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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Wordsmithing and CO2

December 6, 2023 By Dann Kroeger

Wordsmithing can be defined as reshaping the meaning of commonly used words to imply something different.  Used over and over, wordsmithing can charge the meaning of a word.   The Left is good at this.  Take ‘White Supremacy.’  This implies if your skin is light, you are a bad person that believes in racial discrimination.  Or ‘Black Lives Matter’ suggests that black people are less important than others.  All the while, most of us know better.  Not all Whites are racial, and all lives do matter.

The Right needs to take some lessons. 

A group of scientists, businesspeople, and common-sense interested parties have joined together to counter the ‘global warming’ mantra.  The group calls itself the CO2 Coalition.  As their website points out, CO2 is required for both plant and animal life.  It is greatly beneficial for all life.  Unfortunately, COhas been wordsmithed into something very negative.  Maybe the coalition should consider just a spot of wordsmithing of their own...........To Read More.....

The climate agenda is blatantly anti-progress and anti-human

December 5th, 2023 By Joe Bastardi 14 Comments @ CFACT

I have been told many times to stay in my lane. Don’t bring up racism, abortion, or religion when discussing climate and weather. But the problem is this runaway train of climate change lunacy does not discriminate as to what lane it will drive in, Why? BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL LINKED TO THE SAME DECEPTIVE, DISTORTED, AND DELUSIONAL Philosophy that is anti-human.

Am I right? Let us take climate anxiety among children. There is no reason for this to be occurring except for the brainwashing that has taken place by people whose ignorance on this matter is only exceeded by their arrogance in spouting it. It is like watching Gavin Newsom, who despite having a state where a million people have left and to rent a moving van to move out of his state is much more than one moving into his state (since the demand is so great to get out of the green and brown hell — example San Francisco poop map) get up there and rely on ignorance to fuel arrogance. So you have teachers teaching things they were told and in this matter back up the old adage, if you can’t do it, teach it.

Bad enough these kids have a face a hellscape of truly human-induced problems (drugs, pornography, homelessness, economic destruction, the threat of mad power brokers blowing up the planet), just to name a few. Let’s tell them their biggest hell is where people live enduring .19C above average is a sign of their doom despite rising personal GDP, more food than ever produced and despite 4x the amount of people on the planet, there is 1/28th the amount of deaths related to climate and weather.

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(John Kerry, who is breathtakingly ignorant and arrogant on what drives the climate, continues to push the “HOTTEST EVER” gibberish not knowing that the warmth is a sign that it has to be water vapor driving this via warming oceans that CAN NOT BE FROM CO2. I ask any rational human being, is 57.54 hot? I am sure he is not walking around in short sleeves and shorts on his yacht when it’s 57).

Human progress has led to adaptation, whether there is a problem or not.

So their solution: Push policies that stop the advancement of the Human condition.

Lately, we have heard about environmental justice and that warming is racist. Given most of the warming is occurring where it is coldest and driest in the winter, where few people are, and in areas where there are fewer people of color, this is gibberish. So they are moving to make it a racism problem. The high priest of AGW, Al Gore, somehow spent many years as a senator from Tennessee, has a state park and a large monument dedicated to the head of the Ku Klux Clan, Nathan Bedford Forrest, yet did nothing about it; but climate racism, well that’s a different story. He is all over that. He can recognize that but can’t recognize the offense he so loves to criticize others over.

Then there are the great catholic theologians Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. As of this writing, the pope, despite his foray into sectarian politics (a good way to be ripped apart, with one foot in the city of God, the other the city of man), still appears to be pro-life. But who knows where he is going. In any case, despite Nancy Pelosi, in her defense of gangs saying every life has a spark of divinity, is indeed a climate change high priestess and has no problem supporting policies that snuff out sparks of divinity, 60 million by last estimate, and 75% of them people of color. And those that do make it, well, they have to face the living hell of climate change she pushes. So, in her warped world, she advances the cause of climate justice and anti-racism by advocating policies that would eliminate the chance for so many people to have to face the living hell she paints.

Then, of course there is the aforementioned John Kerry and his daughter, who is a special climate envoy to WHO on climate. It is rich they are doing this, given man’s progress in the fossil fuel era has caused life expectancy to increase over 30 years.

You simply can’t make up the level of hypocrisy here that has links across the board on every issue we face today. But they are rolling it all into climate. I wrote a few months ago that their ideas are Deceptive, Distorted, and Delusional.  It is up to people to see the linkage and stand up to it. Because it’s the main message of an agenda that will do away with freedoms as we know them.

