Border security group supports Republican over Dem challenger Mandela Barnes

A leading border security advocacy group is throwing its support behind Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) in his reelection bid, citing the lawmaker’s “unique insight into the root cause of the out-of-control flood of illegal immigrants and deadly drugs into our country.”

The National Border Patrol Council, an advocacy group comprised of some 18,000 Border Patrol agents, said Johnson—a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee—”has devoted more time and attention to securing our border than virtually any other member of Congress,” according to a statement by the group provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Johnson is facing a tough reelection battle in Wisconsin as Democrats try to flip the seat for challenger Mandela Barnes, the state’s far-left lieutenant governor, who is being bankrolled by anti-police groups. In an election cycle where the porous southern border is likely to galvanize voters, Johnson’s endorsement by the National Border Patrol Council could help tip the scales in his favor.

“The National Border Patrol Council has personally witnessed Senator Johnson’s dedication to and care for all Wisconsinites,” the group said in its statement. “Wisconsin and America need Senator Johnson’s strong voice, caring spirit, and leadership in the U.S. Senate, which is why we are proud to endorse Senator Johnson to continue to be your advocate.”

Johnson, the group said, was instrumental in Operation Safe Return, a bipartisan federal program initiated in 2019 that humanely deported illegals back to their countries of origin. The program was used as a model by the Department of Homeland Security when it developed its own programs to reduce the flow of undocumented children and families into America.

“By reducing the number of illegal border crossers, Senator Johnson was instrumental in allowing law enforcement to target criminal cartels and their profit,” the group said.

Johnson is one of the most vocal proponents for increased border security and policies that will help stem the flow of undocumented migrants into the United States. Apprehensions at the border have crossed 4,000 per day on Biden’s watch, according to figures published by Customs and Border Protection. The crisis has spiraled as drug cartels exploit children and families seeking to illegally enter America, leading to an increase in rape, crime, and other instances of abuse. Nearly 8,000 illegals are believed to be crossing the border each day, according to Johnson.

Experts expect two million illegal immigrant encounters in this fiscal year, according to research published Tuesday by the Republican National Committee.

“President Biden completely dismantled the very policies that had ended the surge. The border is now in a crisis that far exceeds anything during the previous administrations and the media is silent,” Johnson’s office said in an analysis published on his website.

Johnson has organized congressional trips to the border, most recently in July. The senator met with law enforcement officials to discuss the challenges they face, and he also spent time with local landowners to discuss the fallout they are facing due to the rising number of illegals.

“Open borders, a flood of illegal immigrants, a flood of deadly drugs, 40-year high inflation, record gasoline prices—these things didn’t just happen,” Johnson said during a press conference at the time. “These are the direct result of [Biden’s] policies. But if you look very closely at this chart, we pretty well had the border solved. That’s just another tragedy here. We had this problem fixed until Democrat presidential candidates started talking about the fact they would not deport and they would offer illegal immigrants free health care.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Democrats have one priority, and it’s not the United States, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) says. Instead, Democrats want to destroy former President Donald Trump, and they’ll do “everything they can” to accomplish that goal.

Nehls, along with the Republican Study Committee, spent three hours with Trump after the raid and said the former president not only firmly grasps the situation but also fully understands that Democrats are out to “get him.”

“They’ve been out to get him with one impeachment, two impeachments, the Russia hoax. … Democrats will do everything they can to keep him off the ballot in 2024,” Nehls told The Epoch Times and NTD as part of a special EpochTV report on the raid.

Nehls, who has a law enforcement background and was a sheriff for several years, said that to obtain a search warrant, you first have to obtain a “probable cause” affidavit. Once you have a signed affidavit, you can get a search warrant to look for specific items in a person’s home.

Unfortunately, according to Nehls, probable cause affidavits can be “very, very weak,” but if you find a “friendly judge” to sign it, it doesn’t matter; you can search a person’s home for whatever is on the warrant.

Furthermore, Nehls said everyone in law enforcement knows a judge who will rubber stamp affidavits and search warrants and said that’s what happened to Trump and the “raid” on Mar-a-Lago.

“They found the friendly judge there, with Reinhardt in the Southern District. … These guys are big Obama supporters, … and they got the judge to sign the warrant.”

Garland Approves Unsealing of Warrant

Concerning Attorney General Merrick Garland stating he approves unsealing the warrant, Nehls said that’s only part of what needs to be released.

Specifically, Nehls said he wants to know if the person who tipped off the Department of Justice (DOJ) is an FBI informant.

“Who is the individual that said … the former president has a bunch of these documents inside … the basement of Mar-a-Lago and … they’re classified or not classified, and we need to do something?”

Nehls said seeing the affidavit and the warrant would let people know what the FBI was “really looking for.”

Indeed, Nehls is skeptical about the FBI’s stated reason for raiding Trump. Instead, he thinks it’s likely that the FBI is creating a false pretext to destroy Trump.

Nehls pointed out that Democrats, the DOJ, and the FBI have targeted Trump and his family for the past few years, claiming they colluded with Russia. In the end, however, the evidence exonerated the past president.

Now, the DOJ and Democrats are up to the same old tricks. But instead of “Russia Collusion,” it’s “Jan. 6.”

Nehls argued that the FBI has lowered its standards and is now going after political adversaries at the behest of former President Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Nehls concluded that he expects Biden and his lackeys to go after Trump “until they can find a way to destroy him.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

More than a third of Americans have drawn on their savings accounts to handle rising prices, taking out hundreds of dollars on average, according to a recent survey by New York Life Insurance Company.

Since January, 36 percent of Americans have drawn an average of $617 from their savings to pay their bills, the company found. Nearly 90 percent of those surveyed expressed anxiety that a recession is approaching, and roughly a third reported being “uncertain” or “anxious” about their personal finances. Respondents cited monthly bills, health care costs, grocery prices, and gas prices as their areas of greatest financial concern.

Voters overwhelmingly blame Joe Biden for the state of the economy. Sixty-four percent of Americans, including 53 percent of Democrats, believe the president’s policy decisions are to blame for soaring costs. While White House officials boasted this week about slowing inflation, prices are still up 8.5 percent from last year, with that number even higher in several key swing states.

Americans are not replenishing their savings accounts as they drain them. The personal savings rate, or the proportion of income people don’t spend or lose to taxes, more than halved between July 2021 and June 2022, falling from 10.5 percent to 5.1 percent. 

To make up for tightening purse strings, Americans are increasingly turning to debt. Americans’ collective credit card debt jumped to $890 billion last quarter, marking the largest yearly increase in two decades. The number of credit cards also hit an all-time high in the second quarter, with more than 500 million in circulation. 

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The FBI agents who raided former President Donald Trump’s Florida resort were looking for certain records, according to a lawyer for Trump who was on the scene while agents were at the resort.

“They’re looking for presidential records, what they deemed to be presidential records, and anything that could potentially be classified,” Christina Bobb, the lawyer, told The Epoch Times on Aug. 9.

“We had been very cooperative with them before. And it’s unclear to me why they went to such drastic measures to do this. But they did. And as far as the probable cause goes, they wouldn’t give that to us,” she added.

In mid-January, the National Archives and Records Administration arranged for the transport from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives 15 boxes that the archives said contained presidential records. Under the Presidential Records Act, the records should have been transferred in January 2021 as Trump left office, and some of the boxes contained classified information, the institution said in a statement at the time. The administration did not return an inquiry on Tuesday.

Approximately two dozen FBI agents arrived around 9 a.m. on Monday morning and remained at Mar-a-Lago, which is in West Palm Beach, for about 10 hours.

Agents initially resisted showing Bobb the warrant but ultimately did. But the agents would not allow any representatives of the former president to oversee the search, Bobb said. The justification for the search also remains under seal. Trump’s legal team plans on asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to unseal the search warrant affidavit, which would outline why authorities asked for the warrant.

“We don’t know what the probable cause is. I don’t think there is a good cause to do such a drastic thing. But they did,” Bobb said.

The FBI has declined to comment. The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence have not returned requests for comment. The White House has said the DOJ is independent and that Joe Biden and others in the White House were not notified of the raid ahead of time.

‘Peaceful’

Agents kept Mar-a-Lago neat while they were searching for documents, with one even picking up trash, according to Bobb. The agents “took a handful of boxes of documents,” she said.

“I don’t think that there was anything incriminating. I don’t think there was anything of substance. So I’m sure that they will say otherwise. But we’ll have to wait and see what they come up with, but it was all paper. I hear the conspiracy theories and the rumors that there were other artifacts or something taken—it was all paper,” she said.

Agents previously visited the resort in June, and were given access to a storage facility there, according to Bobb. “Nothing had been hidden and nothing had been kept secret from them, which makes this all more all the more ridiculous,” she said.

“Donald Trump didn’t commit a crime,” Bobb said, adding that prosecutors would not be able to show that Donald Trump knew about the boxes the FBI took.

“They would have to lay the foundation that Donald Trump actually packed up his own office, and Donald Trump was actually the custodian of these records, and that he actually moved them,” she said.

If the DOJ decides to press charges against Trump, then the effort would not get very far, she predicted.

“I just don’t see it making a bit of difference. I think President Trump is going to most likely run for reelection,” she said. “I can’t wait until he does. And he will be the next President of the United States.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other GOP leaders have responded to an FBI search of the 45th President’s Florida Mar-a-Lago home after former president Donald Trump said it was “currently under siege, raided, and occupied” on Aug. 8.

Decrying the alleged raid in a post on his social media app, Truth Social, Trump said, “these are dark times for our Nation.”

“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” he said.

Taking to Twitter following Trump’s post, Republican leaders condemned the alleged raid, with several warning that such a move could set a dangerous precedent, while others accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the Justice Department for political purposes.

Pompeo, the former secretary of state under Trump, said that executing a warrant against a former president of the United States was a “dangerous” precedent to set.

“The apparent political weaponization of DOJ/FBI is shameful. AG must explain why 250 yrs of practice was upended with this raid,” Pompeo wrote. “I served on Benghazi Com where we proved Hilliary (sic) possessed classified info. We didn’t raid her home.”

The raid is mostly likely connected to an investigation regarding Trump’s handling of official papers. His lawyer, Christina Bobb, confirmed with CNN on Monday night that the FBI had seized documents during their search at his Mar-a-Lago home.

The FBI is directed by Christopher Wray who was appointed by Trump.

‘Banana Republic’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the raid of Trump’s home represents “another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents,” while noting that people like Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden “get treated with kid gloves.”

Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation for alleged tax fraud, lobbying crimes, and money laundering in a probe dating back to as early as 2018.

“Now the Regime is getting another 87k IRS agents to wield against its adversaries? Banana Republic,” DeSantis said.

Elsewhere, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noted on Twitter that the midterm elections aren’t far off. Trump has hinted that he will run for president again in 2024, and teased last week that he could make an official announcement soon, either before or after the November elections.

“Time will tell regarding this most recent investigation. However, launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic,” Graham wrote.

Trump Family Reacts to FBI Raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) questioned why the FBI had declined to raid the homes of previous administrations, including the Clintons and Obama.

“Bill and Hillary Clinton took $28,000 worth of furnishings from the White House. Obama violated the Presidential Records Act. Why did the FBI not raid their houses? This is a political witch hunt to take down President Trump,” the GOP lawmaker said.

Kevin McCarthy, the Republican minority leader in the House, said in a statement that the justice department had reached “an intolerable state of weaponized politicization” and vowed that, when Republicans take back the House, they will “conduct immediate oversight of the department, follow the facts and leave no stone unturned.”

“Attorney General Garland: preserve your documents and clear your calendar,” he added.

‘Start With Hunter Biden’s Laptop’

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) also said on Twitter that the FBI raid on Trump’s home was “unprecedented and highly concerning,” and that “if the FBI is looking for classified info or incriminating evidence, they should start with Hunter Biden’s laptop.” He added the hashtag “#Demdoublestandard.”

Meanwhile, Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, said: “Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Countless times we have examples of Democrats flouting the law and abusing power with no recourse.”

“Democrats continually weaponize the bureaucracy against Republicans. This raid is outrageous. This abuse of power must stop and the only way to do that is to elect Republicans in November,” McDaniel added.

The FBI has declined to comment to The Epoch Times on the alleged raid.

While GOP lawmakers condemned the move, the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump PAC, alleged in a statement that the raid is a “positive sign that Donald Trump may be brought to justice for the myriad of criminal offenses committed by him and his family while President.”

“Never before has a former President’s home been raided in a criminal probe. While this search warrant is seemingly for the mishandling of classified material, it is a serious crime that must be fully investigated,” the group said, adding that the raid is the “first step for law enforcement, or Congress, of holding Donald Trump accountable for the orchestration of a conspiracy to remain in power that resulted in the January 6th attack on our nation’s capital.”

Trump expressed anger at the move, alleging in his Monday statement that it was part of the “political persecution” that has been targeting him now for years “with the now fully debunked Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, Impeachment Hoax #1, Impeachment Hoax #2, and so much more, it just never ends. It is political targeting at the highest level!” he wrote.

“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” Trump added. “Sadly, America has now become one of those countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Still looking for hand-outs despite the fact that African people have been immigrating here for over a hundred years. White workers in factories, mines, etc. could be considered slaves as well. Get over yourself and start working on improving yourselves instead of trying to further weaken what is (by far) the most free nation on the planet [US Patriot]

The ACLU and Human Rights Watch want the United Nations to demand that Joe Biden “take immediate, tangible measures,” including reparations, to “dismantle structural racism” in the United States.

The groups are recommending that the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which will meet later this month, order the United States to “provide effective remedies, including reparations for racial discrimination, including ongoing structural discrimination that flows from the legacies of slavery.”

The ACLU, which ostensibly advocates for Americans’ civil liberties regardless of politics, has a long history of defending left-wing policies. The group in April said it would use “the full force of the law” to allow children to undergo transgender hormone treatment. The ACLU is also a top advocate for the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, the Washington Free Beacon has reported. Human Rights Watch also routinely criticizes the Jewish state, with Ben and Jerry’s basing its anti-Israel boycott on advice from a high-ranking Human Rights Watch employee. Ben and Jerry’s parent company overruled the anti-Semitic boycott following widespread criticism.

While the groups note that Joe Biden has criticized “systemic racism,” they say the president has not gone far enough.

“The Biden administration has shown it can name the problem, but the time has come to take bolder action to radically transform these abusive systems and fully implement U.S. human rights obligations,” ACLU human rights director Jamil Dakwar said in a statement.

One such “bolder action,” the groups say, is creating “a commission to study the need for reparations and develop specific remedies for the enslavement of people in the United States and its myriad legacies.” The ACLU and Human Rights Watch want the government to work against anything that has “a racist effect or impact,” such as “mass incarceration” and concentration of wealth.

Barrington Martin II, a national director of the patriotic group Our America, called the groups’ actions “preposterous” and “oxymoronic.”

“There is not one law on the books or any institution within the United States that seeks to oppress or subjugate any individual or group on the basis of race,” Martin told the Free Beacon. “People from all across the world have come to the United States for decades because of the freedom and equal opportunity America offers for all.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Dem donor Lauri Strauss is behind debate that will allow Dem candidate to debate empty podium

A Joe Biden donor is the organizer behind a U.S. Senate debate in Georgia that will allow Democratic senator Raphael Warnock to symbolically debate an empty podium after Republican challenger Herschel Walker turned down the invitation.

Atlanta Press Club director Lauri Strauss, who is organizing the debate, and at least three other members of the group’s board have donated thousands to Democrats, including Biden, Georgia Democratic senator Jon Ossoff—and Warnock himself.

Strauss in 2020 donated $173 to Biden and $35 to Sen. Mark Kelly (D., Ariz.), according to campaign finance records. Strauss is the organizer of the press club debate and personally extended the group’s invitation to Walker, according to an email obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

“Mr. Walker’s opponent has confirmed his participation in our debate, and we hope to have your confirmation as well,” wrote Strauss in a June 21 email to Walker’s campaign. “I look forward to hearing back from you.”

News of the donations comes after Walker declined to attend the debate, citing political bias at the Atlanta Press Club. The contributions could fuel criticism of the organization, which has said it will allow Warnock at the Oct. 16 event to debate with an empty podium symbolizing Walker’s absence. If one candidate does not show up, having the other candidate debate an empty podium is a long-standing policy for the APC.

Walker’s campaign has agreed to participate in a different debate hosted by Nexstar Media Group on Oct. 14, which Warnock declined.

“We’re not going to be bullied by their thinly veiled threat of an empty podium—because it’s not a podium, it’s a campaign prop. So we’re leaving the elite media behind and rejecting the partisan Press Club debate,” said Scott Paradise, Walker’s campaign manager, in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon.

Other members of the Atlanta Press Club’s board also appear to be Democratic donors, according to campaign finance records. Keith Pepper in 2020 donated over $2,500 to Warnock and over $500 to Ossoff. Rene Alegria donated $500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, $250 to Biden, and $60 to Ossoff. Deisha Barnett donated $500 to Warnock.

The Atlanta Press Club did not respond to a request for comment.

Strauss told the Free Beacon that she “made donations to Joe Biden and Mark Kelly in 2020, both of whom are longtime family friends.” But she said she has not contributed to any Georgia candidates and added that the other board members “do not have anything to do with our debates.”

She also said the Atlanta Press Club is “proud of our reputation [for] holding balanced and fair debates for all candidates” for the past 30 years and said the debate series was funded by an endowment from the late Charlie Loudermilk, a Republican philanthropist who passed away last week.

Former Georgia congressman and House speaker Newt Gingrich, a surrogate for Walker, told the Free Beacon the donations are an indication of the group’s political slant.

“Herschel Walker is exactly right to reject the Atlanta Press Club debate proposal as many of its leadership donated to Democrats, including radical-left Senator Warnock,” said Gingrich. “They are a one-sided, biased organization. Walker should continue to insist on open fair debates in front of Georgians. Let Warnock hide behind his liberal media supporters.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Florida Democrat Charlie Crist hired Jack Cocchiarella after college Dems chapter ousted young activist over troubling allegations

Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s (R.) top Democratic opponent paid thousands of dollars to a young liberal activist who is facing “campus-wide allegations of sexual assault” at his former Ivy League school.

On July 8, Democrat Charlie Crist’s gubernatorial campaign paid $2,250 to Politically Correct Strategies—a consulting company registered to Gen Z liberal activist and former Dartmouth student Jack Cocchiarella—for “digital consulting.” Just weeks later, on July 28, the prestigious school’s College Democrats chapter revealed it ousted Cocchiarella from the club “in late October 2021, following campus-wide allegations of sexual assault.” Those allegations emerged publicly in a string of December 2021 Reddit posts, which accused Cocchiarella of using “his Twitter notoriety and left-wing credentials to position himself as an ally. Then, once people let their guards down, he rapes them.”

Crist, who did not return repeated requests for comment, has remained silent on the accusations facing his campaign aide. By his own logic, that silence means he endorses Cocchiarella’s alleged behavior—in a June 29 tweet, Crist pressed DeSantis to condemn the January 6 riots, writing, “Is it just me, or do you agree that his silence = endorsement?”

Crist is not the only prominent Democrat to hire Cocchiarella following the troubling allegations. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R., Ga.) Democratic opponent, Marcus Flowers, has paid Cocchiarella’s firm more than $40,000 since October 2021, when the activist announced his “new role” as Flowers’s digital director.

Flowers has his own alleged issues with women. In July 2016, the Democrat attempted to dump his ex-wife—Russian national Svetlana Chudinova—at a local homeless shelter, court documents reported by the New Republic show. Flowers did not dispute the incident and instead defended his attempt to offload Chudinova, saying he “felt she had a personality disorder that was not previously disclosed.” In turn, Chudinova accused Flowers of threatening to strike her.

Flowers’s campaign did not return multiple requests for comment.

Cocchiarella, whose Twitter account boasts more than 250,000 followers and includes a photo of the activist smiling alongside Joe Biden, enrolled as a Dartmouth freshman during the 2021-22 school year. While it’s unclear what specific “digital consulting” services he provided Crist, Cocchiarella publicly endorsed the former governor over fellow DeSantis challenger Nikki Fried (D.) just days after Crist’s campaign paid him.

Flowers, meanwhile, routinely replies to Cocchiarella’s tweets to solicit campaign contributions. In October 2021, he called the young activist “an outstanding young man.” In addition to his work with Crist and Flowers, Cocchiarella has collaborated with the Lincoln Project, an anti-Republican super PAC founded by disgraced sexual predator John Weaver.

Cocchiarella reduced his public presence as allegations against him swirled. A notoriously avid Twitter user, Cocchiarella did not send an original tweet for more than a week after Dartmouth College Democrats confirmed the “campus-wide allegations,” instead opting to populate his feed by sharing posts from liberal politicians and journalists. The activist has also blocked users who raised the allegations in his replies.

Cocchiarella during an Aug. 1 podcast appearance did, however, confirm his decision to transfer from Dartmouth to fellow Ivy League school Columbia. The activist did not discuss why he opted to leave Dartmouth after just one year at the college and is yet to publicly address the allegations leveled against him.

Cocchiarella, Dartmouth College Democrats, and Dartmouth’s Title IX office did not return requests for comment.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Former President Donald Trump said his Florida Mar-a-Lago home is “under siege” and “occupied by a group of FBI agents” in a statement late Aug. 8.

“These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate,” Trump said.

The FBI declined to comment on a press inquiry from The Epoch Times. Its parent agency, the Department of Justice (DOJ), did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s lawyer Christina Bobb confirmed with CNN on Monday night that the FBI seized documents from Mar-a-Lago.

“President Trump and his legal team have been cooperative with FBI and DOJ officials every step of the way. The FBI did conduct an unannounced raid and seized paper,” Bobb said.

The alleged raid by the FBI came two days after Trump’s latest hint at a 2024 run, in which he stopped short of giving an official announcement.

“Well, it’s not a long period, regardless, whether you go before or after, certainly not a very long period of time,” the former president said when responding to questions from the press before he took the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday.

“It’s coming,” Trump said, “and I think people are going to be very happy.”

“Our country has never been in a position like this. We lost everything. We’ve lost energy independence. We’ve lost our prestige. We’ve lost every single thing you can lose,” Trump said during the event, noting the withdrawal from Afghanistan, which he previously called “the greatest tactical mistake in history,” and the border crisis.

Lawmakers React

‘Weaponized’ Justice System

The 45th president said during his speech that he may be the “most persecuted” person in the history of America.

“A friend of mine recently said that I was the most persecuted person in the history of our country,” Trump said during his speech at CPAC. “And then I thought about it, because I didn’t have time to think much because I’m always being persecuted, and I felt he may very well be right.”

Trump called the raid “prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want [him] to run for President in 2024, especially based on recent polls,” adding that Democrats “will likewise do anything to stop Republicans and Conservatives in the upcoming Midterm Elections.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before,” Trump said.

During an America First Policy Institute event in July, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was part of Trump’s legal defense team during the Democrats’ 2019 attempted impeachment of Trump, told The Epoch Times in an interview that the Biden administration has completely “weaponized” the Department of Justice (DOJ).

By design, the American justice system “is a bulwark against tyranny,” Johnson said. “But if the Department of Justice, for example, is weaponized for political purposes—which is what we’re seeing right now in the Biden ministration—that jeopardizes that foundational pillar itself.”

“Today’s raid on the former President’s home in the middle of an election season looks like another egregious & unprecedented abuse of power,” Johnson said in a statement on Monday.

“We will restore order & accountability as soon as we regain the gavels for a Republican majority in November. It can’t happen soon enough!” Johnson added.

‘Third-World Marxist Dictatorship’

“Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries,” Trump said in his Monday statement. “Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) echoed Trump’s comment.

“Using government power to persecute political opponents is something we have seen many times from 3rd world Marxist dictatorships,” Rubio said in a statement on Twitter late Monday. “But never before in America.

“After today[‘]s raid on Mar A Lago what do you think the left plans to use those 87,000 new IRS agents for?

“The FBI isn’t doing anything about the groups vandalizing Catholic Churches, firebombing Pro-Life groups or threatening Supreme Court justices. But they find time to raid Mar A Lago,” Rubio said.

Outcry from Republicans

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in a statement on Monday: “The FBI raid on President Trump’s home is an unprecedented political weaponization of the Justice Department. They’ve been after President Trump as a candidate, as President, and now as a former President. Using the criminal justice system in this manner is un-American.”

“The DOJ & FBI are being weaponized like never before to target political opponents. This Admin has thrown the rule of law and faith in our democratic institutions out the door,” said Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) in a Monday Twitter post. “Joe Biden and Merrick Garland must answer immediately for today’s raid against an American president.”

“The inconsistent and partisan application of the law by the FBI has gone too far,” Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.) said on Monday. “The Democrats, for too long, have used our government agencies from the FBI to the IRS to target their political opponents. This inconceivable raid is an attack on our Republic.”

“This action, a raid on a former President and political rival, is something we would expect from Putin on his rivals… not here, not in the USA,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said.

“The weaponization and politicalization of federal agencies is egregious and scary. These are Gestapo-like tactics. If the FBI can do this to President Trump, what do you think 87,000 new IRS agents will do to the American people?” Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) said. “Did Biden sign off on this raid? The American people deserve answers.”

“I stood up to America’s bureaucratic corruption, I restored power to the people, and truly delivered for our Country, like we have never seen before. The establishment hated it,” Trump said in his Monday statement.

“Now, as they watch my endorsed candidates win big victories, and see my dominance in all polls, they are trying to stop me, and the Republican Party, once more. The lawlessness, political persecution, and Witch Hunt must be exposed and stopped,” Trump said.

“I will continue to fight for the Great American People!”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Former President Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for something “a lot worse than a recession” while blaming the Biden administration’s poor stewardship of the economy for soaring inflation and denouncing the tax hikes in the latest Democrat spending bill.

Trump made the remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas on Saturday, where the former president raised the alarm on the state of the union.

“Our country is being shot. It’s being destroyed,” Trump told attendees, while touting his administration’s record on the economy and national security.

Trump spoke of “creating the most secure border in American history, record tax and regulation cuts, $1.87 gasoline, no inflation, low interest rates, record growth in real wages, record growth in our economy.”

Soaring Inflation, Recession

During Trump’s tenure, the highest the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation gauge came in at was 2.9 percent in July 2018, while in his final month in office, January 2021, inflation clocked in at 1.4 percent.

Under Biden, inflation has climbed steadily, soaring 9.1 percent year-over-year in June 2022, a figure not seen in more than 40 years.

In his speech, Trump drew a contrast with the economy under Joe Biden, blaming the president for the highest inflation in decades that Trump estimates is costing American families as much as $7,000 a year.

“After the pandemic, we handed the radical Democrats the fastest economic recovery ever recorded, the history of our country, ever recorded,” Trump continued. “They’ve turned that into two straight quarters of negative economic growth, also known, despite their protestation to the contrary, as a recession.”

Two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth are a common rule-of-thumb definition for a recession, although recessions in the United States are officially declared by a committee of economists at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) using a broader definition than the two-quarter rule.

Despite a number of economists arguing that the United States is in a recession based on the two-consecutive-quarters rule, the Biden administration insists that the economy isn’t in a recession, citing NBER’s consideration of a broader range of indicators.

A key argument against recession made by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others in the Biden administration is that the U.S. labor market remains tight, with unemployment at 3.5 percent and, at 10.7 million, the number of job openings remaining well above the 6 million or so people classified as unemployed.

Worse Than Recession

In his CPAC speech, Trump then issued an ominous warning that, absent a course correction, the recession could spiral into something even worse.

“Just hope that the recession doesn’t turn into a depression, because the way they’re doing things, it could be a lot worse than a recession,” Trump said, echoing similar remarks he made at a rally in Arizona at the end of July, where he warned that “we’re going to have a serious problem” unless political change takes place.

“We got to get this act in order, we have to get this country going, or we’re going to have a serious problem,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona, warning that “we’re going to have a much bigger problem than recession. We’ll have a depression.”

During his appearance at CPAC, Trump issued a call for urgent action at the polls in the upcoming midterms.

“The future of our country is at stake. We don’t have time to wait years and years. We won’t have a country left. What I used to say about Venezuela is true. We have to save the economy, defeat the Biden, Pelosi, Schumer tax hike, which is happening right now tonight,” Trump continued, referring to the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” that cleared the Senate not long after his speech.

Senators passed the sweeping bill, estimated at $740 billion, in a 51–50 vote on Aug. 7, with the package next going to the House for consideration.

During the deliberations, Senate Democrats rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) that sought to ban any of the $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from being used to target Americans making less than $400,000 per year.

“My colleagues claim this massive funding boost will allow the IRS to go after millionaires, billionaires and so-called rich ‘tax cheats,’ but the reality is a significant portion raised from their IRS funding bloat would come from taxpayers with income below $400,000,” Crapo said in a statement.

Crapo’s amendment was rejected on a party-line vote, with the Democrat bill including softer language that features a non-binding statement of intention not to squeeze more revenue from America’s middle class.

Tax Hikes

According to an analysis by Americans for Tax Reform, a U.S. advocacy group, the spending bill includes a number of tax hikes on American households and businesses.

This includes a $6.5 billion natural gas tax that ATR says will increase household energy bills, a $12 billion crude oil tax that will end up being passed on to drivers in the form of higher gas prices, and a $52 billion income tax hike on mid-sized and family businesses.

In a separate analysis, ATR said that the Democrat bill’s changes to the book tax threaten small businesses.

Elaborating on that theme, economist and author Antonio Graceffo wrote in an op-ed for The Epoch Times that the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” would drive up prices for American households.

“Nearly half of these new taxes will be paid by manufacturers, creating disincentives to produce. Diminished industrial output will drive up the cost of goods and reduce the variety and quantity of goods available on store shelves,” Graceffo wrote.

“Beyond the manufacturing sector, the act increases taxes on businesses in general, which, combined with higher interest rates will decrease new investment and hamper job creation. Ultimately, these increased costs will be passed on to customers,” he added.

‘We Have to Win’

During his CPAC speech, Trump revealed what he sees as the key to bringing the country and its economy back on track.

“We have to win an earth-shattering victory in 2022. We have to do it, coming up in November,” Trump said.

“This election needs to be a national referendum on the horrendous catastrophes the radical Democrats have inflicted on our country,” he continued.

“The Republican party needs to campaign on a clear pledge that, if they are given power, they’re going to fight with everything they have to shut down the border, stop the crime wave, beat inflation, and hold the Biden administration accountable. They have to hold it accountable. Job number one for the next Congress,” Trump said.

The national midterm election takes place on Nov. 8, with 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats up for grabs.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Gay pride in action (pun intended) [US Patriot]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday updated its monkeypox advice to suggest people most at risk, namely men who have sex with men, “take a temporary break” from those behaviors to help “contain … the outbreak.”

Among the updates are suggestions that people “take a temporary break” from sexual activity until considered vaccinated; limit their number of sexual partners; avoid “spaces” for anonymous sex with multiple partners; use condoms; and wear gloves during particular sexual activities.

These five suggestions to reduce the chance of spread were added to the seven that appeared on the webpage when it was updated on July 12. In that previous update, the CDC offered suggestions for sexual activities for people who have (or think they have) “monkeypox and … decide to have sex.”

Friday’s update contains stronger messaging, with the CDC now saying “the best way to protect yourself and others is to avoid sex of any kind … while you are sick.” People should especially “avoid touching any rash.”

Public Health Emergency

The updates come a day after the Biden administration declared a public health emergency for monkeypox in a bid to unlock funding and more powers to deal with the virus. Some states, including New York, California, and Indiana, have declared their own public health emergencies for similar reasons.

The updated advice appears on the CDC’s “Safer Sex, Social Gatherings, and Monkeypox” webpage which contains detailed and specific information tailored to lowering the risk of transmission during particular sexual activities.

“While CDC works to contain the current monkeypox outbreak and learn more about the virus, this information can help you make informed choices when you are in situations or places where monkeypox could be spread,” reads a statement on the webpage which wasn’t there in July.

“Monkeypox is not considered a sexually transmitted disease, but it is often transmitted through close, sustained physical contact, which can include sexual contact.”

The CDC has also advised people to consider the chances of skin-to-skin contact when attending festivals or raves.

“Festivals, events, and concerts where attendees are fully clothed and unlikely to share skin-to-skin contact are safer. However, attendees should be mindful of activities (like kissing) that might spread monkeypox,” the CDC webpage reads.

“A rave, party, or club where there is minimal clothing and where there is direct, personal, often skin-to-skin contact has some risk. Avoid any rash you see on others and consider minimizing skin-to-skin contact.”

The CDC especially noted the increased risk of spread at these events in “enclosed spaces” where people go for “intimate, often anonymous sexual contact with multiple partners.”

LGBT Community Outreach

The White House has identified a vital need for education about monkeypox and outreach to the LGBT community, which is most affected by the outbreak, in order to combat the virus.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that there is a need to make sure the LGBT community and public health officials “know exactly what to look for and what the treatment is.”

The CDC’s updated suggestions come three days after President Joe Biden picked Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who runs the CDC’s HIV prevention division, as one of two officials to lead the nation’s response to the monkeypox outbreak.

Daskalakis, who will be deputy to FEMA’s Robert Fenton, has expertise with issues that impact the LGBT community, making him an appropriate pick, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser.

The 2022 monkeypox outbreak has so far primarily spread via the sexual activity of gay and bisexual men, a major study has found. The virus can also spread through contaminated bedding, clothing, towels, according to the CDC and World Health Organization.

After the United States’ fifth pediatric monkeypox case was reported in Long Beach on Thursday, a Californian health department has also said transmission can occur via household items such as cups and utensils.

The CDC’s updated webpage for safer sex amid the monkeypox outbreak noted that vaccines will be “an important tool in preventing the spread of monkeypox.”

“But given the current limited supply of vaccine, consider temporarily changing some behaviors that may increase your risk of being exposed,” the webpage reads. “These temporary changes will help slow the spread of monkeypox until vaccine supply is adequate.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Iran and al Qaeda have quietly forged a strategic terror alliance

The man likely to become al Qaeda’s next leader has spent decades using Iran as a base of operations and maintains deep ties to the hardline regime, signaling that two of the globe’s leading terrorist forces could exponentially expand relations in the near future.

Saif al-Adel, al Qaeda’s number two leader and longtime head of its security arm, fled to Iran in the early 2000s, along with other senior leaders, following the September 11 attacks. From there, he helped relay orders from the just-killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and orchestrate terrorist operations that killed dozens of people, including Americans, according to former U.S. officials and information on the Iran-al Qaeda axis published by a watchdog group.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) protected al-Adel during his time in the country, and the regime permitted him to plan deadly terror attacks, including a May 2003 operation in Saudi Arabia that killed eight Americans. “Adel’s suspected presence in Iran has raised further questions regarding Iranian influence on al Qaeda if Adel were to be named leader,” according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that closely tracks Iran’s regional terror operations.

These ties have only deepened since Joe Biden’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan that left the Taliban in power and the country in shambles. Senior leaders in Iran’s Quds Force, an elite IRGC branch, remain in close contact with al Qaeda leaders, “and since the fall of Afghanistan, have provided some al Qaeda leaders with travel documents and safe haven,” according to a European intelligence analysis. The Iran-al Qaeda alliance, former U.S. officials told the Free Beacon, has quietly grown for many years, making the prospect of a new nuclear deal with Iran—which will provide Tehran with billions in cash—beneficial for its allies in al Qaeda.

“When the U.S. government enriches Iranian terrorists through sanctions relief or a lack of enforcement, that money ultimately goes back to support al Qaeda,” Gabriel Noronha, a senior Iran adviser for the State Department during the Trump administration, told the Free Beacon. “We know that Saif al-Adel has not just been living in Iran for most of the past 20 years—he’s been hosted there by the regime along with other al Qaeda operatives. Since 2015, the Iranian regime has allowed al Qaeda to establish an operational headquarters in the country, providing them with documents, passports, funding, and logistical support like safe houses.”

Al-Adel and his network of al Qaeda confidants used their time in Iran to build close “operational coordination” with Tehran’s security forces, including the IRGC. While Iran was once at odds with al Qaeda due to religious differences, that has not been the case for many years now, according to Noronha and other former U.S. officials familiar with these ties.

“These are not totally separate and distinct terrorist groups or even rivals anymore—they are part of an anti-American and anti-Western alliance,” Noronha said.

From his perch in Iran during the mid-2000s, al-Adel “was allowed by Iran to travel to Pakistan and open more contacts with other al Qaeda leaders,” according to UANI’s research, which is based on intelligence and open-source reporting. Iran’s decision to permit al-Adel and other al Qaeda operatives to freely move in the region “opens up speculation that al-Adel could establish a ‘satellite office’ for the group in Iran,” according to a 2011 AP report.

Nathan Sales, former U.S. ambassador-at-large and coordinator for counterterrorism, told the Free Beacon that “contrary to expectations and contrary to conventional wisdom, the Iranian regime and al Qaeda have maintained a mutually beneficial relationship for many years.”

Iran, Sales noted, recently hosted senior al Qaeda leaders and operatives, “which is exactly what we should expect from the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism.”

The depth of these ties was first unveiled by former secretary of state Mike Pompeo in January 2021, when he disclosed publicly that a U.S. operation killed one of al Qaeda’s top leaders on the streets of Tehran in 2020.

“Al Qaeda has a new home base: the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pompeo said in a speech at the time, marking one of the first public disclosures about Iran’s deepening relationship with the terror group.

Hans-Jakob Schindler, a senior director at the Counter Extremism Project, which tracks jihadi groups, noted that al-Adel “has become very high value” since al-Zawahiri was killed, “and the Iranians usually take advantage of such situations.”

