Supreme Court Targets the Real Enemy
By Jeffrey A. Tucker July 1, 2022 Updated: July 1, 2022
The flurry of rulings from the Supreme Court has everyone’s head
spinning. The most significant among them, even if it doesn’t capture
all the headlines, is West Virginia vs EPA. The majority opinion is
impressive but the part I found truly wonderful is the concurring
opinion by Neil Gorsuch. This is where we see things headed, toward a
major and much-welcome curbing of the power of the administrative
state.
Just to review what this thing is, it is the unelected bureaucracy
that rules the country without oversight from voters or legislatures.
For well over 100 years, most courts have given it a pass, just as-
suming that the “experts” in the bureaucracies are handling things
just fine, faithfully interpreting legislation, and merely creating
rules for easy compliance.
Generations have gone by as this 4th branch of government has grown
in size, scope, and strength. For the most part, its baneful imposi-
tions have been felt by one business or one industry at a time. You
have heard the stories. The car dealer complains of how the Department
of Labor is making him crazy. The machine-parts manufacturer is going
bonkers about letters from the Occupational Safety and Health Admini-
stration. The energy company can never satisfy the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency.
They are stories and we find them unfortunate but we’ve generally
avoided thinking of these as systematic, all pervasive, and truly dan-
gerous to the idea of freedom itself. However, there are some 432 of
these agencies. The authors of the Declaration of Independence noted
their existence back in the day when they accused the English king of
having “erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of
Officers to harass our People and eat out their Substance.” They
fought a revolution to end the tyranny but now we have a home-grown
form, starting in 1883 with the Pendleton Act and continuing through-
out the 20th century as each new administration creates its own
bureaucracy.
The thing has taken on a power of its own. Strangely, the topic
hardly comes up at all during elections, and this is for a reason.
Politicians running for office like to advertise their power to make
change. They might even believe it. In reality, elected officials
have very little influence over the conduct of public life relative
to the administrative state. As Trump found it, not even the presi-
dent is a match for the deep state.
Here is what has happened since March 2020: the beast showed its
face. Seemingly out of nowhere, these strange agencies and people for
whom we never voted were ruling our lives. They restricted travel,
forced us to cover our faces, closed our churches and schools, and
forbid our businesses from operating unless they were big enough to
afford a powerful lobbying arm in Washington. The whole scene was ap-
palling. It caused many people—including some earnest judges—to take
notice.
Once you see the problem, you cannot unsee it.
Consider the problem with inflation alone: it is largely the re-
sponsibility of the Federal Reserve, which is among the most terrif
ing of the deep-state agencies. This thing was founded in 1913 with
the promise that it would end “wildcat banking” and contain the ex-
pansion of money and credit so that we would have a more stable eco-
nomic environment to encourage growth.
Even now, people believe that the Fed is going to somehow fix
recessions and inflations, even though a deeper analysis reveals that
the Fed itself is the cause of both. The Fed cannot be both the pro-
blem and the solution, surely. This is becoming as obvious as the
fact that the CDC cannot make a textbook pathogen go away with power
and potions.
Let’s take a quick look at the supposed 2 percent inflation target
of the Federal Reserve. It might seem to you that they have long ago
blown past this such that it is entirely cosmetic. But the Fed has a
little trick up its sleeve. It says it doesn’t follow conventional
inflation indexes like the Consumer or Producer Price Index. It is
fancier than that. It follows instead the index of Personal Consump-
Expenditures. And sure enough when we look at the PCE, we find
tion that the Fed is pretty good at its job!
All that changed recently when the PCE itself blew up. Now the Fed
has been revealed to be utterly incompetent, in a way that is not
different from the CDC, NIH, DOL, DOE, DOT, HHS, DHS, FTC, SEC, and
all the rest of these glorified 3-letter agencies employing nearly 3
million people who cannot be fired or controlled. The unique feature
of our times is that the expert class in government has been unmask-
ed as fakes at best and unrelenting menaces as worst.
Here is where the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation stands
today:
So much for competence at the Fed! And yet, how exactly is this
institution supposed to be controlled? We don’t vote for them. The
Fed board is appointed by the president with Senate approval but this
control is mostly mythical. The fancy economists run circles around
the political actors with big words and fancy finance, so what can
they do but approve?
The political class too often acts like absentee owners of a
far-off land: they have little choice but to trust the hired landlords
to do a good job. That’s the administrative machinery that has become
the real power, not only implementing the policies but making and en-
forcing the rules too.
With COVID, this whole scam was revealed to absolutely everyone—
not just to small businesses but to every single individual and family
in the United States. The whole bureaucracy announced to us what they
have always believed but rarely said: your life is not your own. Your
job is to comply. And so this raises the fascinating question of what
precisely are we going for here and what kind of society and govern-
ment do we want? Surely this should be up to the people!
The Supreme Court in its most recent decision was dealing with a
technical aspect of how regulations applied to a coal plant, but the
implications of the decision are much larger. The EPA was determining
policy, even making it, riffing wildly on legislation with the pre-
sumption that courts will always and everywhere defer to the agency
over industry and even over the words of the legislation. The court
said no: it was the EPA that had been operating illegally all along.
This decision is so startling because it shows a Supreme Court
doing what it is supposed to do, serving as a legal check on the power
ambitions of government itself. That’s what the framers intended. We
have just begun, however. The Court needs to attack the whole machi-
nery of the deep state at its very root, going after “Chevron defer-
ence(1984), the Public Health Services Act (1944), the Federal Reserve
Act(1913), and stretching all the way back to the Pendleton Act(1883)
A nation ruled by a faceless deep state is not a representative demo-
cracy and it is not consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
When you consider the implications of this one decision, they are
awesome. It doesn’t just apply to the EPA and its elaborate plans for
changing the global climate through command and control. It also app-
lies to every other agency, including the CDC and even the Federal
Reserve itself. They all should be accountable to the people through
their elected representatives. If we cannot get back to that system,
we will lose everything.
