.

The student loan debt cancellation trap.  In a recent New York Times op-ed, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren put forth some suggestions as to how the Democrats could salvage some sort of momentum heading into the midterms, which are currently shaping up to be a potential catastrophe for them.  Most of her ideas, as with the majority of Democrats, involve lots more "free money" for people.  One of her proposals is to make good on something that Joe Biden campaigned on in 2020, along with many others in his party.  She suggests that they simply "cancel" some student loan debt, an action Warren claims Biden could do "entirely on his own."  This prompted Matt Lewis to respond at the Daily Caller, pointing out the many bad things about this idea, including the fact that it would do nothing to address the underlying problem and would only kick the can down the road for a few more years.

Who Lost Biden's Presidency?  Democrats are currently engaged in a somewhat unseemly competition to see who ends up getting the blame for the failure of Biden's agenda.  Specifically, the ignominious end to the "Build Back Better" bill that Democrats firmly believed could have brought them to the promised land of a permanent majority.  Who's to blame for that debacle?  It depends on which Democrat you ask. [...] In truth, the problem has always been as plain as day.  The vast majority of the American people — including many Democrats — never wanted a multi-trillion-dollar spending bill to "transform" America.  They sorta like America just the way it is, thank you.

ABC's Scott Admits Dems Don't Talk About Defund[ing] The Police Anymore.  During This Week's "Powerhouse Roundtable" discussion on the soaring crime rates in major American cities and what should be done about it, there seemed to be agreement that the Democrats' "defund the police" agenda is dead.  Anchor George Stephanopoulos then turned to panelist and ABC congressional correspondent Rachel Scott and asked: "you don't hear defund the police too much on Capitol Hill, anymore?"  Scott confidently replied, "No, not at all, actually" and aside from the "handful of progressives over in the House" that want to defund the police, there hasn't been a peep from Democrat lawmakers about that wildly unpopular agenda.

Democrats are now fighting over how Biden's agenda imploded.  We recently looked at a few articles from the Associated Press that took an uncharacteristically critical view of some of the Biden administration's recent misadventures.  I wondered at the time if the mainstream media was beginning to reach the point of refusing to provide cover for Biden and the Democrats as they typically did for most of his first year in office.  This week another possible example of what might be turning into a trend showed up and it came from NBC News.  Looking back on the collapse of the Build Back Better Act (and basically most of Biden's agenda with it), Sahil Kapur notes that Democrats are now fighting over who is to blame for the abject failure of the bill, and the picture is not a pretty one.

Expect the left to exploit another emergency to avoid midterm defeat.  Those of us on the pro-freedom right logically expected the Biden administration to finally give up on the pandemic panic plan for electoral success.  The waning of the crisis made it plain that the emergency was long gone.  A clear majority of Americans say COVID is over:  just 9% think the pandemic is a "serious crisis," in a warning to lawmakers planning to bring back mask mandates and restrictions in response to the latest wave.  But then a funny thing happened as the rest of us resumed our normal lives.  While the Biden administration seemed to be all on board with putting pandemic panic theatre behind us, the people in charge were only going along so they could conveniently drop Title 42 and create a new crisis of illegal invaders, flooding in over the border.  So while we thought the emergency was over, they were just lying low to bring it back for the fall election season.  Even perennial camera hog Anthony Fauci did his part by staying out of the spotlight to avoid giving up the game.

Inflation exposes the arrogance of the Biden Democrats.  Of all the Democrats' gestures of contemptuous indifference toward ordinary people, President Joe Biden's 8.5% inflation rate is the most provocatively insouciant.  Bidenflation, more than any of his many other culpable failures, will prompt voters to respond in November with a gut punch to the party's solar plexus.  One should not minimize the impact of other blows to public morale from outrages such as the cultural revolution against every traditional norm, the disgrace of U.S. capitulation to a ragtag army of medieval Afghan farmers, Biden's abandonment of national sovereignty at the Mexican border, or the performative diktats of his tinpot COVID bureaucrats.  All these contribute to our sour national mood. [...] Biden's decision to print money, enthusiastically backed by congressional Democrats, has produced the sharpest inflation spike in four decades.  This was entirely predictable and frequently predicted.

Biden Wants to Regulate Everything — Even Your Air Conditioning.  President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want to regulate any gadget or appliance with an electric switch that turns on in your house or your driveway.  New Department of Energy rules will dictate the amount of water that comes out of your showerhead, how much warm air comes out of your heater and how much cool air comes out of air conditioners.  There is even talk about gadgets monitoring your home's temperature in the winter and summer months.  How is any of this the government's business?

America [is] Moving From A Permission Society To A Repressive Regime.  Last month, the Energy Department announced it was taking public comments on efficiency standards for residential air conditioners and pool heaters that are intended to "to help consumers save on their utility bills."  The "savings" angle, though, feels more like cover for the department's deeper agenda, which is its "commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions."  The Democrats who for now dominate policy making in Washington believe there is nothing so private that they cannot regulate, nothing so personal that it can't be intruded upon.  The only question is the pace of the arrogation of our freedoms.  They have to be taken down in increments, so that the country won't notice the slippery slope toward tyranny.  In many cases, often regarding energy and conservation policies, restrictions are even celebrated by the loudest factions to help numb the public to the constant attacks on liberty.

The Leader Who Never Was.  [Scroll down]  But the sequential disasters Biden's struggled to manage in the last few months are not mere accidents of fate; they're cumulative, with progressive policy blunders setting the stage for the next failure.  Appeasing the green new deal fanatics in their war on American fossil fuel production even before his Oval Office chair was warm, predictably pushed energy prices sharply higher, lighting a fuse to runaway inflation that's won't be easily stamped out.  Opening the human floodgates on our now notional southern border — aside from the exploding crime and youth-poisoning fentanyl implications — signaled to the world a lack of commitment to the basic defense of the nation that goes beyond mere incompetence, to near self-immolation.  The Taliban quite understandably recognized a propitious moment, so their offensive operations intensified, leading to our horribly ill-considered, disgracefully botched flight from Afghanistan — for which no one has as yet been called to account.  Such incomprehensible malfeasance was not lost on the covetous Vladimir Putin, convincing him his time had arrived.  And so his bloody grab for Ukraine began.  The "presidential" bearing that was the major selling point of Biden's campaign pitch is decomposing before our eyes.

Before Biden Cancels Student Loan Debt, I Have A Few Questions.  Last week, Bernie Sanders, the most famous socialist in America, tweeted, "Cancel student debt.  All of it."  It was just the latest screed in what has become a common theme for radical leftist Democrats, appeals to essentially pay off a key political constituency at the expense of working, responsible Americans.  It's disgusting pandering in the worst possible way, yet media and policy makers continue to treat it as a serious proposal rooted in altruism and the desire for equity, whatever that means.  While President Joe Biden has thus far resisted such calls (other than Covid-related pauses on interest and payments), there are increasing rumblings afoot that he could attempt to erase anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000 of student loan debt per person with nothing more than a stroke of the pen.  Whether the Constitution grants him this kind of authority remains to be seen, but such questions have never stood in the way of these kinds of leftist power grabs before, and I suspect they won't this time around either.

I Really Do Hate These Leftists.  [Scroll down]  Biden and the others are trying to drag this country to hell.  It will be a better world when they get there without us.  From an obsession with race to the compulsion to preach to children about their sex lives and gender dysphoria, the modern progressive left is every bit as evil as they were a century ago.  They no long openly advocate for eugenics, but the objective of controlling and eliminating people they deem unworthy of life remains.  I hate them, I really do.  I'm not proud of it, but I'm not going to lie about it either.

Biden's Unfolding War on Religious Hospitals.  Speaking last week at the White House about the Affordable Care Act, Barack Obama said that he looks forward to Joe Biden's "next chapter in our story of progress."  In other words, Biden will make Obamacare even worse.  A glimpse of that next chapter can be seen in the Biden administration's unfolding war on religious hospitals.  Xavier Becerra, Biden's Health and Human Services Secretary, seeks to force them to perform transgender surgeries, among other immoral procedures.  A transgender pride flag now flies above HHS, the "first federal agency to do so," the department announced in a recent press release.  Becerra used the International Transgender Day of Visibility to warn hospitals that they must provide "gender-affirming care."  In its press release, HHS said that Becerra is in the process of issuing "guidance making clear that denials of health care based on gender identity are illegal, as is restricting doctors and health care providers from providing care because of a patient's gender identity."

Will Joe Biden Bring the U.S. Down With Him?  Joe Biden does not seem steady on his feet or clear in his mind, and at this stage the same might be said for the country he nominally governs.  His unforced errors, some of which have an oddly deliberate ring to them, may have rendered the November midterms and the 2024 presidential election entirely moot.  Whether the nation can remain socially, politically, and economically intact even for the next few months is an open question.  Biden is a fool, but there is cunning in his folly. [...] There are two sorts of gaffes or blunders which Biden is prone to make:  the kind that are plainly indicative of cognitive decline, and those that dovetail neatly into Democrat, neo-Liberal policy to being in a new world order associated with the Great Reset.  This entails the extension of NATO, regime change in Russia, the collapse of the American middle class, and the installation of oligarchic rule in the U.S.

Black Lives Meltdown.  Black Lives Matter Global Network, once the crown jewel of the Democrat Left, has become a major embarrassment that should cost the Democrats a lot of House and Senate seats this November — but only if the Republican Party does not squander the opportunity the way it squandered it in 2020. That was when it came out that BLM was campaigning openly against Donald Trump while accepting 501(c)(3) tax-exempt money via ActBlue Charities, and with Thousand Currents and then the Tides Foundation as its fiscal sponsor.  501(c)(3) resources cannot be used to influence an election.  The RNC could have used this issue to evoke public revulsion against this abuse of voters' and donors' trust and support, and specifically the perception of voters and donors that they were supporting civil rights as opposed to a political campaign funded with charitable contributions.  The RNC's failure to do this is why Joe Biden is now able to advance his dysfunctional domestic agenda which includes:
  [1] carbon taxes and derailment of fossil fuel while gasoline, electricity, and home heating costs are skyrocketing,
  [2] hidden taxes on middle-class investors through a higher corporate income tax, and
  [3] attacks on the Second Amendment.

Understanding the Progressive Mind.  Unfortunately, Republicans, and conservatives generally, are too polite, and therefore ill-equipped to confront the criminal nature of the Democrat Party and its government in Washington.  It's as though Republicans don't want to embarrass thieves caught in the act and hurt their feelings.  The harshest words Republicans will use to describe the Democrats' campaign to free hundreds of thousands of violent criminals and stimulate a national crime wave is that they are "soft on crime."  Democrats — progressives — are not soft on crime, they are pro-crime.  They regard it as "social justice."  Mobs of mainly black predators looting department stores in broad daylight is to them "reparations" — a socialist redistribution of income that provides "equity" to a group allegedly — but never specifically — oppressed.

Biden's new budget includes massive tax hike on workers.  The Biden administration recently released a $5.8 trillion-plus budget proposal.  The president's "billionaire tax" proposal and its terrible economics have received the most attention.  Yet there's also a big tax hike on workers slipped into the fine print of President Joe Biden's plan.  That pesky fact didn't stop the president from repeating his big lie that only "the rich" will pay more under his plans. [...] In reality, however, most economists agree that the corporate tax is in part born by the working class through lower wages.  Studies have consistently found that more than 50% of the burden comes out of workers' wallets.  As for Biden's corporate tax hike proposal specifically, a Tax Foundation analysis found that it would lead to lower wages, lower economic growth, and 159,000 fewer jobs.

Biden's energy screw-up.  Joe Biden claims to be all for "energy independence."  As families and businesses face some of the highest energy prices in over a decade, the president has embraced the phrase as a banner over his own policies.  It's a catchphrase normally associated with those vehemently opposed to the president's energy agenda.  But when Biden uses the term, he means something far different than "drill, baby, drill."  He means, in fact, its opposite.  And that's why Biden's version of "energy independence" is a mirage, and Americans will pay dearly while he chases it.

New York set to ban natural gas in new buildings.  New York Governor Kathy Hochul will soon release a budget that likely will include a plan to make New York the first state to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new construction, according to Food & Water Watch and other environmental groups.  Officials at the governor's office said Hochul was working with the legislature to finalize the budget, but could not say when they would reach an agreement.  In her State of the State address in January, Hochul committed to "zero on-site greenhouse gas emissions for new construction no later than 2027."  A decision by the state would follow similar gas bans in New York City in December and dozens of smaller U.S. cities in recent years as they seek to shift from fossil fuels to cleaner forms of energy.

The Editor says...
Carbon dioxide is not dirty.  Other than the electricity from a nuclear power plant, what fuel is cleaner than natural gas?

Washington State Looks to Ban New Gas Cars.  The Democrats' war on the internal combustion engine isn't just solely an obsession with the radical Left and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).  It's being exported to the state legislatures now.  It's also not shocking that most left-wing states are adopting such measures that are Green New Deal-influenced.  In Washington, there could be a ban on new gas cars. [...] [N]ot everyone has $50 [to] 60,000 lying around to blow on these uber-liberal luxuries.  Second, it's not green.  How do we dispense the spent electric car batteries?  Also, what charges them?  It's not like there are energy genies in the charging ports.  Burning fossil fuels is what keeps electric cars going.

Washington State Plans to Outlaw Most New Gas-Powered Cars.  SB 5974, which was recently signed by Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee, establishes that "all publicly owned and privately owned passenger and light duty vehicles of model year 2030 or later that are sold, purchased, or registered in Washington state be electric vehicles" and creates an "interagency electric vehicle coordinating council."  During the bill signing this week, Inslee said that the measure is climate-related and will "move us away from the transportation system our grandparents imagined and towards the transportation system our grandchildren dream of."  Reports indicate that electric vehicles are cost-prohibitive for many Americans, with an average price for an electric car hovering around $50,000. According to local media, just 1.3 percent of cars on the road in Washington state are battery-powered.

Biden's Deputies Demand State Welfare Agencies 'Affirm LGBT Children'.  President Joe Biden's deputies are pressuring the 50 states' child welfare agencies to ensure that abandoned or homeless kids who declare an "LGBT" identity must be placed with foster homes and organizations that "affirm" their claimed sexual status.  "Each title IV-E agency should be particularly vigilant about placing LGBTQI+ children and youth in homes and child-care institutions where they are supported, safe, and can develop as a whole person," said a federal document, exclusively reported here by Breitbart News.

Democrats in New York Debate How to Hide Their Radical Proposals on Bail and Incarceration.  The debate happening in New York state over Gov. Kathy Hochul's proposals to show how tough Democrats are on crime mirrors the debate happening across the country and in Washington, D.C.  On the radical left, the debate is over:  no bail, light sentences for everything except violent offenses, and don't send too many black people to prison because ... slavery, or something.  But Hochul is running for election in November after taking over when the serial sexual harasser and rapist, Andrew Cuomo, was forced to resign.  She has to run in the real world where there are an awful lot of people scared witless about crime.  Not everyone in New York is a crazy, left-wing nut.  The same holds true elsewhere in the United States.  The facts are that releasing people without bail isn;t leading to more crime and more violent crime.  Democrats like Hochul might recognize that but are still running scared.

A World Gone Mad.  There is no denying it.  There is a madness, a type of cancer that has taken hold of our world.  Yes, this planet has never been at peace... mankind is what it is, we go our own way, but we are seeing a craziness at a level never seen before.  Governments everywhere, including here in the USA, have abandoned God, good government, law and order, common sense, and traditional Judeo-Christian values.  They have jumped in with both feet into the dark and shadow without bothering to look back at seeing what they have already wrought.  Absurdity and hypocrisy are everywhere.  The Left insists that we abandon fossil fuels NOW without even the slightest idea of a viable alternative.

Eyes Wide Shut.  Consider the debacle around the Build Back Better bill.  That was the multitrillion-dollar bill that Democrats were, until recently, trying to maneuver through Congress.  Democrats talked about the care economy, a Green New Deal, and other big ideas associated with Build Back Better, but what they added up to was not clear.  Would the bill have created a more dynamic American capitalism, one capable of lifting up broad segments of the country that had been left behind?  Build Back Better appeared to be a means of funneling money to a wide variety of Democratic priorities.  Some of the spending would have supported useful expansions of the notably stingy American welfare system, and some of it would have supported useful public investments not provided for in the infrastructure bill, particularly in clean energy.  None of that, though, would have led to more productivity, higher growth, and an American economy less unequal across regions.

Biden Administration Decides Mutilating Children Is a Civil Right.  Some days, I go to write an article and it's dealing with a topic so egregiously insane that I almost feel like I'm covering satire.  Today is one of those days.  The Biden Administration, via the DOJ, has sent a letter to attorneys general around the country threatening to sue if states attempt to stop the mutilation of children in the form of "gender reassignment" surgery, hormone blockers, and other actions that change the natural development of a child.  In other words, Joe Biden and his degenerate underlings now view physically "transitioning" a child as a civil right, which tracks with the video the president put out on Thursday on the matter.  [Tweets]

In Vermont, a Raw Attack on Free Speech.  Vermont's social justice legislators have launched a transparent and illegal assault against free speech liberties.  Vermont's Senate has amended the state's assault statute mightily.  S.265 seeks to heighten penalties for threatening with the ["]intent to terrify, intimidate, or unlawfully influence the conduct of a candidate for public office, public servant, election official, or public employee in any decision, opinion, recommendation, vote, or other exercise of discretion taken in capacity as a candidate for public office, public servant, election official, or public employee, or with the intent to retaliate against a candidate for public office, public servant, election official, or public employee for any previous action taken in capacity as a candidate for public office, public servant, election official, or public employee, shall be imprisoned not more than two years or fined not more than $2,000.00, or both.["]  In other words, Vermont seeks to send citizens to jail for threatening political leaders for twice as long as if they physically assaulted them!

U.S. House passes [a] bill to legalize marijuana.  The House of Representatives voted Friday to federally legalize marijuana with a vote of 220-204, mostly along party lines, sending the legislation to the Senate.  Three Republicans — Reps. Matt Gaetz, Brian Mast and Tom McClintock — voted alongside the Democratic majority, while two Democrats voted no with the GOP.  It marked the second time the Democrat-led House passed a bill to decriminalize pot, the first happening in December 2020.  The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act decriminalizes possession, distribution and manufacture of cannabis — and no longer classifies it as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act.