COP 28: UN fashion police and Kamala’s cash

December 5th, 2023 By Craig Rucker |18 Comments @ CFACT

They are talking about limiting your access to fashion at the UN climate conference in Dubai. Really. However, V.P. Kamala Harris isn’t worried about limits on her power under the U.S. Constitution.  Kamala just pledged $3 billion of your money (Congress didn’t appropriate) to the UN Green Climate Fund.

Watch Marc Morano’s exclusive interview with fashionista Dame Ellen MacArthur.  Marc asked Dame Ellen at COP 28 about the “C40” Mayors group plan to limit you to three clothing purchases per year.  “It’s how they have access to the product,” MacArthur explained, “as much as the product itself. And there are different ways to have access to clothing products.”

Maybe the UN could create a clothing wait list modeled after the way the old East Germany distributed cars to the unconnected. It was very efficient. It only took 13 years to put you behind the wheel of a cramped little Trabant with a noisy two cycle engine. You know, like your lawn mower.  Think how well that could work for a pair of coveralls or a prom dress.

V.P. Kamala Harris spoke at COP 28 after President Biden gave it a pass.  Peter Murphy reports at CFACT.org that the V.P. came bearing gifts for the UN in the form of a pile of Kamala climate cash.  Murphy asks: “On a $34 trillion U.S. debt, what’s another $3 billion?” If only the Biden Administration would ask hard questions and act responsibly.

Murph’ interviewed a project coordinator for a group called “The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. They want developing nations to forego reliable electricity and “leapfrog” to wind and solar. Like so many walking the UN’s halls of climate power, they expect the U.S. to fork over “the lion’s share” of the expense.

As Murphy explains, that’s where Kamala Harris and the UN Green Climate Fund come into play.  “The U.S. Department of Treasury said at the tail end of its statement issued last week that the Vice President’s pledge ‘is subject to the availability of funds.’ Exactly. The U.S. Constitution stipulates that Congress, not the Executive branch, authorizes spending by the federal government.”

Can the Constitution stop the Biden Administration from sending your tax dollars to the UN?

It didn’t stop Barack Obama.

College Students Revel in Blissful Ignorance at Pro-Gaza Rallies

December 6, 2023 By Robyn Dolgin

There is an obvious explanation as to why college students engage in “atrocity denialism” at pro-Palestinian marches. They are (well) clueless, and devoid of all rational thinking. The students aren’t shy about expressing their blissfully ignorant critique of Hamas as “liberators,” and their creepy foray into painting the dark side of evil -- the slaughter and torture of innocent civilians in Israel -- as “necessary.”

Parents don’t have to wonder what’s happening with their kids’ expensive education, they can watch the academic dumpster fire on social media. There isn’t a shortage of embarrassing outtakes of the privileged millennials who are passionate about their pro-Palestine cause and at the same time prove themselves to be passionate know-nothings.

If you’ve missed the most absurd outtakes, I regard you as lucky. Still, a brief overview may be in order to gain perspective on how unhinged our morally challenged youth have become as they allow themselves to become part of the herd.  Let us start with the more amiable students, and work our way down to the unabashed Israelophobes and Jew haters.................To Read More..

 

Another leftist lie bites the dust

December 5, 2023 By D. Parker @ American Thinker

Another leftist lie bites the dust: Soviet Gulag documentary destroys lie that Nazis were ‘far right’ A new documentary on the history of the Soviet Gulag system also destroys a cherished leftist talking point that somehow the Nazis were ‘far right.’

There is a new documentary on the Soviet prison camp that makes the point that the Bolsheviks locked up their fellow leftists, just like the National Socialist German Workers’ Party........

Soviet prison camps were a criminal system of oppression that was widespread and long-lasting. The first camps were founded in 1918, and their number reached its peak in the 1950s. During more than 40 years, 20 million people were brought to almost 500 camps. Innocent people were made guilty. Every sixth adult citizen was forced to a camp or expelled. The writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn named this system the Gulag Archipelago. It extended thousands of kilometres from the White Sea to the Black Sea, from Moscow to Vladivostok, and from the Arctic Circle to Central Asia. It was hidden away, and its existence was denied for decades. Prison camps were hard to see and understand. They are not well known even today.

One of the fascinating aspects of the documentary is that interviews with former zeks, or prisoners of the camps, reveal that the Bolsheviks imprisoned many of their fellow leftists — Mensheviks, revolutionary socialists, and others considered “dangerous” by the Cheka, or secret police of the USSR.

Later on in the documentary, they note that Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda, the head of the NKVD who prepared public purge trials, was accused in a later purge of being a member of the Zinovyev-Trotsky conspiracy of the right-wing opposition to Stalin.