Jeffrey A. Tucker
We have to pray that the SCOTUS and God hold strong until we the
people can regain control through faith and morals.
Conservatively,
John
Blog
Inflation Hits 9.1%… 24 July 2022
Inflation Hits 9.1 Percent in June, New 40-Year High
By Andrew Moran July 13, 2022 Updated: July 13, 2022
The U.S. annual inflation rate climbed to 9.1 percent in June,
reaching its highest level since November 1981 and topping the market
estimate of 8.8 percent and May’s annual rate of 8.6 percent.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the consumer
price index (CPI) rose by 1.3 percent month-over-month. The monthly
inflation also was higher than economists’ expectations of 1.1 per-
cent.
While the core inflation rate, which removes the volatile food and
energy sectors, eased to 5.9 percent, that was higher than the fore-
cast of 5.7 percent. On a monthly basis, core inflation rose at a
higher than-expected pace of 0.7 percent.
Food prices soared by 10.4 percent, while the energy index advanced
by 41.6 percent.
Nearly every food item, except uncooked beef steak, was more ex-
pensive last month. Pork surged by 9 percent, chicken soared by 18.6
percent, and ham increased by 9.6 percent. Eggs spiked by 33.1 per-
cent, milk rose by 16.4 percent, fruits and vegetables jumped by 8.1
percent, and coffee swelled by 15.8 percent.
On the energy front, fuel oil increased by 98.5 percent. Gasoline
surged by 59.9 percent, electricity costs picked up by 13.7 percent,
and propane and kerosene jumped by 26.1 percent.
New vehicles surged by 11.4 percent, used cars and trucks jumped
by 7.1 percent, apparel increased by 5.2 percent, and shelter climbed
by 5.6 percent.
Shelter costs, which make up about one-third of the CPI, increased
by 0.6 percent in June from May. This was mainly driven by a 0.8 per-
cent rise in rent of primary residence, the greatest rent increase
since 1986.
“Today’s shockingly high consumer price inflation number does not
bode well for our country’s economic outlook,” Desmond Lachman, econ-
omist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told
The Epoch Times in an email.
It makes it likely that the Fed will keep raising interest rates
and decreasing its “bloated balance sheet” aggressively, he said.
“The Fed will likely do so despite the growing signs of economic
and financial market weakness both at home and abroad,” Lachman said.
“That has to raise the risk of a hard economic landing before yearend
and further turmoil in the equity and bond markets.”
The S&P 500 ended 0.4 percent lower, its fourth consecutive drop,
after tumbling as much as 1.6 percent earlier. The Dow Jones Indus-
trial Average fell 0.7 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite ended
down 0.2 percent, erasing nearly all of an early 2.1 percent loss.
The U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the greenback against
a basket of currencies, spiked with the news before ending the day
lower by 0.13 percent to 108.02. The index has been on a tear in 2022,
rallying about 13 percent year-to-date.
A fake CPI report circulated online on July 12 and attempted to
emulate the formatting of the May inflation data, using different
dates and figures. It claimed that the annual inflation rate was 10.2
percent in June. Despite being a forgery, it caught the attention of
investors sending stocks slightly lower in the afternoon session on
Wall Street.
The White House braced the American people on July 12 for an ele-
vated headline reading, noting in a memo that the June CPI report was
out of date since it didn’t contain the dramatic decline in food and
energy prices. U.S. officials are ostensibly looking ahead to the
July inflation numbers to show that their efforts are succeeding.
Peak Inflation?
Over the past month, crude oil and gasoline prices have fallen by
notable levels amid growing recession fears and weaker demand out-
looks.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude has slumped by about 17 per-
cent to below $100 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange
since the middle of July. The national average for a gallon of gaso-
line tumbled by roughly 7 percent to about $4.65, according to AAA.
Agricultural commodities have also plummeted, with corn, wheat,
and soybeans down by approximately 20 percent in the past month.
“The softening food, energy, and commodity prices, the improved
supply chains, the easing shipping costs, and lower purchasing mana-
ger indices hint that U.S. inflation may have hit a peak last month,
of will hit one soon,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a senior analyst at Swiss-
quote Bank, wrote in a research note.
Even if inflation has peaked, market experts believe prices for
many goods and services in the marketplace will remain elevated, such
as rent and airline fares. Core CPI could moderate, too, because of
weaker used car prices.
The headline inflation reading prompted the interest-rate futures
market to revise its expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise
rates by 100 basis points at this month’s Federal Open Market Com-
mittee (FOMC) policy meeting. Most of the market had anticipated a
three-quarter-point increase at the upcoming rate-setting committee
meeting, with small odds of a full point hike, according to the CME
FedWatch Tool.
Price stability has become the central bank’s primary objective,
even if it triggers a recession and extends the selloff in the finan-
cial markets. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has stated that it’s possible
to navigate a soft landing, but noted that it isn’t a guarantee.
Bryce Doty, senior vice president and senior portfolio manager at
Sit Investment Associates, says the Fed’s actions will exacerbate pro-
blems in the economy.
“The Fed’s clear mistake of destroying demand by aggressively
raising rates instead of supporting businesses desperately in need of
workers will further extend shortages,” he wrote in a July12 research
note. “Just think of the incredible growth we would have if another 2
to 4 million workers re-entered the workforce. Supply shortages would
dry up and inflation pressures would dissipate. Instead, the Fed’s
actions will slow growth and inflation will persist longer than it
should.”