Al-Adel’s “existence in Iran and his freedom to act while in Iran will solely depend on what the Iranian regime think his value and usefulness for their aims is,” Schindler said.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Biden administration is poised to deny free school lunch funding from a Florida Christian school that refuses to comply with the administration’s LGBT mandates, despite the school’s qualification for a religious exemption.

Grant Park Christian Academy in Tampa, Fla., represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, is suing Joe Biden and Florida agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried for enforcing the Biden administration requirement that schools comply with its LGBT mandates or lose federal school lunch funding.

In May, the Biden administration redefined the meaning of “sex” in Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity, forcing schools to permit transgender students to use male or female bathrooms and play sports with either sex in order to receive National School Lunch Program funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. More than half of state attorneys general rejected the memorandum, with Florida attorney general Ashley Moody saying the Biden administration was “using hungry children to advance a political agenda,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The Florida school refused to substitute gender identity for biological sex, costing them their ability to feed two meals and snacks daily to their 56 students when the fall semester starts. If Grant Park’s application is not approved by Aug. 10, the school will not be reimbursed for the meals it serves students. ADF legal counsel Erica Steinmiller-Perdomo said Fried should not block Grant Park’s school lunch funding, as Title IX provides a religious exemption.

“For five years, this Christian school has received funding to provide nutritious meals to dozens of low-income children in the community,” Steinmiller-Perdomo said. “Commissioner Fried and the Biden administration are trying to rewrite the law and ignore the exemption in an attempt to force this school to choose between violating its religious beliefs or providing lunches to children.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Unqualified diversity hire Xavier Becerra is really bad at his job

Glad to see someone else use the “Affirmative Inaction” phrase [US Patriot]

Joe Biden still hasn’t fired Xavier Becerra, the unqualified health and human services secretary whose failed leadership has exacerbated the administration’s botched response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the ongoing monkeypox outbreak.

Alas, Becerra probably won’t be fired for the same reason he was hired. Because of his race and the so-called diversity he brings to the administration.

READ MORE: White House Afraid To Replace HHS Secretary Because He’s Hispanic

The White House has been fed up with Becerra’s job performance for months and has “openly mused” about replacing him, according to a Washington Post report published in January. Health experts inside and outside the administration complained about his “low profile” and “passive” approach to complex problems. “He hasn’t shown up,” one COVID-19 analyst told the Post. “[He’s been] like a ghost.”

Nevertheless, administration officials were “loath” to give Becerra the axe because doing so “would likely draw the ire of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and other grass-roots groups that pressed Biden to appoint more Latinos to his Cabinet.”

New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns recounted this racially charged pressure campaign in their recently published book, This Will Not Pass. Biden’s search for a health secretary, they wrote, was a “fraught” process characterized by “hurt feelings and [racial] grievance.”

While attempting to assemble “the most diverse cabinet in history,” Biden’s team “panicked” in response to criticism from Hispanic lawmakers who wanted more Hispanics nominated for cabinet-level positions. They “scrambled” to offer Becerra the job—a “hasty choice” explicitly intended to “calm the situation.”

So much for Biden’s campaign pledge to “follow the science” and “shut down” COVID-19 by putting the experts back in charge of the government’s pandemic response. Becerra, a former congressman, was woefully unqualified for the position of health secretary. His most relevant experience involved a lawsuit he filed as California attorney general to force the Little Sisters of the Poor to provide birth control to employees. More than 620,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 on his watch.

Some Democrats complained about the “harried selection process” and viewed Becerra as a “baffling” nominee. They were ignored. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) was especially annoyed because she “had worked closely with Becerra in the House and viewed him as untrustworthy.” Meanwhile, Biden chief of staff Ron Klain grew “weary” of the Democratic coalition’s insistence on “treating the cabinet as an identity-politics Rubik’s Cube.”

Becerra’s inability to helm the nation’s health department was glaringly obvious in January, when the Post reported on White House “frustrations” with his leadership. In recent months, the federal government’s response to monkeypox has further vindicated Becerra’s critics who contend the health secretary has absolutely no idea what he’s doing.

The New York Times on Wednesday published a damning report on Becerra’s botched handling of the monkeypox outbreak, which has been hobbled by a vaccine shortage “caused in part” by his department’s failure “to ask that bulk stocks of the vaccine it already owned be bottled for distribution.” The release of the vaccine doses was also delayed because the Food and Drug Administration, under Becerra’s purview, took months to inspect and approve the Danish factory producing the vaccine.

Lawrence Gostin, a renowned public health expert from Georgetown Law who has consulted with the White House on monkeypox, said the government’s response to the outbreak has been “deeply frustrating.” Federal health agencies have been “kind of asleep at the wheel on this,” and continue to struggle with “the same kinds of bureaucratic delays and forgetfulness and dropping the ball that we did during the COVID pandemic,” he told the Times.

The article includes a familiar critique of Becerra’s leadership. Detractors fault his “hands-off approach to an increasingly serious situation,” but weren’t willing to speak on the record. Biden is reportedly “upset” by the vaccine shortage and “stung by criticism that a lack of foresight and management has left gay men—the prime risk group for monkeypox—unprotected.”

Josh Barro, a pro-Biden journalist, observed that the Times article “really makes Xavier Becerra sound incompetent and out to lunch. How did he get the HHS Secretary job anyway? He doesn’t have relevant qualifications.”

Indeed.

Two doctors and a former Harvard Medical School professor have signed onto the lawsuit that alleges the U.S. government and Big Tech colluded to censor dissenting voices.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, who authored the Great Barrington Declaration, on Aug. 2 joined the states of Missouri and Louisiana in the case, which is moving forward with discovery after a recent ruling.

Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, who was fired for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, also joined the legal action.

All three say they have been affected by Big Tech censorship, and believe the punitive measures have been influenced or directed by government officials.

In April 2021, for instance, Google-owned YouTube deleted a video of Bhattacharya and Kulldorff questioning whether masks were effective in stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

Kulldorff, a former Harvard Medical School professor who now works at the Brownstone Institute, was also suspended by Twitter for several weeks after positing that masks give people a false sense of security, which makes them more likely to expose themselves to the illness. That’s the same theory put forth by top U.S. officials until they pivoted to endorsing widespread mask-wearing months after the pandemic started.

Kheriaty also says he was censored by Twitter.

“I have always shared peer-reviewed research findings as well as my own opinions and perspectives on Twitter and LinkedIn. It was not until I began posting information about COVID and our COVID response policies, however, that I encountered censorship on the Twitter platform,” he wrote in a declaration filed in the new case.

Multiple platforms, meanwhile, took action against the declaration, which called for focused protection of the elderly while letting the rest of society live their lives normally and was vociferously opposed by top U.S. health officials, including then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins.

Search results on Google initially placed the declaration’s website near the top but soon ranked it lower than articles that were critical of the document, according to declarations from Bhattacharya and Kulldorff. Reddit removed links to the declaration and Facebook removed a page dedicated to the document, though it later restored it.

‘Self-Censor’

The scientists say they’ve had to “self-censor” in order to try to remain on the platforms.

That has sometimes meant not posting at all, and other times posting by using “imaginative phrasing,” Kulldorff said.

They also say the timing of the censorship decisions support the assertion that the moves were induced by the government, including how censorship of the declaration happened soon after Collins called for a “quick and devastating … take-down” of the document in private and disparaged it in public.

“These are clear indications to me that government is in collaboration with Big Tech to suppress scientific dissent,” Bhattacharya told The Epoch Times.

Government officials such as former White House press secretary Jen Psaki have openly admitted to flagging “problematic posts” for Facebook and raising issues with posts on Twitter, the complaint notes, while some of the platforms have acknowledged consulting with government officials on content moderation.

“The government’s sweeping campaign to suppress the perspectives of the plaintiffs, and others like them, represents the most severe abrogation of the First Amendment in modern times, and we look forward to seeing this constitutional atrocity rectified in a court of law,” Jenin Younes, a lawyer for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is representing the new plaintiffs, said in a statement.

The plaintiffs were added in an amended complaint, filed in response to the government’s motion to dismiss.

More Defendants

The revised effort drops one defendant, Psaki, who is no longer with the federal government, and adds a number of others.

Carol Crawford with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); the U.S. Census Bureau; Jennifer Shopkorn, a senior adviser for the bureau; the Department of Commerce; Robert Silvers and Samantha Vinograd, Department of Homeland Security officials; the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Jen Easterly, director of the agency; and Gina McCarthy, a White House national climate adviser were named as defendants.

None were named in the original filing.

Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were among the defendants named in both complaints.

The additions came after new information came to light, including emails between the CDC and top executives at Big Tech companies like Twitter.

The messages show Crawford and colleagues met with and discussed taking action against alleged COVID-19 misinformation.

The Census Bureau was involved in the coordination, according to the missives.

The messages, the amended filing states, “confirm the allegations of collusion between [government] officials and social-media platforms to censor disfavored speech, speakers, and viewpoints, as alleged herein.”

Source: The Epoch Times

Joe Biden touted the killing of al-Quaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri as a win for his administration on Monday, but experts said he was ignoring some major facts.

“On Saturday, on my direction, the United States successfully concluded an air strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed the emir of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri,” Biden said on Monday.

“You know, Zawahiri was [Osama] bin Laden’s leader. He was with him all the…whole time. He was his number two man, his deputy, at the time of the terrorist attack on 9/11. He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11.”

The United States has killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaeda and one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists, who oversaw the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, alongside the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden, announced Biden. pic.twitter.com/lfX0yY5wDs

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 2, 2022

Biden went on to tout the killing as the fulfillment of a promise he made to Americans when pulling out of Afghanistan nearly a year ago.

“I made a promise to the American people that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond,” Biden said. “We’ve done just that.”

“I made a promise to the American people that we’d continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan…We’ve done just that,” Biden says on the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri nearly one year after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/61fUv6ahZY

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 2, 2022

While eliminating this terrorist is undoubtedly a positive development for the country, the fact that he was even in Afghanistan highlighted Biden’s previous failures.

In trying to justify his hasty withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan on Aug. 20, 2021, Biden declared al-Qaeda was no longer in Afghanistan.

“Look, let’s put this thing in perspective here,” Biden said according to a White House transcript. “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al-Qaeda gone?

“We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, as well as — as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did.”

Of course, Biden’s botched withdrawal ultimately led to the Taliban gaining control in Afghanistan and cost the lives of 13 American soldiers.

Related:

As Afghanistan Vet Defends Home with AR-15-Style Rifle, Invaders Realize They Chose the Wrong House

Given that the leader al-Quaeda leader was in Afghanistan on Saturday, it seems the group is in the country at this point. This means one of two things, neither of which are good for Biden.

Either Biden was lying when he said al-Quaeda was “gone” from Afghanistan last year, or the group has re-entered the country since Biden’s botched withdrawal. In both scenarios, Biden failed to achieve the stated goal of “getting rid of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.”

As Biden celebrated the killing of Zawahiri, some terrorism experts pointed out this inconvenient fact.

“The killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri will be sold as a counterterrorism success,” Long War Journal terrorism analyst Bill Roggio wrote on Twitter. “But that narrative masks the undeniable truth that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a safe have for Al Qaeda.”

1) The killing of Al Qaeda emir Ayman al Zawahiri will be sold as a counterterrorism success. But that narrative masks the undeniable truth that Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is a safe have for Al Qaeda. https://t.co/CGc5Fs8oMw

— Bill Roggio (@billroggio) August 2, 2022

In another tweet from the same thread, Roggio explained the implications of Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul.

“Zawahiri could not operate in Afghanistan — particularly in Kabul — without the consent of the Taliban,” Roggio wrote. “He wasn’t in the remote mountains of Kunar, Nuristan, or Nangarhar, or distant provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, or Kandahar. He was in the Taliban’s capital.”

4) Zawahiri could not operate in Afghanistan – particularly in Kabul – without the consent of the Taliban. He wasn’t in the remote mountains of Kunar, Nuristan, or Nangarhar, or distant provinces of Ghazni, Helmand, or Kandahar. He was in the Taliban’s capital.

— Bill Roggio (@billroggio) August 2, 2022

International security professor Max Abrahms made a similar point in a tweet of his own.

“Taking out #Zawahiri isn’t the categorical win Biden says,” he wrote. “The Taliban was supposed to prevent Al Qaeda leaders from hiding out there for goodness sake.”

Taking out #Zawahiri isn’t the categorical win Biden says. The Taliban was supposed to prevent Al Qaeda leaders from hiding out there for goodness sake.

— Max Abrahms (@MaxAbrahms) August 1, 2022

Once again, Biden is attempting to take credit for taking steps to solve a problem he created, at least in part. While Zawahiri’s death is a good thing, it is not the end of terrorism problems in Afghanistan, and we have Biden himself to thank for that.

Vera Sharav was only 3 years old when her world collapsed.

She and her family were chased out of Romania and herded into a concentration camp in Ukraine during World War II, where they were left to wait, and starve.

“The cloud of death was always there,” Sharav told The Epoch Times.

Weekly, a list determined who would be sent where; whether it be a death or slave labor camp, she said.

While at the camp, she said her father died of typhus when she was 5, which had been widespread throughout the camps because of the cold and malnutrition.

After three years at the camp, she was rescued in 1944, she said.

“My mother got wind that a few orphans would be transported out of the camp, so she lied and said I was an orphan to save my life, and that’s how I wound up leaving,” Sharav said.

This began what she called her odyssey as a child without parents, left to her own intuition and keen critical assessment of others’ intentions.

“I had to assess who I could trust to take care of me,” she said.

While on a train to the Port of Constanta, Romania, where there were three boats awaiting to take groups of people to Palestine, she befriended a family. However, upon arrival, she found herself assigned a boat with other orphan children that would separate her from the family with whom she felt she could trust. So she rebelled.

“No matter what, I could not be convinced to get on that boat,” she said. “Miraculously, in the end, they gave in to me.”

Seasick, she fell asleep that night, only to wake up to find that the boat with the orphans had been torpedoed by who she said she found out decades later to have been the Russians.

Though she carried guilt for having survived, she was grateful she resisted because that resistance kept her alive, she said.

“I do not obey authority, and it saved my life.”

Weaponized Medicine

These memories returned in 2020 during the web of COVID-19 restrictions that spun out of control with the help of media propaganda, she said.

“So now, when people are obeying authority mindlessly, giving up their rights to make decisions about their own lives and what goes into their own bodies, I think back to that time,” she said.

Today, Sharav is a medical activist and founder of the Alliance for Human Research Protection, a network of lay people and professionals who work to uphold humanitarian values and ethical standards established in the Hippocratic Oath, the Nuremberg Code, and the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

Most recently, she’s joined with Scott Schara, co-founder of Our Amazing Grace’s Light Shines On, Inc.

Both Sharav and Schara discussed with The Epoch Times what they saw as parallels between the National Socialist regime in Germany and the current medical directives being carried out in the United States through government funding.

Since the death of his 19-year-old daughter Grace in a hospital in 2021, after having been injected with a combination of drugs that he found out later was part of a federal hospital protocol, Schara called what was happening “genocide.” He has been crusading to tell his daughter’s story and network with others who have had a similar experience while bringing attention to the protocols that he believes amounted to the murder of his daughter, who had Down syndrome.

Under the Nazi regime, Sharav said, medicine was weaponized, as it has been today.

Though the Jews were the primary target, she said, the first medically murdered victims were disabled German infants and children under the age of 3.

This later expanded the operation—titled T4 for the street address of the program’s central office in Berlin—to the disabled of all ages, including the mentally ill and senior citizens, Sharav said.

“The Nazis called them worthless eaters,” she said. “T4 was a concerted effort to be rid of what their propaganda called the ‘economic burden.’”

Related Coverage

Nazism, Fascism, and Socialism Are All Rooted in Communism

Schara pointed to a 2021 Medicare Trustee’s Report, which evaluates the cost of keeping the elderly and disabled federally funded.

“Thirty-nine percent of that federal budget goes to those two groups right now, which is $2.2 trillion a year,” Schara said.

On page 11 of the report (pdf), there is a call for “substantial changes” to address financial challenges.

“The sooner solutions are enacted, the more flexible and gradual they can be,” the report states.

For Schara, the implication, while not overtly stated, suggests a call for eugenics that was supported by academic elites early in U.S. history, and later adopted by Nazi Germany.

Ten years after he took power, Adolph Hitler launched his genocide program that had been introduced in incremental steps with the help of propaganda portraying the regime as heroes, Sharav said.

“What happened to Grace, and what happened to many disabled and elderly in Western Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States in March and April of 2020 was medical murder,” Sharav said.

‘Built on a Lie’

Genocide isn’t new to the United States, Sharav said, as it was Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Oliver Wendell Holmes who voted in favor of the 8-1 majority opinion in the 1921 case Buck v. Bell, which upheld the Virginia Sterilization Act of 1924 and the forced sterilization of Carrie Buck, who was alleged to be mentally defective.

Holmes said it would be better to prevent the mentally disabled from being born than to allow them to “sap the strength of the state” or “let them starve for their imbecility.”

“The principle that sustains compulsory vaccinations is broad enough to cover cutting Fallopian tubes,” the justice wrote in his opinion. “Three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

Carrie Buck, however, was never actually mentally disabled, Sharav said.

“Arguments for eugenics are always built on a lie,” Sharav said. “But it’s an ideology that continues to poison public health policies.” And he blames this type of thinking for the medical decisions that ultimately contributed to Grace’s death.

‘The Banality of Evil’

As he continues to try to wrap his mind around what happened to his daughter, Schara says he gained some insight from the writings of Holocaust survivor Hannah Arendt and her concept of the “banality of evil.”

“It opened up a whole different view of the world for me,” Schara said.

Sharav’s experience made her familiar with the concept. The banality of evil is the normalization of mass murder by making it a bureaucratic routine that is handed down as orders through the chain of command to the person who pulls the switch, gives the injection, or turns on the gas, she said.

“No one called it murder,” Sharav said. “The Nazis were very adept at propaganda and language. The Jews were called ‘spreaders of disease,’ not unlike the epithets thrown at those who didn’t take the jab.”

Throughout 2021, the spread of COVID-19 was blamed on “the pandemic of the unvaccinated,” a phrase that was used by Joe Biden and governors such as North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

“The whole language of it is dehumanizing,” Sharav said.

‘A Slippery Slope’

Schara applies the concept to the fact that 67 percent of Down syndrome children are aborted in the United States, he said.

“Doctors encourage the mother to get an amnio (amniocentesis) test, and if the test shows Down syndrome or another disability that would complicate the parent’s life, he encourages an abortion,” Schara said.

What Sharav said she’s seen in an unholy union when medicine gets into bed with the government.

“The Hippocratic Oath goes out the window,” she said.

The pledge to “do no harm” got replaced with allegiance to “the greater good,” Sharav said.

The question then remains, who has the authority to decide what’s best for the greater good, Sharav challenged.

What supports the greater good is having respect for the individual, Sharav said, and to pursue policies that advocate for the many over the individual is to open the door to medical practices that will cause harm.

“Look at what Big Pharma is doing now to children, aggressively pursuing them to be jabbed when they aren’t at risk at all from COVID-19,” she said.

It’s a slippery slope that—with the help of advanced technology—society is sliding down rapidly compared to the snail’s pace that it took for Hitler to implement his “Final Solution,” Schara said.

“We’re headed there exceptionally fast,” Schara said. “Today, the ‘Final Solution’ is the reduction of the entire human population under the ‘Sustainable Agenda’ of Agenda 2030.”

Unlike the physical camps that required ink tattoos for identification and guards to manage the prisoners, the new prisons are digital, Sharav said, managed remotely by surveillance through smartphones and cities.

“With smart technology, you can manage billions all at once,” she said. “It’s chilling.”

It’s hard for many to fathom that an elite few would conspire to cause widespread harm, Sharav said.

“People will say, ‘They made a mistake; it was an accident.’ But no, the elite, just like the Nazis, have this arrogance in which they believe they are superior and therefore entitled to rule the rest of us because they think we are inferior,” Sharav said.

Control vs. Faith

Schara said his concern is with an elite ruling class that is godless, believing only in what is measurable and controllable.

He emphasizes his faith in God as a powerful weapon to combat the dark agendas that have escalated beyond the comprehension of the average person, working 60 hours a week just to make ends meet.

“We should not fall trap to the false light that Satan will eventually ride in on to steal more souls. God’s true light protects those who believe,” he said.

“We the People” can reclaim sovereignty by learning to trust in intuition, experience, and the ability to assess lies from truth, Sharav said.

“Stop watching mainstream media,” Sharav said. “They’re all reading from the same script. They have bombarded people with fearmongering, which is exactly the same thing that the Nazis did. That’s how they controlled the population: through fear.”

For Sharav, the mission that has been laid at the feet of people throughout the world is the same as it was for her as a child: “Resist. Wake up. Stop obeying.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Dan Kildee’s latest ad undermined by fact that he votes with Biden 100 percent of time

Rep. Dan Kildee (D., Mich.) is distancing himself from other Democrats in a new campaign ad. That’s a heavy lift considering his voting record and position in Democratic leadership.

In a new ad, which does not mention that Kildee is a Democrat, the congressman pitches himself as an independent who stands up to his own party. Kildee adds that his self-described habit of breaking with his party makes him unpopular in Congress.

How Kildee can call himself unpopular when he’s one of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s (D., Calif.) whips—whose job is to pressure other Democrats to vote on legislation—is unclear. Moreover, Kildee votes with resident Joe Biden 100 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Kildee’s rebrand attempt is a familiar one. Vulnerable Democrats who have been rubber stamps for Biden’s agenda, such as Rep. Tim Ryan (D., Ohio), are running as far away from their party as possible, highlighting just how toxic the party brand has become in swing districts.

First elected in 2012, Kildee is a ripe target for Republicans in November. Kildee’s district changed in December of last year and now encompasses broad swaths of solid-red regions in Michigan.

Democrats are aware of this fact. In June, Pelosi sent out a fundraising plea for Kildee, calling on Democrats to support “his toughest reelection fight yet.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The social media company ‘must explain itself for this outrageous act of censorship,’ Senator Marco Rubio says

Twitter on July 28 imposed a blockade on all content from The Epoch Times without explanation, raising further concerns about freedom of speech on the platform and drawing ire from three U.S. senators.

The platform enforced a warning on all links from The Epoch Times. A click on a link directs users to a page titled “Warning: this link may be unsafe,” which prompts users to return to the previous page.

“The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe,” the warning stated, citing Twitter’s URL policy.

We are aware that Twitter has marked all links to https://t.co/copOc5TSA6 as “unsafe.” We believe this is a mistake and we have submitted a review to @TwitterSupport. pic.twitter.com/UyFqoiaUkq

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) July 29, 2022

The notice said that the link could fall into any of four categories: “malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices”; “spammy links that mislead people or disrupt their experience”; “violent or misleading content that could lead to real-world harm”; or content that “if posted directly on Twitter, are a violation of the Twitter Rules.”

Twitter’s warning page allows users to proceed to the Epoch Times link if they click on the word “continue” at the very bottom of the page.

The platform has not responded to multiple requests from The Epoch Times for clarification.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), vice chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who serves on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who serves on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs,  decried the move as an act of censorship.

“Twitter is blocking all links to @EpochTimes, including a story about a human trafficking survivor, and labeling them as ‘spammy’ and ‘unsafe.’ Twitter must explain itself for this outrageous act of censorship,” Rubio wrote in a July 29 tweet.

Johnson described Twitter’s action as “alarming.”

“Twitter is censoring @EpochTimes under the guise of ‘unsafe’ speech. Remember what happened the last time corporate media and big tech tried to censor my investigation on Hunter Biden corruption?” he wrote. “The truth always prevails.”

Scott asked Twitter in a July 29 tweet “where’s the respect for free speech and freedom of press, Twitter.”

“We all remember your biased censorship of [The New York Post] and how that ended for you,” Scott said.

Human Trafficking Interview Censored

Among the first to be affected by Twitter’s blockade was Eliza Bleu, a human trafficking survivor. In an interview that premiered at 7:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, Bleu shared about how abusers groomed her by preying on her vulnerabilities.

Bleu tried to repost the link after watching the interview, and to her surprise and dismay, found that she “couldn’t even click on the link.”

“I’m pretty disheartened that the interview link was labeled as unsafe, because it’s not unsafe,” she told The Epoch Times.

“By watching the interview, anyone can tell it’s pretty educational,” she said. “I wasn’t talking about anything that wasn’t factual. I was just really just trying to educate, raise awareness, and bring attention to the issue.”

She added that the link seemed to be accessible when the interview first aired but became blocked sometime afterward.

Twitter Targets American Media, Not Chinese State Media

The Epoch Times was founded in 2000 by Chinese Americans who fled communist China and sought to create an independent media outlet to bring uncensored and truthful information to the world.

At least 10 staff members for The Epoch Times were arrested that year in China, with one editor-in-chief spending a decade in prison.

While operating outside of China, the media outlet has remained a consistent target of attacks from the Chinese regime over the past two decades.

The printing press of the Hong Kong edition of The Epoch Times has suffered a series of violent break-ins, including arson, over the years, viewed as attempts by Beijing to intimidate the publication. In an official statement last year, resident Joe Biden’s State Department condemnded an attack on an Epoch Times reporter in Hong Kong.

Major Chinese state media, by contrast, remain accessible on the platform as of press time.

Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute think tank and a contributor for The Epoch Times, also expressed his shock.

“The @EpochTimes, the entire media complex, has been declared by Twitter to be unsafe. This stuns me, even though I thought I was beyond shock at this point,” he wrote.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and resident Joe Biden’s administration are being accused of threatening government meals provided to low-income students attending Christian schools if the institutions do not adhere to radical ideological principles being peddled by the left. (RELATED: Chronically Ignored Public School Problem Deserves Your Attention)

Send a HeroBox Care Package Today!

According to a lawsuit filed by the Alliance Defending Freedom on behalf of Faith Action Ministry Alliance and Grant Park Christian Academy, a school that serves low-income and minority families in Tampa, Florida, Biden officials are threatening to take away the meals unless the school adheres to new Title IX interpretations on gender ideology.

“That choice that they are giving us [is] either to comply with this ideology and alter the course of our operations and to violate our own core principles and beliefs, or lose out on the nutrition for the children, lose out on the meals,” Pastor Alfred Johnson, the founder of Faith Action Ministry Alliance, said in a Wednesday phone interview with The Daily Wire.

“This is not just pertaining to Grant Park Christian Academy,” Johnson added. “You’re dealing with tens of thousands of students who are going to be impacted by this. Some of these schools are not even aware of how Title IX has been reinterpreted. And so many of them are going to be in violation, probably without even knowing about it.”

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida against both the Biden administration and Fried, who is running for governor. Ironically, Fried claims to be dedicated to fighting hunger and food insecurity in the Sunshine State but remains poised to block Grant Park’s funding for school meals.

“Under my administration, we will implement universal free school breakfast and lunch,” says Fried’s gubernatorial campaign. “Kids can’t concentrate on school work with empty bellies. This is an investment in the health and education of Florida’s students.” (RELATED: DeSantis’ Former Gubernatorial Opponent Charged With 21 Felonies)

The lawsuit also addresses the larger ramifications of the administration’s coordinated effort with the agriculture commissioner’s office to force schools into adhering to dangerous and confusing new Title IX rules.

“If Grant Park Christian Academy complies with the new school lunch mandate, it will suffer harm to its educational mission, free speech, and religious exercise,” the lawsuit says.

“It will no longer be able to maintain sex-separated restrooms for boys and girls based on their biological differences; to maintain sex-specific dress code and uniform policies, where, for example, only female students are permitted to wear skorts; to draw its workforce from among those who share and live out its religious convictions; and to refrain from using pronouns that do not correspond to biological sex,” the suit adds.

“In short,” the suit said, “the Biden Administration and Commissioner Fried’s push to redefine sex in federal law has now reached the point where they will deny school lunches to underprivileged students, just because their school will not violate their religious beliefs.”

Grant Park Christian Academy has asked Fried’s office for an exemption to the rule arguing the school should not be forced to violate its religious beliefs for an arbitrary rule. Fried’s office has maintained the school must comply with the new Title IX rules or choose to forgo the lunch program.

READ NEXT: Supreme Court Rules Parents Can Send Their Children To Religious Schools With Public Funds >>

NILES, Ohio—Tim Ryan’s old street in east Ohio is a progressive oasis in a working-class town suffering from deindustrialization and the opioid crisis. Rather than the American flags seen on lawns just a few streets over, several of the 3,000-square-foot-plus homes on North Rhodes Avenue sport pride banners.

Carl Mymo, a retired forklift driver who lives just two blocks from where Ryan did, said those living on the conspicuously wealthier avenue in Niles don’t care about the same issues as the rest of the town, such as skyrocketing gas prices. “They can afford it,” Mymo said.

“This is all Democrat, this neighborhood,” said Mymo, a lifelong Democrat until this year when he changed his registration, as he pointed to larger homes in the distance. “I was a Democrat but started voting Republican on everything after Trump. I don’t like Ryan at all no more. I used to like him, but to me he’s just a regular politician now.”

Mymo’s description was familiar to others who spoke with the Washington Free Beacon in Niles, where Ryan lived until 2013. Several residents remarked on the town’s golden years when large corporations such as General Electric employed thousands of people in-town or nearby. Those golden years corresponded with overwhelming Democratic Party support, and are the reason Ryan’s seat was safe for decades.

That’s not the case anymore. Many of those companies are now gone, as are the jobs. One out of four jobs in Trumbull County, where Niles sits, disappeared from 2000 to 2016. And Ryan is gone as well. He moved just north to Howland after purchasing a 4,300-square-foot McMansion with his wife. A real estate listing from before the sale describes the home as “beauty on a private cul-de-sac” with a three-car garage and granite countertops in the kitchen. His new town’s median income is roughly 50 percent higher than Niles, according to U.S. Census data.

Ryan’s campaign did not respond to an interview request.

Ryan’s Senate campaign message for voters in Ohio is simple: He’ll bring factory jobs home from abroad. In a video announcing his candidacy for the Senate seat occupied by the retiring Republican senator Rob Portman, Ryan toured an abandoned factory in Niles.

“China is out-manufacturing us left and right and it’s time we fight back,” Ryan says in another ad. “We’ve got to go all in and it starts by investing in Ohio workers.”

But for many voters living in Niles, that line is getting stale. For 20 years Ryan has served in Congress passing no bills except a handful to rename federal buildings. Few of those factory jobs have come back.

“I don’t think he’s done a lot for the area,” said Sarah Smith, a nurse at a hospital in neighboring Warren. “I don’t think he’s ever had a regular job. When General Motors left, he says he did a lot to try and stop that, but it was too late. He gets on the bandwagon too late.”

That Ryan is jumping on the protectionist bandwagon is a criticism often lobbed by his Republican opponent, J.D. Vance. In June, Ryan wrote a letter to resident Joe Biden demanding he not remove tariffs against China. Almost four years earlier, however, he criticized Trump’s anti-free trade agenda “designed to inflict maximum damage on the U.S. economy, for minimum gain.”

Now Ryan says he always “agreed with Trump on trade.” His massive $9 million campaign war chest, the majority of which has come from out-of-state donors, has funded ad blitzes across Ohio. Almost every ad features references to China and none to the Democratic Party. (Smith said she found Ryan’s commercials the most annoying thing about his campaign. “China, China, China. Come on.”)

Ryan’s attempts to distance himself from the Democratic Party are most obvious when he revels in the occasional compliment from Fox News. Earlier this month, Ryan released an ad featuring years-old clips from Fox hosts noting his opposition to the far left on such issues as open borders.

Yet Ryan’s strategy of cherry-picking praise from conservatives comes with a tremendous caveat: His voting record. Ryan votes with Biden 100 percent of the time in Congress—exceeding his FiveThirtyEight-predicted voting record by more than 30 points.

Why Ryan behaves in Congress the way he does while pitching himself on the campaign trail as a flexible moderate is a bit of a mystery to the voters in Niles. If it were 1998, or even 2008, such a voting record wouldn’t be a surprise. Trumbull County went blue by 22 points in 2008, and again in 2012.

“Basically Niles voted Democrat no matter who ran. It used to be if you were a Republican, you couldn’t get elected around here no matter what,” said Dave Sherman, who works in IT for a nearby steel company and intends to vote for Vance. “I voted Democrat until my early 50s. My dad was a Democrat, he was a union guy. But I think a lot of people here who aren’t talking are going to vote for J.D., there’s just a loud minority for Ryan.”

Trump carried Trumbull County by more than 6 points in 2016 and more than 10 points in 2020. The county’s recent voting history makes it more red than Ohio as a whole, which favored Trump in 2016 and 2020 by around 8 points.

The effect of Trump on northeast Ohio can’t be overstated. Outside of cities, this Ohio region used to be one of the bluest in the country. Trump was the first Republican to win the neighboring Mahoning County since 1972.

Even Ryan’s supporters in Niles such as Carla Dean, a retired school teacher who knows the Ryans personally, say the area’s politics aren’t what they used to be. Speaking with the Free Beacon on her front lawn, Dean sighed and pointed at her neighbor’s home.

“He’s huge. Trump is huge. [My neighbor] flies the [Trump] flag,” she said. “I don’t even speak politics at all with him because I’m afraid.”

How Vance performs in November without Trump on the ticket will be a test for whether Republicans can hold their gains in the rustbelt. A major asset for Vance is that the only politician with a higher name ID in Niles than Ryan may be Biden. The voters unfamiliar with Vance know one thing: They’re unhappy with the president.

Ryan is acutely aware of this fact. When Biden came to Cleveland earlier this month, where some Trumbull County residents commute to for work, Ryan conveniently scheduled campaign stops in the state hundreds of miles away. A Morning Consult poll recently found Biden’s approval rating 23 points underwater in Ohio.

“I don’t know who I’m gonna be voting for,” said Michelle Yuri, a registered Democrat who works as a packer at the printing company Pubco, when asked about Vance. “I don’t agree with our president, let’s just say that.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Anti-Republican super PAC the Lincoln Project congratulated resident Joe Biden for creating “one of the strongest economies in American history” even as the nation approaches its second consecutive quarter of negative growth in gross domestic product. 

Biden has had an “enormously successful first 18 months in office,” the Lincoln Project claimed on Monday in a rosy assessment of the president’s performance that’s at odds with the majority of Americans who blame Biden for record inflation.

“Resident Biden is a decent human being who exhibits the qualities we should cherish in a resident: he’s a strong leader with clear moral standards and empathizes with Americans for the challenges they face every day,” Lincoln Project cofounder Reed Galen said. “Resident Biden shows what American greatness looks like.”

The Lincoln Project cited job growth, wage increases, and historically low unemployment as proof of Biden’s success. But nearly a million-and-a-half Americans could lose their jobs next year, according to a report last month from the Federal Reserve. Around two-thirds of Americans say Biden is either “responsible” or “very responsible” for inflation, polling shows. 

Formed in 2019 to oppose former president Donald Trump, the Lincoln Project is known for spending millions of dollars to oppose Republicans such as Gov. Glenn Youngkin (Va.) while achieving little electoral success. The anti-Republican organization gained notoriety last year after it was revealed that founding member John Weaver sent suggestive messages to dozens of young men and at least one 14-year-old child.

The White House last week redefined the term “recession,” which is commonly understood as two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP, ahead of a Thursday GDP report that will likely reveal the economy shrunk for the second quarter in a row. The White House said a recession is determined through “a holistic look at the data,” leading critics to accuse the Biden administration of covering its tracks so it won’t have to call the economic crisis a recession.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

But whatever you do, don’t boycott-divest-sanction Palestine [US Patriot]

The Palestinian government is complicit in “rampant, wide-spread, and systematic torture of Palestinian nationals” and Israelis, according to a landmark legal complaint filed this week with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The International Legal Forum (ILF), an advocacy group representing more than 3,500 lawyers and civil society activists across the globe, is pressing the ICC to investigate the Palestinian Authority for war crimes in the first ever case of this nature presented to the court, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The organization is demanding that the ICC launch “an immediate investigation and prosecution of Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership for allegations of torture.” The documents outline instances of the Palestinian government engaging in “violent beatings, arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, cruel and inhumane prison conditions, harassment, forced confessions, and summary executions.”

The case comes just a week after resident Joe Biden made his first trip to the Middle East and announced another $316 million in U.S. taxpayer funding for the PA and organizations that work with it, bringing the total amount of American aid to around $1 billion. The Trump administration froze this money over concerns that the Palestinian government spends international aid dollars on terror groups and imprisoned terrorists.

“It is noteworthy that resident Biden has just returned from the Middle East, where he touted millions of dollars in increased funding to the Palestinians,” Arsen Ostrovsky, the ILF’s chairman and CEO, told the Free Beacon. “One has to ask the question, then, are U.S. tax payer dollars also going toward underwriting torture practices carried out by the Palestinian Authority?”

While the Palestinian government has long pressed the ICC and other U.N. organizations to investigate alleged Israeli human rights abuses, the ILF’s complaint marks one of the first times a pro-Israel organization has attempted to force international legal authorities to investigate the PA.

The complaint exposes how the Palestinian Authority and its security apparatus “systematically and intentionally” engage in wide-spread “violence and torture against Palestinian nationals in the West Bank, including against human rights activists, journalists, political opponents, dissidents, women, minors, members of LGBTQ community, social media critics, and purported ‘collaborators’ with Israel.”

These acts of torture, the group says in its legal filing, “routinely occur with the full knowledge of and under the express authority and/or directions of the PA.”

This includes targeting Palestinian human rights activists and those critical of the PA government.