This follows right in line with the research paper on “How and Why Fascism and Nazism Became the “Right.’”.........

It’s an article of leftist “faith” that fascism and Nazism are supposedly “far right” or “reactionary,” as termed 100 years ago in one of the first reports about the “Bavarian fascisti,” because they were in opposition to other collectivists, as we illustrated with a series of excerpts from the early decades of the 1900s.

The fact is that different factions of leftists never seem to work and play well together — mainly because they desire power above all else, and their petty little rivalries get in the way of attaining that power.  It happened with the Bolsheviks incarcerating, exiling, or executing their rivals and continued with the Nazis, but somehow that was different — or at least that’s the lie from the left.  It continues to this day, with leftists squabbling over ideological minutiae no one else cares about.  ...............To Read More....


Roosevelt’s Vicious Assault on the Bill of Rights

David Beito is to be commended for undertaking this monumental project. 

 By December 4, 2023 @ American Spectator

James MacGregor Burns, one of the old school New Deal giants in Franklin D. Roosevelt scholarship, in his 1956 classic, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox, spends several pages describing how FDR adoration fell off after FDR’s strategy of throwing the alphabet-macaroni-on-the-wall New Deal programs failed to spur the economy. Burns, like FDR, could not see merit in the resulting criticism. FDR was a pragmatic centrist who saved capitalism by reforming it, both FDR and Burns insisted. 

Burns presented FDR as a victim, who understandably, because “the hatred on the right seemed so bitter and illogical,” wanted to “respond in kind.” 

He revealed that “[i]n August 1935 the President somehow got hold of a message from a Hearst executive to Hearst editors and to its news service: ‘The Chief instructs that the phrase Soak the Successful be used in all references to the Administration’s tax program instead of the phrase Soak the Thrifty hitherto used, also he wants the words Raw Deal used instead of New Deal.’”

“Roosevelt was indignant,” wrote Burns. “He even had a press release prepared—‘The President believes that it is only fair to the American people to apprise them of certain information which has come to him.’”.............To Read More.....


American Jews Never Learned to Fight Leftist Jew-Hatred

December 05, 2023 @ Sultan Knish Blog 

After the Holocaust, the American Jewish community, like most liberals, reduced the mass murder of millions of Jews to a problem of intolerance and prejudice. A massive effort was undertaken to educate about what had happened rather than what was happening.

While the first Holocaust museums were being built, the persecution and killing of Jews had mostly shifted over to the Soviet Union and its allies in the Arab Muslim world. American Jews failed to grapple with this shift much as they failed to come to terms with the reality that black nationalist groups were quickly eclipsing the KKK when it came to the domestic hatred of Jews.

These are the key ingredients that led to the current open climate of Jew-hatred in America.

Instead of talking about what the hatred of Jews looked like today, American Jewish liberals insisted on dwelling on what it had looked like decades earlier in America and in Europe. Like the generals who are always refighting yesterday’s war, they were not dealing with the present.

They relied heavily on “antisemitism”: a term invented in the 19th century by a German socialist bigot, Wilhelm Marr, to emphasize the race of the Jews. But post-Holocaust hatred of Jews on the Left was more often cultural than racial. Karl Marx, the progenitor of

Marxism, had been of Jewish descent from a Christian family, and had spread poisonous antisemitic venom. Lenin, who had one Jewish grandfather, oversaw the oppression of Jews while denying they were a distinct people. The Soviet expectation was that the Jews would disappear as a people, but, aside from Stalin’s final years, avoided any plans for the racial extermination of the Jews.

The Marxist and the Islamic position, unlike the Nazi racial position, did not require the physical extermination of the Jews at a genetic level, only a cultural genocide. Jews would be allowed to exist under Communism or Islam, as long as they abandoned their religion and national identity. The liberal focus on fighting racial antisemitism left it unprepared to fight such cultural hatred.

Even though the Soviet persecution of the Jews as a people had been underway for generations, American liberal Jews never developed a vocabulary for describing it. Or showed much particular interest in it until a new generation of young activists in the USSR and America finally made it a burning issue that rose to national and international attention in the 1970s.

The Communist persecution of Jews was manifested in many of the same ways as the contemporary leftist hatred of Jews. The party and the regime claimed to oppose ‘antisemitism’, even passed laws banning it, while suppressing Judaism and Zionism as ‘reactionary’ and ‘nationalistic’. The Soviet Union could point to examples of high-ranking Jewish figures who had rejected Zionism and Judaism, and represented the Communist ideal for the Jews.