However, Deutsche Bank analysts believe that the U.S. central bank
needs to maintain its hawkish attitude as inflation continues to show
that it’s “a demand-driven phenomenon.” In the past couple of months,
consumer demand has eased. Personal spending rose by just 0.2 percent
in May, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Retail sales
unexpectedly fell by 0.3 percent in May, the Census Bureau reported.
At the same time, with near-term recession fears growing, the
financial institution expects the peak fed funds rate will be 4.1
percent, but economic downturn concerns “could well short-circuit
the Fed’s hiking cycle before it reaches our current terminal rate
expectations.”
Following the June FOMC meeting, the Fed updated its dot-plot from
March, projecting that the benchmark rate would hit 3.4 percent this
year, 3.8 percent in 2023, and drop back to 3.4 percent in 2024 (pdf).
“My expectation is that inflation will soon peak,” Lachman said.
“It will do so as a result of the U.S. and world economy moving into
a recession, as well as a result of the slump presently underway in
international commodity prices in general and oil prices in partic-
ular.”
Next on the inflation front, the BLS will release the June producer
price index on July 14. Economists forecast that it will come in at
10.7 percent year-over-year, down from 10.8 percent in May.
Andrew Moran
This would be a mixed bag considering that Biden is propping up
the market with our strategic Petroleum Reserves and rampant buying
of US securities and bonds with unsupported money.
God still has his plan for our nation.
Conservatively,
John
Conservatively,
John
A Cabinency of Dunces.. 17 July 2022
A Cabinency of Dunces
Victor Davis Hanson May 26, 2022
As the nation sinks inexplicably into self-created crisis after
crisis, debate rages whether President Joe Biden is incompetent,
mean-spirited, or an ideologue who feels the country’s mess is his
success.
A second national discussion revolves around who actually is
overseeing the current national catastrophe, given Biden’s frequent
bewilderment and cognitive challenges.
But one area of agreement is the sheer craziness of Biden’s
Cabinet appointments, who have translated his incoherent ideology
into catastrophic governance.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has essenti-
ally nullified federal immigration law. More than 2 million foreign
nationals have illegally crossed the southern border without audit
and without COVID-19 vaccinations and tests during a pandemic.
Mayorkas either cannot or will not follow federal law.
But he did create a new Disinformation Governance Board. To head
his new Orwellian Ministry of Truth, he appointed Nina Jankowicz—an
arch disinformationist who helped peddle the Russian collusion, Steele
dossier, and Alfa Bank hoaxes.
While Jankowicz’s adolescent videos and past tweets finally forced
her resignation, Mayorkas promises his board will carry on.
In the days before the recent Virginia election, grassroots parent
groups challenged critical race theory taught in the schools.
In reaction and under prompts from teachers unions, Attorney Ge-
neral Merrick Garland directed both the FBI and the Justice Department
to establish a special task force apparently to “investigate threats”
from parents against school board members.
The FBI recently has been knee-deep in political controversies. It
illegally doctored a FISA application to entrap an American citizen.
Its former directors, under oath before Congress, either claimed
faulty memory or admitted lying to federal investigators.
The last thing a scandal-plagued FBI needed was to go undercover
at school board meetings to investigate parents worried over their
children’s education.
We are in a fuel price spiral that is destroying the middle class.
Yet when Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked about plans
to lower gas prices, she laughed off the idea as “hilarious.”
Later, Granholm preposterously claimed, “It is not the administra-
tion policies that have affected supply and demand.”
Apparently haranguing those who finance fossil-fuel production,
canceling the Keystone pipeline, suspending new federal oil and gas
leases, and stopping production in the Arctic National Wildlife Re-
fuge all had nothing to do with high fuel prices.
Currently, supply chain disruptions are paralyzing the U.S.
economy.
The huge Port of Los Angeles has been a mess for more than a year.
Since last fall, dozens of cargo ships have been backed up to the
horizon. Thousands of trucks are bottlenecked at the port.
During the mess, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was not
at work. Instead, at the height of the crisis, he took a two-month
paternity leave to help out his husband and two newborn babies.
Such paternal concern is a noble thing. But Buttigieg is supposed
to ensure that life-or-death supplies reach millions of strapped
Americans.
This winter, trains entering and leaving Los Angeles were routine-
ly looted in the Old West style of train robbing—without much of a
response from Buttigieg’s transportation bureau.
In Senate testimony, Secretary of the Interior Secretary Deb
Haaland refused to explain why her department is slow walking federal
oil and gas leases at a time when Americans are paying between $5 and
$6 a gallon for gas.
Haaland was unable to provide simple answers about when new leases
will result in more supplies of oil and gas. Her panicked aides slid
talking points to her, given that in deer-in-the-headlights fashion,
she seemed incapable of providing senators with basic information
about U.S. energy production on federal lands.
The United States is sending many billions of dollars' worth of
sophisticated weapons to Ukraine to combat Russian aggression. We
rightly claim it is not a proxy war against Russia, but instead an
effort to help stop a brutal Russian invasion.
Why then did Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin tell the world the
very opposite in a fashion that could only convince Russians that
our real aim in Ukraine is to destroy Russia as a superpower?
As Austin put it publicly, “We want to see Russia weakened to the
degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in
invading Ukraine.”
Even if that description of the agenda is true, why broadcast it,
given Russia has more than 6,000 nuclear weapons and its president,
Vladimir Putin, is increasingly erratic and paranoid?
The common denominator to these Biden appointees is ideological
rigidity, nonchalance, and sheer incompetence.
They seem indifferent to the current border, inflation, energy,
and crime disasters. When confronted, they're unable to answer simple
questions from Congress, or they mock anyone asking for answers on
behalf of the strapped American people.