White House and Democrats want to Save the Planet, Crush the Middle Class, Eliminate Use of Oil for Energy.  In an effort to take advantage of the energy crisis they have created, the entirety of the Democrat political apparatus is singing in unison.  [Video clips]  The federal takeover of healthcare, via Obamacare, was the 'big move in Obama's first term'.  The federal takeover of all energy production and delivery, via climate change ideology, is the 'big move in Obama's third term.'

More about Obama's third term.

Biden, the Ersatz President.  Consider the major initiatives undertaken or proposed by the current Democratic regime:
  •   The dissolution of our border integrity, with intentional unrestricted illegal immigration.
  •   Ending American energy independence, curtailing fossil fuel exploration and production — astonishingly, before a viable replacement exists! — and imposing crippling restrictions on future fossil fuel energy industry activity.
  •   Supporting destructive BLM activities and riots, favoring defunding the police, eliminating cash bail and decriminalizing what liberals laughably refer to as "low-level" crimes like shoplifting, robbery and breaking & entering.
  •   Endorsing positions clearly opposed by the majority of the country, such as men competing in women's sports, the U.S. military paying for gender-change surgery, males being able to declare that they "identify as women" and enter female bathrooms and locker rooms, elementary-age children being taught and exposed to "alternative" LGBTQ lifestyles far before children have any natural understanding or interest in such matters, and so on. [...]
  •   Denuding our military of its equipment, mission and spirit by attempting to transform it into a mechanism for social change instead of a sharply honed, singularly aimed instrument of national security. [...]
This is the difference between a president concerned with bottom-line beneficial results and one who's concerned with laughably shallow meaningless activity that amounts to nothing, other than buying the favor and future votes of niche special interest groups.

What a strange set of priorities.
Joe Biden Applauds Transgenderism with Launch of New 'X' Gender Marker.  President Joe Biden will publicly get behind Transgender Day of Visibility on Thursday by introducing a new universal gender marking.  AP reports fresh measures aimed at opening federal government to transgender people include a new "X" gender marker on U.S. passport applications beginning on April 11.  New Transportation Security Administration scanners that are gender-neutral are also planned as part of the administration-wide embrace of transgenderism and LGBTQI+ issues and people.

We are paying for our own destruction.  Just yesterday, Biden laid out a proposed budget for 2023.  His expected cost to fund the government?  Five point six trillion dollars (which also included tax hikes).  Bureaucrats neither produce wealth nor participate in work, so their financial illiteracy and ineptitude are not surprising.  Members of Washington's aristocracy have long abandoned their oaths to uphold the Constitution and serve as a faithful representation of their constituency.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Says Nothing Will Deter Biden Administration from Eliminating Fossil Fuels.  Current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is a Davos/WEF devotee of the highest magnitude.  Yellen is ensconced in the worldview of those who run the operations of central banking and global finance.  She is the globalist secretary of world treasuries and has been throughout her professional life.  As more people become aware of the Build Back Better agenda, or as some would say "The Great Reset," and its direct connection to the dreams and aspirations of the climate change ideologues in the elitist class, it is worth paying attention when Yellen says nothing will deter the Biden administration from eliminating fossil fuels; and it is her role to make that objective financially possible.

The Editor says...
There is one thing that can keep the Democrats from eliminating fossil fuels:  Elections in even-numbered years.  If the Democrats are defeated soundly in the next few elections and run out of town, the price of gasoline will go back down to half what it is now.  Maybe lower.

Biden will ask Congress for $32 billion to fund the police to combat surging crime.  Joe Biden's 2023 budget proposal includes $32 billion to fight rising crime in the U.S., according to two White House officials, despite years-long calls from the progressive wing of his party to defund police.  Massive crime spikes, particularly in cities, are one issue that could threaten Democrat's majority in the upcoming midterm elections.  Republicans are effectively branding the issue as widely Democrat-caused due to calls to abolish police and rhetoric against law enforcement in general.  The officials tell Axios that Biden's budget proposal would require $30 billion in new spending over the next decade to expand law enforcement and increase crime prevention.  The president's proposal, which almost never makes it through Congress unaltered, will also include an increase of $31 billion in Defense spending, people familiar with the plan told The New York Times.

The Editor says...
[#1] Local policing is not the proper function of the federal government.  [#2] Funding the local police will inevitably come with many strings attached.  [#3] The political damage done over the last several years from the socialist Democrats' "Defund the Police" campaign will not be undone in the next six or seven months.

The MORE Act Could Set State Marijuana Laws Ablaze.  The days of marijuana prohibition may soon be over as the House of Representatives is prepared to vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act this Monday.  If passed, the MORE Act will federally legalize marijuana throughout the country.  Despite failed efforts to advance this bill in the past, a Democratic majority in Congress and control of the Presidency now portend a high likelihood that this Act could pass.  While marijuana advocates, lobbyists, and legislators push this bill, the MORE Act's statutory shortcomings pose an immediate and dangerous threat to the regulatory power of states and localities.  If passed, the MORE Act could wipe out state and local laws prohibiting and criminalizing marijuana, leaving states and localities unable to address local concerns about marijuana issues.  Due to Congress's inartful drafting, the MORE Act threatens to entirely remove marijuana policy from public debate at the state and local level.

The Sheer Madness of Today's Left.  [Scroll down]  Normally, the mad Left would not object terribly to the ensuing fuel price hikes.  Remember, Joe Biden bragged on the campaign trail that he would end fossil fuels during his tenure.  Obama's soon-to-be Energy Secretary Steven Chu said during the 2008 campaign he wished to see American gas prices match those in Europe (i.e. $9-10 a gallon).  And then President Obama himself did not disagree.  He meekly added that such increases should be "gradual."  He had also warned that his cap-and-trade initiatives would necessarily "skyrocket" electricity prices — without suggesting that his off-guard brag was even a gaffe of unexpectedly telling the truth.  So green orthodoxy dictates that the highest possible fossil fuel prices are good.  Unaffordability will hasten the end of gas and oil, ensuring currently subsidized but uneconomical green energy as the only remaining alternative.

Joe Biden's agenda:  The cruelest act against humanity in the modern age.  At the end of Donald Trump's presidency, the United States was a net exporter of oil and liquefied gas.  One-third of the extraction was literally surplus, and the U.S. could have grown extraction and refining exponentially to supply Europe at the cost of an Oval Office phone call.  Adjusted for inflation, domestic prices of oil and gas were arguably the lowest in a century.  As global markets kept expanding along with population and business growth, U.S. exports of energy at the prices paid at destination points would have arguably eliminated America's trade deficit and reduced the nation's debt.  That debt will be paid off by Americans' offspring, provided the nation does not default.

The Democrats Need COVID to Stay in Power.  There are specific issues that are key to the very existence of the Democrat Party and most liberal/progressive advocacy groups.  The Democrat Party trades in multicategory victimhood and creating taxpayer-funded Government programs in order to "cure" the problems they've identified and hyped for each group of victims.  Often, these so-called "problems" don't actually exist — they've just been fabricated by the Democrats and trumpeted by the eagerly complicit liberal media — but absent these so-called problems and cures, the Democrat Party would have no rationale for existing.  Every special-interest and so-called minority group has its Democratically sponsored taxpayer programs.
  •   Blacks
  •   Hispanics, including illegal immigrants
  •   Women
  •   LGBTQ
  •   Teachers and other unions
  •   Environmentalists/Warmists
These are the main ones, but there are other groups as well.

Why do Democrats Hate Children?  Every time there's a headline involving Democrats and children it is evident that as a group, Democrats hate children.  Not only do they appear to hate them, they appear to enjoy, support and promote sexually and mentally abusing and killing them.  They want to abort them, even when a fetus is shown to probably be viable after 24 weeks.  Even if that means crushing the baby's skull and tearing that fetus apart limb by limb in order to "deliver" it.  That's what a late term abortion is. [...] If an abortion doesn't quite work and the child survives, Democrats in some states give the mother the right to let the child die without any attempt being made to save its life.  Governor Jay Inslee of Washington State is so determined to let babies be killed that he and the state legislature passed a law prohibiting any law similar to the Texas "Heartbeat Law" from being considered.  If an adult sexually assaults, abuses, penetrates or traffics a child, that's okay by them, too.

Democrats plot to halt inflated gas prices by ... printing more money.  Democrats don't seem to ever learn Economics 101, do they?  That's obvious enough in their various bone-headed schemes to beat soaring gas prices at the pump by throwing new money at the problem. [...] The logic of this bad idea is that gas prices can be treated with COVID-style stimulus checks — everyone gets one, and the Fed can print up another batch of cash to take care of the payouts.

Democrats become ever more extreme in their claim that men are women.  While transgender "women" are destroying girls' and women's sports, USA Today columnist hailed Assistant Health Secretary Richard/Rachel Levine as "...a ground-breaking leader who credits family support for helping her succeed.  Admiral Levine wants her work to be a shining example for all." [...] Progressives get away with this nonsense because so many elected Republican officials and Republican organizations are timid.
  •   Where are most of the Republicans in Congress?  Were they too busy passing a $1.5 trillion 2,700-page spending bill they hadn't read?
  •   Where is the Republican National Committee?  Were its members too busy starting their "pride" coalition?
  •   Where is the National Federation of Republican Women with a national campaign?  What issue is more crucial to Republican women than biological males eroding what it means to be a woman?
And the Republican Party and Republican organizations wonder why so many conservatives are switching to No Party Preference!  Call him Rachel.  [C]all him Richard.  Whatever name you use, Levine is still a biological man.

COVID Proves Politicizing Everything Breaks Everything.  While Democrats and "health officials" united to impose vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and numerous restrictions, nothing stopped the pandemic from getting worse.  Everything got worse even after we did everything the Left wanted.  This taps a common thread that passes through so much of the Left's agenda.  As the Left hypes an emotional response to a problem, the rush to action skips over a fundamental question that should precede any mandate or expenditure of public funds:  Does the proposed solution work?  Does the Left's prescription for climate change have any effect on climate?  Does the Left's intervention in education improve educational outcomes?  Does the Left's response to homelessness improve the homelessness problem?  Does funding for drug treatment programs help reduce drug abuse?  Does the Left's foreign policy lead to more peace?  Does borrowing trillions of dollars to "invest in people" lead to more productivity?  Has the Left's stewardship of universities resulted in better-educated graduates? [...] The Left's prescriptions for virtually every social problem always have two things in common.  First, they're expensive.  Second, they don't work.

SEC's new rule would add climate change risks, emissions to corporate disclosures.  The Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a landmark proposal Monday that would require publicly traded companies to disclose emissions data and risks posed by climate change.  The proposal, which must undergo a 60-day public comment period before the SEC makes it final, would be a first of its kind and mark yet another arena where the Biden administration hopes to combat a warming climate.  It also underscores the administration's concerns about climate change's potential impacts on the economy.  The idea faced immediate pushback from Republican lawmakers and industry groups.  They said the regulators had overstepped their authority and would spread confusion through corporate offices and on Wall Street.

The Democrats' radical, undemocratic agenda.  For all their talk about protecting democracy, Democrats sure are proving quick to abandon it by sidelining Congress and pushing President Joe Biden to enact a far-left agenda unilaterally through executive action.  Last week, the Congressional Progressive Caucus released "Recommendations for Executive Action," a six-page document outlining policies that left-wing Democrats failed to persuade even a Democratic-controlled Congress to pass.  They now want Biden to use presidential power alone to implement what has been rejected by the representatives of the wider public.  Can there be a more crystalline example of elitism over equality?

The Biden Administration Does Not Have a Strategy.  The current U.S. administration's blunders are only mounting and already include the following:  a complete lack of strategy for energy security, the chaotic exit from Afghanistan, a softening on Chinese aggressiveness by abandoning the Department of Justice's "China Initiative," and rising inflation that is swiftly decreasing the living standards of average Americans.  The administration seeks to blame the problem on Russia or various supply chains issues while refusing to admit that its own reckless government printing and directionless infusion of capital into the economy, combined with its nonsensical policy of cutting domestic oil production, are to blame.  These issues are the result of an administration that has either a lack of understanding or worse, great contempt, for realist geopolitical strategy.

Insulting WH Talking Point:  We Are Running Out of COVID Relief Money, So Congress Needs to Spend More.  Since the beginning of the pandemic, Congress has authorized approximately $6 trillion in federal funding related to — or said to be related to — COVID relief.  We know that an astounding amount of that money went to con men and grifters, and the feds are trying to chase down perpetrators.  But the overwhelming majority of the cash hasn't been stolen.  The White House is now trying to claim that COVID funding is running dry, and essential related services and supplies will be slashed unless Congress spends billions more. [...] In 2019, before the pandemic, the US government spent more than $4 trillion, total.  On everything.  Over the last two years, it has spent roughly one-and-a-half times that on COVID alone, with other spending still happening.  It's a gargantuan sum of money.  It's far greater than the New Deal.  It is absolutely preposterous that anyone would even attempt to cry poverty on behalf of the federal government in this realm.

Vermont leads the way ... off the climate bureaucracy cliff.  A recent Vermont legislative initiative purports to save the planet, by "conserving" fifty percent of all Vermont territory for wildlife by 2050!  In addition to the economic and constitutional problems this poses, this effort holds up for public display the foolish power-mongering implicit in all these highbrow, counterproductive "climate salvation" fantasies. [...] This effort is totally disconnected from helping the ecosystem, though it dramatically expands elitist ideological tyranny — this is the common theme when bureaucrats fantasize they can solve problems they don't even understand, with more bureaucracy and power appropriated to themselves.  The common theme in all of these efforts is that they 1) eliminate private property rights; 2) while transferring wealth from poor people to wealthy elites and 3) are environmentally counterproductive.  Environmental writer Wendell Berry opines wryly that "People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food."  A parallel is that people in Vermont are subjugated by an elitist bureaucrat industry, which pays no attention to either human health, food, or the ecosystem — all of these are mere pretenses to advance counterproductive ideological delusions.

White House dragged over reported harebrained scheme to give Americans gas cards.  The Biden administration White House is being ridiculed over an establishment media report that it'd "considered giving Americans gas cards to help offset high prices" up until congressional Democrats told them to cut it out.  "The White House this week considered having the IRS send gas cards to Americans — a short-lived idea that some key House Democrats vehemently opposed," Axios confirmed on Saturday [3/19/2022].  Congressional Democrats reportedly found the idea extraordinarily unappealing because it'd "be expensive and poorly targeted," "worsen inflation and wouldn't do much to lower costs" and "be a slow process that could bog down the IRS in the middle of the filing season."  While their reasons were valid, the public glommed on to some other reasons, like the fact that the administration is apparently willing to do anything — virtually anything — to deal with exorbitant gas prices, except for, you know, rolling back their anti-gas/oil policies.

There's A Critical Vacancy In The Oval Office.  Biden set himself up for the fall.  On day one of his administration, he shut down the Keystone pipeline.  From that day forward, his White House did all in its power to limit the domestic production of fossil fuels.  Russia's Vladimir Putin had to watch in wonder as the world's one energy-independent superpower rendered itself as vulnerable to Putin's energy whims as its weak sisters in the European Union.  Putin had to watch in wonder, too, as the world's mightiest military focused not on improving its fighting strength, but on making life more comfortable for transgender recruits, on hectoring the existing troops with divisive critical race theory, and terminating those troops who refused to sacrifice their bodies to unproven science.

HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra Promotes Critical Race Theory-Based 'Health Equity' as Top Priority.  Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec.  Xavier Becerra on Friday identified "health equity" as the department's top priority under his leadership.  "Health equity has to be part of everything we do," Becerra said, during an address marking his first year in office.  "You will see health equity pervades everything we do."

Report: WH Had an Extremely Dumb Idea on the Table to Address Gas Prices.  Joe Biden and his team have been skyrocketing because of pushing this fiction about how gas prices and inflation were Vladimir Putin attacking Ukraine.  This, despite the fact the prices have been high for months, long before Putin invaded.  They even came up with a cute little talking points phrase to use that they pushed out to all their operatives:  "Putin's price hike."  But that gambit didn't work, so they tried to blame it on oil companies — just like tried to blame the rising food prices on the price of meat or inflation in general on rising car prices.  But Americans are placing the blame squarely on Biden.  Now of course, the Biden team was lying when it came to gas prices.  But a new report shows that either they don't understand the real cause of inflation or they simply don't care about the cause, because they were considering doing something that would make everything worse.

The US Must Face an Existential Threat, but It's Not Climate Change.  Democrats are committed "to eliminating carbon pollution from power plants by 2035."  They want banks to stop financing fossil fuel development by 2030, and they want to end the use of fossil fuels completely by 2050. [...] Democrats are bent on the destruction of the oil industry.  They contend that climate change is an "existential threat" that political and environmental factions describe in millions of pages of mind-numbing documentation.  Climate change is a theory.  One may accept the theory and reject the prescribed remedies of the Democrat party.  Democrats offer an apocalyptic vision of climate change intended to scare the American people into voting for Democrat candidates.  They ignore the human capacity to innovate and adapt to changing conditions.  They assume that if oceans rise, people will throw their hands up and surrender coastal communities or drown.  The Dutch addressed life below sea level hundreds of years ago by building dikes and creating pumps powered by windmills to remove water.

California Democrats Float $400 Checks to Taxpayers After Hiking Gas Taxes.  California Democrats, who have raised gas taxes and vehicle license fees in recent years, are now proposing to send $400 checks to the state's taxpayers to help defray the high cost of fuel in the latest surge, which is hitting the state's drivers hard.  While the entire country is paying more for gasoline, thanks to surging post-pandemic demand, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the Biden administration's hostility to oil and gas development, California's price is the highest in the nation.

Congressional liberals press Biden to declare emergency and restrict fossil fuels.  Liberals in Congress are pressing President Joe Biden to invoke emergency powers to push ahead with Democrats' climate change agenda and to put new restrictions on fossil fuels, even while gasoline remains at its highest per-gallon price on record.  With legislation stalled in Congress, the nearly 100-member Congressional Progressive Caucus released a slate of policy recommendations Thursday for Biden to pursue, calling on him to use executive action to deal with a list of topics his "Build Back Better" agenda sought to address, including the development of more green energy technologies and placement of restrictions on new fossil fuel production.

Imagining Regime Change Without Tears.  [Scroll down]  Then there's California, going full-steam ahead to a fossil-fuel-free future, where the state goals include:
  [#1]   "getting 33% of our electricity from renewable resources by 2030."
  [#2]   "achieve carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2045."
Suppose these goals are a) impossible, and b) crash the California economy.  Are you "Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Twitter, Google, Intel, and a host of other social media and technology companies," plus Hollywood plus the gubmint sector going to sacrifice your lives, your fortunes and your sacred honor if it turns out that carbon neutrality is the cruelest and the stupidest idea since Stalin's Five-Year Plan that starved the Ukraine?