Nizar Banat, a 43-year-old Palestinian reformist, in June 2021 was attacked in his home by the PA’s security services—one of several similar attacks on critics that the ILF says amount to a breach of international norms.

“Over 25 PA security services officers entered Banat’s home, subdued him with pepper spray, and then viciously assaulted him before his wife and children, including by beating him with iron bars and wooden batons,” according to the complaint. “The PA security services then dragged Mr. Banat from his home, stripped him of his clothes, and dragged him away into a waiting vehicle, where he subsequently died in their custody.”

The legal filing also accuses Hamas, the terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip, of torture. This includes war crimes charges for Hamas’s repeated rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and cities.

Hamas is holding on to the bodies of murdered Israeli soldiers, which also constitutes a war crime, according to the ILF’s complaint.

“It is our contention that the above criteria [are] sufficiently met, so as to commence an immediate investigation against [PA president Mahmoud] Abbas and [PA prime minister Mohammed] Shtayyeh, for the crime of torture, pursuant to the Rome Statute,” the group writes in the filing.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Washington Post sternly condemned President Joe Biden for his “shameful” greeting of Saudi Arabian royalty, but has remained mum on its owner’s extensive business dealings with the Saudis.

The paper—which is owned by Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos—led the charge following video of Biden fist-bumping the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. The Post’s publisher, Fred Ryan, wrote that Biden’s trip “erodes” the “moral authority” of the United States. In his piece—which is topped with an artistic rendering of Biden shaking a blood-covered hand—Ryan criticizes the president for “turning a blind eye” to the Saudi regime’s alleged murder of Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi. Ryan said Biden was sending the “message that the United States is willing to look the other way when its commercial interests are at stake.”

Just four months before Biden’s trip, however, it was Amazon traveling to the oil kingdom for commercial interests. A senior Amazon executive was photographed shaking hands with high-ranking Saudi officials to finalize an economic partnership between the multinational conglomerate and the Islamic theocracy. The Post did not cover Amazon’s Saudi agreement, according to a review of the paper’s archive.

Since Bezos’s 2013 purchase of the Post, experts have speculated that his substantial Amazon holdings may influence the paper’s coverage. A 2018 piece in HuffPost featured anonymous statements from several Washington Post employees who said they felt uncomfortable criticizing Amazon given Bezos’s ownership of the paper.

“I tend to do less critical thinking about Amazon than I do, say, about Facebook or Google or Walmart, and the reason is fairly obvious: because I am thankful for the opportunity I have, which wouldn’t exist without Jess [sic] Bezos,” one employee said. “Conflicts of interest are there no matter how well we do our jobs,” another said.

Bezos has a $116 billion stake in Amazon, which has taken major steps to expand its footprint in Saudi Arabia in recent years. During the March 19, 2022, meeting between Amazon officials and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Investment, the company stressed its “commitment to the Kingdom.”

“This partnership underscores our commitment to the Kingdom and our customers in it, and will contribute to accelerating the growth of the e-commerce sector, as well as enabling businesses to take advantage of the great growth opportunities that the Kingdom offers,” said Ronaldo Mouchawar, an Amazon vice president for the Middle East region.

The major deal followed several steps taken last year by Amazon to establish a foothold in Saudi Arabia. In January 2021, Amazon extended its trademark Prime delivery service to Saudi Arabia. Two months later, Amazon announced plans to add 11 new buildings and hire 1,500 new workers in Saudi Arabia. The company also partnered last month with Saudi start-ups to help improve the country’s logistics infrastructure.

None of the developments were covered by the Post, which appears to have last covered Amazon’s business dealings in Saudi Arabia in October 2019, when the company decided to cease operations in the country following Khashoggi’s murder.

Writers at the Washington, D.C.-based liberal news outlet have not shied away from criticizing others for involving themselves with the Saudis. The Post denounced entertainment companies such as Disney for allowing their shares to be purchased by the Saudi government, criticized influencers for attending a Saudi-sponsored music festival, and attacked performers like Mariah Carey for doing shows in the country.

The paper did not respond to a request for comment on its coverage of Amazon, which also did not respond to request for comment.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Almost 60 percent of Americans believe that the Chinese-owned short video app TikTok should be removed from app stores after revelations that American user data has been repeatedly accessed in China, according to a new poll.

In a survey conducted by the Convention of States Action and Trafalgar Group, 58.6 percent of respondents said they supported “efforts to remove TikTok from app stores now that the company has revealed American’s user data can be accessed by TikTok employees in China.”

Meanwhile, 17.8 percent of respondents were opposed to such action, and 23.6 percent said they were not sure. The poll was conducted from July 7 to July 10, surveying more than 1,000 likely 2022 election voters with a margin of error of 2.9 percent.

The results came less than a month after leaked recordings of internal company meetings obtained by Buzzfeed News allegedly showed that from least September 2021 to January, engineers in China had access to the app’s U.S. data.

TikTok employees at times had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how U.S. data was flowing, which the U.S. staff weren’t authorized to independently access, according to the report.

The July survey showed that Independents (56.9 percent) and Republicans (76.8 percent) were more likely to support measures to remove TikTok, while 39.2 percent of Democrats agreed with this proposal.

The recent revelations have renewed scrutiny on the app, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, that officials and experts say may be used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for espionage and to conduct information operations. They cite national security laws in the country that compel companies to cooperate with Chinese intelligence agencies when asked.

TikTok has repeatedly denied such allegations, saying that it stores U.S. user data on servers outside of China and that it would never allow Beijing to access such information.

“TikTok is just another invasive tool for communist China to infiltrate Americans’ personal and proprietary information,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) previously told The Epoch Times.

“This app presents a very real threat to our national security, and the United States should take strong action to stop the CCP’s espionage campaign.”

The Trump administration had sought to ban the social media app, citing data security risks. But resident Joe Biden later reversed the measure, and instead ordered the Commerce Department to evaluate the platform to determine whether it poses a national security risk.

In addition to U.S. user data being accessed by Beijing to conduct espionage operations, TikTok may also be used to shape Americans’ perceptions to be favorable to the Chinese regime, according to Mark Meckler, former interim CEO of social media platform Parler and president of the Convention of States Action, the advocacy group that commissioned the survey.

Meckler described TikTok as one part of the communist regime’s long-running “digital warfare against the United States.” He pointed to the Chinese military’s concept of “total war” that seeks to leverage an array of methods and arenas outside of traditional warfighting domains, such as media and culture, to overcome the enemy.

“This is just one more slice in that pie giving the Chinese Communist Party an opportunity to do damage to the United States by affecting the culture of young people,” Meckler said.

The Epoch Times has reached out to TikTok for comment.

Eva Fu contributed to this report. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

A federal court has granted a request by Missouri and Louisiana officials to obtain information and documents from top-ranking officials in the Biden administration over its alleged collusion with social media giants in an effort to censor and suppress free speech.

Eric Schmitt, Missouri’s Republican attorney general, announced on social media on July 13 that Terry Doughty, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, had ruled in favor of the request for the discovery process.

The ruling paves the way for the attorneys general to collect documents from top-ranking Biden administration officials and social media giants.

In court documents (pdf) shared by Schmitt, Doughty wrote that there is “good cause” for an expedited preliminary injunction discovery.

The judge, a Trump appointee, also gave a timeline in which federal officials and social media platforms must hand over documents.

Plaintiff states may serve document and information requests from government officials and third party subpoenas on up to five major social media platforms seeking to identify which federal officials have allegedly been in communication with them within five business days after the ruling.

The ruling was issued on July 12.

Federal officials and social media platforms must also hand over documents and answer questions from officials from the two states within the next 30 days, the judge ruled.

‘Suppressed Disfavored Speakers’

The ruling comes after the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit in May alleging that the Biden administration “colluded with and/or coerced social media companies to suppress disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content on social media platforms by labeling the content ‘disinformation,’ ‘misinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’”

The attorneys general named social media giants such as Meta, Twitter, and YouTube in a press release announcing the lawsuit in May.

They also claimed that resident Joe Biden himself, along with other top-ranking government officials, had worked with the platforms to censor and suppress free speech, including “truthful information” pertaining to the origins of COVID-19, the effectiveness of masks, election integrity, and the security of voting by mail, as well as the ongoing Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

Among the defendants named in the lawsuit are Biden, former press secretary Jen Psaki, chief medical adviser to the president and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Disinformation Governance Board executive director Nina Jankowicz, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and others.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the officials “pressured and colluded with social media giants Meta, Twitter, and YouTube to censor free speech in the name of combating so-called ‘disinformation’ and ‘misinformation,’ which led to the suppression and censorship of truthful information on several topics, including COVID-19.”

The complaint also alleges that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board was created “to induce, label, and pressure the censorship of disfavored content, viewpoints, and speakers on social-media platforms.”

The lawsuit contends the alleged suppression of free speech and collusion violate the protections of the First Amendment and amount to action in excess of statutory authority.

It also contends that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

Missouri and Louisiana filed a Motion for Expedited Preliminary Injunction-Related Discovery on June 17, 2022.

In announcing the court’s decision to grant the attorneys general’s request, Schmitt said on Twitter, ” No one has had the chance to look under the hood before – now we do.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Almost half of small business owners said their businesses are on the brink of closing after inflation last month hit another record high.

A report published Thursday by the Alignable Research Center found that 47 percent of small business owners say they may close by the fall, marking a 12-point increase from last summer, when only 35 percent of business owners said they were at risk. More than half, meanwhile, said they expect to make less money than they did last year.

More than 60 percent of respondents said inflation has damaged their business more than the COVID-19 pandemic, the report showed. Inflation shot up to 9.1 percent in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Economists, including former Obama administration officials, have said resident Joe Biden’s nearly $2 trillion stimulus package contributed significantly to skyrocketing inflation.

Other causes of financial instability, respondents said, include increased gas prices, rent hikes, labor issues, the broken supply chain, reduced consumer spending, rising interest rates, fears of recession, and continued pandemic recovery.

Retailers, construction firms, and car dealerships were among the hardest hit small businesses. Half of restaurant owners said their businesses are in danger. Of small business owners in general, almost 60 percent agreed the summer of 2022 has been economically challenging.

“Small businesses do not like high inflation since it raises their costs and squeezes their profit margins,” American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Desmond Lachman told the Washington Free Beacon. “This forces them to have to raise prices, which might be difficult to do both because they might get pushback from their consumers and because they might lose market share. The high degree of uncertainty associated with high inflation makes it difficult for small businesses to plan and operate.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Congressional Workers Union announced today eight Democratic offices will be the first to unionize.

“For far too long, congressional staff have dealt with unsafe working conditions, unlivable wages, and vast inequity in our workplaces,” a Monday press release stated. “Having a seat at the bargaining table through a union will ensure we have a voice in decisions that impact our workplace.” The Congressional Workers Union’s website says the unionization effort was prompted by “problematic work conditions,” including insufficient pay, high turnover, and “pervasive” sexual harassment.

Eighty-five staffers from the offices of Reps. Cori Bush (D., Mo.), Chuy Garcia (D., Ill.), Ro Khanna (D., Calif.), Andy Levin (D., Mich.), Ted Lieu (D., Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.), and Melanie Stansbury (D., N.M.) moved to join the new union.

Some of those members are multimillionaires. Lieu, a lawyer and real estate investor, has a reported 2018 net worth of $3.5 million, according to OpenSecrets. Levin owns an energy company and has a net worth of almost $3.95 million. The median salary for House staffers is $59,000.

Democrats hemorrhaged staff at a rate 24 percent higher than Republicans in 2021, the Hill reported in March.

A former chief of staff to Garcia resigned in 2019 following allegations that he laughed in the face of a female staffer after she disclosed she had been sexual harassed when both were working on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I., Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign. Bush and Ocasio-Cortez both claim to have been victims of sexual harassment.

Levin led the charge to pass the resolution making congressional unionizing legal. The resolution passed in May, but a Senate version has yet to pass. Now, House staffers cannot be fired, demoted, or otherwise punished for unionizing, a development that opened the door for Monday’s announcement.

The union’s website says a few negotiation goals are more flexible telework options, comprehensive health and safety protocols, and improved severance policies. In April, after resident Joe Biden urged Americans to return to in-person work during his State of the Union address, the Washington Free Beacon reported in March Democrats on Capitol Hill had failed to end their work-from-home policies, preferring to extend teleworking policies indefinitely.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Biden administration is poised to give Iran “more than a hundred billion dollars” in cash windfalls if it signs a new nuclear deal, according to former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who also hinted to a group of pro-Israel activists on Monday that she will run for president in 2024.

With negotiations over a revamped nuclear deal ongoing, Haley warned an audience of pro-Israel activists that the Biden administration is preparing to unload billions of dollars to Tehran—money that “will fund terrorist attacks on Israel and America.”

Biden has “made clear that he’ll do almost anything to get the ayatollahs to sign on the dotted line,” Haley said in a speech before the Christians United for Israel organization during its annual gathering in Washington, D.C. “And do you know who Biden allowed our lead negotiator on the Iran deal to be? Russia.” An advanced transcript of her remarks was obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Haley said that with Moscow’s help, the Biden administration is laying the groundwork for Iran to obtain “missiles and nukes to destroy both Israel and America.”

Haley’s speech, which focused heavily on Israel and the threats posed by both Iran and Russia, comes amid speculation that she will throw her hat into the ring for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination—rumors that she appeared to confirm in her speech. It also laid the groundwork for a foreign policy approach that would refocus America on countering Iran and its growing alliance with Russia.

“Anything Joe Biden signs [with Iran] will all but guarantee that Iran gets the bomb. No deal is better than a bad deal,” she said. “And if this president signs any sort of deal, I’ll make you a promise. … The next president will shred it—on her first day in office.”

In addition to advocating for increased U.S. military aid to Israel to help it confront Iran, Haley discussed the war in Ukraine and blamed the Biden administration’s failures in Afghanistan for fueling Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

“If America hadn’t failed so miserably in Afghanistan, there never would have been a war in Ukraine,” she said. “Putin saw the strongest country in history leave Bagram Air Force Base in the middle of the night—without even telling our allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with us for decades.”

The bungled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is why “Putin made his move. It’s the price we pay for American weakness. And now countless Ukrainians are paying for our mistake with their lives,” Haley said.

Other world dictators learned a similar lesson when the United States ran out of Afghanistan, according to Haley.

“Putin wasn’t the only one who saw a green light in Afghanistan. So did Kim Jong Un in North Korea. So did Xi Jinping in Communist China,”
she said. “And last but not least, our surrender in Afghanistan was the gift that keeps on giving for Iran. When Kabul fell, the ayatollahs celebrated.”

Haley also criticized Biden’s recent trip to the Middle East, including Israel, where he announced a $300 million cash infusion to the Palestinian government. The Free Beacon exclusively reported last week that a large portion of this cash is funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, known as UNRWA, which has a history of inciting violence against Jews.

“The money has no conditions, no strings, nothing. The Palestinians can keep stoking hatred of Israel,” Haley said of the renewed funding. “They can keep paying the families of terrorists, which encourages more suicide bombings. Basically, the Palestinians can use America’s money to attack America’s ally. It’s a disgrace.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

‘There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way—no serious economist.’

Exactly one year ago today, on July 19, 2021, resident Joe Biden delivered a momentous address on the state of the U.S. economy. The speech, in retrospect, was a chilling portent of the economic calamity that has befallen this great country as a result of Biden’s failed leadership.

Biden’s remarks came several months after Democrats rammed through the $1.9 trillion package known as the American Rescue Plan. Some experts had warned that injecting so much money into the economy could lead to runaway inflation. The White House scoffed at such concerns. At the time of Biden’s speech, prices were already beginning to rise. The president took the opportunity to tell Americans to stop complaining.

“As our economy has come roaring back, we’ve seen some price increases,” Biden said. “Some folks have raised worries that this could be a sign of persistent inflation, but that’s not our view. Our experts believe, and the data shows, that most of the price increases we’ve seen were expected and [are] expected to be temporary.”

They weren’t. Prices have steadily increased since the summer of 2021. The inflation rate went from 5.4 percent in July 2021 to 7.5 percent in January 2022. Last month it surpassed 9 percent, the highest inflation rate since November 1981. Gas prices have soared to record highs.

In his speech one year ago, Biden explained that while inflation wasn’t a serious problem at the time, his administration was prepared to act if necessary. “Now, I want to be clear,” he said. “My administration understands that if we were to ever experience unchecked inflation over the long term, that would pose real challenges to our economy.  So while we’re confident that isn’t what we are seeing today, we’re going to remain vigilant about any response that is needed.”

They weren’t prepared—probably because they refused to believe it could happen. “There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way—no serious economist,” Biden said last year in response to a reporter’s question. “I mean, look, the stock market is higher than it has been in all of history.”

The stock market has declined roughly 13 percent since Biden’s speech. Fears of an economic recession continue to mount. Perhaps the best indication that we’re about to experience a recession is the fact that the Biden administration keeps “confidently” insisting otherwise.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is withholding records related to high-profile investigations, including the probe into resident Joe Biden’s son, according to a new lawsuit.

Protect the Public’s Trust, a watchdog group, is seeking records seeking ethics waivers and determinations on allowing potentially conflicted employees to work on cases, but has been stymied.

The group submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records request on June 1, 2021, but didn’t receive a response for more than a year, according to the suit.

After inquiring about the status of the request on June 10, the watchdog received an acknowledgment that had been sent to the wrong email address. But the records still haven’t been sent, nor have key determinations about which records will be provided, which violates federal law.

Based on the DOJ’s recent email, “it appears that the Department has no intention of responding to Plaintiff’s request anytime soon,” Protect the Public’s Trust said in the filing in federal court in Washington. “Given these facts, it appears that absent litigation the Department has not and does not intend to meet its statutory obligations to provide the requested records.”

The documents would help shed light on potential conflicts of interest, including whether Joe Biden-appointee Nicholas McQuaid, a top DOJ official, is at all involved with the investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, according to the watchdog.

McQuaid’s former colleague is representing Hunter Biden, who has said that he’s under investigation for tax-related issues. Documents obtained by The Epoch Times indicate that the probe touches on Hunter Biden’s business dealings with China.

Susan Hennessey was hired in 2021 from CNN to be a lawyer at the DOJ. Before she was hired, she described the investigation from special counsel John Durham, which has uncovered more details about the effort to spy on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his associates in 2016, as “partisan silliness.”

“Have these officials been granted waivers to participate in these matters, which would likely fall into their portfolios?” Protect the Public’s Trust said in a statement. “By its refusal to properly respond to this FOIA request, as required by law, DOJ is hiding this information from the American public.”

The DOJ didn’t respond to a request for comment but has said that it doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, issued a memorandum to agencies across the federal government that he said would “strengthen the federal government’s commitment to the fair and effective administration of FOIA.”

“Transparency in government operations is a priority of this Administration and this Department. We stand ready to work with each of you to make real the Freedom of Information Act’s promise of a government that is open and accountable to the American people,” he said at the time.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Washington’s mayor is criticizing two border states for busing illegal immigrants to the nation’s capital, which bills itself as a sanctuary city.

For months, Texas and Arizona authorities have been offering free rides to illegal aliens who have claimed asylum, citing a lack of resources in dealing with the immigrants and the hope that sending them to Washington will help convince Resident Joe Biden to increase immigration enforcement amid a record number of arrests at the border.

But Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who is a Democrat, isn’t on board.

“This is a very significant issue. We have, for sure, called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses. We think they’re largely asylum-seekers who are going to final destinations that are not Washington, D.C.,” she said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on July 17.

“I worked with the White House to make sure that FEMA provided a grant to a local organization that is providing services to folks. But I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America.”

Ranae Eze, press secretary for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told The Epoch Times via email that “the only lie is the Biden Administration telling the American people that our border is closed.”

“With our nation’s capital now experiencing a fraction of the disaster created by resident Biden’s reckless open border policies that our state faces every single day, maybe he’ll finally do his job and secure the border,” she wrote.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, another Republican, wrote on Twitter: “Welcome to our world, @MayorBowser. Now work with your party, your Congress, and your President to do something about it.”

Complaints

Thousands of illegal aliens have been sent to Washington from the two states this year, beginning in April. Getting on the buses is a choice, according to officials in the states. But some of the immigrants complained to WUSA-TV that promises made by officials before getting on the buses weren’t fulfilled.

Ana Karina Arce Polano, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, told the broadcaster that she was told her family would be transported to Colorado via Washington, but that they didn’t end up being offered transportation to Colorado.

“We arrived here with faith to give them a better life, and it turns out that we do not even have a place to sleep and no way to get where we want to go,” Polano said.

Another illegal alien said she was told that her family would be given a ride to Chicago after arriving in Washington, but that hasn’t happened.

“If anyone is being misled, we certainly want to know about it,” Ducey spokesman CJ Karamargin told WUSA-TV.

Sister Sharlet Wagner, executive director of the Catholic Charities-run Newcomer Network, told NTD previously that most of the illegal immigrants were traveling to places beyond Washington.

“Most of them do have family or friends in the place where they really want to go. We’re happy to help them if they want to stay here. Most are choosing to move on,” she said.

Federal authorities have said that states aren’t “adequately coordinating” with them or local authorities. They also said that most immigrants who aren’t expelled via Title 42, a pandemic-era order, are released into the U.S. interior with notices to appear in court.

A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman told The Epoch Times, “Through its Southwest Border Coordination Center, DHS is executing carefully designed plans to manage the processing and transport of noncitizens arriving at the border.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Hunter Biden held dozens of talks with his father from 2008 to 2016, often shortly after returning home from trips abroad on business, according to data from the younger Biden’s abandoned laptop.

At least 30 such talks took place, The New York Post reported on July 16, based on a personal calendar on the laptop. The meetings took place at either the White House or the vice president’s residence at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

The latest revelation comes amid President Joe Biden’s continued claim that the two have never spoken about Hunter Biden’s business dealings, which included transactions with entities and individuals in countries such as Russia and China.

One of the talks occurred in February 2012, when the young Biden met with his father at the Naval Observatory. The meeting came four days after Hunter Biden was wined and dined by billionaire oligarchs in Moscow.

In November 2015, Hunter Biden met with his father again at the Naval Observatory, two days after returning home from a trip to Romania.

On April 15, 2016, Hunter Biden met with Daniel Kablan Duncan, who was at the time the prime minister of Côte d’Ivoire. Less than an hour after the meeting, the young Biden met with his father at the Naval Observatory.

House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y) told the NY Post that the latest discovery is more evidence of corruption.

“Hardly a day goes by without another revelation about how intimately involved Joe Biden was with his son Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business dealings,” Stefanik said. “The fact that Joe was in meetings with senior foreign leaders on behalf of Hunter and his business associates while vice president further proves that Joe has been lying to the American people.”

Cory Mills, who’s seeking the Republican nomination to represent Florida’s 7th Congressional District in the midterm elections, said the Post’s findings warrant legal action against the Bidens.

“Hunter Biden should be arrested and Joe Biden impeached,” Mills wrote on Twitter.

The laptop’s calendar also showed that Eric Schwerin, the former president of Hunter Biden’s now-dissolved investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, was an invite recipient on 21 of the 30 meetings between Hunter Biden and his father.

In April, The Epoch Times reported that Schwerin visited the White House at least 19 times from 2009 to 2015, after reviewing White House visitor log records. One of the meetings took place in the West Wing on Nov. 17, 2010.

Read More

White House Doesn’t Dispute Joe Biden Left Voicemail About China Story for Hunter Biden

Biden Spoke to Hunter About China Business Deals, Voicemail Reveals

The Post also revealed that Hunter Biden had set up a meeting between his father and Andrés Pastrana Arango, the former president of Colombia, on March 2, 2012.

Before the March 2012 meeting, Hunter Biden and his partners at Rosemont Seneca Partners were allegedly seeking business with Brazilian construction company OAS, according to emails from the laptop, the Post reported. The Brazilian firm was interested in several projects in Columbia at the time, including a hydroelectric power plant worth $1.8 billion and a renovation project to a subway system in Bogota worth $3 billion.

“If it works, we’ll all be rich,” Schwerin wrote to Hunter Biden in an email in August 2011, according to the Post. Emails showed Hunter Biden traveling to Bogota in November 2011.

It’s unclear if OAS won any of the projects the company was interested in.

Eventually, OAS was involved in a Brazilian government corruption scandal and agreed to pay a total of 1.92 billion Brazilian reais ($461 million) by 2047 as part of a leniency deal the company signed with Brazil’s federal government in 2019, according to Reuters.

White House officials didn’t respond to a request for comment by press time.

Recently, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote an op-ed published by the Post declaring that they aim to investigate the Bidens’ business dealings if Republicans take back the House after the 2022 midterm elections.

“Contrary to Joe Biden’s statement that he never spoke to Hunter about his foreign business dealings, associates state that he was fully aware of his family’s business dealings and influence peddling,” the three lawmakers wrote. “There is evidence of a direct sum of money set aside for ‘the Big Guy’—who witnesses have identified as Joe Biden—from foreign nationals.

“A Republican majority will be committed to uncovering the facts the Democrats, Big Tech, and the legacy media have suppressed.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Resident Joe Biden early Sunday disputed a claim that he didn’t accuse Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of orchestrating the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in private meetings.

After arriving home in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, Biden was asked by a reporter about a comment from the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir.

“The Saudi foreign minister said he didn’t hear you accuse the crown prince of Khashoggi’s murder. Is he telling the truth?” the reporter asked the president.

“No,” Biden said quickly. “Why don’t you talk about something that matters?” the president then told journalists, as another one asked him about bumping fists with the Saudi crown prince, the de facto leader of the Muslim kingdom, who is sometimes referred to as “MBS.”

Biden added, “I’m happy to talk about something that matters.”

Days before that, at a news conference, Biden claimed that he spoke about the death of Khashoggi several years ago. After his death in 2018, a number of mainstream media outlets often featured the death as front-page news, and those outlets also attempted to tie his killing to the Trump administration. Federal agencies have suspected the Saudi government was involved in his death.

“With respect to the murder of Khashoggi, I raised it at the top of the meeting, making it clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think about it now,” Biden said during a press conference on July 15. “He [Crown Prince Salman] basically said that he was not personally responsible for it. I indicated that he was, and he said he was not personally responsible for it and he took action against those who were responsible,” Biden also said.

What the Minister Said

But al-Jubeir, the foreign minister, told Fox News that Biden and MBS never addressed Khashoggi’s death.

“I didn’t hear that particular phrase,” al-Jubeir remarked. “The president mentioned that the U.S. is committed to human rights because since the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and he also made the point that American presidents—this is part of the agenda of every American president.”

Biden’s apparent lack of public criticism about the Saudi government and the fist bump was panned by legacy media, including The Washington Post, which issued a rare critical statement about the president.

Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan alleged that the Biden–MSB fist bump “projected a level of intimacy” far worse than a handshake. “The first bump between resident Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake—it was shameful,” Ryan continued.

The White House signaled that Biden was in Saudi Arabia in a bid to push the Saudi government into producing more oil in order to offset exceptionally high gas prices. According to data from AAA, although the price for a gallon has dropped in recent weeks, it currently stands at $4.53 on average as of Sunday. A year ago, the price was $3.16 per gallon, the data show.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Who’s the better boy: Hunter Biden or Mohammed bin Salman?

Resident Joe Biden visited oil-rich Saudi Arabia on Friday to grovel before its authoritarian leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), in a desperate attempt to stem the soaring price of gasoline in the United States. The president fist-bumped MBS upon arriving in Jeddah, which was an embarrassing moment. Not quite as embarrassing, however, as Barack H. Obama’s servile bow before the late King Abdullah during his 2009 apology tour.

The trip revealed that Biden’s campaign pledge to make Saudi Arabia “pay the price” for human rights abuses—including the 2018 murder and bone-saw dismemberment of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi—and “make them in fact the pariah that they are” was a blatant lie. (Yes, a lie. The Washington Free Beacon is using that word in contravention of longstanding journalistic norms in an effort to highlight the president’s dangerous dishonesty.)

Above all, Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia provides an opportunity to discuss a topic the American mainstream media too often neglect: fatherhood. One of the reasons why the president’s meeting with MBS is so significant is that the crown prince is merely the country’s de facto leader after gently seizing control from his 86-year-old father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud.

Shortly after Biden took office in 2021, the White House insisted that King Salman—not the 36-year-old MBS—was “the president’s counterpart” in Saudi Arabia. Friday’s fist-bump suggests otherwise. Nevertheless, Biden and King Salman have a lot in common. As of Nov. 20, they will both be octogenarians. More importantly, they both understand what it’s like to be the famous father of an infamous son.

Speaking of which, Hunter Biden and MBS have a fair amount in common as well. They are both fans of prostitutes and cocaine. Hunter’s exploits are legendary, of course, but almost certainly pale in comparison with the debauchery of the crown prince. New York Times reporter Ben Hubbard noted in his 2020 book, MBS: The Rise to Power of Mohammed bin Salman, that MBS once rented out an entire resort in the Maldives and “hosted a string of blowout parties.” Shakira and Pitbull reportedly performed at the gatherings, which also featured “an abundance of prostitutes and cocaine.”

READ MORE: ‘Bareback Rocket Ride’: The Hunter Biden Story

Both sons would presumably have amounted to nothing if not for their powerful dads, who helped finance their lavish and degenerate lifestyles. Just as MBS tapped the royal bank account to pay for his drug-fueled island orgies, Hunter persuaded Joe to keep wiring him money to help cover his $30,000 escort bill. It is safe to say that Hunter is more likely than MBS to film himself having threesomes with crack-addled hookers, but who’s to judge?

Hunter and MBS both have five children, although King Salman probably recognizes all of them, unlike Joe, who continues to deny the existence of the baby girl Hunter sired with a stripper named “Dallas.” To be fair, it is not publicly known how many children MBS has fathered with strippers and prostitutes who may not enjoy the protections granted by the U.S. justice system.

Unlike his Saudi counterpart, the Biden heir has not yet been credibly accused of murdering and dismembering a journalist. Yet Hunter does enjoy some of the same benefits afforded to Saudi royalty. For example, U.S. mainstream media outlets and tech companies actively suppressed negative stories about Hunter during his father’s 2020 presidential campaign. The revelations once denounced as “fake news” have since been largely corroborated.

It is difficult to say, given the facts, which famous father has raised the better boy. Perhaps the most notable difference between Joe Biden and King Salman is that the elderly and infirm Saudi royal knew when it was time to call it quits and hand power to a younger generation. Biden does not appear to share this outlook. This is not to suggest that he should anoint Hunter as his heir apparent, although there’s no question the whore-loving crackhead scion would get more votes than Kamala Harris.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Resident Joe Biden on Friday warned that he may take executive actions targeting the climate and health care if Congress doesn’t pass a bill that’s suitable for his agenda.

“So let me be clear: if the Senate will not move to tackle the climate crisis and strengthen our domestic clean energy industry, I will take strong executive action to meet this moment,” he said in a statement released by the White House on Friday. “My actions will create jobs, improve our energy security, bolster domestic manufacturing and supply chains, protect us from oil and gas price hikes in the future, and address climate change.”

Biden also wrote that “health care is critical” and suggested he would issue an executive order to “lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families.”

In the statement, Biden did not elaborate on what steps he would take to address health care or the climate in his executive orders.

The statement came after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) reportedly told top Democrats, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), on Thursday that he will not support new spending on climate-related measures or tax hikes

“I said, ‘Chuck until we see the July inflation figures, until we see the July, basically Federal Reserve rates, interest rates, then let’s wait till that comes out so we know that we’re going down a path that won’t be inflammatory, to add more to inflation,’” Manchin said on Friday morning during a radio interview.

“He says, ‘Are you telling me you won’t do the other right now?’” Manchin recalled. “I said, ‘Chuck, it’s wrong, it’s not prudent to do the other right now.’”

Democrats Make Demands

Following the development, Democrats expressed disappointment and demanded that Biden take executive action targeting the climate.

“With legislative climate options now closed, it’s now time for executive Beast Mode,” Sen. Shelton Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote on Twitter. “Free at last. Let’s roll. Do it all and start it now.”

Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) issued a statement in reference to Manchin’s decision, saying that “this is our last chance” to pass climate-related measures.

But a spokesperson for Manchin told reporters this week that the senator has serious concerns about soaring inflation. A report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this week revealed that inflation spiked to 9.1 percent year-over-year in June.

“Political headlines are of no value to the millions of Americans struggling to afford groceries and gas as inflation soars to 9.1 percent,” Manchin spokeswoman Sam Runyon told Bloomberg. “Senator Manchin believes it’s time for leaders to put political agendas aside, reevaluate and adjust to the economic realities the country faces to avoid taking steps that add fuel to the inflation fire.”

Republicans say the spiking inflation and elevated gas prices are largely due to Biden’s policies. The president promoted the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan in early 2021 and also targeted the oil industry in a series of executive orders after he took office last year.

The White House released Biden’s statement threatening executive action while the president was visiting with the Saudi royal family on a several-day visit to the Middle East.

Source: The Epoch Times

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s gun-themed restaurant in downtown Rifle, Colorado, was a key element in her 2020 congressional campaign.

However, it appears that Shooter’s Grill is no more — at least for now.

According to Colorado’s Post Independent, Boebert indicated that the building’s new landlord is refusing to renew the restaurant’s lease.

However, a sign in front of the restaurant’s front door says, “Thanks for the support. Stay tuned. #covfefe“

“We were like a family,” Boebert said of her restaurant when she closed its doors on Sunday.

The restaurant came about after Boebert spent time ministering to female inmates in the Garfield County Jail; she wanted to help them and give them a place to “trade their shame for glory.”

“I would say Shooters, for any employee, was their life. We lived and breathed it every single day,” Boebert said.

“They were a part of this culture and brand that we created in Rifle, and there was a lot of pride with that.”

Boebert’s nod to a viral typo in one of former President Trump’s tweets suggests that Shooter’s Grill could soon become Shooter’s Covfefe.

In a statement provided to the Post Independent, Boebert indicated that her business would possibly reopen as a bakery. “It may look like a Shooter’s coffee shop with pastries and some easy breakfast sandwiches and merchandise,” the conservative firebrand said.

“We would just dramatically scale it back because, obviously, we’re not in our building.”

Shooter’s Grill was known for its pro-Second Amendment theme. Staff and management, such as Boebert, frequently open carried weapons on the premises.

Boebert rose to local prominence when she confronted Beto O’Rourke in a town hall, blasting him for his plan to forcibly confiscate legal firearms from American gun owners.

The conservative congresswoman is frequently a target of the progressive left, having shown herself willing to trade rhetorical barbs with resident Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Related:

John Kerry Put on Notice, New Legislation Targets His Spending of Taxpayer Money

Boebert won renomination in her district late last month despite liberals and some Republicans flocking to support her primary challenger.

Milken Enterprises is responsible for declining to renew the restaurant’s lease.

“It’s been an amazing journey. I don’t regret anything. It’s always sad to close a chapter. But this is where we’re at,” Boebert said.

Swing-district candidate Greg Landsman owes thousands in federal loans

The state of Ohio is going after a tax-happy Democratic candidate for unpaid business taxes, according to court documents.

The state in March filed a tax lien against Greg Landsman, a Cincinnati councilman and Democratic candidate for a competitive House race, ordering him to pay interest on unpaid taxes he owes through his firm Landsman & Associates. But while Landsman struggles with tax delinquency, he voted over a four-year span on the Cincinnati City Council to raise taxes and fees at least eight times—even as he acknowledged that Ohio families were “struggling” with taxes.

The state taxes are not the only debt Landsman owes the government. His business in 2020 received a $16,647 Paycheck Protection Program loan that has not been paid or forgiven. The firm is owned entirely by Landsman and listed only one employee on its loan application. The loan went entirely to payroll, according to data provided by the Small Business Administration.

Landsman helped pass seven tax and fee increases in June 2018 alone, even though he acknowledged at the time that “the average homeowner is really struggling with their property taxes.” The city councilman voted five months earlier to hike property taxes for city residents, citing the city’s multimillion-dollar budget shortfalls. Landsman’s Republican colleagues warned against the tax hike, which brought in $7 million for the city.

“We can’t ask working-class families to keep footing the bill. They can’t afford it,” Councilman Jeff Pastor (R.) told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Dan Lusheck, a spokesman for the Ohio GOP, said Landsman’s financial malfeasance would make him a perfect fit with Democrats in Washington, D.C.

“Greg Landsman, who has proven incapable of managing his own finances, would only perpetuate the economic disaster caused by Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden’s inability to govern,” Lusheck told the Washington Free Beacon.

As Democrats confront an unfavorable midterm election cycle, Landsman’s history of left-wing proposals could be a liability for his campaign to win Ohio’s First Congressional District. After national Democrats tapped the city councilman last year to challenge Rep. Steve Chabot (R.), Landsman has faced criticism over his proposals to eliminate cash bail and defund the city’s police department budget in the wake of George Floyd’s death. The Democrat’s proposals came amid a surge of violent crime in the city.

The tax lien against Landsman & Associates is for $656 with an interest rate of 3 percent. Landsman’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee listed Ohio’s First Congressional District as a top target in the midterms. Landsman, who ran uncontested in the state’s May primary election, will face off against Chabot in November.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) predicted on July 13 that inflation will soon hit double-digit figures if resident Joe Biden and congressional Democrats move forward with their plans to boost taxes on most Americans.

“We just got the numbers this morning for Ohio—$8,300 bucks a year in additional spending on energy, on food, on utility bills generally, and on clothing.” Portman’s $8,300 figure is based on data from January through June and projected to the end of the year.

“This is something that unfortunately is going to get worse, not better, unless we change policies,” he said. Extrapolating the current inflation figure to the rest of the year produces an annual rate of 16.1 percent, he said.