We don’t know why or how such an unimpressive cadre ended up run-
ning the government, only that they are here and the American people
are suffering from their presence.
****Victor Davis Hanson
Sadly this group of misfits seems to think that they are doing
something right regardless of the disaster they are creating.
Add to that a Vice President that has no clue of her duties and
the ones she has been given, she shirks them off. As the Border Czar
she has yet to even go there. SHe just cackles.
If the good Lord is graceful to us we will remove a large number
of these people along with many Representatives and Senators in the
upcoming midterms and the sane and ethical portion of DC can begin
to rescue the US from more damage.
Conservatively,
John
Democratic Hypocrisy… 10 July 2022
Democratic Hypocrisy
The Pattern of Democratic Hypocrisy
Fences are a good place to start.
Democrats were all for a wall/fences on the southern border
until Trump said he would build it. Then the Democrats decided
that there was no way they would allow that even when the funds
were available.
Obama closed down the tours of the White House because of
budget cuts in 2013 that were cramping his generous wasting our
tax dollars. The tours cost $74k per week.
He didn't let it cramp his style of renting a $21M house, the
Blue Heron Farm. It was closed 4 different time since then.
When the Biden coup took over, he and Pelosi stopped the tours.
He put out a letter stating that it would resume the tours in April
but I don't think it has.
Keep in mind that Republicans were not behind any efforts
against completing the construction.
This has been going on for decades but let's just go forward.
Although they allowed the mobs of liberal protesters roam the
halls of the Capitol during Committees ruthless grilling of Trump's
Supreme Court nominees. Then Democrats again permitted during the
two illegal attempts to impeach Trump, both of which could not find
any law that he might even come close to violating. Both were also
based upon lies fabricated by the left in an effort to keep him from
fulfilling his promises to the American people.
More and more proof is being uncovered about the 2020 election
in more races than just the coup against Trump and millions of loyal
conservatives. Not to mention that they chose to focus their illegal
efforts in the same states that Trump had flipped in 2016.
They even corrupted the laws written by those state legislatures
in order to literally, break the law to steal the Electoral votes
at the last minute before and while votes were being counted by, as
we now know, people who were witnessing breaking those laws but, of
course, we all know that Obama had corrupted the Justice Dept. that
enabled them to pretend it never happened.
Now we know much of the truth and karma is coming.
So, Jan 6 was the last day for Trump's final legal CHALLENGE to
the Electoral count.
Democrats had to fabricate something to disrupt this challenge
about 1 pm when the count was to begin.
Trump had planned a rally at the White House so that some of his
65 million conservatives could peacefully and patriotically walk to
the Capitol to have their voices heard.
This was actually a big mistake on his part because he provided
cover for the left and Pelosi to disrupt the proceedings and they
took full advantage of it.
So back to Pelosi having barricades erected designed to have
their hired thugs push their way into the Capitol, but they knew that
Trump followers were never violent or armed, so her people went out
and invited people to come in one set of doors while the hired thugs
destructively forced their way in a different doorway.
Now back to the fence.
Pelosi used that excuse to construct an 8' fence around several
blocks after she refused Trump's offer to bring in 10K National
Guard soldiers. After Jan 6th, Pelosi brought several thousand
NG members and posted them around the Capitol fence for months.
I will remind you that Republicans have never been violent or
destructive unless, as usual, provoked by liberals.
Amid the riots around the blue cities after they tried to burn
down the Presidents Church near the White House, Pelosi had another
8' fence constructed in May 2021.
In July 2021 Fences went up after Capitol riots got too close to
where she worked. I watched her fabricate unrest for the optics
because it was obvious that since she had no need for fences after
Biden was installed. After all she turned them on and off to make it
appear as if the riots were not of her making.
Biden finally opened the public tours of the White House finally
in April 2022.
Since then, the Democrats have put together a troupe performance
not even worthy of turning on the stage light under the guidance of
a network producer that cut and pasted and scripted a made for late
night comedy rendition of their fabricated version of the events of
Jan 6th without any Republican committee members, any witnesses, any
verifiable evidence and laced with the most boring reading amateur
actors reading every word spoken.
They provided no explanation as to who the people were who tried
to violently breach the Capitol in spite of 14K hours of videos they
refused to share with the public. They also arrested some 800 people
who for an undisclosed reason were ALL conservative.
There was NO cross examination of any of the so-called witnesses
even though they mostly provided hearsay testimony.
The evil and lack of ethics, morals, patriotism, and concern for
their fellow human beings tells me that the Democrats are close
minded, hate-filled and anti-Christian at a level never before seen
in this country.
I fear the mid-term election could mark the end of the American
Dream and our Constitutional freedoms.
Faith and God's grace will guide Christians through this.
Conservatively,
John
The Epoch Times CEO Story… 3 July 2022
The Epoch Times CEO's personal story.
I recently subscribed to The Epoch Times and am enjoying an
unbiased weekly paper and full access to their daily updates on
the internet on sites like FB as well as daily email updates.
I would recommend any conservative to take advantage of this
where there motto is that they print nothing they can't verify.
Dear Subscriber,
As a Chinese expatriate, I have been unable to go home for 20
plus years. With the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) oppressing members
of the Falun Gong faith like me, going home would put my life and my
family in great danger.
But now, my home away from home is every day starting to look
more and more like the home I left. The media is starting to tell me
what I should think and do. The government seems to more stringently
regulate law-abiding citizens with each passing day, while turning a
blind eye to certain destructive members or groups. Political cor-
rectness is taking precedence over actual correctness.
This is not the America I chose to stay in.
Back in China, the prevailing attitude I saw growing up was to
not pay attention. Nothing mattered—not the government, not the
economy, not the corruption, not the killing—as long as your family
was okay and you had enough to eat. If times were hard, well, you’d
just have to live through it somehow.