Tennessee senator accuses Biden of treating 'climate change as a god'.  Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn called out President Joe Biden on Tuesday for "bowing to all of this environmentalism as a religion and climate change as a god."  The Senate was in the midst of considering Shalanda Young to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget when Blackburn took the opportunity to discuss the previous omnibus bill.  It passed, though not with Blackburn's blessing. [...] "[Biden] needs to start listening to what people are saying," Blackburn said.  "They don't want this country to fail."  The Senate promptly voted to confirm Young as director of the OMB following the speech.

Declarations do not change the weather.  There's nothing wrong with the climate.  There is no climate emergency.
House Dems want Biden to declare [a] national 'climate emergency' and ban oil drilling on federal lands.  Progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives are reportedly planning to publicly urge President Biden to ban oil drilling on federal lands amid record gas prices and a war in Ukraine that has disrupted oil markets.  According to a report from Politico, the Congressional Progressive Caucus is planning to demand that Biden use his executive power to declare climate change an emergency and ban drilling on federal lands.

The Editor says...
The Covid fiasco was a two-year state of alarm that should have only lasted a week or two.  Power-hungry tyrants create states of emergency and keep them going as long as possible, with the help of sensationalist news media outlets.  If the purported problem isn't widespread disease, it's global warming, Islamic terrorism, Russian hackers, or some other crisis that the government will be happy to fix, if you'll just sign away your rights and give up your guns.

Biden Promises Executive Action on Climate Change as Energy Costs Spike.  President Joe Biden reassured donors Monday that he would use his executive powers to act on climate change, even as energy prices are at record highs.  "The climate crisis is the existential threat.  That's not hyperbole; it's a fact," Biden said after taking the podium at a Democratic National Committee Fundraiser in Washington, DC.  Biden promised to take "aggressive" executive actions on climate regulations even if the Supreme Court overruled him.  He acknowledged that progress on the issue of climate change was difficult to achieve in Congress, hinting that donors could help him pressure lawmakers.

The Editor says...
There is no climate crisis.  The weather is not an existential threat.

Basic Truths About Oil.  In 2020, President Joe Biden declared war on oil and gas in America.  In a Democratic primary debate, Biden declared, "No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.  No more drilling including offshore.  No ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period.  It ends."  High gas prices are all part of his plan.  The other day, Biden declared that there was nothing his administration had done to raise prices or restrict drilling.  Actually, there have been plenty of regulatory measures taken and offshore leases curtailed.  More importantly, Biden declared war on fossil fuels.  If you were an investor, would you invest in a company the president of the United States declared he would end?  The Biden administration's entire posture has been against the oil and gas industry, which has fostered uncertainty in the market and disincentivized further investment.  They have coupled this with regulatory gusto.  They have additionally refused to fight activist Obama-appointed judges using climate change as an excuse to shut down offshore oil drilling.

Look How Washington is Spending Your Money.  While the media is focused on the conflict in Ukraine, Congress has been occupied debating another massive $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill.  This is perhaps the last of attempts by the Democrats to push their agenda through before the GOP is expected to take over early next year.  The bill they have got in front of them is divided into two sections: [...] Within these bills, the GOP was able to retain $2 billion of previously-allocated border wall construction funds.  The bill also dedicates an additional $370 million to "enhanced border security."  Did the GOP compel the Democrats to spend more on the U.S. border?  Was this a moment of triumph?  Before you leap with joy to celebrate, the borders being fortified are those of Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Oman, Nepal, and Pakistan.

Biden's America:  The inmates are running the asylum.  How does one sanely describe what has happened to the United States since Joe Biden was inaugurated?  The nation has been effectively ruined by the policies of Biden's band of incompetents; every Cabinet member is a disaster, promoted for his previous record of failure.  Not one of them is qualified for the jobs they've been given. [...] Consider Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary.  She is inexplicably ignorant about energy, where it comes from, and what it costs.  Buttigieg as transportation secretary, the failed mayor of South Bend, has not a clue about transportation beyond telling all Americans to buy electric cars.  Chances are he has no idea about the costs and downsides of E.V.s.  Considering the problem of disposal of the batteries when they die, electric vehicles do far more damage to the environment than fossil fuels.  Biden's ridiculous promise to end American dependence on fossil fuel is a stupid pipe dream.  Fossil fuel is the engine of democracy, of civilization.  To suggest we can live without it is pure sophistry.

Tucker Carlson Outlines Biden Strategy To Blame Russia for Outcomes of White House Economic Policy.  Tucker Carlson used his monologue tonight [3/11/2022] to give a big picture review of how the White House is using the Ukraine-Russia conflict to hide the economic outcomes created by their policy.  Massive inflation on basic necessities, combined with rising gas, fuel and energy costs are crippling the working class.  The White House is now using the Russia-Ukraine conflict as an excuse to hide their responsibility.  It's an accurate outline.  [Video clip]

America's Ruling Class Wants to Reduce Us to Incompetence.  The good news is that liberals' COVID-19 regimes, their attempt to reduce us to subjects rather than citizens, seem to be failing.  Something in the middle class in America resisted the narrative that they should become victim serfs, holding their breath for the government to relieve them from the stress of living.  Much work remains, though, if we are not to be reduced to incompetence.  A key theme in the vast network of progressive policies is to remove us from voluntary life in civil society and ensconce us in their state-directed network of living.  Energy will be a government-created good, delivered to us at bureaucrats' price.  Education will become even more centralized with a curriculum devoted to regime goals of identity politics and sexual liberation.  Our speech and other activities in civil society will be under the thumb of a tech and administrative state consortium whose directives we will learn to obey or watch our access to this social media network be removed.

Watch Nancy Pelosi Pretty Much Admit That Biden Has Accomplished Nothing.  [Scroll down]  There is no Build Back Better.  It's dead.  The filibuster isn't changing.  The Democrats' bill that would tilt all elections in their favor, which is disguised as a "voting rights" bill, is dead as well.  We've lost two embassies.  We left Afghanistan in the most humiliating and disgraceful way possible, only to possibly stumble into another war in Ukraine that involves a nuclear power, Russia.  Gas prices are through the roof.  They will continue to rise as we've banned Russian oil imports.  If we were to measure it, inflation has soared past the moon.  We might reach the outskirts of Alpha Centauri when the damage is done.  Joe Biden has managed to weaken the office of the presidency and this nation in just over a year — and the worst part is, he doesn't care.  His approvals are toxic to any Democrat running for re-election.  If anything, he should revert to his 2020 campaign mode and stay hidden from sight.

The Green Immoralists.  [Scroll down]  Climate-change moralists love humanity so much in the abstract that they must shut down its life-giving gas, coal, and oil in the concrete.  And they value humans so little that they don't worry in the here and now that ensuing fuel shortages and exorbitant costs cause wars, spike inflation, and threaten people's ability to travel or keep warm.  The Biden Administration stopped all gas and oil production in the ANWR region of Alaska.  It ended all new federal leases for drilling.  It is cancelling major new pipelines.  It is leveraging lending agencies not to finance oil and gas drilling.  It helped force the cancellation of the EastMed pipeline that would have brought needed natural gas to southern Europe.  And it has in just a year managed to turn the greatest oil and gas producer in the history of the world into a pathetic global fossil-fuel beggar.

Biden shares tone-deaf plan to ensure 'no one will have to worry about gas prices'.  President Joe Biden ridiculously promoted his green agenda and advised Americans to purchase massively expensive electric cars so they will unrealistically no longer have to worry about buying gas while deterring "tyrants like Putin" from using fossil fuels as a weapon.  "Loosening environmental regulations won't lower prices.  But transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles, powered by clean energy, will mean that no one will have to worry about gas prices.  It will mean tyrants like Putin won't be able to use fossil fuels as a weapon," the president tweeted.  "It should motivate us to accelerate the transition to clean energy," Biden declared according to The Driven.

Manchin, Tester:  Why is Biden asking hostile regimes to solve US energy problems?  Joe Manchin and Jon Tester have rebuked the White House this morning for playing footsie with Venezuela and Iran while stiffing the American oil industry:  [Tweet]  "Go back to the policies we've had before," Manchin tells CNN's Manu Raju.  "That's all we're asking for."  That's all most Americans want too — a return to the oil-production policies of the Trump administration that resulted in net energy independence.  Biden's EOs and other regulatory actions to restrict oil leases made it more difficult for US producers to keep pace with a post-pandemic growth curve, for one thing.  Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline made it more difficult to increase imports from Canada as a buffer to American production, too.

Russian Oil Import Ban Just a Distraction From Biden's Anti-Energy Policies.  President Joe Biden on Tuesday [3/8/2022] announced a nationwide ban on imports of Russian oil, coal, and natural gas, relenting to pressure to stand against Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.  Unfortunately, the administration is only projecting the appearance of a principled stand and continues to be unwilling to make the necessary policy changes for an import ban to be truly effective.  The president's decision came in the wake of proposed bipartisan legislation, political support from Democratic congressional leadership, public support, and the initiative of many companies to disassociate themselves with Russian products and markets.  If he didn't act, it's very likely Congress would have led the way instead.

New York Dems Pose with Insane Climate Change Sign.  Putin's tanks are rolling into the Ukraine, sending world commodity prices, particularly oil and grain, haywire.  Gas at the pump is incredibly expensive, inflation is raging at a multi-decade high, and millions of illegal immigrants flooded across the border last year.  So what are lawmakers in New York focusing on right now?  Climate change, of course! [...] The tanks and artillery pieces of Russia are ravaging the Ukraine.  Warhawks seem intent on turning that regional tragedy into World War III and Biden is somehow being the voice of reason in the room.  Gas is skyrocketing in price.  America isn't respected abroad and our military is falling apart, being more focused on wokeness than warfighting.  Those are real, pressing problems.  A global thermonuclear exchange would prove far more devastating to the environment than emissions from SUVs and it could happen in 15 minutes rather than 15 decades.

The Biden admin foreign policy has two inviolable rules.  [Thread reader]  Rule #1:  get back into something that can be heralded as the Iran deal, no matter what.  This is less a policy idea than a matter of Democratic honor — refusing to admit the failure of Obama's major foreign policy goal, repudiating Trump, etc.  Rule #2:  cripple domestic energy production.  This is the foremost demand of the eco-activist base of the Dem Party.  No matter how much gas prices increase, the admin will not budge.  And so the admin is left begging bad regimes for oil.  It's morally appalling, it's nonsensical as a policy to reduce carbon emissions, but it pleases eco-activists.  So it is done.

The climate crisis disappearing act.  [Scroll down]  Mr. Biden forgot to mention that there is no evidence — none — of a climate crisis or of any attendant "devasting effects."  His entire proposal to achieve net-zero US emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 would reduce global temperatures by less than 0.173 degrees C by 2100, using the EPA climate model under assumptions that exaggerate the effects of emissions reductions.  (An immediate and permanent 50 percent emissions cut by China:  0.184 degrees C.)  And "environmental justice," notwithstanding the infinite elasticity of that phrase, means massive subsidies for Democratic Party constituencies, both geographically and politically.  It cannot mean anything else.  Would the up-front cost of "weatheriz[ing] your homes and businesses" be less than the present value of the annual $500 energy-cost savings of Mr. Biden's imagination?  If so, why are households and businesses not doing it already?  Is the president oblivious to the reality that the expanded use of unconventional electricity has yielded skyrocketing energy costs in Europe and in the US despite all the subsidies and other policy favoritism?  (As Pravda in its glory days would have put it:  It is no accident that California has almost the highest electricity costs in the lower 48 states.)  Is there anything "clean" about unconventional energy?  Yes, emphatically, if we ignore the heavy-metal pollution, wildlife destruction, noise and flicker effects, massive and unsightly land use, landfill pollution, and all of the other environmental problems created by unconventional energy.  And about that monthly savings of $80 "because you'll never have to pay at the gas pump again": Does Mr. Biden believe that the electricity consumed to recharge electric vehicles is free?

Stop Letting Environmental Groups Funded By Russia Dictate America's Energy Policy.  In aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, one thing has become abundantly clear to the American people:  energy security is national security.  But after decades of indoctrination by environmental groups who have pushed a climate change agenda completely detached from reality, today America is left with neither.  Since the first day of his presidency, Joe Biden has capitulated to America's most powerful, well-funded, dark money environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Climate Action Network, whose agenda is to shut down fossil fuels and restructure our entire economy around a socialist-style Green New Deal.

Biden Plans to Get Oil From These Countries, But There's One Missing.  The price of oil has blown past $125 per barrel this morning [3/7/2022] as the Biden administration's climate change agenda continues to hamper progress on lowering costs.  Over the weekend, a number of State Department diplomats were deployed to Venezuela in hopes of pulling off sanctions on the Maduro regime in order for the U.S. to tap back into the country's oil supply. [...] Last week, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said importing oil from Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terror, was being considered. [...] But as far as ramping up production in the United States, the administration has no plans to do so while insisting Americans must move forward with an energy "transition."

Biden's deficit reduction pledge [is being] undercut by [a] push for trillions in new social welfare spending.  President Biden's pledge to cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion by the end of the year has budget experts and fiscal hawks scratching their heads, especially as the White House pushes trillions in new spending.  Republicans say that if Mr. Biden was serious about cutting the deficit he would not be asking Congress to revive the administration's $1.75 trillion social welfare and climate change package.  "Want to lower the deficit," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee Republican.  "Spend less and cut the size of the federal government."  During his first State of the Union address, Mr. Biden attempted a delicate balancing act of pledging to cut the deficit while urging lawmakers to pass trillions in new federal spending.

Is It Intentional or Simply Ignorance?  Among a number of things going wrong in America right now, worst of all is our totally unnecessary, self-inflicted end to energy independence.  This one is particularly frustrating because it is so unnecessary and arbitrary.  Based purely on liberal arrogance and adolescent egotism — not on well considered business factors or with the country's long-term well-being in mind — "President" Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline as soon as he occupied the Oval Office.  This was simply a ploy to curry favor with the Green voting bloc and do something to counter President Trump.  It was the act of a shallow emotional simpleton and his behind-the-scenes puppet masters trying to look good in the eyes of the Squad and the liberal media.  It's not as if the cancelation of Keystone in and of itself ruined our energy sector.  Biden also stopped any fossil fuel exploration in ANWR, voided existing oil exploration and development leases on federal lands, and sharply curtailed the ability of existing oil and natural gas fracking companies to conduct their operations.  This has markedly reduced our supply, but far more important, it sent a message to the world oil market that any possibility of substantial new American oil was stopped dead in its tracks.

Until Joe Biden Lets U.S. Oil Freely Flow, He's Complicit In Putin's War.  As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, the United States and western allies have imposed a new round of economic sanctions.  But these won't achieve the desired effect as long as there is a carve-out for Russia's energy sector.  Last week, the United States imposed sanctions on four large Russian banks and restricted certain Russian state-owned enterprises from raising money in international markets.  On Monday, the U.S., the European Union, and the United Kingdom took an extraordinary step to sanction Russia's central bank, the Bank of Russia, preventing it from moving assets it held abroad to stabilize Russia's economy, or "using other government and private banks to manage central bank operations."  Additionally, the U.S. Department of Treasury prohibited Americans from doing business with Russia's central bank, finance ministry, and Russia's sovereign wealth fund.  No country's central bank had ever been sanctioned like this before.

Biden and Democrats' 'Let Them Eat Cake' Moment in Face of Exploding Gas Prices.  While supporters on social media desperately try to paper over Joe Biden's disastrous energy policies, which are causing near $7.00-per-gallon gas prices, Democrats in his administration are doing the opposite.  And for once, they're telling the truth.  High prices are by design, and they don't care if it hurts your family, your job, your food supply, or your ability to move freely about the country as long as their windmills and Chinese-made solar panels operate your cars and planes.  Don't ask questions.  The timing is spectacularly bad.  Democrat authoritarians have begun removing mandates and lockdowns because the political science has changed and Leftist politicians are being hurt in public opinion polls.  But these autocrats have re-imposed another kind of lockdown.  They're making gas so expensive you won't be able to go anywhere.

White House Opposes Ban on Russian Oil Imports.  President Joe Biden and his administration said Americans should reduce their consumption of oil and gas in order to keep prices down and ultimately punish Russian President Vladimir Putin.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki reacted to calls for the United States to stop importing oil from Russia in order to further punish Putin for escalating his invasion of Ukraine.  She said President Joe Biden and his administration were not interested in banning imports of oil from Russia, because reducing the supply would only increase prices and enrich the Russians.

The Editor says...
That logic is hard to follow.  The U.S. wants to keep importing oil from Russia, because if we don't Russia will get richer.  That means Russia is losing money by selling us oil.  That makes no sense, but Pink Hat Psaki said it, so it doesn't have to make sense.

Top 10 ways Biden deluded himself during his State of the Union.  [For example,] Biden boasted about tapping into 30 million barrels of our emergency oil reserves — less than two days' supply — while not mentioning a word about unleashing our plentiful untapped oil and gas supplies.  He even pretended that his policies would cut "energy costs for families an average of $500 a year by combating climate change," citing a dubious study which projected theoretical savings in 2030.  But the entire purpose of his climate-alarm agenda is to reduce our consumption of oil and gas by raising the price.  Instead of restoring America's energy independence, Biden blathered about something called "environmental justice" and electric-car charging stations.

Biden Is An Absolute Fraud For Saying It, But The Core Issue Is Still Not Funding Or Defunding The Police.  In his State of the Union speech, Joe Biden made the jaw-dropping statement that he supported funding the police.  He told a lot of big lies — his concern for national unity chief among them — but this police flip-flop represents the second-deadliest nonchalant course reversal (after Covid policies) and it simply can't be ignored.  Just for context, take a listen to this montage of various Democrats saying the exact opposite not that long ago:  [Video clip]

White House dismisses cries to increase US oil amid war, Psaki says we 'must prioritize' clean energy.  White House press secretary Jen Psaki called for furthering green energy initiatives in the face of foreign oil dependence that could see Americans burdened by $150/barrel prices.  In an appearance on ABC's "This Week," Psaki dismissed calls for President Biden to restart the Keystone XL oil pipeline and instead harkened back to the executive order that canceled the project which stated, the U.S. "must prioritize the development of a clean energy economy."  "What this actually justifies in President Biden's view is the fact that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general," Psaki claimed, "and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others.