As Lenin put it, “whoever, directly or indirectly, puts forward the slogan of Jewish national culture is (whatever his good intentions may be) an enemy of the proletariat… he is an accomplice of the rabbis and the bourgeoisie… on the other hand, those Jewish Marxists who mingle with the Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian and other workers in international Marxist organizations, and make their contribution… towards creating the international culture of the working-class movement… uphold the best traditions of Jewry by fighting the slogan of ‘national culture.’”

Jews had to be culturally, but not racially eradicated. Those Jews who joined with non-Jewish Marxists in the rejection of Judaism and Zionism were praiseworthy Marxists. Those who did not were an “enemy of the proletariat” to be executed like a number of my great-uncles.

Like most Soviet implementations of Communist ideology, this was a ‘Potemkin village’ of lies. Jews, regardless of their religious observance or interest in Israel, had been explicitly targeted for persecution and mass murder, were specially designated as being Jews in government documents, and the government’s formal anti-Zionism and anti-Judaism was just the same old ‘antisemitism’, complete with hook-nosed cartoons, dressed up in progressive clothing.

Much the same is true of contemporary leftist Jew-hatred which is based on Marx’s stereotypes of Jews as capitalists, but draws heavily on the Soviet playbook of substituting anti-Zionism for antisemitism, and trotting out model Jewish socialists to defend the persecution of Jews.

The liberal Jewish failure to meaningfully confront the Soviet hatred of Jews left them unprepared for the leftist movements that mainstreamed the same hatred in America.

There were plenty of warnings. Decade after decade, academics pushing these positions on college campuses, journalists embedding them in magazines, and fringe politicians making these arguments grew in power and influence while the liberal establishment talked of ‘antisemitism’ purely in terms of far-right racial supremacism or small town prejudices.

The rise of black nationalist antisemitism in the seventies, which was often explicitly racialist in nature, produced flailing responses. The American Jewish liberal establishment held up faded pictures of Heschel marching with MLK, failing to grasp that this made black nationalists despise MLK rather than like Jews, and prattled about the Jewish contribution to civil rights. The liberal establishment was so committed to a model of top-down persecution that it was unable to defend Jews against antisemitism that appeared to be coming from a minority on the bottom.

When various forms of critical race theory made the formula official that black people and minorities could not be racist toward anyone with more privilege than them, a position that legitimized a general hatred of white people, Asians and Jews, there was little response. The formal understanding that Jews could now be freely hated was ignored by liberal Jews.

Some outnumbered figures launched a struggle for the soul of liberalism, but they had little and fleeting support from an establishment that was still influential enough to make a difference. The liberal Jewish establishment was more interested in being in the vanguard of civil rights than in protecting Jews from the emergence of an ideology that deprived them of their civil rights.

Only after the Hamas mass murder of over 1,000 Jews and the statements of support for it at major universities, did some donors and community leaders wake up enough to push back. It took the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and the widespread acceptance of it by their friends for them to realize how bad the situation had gotten, but not to realize why.

And that is the crucial issue.

The pro-Hamas Left insists that it is not ‘antisemitic’ and most of it probably believes that’s true because while traditional bigotry and hatred created the Islamic obsession with killing Jews and the conviction in the old Marxist Left that the Jews were not a legitimate people, the final product is cloaked in talk about liberation, decolonization and an end to privilege and oppression.

It may support the mass murder of Jews, but it doesn’t culturally ‘feel’ like ‘antisemitism’.

The Leftist hatred of Jews doesn’t fit the liberal model in which there is a continuity of oppression. A downtrodden minority faces prejudice, which escalates into political repression and then violence. First there are the jokes, then laws and then bullets. Leftists cheering for Hamas would argue that since they don’t tell ‘antisemitic’ jokes, they can’t be considered antisemitic even while they’re calling for the mass murder of Jews.

This is why the traditional model of talking about antisemitism has failed so badly.

The liberal insistence on teaching tolerance by addressing the roots of bigotry rather than its outcome has been a disastrous failure because where far-right bigotry is a continuity, left-wing bigotry is a discontinuity of ideological abstractions leading indirectly to mass murder. The ideological detachment from reality can be measured in the fact that inmates in Nazi camps did not shout, “Heil Hitler” before dying, but those in Soviet gulags were known to shout, “long live Stalin” before being executed. The Nazis knew what they were doing, Communists often did not. They existed and still exist in an ideological haze of slogans rather than people.