What’s frightening to me is that I see many Americans thinking
that same way. The people who used to impress me with their gener-
osity and patriotism are now ostriches with their heads in the sand,
reluctant to think about anything that might disturb their happiness.
If even the citizens grow numb to losing their freedoms, what reason
does the government have to care?
We publish The Epoch Times for people of the world who still re-
vere Truth and Tradition, because we know only too well what life is
like without both of those things. And we will continue to, because
the way we see it, the United States is the world’s last bastion for
freedom. Many of us have already escaped a communist dictatorship
once. This time, we will stand our ground.
Our comfort rests in the fact that we have men and women like
you who are standing with us. Many of you write and tell us about
amazing things you’re doing to help protect our freedoms—they’re
truly exceptional stories, but we also understand that not everybody
has the time and money to do these monumental things.
Our only ask is that at the very least, you keep yourself in-
formed, engaged, and tuned in, even if it might be difficult. The
apathy of decent people is the fuel that feeds authoritarian flames.
At a time when the country we call home is at stake, it’s not a
mistake anyone can afford to make.
Thank you kindly for being a subscriber of The Epoch Times, and
we hope that we can continue to provide the information you need to
make the right decisions.
In Truth and Tradition,
John Tang
CEO
I had read that a Chinese group owned the Epoch Times and was a
a little reluctant to subscribe but have truly enjoyed each edition.
I remembering reading that they don't print anything they can't
verify and I have checked their articles many times and learned a
few things I only found in their pages.
On top of the weekly paper, I have full access to their posts on
the social media outlets, many of which never appear on any liberal
biased sites.
I have come to trust them and they boost my faith that God will
eventually heal our land after he has given them enough rope to hang
themselves.
Conservatively,
John
Congress is Ignoring Business by Obsessing with Jan 6th… 26 June 2022
Congress Ignores Pressing National Business While
It Obsesses on Jan. 6
Star Parker
As the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack
on the United States Capitol starts public hearings, we must ask what
motivates those on the committee.
Is the sole concern the ideals of the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution of the United States? Or is it to get media to
attack and undermine political opponents?
It is indeed possible that infractions of law can be investigated
without a carnival platform designed to mobilize media and national
attention.
The public material of the committee already reeks of motivations
other than seeking truth.
The committee has already announced on its website that the Jan.6
incident was "one of the darkest days of our democracy."
Really? Against a civil war where some three-quarters of a mil-
lion Americans were killed, fighting over what American freedom is
about, one incident of a few hours, where law enforcement finally
prevailed, was one of our "darkest days"?
There are just 24 hours in any day, so time taken on one matter
means attention not given to other matters.
If these members of Congress really cared about our principles
of freedom and democracy, they wouldn't be ignoring every day other
pressing matters in which the freedom of American citizens is bla-
tantly violated.
Take, for example, that as the Jan. 6 investigation monopolizes
media attention, on June 3 the Trustees of Medicare and Social Se-
curity issued their annual report.
Both systems are bankrupt and in dismal shape financially.
The cash shortfall of Medicare in 2021 was $409 billion. Pro-
jection is that Social Security will be out of adequate cash flow to
meet obligations to retirees by 2035 — just 13 years from now.
The Trustees estimate that there are only adequate funds in
Social Security to meet 80% of benefits in 2035. The payroll tax, now
12.4%, would have to be raised 26% in order to generate sufficient
funds to meet those obligations.
In other words, today every working American age 55 and below who
plans to collect Social Security benefits at age 67 is paying a pay-
roll tax into a system that cannot provide the benefits promised.
Can you imagine a private insurance company sending a letter to
policy holders saying that, in 13 years, they will only be able to
meet 80% of the payments promised to policy holders?
The lawsuits would be flying.
Let's forget about the fiscal situation of the system for a min-
ute and whether it is even worth saving this program. How about the
issue of freedom that our members of Congress want us to believe
they care about so much?
Take a young citizen, age 21, fresh with his or her new degree,
entering the work force for the first time. Immediately, 12.4% of
their paycheck is deducted into a system they involuntarily enter,
in which there are inadequate funds to meet promised benefits.
Shouldn't this new young worker be able to say, "No, thank you,
I don't want to participate"?
Even if the system were not broken, and benefits could be met,
in our free country, shouldn't everyone be free to manage their own
retirement?
According to the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the average
return of Social Security over the last 40 years was 1%. Over the
same period, average return on stocks was 6%.
Back to this new young worker, by the calculations of the Com-
mittee to Unleash Prosperity, this single worker, if they earned the
median national income and were able to invest 10% of their income
into a diversified stock and bond portfolio over 40 years, instead
of paying the payroll tax, could have annual income at retirement of
$55,143 against $19,646 from Social Security.
So, hey, members of the Select Committee. Enough of pretending
that you care about American freedom. How about wrapping up the car-
nival and getting down to the real challenges every American faces
today?
********** Star Parker
Now the Select Committee has met and are boring Americans with
their skewed version of the events of Jan 6.
The committee is made up of 7 angry hate-filled Democrats and
two RINO Conservatives that have ended their political careers due
to their liberal progressive and distain for the ideals of their
own party.
So it is 9-0 and the lies and cut and pasted process seems to
be remenisant of the two illegitimate impechment aimed at their
attempt to prevent Truump from running again for the Presidency.
They have turned it into a circus with no defense and zero
evidence tying Trump to their skewed narrative and "We the People"
have seen through their lies.
May God have mercy upon our nation.
Conservatively,
John
What the Jan6 Committee Could have Been… 19 June 2022
What the Jan. 6 Committee Might Have Been
Victor Davis Hanson / June 17, 2022
Congress should investigate fully the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol
and similar recent riots at iconic federal sites.