Minnesota House passes bill banning hair discrimination.  Minnesotans would be protected from discrimination based on how they wear their hair under a bill the House passed Monday [2/28/2022].  The so-called CROWN Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, adds a definition of race that is inclusive of natural hairstyles and textures to the Minnesota Human Rights Act.  It's an effort to break down barriers that Black Minnesotans face at work, school and other public spaces for wearing hairstyles such as braids, locs and twists.  The bill "will clearly define that no one should be prevented from a job or an education because of the way that their hair naturally grows from their head," said Rep. Esther Agbaje, DFL-Minneapolis, its chief House sponsor.  Agbaje, who is Black, said at a Feb. 3 committee hearing that she straightened her hair for most of her life "because of a fear of losing a job or not being able to be taken as seriously."

GOP Leaders Call on Biden to Lift His Restrictions on U.S. Oil and Gas.  The Russian invasion into Ukraine is expected to have a devastating effect on the economy worldwide, especially on the energy market, where energy prices are reportedly already soaring with oil costing $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014.  "Joe Biden's reckless energy policies have already driven up the price of oil and gas over the last year," said Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) "Even he and his administration are admitting that they don't want to impose oil and gas sanctions on Russia because they are afraid it's going to add to the inflation they've already created."  Cotton had a better idea.  "How about we impose those sanctions, but we lift all those restrictions on the production of American oil and gas so we can start drilling on federal lands again and putting out new leases," the senator proposed.  "Reopen the Keystone Pipeline which would bring more oil to America every day from Canada than we import every day from Russia," he added.

Biden's Feckless Energy Policies Are Making The Ukraine Crisis Far Worse.  After blocking such sanctions last year using a national security waiver, the Biden administration announced Wednesday [2/23/2022] it would allow sanctions on the company in charge of building Russia's Nord Stream 2, a natural gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany's Baltic coast.  While the sanctions are one of many possible responses to counter a Russian invasion of Ukraine, the reversal invites the question of why the Biden administration empowered President Vladimir Putin with increased power over global energy supplies in the first place.  In 2019, under former President Donald Trump, the United States became energy independent for the first time in 62 years, meaning we produced more energy than we consumed and exported more than we imported.  The Trump administration achieved this in part by streamlining regulations that hindered U.S. pipelines and natural gas development on federal lands.

'Big Mistake' for Biden Administration to Shut Down China Initiative:  Trump.  The recent move by the Biden administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) to terminate the China Initiative is a "big mistake," former President Donald Trump said at a Feb. 26 press conference prior to his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  Trump also issued remarks on the current situation in Ukraine during the press conference.  The DOJ announced on Feb. 23 that it was ending the China Initiative program, which was spearheading an unprecedented crackdown against economic espionage, trade theft, and technology transfer by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against the United States.  The program was launched in 2018 by the Trump administration.

DOJ Ends Trump-Era China Initiative Program To Fight Espionage.  Joe Biden's Justice Department ended a Trump-era program that countered Chinese espionage against the United States.  This week, the DOJ said the 45th president's China Initiative was not broad enough and claimed it created a climate of fear among Asian Americans.  The China program, launched by Donald Trump's administration in 2018, was established to prevent China's theft of U.S. trade secrets, hacking and undue influence on U.S. education as well as politics.  However, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen seems more concerned it depicts the department as racist instead of keeping the focus on combating threats from the Chinese Communist Party.

The Left's COVID Insanity Is Creating A Once-In-A-Lifetime Opportunity For Conservatives.  [Scroll down]  How many other liberals feel this way today?  How many are coming to realize that the left is a cesspool of close-minded haters?  That it is the definition of mob justice?  That progressives don't have you or your family's best interest in mind?  That they are the secular version of religious zealots?  How many are realizing that the left's intolerance isn't limited to COVID, but that this is how it approaches every issue, where if you don't toe the line perfectly you get canceled?  Then ask yourselves, how many of these people understand that the left has been lying to them about conservatives all these years?  How many of them would be willing to listen to conservatives talk about why freedom, liberty, and the ability to pursue your own happiness is preferable to the left's dogma and dictates?  That compassion isn't measured by how much money the government spends, but by individual actions?

Biden halts oil, gas leases amid legal fight on climate cost.  The Biden administration is delaying decisions on new oil and gas drilling on federal land and other energy-related actions after a federal court blocked the way officials were calculating the real-world costs of climate change.  The administration said in a legal filing that a Feb. 11 ruling by a Louisiana federal judge will affect dozens of rules by at least four federal agencies.  Among the immediate effects is an indefinite delay in planned oil and gas lease sales on public lands in a half-dozen states in the West, including Wyoming, Montana and Utah.

U.S. Freezes New Oil And Gas Projects Amid GOP Suit Over Social Cost Of Emissions.  The Biden administration said Saturday [2/19/2022] it would suspend any decisions about new oil and gas drilling amid an ongoing legal battle with 10 Republican states over how to calculate the cost of fossil fuel-driven climate change.  The decision comes amid a recent court ruling over a government metric known as the "social cost of carbon," which sets a dollar figure for the climate change-related damage associated with greenhouse gas emissions.  That figure was $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emitted under President Barack Obama, but slashed to just $7 per ton under President Donald Trump.  President Joe Biden reinstated the $51 metric when he took office and said the administration would update it further as climate change continues.  The figure, as The New York Times notes, is used to guide government decisions on pollution-linked industries, and a higher dollar value in the future could make it harder for new oil and gas projects to move forward.

The Treason of the Ruling Class.  Because of the egocentrism and megalomania of the current ruling class, our country is inexorably and stealthily marching toward a tyrannical one-party socialist oligarchy beholden to a globalist agenda.  These elites, in their determination to achieve political and societal status in perpetuity, are willingly allied with the relatively small number of true believers in their midst whose sole focus is to transform America into another failed socialist nation.  In a major step toward accomplishing that goal, the ruling class in both Canada and the United States have calculatingly acquiesced to these ideologues maliciously exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic in order to permanently consolidate their political and societal status.

The Democrats Are Turning America into the New Venezuela.  The Bill of Rights is very clear and does not have any stipulations pertaining to the Second Amendment.  There are no conditions attached to the Second Amendment, such as the type of firearm, number of bullets in the magazine, caliber size, manufacturer, or how many firearms you can have on you or in your home.  The Second Amendment clearly states that the citizens of the United States have the right to keep and bear arms.  It's that simple.  Nothing more.  Nothing less.  The Democrats use every opportunity, no matter how minuscule the connection might be, to oppose the right to keep and bear arms for law-abiding citizens. [...] All dictatorships start this way: take control away from the people, make them defenseless, own them.  It's modern-day slavery.  It's not slavery as in a private master and slave.  It's the state owning its people.  Gun control is people control and the taxpayers pay for it.  This is the truth and it's up to you what you do with it but demand your God-given right to keep and bear arms and to freedom of speech.

Biden looks to pressure investors away from fossil fuels via climate disclosures.  The pressure is increasing on companies to follow environmental, social, and governance standards from both the private sector and the government.  The Biden administration is prioritizing proposed rulemaking that would require companies to produce climate-related disclosures, most notably through the Securities and Exchange Commission, a form of indirect pressure on fossil fuel companies.  The SEC is debating the extent to which it can compel companies to disclose details about how much energy they buy and how they handle climate risks.  Such self-reported disclosures to investors have already become commonplace in business, and adding government-mandated ESG disclosure rules is a big goal for the administration.

Biden Administration Defies Court Ruling Again, Opts Against Holding Oil Drilling Sales.  The Biden administration missed another deadline to hold quarterly onshore oil drilling lease sales after a federal court ruled it was legally required to do so.  The Department of the Interior (DOI) defied the June 2021 court ruling which ordered the administration to halt its ban on new oil and gas leases, the Western Energy Alliance — a fossil fuel industry group that challenged the ban — said Wednesday.  In August 2021, the DOI vowed to publish notices of competitive sales in December and hold a lease sale 45 days later, two promises it failed to keep, in court filings.  "President Biden just told the American people he'll work like the devil to lower prices at the gas pump.  But the lack of progress on federal lease sales means he's not trying very hard," Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance, said in a statement.  "The department continues to miss deadlines, drag its feet, and ignore a judge's ruling to hold sales."

At last, the liberals have found a tax they don't like; at least until after the mid-term election.
Democrats Looking to Suspend Federal Gas Tax For the Rest of 2022.  The voters are exhausted by COVID restrictions, worried about inflation, and uncertain that the president is up to the task of governing.  When politicians get into trouble, the first thing they think about is how to throw money at the voters to distract them from their problems.  Accordingly, Democrats in Congress are looking to ease the high cost of gas at the pump by suspending the 18-cent-a-gallon federal gas tax.  Of course, the $40 billion or so that the gas tax brings in would be lost, adding to the federal deficit.  Some in Congress have mentioned taking money from other line items to maintain the Highway Trust Fund.  But at this point, who cares?  What's $40 billion when Democrats (and Republicans) have been adding trillions of dollars to the federal budget deficit?

Democrats: Fix Inflation with Amnesty for Illegal Aliens, More Immigration.  Democrats are parroting United States Chamber of Commerce talking points as their latest fix to President Joe Biden's record inflation, urging Congress to pass amnesty for illegal aliens and drive up already record-setting legal immigration levels.  Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) told Business Insider that Democrats should look at passing a "comprehensive immigration bill," a term synonymous with amnesty and expanded legal immigration, as a way to cut inflation.

Seattle's Soda Tax Goes Horribly Wrong.  Once again Seattle lawmakers have shown their pre-existing vulnerability to social contagion with predictably embarrassing results.  Like nearly every cockamamie scheme cooked up by their fellow travelers on the West Coast, Messed Coast, almost all have backfired spectacularly.  And each promulgator has a deadly comorbidity — Leftism.  Plastic bag bans.  Replacing those plastic bags with their thicker plastic bags.  Gun "control."  Ammo "control."  Nuclear-free zones.  Global warming.  Global cooling.  Climate change.  Net-zero.  Preschool teachers sacrifice children to Satan.  Boys have babies.  Let's tax weed.  Let's bail out weed shops.  Seattle's CHAZ CHOP was a Summer of Love — with a body count.  Riots are mostly peaceful.  Give needles and crack pipes to addicts.  Allow people to walk the Seattle streets with a "bump" or two of heroin and fentanyl for "harm reduction."  Police are horrible people.  Criminals are not horrible people.  Their faux do-goodism results in hot-and-cold-running bodies on the sidewalks of Seattle.

The Hill:  Here's the shocking thing Democrats can do to salvage Biden's presidency.  [Scroll down]  When Democrats talk about "improving immigration laws," they are thinking of open borders and amnesty for tens of millions of illegal aliens.  Those ideas are neither bipartisan nor broadly popular.  As far as "reforming criminal justice" goes, even though Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea of defunding the police this weekend, that's still what comes to the minds of liberals when you talk about criminal justice reform.  (Along with eliminating cash bail, emptying the jails, and punishing the police.)  The Democrats can't "pivot" to focusing on those things because they've been trying to ram them through for the past year.

Federal Judge Blocks Ridiculous, Key Component of Biden 'Climate Change' Scheme.  Specifically, a United States District Court judge on Friday blocked Biden's January 2021 executive order that ridiculously factored in the mostly-contrived "social cost" of carbon emissions when creating rules regulating pollution, as reported by Fox News.  So what is the "social cost" of the "existential threat to mankind," you ask?  Let's go to the inimitable Stanford economics professor, Marshall Burke for the answer:  ["]The social cost of carbon is the single most important number for thinking about climate change.  When we emit a ton of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it sticks around for a while and causes warming, affecting human outcomes.  The social cost of carbon is the total damage that an additional ton of CO2 has on outcomes, converted into dollars.["]  Given the left's strict adherence to all things science — except when they ignore science in deference to their political narrative (see: "all-things COVID") — does the above explanation of "social cost" sound like exact science to you?  Me, neither.

They're Coming For You.  You Know That, Right?  [Scroll down]  But the Democrats' destructive war on the country isn't simply limited to COVID.  Last month they tried to take over the way we conduct elections from the states while threatening some of their own party who wouldn't go along.  George Soros-funded Democrat district attorneys refuse to prosecute theft and violence in major American cities.  Homicides are through the roof.  Retail and auto theft is through the roof.  Homeless, drug-addicted zombies lay waste to city streets.  Worse, the Democrats who run these cities have gone to war with and called to defund and strip authority from the police officers that remain the single thin, blue line between anarchy and their residents.  Joe Biden's Department of Justice has conspired to frame Americans for wild, politically motivated schemes.  They currently hold many in federal custody without formal charges related to undefined law breaking on January 6th, 2021.  Two Republican members of Congress have accused the DOJ of going through their constituent mail and interrogating their staff.  They've threatened to deploy resources to school board meetings to keep an eye on parents who get too uppity.  Democrats want a peek into your bank accounts if you have $600 bucks or more.

America's enemies are delighted to hear this:
US Army goes green, announcing new climate strategy.  The U.S. Army unveiled a plan this week to tackle issues surrounding climate change, including the establishment of an electric vehicle fleet, as well as the reduction of the branch's greenhouse gas emissions.  The plan, outlined by the Army in a document titled "Climate Strategy," calls for the service to cut its emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050.  The strategy aims to establish an "all-electric light-duty non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2027" and an "all-electric non-tactical vehicle fleet by 2035."

New York bill enlists fashion industry in fight against climate change.  The Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act, known as the Fashion Act for short, would force clothing and apparel manufacturers with more than $100 million in annual sales to disclose on their websites the amount of energy, water, plastics and other chemicals they use, as well as their emission levels of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.  It also contains standards to include fair labor practices.  This requirement would be applied to the entire supply chain, including the farms where the raw materials such as cotton are grown and the process of shipping those materials.  After disclosing this information, the companies would then be required to begin reducing their ecological footprint.

Biden's Latest Proposal Would Force Insurers to Pay for Gender 'Transition'.  President Joe Biden has sought to inject gender ideology into our laws since his first day in office.  He might prefer a massive bill like the Equality Act that elevates the categories of "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to status of race and sex.  But that effort has stalled in the Senate.  So, for now, his administration is looking for ways to insert sexual orientation and gender identity concepts into existing law.  The latest?  In January, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that would add sexual orientation and gender identity language to the 2010 Affordable Care Act.  According to the department, these amendments will ensure that those who identify as LGBT receive "medically necessary" care.  This includes "gender-affirming" surgeries and hormone "therapy."  In fact, the department's proposed rule circumvents the law and treats dubious treatments as essential health benefits in qualified health plans.  This not only contradicts the best science and medicine, it's a disaster for insurers, for medical providers, and, most of all, for those struggling with gender dysphoria.

White House Says It Never Planned to Fund Distribution of Crack Pipes.  [I]t looks like the White House is doing damage control on CrackPipeGate.  After The Washington Free Beacon published a report on a grant being offered by the Department of Health and Human Services that would fund, in part, the distribution of crack pipes to "underserved" communities, the Biden administration faced outrage coming from conservatives and others. [...] These "smoking kits" included, among other implements, pipes that could be used to smoke crack or other illicit substances.  However, the White House press secretary recently stated that this was not the case.  "They were never part of the kit," she said during a press conference on Wednesday.  "It was inaccurate reporting, and we wanted to put out information to make that clear."

Two days earlier...
Biden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance 'Racial Equity'.  The Biden administration is set to fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its plan to advance "racial equity."  The $30 million grant program, which closed applications Monday and will begin in May, will provide funds to nonprofits and local governments to help make drug use safer for addicts.  Included in the grant, which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, are funds for "smoking kits/supplies."  A spokesman for the agency told the Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and "any illicit substance."

The Editor says...
Is crack smoked exclusively by people of one race?  Are these people better off if the government makes it easier to smoke crack?

The Truth About Biden's Fake War With Russia.  Biden tried to be FDR and failed at that.  Now he's settling for playing a senile elderly JFK.  If you watch 5 minutes of CNN or any cable news network, you might believe that we're on the verge of war with Russia.  That's what the same people who claimed that President Trump was working for Putin want you to believe.  Their new war with Russia is as real as Russiagate.  Democrats want to fight Russia to the last Republican.  They aren't about to fight a real war.  Their fake wars with Russia are an attack on Republicans.  Russiagate came after Democrats spent eight years giving Putin everything he wanted as Hillary toted a Reset Button from a swimming pool and Psaki posed in a sickle and hammer hat.  And that was just what we knew about.

The 'Ugly' of Progressive Public Policy.  In large part, policies currently implemented in many states show a profound misunderstanding of human nature. [...] The ideas of defunding police, sending social workers to active crime scenes, promoting "safe" drug use, and other idealistic remedies of the ugly, have known a flourishing in recent years, especially in Western society.  Moreover, a profound misunderstanding of the complexities of human sexuality has produced a "remedy" that consists of normalization at all costs, which has spilled over into promoting indiscriminate conversions from one sex to another in impressionable individuals who may have had mental disturbances that should have been addressed psychologically, and not surgically.

Biden and His Clown Car Have Failed America!  President Biden's first year was the epic failure Republicans and conservatives warned it would be, showing why we supported President Trump's campaign against Biden.  The disasters seem too numerous to list.  On foreign policy, the Afghanistan withdrawal was a disaster, taking our military out before we evacuated civilians and allies, and leaving all our weapons to arm terrorists.  China and Russia see Biden's weakness and incompetence, with yet-unknown consequences.  On domestic policy, $2 trillion of unwarranted COVID socialism has given us horrible inflation, especially on gas and food.  Regulations are choking our businesses, with the Supreme Court saving some businesses but not others.  And Biden continues his failed attempts at socialist authoritarian power grabs labeled with Orwellian doublespeak, such as taking over elections but calling it "voting rights," destroying America's free market economy but calling it "build back better," creating two new Senate seats by unconstitutionally calling DC a "state," destroying the Senate's separate role from the House by calling the filibuster "racist," and destroying the Supreme Court as an independent branch of government but calling it "expanding."

Climate Activists Keep Moving the Goalposts.  "I think shoving something down someone's throat of this magnitude is a mistake," Long Island Democrat Todd Kaminsky told Politico.  He was referring to progressive Democrats' plan for a ban on natural gas hookups in new construction by 2024, pushing New York City's ban forward three years and making it apply statewide.  But he could have been referring to their increasingly extreme climate policies in general.  Activists want total control over every building in the state.  How much will this add to the costs of new homes and commercial properties as developers scramble to make last-minute changes?  Legislative supporters haven't said, because they don't know, and they don't even care.