“That’s just unimaginable—even higher than the Carter years.”

Portman isn’t alone in fearing double-digit inflation later in the year, however, as in a related development on July 13, an economic analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank made a similar prediction.

“An inflation rate at 9.1 percent is devastating enough, but the official rate doesn’t even fully capture just how bad the situation is. Lower-income families and working Americans are being especially hard-hit by skyrocketing prices on items like food, gas, and housing,” economic policy studies research fellow Joel Griffith said in a statement.

“This administration is tone-deaf to the economic realities and the problems that they have created. Biden’s war on affordable energy production is the main culprit for both the high gas prices and skyrocketing food prices,” Griffith said.

“Things are only going to get worse, one way or another, as Biden’s economic policies are a double-edged sword. This is quite possibly the last month of lingering economic factors keeping inflation in the 8 percent range, which means the official (consumer price index) CPI number could be in the 10 percent range by the fall.”

Portman’s comments came during a July 13 news conference in which Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the top GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee, was joined by half a dozen colleagues from that panel in denouncing the Biden administration’s economic policies, which they contend are causing the spiraling inflation rate that hit 9.1 percent in June, according to the government.

“We all saw the news this morning that we’ve hit yet another record, 9.1 percent inflation,” Crapo told reporters in the Senate Press Gallery.

“Today’s new data shows the consumer price index remaining at a painful 40-year high, jumping to 9.1 percent for June from 8.6 percent in May, which was a record in May. When resident Biden took office, the inflation rate was 1.7 percent and for the four years previous to that it was in that zone,” Crapo said.

“Look where it’s gone now and the president continues to try to give reasons for this, using Russia, but the Russian invasion [of Ukraine] took place at around 7 or 8 percent inflation and it’s been going up since.”

“Economic conditions for Americans generally have deteriorated significantly. Inflation-adjusted wages for workers are falling, consumer and business confidence has cratered, nest eggs for retirees are eroding from the double whammy of inflation and lower account values, and the odds of recession have been rising, with stagflation an imminent threat,” he said.

“Nonetheless, in the face of all this, the Democrats want to raise taxes, including on the middle class and on taxpayers earning far less than $400,000. The Biden administration proposed $2.5 trillion in tax hikes in its Green Book.

“Last year’s House-passed Build Back Better bill was more than $1.5 trillion of new taxes. Now, my Senate Democratic colleagues are talking about a so-called slimmed-down package with tax hikes in the realm of $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion. There is nothing slim about these tax hikes,” he said.

More tax increases will further depress the supply side of the economy and produce more inflation, not less, and depress investment and productivity growth throughout the economy. Consumers are having to pay an estimated $5,200 or more for basic necessities like food, rent, and energy, Crapo claimed.

Crapo said one of the tax increases in the House-passed Build Back Better bill that’s now being considered in the Senate would be especially harmful to small businesses, which account for most of the new jobs in a normal economy.

“The expanded Net Investment Income Tax (NIIT), the tax on flow-through businesses, which are businesses whose owners income flows through to their personal tax forms,” Crapo noted.

“Small business groups estimate that millions of small and family-owned businesses would be at risk of having their tax rates increased under this policy, which will negatively impact their growth,” he said. He said the revised NIIT is projected to cost small businesses more than $252 billion in new levies.

Joining Crapo, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, “The biggest concern that I am hearing is the increased costs of energy, groceries, and—particularly from farmers—how the energy programs of the Biden administration are raising farming costs.”

Grassley said his constituents in largely rural Iowa are now paying more than $600 every month for basic necessities than they were prior to the Biden administration.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said: “You would think the Biden administration would understand the basic laws of supply and demand. The one reason prices are high is that demand is high. But when demand is high, if you want to lower prices, you increase the supply.

“Unfortunately, because of the ideologically driven energy agenda by this White House, rather than have domestic producers in places like Texas and elsewhere produce more oil and gas here in America, President Biden is doing, really, the unthinkable—he’s going to talk to [Saudi Arabian leader] Mohammed Bin Salman about Saudi Arabia increasing its energy production.”

“Obviously, this is upside down,” Cornyn added.

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told reporters that he was rummaging through boxes of memorabilia of his mother at his home recently and found a newspaper from the 1970s with a story about President Jimmy Carter meeting with Saudi Arabia’s leaders to appeal to them to increase oil production.

“As I read that story, all I could think was history is repeating itself,” Lankford said.

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said the $5,200 increase in costs due to inflation “is a lot of money for the average American household. I know back home in Indiana, $5,200 can make or break an administration, it can make or break a presidency.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Resident Joe Biden is losing support from some of his biggest backers.

Bill Kristol, who founded and edited the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, became a fierce critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and led the NeverTrump movement.

In 2018, Kristol co-founded The Bulwark, whose coverage is largely centered around criticism of Trump.

Two years later, he endorsed Biden in the Democratic primary, calling it a “simple choice,” and in the general election.

On Wednesday, however, Kristol argued that Biden should announce he won’t run for re-election.

He said on Twitter that a retirement announcement by Biden would bolster the Democrats’ chances in the 2022 midterm elections and lead to a Democratic victory in the 2024 presidential race.

Straightforward from here:

1. Biden announces not running again.

2. 2022 focus turns to R extremism, Ds do well in Nov.

3. Inflation subsides, Ukraine defeats Russia, Biden is successful 1-term president.

4. Younger moderate D defeats Trump or Trumpist in ’24.

Pourquoi pas?

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 13, 2022

As the president’s popularity drops further and further amid historic inflation and other crises, even liberals are increasingly giving him the cold shoulder.

A recent New York Times/Siena College poll indicated that 64 percent of Democratic voters want someone else than the incumbent as their nominee for president in 2024.

Biden snapped at a reporter who asked him about the poll at a White House event Tuesday.

“Read the polls, jack! You guys are all the same,” he said.

“What’s your message to Democrats who don’t want you to run again?”

BIDEN: “Read the polls! Read the polls, Jack! You guys are all the same.” pic.twitter.com/e0G3Sfufwm

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 12, 2022

Related:

Conservative Anti-Trump Magazine The Weekly Standard Announces Closure

If Biden were to run for re-election in 2024, he’d start his second term at the age of 82, smashing presidential age records.

Democrats have quietly circulated concerns about his age and unpopularity.

Kristol repeated his desire for Biden to eschew a 2024 re-election campaign in a subsequent tweet.

A lively (I thought!) podcast with @SykesCharlie.

We discuss just how (predictably) dangerous Trump proved to be, and the failure of Republicans and conservatives to come to grips with this.

Bonus: I make the case for Biden announcing he’s one and done.https://t.co/Ux5LubuqpN

— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 13, 2022

At the now-defunct Weekly Standard, the neoconservative ideologue became a crucial proponent of President George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The invasion has since become regarded as one of the worst foreign policy disasters in U.S. history.

Kristol reinvented himself by aligning with progressive Democrats as a Trump critic after the 2016 GOP primary, establishing himself as a mainstay on liberal cable channels such as CNN and MSNBC.

Vicente Gonzalez’s South Texas district has long history of cartel activity

Before joining Congress, Vicente Gonzalez agreed to legally represent drug smugglers and gang leaders who flooded his border community with illegal drugs. Now, the Texas Democrat stresses the need to stop the flow of drugs and maintain “law and order.”

In 1997, Gonzalez founded his law firm, V. Gonzalez and Associates, through which the multimillionaire Democrat still earns tens of thousands of dollars a year. One year later, Gonzalez was retained to represent Richard Contreras, who pleaded guilty to federal charges after he conspired to import more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana from Mexico, court documents show.

In 1999, meanwhile, Gonzalez was retained to defend Frank Tijerina, the leader of a Texas street gang called the “Corrupt Criminal Mob.” Tijerina was sentenced to 30 months in prison on federal drug charges after conspiring to distribute nearly $420,000 worth of marijuana. Tijerina later pleaded guilty to selling large quantities of meth in a scheme that also started in the late 1990s. In total, Gonzalez agreed to represent an array of felony drug dealers who conspired to distribute eight pounds of MDMA, nearly half a pound of cocaine, and more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana, easily worth millions of dollars.

Gonzalez’s decision to represent high-level drug dealers in his South Texas border community—long a hotspot for Mexican cartels working to traffic narcotics into the United States—is at odds with the Democrat’s rhetoric as a member of Congress. In June 2018, Gonzalez called himself a “law and order member” who “believe[s] in strict border security.” Two months later, the Democrat said he was working to “bring security to our border” and ensure “drugs are not coming across as freely as they are now.” The issue could haunt his campaign as voters sour on resident Joe Biden’s border policies amid record-high illegal immigrant encounters—according to a February Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, just 32 percent of voters approve of Biden’s handling of immigration.

A former Border Patrol agent who served in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which Gonzalez represents, criticized the Democrat for the “stark inconsistencies” between “where he’s at today versus what he did before.” “Most South Texas Democrats act as if they’re not threatened to lose their jobs,” the former agent told the Washington Free Beacon. “[Gonzalez] is on that list—he’s been very comfortable, at least until now.”

Gonzalez’s campaign, which touts his record as an attorney, did not return a request for comment. 

McAllen, Texas, where Gonzalez lives, is no stranger to cartel activity. The city borders the Mexican city of Reynosa, which is known as a “key trafficking point” for “cartel violence.” As a result, the New York Post reported in 2019, McAllen is “‘ground zero’ in the border crisis between the U.S. and Mexico” and even features “a new Maserati dealership and ads for Rolex and Cartier watches” as cartel traffickers look to launder their cash. Roughly two decades earlier—as Gonzalez defended drug dealers in the area—federal agents arrested individuals in McAllen and nearby Brownsville who were implicated in a Mexican trafficking ring that held more than 5,200 kilograms of cocaine, nearly 10,000 pounds of marijuana, and roughly $11 million in cash, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration press release.

Despite the long-standing flow of cartel drugs into McAllen, Gonzalez has criticized former president Donald Trump’s border wall, which he called “useless” and “wasteful.” Instead of funding the wall, the Democrat argued, Congress should send billions of dollars to Central American countries to slow illegal immigration. Gonzalez also said the idea that the wall would “stop illegal drugs from coming to our country” is a “myth.” Former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Ronald Vitiello disputed that claim, calling the wall an “important” tool that “makes the work of agents safer.”

“It provides an anchor for the operation, it provides an anchor for technology, and it makes the agents safer, because they have the ability to slow people down and have this base of operations,” Vitiello told the Free Beacon. “So saying that doesn’t work is not an informed opinion. It doesn’t comport with my experience and wisdom.”

Gonzalez made big money from his legal career, his financial disclosures show. The Democrat owns an array of rental properties—his latest disclosure lists eight in McAllen, two in Washington, D.C., one in Monterrey, Mexico, and one in Madrid, Spain. Those properties earned Gonzalez at least $235,000 in 2020. Gonzalez also earned a combined $280,000 in “attorney fees” income from his law firm in 2019 and 2020, according to his disclosures.

Gonzalez in 2020 narrowly defeated Republican challenger Monica De La Cruz in Texas’s 15th Congressional District. One year later, he announced his decision to run in the 34th Congressional District in 2022, as the state’s redistricting process made that area considerably more blue. Still, Republicans are hopeful that Republican congresswoman Mayra Flores can give Gonzalez a run for his money in November. 

Flores in June became both the first Mexican-born woman elected to Congress and the first Republican to represent parts of the 34th Congressional District since 1870 after she won a special election against Democrat Dan Sanchez. That race saw Flores best Sanchez in historical Democratic strongholds—the Republican, for example, won in Cameron County, which is 90 percent Hispanic and voted for Biden by double digits less than two years ago. After her win, the New York Times said Flores’s win marked “the rise of the far-right Latina,” citing the Republican’s support for religiosity, strong borders, and traditional values.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

A man suspected of being in the country illegally has been arrested for the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio.

Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arrested on July 12 for rape of a person under 13 years old, according to court records reviewed by The Epoch Times. The offense took place on May 12.

Fuentes confessed and the girl he raped, who just turned 10, received an abortion in Indianapolis on June 30, the Columbus Police Department said in Franklin County court, according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Det. Jeffrey Huhn said that the girl identified Fuentes as the father of the child and that Fuentes, through an interpreter, admitted having sexual contact with the girl, the paper reported.

A probable cause statement said that detectives collected a saliva sample from Fuentes and Huhn said testing is pending.

A bond of $2 million was set.

Fuentes is in the country illegally, according to a government official. He was provided a translator during the hearing, video footage showed.

Fuentes is currently being held in the Franklin County Jail, according to jail records.

Police Decline to Share Information

Reached after the hearing, the Columbus Police Department declined to share any information.

“Out of compassion for the victims, the Columbus Division of Police will not comment on any rapes/sexual assaults of juveniles,” Sgt. Joe Albert, an aide to Police Chief Elaine Bryant, told The Epoch Times.

The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office said it was conducting a legal review of The Epoch Times’ request for documents on the case.

The Franklin County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Gershon, did not respond to a request for comment.

The story of the rape was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, based on an account from pro-abortion doctor Caitlin Bernard.

No other evidence was provided in the initial report, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost had cast doubt on whether it happened.

“My heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child. I am grateful for the diligent work of the Columbus Police Department in securing a confession and getting a rapist off the street. Justice must be served and BCI stands ready to support law enforcement across Ohio putting these criminals behind bars,” Yost said in a statement on Wednesday. BCI refers to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

Resident Joe Biden cited the story in a speech on July 8 before signing an executive order aimed at ensuring women can get abortions in the wake of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade.

“Some of the states don’t allow for exceptions for rape or incest,” Biden said. “Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim in Ohio—10 years old—and she was forced to have to travel out of the state, to Indiana, to seek to terminate the [pregnancy] and maybe save her life.”

Ohio legislators passed an abortion ban on pregnancies over six weeks that was signed into law by Gov. Mark DeWine, a Republican, in 2019. It took effect in June after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest, though it does allow abortions if they are deemed necessary to save a pregnant woman’s life.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

WNBA star Brittney Griner remains imprisoned in Russia, and many people have argued resident Joe Biden and his administration are not doing enough to bring her home. NBA star LeBron James said she should be questioning her desire to return at all.

In a trailer for a new episode of his talk show “The Shop,” James suggested Griner may feel like she has been abandoned by the United States.

“Over 110 days,” James said. “Now, how can she feel like America has her back? I would be feeling like, ‘Do I even want to go back to America?’”

According to NPR, Griner was initially arrested on Feb. 17, at an airport near Moscow after staff allegedly found vape cartridges containing marijuana in her luggage.

On Thursday, Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in a Moscow-area court, CNN reported. The charges could carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

“She decided to take full responsibility for her actions as she knows that she is a role model for many people,” Griner’s legal team said in a statement.

“Considering the nature of her case, the insignificant amount of the substance and BG’s personality and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the plea will be considered by the court as a mitigating factor and there will be no severe sentence.”

While James was not the first to suggest the U.S. government should do more to help Griner avoid having to stay in a Russian prison, he took his comments further than most by saying he would question a return to the country if he were Griner.

Multiple conservative commentators torched James on Twitter following his comments.

“LeBron James thinks America is so bad Brittney Griner might prefer to just stay in a Russian prison for a decade,” The Daily Caller editor David Hookstead wrote on Twitter. “People on ESPN act like this clown is a genius. In reality, LeBron is incredibly stupid.”

LeBron James thinks America is so bad Brittney Griner might prefer to just stay in a Russian prison for a decade.

People on ESPN act like this clown is a genius. In reality, LeBron is incredibly stupid. https://t.co/ShPS4Pym86

— David Hookstead (@dhookstead) July 12, 2022

Outkick founder Clay Travis referred to James as a “professional idiot.”

Related:

LeBron James Issues Follow-Up Statement After His Comment on Brittney Griner and America Sparked Backlash

LeBron James, professional idiot, says he would question ever returning to the United States if he’d been arrested in Russia like Brittany Griner. https://t.co/L2CAJivkpj

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 12, 2022

USA Today interviewed David Whelan, whose brother is being held in a Russian prison for a spying charge he denies. Whelan said the condition of Russian prisons is abysmal.

“When they talk about buildings being Stalin-era, they’re not kidding,” Whelan said. “Prisoners have to maintain the cleanliness of their cell, and so it was at first quite filthy, since the previous occupant had not seemed concerned about cleanliness. You are allowed a weekly shower and a daily walk.”

He said guards show “no interest in nutrition” for prisoners, and friends or family members often have to bring in food for many of them.

Meanwhile, James is enjoying the NBA off-season in America. According to contract information from Sportrac, he is set to be paid a base salary of more than $44 million dollars for the season starting later this year.

Resident Joe Biden was among a group of world leaders that Uber had access to, when the ride-sharing company was aggressively expanding its global presence, according to leaked company files.

The Uber files—containing more than 124,000 emails, memos, text messages, company presentations, and other documents dating from 2013 to 2017—were leaked to British newspaper The Guardian. The outlet then shared the files with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its media partners.

The person who leaked the files is Mark MacGann, Uber’s former chief European lobbyist.

According to an ICIJ report on the Uber files published on July 10, the files showed how Uber executives, including co-founder Travis Kalanick, lobbied and courted politicians around the world for favors, during its dramatic expansion.

In total, Uber executives held more than 100 meetings with public officials from 17 countries and the European Union, according to the report. Among those meetings, 34 were with European Union officials, and 9 were with European Commissioners. Twelve of the meetings with European Commission representatives had not been publicly disclosed.

Biden met with Kalanick in Davos, Switzerland, in 2016, just before the then-U.S. Vice President delivered a speech at the World Economic Forum, according to the report.

Kalanick was apparently not pleased that Biden showed up late at their meeting in Biden’s suite at the InterContinental Hotel.

“I’ve had my people let him know that every minute late he is, is one less minute he will have with me,” Kalanick wrote in a text message to a colleague.

At their meeting, Biden was impressed by what Kalanick said, how Uber was transforming cities and the way people work for the better, that the then-Vice President “tweaked his keynote speech,” according to the report.

Biden did not name Uber or Kalanick in his speech.

“Ride-sharing companies employ tens of thousands of new people. I met with the CEO today of one of those companies,” Biden said in the speech. “He said he is gonna add two million new jobs this year, allowing them freedom to work as many hours as they wish, manage their own lives as they wish.”

“Uber took special care to keep Kalanick’s meeting with Biden confidential,” the report said, before adding that the meeting was arranged “through a chain of former Obama staffers.”

In response to ICIJ’s questions in June, a White House spokeswoman said Biden was “committed to combating employee misclassification which deprives workers of critical protections and benefits, including minimum wage, overtime, and family and medical leave,” according to the report.

Kalanick served as Uber CEO from 2010 to 2017 before he resigned amid scrutiny over Uber’s treatment of female engineers and questionable business practices. However, he held on to his seat on the company’s board of directors until the end of 2019.

Europe

The report also named French President Emmanuel Macron, specifically about how he was an Uber ally when he was the country’s finance minister.

Uber’s service was partially suspended in France’s city of Marseille on Oct. 20, 2015, the report said, following protests by local taxi drivers.

“Could you ask your cabinet to help us to understand what is going on?” MacGann wrote to Macron.

Less than a day later, Macron responded, “I’ll look into this personally. Send me all the facts and we’ll decide by tonight. Let’s stay calm at this stage, I trust you.”

Hours later, authorities in Marseille said they would revise the suspension order, according to the report.

The report said the exchange between MacGann and Macron was “one of more than a dozen undisclosed communications” between Uber representatives and Macron.

Marcon’s office has responded to the Uber files, saying the economy minister had frequent contacts with companies disrupting the service industry at the time, and it was appropriate to facilitate the lifting of red tape, reported French newspaper Le Monde.

Kalanick also met with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in 2016.

“Right now you are seen as aggressive,” Rutte told Kalanick according to meeting notes cited in the report.

Rutte suggested that Kalanick “change the way people look at the company” by emphasizing the company’s positives.

“This will make you seem cuddly,” Rutte said. 

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek has warned that although the middle class is doing OK financially, people with less discretionary spending are having a difficult time in the current economy.

In a July 11 interview for CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” program, Jelinek said that while overall “the consumer is not doing bad,” and the unemployment rate is down significantly, many are struggling with sky-high gas prices and the cost of living steadily rising.

“For a lot of people, right now, they are in a recession because they’re just trying to survive with just buying gas and making their house payments, rent payments,” Jelinek said.

However, the CEO noted that people from higher-income households still have “discretionary income to buy goods,” adding that Costco’s member base is generally middle to upper-middle class households.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen three months from now. Interest rates have gone down … but right at the moment, we think things aren’t so bad,” Jelinek added.

Jelinek’s comments come as resident Joe Biden’s administration continues to downplay the possibility of a recession in the United States.

In June, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that while she expects the economy to slow down, she does not believe a recession is “inevitable.”

Biden himself has repeated those claims, telling The Associated Press in June that the United States is “in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation.”

Economy Is ‘Very Strong’

On July 10, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo doubled down on those claims, telling ABC’s “This Week” that the U.S. economy is fundamentally “very strong” and that she doesn’t see any reason to think there will be a serious recession.

Raimondo pointed to job recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, strong household balance sheets, and companies hiring and thriving as reasons for the lack of possibility of an economic downturn.

But other experts disagree.

Economists at Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley are among those forecasting a recession in the not-too-distant future.

Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company have also noted that “storm clouds are gathering around the broader U.S. economy,” while forecasting that a recession could take place by the end of 2022 and the start of 2023.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has also acknowledged that while the Fed aims to raise interest rates without bringing on an economic downturn, this is not an easy task.

An inflation tracker from the bipartisan Senate Joint Economic Committee found that price hikes are expected to cost the average American household an extra $7,620 over the next 12 months.

Despite the cost of living soaring, Jelinek had some good news for Costco customers: price hikes won’t hit the hot dogs.

When asked whether the food giant would increase the cost of its signature food court item—the hot dog and soda combo—from its current price of $1.50, Jelinek gave a stern “no.”

The company also won’t be upping Costco membership fees, stating that this is “not on the table right at the moment” as it is not “the right time.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The details in the stories of the families whose loved ones died in the hospital due to what they call “death protocols” are strikingly similar.

The patients were all scorned because of their unvaccinated status and were given a combination of sedatives and the antiviral drug remdesivir.

The patients were also kept isolated, malnourished, and ultimately put on a ventilator before dying.

After death, the families were left in confusion and with inconceivable stories that many don’t believe—stories of chilling administrative cruelty.

The FormerFedsGroup Freedom Foundation (FFFF) has gathered about 200 of these stories through its COVID-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project to build an online database of testimonies for the purpose of surveying accounts of treatment for the sick unvaccinated and prosecuting any cases involving alleged abuse.

“They are horror stories,” Carolyn Blakeman, media director and task force coordinator for FFFF, told The Epoch Times.

Many of these deaths in hospitals occurred in 2021 after COVID-19 vaccine mandates were announced by resident Joe Biden.

In some cases, people who didn’t want to take the experimental vaccine were being fired, while unvaccinated patients in hospitals were being treated much differently than the vaccinated.

The phrase “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” was used by public officials to place blame on those who chose not to take vaccines that later proved to not be as safe and effective as touted.

Reports from people such as Scott Schara in Wisconsin and Anne Quiner in Minnesota began to reveal patterns of behavior by hospital administrators that suggested medical discrimination and protocols that many, like Schara and Quiner, alleged led to the barbaric death of their loved ones.

To grasp how health officials, physicians, and citizens were falling in lockstep with what appeared to be a global trance, Dr. Robert Malone, a pioneer of mRNA technology, presented the idea that many have fallen into “mass formation psychosis.”

‘We Need Massive Investigations’

Brad Geyer, a former federal prosecutor for 21 years with the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, told The Epoch Times, “We found these testimonial accounts to be so overwhelming, unimpeachable, and compelling that it might be exactly what we need to break the spell.”

Dr. Peter McCullough, the renowned cardiologist who has spoken out against COVID-19 protocols, is the president of FFFF, a New Jersey-based nonprofit comprised of former federal agents, prosecutors, lawyers, medical professionals, researchers, and volunteers whose efforts are geared toward exposing what it has determined are fraudulent COVID-19 practices established by the medical establishment and Marxist ideologies infiltrating American institutions that have directed society into a “new normal” of unconstitutionality.

There are several goals of the project, one being to create a historical document on what has taken place for those who can’t get their voices heard in mainstream media outlets that have been corrupted by the “safe and effective” feedback loop, Geyer said.

Then, FFFF finds representation for the victims while building a larger, collective case for crimes against humanity investigations, Geyer said.

There is also the goal of putting pressure on elected officials to hold everyone involved accountable, Geyer said.

“What is the purpose of sedating patients with fifteen different drugs, including fentanyl, and withholding food and water while keeping them isolated from their families?” Geyer asked. “We need massive investigations.”

‘They Scare These People to Death Through Emotional and Psychological Abuse’

In each story, Blakeman said family members have told her that doctors presented the same case for a ventilator.

“If I’ve heard that once, I’ve heard it 200 times in the exact words: ‘We’re just going to put you on the vent for a couple of days to give your lungs a rest,’” Blakeman said. “It’s like they all got the same memo on what to tell their patients. It’s insane.”

There is also the “COVID Cocktail” that is set before every patient, Blakeman said, which is what she called a kidney-failing concoction of remdesivir, vancomycin, and dexamethasone.

Each report also includes vitriolic contempt from doctors for the unvaccinated patients, Blakeman said.

“They scare these people to death through emotional and psychological abuse,” Blakeman said. “We had a victim whose husband literally had to break her out, with cops chasing them down the hallway to their getaway car. They are treated worse than prisoners.”

The value of the interviews as historical documents will help future generations to remember and not repeat these atrocities, Geyer said.

“Imagine if we could have interviewed all of those in the concentration camps,” Geyer said. “That’s what we are doing here in trying to build a machine that unearths the full truth of what occurred while it can deprogram enough people to get engaged in our effort to ensure our government continues to honor and respect the full measure of rights associated with citizenship and protect our constitutional rights.”

Another goal is to set up a humanity restoration board of physicians who have been uncorrupted, such as Drs. McCullough and Malone, to administer an organization that would confer, recommend, and advocate for physicians and nurses who want to come forward to make full disclosures of what they’ve done in exchange for leniency and amnesty.

“If we could create a quasi-governmental entity of physicians and scientists to administer a whistleblower program that would initially be a trickle, it could eventually become a stream and then hopefully a river of testimonies from physicians and nurses who want to get off their consciences what they’ve done,” Geyer said.

‘Our Stories are Eerily the Same’

Among the people FFFF has interviewed are Katrin Crum, Aletha Chavez, and Ashley Wines, each of whom also spoke with The Epoch Times about their experiences.

“It’s been eight months since my husband was killed, and I say killed because that’s exactly what happened,” Crum said. “He did not die of COVID. He died from the federal COVID protocols that were dictated to every hospital in the country.”

Crum started the private Facebook group C19 Widows/Widowers that want JUSTICE, where she met Chavez and Wines.

The group now has 600 members.

“All of our stories are eerily the same, and there’s a reason for that,” Crum said.

Crum’s husband, 58-year-old Richard, was a principal in Washington state at a private school that served special needs students, Crum said.

“Over 20 of his former students attended his memorial and spoke about the positive impact he had on their lives,” Crum said.

After his death—a more detailed account of which can be found here on FFFF’s web page—Crum said she turned her grief and anger into activism and advocacy, pouring herself into research.

“When the pandemic started, the NIH (National Institutes of Health), the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) handed down protocols for hospitals to follow in treating COVID patients,” Crum said. “Never before in the history of our country did a three-letter agency dictate to the doctor what the standard of care for a patient was going to be.”

Neither the NIH nor the FDA responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

Individual treatment had been left up to the physician and was an open discussion between the physician and the patient, Crum said.

“But now, all of that has been thrown out the window,” Crum said. “My 58-year-old husband in Washington received the exact same treatment as a 40-year-old woman in Florida who had none of the same health issues that my husband had.”

Richard was admitted on Oct. 21 and died in the hospital on Nov. 5, 2021, with Crum, who had been able to advocate her way into finally seeing him after 11 days, in the room with him as nurses attempted CPR.

“He had wrist restraints on, a sore on his face from the mask, and had lost 36 pounds in 14 days,” Crum said.

Before he died, one doctor had attempted to coerce Crum into agreeing to change his classification to “Do Not Resuscitate,” Crum said.

“I kept refusing, and finally, at the end of our conversation, she was so mad she told me, ‘Fine, if you won’t change him to DNR when your husband goes into cardiac arrest, I’ll refuse to give him chest compressions,’” Crum said.

Crum had a private autopsy and toxicology report that listed medical conditions that caused his death other than COVID: a 90 percent blockage in the main artery of his heart that went untreated throughout his 16-day stay at the hospital, and a lethal dose of fentanyl, she said.

The protocols make the patients like her husband sicker and lead to death, Crum said, while reaping high financial incentives from the federal government through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan supplemental funding to hospitals.

The hospitals get reimbursed for admitting or having a patient test positive for COVID, which is why there are reports such as Crum’s in which staff will continue to test a patient even if they weren’t admitted with a positive test, Crum said.

In addition, Crum said hospitals get reimbursed for using remdesivir, putting a patient on a ventilator, and having a patient die with COVID on the death certificate.

‘A Perverse Agenda’

Tom Renz, an attorney with America’s Frontline Doctors and Make Americans Free Again—organizations that oppose unconstitutional federal health mandates, spoke with The Epoch Times in a previous article about the reimbursements.

Renz said hospitals get federal funding through the CARES Act, which gives a 20 percent increase in reimbursement to hospitals for inpatient stays resulting from COVID-19, Renz said.

“The laws are structured in a way that incentivizes hospitals to kill people,” Renz said. “The hospital makes more money if you die from COVID-19 than if you recover from it. Why don’t we incentivize hospitals for getting people cured of COVID?”

In a Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services in June, Texas state Sen. Bob Hall alluded to the stories like ones collected by the FFFF when he said, “Never before have we seen the government step between the patient and the doctor and usurp that doctor’s right to exercise their conscience, their training, and what they know that patient needed.”

Hall said it’s something “we need to get to the bottom of” so that it doesn’t become “the norm” because the treatment is not only not helping, but also causing harm.

“How many people walk into U.S. hospitals and don’t walk out again because of this perverse agenda?” Crum asked. “A very high number.”

‘I Trusted Them’

Chavez’s more detailed account of her husband Roberto’s death in a hospital in California can be found on FFFF’s web page.

Roberto was a deputy sheriff for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department who lifted weights and hiked every day.

“We were told he was the healthiest person there with COVID,” Chavez said.  “He never took any medications, worked out every day, and had no co-morbidities.”

Roberto was aware of stories of neglect in nursing homes and hospitals throughout COVID, Chavez said.

“He didn’t want to be admitted, but we just thought that he would go in and get a breathing treatment and come home, so, I took him to the hospital,” Chavez said. “It’s my biggest regret after all I know now.”

Roberto was admitted overnight on Aug. 17, Chavez said.

From the beginning, he was isolated, treated with neglect and disrespect because of his unvaccinated status, and put through the same series of protocols that led to Richard’s death, Chavez said.

“He had told me he needed to use the bathroom but couldn’t get a nurse to help him,” Chavez said. “He asked me to call the nurses station at least five times since they would not respond to him.”

Chavez received a call at 4 a.m. from a nurse telling her that he had fallen out of bed, she said.

“I know my husband,” Chavez said. “He’s not just going to lay there. He’s going to get up and use the bathroom.”

The nurse told Chavez there were no injuries from the fall, but because he lost his oxygen mask, he had gone into respiratory failure, which then led to their petition to put him on ventilation, Chavez said, though it was never a treatment he wanted.

“We had been texting and talking on the phone every day, so I knew he had been fine,” Chavez said. “They told me if we don’t vent him he’ll die, so I was put on the spot. I agreed. When given that choice, what would you do? I trusted them.”

The next day his heart stopped twice, and on the third time, he could not be resuscitated, Chavez said, and he died on Aug. 26, 2021.

“That was the worst day of my life,” Chavez said.

At first, Chavez said she thought it was just neglect, then she paid an outside company of physicians and nurses to review Roberto’s medical records which showed what they referred to as many red flags and, among other issues, that Roberto had been saturated with cross-interaction drugs while kept on fentanyl.

“As I delved further into this, I found that my story is many, many other people’s stories,” Chavez said.

‘They Told Us It Was His Fault’

Ashley Wines, a nursing student herself whose story in more detail can be found on FFFF’s webpage, lost her 32-year-old fiance Phillip Carron on Oct. 14, after he was admitted on September 23, 2021.

“Phil was a real estate agent here locally in Bellingham, Washington,” Wines said. “He actually just became sales manager and senior vice president for NW Premium Homes shortly before everything happened. We pretty much had our future set up for us.”

Like Crum and Chavez, she encountered rabid discrimination because of Phillip’s unvaccinated status, she said.

“When I tried to drop off some food, one nurse yelled at me, telling me that because he was unvaccinated, he was going to die and that he’s not going to be eating or drinking for the rest of the time he’s here,” Wines said.

Initially, Phillip was going to be kept for observation; however, after he denied vaccination, Wines said he was put on morphine overnight, which she said increases respiratory distress.

“The next morning, he’s getting sent to ICU and labeled ‘imminent death,’” Wines said. “A couple of days later they start giving him precedex, which is a strong sedative, and remdesivir.”

After one dose of remdesivir, Phillip went into complete liver failure, Wines said.

Wines’s questioning of the protocols eventually got her banned from calling the hospital, Wines said, and she could no longer speak with Phillip, so she relied on Phillips’s mother, Pam, as power of attorney.

While Phillip was on the ventilator for 15 days, Wines said he lost 86 pounds.

“I would say 75 percent of the nurses were just nasty,” Wines said. “Every single doctor was nasty. We had doctors laugh at us. They told us it was his fault because he was not vaccinated.”

Wines and Phillip’s mother, Pam, were with Phillip the day he died, but had left two hours earlier, Wines said.

“I worked in hospice; I know what end-of-life looks like,” Wines said. “There’s no way we would have left had I thought he was going to pass. I find it interesting that two hours after we left, he passed.”

These are just brief vignettes skimming the surface of Crum’s, Chavez’s, and Wines’s stories that can be found in more detail— in addition to the stories of others—on the FFFF’s COVID-19 Humanity Betrayal Memory Project’s webpage.

‘We Are Going to Get Justice’

“People don’t want to believe that this is happening,” Crum said. “But as more stories come out, you cannot deny it.”

There are hundreds of people willing to come forward to share stories like theirs, Crum said.

“This has got to stop,” Crum said. “I think whoever set this evil system in place thought we would just dissolve into a heap of grief.”

Though there are times when they may want to, Crum said, it’s now become bigger than that.

“We are going to fight. We want the protocols to stop, and we want to hold these people accountable,” Crum said. “We are going to get justice.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

What’s Happening:

With Joe Biden unlikely to make it to 2024, Democrats are fearing a Kamala candidacy. Chances are, the woman will run—common sense be damned.

But she isn’t doing herself any favors. While speaking about the historic overturning of Roe v. Wade, she stumbled over her own comments.

Yikes, what did I just watch?

Kamala Harris was asked about her views on the recent overturning of Roe. It appears the woman, who seems to care more about appearances than substance, tried to look concerned and grave.

Oh, yes. The end of federalized abortion is so terrible. Any reasonable Democrat has to look very solemn when talking about it.

(Because their Planned Parenthood business is probably going to take a big hit.)

But when she opens her mouth, nothing remotely grave or solemn comes out. She claims that abortion was “settled.”

Not sure what she meant by that, considering millions upon millions of Americans have protested every year over it since 1974.

But then she goes on and says it’s “unsettled.” Uh… what?

What is this woman talking about? Can’t anyone within the Biden administration talk like rational humans?

It’s bad enough that Biden is reading “repeat quote” off a teleprompter. Does his “vice president” have to sound just as confusing as he does?

Harris has long been mocked over her “word salads.” But that is being too charitable. From all appearances, she looks and sounds like a child pretending to be a politician.

Nothing about her appears authentic. She is trying to imitate real leaders, hoping people are dumb enough to believe her.

Hey, Kamala! Guess what we aren’t.

Key Takeaways:

• Kamala Harris made another confusing statement during an interview.
• She contradicted herself while discussing the overturning of Roe.
• Harris has as bad of a reputation speaking as Joe Biden.

Source YouTube

The Patriot Journal

Best-selling horror novelist Stephen King was forced to apologize to his 6.7 million followers on Twitter over a false story he had posted on Wednesday about Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The following day, a left-leaning fact-check site judged King’s post to be false.

In a now-deleted tweet, King wrote that DeSantis had signed a bill “requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with [the] state,” according to PolitiFact. The fact-check found that King’s claim “copied the headline of a June 2021 article published by Salon.” They noted that the headline has now been changed.

This misinformation related to Florida House Bill 233 which “requires the states’ public colleges and universities to ‘conduct an annual assessment of the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity,’ using a survey developed by the State Board of Education or the Board of Governors.”

Following a lengthy explanation, PolitiFact wrote: “We rate King’s statement False.”

The Daily Wire reported that the caption on King’s original tweet, which included a link to the Salon article, read: “I. Can’t. Even.”

Frankly, I. Can’t. Even. believe King was taken in by such a spurious story. I suppose he trusted Salon to give him a fair and accurate account of what happened. Still, I would expect King, who is 74 and a highly acclaimed writer, to be more discerning than this.

At any rate, he apologized to his followers in the tweet below.