But unfortunately, it never will. Why not?
The current committee is not bipartisan. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, D-Calif., forbade Republican nominees traditionally selected
by the House minority leader to serve on the committee.
No speaker had ever before rejected the minority party’s nominees
to a select House committee.
Pelosi’s own cynical criteria for Republican participation was
twofold: any willing minority Republican members had to have voted to
impeach former President Donald Trump while having no realistic
chance of being reelected in 2022.
Of some 210 Republican House members, that left just Reps. Liz
Cheney, R-Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who were willing and able
to fit Pelosi’s profile.
A real investigation would have ignited argumentation, cross-
examination, and disagreements—the sort of give-and-take for which
congressional committees are famous.
In contrast, the Jan. 6 show trial features no dissenting views.
Its subtext was right out of Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria’s credo: “Show me the man and I’ll show
you the crime.”
If Trump was not considering a third run for the presidency,
would the committee even have existed?
Its slick Hollywood-produced optics demonstrate that the commit-
tee has no interest in inconvenient facts. Why did a Capitol officer
lethally shoot a petite unarmed woman entering a Capitol window? And
why was the officer’s identity and, indeed, all information about his
record withheld from the public?
Why did the committee not investigate whether large numbers of
FBI agents and informants were ubiquitous among the crowd? After all,
progressive New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg who was there
on Jan. 6 claimed, “There were a ton of FBI informants amongst the
people who attacked the Capitol.”
About his own journalistic colleagues advancing a psychodramatic
“insurrection” narrative, Rosenberg scoffed, “They were making too
big a deal. They were making [Jan. 6] some organized thing that it
wasn’t.”
A real committee would also investigate why there were lots of
warnings that a large crowd would assemble, but apparently little
government follow-up to ensure security, should rogue elements turn
violent.
A real committee would learn why the government and media insis-
ted that officer Brian Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters—even
when it was known he died of natural causes.
None of the questions will be answered because none will be
asked because the committee’s role is not inquiry but confirmation
of a useful narrative.
A real committee would also investigate the other, far larger
and more lethal riots on iconic federal property months earlier.
On May 31, 2020, for example, violent demonstrators tried to
rush the White House grounds. Rioters sought to burn down the nearby
historic St. John’s Episcopal Church.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser mysteriously did not send police to
reinforce overwhelmed Secret Service agents who, at moments, seemed
unable to keep the mob from the White House itself.
The giddy New York Times later crowed, “Trump shrinks back.” Was
the Times preening that the president was a coward for retreating
from a righteous mob?
As a precaution, the Secret Service removed the president and
first family to a safe underground bunker.
Such riots near or at the White House continued for much of the
fall, before mysteriously tapering off in the last weeks before the
election.
Less than three weeks after the violent Washington riot, Demo-
cratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris seemed to incite the
continuing violent protests, “They’re not going to stop … This is a
movement … they’re not going to let up. And they should not, and we
should not.”
Note that Harris’ cheerleading was joined by a host of prominent
left-wing luminaries who contextualized the violence. The 1619 Pro-
ject architect Nikole Hannah-Jones boasted, “Destroying property,
which can be replaced, is not violence.”
Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo pontificated, “And please, show me
where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”
Note that the 2020 summer rioting, arson, and looting continued
for nearly four months. Its toll resulted in over 35 dead, some 1,500
police officers injured, around 14,000 arrests, and between $1-2 bil-
lion in property damage.
The violence was often aimed at iconic government buildings,
from courthouses to police precincts. There were never any federal
investigations to determine why state, local, and federal officials
allowed the destruction to continue.
Why were the vast majority of those arrested simply released by
authorities?
And how had Antifa and Black Lives Matter radicals orchestrated
the violence using social media? What was the role of prominent elec-
ted officials in either condoning or encouraging the violence or com-
municating with the ring leaders?
A truly bipartisan House select committee dedicated to ending
all violence directed at the White House, the Capitol, or federal
courthouses might have been useful in probing this dark period in
American history.
And that is precisely why there was no such committee.
Victor D. Hanson from The Daily Signal
If God is willing, America will see this fiasco for what it is
and these unlawful, evil people will receive what they are due for
the destruction of our great nation.
The Constitution was written to keep the government in control
and the job of the elected officials is to ensure it is followed and
respected.
Conservatively,
John
Transgenderism… 12 June 2022
Transgenderism: Why Stop There?
Deroy Murdock / April 01, 2022
“Identifying” as someone who one is not has become all the rage.
If you think you’re somebody you’re not, the whole world is expected
to nod its collective head, if not stand up and cheer.
This is especially true for gender identity, as William “Lia”
Thomas has demonstrated so vividly in collegiate swimming pools.
Unheralded male swimmer William Thomas became NCAA champion female
swimmer Lia Thomas—Shazam!—just by saying so.
What a cool magic trick.
Gone are the days when a guy had to put some skin in the game to
pull this off. Or, more accurately, pull something off to get some
skin out of the game; namely, his penis. The old carving-station
requirement for gender transition has gone the way of the rotary
telephone. Today, mere affirmations will suffice.
“Hey, I’m a girl!” And you are.
As Yogi Berra might say, if he were alive and not in shock:
“Only in America.”
Since simple declarations of identity can change people more
swiftly than scalpels, what’s next after the triumph of trans-
genderism?
Why not transnationalism?
Visualize Lupita Martinez. She lives in poverty in Honduras. The
mean streets of Tegucigalpa keep her at wits’ end. A crime surge on
public transportation is the last macaw that breaks the branch of
her patience.
So, Martinez joins a caravan and heads north, to the U.S.
-Mexican frontier.