‘Antisemitism’ is an ideological abstraction that leftists reject because it appears to refer to a certain type of person and behavior that their ideological purity tells them that they couldn’t be. They’re not the sorts of people who talk about ‘jewing down’ or believe in the inferiority of races and therefore, even while they’re smashing Jewish store windows and attacking a Holocaust museum, they can’t be ‘antisemites’. They know ‘antisemites’ are ‘right wing’ and when they’re assaulting Jews in the street, they, like the Soviet Communists, are fighting against ‘Zionism’.

The emphasis on antisemitism, on the roots of bigotry rather than their outcomes, makes such moral evasiveness easy for leftists. Focus on the mass murder of Jews, the broken glass and a mob outside the doors of a Holocaust museum, and then you’re talking about hateful outcomes.

Those are much harder to evade than abstractions.

The analysis of ‘antisemitism’ rather than the concrete reality of Jew-hatred has played into the hands of a leftist culture of hate that uses analysis to disguise the reality of its actions.

Confronting the realities of the assaults on Jews will require taking stock of a cultural war, rather than a racial one, and deal with outcomes instead of motives. Talking about ‘antisemitism’ becomes misleading when confronting a form of antisemitism that hides its ethnic hatred behind cultural and political hostility. And that will require discussing cultural, religious and political differences, topics which liberal Jews are uncomfortable with.

The modern liberal consensus, like that of the Soviet Union, is racially diverse but ideologically unified. The illusion of multiculturalism in the Soviet Union or a college town in America is limited to only those cultural differences that don’t clash with the dominant leftist belief system. This is a comfortable echo chamber for those who agree and a repressive cage for those who do not.

Liberal Jews bought into this system in a big way because they were terrified of feeling different. They shed their religious traditions for non-threatening culturally Jewish versions of liberal Protestantism and stayed silent about the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust. The rebirth of Israel challenged their theology and their politics, but mostly their anonymity.

While American Jewish anti-zionists lashed out at Israel in resentment for creating tension between their politics and their identity, Israel was just the canary in the coal mine. Black nationalists weren’t attacking Jewish teachers because of Israel. And Marxists weren’t targeting Jews because of the Jewish State. To a liberal establishment that was turning leftist, the existence of a traditional Jewish community was unsustainable in either Israel or America.

Oct 7, like the protests for Soviet Jewry and the defenses of Israel, forced American Jews to break with their political community in support of their religious and ethnic community. It’s a painful and alienating experience, but like any escape from a toxic relationship, also liberating.

Among the unexamined truisms that need to be rethought is ‘antisemitism’.

Antisemitism refers to race and when it comes to the hatred of Jews, culture trumps race. Aside from the Nazis and a few ‘Jewish Question’ obsessed racialists, hardly anyone who hates Jews would propose using genetic screening to track down people of Jewish descent who don’t even know that they are Jewish to exterminate them. Most cultural ‘antisemitism’ has a racial component, but it’s triggered by the idea of the Jews as a community and a people.

The term ‘antisemitism’ conflates someone who doesn’t like Jews, but would never engage in violence or support violence, with those who engage in and support violence against Jews. Furthermore some of those who support the mass murder of Jews don’t believe that they’re prejudiced against Jews, but believe that killing Jewish children is the right thing to do.

Talking about ‘antisemitism’ or even ‘hatred’ is wholly inadequate in such situations.

The idea of a continuity of bigotry often breaks down in the madness of contemporary political discourse. The same term used to describe someone who resents Jews moving into his town should not be used to also describe someone massacring Jews. Calling it all ‘antisemitism’ minimizes it and puts the local jerk on the same level as Hitler or Hamas. And that’s a mistake.

The liberal Jewish establishment has spent too much time fighting ‘prejudice’ and not enough time dealing with ‘eliminationist’ sentiments. The existential threat is not prejudice: it’s genocide.

Fighting the leftist and Islamic hatred of Jews will require developing a new terminology and a new approach than the same old tired ‘fight against antisemitism’ establishment rhetoric. Liberal Jews will have to confront their own fears and rethink their assumptions to take on the threat.

During the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Jews had to confront Communists and their sympathizers who were now suddenly insistent on a friendship with the Nazis. That genocidal alliance crystalized a rejection of Communism by American Jews as “Jewish workers assaulted Communists who tried to defend their alliance with the Nazis, calling them, ‘Communazis.’”

The pact between Islam and the Left manifested once again in the response to the Oct 7 atrocities should be met the same way. The Left should be rejected the same way the Communists were. The ‘Communazis’ have been replaced by ‘Commuhamasniks’, but that is the only thing that has changed. American Jews must relearn how to fight this enemy.

After three generations of failing to confront the leftist hatred of Jews, it’s time to fight. Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation. Thank you for reading.  Tags: , ,

 

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Patriot Neighbors: Definition Leads to Clarity. Clarity Lead to Understanding!