I deleted a tweet about Ron DeSantis requiring notice of political views of students and teachers. That really was fake news. Sorry.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 9, 2022

PolitiFact later posted an update to reflect a statement King had given to CNN. It read: “I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better.”

Actually, Salon is not usually more reliable and the reality is that the far-left novelist wanted the story to be true.

To show you just how out of touch King is, he posted the following tweet on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mr. Putin has made a serious miscalculation.
He forgot he’s no longer dealing with Trump.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) February 23, 2022

Related:

Florida Deputies in Big Trouble After Investigation Reveals What They Did After Bob Saget Was Found Dead

His wildly inaccurate portrayal of resident Joe Biden as being more formidable than former President Donald Trump is laughable. Yet the post received over 151,000 likes.

King is able to influence public opinion because of his celebrity. His followers look up to him and believe what he says.

Likewise, the leftist media is able to influence public opinion because of their authority.

Unfortunately, the media has abandoned their responsibility to report the news truthfully and we are living with the consequences. Political divisions among Americans have rarely been greater and emotions have reached a fever pitch. This is a terrible time to be whipping up the left with irresponsible stories and tweets.

The chasm between today’s legacy media and their role as envisioned by our founders has never been greater. Those tasked with holding the government accountable and keeping voters informed are now working in cahoots with the government to deceive the people.

Will Stephen King “try to do better” as he promised his followers? No, he’ll seize upon the next piece of red meat held before him by the charlatans pretending to be journalists.

The Army suspended a decorated general for criticizing a tweet by first lady Jill Biden, USA Today reported.

The branch released retired three-star lieutenant general Gary Volesky, a veteran of the wars in the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan, from advising senior officers because of his June 25 response to a Jill Biden tweet about the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v. Wade.

“For nearly 50 years, women have had the right to make our own decisions about our bodies,” the first lady tweeted. “Today, that right was stolen from us.”

“Glad to see you finally know what a woman is,” Volesky replied.

Volesky’s tweet has since been taken down.

Volesky was likely talking about Biden’s support for transgender rights, a cause the military has also embraced. As Russia this year began its bloodthirsty invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. Army was training officers on “gender pronouns” and “when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. Top-ranking General Mark Milley, who secretly promised to warn the Chinese People’s Liberation Army about U.S. military actions, has in recent years embraced left-wing causes, saying he wants to “understand white rage” and apologizing for appearing with former president Donald Trump.

This is the second time this month that the Army has punished service members for disagreeing with someone in the Biden White House. The Army announced July 1 that it will deprive soldiers of pay and benefits if they do not comply with the administration’s vaccine mandate.

Volesky, who retired in 2020, received the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest decoration for valor, the New York Post reported. He served as the Army’s chief of public affairs from 2012 to 2014 and commanded the 101st Airborne Division.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Jewish Democratic Council of America tries to rewrite history on Wittes’s opposition to the historic Abraham Accords

Resident Joe Biden is headed to the Middle East this week for the first time as president, in part to advance the historic peace agreements the Trump administration helped secure between Israel and many of its neighbors. 

It’s bad timing for one of his nominees, Dr. Tamara Cofman Wittes, who spent the Trump years as a Twitter warrior trashing the Abraham Accords and —well, now it’s awkward. 

We assume that’s why, according to our Alana Goodman, the Jewish Democratic Council of America is rushing in to shore up Wittes’s street cred with a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from “leaders in foreign policy, national security, and the Jewish community” attesting to her stellar support for the Abraham Accords: “As Dr. Wittes said during her hearing,” Jewish Democratic Council CEO Halie Soifer writes in the letter, “the Abraham Accords ‘offer a foundation for regional cooperation between Arab states and Israel, on shared issues like energy, water, and health.’” 

It would be hard to come up with a sleazier, more dishonest, more lawyerly case for Wittes’s nomination. 

Wittes may have regurgitated platitudes at her confirmation hearing intended to assure lawmakers of her support for the Abraham Accords that are now Biden administration policy, but one has to think she was more honest when she wasn’t gunning for votes. That’s when she slammed the peace agreements as a “new Naksa”—that is, a setback or catastrophe—for the Palestinian people, called the normalization agreements between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Israel a step “in the wrong direction,” and took to her podcast to mock their significance: “For your average Israeli, what is most exciting about this is that instead of having to fly to Istanbul to get to Southeast Asia, they can fly through Abu Dhabi and Dubai, it is much faster,” she sneered. 

Consider those remarks in light of the rest of the letter, which describes Wittes as an “open-minded and principled” woman who “always finds time to listen to alternative views and give them full consideration.” 

Mmmhmm. 

Wittes’s post-hoc explanation for her tweets—that she “was skeptical that other Arab states would join” the Abraham Accords—makes no sense and is plainly refuted by the record. Bias and ignorance are the best case explanation for her position then. At least as plausible is that Wittes had in mind Qatari opposition to the Abraham Accords: The repressive Gulf monarchy was at the time funding her perch at the Brookings Institution, and Wittes had no compunction about lavishing praise on her benefactors.

That a supposed Middle East expert was upstaged and discredited by the political novices in the Trump administration is embarrassing but not disqualifying. Her dishonesty during her Senate testimony should be.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

The Florida Democratic Party’s annual leadership conference is sponsored by Big Pharma giant and COVID-19 vaccine pusher Pfizer, The National Pulse can reveal.

Taking place July 15th through 17th, the event and gala count Pfizer as one of its lead corporate sponsors in addition to Democratic campaign and lobby groups. ActBlue – the prominent payment processor for Democrats and Black Lives Matter – is also a sponsor, in addition to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

The “Leadership Blue” event, hosted in Tampa, convenes Democratic candidates for office and Florida Democratic Party (FDP) officials from across the state for training seminars and meetings.

Pfizer’s sponsorship appears to pose yet another conflict of interest given the company’s role as a COVID-19 vaccine maker which still enjoys government protection against legal challenges over their MRNA therapies.

Furthermore, despite obscuring results from its pharmaceutical trials and studies suggesting natural immunity confers better protection than COVID-19 vaccination, the company has continued to receive approval on its vaccines and boosters from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Meanwhile, Floridian Democrats have criticized state Governor Ron DeSantis for failing to implement COVID-19 vaccine mandates for businesses and schools – a policy that directly affects Pfizer’s profits. The pharmaceutical giant has spent a record-breaking amount on lobbyists throughout COVID-19, strategically tapping former government employees with ties to Joe Biden, to push for authorization of its vaccine.

In 2019, the company spent $11,000,000 on lobbying efforts before increasing the total to $13,150,000 – the highest total since 2010.

In 2019, the company retained 77 lobbyists before the total grew to a team of 102 lobbyists in 2020. So far in 2021, Pfizer has declared 92 lobbyists.

Pfizer has employed a similar tactic outside the political sphere, as individuals tied to the company hold influential roles within media, technology, and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Earlier this year, Democrats en masse voted against a move that would prohibit the monitoring and persecution of American citizens who refused the vaccine.

In October 2021, a Pfizer scientist was caught on hidden camera admitting to profiteering off COVID-19.

Pfizer’s sponsorship also follows the event moving from its original location of Disney World to the Tampa JW Marriott due to pressure from LGBTQ activists over Disney’s initial refusal to condemn Governor DeSantis’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The Biden Justice Department has yet to take action against abortion extremists menacing pro-life clinics and members of the Supreme Court. Republican lawmakers are resolved to hold leadership accountable after the midterm elections—even if that means impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), who is in line to take over the House Judiciary Committee if Republicans prevail in November, didn’t take a Garland impeachment inquiry off the table in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon. Jordan cited a range of alleged misconduct, from failure to enforce black-letter law to protect clinics and justices, to secret collusion with leftwing groups opposed to parents protesting woke curricula changes.

“That’ll be a decision that will be made by the entire conference,” Jordan said of an impeachment push.

The oversight planning is a response to conflict roiling the country following the High Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Pro-abortion protesters tried running Justice Brett Kavanaugh out of a downtown Washington, D.C., steakhouse on Wednesday night, weeks after a gunman came to his home planning to assassinate him. And the militant pro-abortion network Jane’s Revenge has claimed responsibility for more than a dozen acts against pro-life clinics and churches, ranging from vandalism to fire-bombing.

It is a federal crime to demonstrate outside of a judge’s home with intent to influence deliberations. Regular pro-abortion demonstrations outside the homes of the conservative justices seem to fit that bill exactly. The Justice Department has taken no action against protesters as of this writing. Local police told inquiring neighbors that federal agencies are declining to enforce the judicial anti-picketing law, according to a Fox News report.

Jordan wonders whether the Justice Department and the White House are following a template.

“The key question we would like to find out, if in fact the American people put us in control, is was this similar to what happened with parents at school board meetings? In other words, was the Biden White House working with some outside left wing influence groups, and also then communicating that information to the DOJ?” Jordan said.

The Ohio Republican added that a dozen whistleblowers have quietly come forward to speak about the Biden Justice Department and FBI matters, though he declined to get into specifics.

The Free Beacon was first to report that White House aides colluded with the National School Boards Association to push the Justice Department into investigating parents protesting critical race theory and gender ideology as domestic terrorists.

It’s also a federal crime to attack or destroy houses of worship and clinics for pregnant women. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who enforces those laws, has derided pro-life clinics in the past. While Biden administration officials have shared intelligence assessments with clerics and local law enforcement, the administration has yet to make even a single arrest or indictment related to dozens of attacks on churches and pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.

There have been almost 50 documented instances of violence, vandalism, or intimidation at houses of worship and pro-life clinics since the Dobbs draft leaked, according to a June report from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

House Republicans will be better positioned than their Senate counterparts to force Biden officials to cooperate if they stonewall investigators. Senate committee rules incentivize, but do not require, bipartisan cooperation when issuing subpoenas. The House has no such constraints. And House committees have historically taken the lead on compelled testimony and sharing of evidence.

Republican senators are putting public pressure on federal law enforcement to take immediate action. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray in June requesting a briefing on the bureau’s efforts to combat pro-abortion extremism.

“Our law enforcement officers are obliged to duly enforce the laws of our country—not just those that are politically suitable to the current administration,” Grassley’s letter reads.

“We’re usually the tip of the spear in terms of shining a light on issues and embarrassing an agency into compliance,” a Republican Senate aide told the Free Beacon. “The more attention they get for ignoring congressional oversight, the worse it looks for them. And that’s a pretty effective tactic for us.”

Outside groups are also pressing GOP lawmakers for accountability. Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project, said there is ample reason to remove Garland from office. Davis was nominations chief for Grassley during the Kavanaugh confirmation and led the outside support team for Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation.

“When Republicans reclaim the House in January, they must impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland,” Davis told the Free Beacon. “There must be consequences for his dangerous dereliction of duty that has led to highly dangerous attacks on the Supreme Court of the United States.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

DEL RIO, Texas—The U.S. Border Patrol agents who were falsely accused of striking illegal immigrants at the U.S.–Mexico border have had their careers “ruined” by resident Joe Biden, the head of the agency’s union told The Epoch Times.

“Their careers were ruined by this president,” said Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council.

A slew of media outlets in the fall of 2021 claimed that Border Patrol agents on horseback had whipped Haitian aliens who were entering the United States by crossing the Rio Grande at Del Rio, Texas. The outlets later backtracked on the claims.

But multiple government officials, including Biden, used similar language.

Biden told reporters he observed that the agents had “strapped” the immigrants, calling what happened “outrageous.”

“I promise you, those people will pay. They will be—an investigation is underway now, and there will be consequences. There will be consequences. It’s an embarrassment. But beyond an embarrassment, it’s dangerous; it’s wrong. It sends the wrong message around the world. It sends the wrong message at home. It’s simply not who we are,” he said at the time.

However, an internal review released on July 8 said there was “no evidence” that agents “struck any person, intentionally or otherwise.” Further, U.S. prosecutors declined to charge any of the agents involved, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed.

“The president accused them of a criminal act. He has not apologized for that,” Judd told The Epoch Times.

He said he doesn’t expect Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, who said she was “outraged” by the treatment of illegal immigrants, to apologize.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The agents were quickly placed on administrative duty after the widespread coverage of the incident on Sept. 19, 2021. At the time, as many as 30,000 mostly Haitian illegal immigrants had entered the United States and created a makeshift camp under a bridge that connects Del Rio, Texas, and Mexico’s Ciudad Acuña, while waiting to be processed by Border Patrol. Rumors of a riot had been circulating as conditions deteriorated.

Four agents are facing disciplinary charges, CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus told reporters during a briefing on July 8. According to the report, that includes an agent who acted unprofessionally by shouting at an illegal immigrant and nearly coming into contact with a small child on the concrete ramp leading out of the river.

On multiple occasions, mounted agents “used force or the threat of force to drive migrants back into the Rio Grande River despite the fact they were well within the territorial boundary of the United States,” the report stated.

“We’re not going to be discussing specifics of the disciplinary proposals today. But when it’s appropriate to do so, we will make the final disciplinary actions public consistent with the privacy rights of the individual employees,” Magnus, a Biden appointee, told reporters.

The Border Patrol union is representing three agents; the fourth person facing discipline is a supervisor, according to Judd.

He said he fears investigators “had no choice but to find some sort of fault” given the quick condemnation from Biden, Harris, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

“And the fault that they found is some of the flimsiest I’ve ever seen in my 25-year career. In seeing disciplinary proposals time and time again, I have never seen a more flimsy proposal,” Judd said.

He said the situation has been “absolutely demoralizing” to agents because the agents involved were performing a legitimate law enforcement operation.

A Border Patrol agent in the Del Rio Sector, speaking on condition of anonymity because of fear of repercussions, told The Epoch Times that agents on the ground were set up by leadership for failure in a “no-win situation,” because of a lack of manpower and capability to effectively handle the flood of illegal aliens who were entering the United States on the day in question.

“With regard to the horse patrol, we know what happened. Agents know what happened. Leadership knows what happened. And instead of backing their agents for doing the best they could with what little they had, our leaders ‘Monday morning quarterbacked’ from their comfy offices and went on a fishing expedition, looking for reasons to get agents in trouble to appease those in this administration,” the agent said. “Our leaders need to quit saying Honor First and start living Honor First.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Texas Republican Party delegates—who last month approved a resolution rejecting Joe Biden as a legitimately elected president—adopted a sweeping new platform with a big focus on election integrity.

The state’s GOP released the results of its 2022 platform vote this week. Two of the measures seek fair elections free of illegal voting practices and updated voter registration rolls to combat fraud.

Among provisions for fair elections, Republicans want to limit mail-in ballots to those who can’t physically appear in person, and prohibit internet voting for public office, mandate full signature verification for mail-in ballots, require voter photo ID, and deter counterfeiting by using sequential ballots.

On voter rolls, Republicans want voters to re-register if they haven’t voted in five years. Voter requirements include proof of residency, citizenship, and a photo ID. They also approved compiling a list of certified deaths so the Texas secretary of state’s office can remove deceased persons from voter rolls. They also want to repeal all motor voter laws.

The platform reflects concerns raised in the resolution rejecting the certified results of the 2020 presidential election. In June, nearly 5,000 delegates at the Texas Republican Convention voted on the resolution and platform.

The resolution declared that the 2020 election violated the Constitution by allowing secretaries of state to circumvent their state legislatures illegally. It asserted that “substantial election fraud” had occurred in key metropolitan areas, affecting the results in five states to Biden’s favor.

Matt Rinaldi, chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, said in a statement that the Texas GOP was raising funds for election integrity, which is a top priority to ensure that Texas never goes down the same path as Pennsylvania, Georgia, or Arizona.

“Texas Republicans rightly have no faith in the 2020 election results, and we don’t care how many times the elites tell us we have to. We refuse to let Democrats rig the elections in 2022 or 2024,” he said.

Democrats have long dismissed the idea of significant voter fraud swaying the outcome of the 2020 election, calling it misinformation perpetuated by former President Donald Trump in his effort to overturn a legitimate election.

Texas Republicans also made election integrity a top legislative priority for the 2023 session. Delegates want to restore felony penalties and enact civil penalties for election code violations. They want to restrict the distribution of mail-in ballots, limit early voting, and close Republican primaries.

The Republicans also called for legislation allowing the state’s attorney general to have the authority to prosecute election fraud, after the all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled the state’s attorney general couldn’t unilaterally do so in December 2021.

James Wesolek, a media spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas, told The Epoch Times that the vast majority of the 274 planks of the platform passed with 80 percent or more support. Five items had less than 80 percent, but none came in less than 70 percent of the vote. The platform covers a wide range of topics, including border security, medical freedom, pro-life issues, constitutional rights, and even Texas secession.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

‘Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President!’ the billionaire wrote

Elon Musk has weighed in on a video of resident Joe Biden reading what appears to be a teleprompter instruction line during a live announcement on Friday.

Biden was addressing the nation over an executive order related to the reversal of Roe v. Wade when he seemingly went too far by reading out directions—”End of quote. Repeat the line.”—from the teleprompter.

“Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President!,” Musk wrote on Twitter in response, adding a picture that shows a dialogue from Will Ferrell’s 2004 movie “Anchorman,” in which Ferrell is cast as television anchor Ron Burgundy. 

“Who typed a question mark on the Teleprompter? For the last time, anything you put on that prompter, Burgundy will read,” reads the picture quote Musk posted on the social media platform.

Whoever controls the teleprompter is the real President! pic.twitter.com/1rcqmwLe9S

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 8, 2022

Musk was reacting to a post by digital strategist Greg Price, which referenced the CBS news footage showing Biden apparently misreading the teleprompter.

“Joe Biden accidentally reads the part on the teleprompter that says ‘repeat the line’ when they wanted him to say the line again [expletive],” said Price.

Emilie Simons, White House Assistant Press Secretary, later responded to Price’s comments.

“No. He said, ‘let me repeat that line,’” said Simons, denying that Biden was reading teleprompter instructions.

De Facto President?

This isn’t the first time that the richest person in the world has suggested a person other than Biden is the de facto president.

“The real president is whoever controls the teleprompter,” Musk, in a video call, told audiences at an event hosted by The All-In Podcast in May. “The path to power is the path to the teleprompter.”

Musk’s comment on Friday likewise piles onto a series of criticisms against the president and the Democratic Party.

While the billionaire did not reveal who he believes is the “real” commander-in-chief, he commented on the prevailing influence of labor unions over the party currently in charge.

“The general public is not aware of the degree to which unions control the Democratic Party. One does not need to speculate on this point,” Musk told interviewers from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley in June in a sit-down discussion, justifying his belief by citing how the United Auto Workers allegedly was able to “exclude” Tesla from an electric-vehicle summit at the White House.

“Insane,” Musk said.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The Biden administration spent nearly $1.5 million to produce a “transgender programming curriculum” for inmates held in the nation’s 122 federal prisons.

The Justice Department disbursed the funds for a consulting firm to develop a program to help transgender inmates “manage identity concerns during incarceration” and advocate for their “sexual health and safety,” according to a government summary of the contract. The contract also asks the firm to develop a program to help transgender inmates access hormone treatment after they are released.

There are only about 1,200 transgender individuals serving sentences in federal prisons, according to a 2021 Department of Justice estimate, meaning the Biden administration spent roughly $1,250 per transgender prisoner. That is more than the $1,200 checks Americans received during the first round of COVID-19 stimulus payments.

The Justice Department’s $1,496,500 contract is part of resident Joe Biden’s larger, controversial effort to promote transgenderism—even among minors. The Justice Department in March sent a letter to all state attorneys general warning them against restricting transgender hormone treatment for children. That same month, Biden’s State Department announced it would allow individuals to select “X” as their gender when completing passport applications. The administration also released updated guidelines in January that make it easier for transgender inmates to be placed in facilities that match their “gender identity.”

Following a district court ruling last month, a convicted terrorist is set to become the first transgender inmate to receive federally funded sex-reassignment surgery, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The American Civil Liberties Union, a Biden administration ally, waged the successful legal battle on behalf of Cristina Iglesias, who in 2005 mailed fake anthrax to British government office buildings.

The Biden administration’s push for transgender accommodations in federal prisons comes amid a spike in sexual assaults committed by biologically male inmates in women’s prisons. Female prisoners have sued state governments, citing sexual assault concerns, in an attempt to keep male-to-female transgender inmates in men’s prisons.

The funds were first disbursed in 2021 to Nevada-based consulting firm Change Companies, and the contract runs through September of this year. The firm, which creates educational materials for correctional facilities, did not respond to a request for comment.

The Justice Department told the Free Beacon it “recognizes the importance of appropriate gender-affirming management and treatment of transgender individuals in its custody.” The department did not respond to a request for comment on whether any of the programs have been implemented in federal prisons.

Justice Department officials recommended that the firm draw on research from left-wing advocacy groups, such as the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), to guide its work. The NCTE dubbed former president Donald Trump’s White House the “Discrimination Administration” and supports Democrats’ Equality Act, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of “gender identity.” The organization also launched a politically oriented “action fund” in 2017, which has exclusively endorsed Democratic candidates.

The Justice Department programs appear to align with the agency’s most recent guidelines on transgender prisoners. The guidelines, released earlier this year, prohibit prison staff from referring to inmates by biologically accurate pronouns if they identify as transgender. The document defines gender as “a construct” based on “social identity, psychological identity, and human behavior.”

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

THE NEW DATA WILL SEND SHIVERS UP THE SPINES OF ELECTION FRAUDSTERS.

plurality of Americans believe the upcoming midterm elections will experience fraud, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports sponsored by The National Pulse. The poll also revealed the stunning evidence that a clear majority of Americans believe the result of the 2020 election was blighted by cheating.

Fifty percent of likely U.S. voters feel that there will be “widespread cheating that will affect the outcome of this fall’s congressional elections,” including 24 percent of people who believe the prospect is very likely. Just 22 percent of voters think cheating is not at all likely to affect the November midterms, the poll reveals.

Asked, “Which is more important – Making it easier for everybody to vote, or making sure there is no cheating in elections?” just 38 percent answered they prefer to make it easier for everyone to vote, with an overwhelming 59 percent saying they would prefer to focus on no cheating in elections.

The news comes as Democrats attempt to make universal, unverified voting a key part of their platform, while Republicans urge more safety measures. The 2020 election results continue to be hotly disputed after the injection of private, corporate cash and the introduction of unsecured and unmanned mail-in “drop boxes”.

Rasmussen data shows 52 percent of likely U.S. voters maintain that it is at least somewhat likely cheating influenced the 2020 presidential election, with 36 percent of people polled believing it is very likely. Much of the distrust in elections appears to stem from concerns surrounding the integrity of the aforementioned mail-in ballots, with 58 percent of voters believing it is at least somewhat likely that broadening the use of mail-in ballots will result in more cheating in elections. Thirty-nine percent of voters felt that this was very likely.

Just 16 percent – or fewer than one in five voters – believe that mail-in voting will not lead to more cheating.

The figures, which reveal a sizable distrust in America’s election systems, follow substantial evidence from the 2020 election that mail-in ballots and far-left activist groups were used to secure a victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

In addition to a host of mysterious, late-night ballot dumps, left-wing groups associated with individuals including George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg influenced election rules and officials to boost turnout in Democratic districts. Many of these groups have rebranded following intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the 2020 election but appear to be engaging in similar efforts.

Establishment media outlets, social media platforms, and Democratic politicians have set out to silence individuals discussing voter fraud, despite peddling similar claims about Russian election influence throughout 2016 and the entirety of Donald Trump’s presidency. Under resident Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has also targeted officials and activists fighting for election integrity by threatening criminal prosecution.

Resident Joe Biden’s administration cannot ignore federal law that says authorities must arrest, detain, and remove illegal aliens convicted of certain crimes and/or aliens who are ordered deported, an appeals court has ruled.

Federal law says the attorney general “shall take into custody,” “shall detain,” and “shall remove” illegal aliens convicted of certain crimes and aliens who are ordered deported. But the Biden administration has attempted to prevent the holding and removal of some illegal immigrants convicted of those crimes.

“The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden appointee, said in a memorandum in September 2021 outlining new guidance that narrowed immigration enforcement priorities.

Mayorkas also said that immigration agents should not “rely on the fact of conviction … alone” when deciding to take action against an alien.

That has led to a sharp drop in criminal aliens detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said. The memo and others like it has led to a spike in the rescinding of criminal detainers, or orders to local authorities to detain aliens, court documents show. One hundred and seventy aliens had detainers rescinded in Texas between Jan. 20, 2021, and Feb. 15, 2022, with at least 17 failing to comply with their parole conditions and four committing fresh crimes.

“The data show that the Final Memo ‘increases the number of aliens with criminal convictions and aliens with final orders of removal released into the United States,’ and Texas has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that the cost of that reality has fallen on it and will continue to do so,’” the panel said in a ruling dated July 6.

DHS is trying “to claim it acts within the bounds of federal law while practically disregarding that law,” it added.

The panel upheld an earlier ruling from U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton, a Trump appointee who said the policy had resulted in criminal aliens “roam[ing] free” and ordered the department not to follow the memo.

The Biden administration had appealed, arguing that the lower court order should be overturned because the states lack standing, because they have not suffered any injury, and because any injury that the speculative injury was not traceable to the Mayorkas memo. The appeals court panel disagreed.

Response

Biden “tried to throw out immigration law, saying DHS didn’t have to detain criminal illegals. The court now says he must,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

“Had the administration won its stay, it would have gone on releasing criminal aliens while its appeal of the district court’s ruling wound through the courts,” added Dale Wilcox, executive director of the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which filed a brief in the case. “We are pleased that didn’t happen, and applaud the Fifth Circuit for denying the administration the extra time it sought to violate the law and endanger Americans.”

The administration is expected to appeal, which could send the case to the full Fifth Circuit or to the Supreme Court, which recently ruled the administration can end the Trump era “Remain in Mexico” policy while explicitly avoiding weighing in on whether the detention requirement outlined in federal law is “subject to principles of law enforcement discretion” and whether the administration’s current approach to immigration enforcement violates the provision.

The panel consisted of Judges Edith Jones, a Reagan appointee; Edith Clement, a George W. Bush appointee; and Kurt Engelhardt, a Trump appointee.

Its ruling diverged from an opinion from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a similar case brought by the states of Arizona, Montana, and Ohio that in April overturned (pdf) a lower court’s nationwide preliminary injunction that blocked the same guidance.

The Fifth Circuit panel said its divergence is explainable by the benefit of bench trial and precedent in other cases brought before the court. “Until there is a contrary ruling from the Supreme Court, we adhere to our precedent and the facts found by the district court,” it said.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Biden campaign surrogate Jerry Harris gets 12 years for solicitation, sexual assault

Jerry Harris, former Biden campaign surrogate and star of the Netflix documentary Cheer, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for sex crimes involving minors. The disgraced cheerleader pleaded guilty in February to sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in a bathroom at a cheer competition and paying another underaged child to send him sexually explicit photos and videos on Snapchat.

Prior to his arrest in September 2020, Harris was one of several celebrity influencers the Biden campaign embraced in an effort to “win back the internet.” In June 2020, Biden appeared with Harris on Instagram Live to discuss “some really important issues facing our country right now, in particular young adults and the black community.” The video, which received more than 300,000 views on the social media platform, was deleted shortly after federal agents raided the influencer’s Illinois home in September. Harris was arrested days later.

The sentence is a blow to the Democratic Party, which has a long history of associating with sexual deviants. Last month, for example, Democratic donor Ghislaine Maxwell received a 20-year sentence for abusing and trafficking underage girls at the behest of Jeffrey Epstein, the scofflaw pedophile who “committed suicide” in 2019. Maxwell was a longtime friend of former president Bill Clinton, who gifted her a signed copy of his post-White House memoir and made numerous trips aboard Epstein’s private jet, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.” In 2010, Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding to failed hedge-fund manager Marc Mezvinsky.

In 2020, the Democratic Party lost one of its most prolific benefactors when Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein received a 23-year sentence after his conviction on charges of rape and sexual assault. Prior to his arrest in 2018, Weinstein consulted Anita Dunn for “damage control” advice. The longtime Biden adviser is viewed as a likely contender to replace White House chief of staff Ron Klain after the midterm elections.

Less than a year before Weinstein’s arrest, another prominent Democrat was sent to prison for child sex crimes. Former congressman Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) received a 21-month sentence after pleading guilty to transferring obscene material to a minor. Weiner, the disgraced husband of longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, was accused of “[asking] a girl who he knew to be 15 years old to display her naked body and engage in sexually explicit behavior for him online.” His shockingly degenerate behavior, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon‘s Alana Goodman, prompted the FBI to reopen its investigation into Clinton’s private email server, a development that likely contributed to her humiliating defeat in the 2016 election.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

It pays to be close to the president—or at least one of his closest advisers.

That’s surely what General Motors executives were thinking in recent months when they met with resident Joe Biden’s adviser Steve Ricchetti, whose brother lobbies for the automaker.

Ricchetti met on March 8 with GM public policy chief Omar Vargas and General Counsel Craig Glidden, according to White House visitor logs released this month. The meeting came weeks after GM chief executive Mary Barra urged Biden to expand subsidies for electric vehicles and increase spending on semiconductor manufacturing. Jeff Ricchetti, the younger brother of the Biden consigliere, lobbies for GM on the same issues. The carmaker has paid Ricchetti $280,000 since hiring him on Feb. 1, 2021, according to lobbying disclosures.

Ethics experts have raised conflict of interest concerns about the Ricchetti brothers’ relationship. Richard Painter, the White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, told the Washington Free Beacon that Steve Ricchetti should “completely recuse himself from any part of the legislation that his brother’s firm is lobbying on.”

The White House ethics office has forced the longtime Biden adviser to recuse himself from matters involving four of his brother’s clients, GlaxoSmithKline, Vaxart, Horizon Therapeutics, and TC Energy.

Steve Ricchetti’s work on issues related to General Motors has been the subject of scrutiny before. The Washington Post reported last year that when Biden flew to Michigan to discuss plans to build electric vehicle charging stations, Ricchetti remained in Washington to negotiate the bill with Congress. The newspaper questioned whether Ricchetti’s involvement undercut Biden’s campaign pledge to “restore ethics in government.”

General Motors has secured extensive access to the Biden administration, though the meeting in March is the first time company executives are known to have met with Steve Ricchetti. Biden in November visited a GM facility in Michigan. He praised the company in January for announcing a $7 billion investment in an electric vehicle manufacturing plant that will employ 4,000 workers. The carmaker in February hired Biden’s niece, Missy Owens, to be its “Environment, Sustainability, and Governance” chief.

Jeff Ricchetti saw an influx of lobbying clients after Biden launched his presidential campaign, a trend that ethics experts have attributed to Ricchetti’s brother’s close relationship with the president. Ricchetti in early 2019 represented three companies. His firm has added 16 clients since then.

The White House, Ricchetti’s lobbying firm, and General Motors did not respond to requests for comment.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

Elon Musk has called on an independent journalist to provide information on how the U.S. government is allegedly pressuring Twitter to suspend the journalist’s account for posting anti-vaccination content.

Musk asked Substack writer, Alex Berenson, in a July 6 post on Twitter, about Berenson’s allegation that the U.S. government had pressured Twitter to censor him for posting his opinion questioning the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

“Can you say more about this: ‘… pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter …’,” Musk said, referencing Berenson’s blog post about being suspended by Twitter.

Can you say more about this: “… pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter …”

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2022

“I wish I could,” Berenson said minutes later, responding to Musk, “but the settlement with [Twitter] prevents me from doing so. However, in the near future I hope and expect to have more to report.”

Berenson’s Twitter account was reinstated on July 6 after the social media platform “permanently” banned him over purportedly violating its COVID “misinformation” policy. This follows Berenson filing a lawsuit against Twitter in April.

In a blog post published July 6, Berenson elaborated that despite his inability to discuss his case now, he will be able to disclose further “in the near future.”

“You know what it took Twitter to admit it shouldn’t have done what it did? You do not, and I can’t tell you, because the statement is all I can say about the settlement,” Berenson wrote.

“The settlement does not end my investigation into the pressures that the government may have placed on Twitter to suspend my account. I will have more to say on that issue in the near future,” he wrote.

“I made a promise to readers last month, and I take my promises to readers seriously.”

‘Close Nexus’

What attracted Musk’s attention was Berenson’s claim that government entities were pressuring Twitter to suspend Berenson over vaccine claims.

“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity,” Berenson wrote in a Twitter post in August last year, hours before Twitter suspended his account.

In Berenson’s  lawsuit against Twitter, he alleges that the social media platform “acted on behalf of the federal government in censoring and barring him from to its platform.”

The lawsuit also cited the “extraordinarily close nexus” between government officials’ call for censorship and Twitter’s corresponding immediate actions.

“Mr. Berenson’s relationship with Twitter changed dramatically over the course of one week in July 2021,” read Berensen’s complaint, filed on Dec. 20, 2021.

“On Sunday, July 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci, resident Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor, called Mr. Berenson’s comments about COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy  ‘horrifying,’” the complaint said.

“By Friday, resident Biden himself piled on, blaming social media companies for ‘killing people’ on account of their failure to adequately censor content. Hours after resident Biden’s comment, Twitter locked Mr. Berenson out of his account for the first time,” it said.

“On August 28, in the wake of even more calls for censorship from government officials, Twitter permanently suspended Mr. Berenson from its platform, citing ‘repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules.’ Mr. Berenson did not violate those rules. Twitter, on the other hand, broke its promises to Mr. Berenson as well as its policies, and violated his rights as it served the federal government’s censorship demands,” the court filing continued.

“This case raises significant questions about private power and the state of free speech in America.”

‘Troubling’

Later on July 6, Musk commented on another post by author Glenn Greenwald that alleges officials in the Biden administration “pressure or coerce private actors to censor” free speech.

“Troubling …,” wrote Musk.

Troubling …

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2022

Musk, who is still finalizing a multi-billion dollar deal with Twitter, said in May that the platform has a “strong left-wing bias”.

The billionaire also called censorship on Twitter a “civilization risk” in April and suggested in May that he will lift the ban imposed on former President Donald Trump after he takes over.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Paging Elon Musk! Wishful thinking and a proposed $44 billion buyout won’t fix Twitter’s extreme bias against conservatives. The corrupt social media platform continues to suppress conservative thought and opinion — big time — and I have the screenshots to prove it.

After quitting the social media platform in January 2021 in protest of its rampant censorship of conservatives, myself included, I decided to give it another try this week to see if the billionaire entrepreneur’s laudable support for free speech and moves to acquire the network have improved its liberal bias. Not a chance! It turns out the far-left activists that run Twitter and its secretive algorithms are still rigging the platform in the Democratic Party’s favor — in plain view — by pushing users to follow liberal lawmakers, media outlets and other lefty accounts versus conservative ones.

When rejoining Twitter this week, it asked me to select topics I’m interested in. I chose “outdoors” and “business/finance.” Then it made suggestions of who to follow. Get ready to cringe …

One of its recommendations was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a “Russia Hoax” conspiracy theorist and known misinformation peddler who led the charge on former President Donald Trump’s impeachment and currently sits on the slanted Jan. 6 House Committee trying to drum up evidence to indict the 45th president to stop him from running again in 2024.

What the heck does that liberal lawmaker — and rabid Trump hater — have to do with my preferred topics of interest? Zero.

Twitter also suggested I follow dozens of other liberal lawmakers, including resident Joe Biden’s two accounts, first lady Jill Biden, the White House, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a radical left-wing socialist who supports abolishing police despite New York’s high crime rate — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris and Beto O’Rourke, who’s running against Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Of course, Twitter didn’t suggest I also follow Abbott, the elected incumbent, as that would be fair and balanced, something the “woke” activists at Twitter care little about.

The platform also encouraged me to follow Alexander Vindman, the former director of European Affairs at the National Security Council, whose 2019 Congressional testimony contributed to Trump’s impeachment. Again, what on earth does that Trump hater have to do with my interests in finance and the great outdoors?

Twitter also recommended I follow Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who never met a tax hike he didn’t like, Democrat Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Ed Markey, Chris Murphy and Cory Booker, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his spouse, Chasten. Add Reps. Ted Lieu and Katie Porter, Hillary Clinton, far-left “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Stacey Abrams and former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III.

But that’s not all. It also suggested I follow Bill Clinton, his daughter Chelsea and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, currently running for governor, who, in response to the riots and nationwide destruction following the death of George Floyd in 2020, told attendees at a Boston Chamber of Commerce event, “Yes, America is burning, but that’s how forests grow.”

Twitter didn’t suggest I follow any Republican lawmakers in Washington. Not one!

Talk about rigged! The shocking reality is Twitter may be steering potentially millions of users, otherwise known as voters, to follow influential liberal lawmakers and others in media and beyond to sway public opinion and control the political narrative to tilt elections in Democrats’ favor.

Paging the U.S. Department of Justice; that’s what real collusion and election-meddling look like.

The only Republican official Twitter did recommend I follow was Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a known RINO (Republican In Name Only) who never missed an opportunity to bash Trump while in office.

But wait, there’s more. Here’s a snippet of media outlets and so-called journalists Twitter suggested I follow. You’ll notice the vast majority have one thing in common; they all loathe Trump and his “deplorable” supporters.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Associated Press, The New Yorker, CNN’s Jake Tapper, Jim Acosta, David Axelrod, Maggie Haberman, Kaitlan Collins, Paul Krugman, MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow, Joe Scarborough, Andrea Mitchell, Ari Melber, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes, Joy Reid and Nicole Wallace.

Add NPR, Yamiche Alcindor, “The View’s” Ana Navarro-Cardenas, former CIA spook John O. Brennan, Lincoln Project loons George Conway and Rick Wilson, Laurence Tribe, Dan Rather, Biden White House press secretaries Jen Psaki and Karine Jean-Pierre, NBC’s Katy Tur and Chuck Todd, The Atlantic writer Molly Jong-Fast, “The Daily Show,” Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and countless Hollywood leftists, including Stephen King and Rob Reiner — just to name a few.