When she comes face to face with a Border Patrol agent, Martinez
says the magic words: “I identify as an American.”
“Welcome home, Lupita!” the federal agent says with a warm smile,
as he waves this Honduran American citizen back where she belongs.
And why not transracialism?
Picture Ludwig Von Thannhausen, age 18. He lives in suburban
Chicago with his native German parents who brought him to America as
a baby. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and looks like a young man born
in Oberpfaffenhofen who also happens to be white.
But Von Thannhausen can’t get enough of things black.
He is obsessed with the Harlem Renaissance. He knows the literature
of Langston Hughes better than Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the paint-
ings of Aaron Douglas more than Max Ernst, and the music of Duke
Ellington deeper than Richard Wagner.
His heroes stretch from Frederick Douglass to the Tuskegee Airmen
to Denzel Washington. He listens to everything from Motown to Par-
liament Funkadelic to Prince to Kanye West.
He dreams of majoring in black studies at Howard University in
Washington, D.C., a historically black college. In fact, he’s apply-
ing as a black student and seeks scholarships intended for black
applicants.
Von Thannhausen resembles a recruit for the Aryan Nation, but he
said the secret words: “I identify as black.”
Who are we to disagree? If that’s his identity, that’s his
identity.
And if his good grades, decent SAT scores, and impressive base-
ball record land him a spot at Howard, plus a $50,000 minority scho-
larship, then who are we to say that he is not really black?
But what would we say to the kid who actually is black (you know:
dark skin, dark hair, etc.), applies to Howard, and misses out on
admission, a scholarship, or both? If not for Von Thannhausen, those
blessings would be hers.
Why not transindividualism?
Imagine that Bob Glenwood has multiple-personality disorder. He
identifies as Bob Glenwood, but also as Steve Jones, Myron Shapiro,
Jackie Washington, and Concepcion Gomez.
So, he fills out five voter registration applications and re-
quests five absentee ballots.
Who are we to say that Glenwood deserves just one ballot? How
dare we disenfranchise the other four people who live inside his
brain? That would be Jim Crow 3.0.
As these (for now) fictional scenarios show, America will plunge
into ever deeper chaos if we simply let people “identify” as those
they are not and then deprive others of goods and benefits meant for
people who legitimately embody those identities.
I identify as Walter Cronkite, and that’s the way it is.
D. Murdock
**********
So when God created one man and one woman he did it for a reason.
He created races adaptable to their needs and he gave us a list of
rules to follow designed to keep us civil, empathetic, sympathetic,
and capable of loving each other and to multiply.
I think we need to follow His commands and strive to be like
Jesus, knowing we all sin but should try not to judge each other
but to search for logical common ground.
May God heal our nation.
Conservatively,
John
Is Biden’s “Success” our Mess?… 5 June 2022
Is Biden's "Success" Our mess?
Victor Davis Hanson / May 20, 2022
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 President 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 former President 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 peo-
ple are brainwashed or that they themselves have not supplied suf-
ficient propaganda. So they never pivot or compromise, but rededi-
cate themselves to continued failure.
Why? Apparently, what most in the country see as disasters,
Biden envisions as success.
Take the border—or rather its disappearance.
Never in U.S. history has an administration simply canceled im-
migration laws, opened the border, and welcomed in millions of il-
legal aliens. All arrive illegally, and without audit, or vaccina-
tions and tests in times of a pandemic.
Cartels now import lethal drugs at will into the United States.
We have no idea how many terrorists walk across the border each day.
Almost all the entering millions who break the law are poor,
without high school diplomas or English skills, and in dire need of
massive federal and state housing, food, education, legal, and
health subsidies.
Do the leftists in Washington believe that millions of dependent
new residents will look to the left for decades of support and soon
find ways to reciprocate with fealty at the polls? Is that why Demo-
crats brag in unapologetic tribalist fashion about changing the de-
mography of the electorate?
Former President Barack Obama’s energy secretary-designate
Steven Chu once gaffed in the 2008 campaign when he openly wished
that U.S. gas prices would reach European levels.
In truth, the left has always believed the only way to achieve
its objectives of discouraging driving, forcing middle-class Ameri-
cans onto trains and buses, and persuading them to live in urban
high-rises rather than drive carbon-spewing cars from spacious sub-
urban ranch-style homes was to encourage high fuel prices.
Is that agenda why Biden, during the current energy crisis,
simply canceled new federal oil and gas leases? As diesel hits $7 a
gallon in California, why else did he refuse to finish the Keystone
XL pipeline or reopen Alaskan oil fields?
Inflation continues officially to exceed 8% per annum. Most
consumers feel it is double that when they pay for food, fuel,
building materials, houses, or rent—the essential stuff of life.
What did the Biden administration expect would follow from keep-
ing real interest rates at near zero, while printing trillions of
dollars at the moment supplies were short and demand was spiking?
Or did it think inflation more fairly “spreads the wealth”? Does
it prompt new necessary attacks on “corporate greed”? Does it demand
more federal intervention and socialist policies?
If inflation is “bad” for most, it may not seem so to this left-
wing administration.
Violent crime is on its way to 1970s levels. The combination of
defunding the police, radical city and county prosecutors who don’t
charge or lock up criminals, and emptying jails and prisons have
ignited a national crime wave.
The Biden administration shrugs. It offers no new federal help
to fund more police or charge freed criminals under applicable fed-
eral statutes.
Does it think it is more socially just to let criminals free
than incarcerate them?
Does it buy into “critical legal theory” that laws do not re-
flect ancient ideas of right and wrong, but instead are “construct-
ted" by the privileged to oppress the already oppressed?
Is what Americans see as dangerous crime something the Biden
zealots applaud as tough social karma?