“I’m not afraid of the country we’re leaving our kids, I’m afraid of the kids we’re leaving our country.” — Jack Miller, civics educator, November 2023 

By Robin Itzler 

Commentaries and insights selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. (Cartoons may  be added by me. RK)  E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free. Let's start with this commentary:

SAM COONROD, A HERO IN MY MIND by Ronni Redmond

In 2020, Sam Coonrod, then a San Francisco Giants relief pitcher, was the LONE man standing for our national anthem in an opening season game between the Giants and Dodgers. All the Los Angeles Dodgers and Giants players along with coaches took a knee for Black Lives Matters, except for Sam Coonrod. Coonrod cited the Black Lives Matter ties to Marxism and his Christian Faith for the reason he remained standing.

 https://garlicfriesandbaseball.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/coonrod5.jpg

Without any hesitation, Coonrod made it very clear the he “can’t kneel before anything besides God.” Following the game, he said:

"I meant no ill will by it. I don't think I'm better than anyone. I'm a Christian. I just believe I can't kneel before anything besides God -- Jesus Christ. I chose not to kneel. I feel that if I did kneel, I would be being a hypocrite. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. Like I said, I didn't mean any ill will toward anyone."

Then he added:

“I'm a Christian, like I said, and I just can’t get on board with a couple of things that I have read about Black Lives Matters. How they lean toward Marxism and they’ve said some negative things about the nuclear family.I just can’t get on board with that.”

Stand tall Sam Coonrod, you've done more than you realize! The Giants released Coonrod to the Philadelphia Phillies in January 2021, stating of course it had nothing to do with his politics.Today Coonrod is a relief pitcher for the New York Mets wearing #45.

This was originally posted in July 2020 on Ronni Redmond’s “Garlic Fries and Baseball’s” blog which features odds and ends baseball commentary.

A HOLIDAY TO REMEMBER

By the end of this decade, it is expected that 9 MILLION Americans (up from 7 million now) will join Joe Biden and show signs of or have dementia. (Consider that New Jersey has just over 9 million residents.) That’s a lot of people not being able to coherently function. Unlike the guy in the Oval Office, most will not have large staff helping with their most basic needs.

Sadly, almost every American knows someone like Joe Biden in the early stages of dementia (or some cognitive issues).

Chevrolet has released a 5-1/2-minute mini-movie/commercial called “A Holiday to Remember” that is sure to bring tears to your eyes. Anyone who has watched a loved one disappear to dementia will relate to this story and rejoice at the closing scene. Yeah, it’s a commercial, but once again Chevrolet is letting its car be part of the ensemble cast. 

The scene opens at a joyous family Christmas gathering, with grandma oblivious to what is happening. She is physically there, but mentally in another place. Hearing her mother and grandfather ache for the woman that grandma used to be, the teenage grandchild takes grandma for a car ride (in a Chevy) around town to show her familiar places. The teenager is determined to bring grandma “back” – at least for the day – so she can recognize family members and enjoy one final Christmas with her loved ones.

This is a story of hope, love, and family …See below:  (and have your hankie with you).

A new dementia As doctors and scientists study dementia, they are adding a new term: digital dementia. From “A New Type of Dementia Plagues America” by John MacGhilonn: Digital dementia occurs when one part of the brain is overstimulated. When we mindlessly use digital devices, the frontal lobe, which is responsible for higher-level executive functions, gets little, if any, use. Meanwhile, the occipital lobe, the visual processor located at the back of the brain, gets bombarded with sensory input.

If you want to thank Chevrolet CEO Mary Barra for the holiday mini-film: Email: investors@gmfinancial.com, Phone:800-462-8782, Write:300 Renaissance Center Detroit, MI 48265 

BANKS CLOSING BRANCHES: What does it mean?

Even with Bidenomics’ multiple failures glaring at Americans (such as when we go grocery shopping), Americans still had a “boo-tiful” Halloween, a happy Thanksgiving and are planning for a joyous Christmas or Hanukkah.

But something happened in October and November that the MSM either ignored or played down. After all, as an extension of the Democrat party’s communications department, their job is to promote the disastrous Bidenomics. What is the MSM ignoring? Banks closing branches.

When banks decide to close branches, they must notify the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This is from the notifications for branch closures all across the United States:

October:

  • Huntington Bank closed 26 branches in the Midwest. November (sampling of the 64 announced branch closings) - PNC Bank plans to close 19 branches. - 
  • JPMorgan Chase said it would close 18 branches (while opening other locations)
  • Citizens Bank to close eight branches (six in New York state). - US Bank plans to close seven branches.
  • Bank of America will close five branches.