Twitter didn’t recommend I follow top-rated Fox News or any of its hosts, despite the outlet consistently crushing its cable news rivals for decades. Nor did it suggest I follow the highly respected New York Post — founded by Alexander Hamilton — or any other right-leaning news outlets or conservative voices across the media spectrum. After scores of liberal accounts Twitter wanted me to follow, Donald Trump Jr.’s name appeared far down the list.

Gee, thanks!

As you can see, Twitter is stacked against conservatives and, with few exceptions, is acting as the de facto publicity arm of the Democratic National Committee. The powerful social media behemoth is effectively making undeclared in-kind donations to the DNC by actively directing its users — including voters — to follow liberal accounts so Democrats can spread their political ideology and narrative du jour while simultaneously suppressing conservative viewpoints, including elected GOP lawmakers who represent millions of citizens.

If that isn’t interfering in U.S. elections, what is exactly?

SOURCE: Right and Free

Former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson has been allowed to return to Twitter, which banned him in 2021 for allegedly spreading COVID-19 misinformation.

Berenson and Twitter released similar statements on July 6.

“The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. I have been reinstated. Twitter has acknowledged that my tweets should have not led to my suspension at that time,” Berenson said in a blog post on July 6, which he linked to in his first post on the platform since he was permanently suspended,” Berenson said in a blog post.

“The parties have come to a mutually acceptable resolution. Twitter has reinstated Mr. Berenson’s account. Upon further review, Twitter acknowledges Mr. Berenson’s Tweets should not have led to his account’s suspension at that time,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.

Vaccines

Minutes after Berenson posted for the first time following his reinstatement, he re-posted the words that triggered the ban.

“It doesn’t stop infection. Or transmission. Don’t think of it as a vaccine. Think of it—at best—as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it? Insanity,” he wrote.

Berenson was referring to the COVID-19 vaccines, which have proven increasingly unable to prevent infection from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Also known as the SARS-CoV-2, the virus causes COVID-19.

Though the vaccines have been authorized and approved for prevention of the virus, they’re actually recommended primarily for helping prevent severe disease among those who contract the illness.

Twitter had initially claimed that Berenson’s post was “misleading,” even though the company acknowledged that “studies indicate a reduction in vaccine effectiveness against the Omicron variant” of the virus.

Studies show that the Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson shots—the only three available in the United States—provide little protection against Omicron, and that the protection quickly wanes.

Some studies indicate that the vaccinated are more likely to contract the virus after certain periods of time elapse following vaccination.

U.S. health authorities still recommend vaccination for virtually all Americans.

Lawsuit

Berenson sued Twitter after being banned, claiming the company breached its contract with him as a user.

A federal judge tossed all of the claims except for the breach of contract one. Berenson and Twitter recently announced they’d agreed on a settlement in principle.

The details of the settlement have not yet been entered into the court docket, with the parties saying they’re still negotiating.

According to court filings, Berenson was told by a senior Twitter executive that posts that sparked controversy would not lead to him being banned from the platform. But Twitter began taking action against him after Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top adviser to resident Joe Biden, said some of Berenson’s remarks were “horrifying,” first locking him out of his account and eventually enacting the ban.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee, said in a recent ruling that Berenson “plausibly avers that Twitter’s conduct here modified its contract with plaintiff and then breached that contract by failing to abide by its own five-strike policy and its specific commitments set forth through its vice president.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

BORIS ALONE COULD HAVE SURVIVED YEARS IN DOWNING STREET. IN THE END, IT WAS HIS WIFE WHO THE PUBLIC REALLY NEEDED OUT.

In the end (punny…US Patriot), it was the multiple homosexual, underage, sex scandal cover ups that got him. In the end, it was the dreadful results in recent by-elections that got him. In the end, it was his personal behavior throughout the pandemic that got him. In the end, it was the lavish refurb of his taxpayer-funded apartment that got him. In the end, it was his failure to appoint any real, right-wing, Brexiteers to his government that got him. In the end, it was attempting to rescue pets ahead of personnel in Afghanistan that got him.

The list, if you couldn’t tell by now, goes on. Boris Johnson was – and maybe again someday will be – as catastrophic a Prime Minister as many of his original detractors,  your faithful reporter included, initially warned.

But it didn’t have to be like this. He was never forced to go the route of soft touch, centre-left “conservatism” partnering hand-in-hand with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. But he did. And for the most part, it always came down to one thing: his wife Carrie Symonds (or Johnson… but maybe not for long?).

To head-scratching friends on Capitol Hill I describe it thusly: The Johnson government was built, by Carrie, on the sand of her own ability to blackmail the people around her. The corporate media journalist she had long trysts with. The Members of Parliament she worked with, around, and under. The civil servants who for some reason – probably fear of crippling exhaustion – loathed her presence and went along with demands to get her off their backs.

Carrie, a former Conservative Party HQ communications staffer and official at the Clinton Foundation-linked Oceana, immediately corrupted what little semblance of conservatism Johnson once had, as only a third wife can. The speed at which Carrie operated, I’m told, is impressive. And almost every single scandal had her bungling fingerprints all over it. Often, as she gifted him terrible advice, she would brief the opposite to the media, covering her backside along the way.

And whether she decides to stay with the man she only committed to once he became Prime Minister, you can bet Carrie and her small cadre of unqualified grifters she bounced into government jobs will not be far from the corridors of power in Westminster for long.

Boris, in true Boris form, will likely fall upwards into a regular Telegraph, or Spectator column – the establishment looks after its own. Within a few months he’ll be talking about making a big comeback, comparing himself to Churchill, and The Daily Express newspaper will probably feature front cover of him in a boxing ring, 30lbs lighter, with the headline “FIGHTING FIT.”

You see the trouble is British politics has become entirely predictable – which is why even from 3000 miles away, I was able to easily predict Boris’s political downfall. As predictably perhaps, the Conservative Party will now go ahead and pick another wobbly, centre-left candidate like Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak and the whole thing will play out again, possibly sans Carrie (for a little while at least).

Until then, expect the usual, “OH MY GOSH WHAT IS GOING ON” theatrics from the BBC and Sky News. You can be safe in the knowledge that if they are feigning shock, nothing much is changing at all.

THE NEW DATA WILL SEND SHIVERS UP THE SPINES OF ELECTION FRAUDSTERS.

A plurality of Americans believe the upcoming midterm elections will experience fraud, according to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports sponsored by The National Pulse. The poll also revealed the stunning evidence that a clear majority of Americans believe the result of the 2020 election was blighted by cheating.

Fifty percent of likely U.S. voters feel that there will be “widespread cheating that will affect the outcome of this fall’s congressional elections,” including 24 percent of people who believe the prospect is very likely. Just 22 percent of voters think cheating is not at all likely to affect the November midterms, the poll reveals.

Asked, “Which is more important – Making it easier for everybody to vote, or making sure there is no cheating in elections?” just 38 percent answered they prefer to make it easier for everyone to vote, with an overwhelming 59 percent saying they would prefer to focus on no cheating in elections.

The news comes as Democrats attempt to make universal, unverified voting a key part of their platform, while Republicans urge more safety measures. The 2020 election results continue to be hotly disputed after the injection of private, corporate cash and the introduction of unsecured and unmanned mail-in “drop boxes”.

Rasmussen data shows 52 percent of likely U.S. voters maintain that it is at least somewhat likely cheating influenced the 2020 presidential election, with 36 percent of people polled believing it is very likely. Much of the distrust in elections appears to stem from concerns surrounding the integrity of the aforementioned mail-in ballots, with 58 percent of voters believing it is at least somewhat likely that broadening the use of mail-in ballots will result in more cheating in elections. Thirty-nine percent of voters felt that this was very likely.

Just 16 percent – or fewer than one in five voters – believe that mail-in voting will not lead to more cheating.

The figures, which reveal a sizable distrust in America’s election systems, follow substantial evidence from the 2020 election that mail-in ballots and far-left activist groups were used to secure a victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

In addition to a host of mysterious, late-night ballot dumps, left-wing groups associated with individuals including George Soros and Mark Zuckerberg influenced election rules and officials to boost turnout in Democratic districts. Many of these groups have rebranded following intense scrutiny in the aftermath of the 2020 election but appear to be engaging in similar efforts.

Establishment media outlets, social media platforms, and Democratic politicians have set out to silence individuals discussing voter fraud, despite peddling similar claims about Russian election influence throughout 2016 and the entirety of Donald Trump’s presidency. Under resident Biden, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has also targeted officials and activists fighting for election integrity by threatening criminal prosecution.

Former President Donald Trump said it would be a “terrible mistake” if the Biden administration decided to combat inflation by lifting tariffs on Chinese goods. Moreover, Trump said such a decision would make the United States look “weak.”

“Believe it or not, it is looking more and more like the United States is getting ready to remove the tariffs on China. This would be a terrible mistake,” Trump said in a statement released on his Truth Social account on July 5.

“Doing this would be the greatest gift that China could ever receive,” he continued. “Taking these tariffs off would be a clear signal that the United States is weak, ineffective, and doing business as usual.”

Trump began hitting China with tariffs after a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) investigation in 2018 found that the communist regime was engaging in illegal practices, including excessive government subsidies and intellectual property theft.

Beijing retaliated by slapping tariffs on U.S. goods, bringing the two nations into a trade war.

The two countries signed a trade deal in January 2020, requiring China to buy an additional $200 billion in U.S. goods and services during 2020 and 2021, compared to 2017 levels.

However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) hasn’t fulfilled its promises under the deal. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), China bought only 57 percent of the U.S. exports it had promised to buy. In other words, the Chinese regime “bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal had promised,” PIIE’s senior fellow Chad Bown stated.

Inflation

It has been more than a month since the Biden administration revealed that it was considering removing the Trump-era China tariffs. In June, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a House hearing that “some reductions may be warranted and could help to bring down the prices of things that people buy that are burdensome.”

U.S. inflation jumped to 8.6 percent in May, the highest level in 40 years.

However, the suggestion that cutting tariffs would ease inflation is disputed by two PIIE researchers. According to their report released last month, removing tariffs on Chinese imports “could lower consumer price index (PCI) inflation by 0.26 percent point—only marginally reducing inflation.”

Citing PIIE data, the industry group Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) took to Twitter to urge resident Joe Biden to “keep the tariffs in place.”

“So… revoking tariffs won’t do anything about inflation,” AAM wrote. “But… doing so will hand the CCP a big win and undermine America’s manufacturers and factory workers.”

Read More

Ending China Tariffs Will Worsen America’s Economy

Will Chinese Tariffs Be Sacrificed on the Altar of High Inflation?

Trump praised what his tariffs on China have accomplished.

“These tariffs have brought many billions of dollars to our country, and made affected businesses, such as steel, viable again in the United States,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.

“Our farmers alone got $28 billion as a gift from me, that came directly out of the tariffs because of the way they were abused by China.”

Lawmakers

Trump concluded his statement by criticizing U.S. lawmakers who wanted to remove the tariffs on China.

“Certain senators are fighting hard to get this done, even saying such ridiculous things as it ’causes inflation,’” Trump wrote, without naming a lawmaker. “Those senators should be questioned as to their real motives!”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), in his op-ed published by Daily Press on July 3, denounced the Trump-era tariffs as “direct taxes on American families and importers.” He added that removing “these tax hikes would reduce costs for consumers and allow manufacturers that rely on imported components to be more competitive in the global marketplace.”

The CCP also believes that removing the China tariffs would help ease U.S. inflation. On July 5, Zhao Lijian, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, said during a daily briefing that removing the tariffs “will strip 1% off inflation” in the United States, citing unnamed U.S. think tanks.

“Given the high inflation in the U.S., the sooner these tariffs on China are removed, the sooner it will benefit American consumers and businesses,” Zhao said.

However, two GOP senators recently said that the Biden administration is going about the wrong way to fight inflation.

“Biden’s plan to roll back the Trump administration’s tariffs on Communist China would be a step in the wrong direction, and it’s not a real solution to Biden’s inflation problem,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) wrote on Twitter on July 5.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), in an interview with Fox News on July 5, said the Biden administration’s plan to roll back the China tariffs “is just another example of Joe Biden blaming inflation on anyone but himself.”

“We have had these tariffs in place for three or even four years, and we didn’t have inflation when it started,” he said. “The problem here is Joe Biden’s policies and especially his energy policy because the price of gasoline and electricity drives the cost of everything else.

“Joe Biden needs to look in the mirror at the White House if he wants to find the problem and perhaps the solution for inflation.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Senate candidate Tim Ryan doesn’t want to attend event with historically unpopular Joe Biden

President Joe Biden will tout his economic record during a Wednesday speech in Ohio, but one of the most prominent Democrats in the state says he has better things to do than attend.

Rep. Tim Ryan, Ohio’s Democratic Senate nominee, won’t attend Biden’s scheduled speech in Cleveland, his campaign told the Washington Free Beacon. Biden plans to use the speech to go on the offensive and deliver remarks on his “economic agenda” and plans for “building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” according to the White House. It’s Biden’s second visit to the city this year, as he tries to win back support from Rust Belt voters.

Ryan’s campaign said he will instead be campaigning in the southeast part of the state. Ryan is running against Republican J.D. Vance for the open seat held by the retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R.).

Democrats around the country who face tough elections in November are trying to distance themselves from the president. Ryan is attempting to portray himself as a moderate in a state that former Republican president Donald Trump won in 2020 by more than 8 points. The move is a bold one considering Ryan’s record of voting 100 percent of the time with Biden’s position.

The strategy is already facing headwinds. As Biden finds himself with the worst presidential poll numbers in nearly 100 years, he is desperate to convince voters who are paying all-time-high gas and grocery prices that the economy is stable.

When Biden travels the country and gives speeches in swing states such as Ohio, his fellow Democrats view him more as an albatross than an asset. Already, Democrats have spent as much time attacking their own party as attacking their Republican opponents. From Mandela Barnes (D., Wis.) calling the Senate an “out-of-touch millionaire’s club” to Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.) saying she’s running against “dysfunction in Washington,” Democrats want voters to forget who has controlled Congress for the last two years.

Ryan is no exception. In ad buys throughout the state, Ryan does not mention his votes on such controversial bills as the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, which many economists blame for contributing to skyrocketing inflation. In a new ad called “Neighborhood,” Ryan calls for tax cuts and does not use the word “Democrat” a single time.

“I don’t answer to any political party,” he says. “I answer to the folks I grew up with and the families like yours all across Ohio.”

Biden this year has made several trips to the Buckeye State, and Ryan each time has made alternative plans. When Biden visited Cincinnati in May, for example, the White House said the two were “in close touch” even though Ryan decided not to show.

Republicans, however, will not make it easy for Democrats to shake their connection to Biden.

“Ryan talks tough when he visits Ohio. He tries to sound like some renegade, and some populist who advocates for working people,” Vance wrote in an op-ed published last month. “His radical record reveals the truth of a corporatist lackey who dutifully gets behind Biden in every single vote.”

So far, there is little evidence Ryan’s strategy is working for him. Although polling in the state is sparse, a USA Today-Suffolk University survey released shortly after the May primary found Vance leading Ryan by 2 points.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

GOLIAD, Texas—Sheriffs in Texas are experiencing the impact of the border crisis in their counties every day—whether it’s armed cartel operatives smuggling illegal immigrants, vehicle pursuits resulting in crashes and deaths, or drug overdose deaths from fentanyl brought across the southern border.

In Goliad, Sheriff Roy Boyd sits 200 miles from the Texas–Mexico border, between McAllen and Houston—a major transport corridor of illegal immigrants and illicit goods.

As a 29-year law enforcement veteran in the region, Boyd said he’s never seen a border crisis so bad or border-related crime so egregious.

“There’s no end to it,” he told The Epoch Times on June 23. He monitors 16 cartel-operated sites in his county that are currently dormant, but have been used to stash illegal immigrants on their way to Houston. Currently it’s mostly carloads of illegal immigrants being smuggled straight through his county to the city.

“It’s a movement of individuals from third world countries, all over the place, into our country. But the farther you get into it, the more you realize it’s all done by design—and it’s at the design of the federal government.

“We’re in a transformation of America from a free Republic to moving to something that’s more of a Marxist state.”

Since resident Joe Biden took office in January 2021, border authorities have apprehended more than 3.2 million illegal border crossers, according to Customs and Border Protection data. An additional 800,000 or so have been detected, but evaded capture.

When asked how allowing millions of people from more than 160 countries through the southern border results in the transformation to communism, Boyd harkened back to the 1960’s and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “war on poverty.”

“LBJ sold the war on poverty to the Democratic National Party … and the DNC’s response was, ‘Why would we give those people something for nothing?’” Boyd said.

LBJ responded by saying he’d have them voting Democratic for 200 years, Boyd said, paraphrasing an infamous quote that has been widely attributed to the former president.

“This is nothing but a replication of the soft enslavement of people through entitlement,” Boyd said. “Because if you understand psychology and you look at the history of things, this is how it functions. Once it starts, it’s hard to stop.”

Trevor Loudon, a communism expert and contributor to The Epoch Times, said in a previous interview that the communists’ main enemy is the United States.

“And if you can’t bring it down through nuclear weapons, you bring it down through illegal immigration, which is maybe just as effective in the long run,” Loudon said.

“This is an orchestrated, communist assault on America, to destroy America’s borders, to create confusion in America, to overwhelm the system politically.”

Loudon said an additional 15 million to 25 million Democratic voters would ensure perpetual Democrat control of government.

“You will have a one-party state in America. And that is the plan. That is why they are doing this,” he said.

“This is Marxist. This is Leninist. And this goes back to American politicians cooperating with hostile foreign powers in the destruction of America. And their No. 1 weapon is illegal immigration and overwhelming the border.”

Traditionally, noncitizens have voted about 80 percent Democratic and 20 percent Republican, according to a 2014 study by Old Dominion University.

“We find that some non-citizens participate in U.S. elections, and that this participation has been large enough to change meaningful election outcomes including Electoral College votes, and Congressional elections,” the study concluded.

“Non-citizen votes likely gave Senate Democrats the pivotal 60th vote needed to overcome filibusters in order to pass health care reform and other Obama administration priorities in the 111th Congress.”

Now, the number of non-Hispanic illegal aliens entering the United States is increasing at the same time that Hispanics are skewing more Republican, as evidenced by Rep. Mayra Flores’s recent win in south Texas.

It’s illegal for non-U.S. citizens to vote in federal elections, however, for years there’s been a push for municipal elections to accept noncitizen voters, including visa holders.

Loudon said Eliseo Medina, a labor union activist and former immigration consultant to President Barack Obama, is a main driver of the illegal immigration movement.

In 2009, Medina spoke at the America’s Future Now progressives’ conference in Washington.

“[If] we reform the immigration laws, it puts 12 million people on the path to citizenship and eventually voters,” Medina said. “Can you imagine … [even] if we get 8 million new voters that care about our issue and will be voting—we will create a governing coalition for the long term, not just for an election cycle.”

Fourteen municipalities currently allow noncitizens to vote, including 11 in Maryland, two in Vermont, and one in San Francisco.

A recent court ruling quashed a New York City law that would have allowed at least 800,000 noncitizens to vote in municipal elections.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams allowed the measure to become law on Jan. 9.

“I believe that New Yorkers should have a say in their government, which is why I have and will continue to support this important legislation,” Adams said in a statement at the time. “I believe allowing the legislation to be enacted is by far the best choice, and look forward to bringing millions more into the democratic process.”

Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and former member of the Federal Election Commission, said allowing noncitizens to vote “cheapens and diminishes” the concept of citizenship.

“The whole point of the open borders crowd is to do two things: one, extinguish the line between legal and illegal aliens in this country. And second, to frankly get rid of the whole concept of citizenship,” Spakovsky said in a previous interview.

Biden has said he wants a pathway to citizenship for all illegal immigrants in the United States.

Boyd said the Biden administration is working hard to purge conservative and constitutional thinkers at the federal level and replace them with people with a socialist mindset.

“But always remember, as Stalin said, the aim of socialism is communism,” Boyd said.

He said his focus remains in Goliad to protect his county and make it an unwelcoming place for criminals. The sheriffs in the region try to work together to “help each other to fight this massive wave of criminal activity,” he said.

“We don’t deal with immigration, we’re not tasked with it, we’re not authorized with it, we don’t want anything to do with it.

“But we’re fighting all the felonies that are being brought to our doorstep as a result of the national policy that’s causing this problem. And to be quite honest with you, I have no faith in the federal government.”

“My faith is in our Lord and Savior. One day we’re going to meet the end and we’re going to have to answer for what it is we’ve done, and so I want to have a good answer when I get there.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

Video footage surfaced online that appeared to show a crowd of people at a Somali cultural event in Minneapolis booing “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) over the weekend.

Omar, who came to the United States as a Somali refugee, made an appearance at a concert featuring Somali singer Suldaan Seeraar at the city’s Target Center. As soon as she arrived on stage, the boos began, according to footage posted online.

Some yelled at her, “Get out!” and “get the [expletive] out of here.”

“It was an honor to welcome you to our incredible city,” the Democratic congresswoman said in a Twitter post alongside a 14-second clip. The clip ended moments after the audience started to boo loudly.

Longer videos suggested that the crowd booed her for about a minute after she and her husband came onto the stage. “OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, we don’t have all night,” Omar said at one point as the crowd kept booing.

Unclear Why

Some people suggested that it’s because of Omar’s support for Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion nationwide, support for LGBT causes, and other left-wing causes. Omar is currently the whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

It’s not clear what prompted the response, and neither Omar nor her office has issued a public comment about the matter. The Epoch Times has contacted Omar’s office several times for comment about the boos.

Following last month’s Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Omar said she would fight to codify it into law. She’s also publicly backed proposals to expand the Supreme Court and end the Senate filibuster to pass abortion laws.

“In almost half of this country, states are ready to ban abortion,” Omar said during a protest following the decision. “Outright ban abortion.”

And several weeks ago, amid dismal polls, Omar told reporters that she will “of course” back resident Joe Biden if he decides to run for president in 2024.

“This’s what she gets for trading her Godly, Conservative values for the sinful LGBTQIA’s & the promiscuous abortionists,” wrote Shukri Abdirahman, a Republican Somali refugee and military veteran who is running to unseat Omar from her 5th Congressional District

Another Republican candidate, former NBA player Royce White, suggested that Somalis in Minnesota were upset with Omar because “they’re being misrepresented by bourgeois puppets, chosen by the establishment to exploit identity politics. In other words, Ilhan Omar is a sellout and I called it months ago.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

I vividly remember the day in October 1991 when the Senate voted to confirm then-U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court. Following a bitter confirmation battle, Thomas had won confirmation by a 52-48 margin.

Following Thomas’ nomination by then-President George Bush, allegations were leaked to the press that he had sexually harassed a female subordinate, lawyer Anita Hill, during his service as Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and prior to that time, as the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. (Yes, Hill followed Thomas to the EEOC.)

Although Thomas strenuously denied the allegations, the Senate confirmation hearings — presided over by then-Sen. Joe Biden, who chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee — turned into a public spectacle rivaled only by the brutal hearings that preceded Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s ascent to the Court in 2018. The brutality and the injustice of the Democrats’ treatment of Thomas cannot be overstated.

Two years after his tumultuous confirmation process, The New York Times writer Neil Lewis published an article entitled “2 Years After His Bruising Hearing, Justice Thomas Can Rarely Be Heard.” The piece essentially said Thomas was still angry over the experience and that he was “no longer gregarious.”

“Last year, his second full year on the Court, Justice Thomas began inviting clerks from other justices’ chambers to meet with him, sometimes over lunch. A clerk who went to one meeting recalled how everybody had an unspoken understanding that they would not say anything referring even remotely to the confirmation battle,” Lewis wrote.

“But several said they were stunned when Justice Thomas brought it up himself. And he did so in a way that sought to elicit sympathy, even indignation, at his ordeal.”

One of the clerks, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Lewis, “[Thomas] clearly wanted to talk about what happened. He wants some kind of vindication. He really wants people to agree with him that something outrageous happened.”

Another said, “Many of us were quite uncomfortable.”

Thomas warned them never to subject themselves to a Senate hearing, according to the clerks.

Lewis wrote that “at a few public appearances, he [Thomas] has disputed the notion that he is an angry man, and some of his friends concur that he is not.”

The article cites Thomas’ longtime friend, Clint Bolick, who said, “There’s no question that for the first year he was angry over what happened and did not have a chance to catch his breath before he assumed his new position. But to a large extent, he has moved beyond that, and I think a sense of optimism and ebullience has returned. He’s really gregarious again.”

“It’s clear he has not been permanently scarred by the Hill incident,” Bolick added.

Lewis was not quite convinced. He pointed to a conversation Thomas had had with two of his law clerks. He told them he planned to retire in 2034.

Asked why, Thomas, who was 43-years-old at the time of his confirmation, replied that by then, he will have served a 43-year term. According to the clerk, Thomas said, “The liberals made my life miserable for 43 years, and I’m going to make their lives miserable for 43 years.”

Related:

Clarence Thomas Impeachment Being Set up by AOC in Must-See Interview

Lewis is probably right that Thomas was still angry in 1993. And, although the rage he felt at the time of the hearings has dissipated, I would bet that deep resentment continues to reside not too far beneath the surface. The abusive treatment he endured at the hands of Biden and his Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee would take an average person a lifetime to get over.

In the video below, Thomas addresses the committee members. He equates the hearings to a “high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.”

“This is a circus. It’s a national disgrace,” he said. “And from my standpoint, as a black American, as far as I’m concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas. And it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured, by a committee of the U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree.”

Powerful as his remarks were, the spectacle on Capitol Hill continued.

While President Biden’s foolish rebuke of the Supreme Court from overseas last week may have reopened those old wounds, Thomas’ future court rulings won’t come from a place of anger.

His decisions will come, as they always have, from his conservative beliefs and his interpretation of one of the finest documents ever written, the U.S. Constitution.

Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese took to CNN on Thursday to tell Americans they’re going to have to put up with high gas prices for as long as it takes to back the Ukrainian war effort.

When asked what the Biden administration had to say to families who can’t afford skyrocketing fuel costs, Deese replied, “This is about the future of the Liberal World Order and we have to stand firm.” He said, however, that gas prices are “unacceptably high.” His comments mirrored sentiments expressed at a recent NATO summit by resident Joe Biden, who said in a speech Americans will have to endure inflated gas prices for “as long as it takes” to resolve the conflict with Russia.

CNN: “What do you say to those families that say, ‘listen, we can’t afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years?’”

BIDEN ADVISOR BRIAN DEESE: “This is about the future of the Liberal World Order and we have to stand firm.” pic.twitter.com/LWilWSo72S

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 1, 2022

Biden’s historically low approval ratings may be a sign his administration’s priorities are out of step with the American people’s. Domestic oil production has declined under Biden, which has been a factor in numerous gas price records being broken during the president’s tenure. On Friday, the average price for a gallon of gas in the United States was $4.84.

A majority of Americans believe the nation’s economy should be prioritized over sanctioning Russia, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in May. Support for combating Russian aggression relative to achieving economic growth has also been declining over time.

SOURCE: The Washington Free Beacon

House Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and 15 GOP colleagues are challenging the legality of State Department grants—of as much as $500,000 each—to international “organizations committed to the practice and spread of atheism and humanism.”

Their challenge is contained in a June 30 letter to resident Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken concerning the department’s competitive grant process issued in April 2021 for “Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom Inclusive of Atheist, Humanist, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals” in South Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

“To be clear, atheism and ‘humanism’ are official belief systems.

“As an initial matter, therefore, we would like to know what other United States government programs supported with appropriated funds are being used either to encourage, inculcate, or to disparage any official belief system—atheist, humanist, Christian, Muslim, or otherwise,” Banks and the other signers told Blinken.

“It is one thing for the department to be tolerant and respectful of a wide range of belief systems, and to encourage governments to respect the religious freedom interests of their citizens. It is quite another for the United States government to work actively to empower atheists, humanists, non-practicing, and non-affiliated in public decision-making,” the signers continued.

“Any such program—for any religiously-identifiable group—in the United States would be unconstitutional.

“In addition to its constitutionally dubious legal foundation, we also question how such a grant or cooperative agreement program advances the foreign policy interests of the United States,” the signers wrote.

A State Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.

In addition to Banks, the signers include Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas), Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.), Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), Rep. Tim Burchett (R- Tenn.), Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.).

In countries with a dominate religious culture such as the Middle East and parts of North Africa where Islam dominates, the signers warned Blinken that providing U.S. tax dollars to groups promoting non-Islamic faiths is likely to be perceived by local populations as subversive funding ”from a foreign power designed to shatter local religious and cultural relationships.”

In addition, the signers told Blinken they have reviewed other similar official State Department Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) documents that “violate both the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses, but also the No Religious Test Clause of Article VI of our nation’s constitution.”

The funding provided to the organizations selected by the department would be used to support building “networks and advocacy groups” for atheists, according to the official notice.

“This would be analogous to official State Department promotion of religious freedom ‘particularly for Christians’ in China, with the express goal being to build a corresponding missionary network,” the signers told Blinken.

“Obviously, this goal that would never pass constitutional muster and would be derided by radical Leftist bureaucrats in your agency as completely out-of-bounds.

“So why is this atheist NOFO not viewed with similar objection,” the signers asked.

“Americans rightly discern this as a part of the broader effort on the part of your administration to promote radical, progressive orthodoxy abroad. Atheism is an integral part of the belief system of Marxism and Communism,” the signers said.

The letter to Biden and Blinken regarding State Department grants to support atheism and other religious belief systems follows revelations last week that officials are preparing to appoint a Special Representative for Equity and Justice.

The appointment is part of Biden’s government-wide “Equity Action Plan” that mandates all federal departments and agencies to appoint such officials.

Congressional Republicans criticize the plan as a thinly disguised effort to use the federal government to promote Critical Race Theory (CRT), the controversial view that the color of an individual’s skin determines their values and how they perceive people of other ethnicities.

In addition to the U.S. Embassy in Germany flying a Black Lives Matter flag, the Republicans pointed to the U.S. Vatican City Embassy flying an LGBT pride flag, which they describe as “a transparent provocation at tenets of Christianity,” and the State Department’s creation of a new gender classification for use on passports for individuals of “unspecified or another gender identity.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/house-gopers-demanding-answers-on-why-grants-going-to-boost-atheism-overseas_4570158.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-07-03-4&utm_medium=email&est=IHP%2FtcGq%2F1ZQFheBBLU5kaH8w9U%2BxT4j16CIXyFcbYSlYOmoJyf%2Bc0rtZpunMgTxkA%3D%3D

Amazon founder and multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos criticized the Biden administration’s messaging around gas prices and rising inflation.

On Saturday, resident Joe Biden suggested on Twitter that gas stations across the United States charge customers less for gasoline to offset historically high gas prices.

“Ouch,” Bezos wrote in response. “Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.”

Earlier, Biden’s Twitter account wrote that he has a “message” to gas stations: “This is a time of war and global peril. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.”

From the Twitter post, it’s not clear how gas stations might accomplish Biden’s Twitter demand, which was praised by a Chinese Communist Party media account. Others, however, criticized the president’s post.

“You know as well as everyone that the Federal Reserve actually sets the prices—through rampant inflation,” wrote the Libertarian Party’s account. “When 40 percent of the dollars in the world was printed in one year, inflation sets in and prices skyrocket. Just yesterday you were blaming [Russia]. We see through your scam.”

Added California gubernatorial candidate Michael Shellenberger, “At a time of war, Biden could have leveled with the American people and united the country through an ‘all-of-the-above’ clean energy strategy that included oil & gas. Instead, he has repeatedly lied about the causes of the energy crisis and divided the country.”

Data released by auto club AAA on Sunday shows that the national average price for a gallon of regular gas currently stands at $4.81, down about 10 cents from a week ago. In mid-June, the average price hit $5 per gallon for the first time.

Biden and fellow Democrats have shifted from blaming Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, for the spike in gas prices to blaming oil companies and gas stations in recent days. The president sent a letter to the top oil companies in the United States, demanding that they bring down prices while accusing them of price-gouging.

ExxonMobil, one of the firms, fired back by suggesting that federal policies have contributed to rising prices.

“In the short term, the U.S. government could enact measures often used in emergencies following hurricanes or other supply disruptions—such as waivers of Jones Act provisions and some fuel specifications to increase supplies,” the oil giant wrote in a news release.

The federal government, it added, “can promote investment through clear and consistent policy that supports U.S. resource development, such as regular and predictable lease sales, as well as streamlined regulatory approval and support for infrastructure such as pipelines.”

Republicans and some analysts have said the higher prices are caused by Biden having issued a series of executive orders last year suspending new drilling leases on federal lands, fossil fuel subsidies, and killing off the Keystone pipeline.

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

The ‘independent state legislature doctrine’ is a longtime favorite of conservative legal thinkers and Republicans

The Supreme Court decided on June 30 to hear an important new case that Republicans hope will re-empower state legislatures to make rules for redistricting and governing congressional and presidential elections.

Republicans say the U.S. Constitution has always directly authorized state legislatures to make rules for the conduct of elections, including presidential elections. Democrats say this idea, encompassed by the Independent State Legislature Doctrine, is a fringe conservative legal theory that could endanger voting rights. The Supreme Court has reportedly never ruled on the doctrine.

The doctrine, if endorsed by the high court, could allow state legislatures to select presidential electors in disputed elections, something critics decry as a threat to democracy.

Election law expert J. Christian Adams, a former U.S. Department of Justice civil rights attorney who now heads the Public Interest Legal Foundation, an election integrity group, praised the Supreme Court for granting the case, which he said was “very important.”

“It means that the Court may take up all the nonsense that has been occurring over the last 10 years,” Adams told The Epoch Times by email.

In a series of Twitter posts, Democratic Party attorney and election law activist Marc Elias denounced the court’s decision to hear the case.

“The Supreme Court will hear a case next term that may validate the dangerous independent state legislature theory,” Elias wrote.

“Congress must enact comprehensive voting rights and anti-subversion legislation before it’s too late,” he wrote, adding “the future of our democracy is on the docket.”

The doctrine has been in the news because conservative Republican activist Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, sent emails to 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona urging them to choose the state’s presidential electors despite the disputed popular vote tallies showing Democrat Joe Biden had won the state, The Washington Post reported June 10.

The emails were sent Nov. 9, 2020, after media outlets had called the Arizona race for Biden. The efforts by Republicans to change the result in Arizona were unsuccessful and ultimately the state’s 11 votes in the Electoral College were awarded to Biden.

In her emails, Ginni Thomas, a supporter of then-President Donald Trump, asked Arizona legislators to “stand strong in the face of political and media pressure” and asserted that the responsibility to select electors was “yours and yours alone.” Lawmakers, she wrote, had the “power to fight back against fraud” and “ensure that a clean slate of Electors is chosen.”

The emails attracted the attention of the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, security breach at the U.S. Capitol that delayed official congressional certification of the 2020 presidential election by several hours. Democrats also say there is a conflict of interest because Justice Thomas will participate in the court case about the independent state legislature doctrine. Through her lawyers, Ginni Thomas is resisting committee demands that she testify in the ongoing probe that many Republicans, including Trump, say is a sham.

Tim Moore, a Republican who is the speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, explained why he supports the doctrine.

“The U.S. Constitution is crystal clear: state legislatures are responsible for drawing congressional maps, not state court judges, and certainly not with the aid of partisan political operatives,” Moore said in March when he launched an appeal of the Supreme Court of North Carolina’s order redrawing the state’s electoral map against the wishes of the state’s GOP-majority legislature.

“We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will reaffirm this basic principle and will throw out the illegal map imposed on the people of North Carolina by its highest court. It is time to settle the elections clause question once and for all.”

The elections clause in Article 1 states: “The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.”

The presidential electors clause in Article 2 states gives each state the power to appoint presidential electors “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct.”

Three Supreme Court justices have said the doctrine applied in the Bush v. Gore case that resolved the disputed 2000 presidential election.

In an unsigned order issued on June 30, in Moore v. Harper, court file 21-1271, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. The justices did not explain why they decided to hear the case, which is their usual practice when deciding which appeals to take on. For such a petition to be granted, at least four of the nine justices must agree. The case is expected to proceed to oral argument in the court’s upcoming term that begins in October.

Moore filed his petition (pdf) with the court on March 17.

It was preceded by an emergency application seeking to stay a Feb. 14 ruling by the Supreme Court of North Carolina that required the state to modify its existing congressional election districts for the 2022 primary and general elections. Respondent Rebecca Harper is one member of a group of 25 individual North Carolina voters.

On March 7, the Supreme Court turned away (pdf) the stay application. In an opinion concurring in the denial of the stay, Justice Brett Kavanaugh invoked the so-called Purcell principle, writing that the high court “has repeatedly ruled that federal courts ordinarily should not alter state election laws in the period close to an election.”

SOURCE: The Epoch Times

States will not prevent life-saving treatment for pregnant women post-Roe v. Wade, contrary to claims from liberal media outlets and politicians.

Democratic politicians including Resident Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with left-leaning media outlets like the New York Times, have said the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe may endanger or kill pregnant mothers. “I don’t mean to sound alarmist, I mean this: Women will die,” Harris said in a recent interview. Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali said women will have to ask themselves, “Do I abort this ectopic pregnancy to literally save my life or do I go to jail?”