Americans are tired of the new woke tribalism. Judging indi-
viduals on the basis of their race, gender, or superficial appear-
ance is amoral, and contrary to the entire civil rights movement,
and the U.S. Constitution.
It destroys any idea of meritocracy and divides the country
artificially into supposed victims and victimizers.
But do the Biden people see it that way?
Or do they promote racial tensions and tribalism, as welcome
revolutionary fervor?
In that regard, the Bidenites promote identity politics as a
good way to stir up the pot, to demonize supposed oppressors and
deify the oppressed—all as a way of retaining political power. For
the left, living in a socialist nation controlled by an elite is far
preferable to living in a free and prosperous one answerable only
to the people.
The public believes the Biden administration has failed America,
with disastrous results due either to its incompetence, belliger-
ence, or left-wing zealotry.
But Biden and his delusional team seem delighted with what they
have wrought.
In sum, what Americans see as an abject catastrophe, they cheer
on as a stunning and planned success.
Thank you, Victor
******
SO, my hope is that Americans will learn from our previous dis-
asterous experiences with liberal attempts to destroy our economy
and use that to rebuild what Trump started and with God's grace
we WILL Make America Great Again.
Conservatively,
John
Green Energy and EVs Won’t Work… 29May 2022
Green Energy and EVs are not a good plan.
Batteries, they do not make electricity – they store electricity
produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered
plants, or diesel-fueled generators. So, to say an EV is a zero-
emission vehicle is not at all valid.
Also, since forty percent of the electricity generated in the
U.S. is from coal-fired plants, it follows that forty percent of the
EVs on the road are coal-powered, do you see?"
Einstein's formula, E=MC2, tells us it takes the same amount of
energy to move a five-thousand-pound gasoline-driven automobile a
mile as it does an electric one. The only question again is what pro-
duces the power? To reiterate, it does not come from the battery; the
battery is only the storage device, like a gas tank in a car.
There are two orders of batteries, rechargeable, and single-use.
The most common single-use batteries are A, AA, AAA, C, D. 9V, and
lantern types. Those dry-cell species use zinc, manganese, lithium,
silver oxide, or zinc and carbon to store electricity chemically.
Please note they all contain toxic, heavy metals.
Rechargeable batteries only differ in their internal materials,
usually lithium-ion, nickel-metal oxide, and nickel-cadmium. The
United States uses three billion of these two battery types a year,
and most are not recycled; they end up in landfills. California is
the only state which requires all batteries be recycled. If you throw
your small, used batteries in the trash, here is what happens to them.
All batteries are self-discharging. That means even when not in
use, they leak tiny amounts of energy. You have likely ruined a
flashlight or two from an old, ruptured battery. When a battery runs
down and can no longer power a toy or light, you think of it as dead;
well, it is not. It continues to leak small amounts of electricity.
As the chemicals inside it run out, pressure builds inside the bat-
tery's metal casing, and eventually, it cracks. The metals left in-
side then ooze out. The ooze in your ruined flashlight is toxic, and
so is the ooze that will inevitably leak from every battery in a
landfill. All batteries eventually rupture; it just takes recharge-
able batteries longer to end up in the landfill.
In addition to dry cell batteries, there are also wet cell ones
used in automobiles, boats, and motorcycles. The good thing about
those is, ninety percent of them are recycled. Unfortunately, we do
not yet know how to recycle single-use ones properly.
But that is not half of it. For those of you excited about elec-
tric cars and a green revolution, I want you to take a closer look at
batteries and also windmills and solar panels. These three technolo-
gies share what we call environmentally destructive production costs.
A typical EV battery weighs one thousand pounds, about the size
of a travel trunk. It contains twenty-five pounds of lithium, sixty
pounds of nickel, 44 pounds of manganese, 30 pounds cobalt, 200
pounds of copper, and 400 pounds of aluminum, steel, and plastic.
Inside are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.
It should concern you that all those toxic components come from
mining. For instance, to manufacture each EV auto battery, you must
process 25,000 pounds of brine for the lithium, 30,000 pounds of ore
for the cobalt, 5,000 pounds of ore for the nickel, and 25,000 pounds
of ore for copper. All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's
crust for just - one - battery."
Sixty-eight percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of
a battery, comes from the Congo. Their mines have no pollution con-
trols, and they employ children who die from handling this toxic ma-
terial. Should we factor in these diseased kids as part of the cost
of driving an electric car?"
I'd like to leave you with these thoughts. California is building
the largest battery in the world near San Francisco, and they intend
to power it from solar panels and windmills. They claim this is the
ultimate in being 'green,' but it is not. This construction project
is creating an environmental disaster. Let me tell you why.
The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to
process silicate into the silicon used in the panels. To make pure
enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sul-
furic acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and
acetone. In addition, they also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium
-gallium- di selenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly
toxic. Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot
be recycled.
Windmills are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental
destruction. Each weighs 1688 tons (the equivalent of 23 houses) and
contains 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron,
24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard to extract rare earths neodymium,
praseodymium, and dysprosium. Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and
will last 15 to 20 years, at which time it must be replaced. We can-
not recycle used blades.
There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look
beyond the myth of zero emissions.
"Going Green" may sound like the Utopian ideal but when you look
at the hidden and embedded costs realistically with an open mind,
you can see that Going Green is more destructive to the Earth's en-
vironment than meets the eye, for sure.
Anonymous contributor.
Electric vehicles are a danger to the environment well above
that of a gas powered vehicle.
Imagine getting into a serious accident and being pinned under
a half ton of toxic chemicals.
Please don't fall for this scam being forced on the people who
have trusted the corrupt media for years.
We must pray that this mess is stopped and God will heal our
land.
Conservatively,
John