State Legislators Are Mounting A Stand Against "Critical Theory's Long March".  I know I've been repetitive on the loss of institutions at virtually every level of society.  But maybe it's also worth focusing not only on which institutions have been lost, but what remains and how much power what remains can have.  There is, of course, people power that exists outside institutions.  That people power in 2021-2022 is focused on the parents' movement to reclaim their children.  It's not just about Critical Race Theory, it's about whether children are children of their parents or of the state and teachers unions.  That people power also is manifesting itself in disgust with unscientific, irrational, harmful, and abusive lockdowns and Covid-related random acts of government abuse.  But there is an institution that remains, and it's starting to engage in a serious way.

As Biden doubles down on his War on Energy, prices keep shooting up.  Biden's Environmental Protection Agency is writing new rules that will raise costs for fossil-fuel-based power plants.  And, as Kenneth R. Timmerman noted in The [New York] Post last week, Team Biden has also moved to kill the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Pipeline, which would've brought Israeli and Cypriot natural gas to gas-starved Europe, helping ease shortages there.  The prez is also reviving Obama-era loan guarantees for "clean energy" producers, starting with $1 billion in backing for a Nebraska company that will make "clean" hydrogen.  That guarantee could cost taxpayers; think Solyndra, the solar-panel company Team Obama aided to the tune of $500 million before it went belly-up — only with the stakes now twice as high.  Favoring such companies also puts traditional energy producers at a competitive disadvantage.

Critics slam 'Pothole Pete' Buttigieg's plan to fix the nation's roads crisis with more speed cameras and lower speed limits that will guarantee fines for drivers.  Pete Buttigieg's plan to add more speed cameras to America's roads as a way patrolling them more 'fairly' has been panned by critics who say it will only lead to more speeding fines under the guise of equity and road safety.  Buttigieg announced the plan yesterday [1/27/2022] and claims it will reduce the number of deadly road collisions.  The highway plan is receiving some $17 billion from Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which will be used in part to pay for the cameras.

Joe Biden, enemy of America.  From the moment Joe Biden stepped into the Oval Office as president it became clear that he stole the job in order to destroy America from within.  He stopped the construction of the Keystone Pipeline on day one, costing thousands of good paying jobs.  He stopped the construction of the southern border wall, costing more jobs and leaving millions of dollars' worth of equipment rotting in the desert.  Biden would not even let Texas use the construction materials themselves; any wall would impede the Biden plan to import over two million migrants from around the world, to be given funds and to spread them throughout the nation into unsuspecting cities.  The Democrats voted unanimously that these illegal invaders would not be required to be vaccinated or even tested for Covid.  That should tell us everything we need to know about how seriously the left really takes this phony pandemic.  They know it is phony because it's wirked for their advantage from the outset.  They had to do something to derail President Trump.  So, with a stroke of Biden's pen, the energy independence Trump had achieved was gone.

What to make of Biden secretly transporting illegal aliens into the US.  Two days ago, the New York Post reported the following:  "Under cover of darkness, every night the federal government is transporting illegal migrants as fast as it can away from the border on secret charter flights into unsuspecting communities around the country.  Officials have lied and obstructed the few journalists who have tried to reveal the truth."  This has been an old Democrat project.  They begin by inviting illegal immigrants either explicitly or implicitly through various public forums.  They then allow numerous illegal aliens into the country by opening up the border.  Since these migrants are uneducated, unskilled, and impoverished they depend on government welfare for their survival.  This makes them a permanent underclass who the Democrats think will be perennially subservient to them.  Many of these migrants eventually are transferred to locations where Republicans traditionally win.  The Democrats know they can never convince conservatives to vote for their radical left-wing policies.  So they drown the impact of these resident voters by giving voting rights to a sufficient number of migrants to facilitate a Democrat win.  Soon they plan to have a permanent presence in the House, Senate, and the White House.

Biden Is Going Green, Even If It Kills Us.  The Biden administration's determination to make its climate agenda a central factor in U.S. foreign policy could be the greatest threat to human survival in our times.  This leap into the climate-change rabbit hole has distracted the White House from the old-fashioned — but painfully present — task of making sure Americans are not devastated by a major war.  By stirring partisan politics and dubious science into their recipe for national security, this administration risks getting the single most important responsibility of the federal government horribly wrong.  For starters, their climate agenda lacks legitimacy. [...] Furthermore, the judgments of this administration are highly suspect.  They can't even get the science around Covid-19 right.  The scientific consensus changes weekly.  And a coronavirus is a lot less complicated than the global climate.  But it's not just questions of science the administration has gotten wrong.  From inflation to border security, the White House insists it has all the right answers, when clearly it does not.

Biden admin pledges goal of zero traffic fatalities... and how do you suppose it'll accomplish that?  Some governments around the planet have proclaimed that they won't lift all restrictions and mandates pertaining to the COVID-19 plandemic until nary a single case of the Wuhan Flu can be found.  Until recently, this appeared to be the goal of Dr. Fauci and the Biden administration as well.  Now our rulers and experts admit that we will probably never rid ourselves of the virulent visitor from the East.  After failing to conquer the coronavirus, the Biden administration has now set its sights on traffic fatalities. [...] Sorry, people, but our leaders just can't grant us our freedom again until there is "zero" chance that any one of us might die from any cause.

Biden official:  American interest in Ukraine is ensuring borders are "inviolate".  A fun leftover from yesterday and our latest entry in the Someone Left The Irony On Department.  With brinksmanship escalating between the US, the European Union, and Ukraine, CNN's John Berman asks a solid question: why should Americans care about the fate of this country on the eastern edge of Europe?  Jonathan Finer, deputy national security adviser to Joe Biden, says we should be all about enforcing border security and recognizing national sovereignty. [...] This administration refuses to address our own border crisis that Biden and Kamala Harris touched off with their campaign rhetoric and bungled policy reversals.  They won't even talk about it now, trying their best to distract from the tsunami of migration that is still overwhelming our border security apparatus.

Is the second American Civil War nearing its conclusion?  Leftists, through a combination of brilliant projectionist strategy and callously evil use of their political opponents' naïvité, decency, and tolerance, have transformed America's institutions.  They have weaponized them and used them against their less aggressive fellow citizens. [...] They are attempting a final push now, one in which they intend to grant the District of Columbia (meaning themselves) two senators, eliminate the filibuster (meaning the ability of the minority party to have any say in governance), pack the Supreme Court (meaning they are chagrinned that this is the one body that they don't fully control at present), and nationalize elections by banning the requirement of identification in every state (meaning they can steal every election going forward... in perpetuity).

Biden accused of keeping GOP lawmakers in the dark about $1.2T being spent on infrastructure.  House Republicans are demanding transparency from the Biden administration about how it is spending more than $1.2 trillion in infrastructure funding that Congress approved last year.  Top Republican lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said more clarity is needed given the size of the public works package and the "byzantine" bureaucracies responsible for its implementation.  The Biden administration's decision to appoint Mitch Landrieu as its unelected, unconfirmed "infrastructure czar" has done little to allay concerns, they said.

Biden: No Course Correction.  The failures of President Joe Biden's first year in office are obvious to all.  Inflation is raging.  COVID is raging.  Crime is spiking in some big cities.  The U.S.-Mexico border is a mess.  The American withdrawal from Afghanistan was a mess.  And with it all, the president and his party are obsessed, most of all, with passing a voting rules bill that would help ensure their future election by federalizing the voting system along lines favorable to Democrats.  It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Democrats, and the president, are spending too much time focusing on issues that are not top voter concerns.  That has created a huge opportunity for Republicans.  A recent Fox News poll, for example, found the GOP with big leads when voters were asked which party would do a better job handling the economy.  The GOP also led on the same question on the issue of crime.  And national security.  And border security.

Democrats oppose the production and use of natural gas — except in Europe.
US finalizing plans to divert gas to Europe if Russia cuts off supply.  The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin's most powerful economic weapon.  As fears of an invasion of Ukraine have grown, US officials said on Tuesday that they had been negotiating with global suppliers, and they were now confident that Europe would not suffer from a sudden loss of energy for heating in the middle of winter.  "To ensure Europe is able to make it through the winter and spring we expect to be prepared to ensure alternative supplies covering a significant majority of the potential shortfall," a senior official said.  The preparation for bulk gas supplies deliveries is part of a campaign by the US and its European allies to show a united and coherent front to Putin in the hope of deterring him from invading Ukraine.  Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would consider imposing personal sanctions on the Russian president himself.

Chickenhawk Joe.  Say what you will about Donald Trump's foreign policies.  He didn't start wars.  He didn't vaporize a family of 10 in a suburb of Kabul, He did however vaporize actual terrorists.  He didn't abandon Americans in Afghanistan in a disastrous pullout that killed 13 American soldiers.  Crimea was abandoned to the predations of Putin during Barack Obama's watch.  Taiwan wasn't buzzed by Chinese fighters on a daily basis while Trump was in the White House.  Daily Chinese provocations are Joe Biden's enduring legacy.  The Ukrainian border is filled with a hostile Russian army and it's due, in no small part, to the fool in the White House.  The foreign policy of the former vice president is one of weakness and stupidity and mismanagement.  Joe Biden doesn't know what to do because he didn't bother to look.  He and his inept administration are now engaging in the silly practice of "hash-tag" diplomacy, apparently to frighten Putin into backing down?  Smart move when dealing with a thug.

Democrats suddenly value border security, just not the US border.  Nancy Pelosi is even more agitated tonight than usual.  On a conference call just hours ago, Pelosi demanded that her members vote immediately on a piece of legislation she says is critical to our national security.  The bill she's talking about, among other things, affirms the central importance of national borders.  Well, of course, it does.  Without a border, you can't have a country.  And Nancy Pelosi firmly believes that.  In fact, she believes it so strongly she's directing the Biden administration to develop an urgent new plan to keep the border secure.  In fact, not simply secure, but in the words of the new legislation, Section 208, inviolable, meaning impossible to breach.  Walled up and buttoned-down.  Bulletproof.  That's quite a border.  But why wouldn't it be?  When it comes to borders, Nancy Pelosi isn't messing around.  Are you surprised to hear this?  Well, you may have misunderstood.  Pelosi isn't talking about the U.S. border, the one that's currently open.  She's talking about the Ukrainian border, the one that actually matters.

Senate Republicans preemptively blast Biden police reform order.  Senate Republicans are already taking aim at a police reform executive order that President Joe Biden is expected to sign in the coming days, warning that the order would effectively defund state and local police departments.  Seven GOP senators, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley, signed a letter to Biden on Friday that raised a series of concerns about the restrictions outlined in a leaked draft of the order.  "These hard-left policies are extremely ill-advised, dangerous to Americans, and would only further demoralize law enforcement," the senators wrote.  "We are baffled as to why this Administration would want to implement this EO, which is tantamount to defunding the police."

Biden's regulatory bender is crushing the US economy.  By so many measures, Joe Biden's presidential administration falls at the bottom of the scale.  But there is one metric by which Biden is tops — in fact, the very tops in all of history.  That is the regulatory costs his administration has imposed on the nation in a single year.  The American Action Forum, a conservative think tank that tracks government regulation, has tallied up what government agencies estimate their regulations cost.  The Biden administration has now imposed $201 billion in regulation — more than three times the cost that President Barack Obama's very left-wing administration imposed on families and businesses in its first year.

Poll reveals many Democrats wish to repeal natural law, imprison fellow citizens.  A poll conducted jointly by the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports surveyed 1,016 "likely voters" in the United States on January 5.  The poll revealed...that a large percentage of Democrat voters would have made excellent Germans circa the 1930s and 1940s.  Specifically, it revealed that 59% of likely Democratic voters want the government to enact a policy mandating that unvaccinated Americans be confined to their homes at all times, except for emergencies.  (Conversely, 79% of Republicans and 71% of unaffiliated voters oppose such draconian punitive measures.)  Moreover, 45% of Democrats called for the government to round up citizens who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 and force them into "designated facilities."  (These same people, I'm certain, are — or would be — appalled at FDR rounding up Japanese-Americans and placing them in "designated facilities" during World War II.)  An even higher percentage of voters who have a "very favorable" opinion of President Biden were in favor of putting unvaccinated Americans into COVID camps.

The Democrats' so-called 'voting rights' bill is really a progressive wish list that steals state powers and promotes a phony election conspiracy.  The overwhelming majority of Senate Democrats will soon move to eliminate the filibuster — which has protected the rights of the chamber's minority for more than a century — because they feel the need to pass 'voting rights legislation' is just too intense to be blocked by the 60-vote threshold.  By merging several pieces of legislation into one mega-bill and calling it the 'Freedom to Vote:  John R. Lewis Act,' Democrats are trying to scare people into believing that if the bill doesn't pass, they will lose their right to vote.  Of course, this whole exercise is doomed to fail, because Democratic leadership can't get all 50 of their own senators to support it.  But it won't be for lacking of trying.

What's With the Left's Attempt to Abolish Work?  [A]ll societies, even hunting and gathering societies, do require self-support and work in order to function.  They may not have a market exchange, but there's nobody sitting around saying, "Hey, go find me some food and I'll sit here."  Nothing works like that.  And work is fundamentally about self-support.  If you think back traditionally, this would be someone building his own house, raising his own food, family making their own clothes, and so forth.  Now, in a market economy, we don't do that anymore.  But what we do is exchange our work for someone else's work, who can do a particular thing more efficiently.

Joey 2022: The Worse the Better.  [Scroll down]  So, if I was leading a rebel cabal deep within the FBI Special Task Force on Armed Insurrectionism — because where else would I be? — I would get AOCs elected to Congress; I would crash the economy with lockdowns and vaccination mandates; I would make sure that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell kept the money spigots on full bore; I would propose multiple trillion-dollar spending packages artfully described as stimulus, infrastructure, Build Back Better; I would propose to federalize elections to make ordinary people fear for their lives; I would nod-nod-wink-wink to George Soros to elect prosecutors that had no time for prosecuting when there were homes in Florida to be bought; I would totally bungle the retreat from Afghanistan; I would kill the oil-and-gas industry stone dead and increase gas prices by 50 percent; I would call the inevitable inflation "transitory;" I would set up a January 6 Commission to transform the stupid January 6 rioters into noble victims of injustice.  And, of course, I would call anyone who objected a "systemic racist."

Donald Trump Jr:  Democrats Used Filibuster 327 Times in 2020 — 'Republicans Used It Once'.  The Democrats now want to eliminate the filibuster, but "they used it 327 times in 2020" while the Republicans only used it once," Donald Trump Jr., executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said Thursday.  During an interview on Fox News's "Hannity," Donald Trump Jr., said, "It's almost hard to believe Kamala Harris is as bad as she is and Joe Biden for being there for so long.  [I]t's like they are trying to destroy America at this point.  There's not a single metric by which they're succeeding.

Something Incredible Happened Yesterday After Democrats Demanded an End to the Filibuster.  For the better part of a year now, Democrats have vehemently opposed the Senate's filibuster rule. [...] That push culminated in a visit to Capitol Hill yesterday by Joe Biden.  The president was there to push for the abolishment of the filibuster yet again as part of a plan by Chuck Schumer to pass a "voting rights" bill making voter ID illegal, legalizing ballot harvesting, publicly funding campaigns, and handing state redistricting power to partisans in Washington, DC, among many other objectionable measures.

It's Not Just Manchin and Sinema.  Anyone who can legally vote can vote.  No legislation that the Republicans are pushing is depriving one person of the right to vote.  What they deal with are voter integrity issues like having voter ID or ballot harvesting — that's what Democrats don't want because those measures help to prevent fraud.  As I noted over the weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) claimed election integrity bills were a "legislative continuation of Jan. 6."  But while she said pushed that insanity, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) gave the game away, admitting that purpose was a federal takeover of elections, claiming that the "federal elections cannot be left up to the states, should not be left up to the states."  It's all about control.

Democrats Said Dropping the Filibuster Would 'Destroy Democracy' Now Biden's Demanding It.  The last thing Biden has to save his presidency and secure a Democrat majority forever is to drop the filibuster so they can ram through a bill they won't even let the public see to federalize all elections, which essentially means all of the states that just past laws that require voter IDs, dead people removed from voter roles, etc.[,] would be overturned and the federal government would be able to tell every town, city or state who is or isn't allowed to run for office.  Which is exactly what they're attempting to do in a roundabout way to keep Trump and all of his supporters who even mentioned January 6th from running again.  This is because polls show American's overwhelmingly support those candidates while Joe Biden and his ilk have record low approval numbers.  [Video clip]

Now Barack Obama backs Biden's bid to kill Senate filibuster.  Barack Obama joined the campaign to pressure Democratic senators into supporting voting rights legislation, backing Joe Biden's demand to kill the filibuster, calling it a tool to 'prop up Jim Crown.'  The former president, in an op-ed published in USA Today, writes the Senate filibuster 'has no basis in the Constitution' and arguing it was used by Southern senators to block civil rights legislation that disinfranchised black voters.  'I fully support President Joe Biden's call to modify Senate rules as necessary to make sure pending voting rights legislation gets called for a vote,' Obama wrote.

Democrats Avoid Campaigning on Biden's Floundering Build Back Better Agenda.  Democrat Congressional candidates running in GOP House districts are noticeably avoiding talking about President Joe Biden's floundering Build Back Better agenda, the Daily Beast observed on Tuesday [1/11/2022]. [...] While Democrats "frequently tout their commitment" to several of the bill's provisions — like prescription drug costs, child care, and "climate change" — many "don't explicitly acknowledge" Biden's $2 trillion in "social spending."

And Now, We turn Our Attention to Seizing States' Control of Elections & Nullifying Your Vote.  While the news cycle has long been dominated by Covid madness, a bumbling inept leader and ambitious lefts' attempt to turn America into into a retarded version of a soviet union and the resulting chaos, not much attention has been paid to the Democrats former #1 legislative priority that got sidelined in favor of the pandemic craziness.  It wasn't health care, immigration, or taxes.  No, their first legislative priority after the 2018 midterms was grabbing more power by centralizing power over elections in Washington, D.C.  There wasn't going to be another 2016!  What was called 'H.R. 1' was intended to be the first priority of House Democrats, leftist groups, deep-pocketed dark money and those who use, by hook or crook, the election process rules to help win elections, or at least to cause chaos and throw it to the courts.  The original bill is a 571-page dreamscape of wild wishes and federal mandates on states that got some heat when exposed to the public for being the blatant power grab that it is.  Seizing States' Control of Elections.