While the overturn of Roe has either outlawed or severely restricted abortion in at least 11 states, each include exceptions to save the life of the mother in medical emergencies. Nevertheless, Democrats are hyping these concerns over pregnant mothers’ safety, and abortion advocates are spending millions of dollars to rally supporters before the 2022 midterms. Biden reminded his party last week before the Dobbs decision that “Roe is on the ballot“

The Texas “heart beat” bill, which prohibits abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, states that removal of an ectopic pregnancy does not constitute an abortion. Louisiana’s law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks includes exceptions for ectopic pregnancies and other medical emergencies, along with the Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, and Wisconsin abortion bills.

Treatment for ectopic pregnancies, where the unborn baby develops outside the uterus, is not abortion, said Dr. Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. She said women will receive the same treatment for life-threatening conditions as when Roe was in effect.

“The intent of an abortion is to end the life of the developing fetal human being, while our intent when we treat an ectopic pregnancy is to save the life of the mother,” Francis told the Washington Free Beacon. “We do a very different procedure than what’s done for an induced abortion.”

In Oklahoma, the state with the strictest abortion laws in the country, abortion is allowed when the doctor’s “reasonable medical judgment” determines it is necessary to save the mother’s life. Alabama allows abortions if the mother has a medical condition that requires “the termination of her pregnancy to avert her death or to avert serious risk of substantial physical impairment of a major bodily function.” West Virginia, which criminalizes abortion, also allows exceptions with the “intention of saving the life of such woman or child.” South Dakota’s 2022 abortion bill says a “procedure for the management of a miscarriage” is not an abortion.

Claims that the overturn of Roe will harm mothers who have miscarriages are also unfounded, according to Francis. If the unborn baby has died, “abortion laws, statutes, and even discussions don’t apply,” she said.

“There is intentional fear mongering being done,” Francis said. “I think people who know better are trying to scare women and physicians in the general public into supporting abortion laws.”

https://freebeacon.com/politics/liberals-are-wrong-emergency-pregnancy-treatments-remain-legal-after-roe/

Why not start using the border for munitions testing; waste disposal (especially nuclear); etc.? [US Patriot]

The Supreme Court gave the Biden administration the green light on June 30 to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy that requires non-Mexican asylum-seekers arriving at the southern border to wait in Mexico for processing.

Resident Joe Biden’s decision to nix the program didn’t violate a 1996 migrant detention law, the court held, noting that the administration’s memorandum rescinding the program should have been examined by the lower courts.

The 5–4 opinion (pdf) in Biden v. Texas, court file 21-954, was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and comes as record numbers of illegal aliens are streaming across the U.S. border with Mexico, overwhelming the capacity of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to deal with them.

Roberts’s opinion was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Brett Kavanaugh. Breyer, 83, retired from the court at noon on June 30 and was replaced by Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Kavanaugh also filed a separate concurring opinion. Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett both filed separate dissenting opinions.

Texas and Missouri had argued that Biden broke the law by ending the program.

Upon taking office, Biden cut off enrollments in the program, part of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) created by Congress under then-President Bill Clinton. In 2018, the Trump administration said it would enforce the program to crack down on the practice known as catch-and-release, in which individuals would make fraudulent asylum claims knowing they would be released into the United States and be able to stay for years before their court appearance.

Under Biden, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memorandum on Jan. 20, 2021, saying it would “suspend new enrollments in the [MPP] pending further review of the program.”

“Aliens who aren’t already enrolled in MPP should be processed under other existing legal authorities,” it reads.

Days later, Biden signed three new executive orders aimed at undoing Trump-era immigration policies. One of them, Biden said, “orders a full review of the previous administration’s harmful and counterproductive immigration policies, basically across the board.”

But in August 2021, at the urging of the two states, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, ordered the government to enforce the MPP policy until “lawfully rescinded.” The Biden administration had failed to properly justify ending the policy and to uphold a 1996 law requiring the detention of certain migrants, the judge held. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit affirmed Kacsmaryk’s ruling.

On May 2, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of asking the attorneys involved in the case to provide post-hearing submissions to the court. Both the Biden administration and the two states opposing it in the high-stakes litigation filed briefs arguing that the court does have the power to decide the central legal questions in the case, The Epoch Times reported.

In his new opinion, Roberts wrote that “the Government’s rescission of MPP did not violate” section 1225 of the Immigration and Nationality Act” and reversed the decision of the lower court, remanding the case “for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

By incorrectly interpreting the section as a command, the appeals court needlessly injected itself into administration affairs and “imposed a significant burden upon the Executive’s ability to conduct diplomatic relations with Mexico,” Roberts wrote.

The district court would force the administration “to the bargaining table with Mexico, over a policy that both countries wish to terminate, and to supervise its continuing negotiations with Mexico to ensure that they are conducted ‘in good faith.’” The law doesn’t allow the lower court “to tie the hands of the Executive in this manner,” the chief justice wrote.

In his dissent, Alito wrote that even though Congress gave the administration the option of returning “inadmissible aliens to Mexico while they await proceedings in this country,” the Biden DHS instead violated the law by releasing in the United States an “untold numbers of aliens who are very likely to be removed if they show up for their removal hearings.”

“This practice violates the clear terms of the law, but the Court looks the other way,” he wrote.

Christopher Hajec, director of litigation at the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), a nonprofit public interest law firm that filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case, shared his views on the new ruling.

“We are certainly disappointed with the Court’s decision today,” Hajec told The Epoch Times by email.

“We think it was wrong on the merits and wrong on jurisdiction. Nevertheless, there are two silver linings. On the merits, the Court made clear that the lower courts in this case have yet to decide, and should decide, whether Biden’s extreme parole policies are lawful. We think they clearly are not. Also, on jurisdiction, the Court still left open a path for states and other parties to get relief from Biden’s disastrous immigration policies, though that path is narrower than before.”

Judy Rabinovitz, special counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, praised the ruling.

“The Supreme Court was right to reject the spurious argument that this cruel policy is statutorily required,” Rabinovitz said in a statement. “While, as noted in the decision, the case will return to the district court, the Biden administration can and should move forward swiftly to finally terminate ‘remain in Mexico’ for good—a result that has been long, and unjustly, delayed.”

The U.S. Department of Justice didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/supreme-court-allows-biden-administration-to-end-trumps-remain-in-mexico-asylum-policy_4565236.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-06-30-3&utm_medium=email&est=Xodv3Q9nnt9ZaB7%2ByGooAS7ZqhRBeHFiM42IocVr0YoZFsooSx%2B3gdtBYJvzhNX98Q%3D%3D

A recovered voicemail reveals resident Joe Biden called his son, Hunter Biden, in late 2018 to discuss a New York Times report on the latter’s dealings with a Chinese oil tycoon who had been charged with financial crimes.

The leaked voicemail contradicts Biden’s claims that he never spoke with Hunter about his overseas business transactions.

“I think you’re clear,” Biden said to Hunter in the audio, first released by Daily Mail on June 27. “And anyway if you get a chance, give me a call, I love you.”

The voicemail, dating back to Dec. 12, 2018, came from Hunter’s old iPhone backup on his abandoned laptop. It came after the NY Times published an article detailing Hunter’s ties with Chinese oil giant CEFC’s former chairman, Ye Jianming, who was arrested in China on bribery charges in 2018.

“Hey pal, it’s Dad,” Biden began with his message. “It’s 8:15 on Wednesday night. If you get a chance, just give me a call. Nothing urgent. I just wanted to talk to you.”

“I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good,” he said.

NEW: In 2018, Joe Biden left a voicemail for Hunter saying he wanted to talk to him about a New York Times report on Hunter’s business deals in China.

Biden repeatedly said he “never discussed” business with Hunter. pic.twitter.com/7r9VatHUoH

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 27, 2022

Hunter Biden’s Chinese Business Dealings

The NY Times reported on a private meeting between Ye and Hunter in Miami in May 2017.

Moreover, when a top aide of Ye, Patrick Ho, was arrested by the FBI for corruption and bribery in 2017, Ho reportedly called Biden’s brother, James Biden. The latter later told the NY Times that he believed the call was intended for his nephew Hunter.

According to a disclosed letter, CEFC China Energy also paid Hunter $1 million to find a U.S.-based attorney for Ho, whom Hunter once called “the spy chief of China.”

Throughout his presidential campaign, Biden repeatedly denied any knowledge of his son’s overseas business dealings.

“I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Biden said at a Democrat fundraiser in Iowa in 2019, accusing then-President Donald Trump of trying “to smear” him.

During the second presidential debate in 2020, Biden went further, claiming that stories about his son’s laptop were “a Russian plant.”

Since taking office, Biden has denied such allegations on several occasions, both in person or via his press spokespersons.

The White House didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

“SMOKING GUN!” Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) wrote on Twitter upon the release of the voicemail message. “Even Big Tech can’t ignore [resident Biden’s] Hunter problem anymore,” he said in another post.

“It’s time for a hearing,” the GOP lawmaker concluded.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-spoke-to-hunter-about-china-business-deals-voicemail-reveals_4565987.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-06-30&utm_medium=email&est=qRQ5%2B7UaFS1SJjHNRYCj1PSv8I2DL2V%2Bcjanp64Y%2BjMc50JVlkpdhy6fln8FQxsBsg%3D%3D

If you look like the woman in the photo, will abortion ever be necessary?

A group of pro-abortion Amazon employees wrote to corporate leadership on Monday demanding that the company withdraw business from pro-life states in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s fall, according to a letter obtained by the exposé Twitter account Libs of TikTok.

The notice listed nine employee exhortations, the most drastic of which told company executives to “cease operations in states that enact laws that threaten the lives and liberty of abortion seekers, either by denying healthcare in life-threatening circumstances or by criminalizing abortion seekers and providers.” Such a decision would shut down more than 100 Amazon fulfillment centers, software development centers, and customer service centers, slashing billions in revenue and more than 150,000 jobs.

Other demands include publicly denouncing the abortion ruling, giving time off for employees to “grieve,” organizing company protests, and removing products on the site that “encourage hate speech or violence toward abortion seekers.”

“Given the attacks on our democracy, and the continued deterioration of our rights, we believe the time to act is now,” the letter reads.

Amazon employees are not alone in risking their jobs for social justice. Just two weeks ago, SpaceX employees distributed an open letter calling Elon Musk’s public behavior a “source of distraction and embarrassment” for the company after Musk announced his intention to vote Republican and endorsed Rep. Mayra Flores (R., Texas). The SpaceX employees involved were terminated.

Amazon officials have yet to release a statement regarding the letter or the Roe v. Wade ruling. The company’s executive chairman, Jeff Bezos, may be loathe to wade into a controversy that would severely disrupt business. In May, Bezos got into a spat with the White House after resident Joe Biden suggested raising corporate taxes in order to tame record-high inflation.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/pro-abortion-amazon-employees-want-to-kill-jobs-in-pro-life-states/

Former president hires one-term city council member who was ousted for supporting defund police initiative

Former president Barack Obama has a new top staffer at his foundation—a far-left activist who was ousted from the Minneapolis City Council for supporting an initiative to defund police.

On Monday, former Minneapolis council member Phillipe Cunningham thanked Obama after starting a “new role at the Obama Foundation as the deputy director – U.S. lead of global leadership programs.” The move comes just months after voters ousted Cunningham, who backed a failed measure to defund city police, from the Minneapolis City Council in November. Cunningham in June 2020 also spoke at a defund-the-police rally, where the activist and nine other council members pledged to “end policing as we know it.” Cunningham’s opponent, LaTrisha Vetaw, said that pledge made her feel “silenced” and called public safety “the only issue” in the race.

Obama’s decision to ignore voters in deep-blue Minneapolis and hire Cunningham for a top position contradicts the former president’s rhetoric on the defund-the-police movement. Obama in November 2020 said he would not defund police and criticized activists who use the phrase. But Obama appeared alongside Cunningham at a virtual town hall when the activist was openly calling to defund police—during that June 2020 event, Cunningham stressed the need to “completely transform our public safety system.”

Resident Joe Biden, Obama’s vice president, claimed last year that those who say Democrats want to defund police are “lying.”

As part of the Obama Foundation, Cunningham will head the U.S. branch of the group’s global leadership programs, which aims to provide “emerging leaders” with “values-based leadership development frameworks to help build their skills and scale their work across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.” It’s unclear how Cunningham’s values align with the program—the Obama Foundation did not return a request for comment on the hire and whether the group agrees with Cunningham’s position on defunding police.

Republican National Committee spokesman Nathan Brand said Obama’s new hire shows “there is no daylight between the looney left and the Democratic Party establishment.”

“With radical defund-the-police leaders like this in charge, it is no wonder Democrats are alienating more and more Americans and are set to lose in November,” Brand told the Washington Free Beacon. “From that perspective, Dems couldn’t have picked a better person to lead these efforts.”

Cunningham, a biological woman who transitioned as a college junior, became the first transgender man of color to be elected to public office in the United States in 2017. Roughly three years later, following George Floyd’s death in the summer of 2020, the then-councilmember stood behind a giant “DEFUND POLICE” sign at a Minneapolis rally and argued that the city’s residents could “keep our own community safe” without police. Cunningham also praised those who “threw the first bricks at police officers” during the Stonewall Riots in New York City.

One year later, as the defund police movement lost popularity, Cunningham did not back down. In 2021, Cunningham backed an unprecedented amendment to dismantle the city’s police department. The measure, which Minneapolis voters rejected by double digits, would have replaced the city’s police department with a “Department of Public Safety” and called to abolish the city’s minimum funding requirements for police.

Cunningham’s decision to back that amendment came as Minneapolis experienced a surge in violence. In the last week of 2021, the city notched its 96th homicide, just one murder shy of its record level seen in 1995. That trend has continued into this year—in late April, Minneapolis had 9 murders in 10 days, putting the city on track to surpass its 1995 numbers.

Obama has worked with far-left activists beyond Cunningham. Defund-the-police organizer and MSNBC contributor Brittany Packnett Cunningham served on the former president’s policing task force. She later argued that rising crime rates are the police’s fault.

“This rise in crime is not the fault of the movement, it’s actually the fault of the police,” Packnett Cunningham said during a June 2021 MSNBC appearance. “This has been our point all along—why should we keep funding systems and institutions that keep rendering themselves ineffective?”

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-far-left-activist-was-too-woke-for-minneapolis-but-not-obamas-foundation/

Lawmakers, former officials say change will let Iranian terrorists come to US

The Biden administration altered federal law to make it easier for individuals who have worked with designated terrorist groups to legally enter the United States.

The State and Homeland Security Departments last week amended federal immigration laws to allow foreigners who provided “insignificant material support” to designated terror groups to receive “immigration benefits or other status,” according to the policy published in the Federal Register. Examples of individuals who would fall into the new category, according to the announcement, include individuals who provided “humanitarian assistance” or “routine commercial transactions” to terror groups.

The policy shift is fueling concerns that the Biden administration wants to make it easier for individuals who work with or for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the country’s paramilitary fighting force that has killed hundreds of Americans, to enter the country. Notice of the change came several days before the Biden administration and hardline Iranian government resumed talks aimed at securing a revamped version of the 2015 nuclear deal.

A State Department spokesman said the law was amended to help vulnerable Afghans, who might have inadvertently worked with terror groups, gain refuge in the United States following the Biden administration’s bungled withdrawal that left the Taliban in power. Lawmakers and former U.S. officials, however, say the new regulations are so broadly written that they would apply to organizations like al Qaeda and the IRGC. The policy change is also raising red flags as U.S. officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, face credible death threats from Iran.

The rule does not specifically mention Afghanistan but is written to cover all U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations, such as the IRGC and al Qaeda, experts told the Free Beacon. The Taliban is not designated as a foreign terrorist organization, leaving lawmakers and former U.S. officials concerned the changes extend far beyond vulnerable Afghans and cover those tied to some of the globe’s most violent terror groups.

Gabriel Noronha, a State Department special adviser for Iran during the Trump administration, said that “the Biden administration is claiming this regulation is all about Afghanistan, but they didn’t even mention Afghanistan once in their action, and have made no serious attempt to limit the scope to the situation there.”

“Instead,” said Noronha, who is a fellow with the Jewish Institute for National Security of America think tank, “this looks like a massive watering down of our immigration restrictions against members of terrorist organizations.”

The State Department says the changes are limited to Afghanistan, but would not say why the country is not mentioned once in the new order.

The changes “are an effort to address issues related to Afghanistan,” a State Department spokesman, speaking only on background, told the Free Beacon. “The circumstances between Afghanistan and Iran are very different.” The new rules “are not applicable to people who have received military-type training from [foreign terrorist organizations], including IRGC conscripts.” Rather, the administration is trying to make it easier for those tangentially tied to terrorism to legally enter the country, the official maintained.

When the Free Beacon requested additional information and an explanation as to why the IRGC or similar groups would not be covered by the changes, the State Department declined to answer, saying, “We have no further information or comments to share.” This lack of clarity is fueling concerns about the policy change.

Noronha and others who spoke to the Free Beacon say the broad reference to “foreign terrorist organizations” leaves open the possibility that groups like the IRGC and al Qaeda would benefit from the relaxed immigration guidelines. The revamped guidelines do not specifically include restrictions on either of these groups. “At best this is a horribly written regulation. At worst, it’s an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of Congress and the American people and make it easier for terrorists to come to America,” Noronha said.

Richard Goldberg, who under Trump served on the White House National Security Council as the director for countering Iranian weapons of mass destruction, said that any effort to loosen restrictions on terror-tied individuals is worrying amid Iran’s threats to kill U.S. leaders.

“Given Iran is actively plotting to kill former American officials, the administration should carefully explain if and how this [rule] might apply to a potential affiliate of the IRGC, and provide a high-level commitment to take all necessary steps to bar any potential IRGC associate from admission to the United States,” Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told the Free Beacon.

Republican lawmakers agree with this assessment. Five Republican foreign policy leaders who spoke to the Free Beacon expressed concerns the administration is trying to quietly grant concessions to Iran as it reenters nuclear talks.

“It’s outrageous that the Biden administration is lifting the blanket ban on individuals who have provided support to terrorists from entering the United States,” Rep. Joe Wilson (R., S.C.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Free Beacon. “The timing raises concerns coming just a few days before the latest round of Iran talks. Resident Biden should end these failed negotiations once and for all and return to a policy of maximum pressure, rather than continuing to make concessions to the terrorist regime in Iran.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he and his colleagues worry the Biden administration is attempting to grant concessions to Iran via backdoor changes to American laws.

“What do Americans gain by letting members of Iran’s terrorist army cross our borders?” Banks asked.

Rep. Mike Waltz (R., Fla.), a combat veteran and also a member of the Armed Services Committee, said the change is purely about “appeasing terrorist groups—whether it’s the IRGC, Houthis, or Taliban.”

Reps. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) and Pat Fallon (R., Texas), both Armed Services Committee members, expressed shock at how broadly written the new regulations are.

“In what world is it an acceptable decision to allow terrorists into our country?” Fallon asked the Free Beacon. “Instead of ending the nuclear talks with Iran all together, Joe Biden has decided to bend over backwards to the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. Before it is too late, I urge them to immediately reconsider this foolish decision.”

Update June 29, 3:31 p.m.: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Biden administration made no formal announcement of the policy change.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/the-biden-admin-just-made-it-easier-for-terrorists-to-enter-the-united-states/

“This is the worst political ad I’ve ever seen.”

Longtime Chicago congressman Danny Davis (D.) was ridiculed by Twitter users over the abysmal production quality of a campaign advertisement video he released on Saturday.

The ad is a simple text slideshow featuring a computer-generated text-to-speech narration. Despite its simplicity, the ad contains errors in its text, and the robotic voice talking over it is out of sync with the words in the video. Even the beginning of the advertisement is flawed, with the robotic voice starting its narration midway through a sentence. The ad concludes with its stilted narrator stating that Davis “works 24/7 dothe is the people’s champion.” 

Congressman Danny K. Davis talks Numbers https://t.co/REOV1n1Usv

— Danny K. Davis (@DannyKDavis7th) June 26, 2022

The Davis campaign did not return a request for comment regarding how much it paid to have the ad made. 

Responses to Davis’s ad were almost universally negative, with users mocking its amateur quality and numerous mistakes.

“Yoooo my representative just discovered iMovie,” one Twitter user quipped. Another tweeter remarked that Davis’s video “is the worst political ad I’ve ever seen.”

Davis has a controversial history. The congressman has aligned himself with anti-Semitic preacher Louis Farrakahn, went ona week-long trip to Sri Lanka funded by a terrorist organization, and crowned a Korean man claiming to be the Messiah during a ceremony he sponsored in a Senate office building. 

Davis is in a heated primary, defending the seat he’s held for the last quarter-century from Justice Democrats-aligned progressive Kina Collins. Even with his campaign’s lack of technological capabilities and his questionable history, Davis has won the support of high-level Democrats. Resident Joe Biden, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker (D.), and both of Illinois’s senators have thrown their support behind the congressman.

The ad isn’t the congressman’s only display of technological illiteracy. Davis’s official YouTube channel features a 22-minute-long video titled “Congressman Danny K. Davis on Unemployment.” The video is totally silent and does not seem to feature the congressman. The video contains a screen recording of Davis’s chief of staff resetting her Zoom password and rescheduling a dental appointment.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/illinois-dem-releases-comically-bad-campaign-ad/

Ohio’s Marcy Kaptur distances herself from D.C. after serving for nearly four decades

Ohio Democratic congresswoman Marcy Kaptur says she’s fed up with “people in Washington” who “care only about the coasts.” She’s been in Congress since 1983 and votes in lockstep with her party’s coastal leaders.

In her first ad of the general election cycle, titled “Feeling Squeezed,” Kaptur claims “too many of us” are hurting economically because “the people in Washington only care about the coasts.” The Democrat should know—she’s served in Congress for nearly four decades and votes with resident Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) 100 percent and 99 percent of the time, respectively. Kaptur also routinely touts her vote in favor of the American Rescue Plan, Biden’s $2 trillion stimulus package. Prominent liberal economists say that bill drove the nation’s inflation surge.

This is hardly the first time Kaptur has attempted to distance herself from her record as a career politician as she navigates a competitive reelection campaign for the first time in decades. With record-high gas prices seen under Biden driving voters away from Democrats, Kaptur is blaming BP and other “big oil” companies for “gouging consumers.” But Kaptur has taken thousands of dollars in campaign cash from major oil and gas companies since 2013, including $12,000 from BP. And when Biden similarly blamed oil and gas companies for “pad[ding] their profits at the expense of hardworking Americans,” energy experts debunked the claim.

Bernie Moreno, Ohio chair of the nonpartisan group U.S. Term Limits, said Kaptur’s ad proves the Democrat is “desperate” with the midterm elections looming.

“Democrats are desperate for shifting narratives, so they pretend they’re something they’re not. Because the polling and the public sentiment is crystal clear—people don’t want career politicians, so the only way they think they can win is by pretending none of that exists,” Moreno told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s unbelievable to see them try to morph into something they’re not. For example, Marcy Kaptur, she’s been there for 40 years. All the problems she’s talking about, well, why didn’t you solve those while you were there for four decades?”

Kaptur’s campaign did not return a request for comment. Her attempt to distance herself from Washington, D.C., Democrats is particularly bizarre given her unwavering support for Biden. When Biden visited Kaptur’s district in February, Kaptur called him the best president she’s “walked alongside as a member of Congress.” “resident Biden, your report card is outstanding for your first year as president,” Kaptur added. Just 27 percent of Ohioans approve of Biden, while 62 percent disapprove, according to Civiqs.

Kaptur’s February speech explicitly touted Biden’s American Rescue Plan, which the Ohio Democrat said would lead to “the modernization of our nation.” Instead, former Obama administration economic adviser Larry Summers says the legislation led to inflation. Buckeye Institute research fellow Greg Lawson agrees—he told the Free Beacon Kaptur was “sticking her head in the sand” if she believed Biden’s $2 trillion stimulus package wouldn’t be inflationary.

“It’s a massive amount of money that really wasn’t essential and has now created all kinds of reverberation effects,” Lawson said. “So at the end of the day, it was a bad deal. And now we’re paying for it quite a bit.”

Over her nearly 40-year career, Kaptur has won all but three of her reelection bids by at least 20 points. That will almost certainly change in November—Ohio’s redistricting process made her district considerably more red, meaning Kaptur will likely face the toughest reelection bid of her career in November. The Democrat is set to face Air Force veteran J.R. Majewski, who won his primary contest by 5 points in May. Roughly two months earlier, Majewski signed a U.S. Term Limits pledge to limit terms for elected officials. Kaptur, meanwhile, said in 1995 that term limits would cause “upheaval” and lead to a “bunch of juvenile congressmen.”

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/tone-deaf-democrat-whos-been-in-congress-since-1983-goes-after-people-in-washington/

New York billionaire and refiner John Catsimatidis, who owns hundreds of gas stations, blasted resident Joe Biden’s pinning the blame on high prices at the pump on gas station owners, arguing there’s only one solution for inflation—boosting production of crude.

Catsimatidis made the remarks in an interview on Fox News on June 24, after being asked to comment on Biden’s call to gas station owners to “bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product.”

“Do it now. Do it today. Your customers, the American people, they need relief now,” Biden said at a White House press conference on June 23, in which the president called for a federal gas tax holiday, urged oil companies to use their profits to boost refining capacity, and leaned on gas station owners to pass along lower crude oil prices by lowering prices at the pump.

‘Ridiculous to Put It on Us’

Catsimatidis reacted to Biden’s remarks by defending gas station owners, arguing that they’ve been “making the same margin that we’ve been making forever” as they have to cover payroll and pay rent, electricity bills, and other operating expenses.

While the margin gas station owners make fluctuates several cents one way or the other, Catsimatidis said it’s “ridiculous to put it on us. We’re not the ones that created the problem.”

The price of gasoline has nearly doubled since Biden took office, with the president variously blaming oil industry greed, a lack of refining capacity, global supply shortfalls set against a sharp post-pandemic rebound in demand, and the war in Ukraine.

Some experts and industry insiders have argued that the Biden administration’s anti-fossil fuel policies have discouraged companies from investing in refining capacity.

“It’s not the war in Ukraine. It’s really domestically caused constraint on the supply side,” said Ross McKitrick, a professor of economics at the University of Guelph in Ontario and expert on energy and environmental policy, in a recent interview with The Epoch Times.

“Nobody’s willing to invest in expanding refinery capacity because the outlook from everything that the government has said is you won’t get the approvals,” he added.

McKitrick’s view was echoed by Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, who said in a recent interview that he does not believe another oil refinery will be built again in the United States, arguing that government policies are the key factor.

“We’ve seen refineries closed. We’ve seen units come down. We’ve seen refineries being repurposed to become bio refineries. And we live in a world where the policy, the stated policy of the U.S. government is to reduce demand for the products that refiners produce,” Wirth said.

Still, American drivers facing pain at the pump could see some relief from economic headwinds and reduced demand, if not from gas station owners squeezing their margins or refiners finding ways to process more crude.

‘No Denying Biden Has Some Blame’

Oil prices have retreated over the past two weeks amid broad market concern over an economic slowdown as soaring inflation has pushed central banks to tighten financial conditions by hiking rates.

The drop in crude prices has led gas stations to reduce prices at the pump, with the national average for a gallon of gas landing at $4.897 on June 27, according to AAA.

Several weeks ago, that figure stood at over $5 a gallon, while a year ago, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.095.

Some gasoline market experts, like GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan, predict further drops.

“We’re down to $4.88/gal with #gasprices down for the second straight week. A third is possible, with prices by July 4 falling to $4.75-$4.80/gal,” De Haan wrote in a recent tweet.

What’s De Haan’s take on Biden’s role in high prices at the pump?

“There’s no denying Biden has some blame for rising #gasprices, but it is far far from 100%,” he said in a tweet, while agreeing “100 percent” with a comment that pinned the blame on a massive demand disruption related to COVID-19 combined with a sluggish domestic production response driven by the desire to use profits to repair damaged balance sheets when oil prices crashed at the beginning of the pandemic.

‘Open Up the Spigots’

For his part, Catsimatidis said in the interview on Fox that there’s only one fix for the current inflationary spike—a big part of which is due to soaring energy costs.

“We have 100 years’ worth of oil,” he said. “Open up the spigots.”

“If we open up the spigots and flooded the market with oil, with crude oil, American crude oil, we bring the price of oil back” and “inflation goes away,” Catsimatidis said.

Petr Svab contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/oil-billionaire-blasts-bidens-gas-price-blame-game-says-only-one-thing-will-fix-inflation_4560993.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-06-28&utm_medium=email&est=3%2FzcSKWPOY4rRNOP8hGJKXoA3vkP8asu0EcKoYlTK3zv%2BlyK%2BXvRXLgydkJeJZDyfw%3D%3D

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) could hardly contain his amazement when Dr. Rahul Gupta, resident Joe Biden’s national drug control policy director, claimed that “protecting the border” with Mexico was among the administration’s top priorities.

Gupta’s claim came during his opening statement on June 27 before a lengthy digital hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, the focus of which was to be on how the president was dealing with the explosion of drug overdoses that killed more than 107,000 Americans last year.

“Did you say that? Am I right, did you say he is doing a great job of protecting the border?” the incredulous Norman asked the hearing’s sole witness.

Gupta responded: “We believe strongly that it is an important part of every nation to be able to secure and protect its border. There are a number of things that are going on in this area of counter-narcotics that I think are important to note.

“As I visit the border, I speak to the women and men on the border.”

But Gupta was interrupted by Norman, who asked him if Biden “is taking the steps to close the border. Is that what I understand you to mean?”

Gupta replied, “The president is certainly taking the steps to ensure that our border remains secured—”

Norman interrupted, murmuring “Oh, my Lord,” and said, “Okay, doctor, this is two different universes. … I mean this is a mischaracterization, at best, for you to say that of this administration. … We don’t want words, we don’t want hearings, we want actions.”

The exchange between Norman and Gupta came early in the hearing, and it typified much of what was heard throughout the balance of cross-examination by committee members, including all of the Republicans and at least one Democrat.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) set the tone of the proceeding in his opening statement by pointing to Biden’s open border policies as the chief culprit in the overdose epidemic.

“Fentanyl is being smuggled across the southwest border at unprecedented rates. U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over 11,000 pounds of fentanyl in Fiscal Year 2021. That is more fentanyl seized in one fiscal year than fiscal years 2020 and 2019 combined,” Comer said. Comer is the top Republican on the oversight panel.

“The standard fatal overdose of fentanyl is 2 milligrams; 11,000 pounds of fentanyl is more than 5 billion milligrams. That means we seized about 2.5 billion lethal doses of fentanyl in one fiscal year. That does not include all the fentanyl that we know has been smuggled across our borders undetected.

“Cartels are overwhelming Border Patrol agents and providing a steady supply for dealers and users alike. So a primary question is ‘What is resident Biden going to do to secure the border and cut off the free flow of illicit drugs into our country?’”

Gupta told the committee in his opening remarks that Biden’s national drug control strategy, which was made public in April, “was released in a time of unprecedented challenges. For far too many years, the overdose crisis has been unraveling the social fabric of the nation and destroying American lives and livelihoods.”

The Biden strategy, according to Gupta, emphasizes getting treatment services and health care to as many victims of drug addiction as possible, while minimizing correctional penalties whenever possible.

The strategy also includes efforts to reduce the drug-trafficking profits of the drug cartels in the United States by blocking their ability to move cash, weapons, and people around internationally and within the United States.

Stopping drugs such as fentanyl at the border received only cursory attention in the White House statement on the drug control policy, focusing on border ports of entry despite the fact most of the narcotics enter the country across unsecured portions of the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico.

While Democrats on the panel praised the policy for emphasizing treatment, Republicans repeatedly turned the hearing’s focus on the unprecedented surge of narcotics, especially fentanyl, crossing the border that began shortly after Biden took office.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) challenged Gupta to join him on a surreptitious visit to the border in his state after pointing to testimony given earlier in the year that CBP agents manage to stop only about 5 percent of all the illicit drug traffic coming across the border.

“I would love for you to come with me, just you and me, incognito. … Just you and me, come on down to the border and I will take you to places where you can watch what is happening, you can watch our men and women of CBP overrun, so there are literally hundreds of miles unprotected, which is where the drugs are coming in,” Biggs told Gupta.

Spokesmen for Biggs and Gupta couldn’t be reached to determine if he plans to accept the congressman’s invitation.

When Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) asked Gupta if he considers it more important for CBP agents to focus on processing people crossing the border illegally or stopping illicit drug smuggling, the White House official said he believes it is important to do both.

Donalds pointed out to Gupta that “when a border agent is at the Southern border and a group of people come out of the brush crossing our border illegally, the border agent, which usually just himself or herself, has to actually stop controlling the section they are responsible for and they have to go through the process of intaking everybody that approached them.”

Gupta declined to respond to Donalds’s question except to say, “I hope we can do both.”

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) told Gupta, “It seems we have gone from one policy of trying to get people clean and sober to helping them go from one drug to another drug.” Lynch was referring to the drug Suboxone, which is used in addiction treatment to minimize the negative effects of withdrawal from narcotics.

“We’ve taken the lid off and allow doctors to have hundreds of patients and just give them Suboxone and not really deliver any behavioral help services that would get at the underlying addictive activity,” Lynch said.

Lynch said he has observed patients who had just received Suboxone from a treatment clinic go out on the street and trade it for narcotics.

“I’m just questioning this whole policy, we seem to be moving away from getting people straight, getting them clean, getting them sober, getting them back into their lives, and instead, we’re getting them on different drugs and I just don’t see a good result from that policy,” Lynch said. “It’s not working where I am, it’s not working in the 8th Congressional District of Massachusetts.”

Committee Chairman Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) concluded the hearing by saying, “Today’s hearing makes clear that we cannot reduce the prevalence of drugs in our communities through interdiction and law enforcement alone. Nor is it possible through public health measures alone. Instead, we need to address both supply and demand.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/house-oversight-gopers-slam-biden-failure-to-stop-fentanyl-flooding-across-the-border_4561330.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-06-28&utm_medium=email&est=UyEPqxWt4Djk9RrpO23lxOiXDzK7IZsNRGZeVLm7ca2RycuFRdoxZpWlXDH%2B1AZPfg%3D%3D

At least 50 people were found dead in an 18-wheeler truck carrying suspected illegal immigrants on a remote back road in southwest San Antonio, according to officials.

William McManus, the city’s police chief, said that a city worker was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6 p.m. on Monday.

Officers arrived at the site of the tractor-trailer rig near the intersection of Cassin Drive and Quintana Road and found a body on the ground outside the vehicle, which had a door that was partially opened.

Another 16 people, four of whom were children, were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, Fire Chief Charles Hood said, adding that they were hot to the touch and dehydrated. He also noted that no water was found in the truck.

“They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,” Hood said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.”

Temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the Texas city on Monday. Temperatures can rise drastically inside vehicles on hot days.

3 Taken Into Custody

McManus said three people were taken into custody but it was unclear if they were linked to any human trafficking efforts. They were not found with the truck and their involvement is not yet clear, he said.

However, he noted that the truck was a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the United States. A federal investigation has been launched following the find, led by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, he added.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that the HSI is leading “an alleged human smuggling event” in coordination with local police.

“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said late on Monday at a press conference near the scene.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, in a post on Twitter, called the deaths of the migrants in the truck a “tragedy in Texas.” He said consular officials would go to the hospitals where victims had been taken to help “however possible.”

A spokesman for the Honduran foreign ministry told Reuters the country’s consulates in Houston and Dallas would be investigating the incident.

Ebrard said two Guatemalans were hospitalized and Guatemala’s foreign ministry said on Twitter that consular officials were going to the hospital “to verify if there are two Guatemalan minors there and what condition they are in.”

Immigration Policies Blamed

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attributed the deaths to Biden’s immigration policies. In a blunt post on Twitter, the Republican governor wrote, “These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

Jack Staton, a former senior official with ICE’s investigative unit who retired in December, told Reuters that the I-35 highway near where the truck was found runs through San Antonio from the Mexican border and is a popular smuggling corridor because of the large volume of truck traffic.

He said that illegal immigrants have been intercepted in the area regularly since July 2017, when 10 people died after they were traveling in a tractor-trailer that San Antonio police found in a Wal-Mart parking lot. The driver of the truck was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the human smuggling operation.

Resident Joe Biden said in a statement on Tuesday that “initial reports are that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or human traffickers who have no regard for the lives they endanger and exploit to make a profit.”

“This incident underscores the need to go after the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths,” he said. “In Los Angeles two weeks ago, I announced that the United States has launched a first-of-its kind anti-smuggling campaign with our regional partners. In the first three months, we have made over 2,400 arrests, and that work will only intensify in the months ahead.”

Biden said his administration “will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/at-least-46-people-found-dead-in-a-truck-carrying-suspected-migrants-in-san-antonio-reports_4562593.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-06-28&utm_medium=email&est=3fzUKBquXTiVf3Q7yLjG0URGSPTxiEMw6PgGuNkWgEjDY07r5KIZcCFKvlaRfrvQXg%3D%3D

A U.S. Customs and Border Patrol report has revealed that criminal organizations smuggling illegal aliens into America have been relying on social media platforms to recruit minors to carry out their operations.

The report from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) Border Patrol notes a “trend of Transnational Criminal Organization’s (TCO) using social media to recruit minors for their smuggling operations.”

The agency links the reliance on social media to the record-breaking numbers of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally under resident Joe Biden. “RGV agents have encountered more than 137K migrants between Oct. 1, to Dec. 31, 2021, which is a 163 percent increase over the same reporting period of the previous year,” revealed the agency.

“With an increase in illicit activity, TCOs require more manpower to carry out their operations. Social media has become an avenue for human smugglers to target juvenile drivers. TCOs are luring minors to smuggle migrants across border towns in the Rio Grande Valley and into the U.S. interior with the promise of fast cash,” explained Customs and Border Patrol.