From the DailyMail.com:

This year alone a total of 1,144 national and regional banks were closed between January 1 and July 31 across 49 states, according to data from S&P reviewed by DailyMail.com.  In 2023, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs will have laid off 5 percent of their workforce. Citigroup has already laid off 7,000 employees and announced more layoffs are coming. Since the start of the year, Morgan Stanley has reduced its employee count by 2 percent and will slash another 3,000 employees from its global workforce by the end of the year. There are more, but you get the idea.

For an in-depth understanding of what all this means, go to “The Entire Banking System is Shaking” by Michael Snyder.

POLAND: Watching events elsewhere in Europe

October 27, 1991, was a milestone in Poland’s history as the nation held its first parliamentary election since the 1920s. It meant that Poland officially transitioned to a Western-style political system. Today, Poland has a population of just under 38 million. In September, Statistics Poland (a state agency) released its survey:

  • 71% are Roman Catholics, down from 88 percent a decade earlier.
  • 07% said they do not belong to any faith, which tripled from 2.4% in 2011.
  • 20.5% refused to answer the question as to their faith, up from 7.1%.
  • Muslims make up less than 0.1% of Poland’s population (and most are Sunni).

Still concerns about legal and illegal immigration were big topics in Poland’s recent election. Donald Tusk, former Polish prime minister, leads Civic Coalition, the largest opposition party. The party campaigned on not wanting Poland to allow more Muslim migrants into the country.

Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw KaczyÅ„ski, who heads the national-conservative ruling Law and Justice party, defended a potential bill that would expand the list of countries whose citizens can apply for a visa directly from the Polish foreign ministry, rather than at a consulate. At the time, this was only available to people in neighboring Belarus. KaczyÅ„ski’s party said this is related to Poland’s need for more labor.

During the campaign, Tusk said in a video:

“We are watching the shocking scenes of the violent riots in France and right now KaczyÅ„ski is preparing a document that will allow even more citizens from countries such as Saudi Arabia, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Qatar, the UAE, Nigeria, to come to Poland … Poles must regain control of their country and its borders.”

The immigration issue was just one of many concerns that drove voters to polls on October 15. Parliamentary election results showed a record turnout of 74.4 percent. The ruling Law and Justice party remained the largest party but lacked enough seats to form a winning coalition in the 450-member lower house of parliament. Now it must work with the anti-immigration Civic Coalition and other smaller parties. 

QUESTION: Who will take the Gazan population? There are 49 countries in the world that have a Muslim population of 50 percent or greater. How many have offered to take in some of the Gazan population? 

  • (a) 05 (closest to Gaza
  • (b) 11 
  • (c) 17 
  • (d) 24 
  • (e) 36
  • (f) None 
ANSWER: Who will take the Gazan population? There are 49 NATIONS where Muslims are 50 percent or more of the population, but NONE have offered to take in the Gazans. NOT ONE!

Egypt borders Gaza and Jordan borders the West Bank. Both countries have made it clear they will not take in the Gazans. Although not said publicly, it’s reported that the leaders of these two nations (and probably most of the others) view the Gazan population as supporting terrorists or being active terrorists. Who wants to import terrorists into their country? (Reps. Tlaib, Omar, AOC and the rest of the anti-Semitic squad would put out welcome mats for them to come to the United States.)

On November 28, the House of Representatives resoundingly approved with a 412-1 vote a resolution reaffirming Israel’s right to exist. House Resolution 888, introduced by New York Representative Mike Lawler, also “recognizes that denying Israel’s right to exist is a form of anti-Semitism; rejects calls for Israel’s destruction; and condemns the Hamas-led attack on Israel.”

Once again, Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie is the lone Republican out. What is wrong with him? Michigan’s anti-Semite Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib voted present while fellow Democrat anti-Semite Cori Bush of Missouri did not vote.

Rep. Massie only accepts emails from constituents, but if you want to call and share your thoughts: Phone: 202-225-3465 

Many people ask what is the difference between a radical Muslim and a moderate Muslim? A radical Muslim wants to cut off your head. A moderate Muslim wants to watch a radical Muslim to cut off your head, and if you're interested in time travel? Convert to Islam!  It’ll take you back 1400 years.

GEORGE SANTOS: 105 GOPers forget “innocent until proven guilty”

New York Republican Representative George Santos was tossed out of Congress on December 1 in a 311-114 vote based on a House Ethics Committee indictment. This is the same House Ethics Committee that refused to charge New York Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman for maliciously pulling the fire alarm in order to stop a House vote. And nothing about Michigan Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib who led a pro-Hamas riot INSIDE the US Capitol! Another example of a two-tiered justice system!