The Left did us a great favor.  [Scroll down]  Actually, it's not Joe Biden, it's the ranks of the Karl Marx Book Club elites and grandchildren of the Yippies now occupying the White House, along with Obama, Rice, Pelosi, et al.  They have taken us to a place, and swiftly, that we never imagined before.  They are center stage revealing on an almost daily basis how truly wacky is the road to socialism with its accompanying demands for the masses to adhere to their demands.  They, after all, know better than we.  They know we will be better served with higher fuel and food prices, trillions more in national debt, prosecutors who no longer prosecute, millions of illegals crossing the southern border, depleted law enforcement ranks, solar and wind energy, fear of COVID, fear of global warming (climate change), placement of teacher unions in charge of public education and... well, the list goes on.

Who Are the Real Insurrectionists?  Recently, Democrats have been despondent over Joe Biden's sinking polls.  His policies on the economy, energy, foreign policy, the border, and COVID-19 all have lost majority support.  As a result, the Left now variously alleges that either in 2022, when they expect to lose the Congress, or in 2024, when they fear losing the presidency, Republicans will "destroy democracy" or stage a coup.  A cynic might suggest that they praise democracy when they get elected — only to claim it is broken when they lose.  Or they hope to avoid their defeat by trying to terrify the electorate.  Or they mask their own revolutionary propensities by projecting them onto their opponents.  After all, who is trying to federalize election laws in national elections contrary to the spirit of the Constitution?  Who wishes to repeal or circumvent the Electoral College?  Who wishes to destroy the more than 180-year-old Senate filibuster, the over 150-year-old nine-justice Supreme Court, and the more than 60-year-old, 50-state union?  Who is attacking the founding constitutional idea of two senators per state?

Biden beefs up efforts against Big Meat.  With inflation raising red flags for consumers across the country, the Biden administration is continuing its war on big meat processors that it claims are reaping record profits at the expense of consumers and smaller competitors.  The White House has released what it calls an action plan for "a fairer, more competitive, and more resilient meat and poultry supply chain" complete with a wide range of initiatives.  "In too many industries, a handful of giant companies dominate the market," President Joe Biden said in a Monday meeting to discuss the issue.

Schumer Threatens to Nuke Filibuster If GOP Stands Ground on Voting Bill.  Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer announced Monday that the chamber would debate eliminating the filibuster in the coming weeks if Republicans refuse to join Democrats in passing sweeping voting legislation.  While the filibuster was designed to empower the minority party in the Senate, Schumer argued that it now serves to "embarrass the will of the majority," against the founders' intentions for legislative procedure.  He claimed that Republicans should not be allowed to block the Freedom to Vote Act, using the vehicle of the filibuster, that only further enshrines and expands the American right to vote.  Schumer has previously expressed support for altering the filibuster but the statement is his strongest in favor of the idea.

Schumer shows the left's desperation to build fraud into elections.  Although the Democrats put most of their political capital in the Build More Communist Bill (known as the "Build Back Better Bill"), the bill that's more important to them is actually the "For The People" Act, which has already passed in the House.  If the Senate passes it, it will build into elections every type of pro-fraud procedure possible.  To that end, Sen. Chuckie Schumer wrote to tell Republicans, who will be destroyed if the act passes, that they'd better pass the act or else he'll destroy the filibuster and pass the act without them.  You may recall that, in January 2021, Sen. Mitch McConnell entered into an agreement with Schumer that raised the possibility of doing away with the filibuster.  Currently, the filibuster is a rule that, when brought into play, does away with a simple majority vote in the Senate and, instead, requires a supermajority to pass a bill.  The filibuster has existed since 1806.

With Build Back Better stalled, the Left pushes Biden to act alone.  With the Build Back Better Act wounded, perhaps fatally, by the public defection of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, liberals are calling on President Joe Biden to go solo in fulfilling his agenda.  But those calls are meeting resistance from opponents who say they're bad policy at best and illegal at worst.  Seattle-based Rep. Pramila Jayapal, leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, penned an op-ed in the Washington Post calling on Biden to enact portions of his Build Back Better plan via executive order.  "We are calling on the president to use executive action to immediately improve people's lives," Jayapal wrote, adding she'd keep working to push the legislation in Congress.

AOC's Grasp on American Governance Is 'a Farce'.  Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, echoing the complaint of the Democratic Party establishment, believes that Sen. Joe Manchin engaged in an "egregious breach" of President Joe Biden's trust by refusing to support his welfare-expansion plans.  "The idea that Joe Manchin says that he can't explain this back home to his people is a farce," said Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Elsewhere, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., similarly noted that Manchin, D-W.Va., would have to do a lot of explaining in West Virginia after abandoning Build Back Better.  The reality, as they know, is that the Democrats' legislation is probably more unpopular in Manchin's home state — with 74% opposing — than any other in the nation.  So it's somewhat odd to hear people who claim to be guardians of "democracy" arguing that a senator owes his loyalty to his party over his state.  That is, until you quickly remember that the selective and temporary championing of crude majoritarianism by Democrats is a cynical play for power.

Democrats Reject Work Ethic, Embrace Freeloaders.  Using the pretext of pandemic relief, Democrats enacting the American Rescue Plan last March changed a feature of the tax code, the child tax credit available to adults who work and pay taxes, into a grant paid unconditionally and monthly to almost all adults with kids, whether they work or not.  Democrats have been pushing to extend the monthly payments through 2022 as part of the Build Back Better Act, with a plan to make them permanent.  [Senator Joe] Manchin saw right through what his party intended:  a socialist-style universal basic income.  Manchin objected to the unconditional monthly cash grants:  "There's no work requirement whatsoever."

Do Democrats Want to Build Back Better, or Do They Want a Coup?  Through a number of pressure points, the left is trying to overwhelm and subvert constitutional checks and balances, basic ideas of fairness, historical understandings of things like voter rights and equality of opportunity (which is not and should never be equality of outcomes), law and order, the public weal in protecting against theft and bodily harm, and responsible conduct as the sign of a good citizen.  Now massive mail-in schemes, elimination of voter ID, federal control of even local elections, extended periods of time for voting, and ballot-harvesting are high on the list of Democommie priorities.  Their priorities are clearly not about fairness, but about corrupt manipulation of our nation's voting priorities as a free society.

Nobody likes Joe.  Inflation, violent crime, job competition from illegals, and the monstrous Afghanistan pullout are taking their toll on old Joe's president[i]al approval ratings. [...] Joe threw blacks, women, independents, Latinos, suburbanites, and others over the side in his bid to please the AOC crowd.  Gas prices through the roof.  Bye-bye energy independence.  Federal drilling halted in the name of 'going green.'  A major pipeline shut down at the flick of Joe's pen.  No parental input in education.  Critical race theory drummed into the heads of the young.  Schools closed.  What teachers' unions want, teachers' union get.  Coddle and pay illegals with bottomless funding while border towns pay extra for the surge, crime, and spreading of COVID.  Throw the poor out of their jobs with vax mandates.  Reintroduce inflation, brought on by Federal Reserve money-printing to pay for Joe's big government spending.  Whip up whitey-as-bad-guy rhetoric, defund the police, ignore violent crime even as turns every blue city into another Caracas.

Joe Manchin Just Defused Build Back Bankrupt's Catastrophic Inflation Bomb.  In holding up President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" (BBB) plan, West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin has cited inflation as one of his foremost concerns about the bill, while Americans have watched November's inflation numbers jump to the worst in nearly 40 years.  Manchin says he worries BBB's huge spending provisions could cause America's already serious inflation problem to worsen substantially.  Manchin's opposition to the act effectively destroys any hope of the bill passing in the near future in the evenly split U.S. Senate.  The act is President Biden's signature policy proposal, and it could prove to be congressional Democrats' last chance of making good on their promise to impose "bold" reforms.  Manchin's decision to effectively end any hope of the BBB bill passing presents a massive setback for the White House and congressional leadership.

Democrats' U-turn on policing — too little, too late.  In an astonishing reversal, San Francisco's mayor, London Breed, launched emergency police intervention in the city's crime-wrecked Tenderloin district.  This is the woman who cut police and sheriff budgets by $120 million to pander to 2020's Black Lives Matter rioters.  The decision brought a rain of ruin down on her metropolis, and now even its left-liberal residents have had enough.  Breed's rhetoric has, if anything, changed even more dramatically than her policies. [...] Can other Democrats do the same and salvage the next election?  Not likely.  Even if a Democratic mayor here or there can perform such a volte-face, that option is not available to the party on a national level.

The Hidden Agenda Behind Biden's Insane Gas Mileage Requirements.  The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday that all new cars that aren't electric must average 55 miles per gallon by 2026.  This amounts to a Great Leap Forward of almost 20 miles per gallon from the currently ordered 36 miles per gallon that all new cars must achieve, else their manufacturers be punished for making them via "gas guzzler" fines applied to them.  Which are then passed on to the people who buy them.  Which makes it progressively more difficult to afford them.  That being the point of the fines, you understand.  The Biden administration considers it their right and duty to punish you for buying the car you want if it doesn't do what they like.  The free market being an intolerable affront to them.

Joe Biden Backs Plan to Rig an Election His Party Is Favored to Lose.  The Democrats' legislation not only bans voter ID laws that are key to election security, but it also endorses ballot harvesting, uses taxpayer money to fund political campaigns, mandates same-day registration with no safeguards, makes mail-in voting universal, automatically registers minors, legalizes so-called "drive-thru" voting, and even sets up a system where ballots are allowed to be counted if they arrive 10 days after an election.  There is simply no justification for passing an illegitimate power grab over the nation's election systems, and in my opinion, no justification could ever exist in any circumstance.  We are a republic, and localized control of elections is a bedrock principle of our system.  Besides, can anyone point out what has happened in the last year that requires a complete overhaul of our voting systems?  Democrats just made up the need for this out of thin air, and now they proclaim the country will die on the vine if it's not passed.

White Men Are No Longer the Democrats' Most Pressing Electoral Concern.  Democrats face a mountain of issues.  They have an inflation crisis that voters seem primed to nail them to the wall over.  The supply chain crisis is still ongoing.  The economy is not well despite the endless propaganda peddled by the Biden administration.  Russia and China are flexing their muscles.  The southern border is a mess.  COVID is still not shut down.  And Build Back Better just got killed by Joe Manchin.  Now, moderate Democrats who cast their lot with the progressive wing and voted for the left-wing action items are saddled with this legislative fumble.  Meanwhile, Joe Biden's approval ratings are sinking faster than the Andrea Doria.

No wonder why people and businesses are dumping California.  [Scroll down]  As to the loss of personal and economic freedom, consider the following examples.  As of the end of 2021, a publicly held company headquartered in California must have between one and three female board members, depending upon its size, or face a fine of $100,000.  The California Department of Education has proposed an "equitable math" framework.  California Political Review says the framework "promotes the concept that working to figure out a correct answer is an example of racism and white supremacy invading the classroom."  As of January 1, 2022, California's new bacon law is scheduled to take effect.  According to the Associated Press:  "Put simply, the law requires that breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves be given enough space to stand and turn around.  For pigs, that means they no longer can be kept in narrow 'gestation crates' and must have 24 square feet of usable space."  Producers predict shortages and more expensive bacon and pork products.

Biden admin insists Americans are better off now than when Trump left.  Are you better off than you were one year ago?  That's the message the White House is trying to convey in a year-end memo to Democratic lawmakers and other supporters, according to a new report from Axios.  The memo — titled "2021: POTUS Delivered for Working Families" — illustrates in words and graphics what the Biden administration describes as a year of accomplishments, according to the outlet.  The two-page document touts the COVID-19 vaccination program, the widespread reopening of schools, and a decline in the unemployment rate and jobless claims.  It also hails the passage of two major spending bills this year:  the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March and the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework last month.

Chuck Schumer's Tough-Guy Act Could Backfire Spectacularly in 2022 and Beyond.  On Dec. 17, Rasmussen Reports noted that 77% of likely voters were following the news about the BBB Act at least somewhat closely.  Only 38% support the legislation, while 45% are opposed.  Among Democrats, support declined to 62%, and a mere 34% of independents want the spending bill passed.  As the debate drags on, fewer voters seem likely to support President Biden's signature legislation.  In combination with other factors, it also seems to be pulling down the president's approval rating.  According to Rasmussen, as of Dec. 20, 41% of likely voters approve of President Biden's job performance while 57% disapprove.

Joe Biden Wants to Regulate Your Computer Chips, Too.  [Scroll down]  This government initiative doesn't help capitalism.  It won't strengthen manufacturing companies in the marketplace.  It certainly is not moving closer to laissez-faire capitalism, which brings innovation and prosperity by producing profits for those who create goods and services valued by consumers.  The CHIPS Act is teaching companies to wallow in closer to the government trough.  Instead of just focusing on the market, companies will spend more time, energy, and money on politics.  This initiative attempts to designate winners and losers by preferring certain semiconductor manufacturing over others.  It is crony capitalism, which is a move closer to the fascist implementation of socialism with government control of production by means of regulation and taxation.

The Dangerous 'Save Democracy' Movement.  A casual internet search on the term "save democracy" will retrieve countless articles and opinion pieces from major media outlets contending that free elections in the U.S. will soon be a thing of the past if Congress fails to pass "voting rights" legislation now.  The following Washington Post headline is typically portentous:  "Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin mull whether democracy is worth saving."  It is little more than an ad hominem attack on the only two Democrats who have resisted pressure to eliminate an arcane Senate rule in order to facilitate federal usurpation of state election prerogatives outlined in the Constitution.  The alarming irony is that these two Senators constitute the only bulwark protecting the nation's historically decentralized election system from a one-size-fits-all, Beltway-dominated scheme designed by and for the Democrats.  Even more unnerving is that both favor "election reform."  Indeed, Manchin is among the co-sponsors of the "Freedom to Vote Act."  His sole concern about this bill involves the necessity of altering the filibuster to get it passed.

AOC Says Dems Can't Win in 2022 if They Don't Prioritize Student Debt, Other Progressive Items.  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that Democrats must focus on progressive priorities such as ending the filibuster and canceling student debt and that members of her party are "delusional" if they think they can win in 2022 without addressing these issues.  The congresswoman claimed Friday in a Twitter thread that Democrats would have a poor showing in next year's midterm elections if they do not push progressive agenda items including student debt cancelations, ending the filibuster, passing the Build Back Better Act, allowing the child tax credit to expire and offering a path to citizenship.

Socialist crook running Argentina praises Jen Psaki's grasp of inflation.  When the leftist clowns running Argentina starts praising you for your monetary chops, maybe it's time to change course. [...] It should be telling [...] that that the Biden administration now has the praise of the clowns running Argentina who rejected Friedman's ideas years ago.  The results speak for themselves.  Argentina is currently running a 51.2% annual inflation rate, the culmination, as the linked chart shows, of 3%, 2%, 4% type inflation pops per month, not all that different from the kind of supposedly minor rises we see in the states.  Let it go on and on and it adds up to one of the highest inflation rates in the world.  It's the work of the country's leftist government which can't take its hands off the money-printing presses, printing up cash for big government programs that can't be absorbed by the productive private sector.  Sound familiar?  That creates inflation and currency devaluation and the net result is that the private sector shrivels.

Democrats' Massive Entitlement Plans Include Banning Christians From Government Childcare.  Democrats' current proposed $3.5 trillion welfare expansion would effectively ban faithful Christians from profiting from federal subsidies for separating infants and toddlers from their families.  The current text of Democrats' massive "Build Back Better" entitlement bill contains provisions that would require religious child-care providers to disavow longstanding theology about sex in order to receive federal child-care funds under a massive new early childhood program.  "The Democrats went out of their way to make sure and prohibit religious care providers from receiving any of these funds, and unanimously rejected an amendment to allow all child-care providers to be eligible for grants, including religious providers," said Rep. Jackie Walorski, R-Indiana, the ranking member on the House's subcommittee on Worker and Family Support.

Why Is the Left Worried Suddenly About the End of Democracy?  What is behind recent pessimistic appraisals of democracy's future, from Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff, Brian Williams and other elite intellectuals, media personalities, and politicians on the Left?  Some are warning about its possible erosion in 2024.  Others predict the democracy downturn as early 2022, with scary scenarios of "autocracy" and Trump "coups."  To answer that question, understand first what is not behind these shrill forecasts.  They are not worried about 2 million foreign nationals crashing the border in a single year, without vaccinations during a pandemic.  Yet it seems insurrectionary for a government simply to nullify its own immigration laws.  They are not worried that some 800,000 foreign nationals, some residing illegally, will now vote in New York City elections.  They are not worried that there are formal efforts to dismantle the U.S. Constitution by junking the 233-year-old Electoral College or the preeminence of the states in establishing ballot laws in national elections.  They are not worried that we are witnessing an unprecedented left-wing effort to scrap the 180-year-old filibuster, the 150-year-old nine-person Supreme Court, and the 60-year tradition of 50 states, for naked political advantage.

Biden will invest $30 million in the trucking industry to hire more drivers.  Joe Biden announced Thursday [12/16/2021] a $30 million investment in U.S. trucking as administration officials meet with industry leaders in an effort to attract new drivers in the midst of a massive supply chain crisis.  The White House said in a fact sheet on the new plan that the COVID-19 pandemic 'exacerbated longstanding workforce challenges in the trucking industry, including high turnover rates, an aging workforce, long hours away from home, and time spent waiting.'  The new action plan, including the new investment, is an action from the administration's Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, which was launched in June to 'lead whole government effort' to address bottlenecks.

The Editor says...
No, Joe.  All you have to do is stop paying people not to work, tell California to suspend all environmental restrictions on trucks, and forget about vaccine mandates.  The truckers will materialize overnight.

Biden's big bill cuts hospital funds for poor in red states, shifts money to Obamacare.  President Biden plans to pay for some of the massive spending in his social welfare and climate bill by cutting billions of dollars from hospitals in Republican-led states.  The plan punishes the 12 red states that haven't expanded Medicaid by slashing $3.4 billion in federal funding for hospitals to treat the poor.  Instead, the money goes toward a $73.9 billion expansion of the Affordable Care Act.  "It's extremely punitive to the hospitals that have been on the front lines," said Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association.