“TCOs convince juvenile drivers that they will not face the same consequences as adults if apprehended or that law enforcement will disengage a pursuit if dangerous conditions are present,” adds the report.

Authorities have arrested drivers working on behalf of TCOs as young as 13-years-old.

RGV Chief Patrol Agent Brian S. Hastings stated: “This is an alarming trend, because many of these teenagers underestimate the severity of the crime. Not only can they be prosecuted and sent to jail, but they also endanger lives through their actions. I encourage parents to talk to their children and educate them on the potential consequences and dangers of this trend.”

The intersection between social media and illegal border crossing follows reports that platforms such as China’s TikTok and Facebook were allowing content from human traffickers on their platforms.

With an open border, there’s no telling who is responsible for all of the sabotage.

Russia had the motive, the means, and perhaps the opportunity to sabotage an American liquified natural gas plant — but did it?

Tom Rogan, national security writer at the Washington Examiner, made a compelling case that it just might have.

In his report Tuesday, Rogan suggested Russian hackers may have had something to do with an explosion at the Freeport LNG plant on Quintana Island in Texas on June 8.

Amid a burgeoning energy crisis across the globe spurred on by the war between Russia and Ukraine, the disaster has taken the facility offline at least until the end of the year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long seen the facility, which is located in the Gulf of Mexico and just 70 miles south of Houston, as a threat to his nation’s energy industry because it gives the U.S. the ability to sell gas to European nations.

Moreover, Putin has been friendly to hackers and would certainly welcome an attack that cut America’s supply, which would, in turn, force the European Union to think twice about sanctioning Russia.

These possible motives are bolstered by evidence that there was already a plan in the works shortly after the Russia-Ukraine conflict began.

“According to two sources, around the time of Russia’s late February invasion of Ukraine, a cyber unit of Russia’s GRU military intelligence service again conducted targeting-reconnaissance operations against a major U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter, Freeport LNG,” Rogan wrote.

One of the sources also told Rogan that the FBI’s Cyber Division was investigating the incident, though the agency told him it could “neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation into this matter.”

Preliminary data in the days following the explosion revealed that high pressure caused a section of a transfer line to burst and allow the highly flammable vapor cloud of natural gas to escape and ignite.

“However, what was not explained is how a critical overpressure event could have occurred without safety systems kicking into action,” Rogan pointed out.

While Rogan’s unnamed LNG pipeline experts said there were issues such as corrosion that could have naturally led to the explosion, the author contended that “the FBI’s investigative involvement, the specific nature of this explosion, and the scale of damage incurred do raise major questions.”

Notably, one expert said that these pipelines that flow from the storage tank into the terminal are “undertaken from a networked control facility.”

This means Russian hackers that breached the network would have had the means and opportunity to eliminate or circumvent these safeguards through a cyberattack to initiate the disaster — and it wouldn’t be the first time.

Related:

After What Russia Just Announced About American POWs, Anything Less Than Immediate Action from Biden Is Unthinkable

It’s a well-established fact that Russian cyberattacks have created mayhem for American businesses and that the government has had difficulty doing anything to effectively stop them.

Moreover, the energy infrastructure was proven vulnerable just last year after a ransomware attack against the Colonial pipeline ended only after a $4.4 million payout was made to hackers to resume flow through America’s largest refined-oil pipeline.

And this is exactly the kind of action the Russian cyber attack unit dubbed XENOTIME would undertake.

Rogan claims the unit was likely behind the reconnaissance mission in February and previously “has utilized boutique TRITON/TRISIS malware developed by the Russian Ministry of Defense’s Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics,” according to Rogan.

“That malware is designed for the seizure of industrial control systems and the defeat of associated safety systems,” he continued. “In 2017, GCHQ (Britain’s NSA-equivalent signals intelligence service) outlined the need for network compartmentalization to protect safety systems against this malware better. In March 2022, the FBI warned that TRISIS malware remained a threat.”

An attack against the Freeport LNG plant falls in line with XENOTIME’s “modus operandi” that takes aim at these “industrial control systems and supervisory control systems in order to effect unilateral control of a network.”

It even specifically targets “safety systems,” which precisely fits the bill for a system that regulates pressure for flammable substances.

Rogan conceded that it will be difficult “attributing Russian culpability” if Freeport LNG didn’t detect the attack. “Deficient cyber forensics is an issue that afflicts many private sector organizations,” Rogan concluded.

Though not directly related, this theory about the Freeport LNG explosion plays into growing suspicions about the possibility of intentional attacks on the necessities of life.

Several food-processing plants have caught fire this year and 10,000 cattle dropped dead earlier this month in Kansas, leaving many to question whether the nation’s food supply is under attack.

Over 10,000 cattle “spontaneously” dropped dead between Kansas and Nebraska over the last 48 hours. This is not normal, folks.

— George Papadopoulos (@GeorgePapa19) June 17, 2022

What the hell is going on? 25 food processing plants “caught on fire”, a liquified gas facility, “caught on fire”…Dead cattle on ranches throughout the Midwest. One ranch in Kansas has 10,000 plus dead cattle. The government’s reason is “seveer heat”,the ranchers say, “Bullshit” https://t.co/umxtFAWVOZ

— Janie Johnson – America is Exceptional (@jjauthor) June 17, 2022

Is Joe Biden also behind the 10,000 cattle dying in Kansas and the random fires at food processing plants or is he just sticking to destroying the energy sector and leaving food destruction to a friend?

— Blair Brandt (@BlairBrandt) June 15, 2022

Why are so many food processing plants randomly catching fire?

Is this going to become the new “conspiracy theory” that’ll turn out true a few months down the line?

— Lewis Brackpool (@Lewis_Brackpool) June 15, 2022

It’s undeniable that several circumstances have pushed the U.S. toward serious shortages, and it’s not unreasonable to connect the dots where they exist.

Whether these incidents are intentional or just a series of unfortunate coincidences, it’s clear that America is on the brink of disaster on many fronts.

The only question now is what, if anything, can be done to stop it.

Closing the border would be a start, though any imported terrorists/activists have already had plenty of time to arrive here, and Biden is flying them all over the country on taxpayer airfare. [US Patriot 6-24-2022]

Rep. Sharice Davids (D., Kan.) has cited “the ongoing public health emergency” to justify skipping out on in-person votes—while attending fundraisers and staying in $1,000-a-night hotels across the country.

Davids’s campaign has spent more than $20,000 on out-of-state hotel stays this cycle, often at swanky hotels. Davids last August attended a Napa Valley fundraiser with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) a day before missing an in-person vote on legislation related to a report on federal programs for Native American children. She is one of only four Native American members of Congress. The congresswoman claimed she was “unable to physically attend” House proceedings “due to the ongoing public health emergency” brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

There are no rules limiting members of Congress from using proxy voting. But Democrats have been accused of abusing the loophole, which Pelosi instituted early in the pandemic. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) said the “overwhelming majority” of members who vote by proxy are “lying” when they cite the coronavirus pandemic for missing votes.

Davids has voted by proxy on at least nine occasions, which often coincided with out-of-state appearances. In October, she voted in absentia for a bill related to domestic violence the same day she attended an event with Jill Biden in Kansas City. Two months later, she cast proxy votes on bills regarding China’s genocide against Muslims and synthetic opioids while traveling on Air Force One to an event with resident Joe Biden.

Davids’s campaign paid $3,632 to the Kimpton Rowan in Palm Springs on Nov. 16, which overlapped with fundraisers hosted by Pelosi and Equality PAC, an LGBT group that supports Davids. The hotel charges up to $650 per night. Davids, who was raised by a single mother who served in the Army, voted by proxy two days after the trip on a bill to provide maternal care to female veterans.

Davids stayed in March at the iconic Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, which promises an “experience of luxury and elegance” for rooms ranging from $1,073 to $6,664 per night. It is unclear whether Davids stayed at the Waldorf for a fundraiser or some other event. Her congressional office and campaign, which spent $4,447 for the trip, did not respond to requests for comment.

There are no legal restrictions on campaigns paying for candidates’ lodging, even at the country’s swankiest resorts. But extravagant campaign spending has opened candidates up in the past to criticism for seeming out of touch with voters. One ethics group accused Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) of using his campaign coffers as his “personal piggy bank” to pay for dinner at premier restaurants and lodging at fancy hotels. Republicans assailed Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R., N.C.) last year after his campaign paid for his stay at the Waldorf Astoria in Orlando.

Davids had seemingly little reason to worry about coronavirus at the time of her trip to Napa, where Pelosi’s husband was recently arrested for drunk driving. Davids tested positive for coronavirus on Aug. 6, weeks before her California swing. The party drew scrutiny after video emerged of maskless attendees being served by masked waiters.

Davids’s visits to California appear to have paid off, even as she touts “grassroots energy” for her campaign and an “incredible wave of support from Kansas.” She has raised $459,846 from donors in California, according to campaign finance records.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/not-in-kansas-anymore-dem-rep-skips-votes-to-attend-ritzy-fundraisers/

The economy is on the brink of a recession

A Democratic bill that passed the House last Wednesday would require the Federal Reserve to make “the elimination of disparities across racial and ethnic groups” one of its priorities.

The Federal Reserve Racial and Economic Equity Act, which Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) introduced in April, would mandate that the Fed “include a diversity inclusion component” when rating banks and require “diverse leadership” of the central banking system. To attain a high rating under the proposed law, banks will need to provide diversity and inclusion training, hire a diversity and inclusion officer, and institute hiring practices that encourage diversity and inclusion.

The bill comes as the economy is on the brink of recession, as inflation reaches numbers not seen in 40 years, and as the Fed predicts that more than a million Americans could lose their jobs next year.

Under resident Joe Biden, who supports the bill, the government has prioritized “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” left-wing policies and programs that focus on race but view “equality” as inadequate at addressing systemic racism. Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, for example, has emphasized such measures even as illegal border crossings and opioid trafficking skyrocket.

“Race-, ethnicity-, and gender-neutral efforts alone are insufficient to address” a lack of diversity, Waters’s bill states.

Three Democrats and 204 Republicans voted against the bill. One Democrat and five Republicans did not vote.

The Wall Street Journal in a Tuesday editorial slammed the bill, calling it a “woke mandate” that would “politicize monetary policy and financial regulation.”

The bill’s “racial favoritism” violates both the Constitution and the Fed’s official duties, the board argued.

Biden in a Journal op-ed last month wrote that he would not demean or try to influence the Fed.

https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/house-passed-woke-mandate-would-force-federal-reserve-to-prioritize-racial-equity/

Senator Patty Murray called a gas tax suspension a ‘bad idea.’ Now, she’s on board.

During a non-election year, Washington Democratic senator Patty Murray called a federal gas tax holiday a “bad idea” that may not lower prices at the pump. Now that she’s up for reelection, she’s on board with the plan.

Murray—who is expected to face Republican triage nurse Tiffany Smiley in November—quietly signed on to Senate Democrats’ gas tax suspension bill in late April, more than two months after it was introduced. But in 2008, when Murray was not embroiled in a reelection fight, the Democrat called the policy a “bad idea” that would “deteriorate highway funding.”

“She has a firsthand look at what’s going on with our transportation systems, our roads and our bridges, and from her perspective, this is a bad idea,” then-Murray spokeswoman Alex Glass told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer at the time. “There’s no guarantee that the plan would result in lower gas prices, but it would deteriorate highway funding.”

Murray is far from the only prominent Democrat to express past disapproval toward a gas tax suspension, which resident Joe Biden says would “bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief.” In 2008, then-senator Barack Obama—Biden’s self-described “best friend”—called the move a politically motivated “gimmick.” Many congressional Democrats agree. Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio, for example, said a gas tax holiday would not “give consumers significant relief—if any at all” and would instead “blow a $26 billion hole in the highway trust fund” and kill “tens of thousands of jobs.”

Murray has not explicitly touted her decision to sign on to Democrats’ gas tax suspension bill. Instead, she vaguely claims to be “fighting to deliver results” at the gas pump. Murray has, however, stressed the need to “modernize” Washington’s roads and fund electric vehicles. The Democrat did not return a request for comment.

Gas prices have more than doubled since Biden took office. The national average price for a gallon of gas was $2.39 in January 2021. Now, it’s $4.90, according to AAA. Should Biden convince Congress to enact a gas tax holiday, the move would hardly help American consumers. The president’s plan would suspend the 18-cent federal gas tax on each gallon of gasoline, saving the average consumer roughly $5 a month, according to GasBuddy. That move would cost roughly $3.3 billion a month, the White House claims.

Murray joined the Senate in 1993 and has not faced a competitive reelection bid in more than a decade. That could change this year as Democrats navigate a difficult political climate under Biden. Just 40 percent of Washington voters approve of the president, compared with 49 percent who disapprove. Biden won the state by nearly 20 points in 2020.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-washington-dem-blasted-federal-gas-tax-holidays-until-she-was-up-for-reelection/

For months, resident Joe Biden has blamed Russia’s war in Ukraine for the United States’ record-high inflation, calling it “Putin’s Price Hike.” Unfortunately for the White House, however, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell just shot down this theory.

“Inflation was high before—certainly before the war in Ukraine broke out,” Powell said Wednesday during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

By the time Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February, inflation had already skyrocketed from 1.4 percent at the start of Biden’s presidency to 7.9 percent—a 40-year high. Many economists blame the president’s $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed in March 2021, for driving up consumer prices.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/watch-fed-chairman-throws-cold-water-on-bidens-favorite-inflation-excuse/

The nation of Austria has suspended its controversial COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with government officials citing concerns about the policy infringing on individual freedoms.

Ministers for health and constitutional affairs announced the move on June 22nd, just six days before individuals who failed to comply with the policy would have begun receiving fines for their decision.

The measure was the most comprehensive mandate within the European Union, as it applied to all adults with virtually no exceptions. It had been in effect since February 5th, 2022, but enforcement formally began on March 15th, 2022z

“We will… suspend the vaccine mandate in accordance with the principle of proportionality,” constitutional affairs minister Karoline Edtstadler remarked during a news conference.

“Why? Because there are many convincing arguments at the moment that this infringement of fundamental rights is not justified.”

Edtstadler detailed how the Austrian government was acting on the recommendation of a panel of experts that must regularly review the public health and constitutional law aspects of the recently overturned mandate.

She and Health Minister Johannes Rauch, however, said the vaccine mandate could yet be reintroduced if necessary, with the next review due within three months.

Austria’s decision to scrap its COVID-19 vaccine mandate comes amidst controversy in the U.S. over resident Joe Biden’s efforts to force the jab on federal workers. Many private companies have issued similar ultimatums to employees, despite a host of recent studies demonstrating the harmful side effects of the vaccine.

Studies have show the COVID-19 vaccine affects male and female reproductive organs while other research suggests the efficacy of the jab is far weaker than natural immunity.

MUST READ: Facebook’s Audit Director AND Marketing Leads Are Former Pfizer Directors.

Despite the fact that more research into the effects of the COVID-19 vaccine needs to be done, pharmaceutical giants including Pfizer and Moderna have increased their lobbying efforts to record-breaking highs in terms of personnel hired and overall money spent.

President Donald Trump said the Supreme Court should keep an eye on the reporter who unveiled the potential ruling that it would criminalize abortion in the United States.

A leak to the press in early May appeared to show the Supreme Court’s draft majority opinion striking down Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that made abortion a constitutional right nationwide in 1973.

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the leak shortly after and directed the court marshal to investigate the rare breach.

“The U.S. Supreme Court must find reveal and punish the leaker,” Trump wrote in a June 22 post via his social media site Truth Social. “Go to the reporter who received the leak,” he said, calling it “a tremendously serious matter that has never happened, to anywhere near this extent, before.”

The former president appointed three conservative justices to the high court during his presidency.

Although a final opinion from the Supreme Court is expected soon, the scoop, co-written by Politico reporters Josh Gerstein and Alexander Ward, set off a political earthquake across the nation.

Congressional Republicans have decried the unknown leaker and demanded that they are found and punished, while resident Joe Biden and Democrat leaders blasted the attempt to overturn legal protections for abortion.

Pro-abortion activists have since rallied at the court’s doorstep, Catholic churches, and judges’ home addresses. A recent report reveals more than 40 attacks against pro-life individuals and organizations have been recorded since the leak of the draft opinion.

Trump previously denied the revelation, which he said “cheapens the court,” will have a major impact on the 2022 midterm elections.

And despite his assertion that authorities should “go to the reporter,” disclosing the identity of a confidential source without his or her consent can subject a journalist to civil liability. Most states also have shield laws in place to protect journalists against the compelled disclosure of confidential information, including anonymous sources and unpublished notes.

The draft opinion almost runs to 100 pages, including 67-page opinion along with a 31-page appendix.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-suggests-go-to-the-reporter-to-find-roe-v-wade-leak-source_4552835.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-06-23-1&utm_medium=email&est=ddvdnaqzNt84NdEUkpZz2Of8ZW0b9M%2FQyuifFko9xGmwHKMYHwosvD%2FcewieWDTgHQ%3D%3D

Val Demings hopes ‘Gamers for Demings’ posts on Chinese app TikTok will take down Marco Rubio

Florida Democratic Senate hopeful Val Demings is promoting a popular “children’s game with a sex problem” to court voters in her race against Republican incumbent Marco Rubio.

Demings in March used Chinese app TikTok to share the first installment of her “Gamers for Demings” series, which used the children’s game Roblox to depict a virtual version of the Democrat running through Florida. The post came just weeks after the BBC highlighted the game’s “sex problem.” Roblox—which two-thirds of U.S. children between the ages of 9 and 12 reportedly have played as of 2020—came under fire for hosting user-generated sex games known as “condos,” where gamers’ avatars can have virtual sex. In one instance, the BBC reported, a “naked man, wearing just a dog collar” and a leash, was “led across the floor by a woman in a bondage outfit” as a man “wearing a Nazi uniform” looked on.

Demings’s decision to use Roblox and TikTok to promote her campaign shows how Democrats are widening their political strategy to use unorthodox means of communication. Demings is far from the only Democrat on TikTok, a Chinese-owned app that has sparked bipartisan security concerns. Fellow Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan (Ohio) has posted videos of himself lip-syncing on the platform, and Sens. Jon Ossoff (D., Ga.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) are also active users. In February, resident Joe Biden moved to address TikTok’s security risks—but he’s also used influencers on the app to sway public opinion, even inviting some to film in the White House.

After Demings’s first Roblox-themed TikTok post, a popular Roblox news account on Twitter praised the Democrat, asking if a “Robloxian” could “be Florida’s next senator.” Demings’s communications director responded to say the campaign was “proud to launch Gamers for Demings,” and the Democrat went on to share two more Roblox posts in the following months. One, which Demings posted in April, shows her blasting off into space on a virtual rocket. Another, shared on June 11, depicts a virtual Demings dancing with LGBTQ flags under a “Happy Pride Month” banner. That post includes the hashtags “PrideMonth,” “roblox,” “LGBTQ,” “foryourpride,” “fyp,” and “valdemings.”

It’s unclear how Demings expects to use a game most popular with preteens to attract voters. Her campaign did not return a request for comment.

In addition to concerns over Roblox’s sex problem, the game has faced criticism for exploiting child labor. Roblox allows its users to create, share, and play their own games within the Roblox platform. As a result, the Guardian reported in January, Roblox has made millions off of the work of children with no formal contracts in place.  

Demings is widely favored to face Rubio in November but will first have to emerge from an August primary race. Neither candidate has a strong financial advantage—both Demings and Rubio have raised roughly $30 million and hold roughly $13 million on hand as of March 31. Rubio is polling at 49 percent, 9 points better than Demings’s 40 percent, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/val-demings-promotes-childrens-game-with-a-sex-problem-to-court-voters/

Democrats denounce fuel tax suspension

Resident Joe Biden has called on Congress to hit the brakes and provide “big help” to Americans through a federal gas tax holiday for the next three months. But some Democrats, including former president Barack Obama, have expressed the move is merely grasping for an advantage in an election year.

On the campaign trail in 2008, Obama said of the tax suspension, “We’re arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something. Well, let me tell you, this isn’t an idea designed to get you through the summer, it’s designed to get them through an election.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) in April said gas tax holidays are “good PR,” but shared the concern that there is “no guarantee that the reduction in the federal tax would be passed on to the consumer.”

Rep. Peter DeFazio, (D., Ore.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, agreed.

“Suspending the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gas tax is not going to give consumers significant relief—if any at all,” DeFazio said in February, adding that the move may have negative effects. “Suspending the tax will blow a $26 billion hole in the highway trust fund this year and cause further delay in rebuilding our decrepit infrastructure and the tens of thousands of jobs that investment would have provided.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) also foresees road blocks for infrastructure projects. He said the suspension “just doesn’t make sense,” adding, “People want their bridges and their roads, and we have an infrastructure bill we just passed this summer, and they want to take that all away.”

The Free Beacon reported Monday that Biden is the least popular president in more than a century. Democrats are on the fence about his viability for a second term and bracing for a tumultuous midterm season.

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/democrats-think-bidens-gas-tax-holiday-is-a-gimmick/

Marginalized for far too long, attractive young women are finally getting the representation they deserve

Truth bomb: Representation matters in American politics. For too long, attractive young women and other marginalized groups have been excluded from the halls of power. Katie Britt is trying to change that.

The former chief of staff to Sen. Richard Shelby (R., Ala.) on Tuesday represented the march of history when she comfortably defeated right-wing challenger Mo Brooks in the race to succeed her old boss. Britt’s victory in the deep-red state’s Republican primary means that, in all likelihood, she will be the next U.S. senator from Alabama.

It was a landmark moment. Britt is sure to be far more than another vote protecting the American people from resident Joe Biden’s radical and unpopular agenda. She will bring much-needed diversity to the Senate, where she will embody the hopes and dreams of a community that for decades has been systematically denied the representation it deserves.

Britt, 40, would be the youngest (and arguably most attractive) woman ever elected to the esteemed deliberative body, where the median age is 65 and the median level of physical attractiveness is merely adequate. The only senator with similar attributes is Kyrsten Sinema, the 45-year-old nominal Democrat from Arizona with a well-earned reputation for being a saucy vixen who derives pleasure from owning the libs.

If Britt wins the general election in November, there will be an attractive woman under the age of 50 representing each of the major political parties in the Senate for the first time in American history. They won’t just be representing their parties, of course. Britt and Sinema will represent the millions of attractive young women throughout this great country who feel disenfranchised by a federal government dominated by ugly old men (and women). We need more diversity and inclusion.

Britt’s youth and good looks are hardly the only reasons why she will be a welcome addition to the Senate. She did not attend an Ivy League school or an overpriced private university, for example, and was actually born and raised in the state she is running to represent. Britt received her bachelor’s degree and a law degree from the University of Alabama, which is also where she met her enormous husband, Wesley Britt, a 6-foot-8-inch offensive tackle who played for the New England Patriots.

Last year, the Britts hung out with music legend Kid Rock at Talladega Superspeedway, which is more than can be said of most of the boring nerds elected to Congress.

Some crucial context regarding Britt’s attractive youth: When she was born in 1982, Joe Biden was 39 years old. She is 12 years younger than Hunter Biden, the president’s crackhead son. She is going to be a fabulous addition to the Senate, where she will serve in a Republican majority dedicated to opposing the radical Democratic agenda for the remainder of Biden’s first and only term in office. Congrats!

https://freebeacon.com/parody/katie-britt-attractive-young-woman/

Marcy Kaptur blames oil companies for ‘gouging consumers’ after taking thousands from their PACs

For years, Ohio Democratic congresswoman Marcy Kaptur had no problem taking thousands of dollars from big oil companies. But now that record-high gas prices are threatening the 39-year incumbent’s reelection chances, she says those same companies are “gouging consumers.”

Kaptur has taken nearly $18,000 from major oil and gas companies since 2013, including $12,000 from BP Corporation North America, federal campaign finance disclosures show. With Ohio experiencing record-high gas prices under resident Joe Biden, however, the Democrat is blaming the trend on BP and other “big oil” companies. “As Big Oil raises prices and gouges consumers, one CEO recently called his company a ‘cash machine,'” Kaptur said in a May tweet that included a graphic with a slash over BP’s logo. “It’s outrageous.”

Kaptur’s newfound blame game shows how Democrats are attempting to avoid political backlash over sky-high prices at the pump, which come after Kaptur’s House Democratic colleagues pressured oil executives to produce less gas. Biden—who pledged to “end fossil fuel” during his campaign—has repeatedly blamed oil companies for rising gas prices, even after energy experts debunked the claim. In April, meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) insisted the American public is “blaming oil companies” for record-high gas prices instead of Democrats—even as poll after poll after poll finds that voters blame gas prices and surging inflation on Biden.

Power the Future executive director Daniel Turner admonished Kaptur for her recent rhetoric, noting that the oil and gas industry produces hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of dollars in revenue in Ohio.

“If the congresswoman really thinks these companies are doing damage, then why would you accept any money from them whatsoever? It’s one big joke,” Turner told the Washington Free Beacon. “And if she really wanted to see the energy industry rebound, she would distance herself from Biden’s failed energy policies, which have caused the energy crisis we’re in. Ohio is a very important and critical energy state.”

Kaptur’s campaign did not return a request for comment. 

Kaptur claims she’s worked to lower gas prices for “working people” by supporting the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, a Democrat-led bill that Kaptur and her colleagues say would combat oil companies’ “greed.” But four House Democrats voted against the legislation, with Rep. Lizzie Fletcher (D., Texas) arguing the bill “would not fix high gasoline prices” and “has the potential to exacerbate the supply shortage our country is facing, leading to even worse outcomes.” Former Obama administration economic adviser Jason Furman also criticized Democrats’ price gouging bills, which he called “gimmicky.”

In addition to Kaptur’s big oil campaign cash, the Democrat in December held up to $100,000 worth of stock in Nutrien, a fertilizer company that relies heavily on fossil fuels, Business Insider reported. 

Kaptur first joined Congress in 1983 and has won all but three of her reelection bids by at least 20 points. This November, however, she is set to face one of the most difficult campaigns of her career after Ohio’s redistricting process made her district considerably more red. Kaptur will face Air Force veteran J.R. Majewski in November—the Republican has raised $257,000 to Kaptur’s $974,000 as of April 13.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/this-ohio-dem-loves-taking-big-oils-money-now-she-needs-a-high-gas-price-scapegoat/

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods does not see oil prices cooling down over the next few years, he said while speaking at the Bloomberg Qatar Economic Forum in Doha on Tuesday.

Woods said that it would take some time for the volatility in the energy market to end. He is expecting oil markets to remain tight for the next three to five years, Reuters reported. He also called on the U.S. government to bring a more efficient investment process while pointing out that ExxonMobil is one of the few companies in America that has been actively investing in the refining sector.

Back in 2017, the firm kicked off an aggressive investment program, Woods stated. “The investment plan that we laid out five years ago is the plan we are currently on and the pipeline of the projects that we have are continuing; they are very robust,” the ExxonMobil CEO said at the event.

Woods’s statement comes after ExxonMobil recently faced criticism from resident Joe Biden, who accused the company of being too greedy amid rising oil prices and inflation.

Exxon made “more money than God this year,” the resident said on June 10, Reuters reported. He went on to blame Exxon for making money by “not producing more oil” and asked the company to start investing and “paying your taxes.”

An Exxon spokesperson pushed back at Biden’s comments, pointing out that the company lost around $20 billion in 2020 and borrowed over $30 billion to finance operations. In addition, the firm has paid $40.6 billion in taxes in 2021, which is $17.8 billion more than it paid the previous year.

Exxon also laid out measures Washington can take to address rising gas prices and high inflation.

“In the short term, the U.S. government could enact measures often used in emergencies following hurricanes or other supply disruptions—such as waivers of Jones Act provisions and some fuel specifications to increase supplies,” the oil giant said in a June 15 news release.

As to longer-term measures, Exxon asked the Biden administration to promote investment in the sector through a “clear and consistent policy that supports U.S. resource development.”

This includes streamlined regulatory approval and support for infrastructure such as pipelines as well as regular and predictable lease sales. Biden has been under fire for canceling the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline immediately after taking office last year.

At the Doha event, Russel Hardy, CEO of oil trader Vitol, also said that the current oil supply shortage was the result of chronic underinvestment in the industry in recent years. This will underpin tight fundamentals for years to come, he said, according to S&P Global.

“The solution is more refineries, running more crudes, to produce more products,” he said. “The world can solve the problem but things are a little bit tight at the moment”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/oil-market-could-remain-tight-for-next-5-years-exxonmobil-ceo_4548003.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-06-23&utm_medium=email&est=f%2FV%2BGU4Jux8EpE9PwrIDcgju6IdhBGiipy0jSl0gk4AzmDK%2BIt6vey4RRqdP2dAj1Q%3D%3D

During the State of the Union address to Congress this year, resident Joe Biden delivered an astoundingly Orwellian endorsement of socialism, clothed as its anti-matter counterpart.

“I’m a capitalist, but capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism,” the president declared. “It’s exploitation, and it drives up prices. When corporations don’t have to compete, their profits go up, your prices go up, and small businesses and family farmers and ranchers go under.”

Besides dubiously blaming today’s 40-year-high inflation on corporate greed (greed that, presumably, was inexplicably dormant during decades of inflation that was a fraction of today’s), Biden’s remarks shamelessly suggest that his administration’s heavy imposition of new and revived regulations fosters competition when the real mission is to level unprecedented burdens and governmental control upon businesses of all sizes.

“I’m a capitalist” belongs alongside “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Promising to reduce average global temperatures by a degree or two is the most fashionable excuse in America today for the state battering companies, even though Russia and China have no intention of joining in the climate crusade at the expense of their expansionist objectives, and India and other developing nations aren’t going to abandon the ongoing industrialization their people yearn for in exchange for being congratulated by international bodies for going green.

Socialists who aren’t hiding their true identity propose basically a quick and merciful death for the private sector, like now-ousted British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn arguing that wasteful “fragmentation” warrants re-nationalizing privatized railroads. Or Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposing a 95 percent tax on companies that are more successful than he likes. But while Biden suggests he’s enabling enhanced competition, his Securities and Exchange Commission chairman, Gary Gensler, finds new forms of slow torture for this country’s employers. Gensler was heavily involved in writing one of the most onerous pieces of regulatory legislation ever—2002’s Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which costs Fortune 500 firms millions of dollars each annually on average, and has been a powerful disincentive to firms setting themselves up as publicly traded or retaining that status.

The SEC’s most prominent policy under Gensler is requiring issuers of stocks and bonds to assess and report the risks climate change poses to their investors. As Heritage Foundation senior fellow David Burton pointed out in a letter to Gensler, “Requiring all public companies to develop climate modeling expertise, the ability to make macroeconomic projections based on these models and then make firm-specific economic assessments based on these climate and economic models will be expensive, imposing costs that will amount to billions of dollars on issuers. These expenses would harm investors by reducing shareholder returns.”

Burton also points to the irony that discouraging companies from being or going public gives fat cats more wealth and the average Joe less because it “would deny to ordinary (unaccredited) investors the opportunity to invest in dynamic, high-growth, profitable companies until most of the money has already been made by affluent accredited investors” and “would further impede entrepreneurial access to public capital markets.”

According to former SEC chief economist James Overdahl, the “massive scope and prescriptive particularity” of the regulations, “centering around the inherent complexity in collecting required data and completing the calculations and analysis necessary to make the proposed disclosures” make it “difficult to recall any other instance in which the SEC has mandated disclosures where there are so many significant uncertainties, data limitations and practical difficulties in developing the required information.”

Obviously, lawsuits would become legion, as publicly traded firms are endlessly accused of failing to report climate impact to the full satisfaction of environmentalists. But companies not to be found on the stock exchange, who think themselves safe in their private status, will actually also be subject to heavy new costs, because public companies’ private partners and contractors will be required by the SEC to report their emissions, outside firms having to be turned to for certification.

In a media conference call on Thursday, U.S. Chamber Executive VP Tom Quaadman pointed out that according to the SEC itself, the climate disclosure rule in its current form “would be at least three times the implementation costs of Sarbanes-Oxley, which was the most expensive disclosure regime that we’ve gone through over the last generation,” requiring “almost 16 to 18 years to finalize all of the different Sarbanes-Oxley rules.”

Quaadman added that after “many, many meetings” with companies that are U.S. Chamber members, they told the Chamber of “implementation costs in the millions or tens of millions of dollars” for each firm—many times the SEC’s estimates.

Testifying to the Senate Banking Committee in September, Gensler claimed of climate risk information that “investors are really demanding it.” More accurately, trendy asset managers, most prominently BlackRock, the largest such firm in the world with $10 trillion under its control, demand it, the better to inflict its wishes on companies in which it invests. Blackrock boasts that it “voted against 55 directors/director-related items on climate-related issues. This is a tool available to us in virtually every market we invest in on behalf of our clients … 83% of the time our votes against directors in the FTSE [Financial Times] 350 over remuneration concerns resulted in revisions to pay policies within 12 months.”

Pointless or politicized regulations both devastate private sector productivity and kill jobs. A Conference Board survey just found that “more than 60 percent of CEOs globally say they expect a recession in their primary region of operations before the end of 2023 or earlier … Fifteen percent of CEOs say their region is already in recession.”

With a looming economic downturn—on the heels of the devastation of COVID—is this a time to be helping multi-trillion-dollar money managers bully the nation’s providers of private-sector jobs, one objective being to charm the left so they might forget about things like BlackRock’s massive military investments?

And all in the guise of a “capitalist” eager to boost competition—like a call girl attending a masquerade party costumed as a mother superior.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/killing-jobs-in-the-name-of-saving-the-planet_4543237.html?utm_source=News&utm_campaign=breaking-2022-06-21-2&utm_medium=email&est=1FPUnM%2BaA9c7t8LBAA3fh%2FJRWso4o%2FXt%2BNLbcBOaZJJ%2Fq2aboQbufkieAEzCL2mk1A%3D%3D

Whether or not Marie Antoinette said rioting French peasants upset about the shortage of bread to feed their families should “eat cake” instead is not important. The idea that she did has been passed down, generation to generation, as the perfect illustration of how the isolated elites in a society can become hopelessly out of touch.

This is not just a problem for the rich but also for the powerful, who use their positions to grant themselves perks that alleviate the need for them to worry about the kinds of things that keep the rest of us at night.

Like whether we’re going to have enough gas in the car to get to work in the morning.

Since coming into office, the Biden Administration has been at war with the American energy sector. Following the President’s lead, they believe climate change is an existential threat to the continued well-being of mankind that can only be thwarted if Americans are forced to go green.

That’s what’s really behind the sudden, continuing rise in the price of gasoline. It’s not, as resident Joe Biden continues to assert, a transitory thing caused by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. It is the result of calculated policy decisions intended to roll back the energy independence that became a reality by the end of the Trump Administration.

There’s nothing wrong with green energy per se. Indeed, the United States would realize considerable benefit from the ability to rely on fuel coming from renewable sources like wind and solar and to be more efficient in the generation and use of power from fossil fuels so that less of it is wasted.

All that can be achieved by market forces a lot faster and cheaper than by government mandates. The Biden Administration has chosen – regardless of the consequences – to force this upon us all, meaning that some people are now, in a period of inflation unseen for at least 40 years, to face the very real choice between putting gas in the car and food on the table.

Too many Democrats regard that as a good thing. They don’t blame the government for the problem. They blame the energy sector, which it criticizes for earning record profits because the price at the pump is up thanks to the shrinkage Biden and his cohorts have forced on the industry. The cancelation of new pipelines and oil and gas leases on federal lands are two among a handful of reasons domestic energy producers cannot respond to the increase in demand by increasing the supply to keep prices stable.

The energy markets are behaving as the President wants, given his belief, he can prioritize his strategy to increase the use of energy made from renewables and the need to bring down the price of gasoline.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre seemed badly ignorant of economic reality when she insisted during a recent press briefing that there was nothing inherently problematic with pursuing both objectives at the same time.

“What we’re trying to deal with right now is how do we lower costs for American families,” she said. “One of the things that we are seeing currently right now with oil refiners is they are using this moment,” she continued, “to actually make a profit.”

She can get away with shifting blame for a while but what does she suggest as an alternative? Does she think the energy sector should sell gasoline and other fuels at a loss? That’s a recipe for economic catastrophe, as would be the kind of nationalization of the sector that exists in so many other countries.

The problem is that Biden and Jean-Pierre and so many others are out of touch with what’s going on. The people aren’t rioting for gas yet, but it may just be a matter of time.

Consider the comments of Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who recently described a drive she made from her home state to Washington in an electric vehicle.

“After waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country to finally get my electric vehicle,” the state’s senior elected Democrat said during a June 7 meeting of the Senate Finance Committee. “I got it and drove it from Michigan to here last weekend and went by every gas station and it didn’t matter how high it was.”

Stabenow doesn’t have to choose between putting food on her table and putting gas in her car. Rather than being grateful and understanding she’s insulated from reality because she enjoys elected privilege, she claims she’s mystified by the expressions of concern coming from the American people because they are routinely paying more than $100 for a full tank of gas. Wonderful.

An elected official, whose annual salary is just shy of $200,000, is driving a car that cost more than most Americans make in a year that the taxpayers probably pay for her to use, thinks high gas prices aren’t a problem because she doesn’t have to pay them anymore. That’s the kind of leadership that causes politicians to lose their heads.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

Peter Roff can be reached at RoffColumns@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @TheRoffDraft.

https://www.americanliberty.news/capitol-hill/the-view-through-debbie-stabenows-windshield/proff/2022/06/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ae01&seyid=7573