Ilhan Omar's Bill to Combat 'Islamophobia' Passes the House.  Ilhan Omar's bill requiring the State Department to combat "Islamophobia" has passed.  Omar would like us to believe that "Islamophobia" is as much a threat around the world as antisemitism, and she wants the federal government to monitor, to report on, and to fight the spread of this "hatred." [...] Ilhan Omar has persuaded — some might say inveigled — a Jewish Congresswoman to join her in co-sponsoring the bill.  This is her standard technique for avoiding charges of antisemitism, to "reach out" to liberal Jews who are insufficiently wary of her wiles and guiles, to join her in whatever mischief she is up to.  Her latest effort is to make Congress believe that "Islamophobia" — so often invoked, so rarely defined — really is such a major problem worldwide that it needs a special office in the federal government to monitor it.  Etymologically, "Islamophobia" means the "irrational fear or hatred of Islam."  But "Islamophobia" is a word that was invented not to describe that "irrational fear or hatred of Islam and of Muslims," but in order to shut down any criticism of Islam, no matter how justified.  The word is now affixed to anyone who dares to suggest that the large-scale presence of Muslims in non-Muslim lands, given the refusal of many Muslims to integrate into the larger society, and instead remain hostilely aloof from it, is worrisome.

Even San Fran residents are getting sick of their liberal reforms.  To put it mildly, things haven't been going well in Nancy Pelosi's home stomping grounds of San Francisco.  The homelessness plague is out of control and crime has been on the rise in ways that even the most liberal and forgiving residents can no longer ignore.  The problem was compounded in multiple ways when Chesa Boudin was elected to be the District Attorney after running on a platform of getting rid of the police and promising to not prosecute "smaller crimes."  (Boudin is now facing a recall election.)  The filth and the property crime are driving some people to look for a way out and flee the city.  The Associated Press talked to several such beleaguered residents recently and heard horror stories that are increasingly familiar.

Biden Removes State Department Stigma on Anti-Christian Nigeria.  In November, Secretary of State Antony Blinken removed Nigeria from the State Department's list of countries hostile to religious freedom.  The move flabbergasted religious freedom advocates, including members of the U.S. government's own Commission on International Religious Freedom.  That commission had urged Blinken in April to keep Nigeria on the list, pointing to "violence by militant Islamists and other non-state armed actors, as well as discrimination, arbitrary detentions, and capital blasphemy sentences by state authorities" in the country.  In 2020, the Trump administration designated Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) on religious freedom.  In a letter, the Family Research Council and host of other organizations committed to religious freedom have asked Biden:  "How can it be, less than a year after that significant designation, that Nigeria's CPC designation has been dropped without a public explanation?"

Congress Is Writing [a] Blank Check for [a] Big Government, Socialist Tax-and-Spend Spree.  Congress has unveiled a new proposal, the so-called Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act, and is promoting it with all the usual talking points that this is just normal legislation keeping the status quo going to obscure its true purpose.  In reality, the bill is a blank check that would make it easier to enact President Joe Biden's radical tax and spending agenda.  The bill text actually includes a blank line for a dollar amount, like you would see on a check.  Biden and his allies in Congress have been working for months to ram through a massive tax-and-spend bill, the Build Back Better Act.  This big government, socialist legislation is meant to "transform our economy," but it would only exacerbate increases in prices, labor shortages, and supply chain disruptions Americans are facing.  Because the Build Back Better Act would add nearly $800 billion to the deficit in just the next five years (even without taking into account the egregious budgetary gimmicks), liberals in Congress have proposed suspending the debt limit as well as waiving enforcement of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act in order to pave the path for their partisan legislation.

Build Back Better — How to Destroy a National Economy.  Reaching Net Zero by expanding renewables is incompatible with the Build Back Better legislation now being considered in Congress.  The U.S. needs mining and petroleum to source key materials in order to remain healthy and productive.  The Build Back Better proposal now being considered in the U.S. Senate (BBB HR5376 was passed in the House of Representatives on November 19, 2021) is antithetical to achieving goals of IIJA and success of a renewable energy system.  If passed, BBB would prevent access to and add cost to or prevent producing inexpensive oil and mining products.

Far-left House members push four-day workweek.  House liberals are lining up behind a proposal to shorten the U.S. workweek to four days, which could bring American workplace culture more closely in line with Europe's.  The Congressional Progressive Caucus this week endorsed a measure that would shorten the official definition of a full workweek to 32 hours, triggering overtime pay for many workers who put in any additional hours.

The Editor says...
[#1] What does the Bible say?  "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work[.]"*  [#2] What is so admirable about the way business is conducted in Europe?

Are Media Now Taking Orders Straight From The White House?  President Joe Biden's administration is the furthest left in our nation's history in the scope and content of its policies.  From the open border that has brought in hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to naming out-and-proud Marxist nominees to key administration posts, from COVID lockdowns that have divided our nation but not stopped the Wuhan bug, to non-stop "stimulus" spending that has set off the worst inflation in decades, Biden literally has nothing to brag about, as we noted earlier this week.  President Jimmy Carter can now rest easy.  He's no longer the worst president of the postwar era.  Biden is.

Now Or Never:  The Great 'Transition' Must Be Imposed.  Vaccine mandates are everywhere: one country, after another, is doubling-down, to try to force, or legally compel, full population vaccination.  The mandates are coming because of the massive uptick in Covid — most of all in the places where the experimental mRNA gene therapies were deployed en masse.  And (no coincidence), this 'marker' has come just as U.S. Covid deaths in 2021 have surpassed those of 2020.  This has happened, despite the fact that last year, no Americans were vaccinated (and this year 59% are vaccinated).  Clearly no panacea, this mRNA 'surge'.  Of course, the Pharma-Establishment know that the vaccines are no panacea.  There are 'higher interests' at play here.  It is driven rather by fear that the window for implementing its series of 'transitions' in the U.S. and Europe is closing.  Biden still struggles to move his 'Go-Big' social spending plan and green agenda transition through Congress by the midterm election in a year's time.  And the inflation spike may well sink Biden's Build Back Better agenda (BBB) altogether.  Time is short.  The midterm elections are but 12 months away, after which the legislative window shuts.

The 'Bought Off Better' Bill Buys the Corporate Media.  Early on, it was evident the Democrats' "Build Back Better" plan had two objectives.  The first was to assuage the concerns of their voter base as blue state governors and bureaucrats were encouraged to weaponize pandemic lockdowns and other restrictions so as to decimate a booming economy and defeat President Trump.  The not-so-implicit message:  Whatever you lose now to help defeat Trump will be more than made whole under the Biden Administration.  Leaving nothing to chance, this reassuring message also helped to buttress the proposed "Build Back Better" plan's second objective: maximally energizing the Democratic Party's base.  Though a bit nebulous on specifics, this second objective was brazenly promoted in Biden ads promising boatloads of other people's money to specified Democratic constituencies.  In sum, it was less "Build Back Better" than it was "Bought Off Better."

Biden's Green New Deal = China First.  In a December 1 tweet, Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) got right to the point: ["]A year ago America was energy independent.  Now gas prices have skyrocketed, with Hoosiers paying 68% more at the pump compared to this day last year.  High energy costs hurt everyone and are a direct result of the mindless decisions made by Joe Biden.["]  Nothing to argue with here, except for one thing:  Maybe the Biden administration's decisions were not "mindless."  Maybe they're just the opposite:  Maybe they're all part of a plan — a plan, as Joe Biden said in 2020, to "fundamentally transform the country."  To be sure, from a Democratic political point of view, it's a counter-productive plan; it could cause Democrats to lose elections.  And yet from a progressive ideological point of view, it all makes sense; it's in keeping with the long march of a certain kind of leftism, begun more than a century ago.

Democrat Politicians Renew Calls to Pack the Supreme Court, Add More Liberal Judges.  Democrat politicians are renewing their calls to pack the Supreme Court following the oral arguments in the Mississippi 15-week abortion ban case that has potential to unravel Roe v. Wade.  The court is currently made up of six conservative justices and three liberals, after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg — and the liberals are not very happy about it.  The court heard arguments in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case on Wednesday and legal analysts believe the conservative-majority court is gearing up to strike down the precedent set in Roe v. Wade.

Willie Horton and the Democratic Party's Greatest Fear.  Republicans call for high bail levels for proven violent repeat offenders and bail-jumpers; Democrats call for an end to bail, and for the virtual elimination of holding even dangerous prisoners until trial.  Republicans call for stiff and certain sentences for convicted violent criminals; today's Democrats call for never-ending second chances, and even for the elimination of prisons themselves, as in the meantime, impatient Democrat governors and judges routinely throw open the prison gates on the slightest whim. [...] Republicans warn against the cultural decline that has children more likely to be raised in a single-parent household than in a nuclear family unit; Democrats go so far as to champion single motherhood as an objective good, campaigning for ever more welfare programs to encourage such generational dependence.  Is it any wonder that our nation is suffering a massive crime wave?  Is it any wonder that overwhelmed and unsupported police are resigning and retiring in disgust and despair?

Wreck It, then Build It Back Better.  The steady stream of changes in America without precedent or sensible justification are too much like deliberate attempts to dismantle America for no legitimate reason except to pull it off its foundation and harm it.  It's a pattern that points to the "enemies within" for which oaths of office and military service include in their declarations of fealty — the domestic enemies of America that hide in the shadows and are collectively known as the Deep State.  The results of their manipulations to dismantle America have never escaped the attention of alert Americans and the fact that America has gotten worse, not better, over the past century confirms the suspicion of deliberate malfeasance by dishonest members of government and the many duped or bought to carry out the so-called "conspiracy theory" regarding the destruction of freedom, morality, civility, and general smarts that Americans have enjoyed since the American Revolution and the founding of this creative and vibrant nation, at a countless cost in sacrifice and treasure.

The Biden-Buttigieg Pitch:  It's All Free!  Many Americans are concerned about the Democrats' orgy of spending, fearing particularly that pumping so much extra money into the economy will feed the inflation that has become the public's greatest economic concern of the moment.  So Biden came up with an argument that essentially said no one should worry because it will all be free.  "My Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars," the president tweeted on Sept. 25.  White House chief of staff Ron Klain said, "The net cost of Build Back Better is zero." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi added, "The dollar amount, as the president said, is zero."  It was all preposterous, of course.  Two trillion dollars does not just appear out of nowhere.

The Twin Pillars of Biden's Failure.  Everything has gone so terribly wrong for the Biden Administration, and in the ways that were widely predicted, that it is hard to believe Joe Biden could be perceived as a successful or at least potentially successful president if only he had avoided being such a tool of the Democratic extreme Left.  On the afternoon of his inauguration, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and curtailed fracking and offshore oil and gas exploration, and ordered the end of construction of the southern border wall.  The consequences have been over 200,000 illegal migrants entering the United States across the southern border most months and the rise in the price of gasoline from approximately $2 a gallon to $5 a gallon across the country.

All 81 million of them — living or dead.
Biden voters owe the country an apology.  President Joe Biden's African travel ban went into effect Monday.  Biden's actions here directly contradict what he said when former President Donald Trump instituted similar travel bans to stop the spread of the coronavirus.  In fact, they lay bare an underlying insincerity about Biden's entire handling of the pandemic.  When Trump did this exact same thing, Biden stoked the flames of racial hatred to get elected.  Now, nearly a full year into his first term, Biden is the dog that caught the car.  He duped 81 million people into voting for him, and he has no clue what he is doing.  Biden voters owe the country an apology.  They are responsible for our mess — and every bit the mess that the approval ratings suggest it is.  From foreign policy to immigration to crime to inflation to gas prices, there is absolutely nothing going better right now than on Jan. 19, 2020.

Joe Biden's 'cure' is what ails us.  In the beginning, Build Back Better wasn't just the most expensive piece of legislation ever.  The multitrillion-dollar price tag was a bargain because the bill would totally transform America, President Biden claimed.  Whatever the problem, from jobs to climate change to child care, BBB was the solution.  Then came inflation, with the White House hiding behind the fictions that rising costs were overstated and transitory.  When the price of everyday consumer items jumped, a slimmed-down Build Back Better was drafted for a new assignment:  Suddenly it was the cure for inflation, the president insisted.  Comes now a new COVID variant that is shaking health officials and global markets.  How long until the White House claims BBB is key to surviving a new round of social and economic disruptions?  The ever-shifting rationale and price tag behind Biden's signature legislation is an apt metaphor for the confusing incoherence of his presidency.

Romanian immigrant to Americans who favor communism: 'If you don't learn from history, nothing will save you'.  A Romanian immigrant who moved to the United States in pursuit of a better life said Americans favoring communism need to learn from history or "nothing will save you."  "I'm not saying that every system in the world is perfect, but to be in favor of communism, considering history and everything that has been documented throughout the years, it's sad.  It's really sad," Bogdan Laurentiu told Fox News.  Laurentiu, 34, moved from Romania, which was previously occupied by the Soviet Union, to the U.S. with a friend in 2010, leaving his entire family behind.  He works in retail management, lives in the Northeast and says he has "no regrets to this day."

Destroying Democracy by 'Saving Democracy'.  Following the September 11 Attacks, it was common to hear liberals and Democrats bemoan the erasure of civil liberties by the federal government as the War on Terror ratcheted up.  The CIA, FBI, and other apparatuses of the security-surveillance state were assailed for their abuses of Constitutional civil liberties.  Now, however, these same people — sans a few — are mostly quiet.  In fact, they're not merely quiet anymore, many openly endorse letting loose the hounds of the security state on fellow Americans whom they deem their enemies. [...] They claim to be "saving democracy."  They claim to support "multiculturalism."  They claim to defend "diverse opinions." Except they don't.  They only democracy they care about is their propagandistic democracy; by forcing the majority of Americans to comply with their views they claim the democratic spirit lives on.

Democrats know Build Back Better represents a crowning achievement worth 2022 sacrifice.  Joe Biden's proposed Build Back Better (BBB) legislation is making its journey from the House, where it was approved on a strict party line vote, and is heading to the Senate where we will once again place the fate of the nation in the hands of Mitch McConnell, Joe Manchin, and Kyrsten Sinema.  This terrifying prospect caused me to ask myself this question:  Why would Democrats be willing to almost certainly surrender control of the House of the Representatives in the 2022 midterms simply to pass a single piece of legislation? [...] The Build Back Better legislation is so radical, and so sinister, that Democrats believe if they can get it signed into law the country will be theirs for a very long time regardless of elections.  Polling on the BBB plan shows the typical American is not really paying much attention.

The Democrats Are a Communist Party Now.  Saule Omarova, who attended Moscow State University on the Lenin Academic Scholarship, compared America unfavorably to the USSR, and called for nationalizing finance isn't Biden's first Communist nominee.  Omarova is only Biden's first openly Communist nominee.  Biden's pick for comptroller of the currency has been taken to task for her calls to "end banking as we know it", bankrupt oil and gas companies, and seize control of the entire economy.  Those used to be Communist articles of faith.  Now they're Democrat "solutions."  Democrats are no longer just socialists.  They not only want to nationalize every industry, but there's no area of our lives that they believe the government should not be able to control.  They don't just want to nationalize healthcare, energy, and the banks, but culture and speech.  Omarova isn't saying anything that her new party hasn't already advocated.  Biden's whole Build Back Better program is just another interim step in nationalizing the economy.

Democrats Make a Desperate, Insulting Shift in Last Ditch Effort to Sell Joe Biden's Agenda.  Nancy Pelosi forced the "Build Back Better" bill through the House last week, but it is essentially dead on arrival in the Senate.  That didn't stop Democrats from celebrating as if they'd just liberated Europe, but I digress.  The problem for the White House remains.  How do they get their massive spending bill through moderate holdouts like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema?  And on the other side, you have Bernie Sanders, who is expressing disapproval of Pelosi's inclusion of a massive tax cut for the wealthy (that just so happens to benefit residents in California, New York, and New Jersey the most).  Well, Democrats think they have a plan, and it's coming via a desperate, insulting shift in messaging.  They really think most Americans are stupid.  Will they be proven right?

Also posted under Liberals think you're stupid.

The single biggest provision in [the] Biden bill in [the] first half-decade is [a] tax cut for [the] wealthy.  The most expensive item over the first half-decade of President Joe Biden's climate and social spending legislation is a tax cut for the wealthy.  The Democratic Build Back Better Act, which passed the House on Friday morning, raises the current $10,000 cap on federal tax deductions for state and local taxes to $80,000, a move that leads to a significant tax cut for high earners in states with high taxes.  The provision dwarfs many of the other priorities in the legislation and was included under pressure from a vocal contingent of Democrats from high-tax blue states.  The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said that increasing the SALT cap to $80,000 through 2025 would end up costing the federal government $275 billion in revenue — an amount that is $5 billion more than the next costliest provision in the Build Back Better Act.

Bernie Sanders gets his $5T bill.  Does Joe Biden actually want to crush low-income Americans with high inflation?  You have to wonder.  Since Biden took office, it seems his every decision has tilted toward driving prices higher.  The White House has gone out of its way to squash U.S. oil and gas production, helping to raise the cost of gasoline and home heating oil.  They have spewed ever more generous benefits, partly through the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, worsening a critical labor shortage.  The difficulty hiring workers has in turn boosted wages and raised the cost of nearly everything.

Net-Zero Policies:  Taking From the Poor and Giving to the Rich.  It is too often overlooked in all the discussions about the "transition" to a net-zero emissions economy that the most consequential transition is that from democratic capitalism to feudal serfdom.  This is the conclusion of American demographer and "blue-collar Democrat" Joel Kotkin, who has highlighted that the supposedly well-intentioned green policies being adopted across the West come at enormous expense to the working- and middle-classes.  As Kotkin wrote in 'Spiked' earlier this year, "extreme climate measures have driven the loss of traditional blue-collar jobs in manufacturing, construction and energy, while other environmental regulations have boosted housing prices."  Kotkin's thesis is that the West is on the road to serfdom.  Rather than maintaining our capitalist societies where a large, asset-owning middle-class underpin a stable democratic system, we are becoming stratified feudal societies.

The CBO Just Swept the Leg of Joe Biden's 'Build Back Better' Boondoggle.  While Nancy Pelosi hopes to pass the so-called "Build Back Better" bill tonight in the House, some bad news came down the line from the CBO.  Previous commitments were made by some "moderate" Democrats to vote for the bill only if the budget score came back deficit-neutral.  But the preliminary numbers are out, and it looks like the CBO has completely debunked the White House's "it costs zero dollars" talking point.  At first, Democrats were cheering on social media after seeing the following post from the CBO.  [Tweet]  That excitement came from a misreading of how the CBO is scoring this bill.  Instead of giving one, succinct number, the CBO is taking it piece by piece.  That was set up purposely by Democrats in hopes of muddying the waters.

Yes, Democrats, Let's Just Give Our Oil Reserves Away.  The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, created following the oil crisis of the 1970s, exists to supply Americans during a war or other emergency.  Democrats are now calling for oil to be released from the reserve to help reduce high gas prices that they themselves have created.  This is not an emergency unless you believe that the loss of Democrat seats in the 2022 midterm election constitutes an emergency.  The Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently holds 638 million barrels, approximately 1,000 days of net petroleum imports — but far, far less (only 32 days worth) of total domestic demand of 20 million barrels per day.  At the maximum draw-down capacity of 4.4 million barrels per day, the SPR would last only 145 days. [...] It is irresponsible to remove any amount from the SPR except in times of true emergency, but the little that could be removed would not be enough to affect global oil prices and therefore would not significantly reduce gas prices in this country or anywhere else.

5 reasons why Kamala Harris' presidential dreams probably won't come true.  [#5] America and Kamala Harris will continue to suffer from bad policy decisions in the next 3 years. [...] There are good reasons for those low ratings, including the worsening state of the economy, the disastrous pullout from Afghanistan in August, the out-of-control border crisis, COVID policy dissatisfaction and policies mandated by the heavy hand of an out-of-control federal government.  The problem for the Harris is that there is no end in sight to those policies.  Yes, Afghanistan is fading from view but the poor state of the economy will not.  Rather than deal with inflation, which is getting out of hand, Democrats are pushing another spending bill (which Harris supports) that will only make things worse.  And, rather than working to fix our supply chain problems, the harmful effects green energy regulations and COVID mandates imposed by the Biden administration are only making things worse.

Progressive Democrats test-drive new hardball tactics.  Progressive Democrats have never been shy about fighting for what they want.  But their aggressive tactics in the recent fight over a massive social safety-net package surprised many in their own party, raising questions about whether the tougher stance was an anomaly or a sign of battles to come.  Emboldened by Democrats' narrow control of the House and Senate, the 95-member Congressional Progressive Caucus for nearly two months delayed passage of a bipartisan $1-trillion infrastructure bill — not because they opposed it, but to use as leverage in negotiations with moderates over a separate, larger spending package to address healthcare, childcare and climate change.  In the process, they repeatedly stalled President Biden's legislative agenda and defied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), who wanted to see the infrastructure bill pass in September.

The Editor says...
It isn't necessary to spend a trillion dollars "to address healthcare, childcare and climate change."  Providing health care and child care is not the proper role of the federal government.  It isn't necessary to spend a nickel on climate change, because it's impossible to stop the climate from changing, and it's changing so gradually and harmlessly that it is an important issue to almost no one. [#2] When the lying baby-killing Democrats speak of a "social safety-net package," they're talking about paying people who are too lazy to work, and rewarding (some of the same) people just for sneaking into this country illegally.  The churches are supposed to be the "safety net," not the government.  [#3] The Democrats are pushing numerous platform components, including support for Planned Parenthood, sanctuary cities, recreational marijuana, homosexual propaganda in the public schools, gun control, solar panels, electric cars, windmills, five-dollar gasoline, mass-transit systems (which — at least in Dallas — are running without any passengers, all over town), and many other programs for which nobody is clamoring.  In the absence of hefty subsidies and government mandates, nobody wants an electric car, or solar panels all over the house, or gasoline that has been diluted by ethanol.  The Democrats want to spend a trillion dollars on all this stuff, because a handful of lobbyists (with deep pockets) want these things implemented.

Texas Legislator Switches From Democrat to Republican Because Democrats are Pro-Abortion.  Another lawmaker has left the Democrat Party because of its radical pro-abortion stance.  On Monday [11/15/2021], Texas state Rep. Ryan Guillen, who represents a South Texas district, said he decided to become a Republican because he believes in "protecting the lives of the unborn."  "Throughout my entire career, creating a prosperous business climate, defending the second amendment and protecting the lives of the unborn are the cornerstones of how I have represented my district," Guillen said in a statement.  Like many Texans, Guillen said he has grown increasingly concerned about the "disastrous consequences" of Democrat Party leaders' actions on abortion, the border, business, law enforcement and other matters.

Texas Dem switches to Republican Party over defunding the police, 'chaos' on the border.  A Texas Democrat switched his affiliation to the Republican Party over the party's left-leaning embrace of defunding the police policies and "chaos" on the southern border.  State Rep. Ryan Guillen announced in a Monday press conference that he would seek reelection to his south Texas seat as a Republican, saying the Democratic Party's far-left values are no longer in line with his own.  Specifically, Guillen cited his now-former party's backing of defunding the police and the compounding crisis at the southern border under President Biden.

Texas House is a little redder today:  South Texas Democrat jumps to Republican Party.  Texas State Rep.Ryan Guillen switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party on Monday.  He is up for re-election in 2022 and will be running as a Republican.  What makes Guillen's party switch particularly good news is that he is a Democrat from South Texas.  Joe Biden underperformed in traditionally Democrat South Texas.  Guillen represents Texas House District 31, which is firmly anchored in the Rio Grande Valley.  A change is beginning in the RGV as some Democrats are realizing that their party no longer represents them or their constituents.  Guillen said it is the actions of the party that made him switch — the defund the police movement, the Biden border crisis, and Biden's goal to destroy the oil and gas industry all played a factor in his decision.

Why Biden's Infrastructure Bill Will Likely Only Worsen Supply Chain Crisis.  The core of the supply chain crisis is a lack of capacity at ports and among truckers, and a historic shortage of workers, now at 10.4 million unfilled jobs nationwide.  Together, these shortages drive inflation, empty shelves of even basic goods, and shutter factories that can't get the parts and inputs they need.  Rather than fixing this crisis, this bill instead uses it as an excuse to push a gigantic handout for special interests, radical left-wing activists, and unions.  As a result, the money won't be going where supply chains need it, but rather to irrelevant make-work projects that please activists and unions, such as subsidies for electric cars that have nothing to do with supply chains; to plowing hundreds of billions of dollars into tearing down and rebuilding Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's "racist" highways; to building trains to nowhere; and to bailing out failed urban transit.

Biden Signs $1 Trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill into Law.  President Biden signed the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law at a ceremony on the White House lawn on Monday.  "This law is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America," Biden said in a speech prior to the signing. [...] The legislation allocates $550 billion in new spending over five years towards building and repairing roads, bridges, airports, and railways, as well as funds for electric vehicles and charging stations.  The bill also renews existing spending on transportation projects.

Low and Slow Joe.  Joe Biden's balance sheet coming into office was highly leveraged.  With only average charisma and without a notable record, the former VP, in order to obtain what he needed against Donald Trump, issued Green energy and social policy notes to the left that were not merely difficult but practically impossible to redeem.  When these nonproductive policies not only failed to pay off but created new liabilities (like the border crisis), Joe found moderate and conservative sources of support evaporating, forcing him to issue more promises on even more onerous terms to the only political lender remaining, the progressive left.  What we are watching is an administration getting deeper into hock just to keep aloft.  It needs energy desperately, but from where?  Although Biden was probably aware that his partnership with the progressives would eventually run things down, he underestimated the rate at which his foreign policy would fail and 'renewable' energy would underperform, and how deep the damage to the supply chain caused by COVID-19 restrictions would be.

Surprise! Biden's Spending Bills Will Not 'Cost Zero Dollars'.  President Joe Biden's administration is facing a daunting reality check after claiming for months that their spending agenda will "cost zero dollars," with the head of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) saying the White House drastically overestimated the revenue the IRS could gain by cracking down on tax loopholes.  Biden and numerous other senior Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill have repeatedly insisted that their $1.85 trillion social spending package will add nothing to the national debt.  They argued the package included enough pay-fors to offset the spending programs.  CBO chief Phillip Swagel brought that claim down on Monday, however, saying that the tax loophole crackdown in the bill would only garner $120 billion, a far cry from the White House's projected $400 billion, according to The New York Times.

Critics say Biden's local media tax breaks [are a] part of [the] goal to turn outlets into 'versions of leftist NPR or PBS'.  A major tax break for local media outlets tucked away in Biden's massive $1.85 trillion infrastructure bill has the potential to basically turn them into leftist propaganda purveyors for the Democratic Party, according to critics.  Dan Gainor, who is the vice president for Free Speech America and Business at the Media Research Center, told Fox Business in an interview the plan is "insanity" and called for strong opposition to it.  "This is insanity.  I understand why some on the right support this.  The decline of local journalism can hurt communities.  But putting it on the federal payroll will only make it worse.  Don't expect reporters to criticize politicians who fund them.  And do expect them to write stories that please those politicians," Gainor said.  "The left has made it clear their goal is to turn local journalism into versions of leftist NPR or PBS.  That must be opposed," he noted.

The Editor says...
Lots of taxpayers are opposed to federal subsidies for PBS and NPR, (and windmills, and electric cars) yet the Congress never tampers with those subsidies.  Similarly, lots of voters are irritated every time we change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time, or vice versa, yet the Congress never addressed the matter.  A tiny handful of lobbyists demanded that the government require ethanol in our gasoline.  Ordinary drivers never asked for any such thing.  Members of Congress ostensibly represent us, but the only time they even pretend to listen is when they're running for re-election.

The giant climate energy ruse.  How can you tell when all your freedoms are under assault?  When Biden goes after your energy — all of it.  And what easier way to mask an energy grab than to tuck it under the solemn shroud of climate?  "Climate change," a vacuous term mindlessly embraced by equally mindless leaders, is an easy sell.  Openly throttling the energy essential to the mindful masses is a heavier lift.  So, under the veil of public virtue, petroleum is spirited off the power menu, swapped out for green notions barely amounting to a diet salad.  Energy is so deeply imbedded into society that it is largely taken for granted — that is, until we're all mugged by rising fuel costs as well as inflated prices for everything manufactured or delivered by energy — which amounts to everything. [...] On a human scale, and within our lifetimes, the global spread of energy has levitated a billion people worldwide out of poverty.  They won't be happy with a round trip.

Biden's 'Build Back Better Act' Gives $800M in Cash Payments to Illegal Aliens Released into U.S..  President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better Act," a filibuster-proof $1.75 trillion budget reconciliation package, would give $800 million worth of cash payments to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who were recently released into the United States interior, a new analysis states.  As Breitbart News previously reported, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) analyzed the cost to American taxpayers if Biden's expanded Child Tax Credit for illegal aliens was extended for at least another year as part of the reconciliation package.

The Left's Bungled Revolution.  How could the Left hope to maintain the support of the mass of Americans once its actual goals and methods became evident?  In the past, leftists made a serious effort to shield their true agenda from scrutiny using a wide range of methods — wrapping itself in a veil of "compassion," claiming that all opposition arose from throwback "right-wingers," and using the most ignorant and ill-informed members of the public (teenagers and suburban matrons) to spearhead its public-influence campaigns.  Overall control of the media rendered this strategy workable.  But as of 2021, that appears to have gone by the board.  Instead of hiding their goals or even sugar-coating them, the left is shouting them through bullhorns:  you're not going to get Christmas.  Get the jab or starve.  We're turning your kids over to the tender mercies of sexual deviants.  Get ready for the Jihadi terrorists coming to your neighborhood. [...] From here on in, the American Left will be, in all its manifestations, the party of CRT, of COVID tyranny, of transexual rape, of economic chaos, of censorship and oppression.

Let's think about why Biden nominated a Marxist to the Treasury Department.  Normally, you would think receiving your postgraduate education at the University of Moscow (in the USSR) and writing your doctoral dissertation on the advantages of Marxism over free economy capitalism might be a disqualifier for this all-powerful position.  But not in the Biden administration. [...] Twelve years ago, Barack Obama opened his presidency by touring the world to apologize for how horrible a country the United States was.  We all remember the video highlights of Obama's "Great Apology Tour" as he bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia.  In looking at Omarova's nomination and everything else this administration has done, from the border, to Kabul, to the supported terrorists[,] including Iranians, receiving de facto permission to build their atomic bomb, I believe we are forced into one inescapable conclusion:  The Biden/Harris administration's actions are not the result of ineptitude.  They are a carefully thought out, well-planned, and almost flawlessly executed plan to ensure the destruction of the United States as we know her.  It is being viciously implemented by Obama acolytes such as Susan Rice and hundreds of others who are the people really running our country under the Biden administration.

One of AOC's Worst Green New Deal Ideas is Included in Biden's 'Build Back Better' Plan.  The fate of President Biden's multi-trillion-dollar social spending agenda, the "Build Back Better" plan, has consumed the political conversation in recent weeks.  Amid all the furious attempts at reading political tea leaves, a curious fact has flown under the radar:  The latest iteration of Biden's plan includes one of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's worst ideas.  "Happy to announce creation of a U.S. Civilian Climate Corps is now in the Build Back Better Act," the far-left congresswoman recently tweeted.  Referencing the public works "job creation" scheme first proposed as part of the Green New Deal, Ocasio-Cortez claimed the initiative will create 300,000 jobs while combating the "climate crisis" and "environmental injustice."

Must-see Tucker Carlson video about the cause of America's woes.  Biden is aware that he's failing, but rather than step away from the White House, he meekly does whatever his handlers tell him to do.  That's where security lies.  Unfortunately, his handlers are unchained ideologues.  A good government tries to benefit its people and ensure the greatest prosperity and happiness for the greatest number.  A government filled with ideologues is so focused on its utopian visions that it is willing to destroy the people to "save" them.  That's why, for example, that despite polls showing that over two thirds of Americans oppose reparations for illegal aliens, Biden's government is going forward with the plan.  For the ideologues, taking massive sums of money from struggling Americans to give to people who illegally entered our country is a means to achieve permanent Democrat political power and all the wonders it will bring.

Transportation Secretary — Forget Gas Prices and Supply Chain Chaos, Bridges and Roads are Racist.  Last week in an event to promote 'environmental justice', Kamala Harris emphasized the priorities of the Biden administration when she held an event to highlight how trees are racist.  This week Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wanted to promote 'construction and logistic equity' while emphasizing the priorities of the Biden administration, so Buttigieg declared that roads and bridges are racist.  [Video clip]

What Does Election 2021 Tell Us about 2022?  It's probably a given that Republicans will retake the House of Representatives next year.  Speaker Antoinette has told Americans to eat cake about five too many times.  She almost lost the House in 2020, a year in which Biden allegedly got more votes than any candidate in U.S. history.  Now she's doubled down, has unleashed the radicals, and wants to add another $5 trillion to our debt.  She's done, and she knows it.  Though it will be harder, it's possible that the Republicans could even pick up the Senate next year.  If they do, the Republicans will spend the next couple of years crafting legislation that will never pass.  No matter what they do legislatively, either Biden will veto it or the RINOs will sabotage it.

The Kamikaze Party.  The Democratic leadership [...] refuses to face reality or pursue policies that address the genuine problems facing the country.  The morning after their Election Day drubbing, the Democratic leadership of the Senate tried to bring a radical federal takeover of the nation's election system to the floor, a maneuver that was promptly defeated.  Next, the Biden administration confirmed that it is indeed planning to pay huge cash settlements to illegal immigrants, and released a vaccine mandate that has already been blocked by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The week ended late Friday night, when the House passed a $1.2 trillion pork-packed "infrastructure" bill that will add at least $250 billion to the federal deficit.

Americans Struggle as President Biden Favors Unions During Supply-Chain Breakdown.  ome in the Biden Administration have used the supply-chain crisis as a talking point to encourage passage of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better (BBB) plan.  According to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the supply-chain crisis "is one more reason why we do need to deliver this infrastructure package, so that we can have a more resilient, flexible physical infrastructure to support our supply chain in this country."  This claim is, at a minimum, disingenuous.  While the BBB plan is touted as investing $17 billion in port infrastructure, the funding is centered on the Administration's climate-change initiative and targets reduction of air pollution and greenhouse gases.  Not only is there no funding for the implementation of productivity enhancements, bowing to union pressure, the plan also expressly prohibits the use of these funds for the purchase of fully automated cargo-handling equipment that is desperately needed to boost port efficiency.  Reduction of air pollution is a good thing, but these proposed air-quality improvements will not alleviate the nation's supply-chain issues.

One Minute Before Midnight.  No one gets to tell you what your job is worth.  No one gets to tell you what you must allow into your body.  No one gets to tell you that you have no right to interfere with what they wish to "teach" your kids.  Period.  The Founders would alternately laugh and cry at this madness.  No one should be allowed to abridge your right to free speech, to defend yourself, or to believe and worship as you wish, and your conscience dictates.  No faceless, unelected bureaucrat should be allowed to essentially make laws that seriously impact your life.  And no one in power should be able to ignore, overturn or otherwise negate your vote.  (Those who preposterously pretend that there was absolutely no malfeasance in the 2020 presidential election are either complicit, ignorant, hiding behind a wall of deception, or insane.)

It Takes More Than an Inauguration to be President.  You've got to give them credit, they had a plan going into the 2020 election:
  •   Demonize Trump
  •   Steal an election
  •   Get their chosen useful idiot inaugurated
  •   Fundamentally change the country with radical legislation
And in so doing, usher in a thousand years of Democrat political dominance. [...] The plan was working pretty well until it got to the "fundamentally change America" part.  Once in office, Joey from Scranton promised to pack the courts, nationalize elections, nuke the filibuster, and spend about 5 trillion bucks on leftist lunatic causes.  We're 10 months into his first term now.  Look at what President "Experience and Competency" has accomplished — nothing, zilch, zip.  In fact, now we have the spectacle of the Dems mobilizing for an all-out civil war in their own party.  The moderates are fighting with the radicals, and the radicals are behaving like the spoiled children they've always been.  The radicals are even encouraging their followers to video the moderates in public bathrooms as part of the vote whipping process.  Bernie Sanders (D, Socialist) has declared that if he can't have everything on his Christmas wish list, he doesn't want anything.  And he may just get his wish — the latter one that is.

What's in Democrats' $1.75 Trillion Spending Bill.  Congressional Democrats have released a third version of their big government socialist Build Back Better Act.  Compared to the previous draft, the newest version adds another 450 pages, resulting in a 2,135-page plan for a reckless tax and spending spree.  We asked analysts from The Heritage Foundation to examine what is in the updated bill text.

Biden Agenda Suffers Another Loss as Senate GOP Kills Federal Election Takeover.  Less than 24 hours after arriving back in the United States, President Biden's legislative agenda suffered another loss at the hands of Republicans in Congress on Wednesday [11/3/2021].  The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, yet another Democrat attempt to hand the federal government control of America's elections, failed to secure the support necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.  Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the latest loss for the Biden-Harris legislative agenda that came out 50 to 49, short of the 60 vote threshold necessary to mo