 The key word with Santos is that he was INDICTED, not found guilty. (As a reminder, President Trump has been indicted in several states and most of us roll our eyes knowing it’s lawfare.) The House leadership, starting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, urged his caucus NOT to oust Santos but said to vote your conscience—105 spineless Republicans ignored their speaker. So much for Johnson’s leadership skills as 105 Republicans ignored his pleas.

There were 105 Republican representatives (many RINOs) who joined with Democrats to toss out a fellow Republican based on an indictment by voting yes on Resolution 878 – the expulsion of House member Representative George Santos. Santos has a strong conservative voting record. If any of these 105 congressmen represent you, contact them and let them know that you will be considering other candidates in their district’s 2024 primary.

Also, ask yourself if Democrats in the House would have tossed out any Democrat member based on an indictment, much less even if they were found guilty. Would House Democrats have gone against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she urged her caucus to vote a certain way? Then you will understand why the Republican party is often called “the stupid party.” And why Republicans lose elections they should win. 

Shame—Shame—Shame on those 105 weak Republicans who ignored House Speaker Johnson and voted to oust Rep. Santos!

Is your representative one of the 105 that voted to oust George Santos? See Here. 

DEMOCRATS THAT DIDN’T CONCEDE

We’ve repeatedly heard from the left (when they’re not busy burning buildings or rioting for BLM and Hamas) how horrible it is that President Trump never conceded the 2020 presidential election.

Let’s walk down memory lane as to some recent Democrat candidates who never conceded their election and/or questioned election results:

  •  2013 & 2016—Democrat Joe Biden said that there was no question that Al Gore won the 2000 election. 
  • 2018—Democrat Stacey Abrams refused to concede that she lost the Georgia governor’s race. She frequently challenged the “legitimacy of the election.” VP Kamala Harris agreed with Abrams. 
  • 2018—Democrat Andrew Gillum withdrew his concession and announced that there were “questions over the handling of the vote” in several Florida counties. VP Kamala Harris agreed with Gillum. 
  • 2019—In May, Biden said he “absolutely agrees” that Trump is an “illegitimate president.” Harris concurred and also referred to Trump as an “illegitimate president.” 
  • 2019—Former Democrat President Jimmy Carter said of Trump, “He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf.” 
  • 2020—Hillary Clinton said of Trump, “He knows he’s an illegitimate president.” (This is just one of many statements Hillary has said since losing the presidential election to Donald Trump in 2016.) 
  • 2020—When former New York Democrat Representative Anthony Brindisi lost his re-election, he wanted authorities to investigate voting irregularities and issues of “massive disenfranchisement of voters.” 
RNC DONATIONS DOWN

America First Patriots donate DIRECTLY to candidates and not to local, state or national Republican organizations. According to The Washington Post:  

  • The Republican National Committee disclosed that it had $9.1 million in cash on hand as of Oct. 30, the lowest amount for the RNC in any Federal Election Commission report since February 2015.
  • That compares with about $20 million at the same point in the 2016 election cycle and about $61 million four years ago, when Trump was in the White House.
  • The Democratic National Committee reported having $17.7 million as of October 30, almost twice as much as the Republican Party, with one year before the election.

On the REPUBLICAN side, Chris Christie insists he is staying in the race no matter what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire. It’s apparent to most observers that the big loser solely wants a forum to lambast Donald Trump. Christie is bothered that Trump appears to be locking in the nomination even before the first primary votes are cast. If he dropped out, it’s likely that his Never Trumper votes would go to former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley who Vivek Ramaswamy accurately described as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels.”

On the REPUBLICAN side, from Gary Bauer’s American Values:

There was a big globalist conference in Manhattan yesterday (November 29) featuring business titans and political leaders. Among the elites at the conference was Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase bank. During his remarks, Dimon discussed the 2024 election. His remarks were revealing. He told all the wealthy globalists in the room, most of them liberals, “Even if you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you, help Nikki Haley. Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump.”

Also on the REPUBLICAN side, California Representative and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has not yet decided if he will run for re-election.

On the INDEPENDENT side, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is on course to have a major third-party campaign, which could alter the political landscape. He will be on the ballot in all 50 states. The Biden administration has refused RFK’s Secret Service security protection request THREE TIMES. Are they hoping he will be assassinated like his father?

Something to consider: As RFK, Jr., leans further to the LEFT of Joe “Big Guy” Biden on most issues, we believe he will siphon more votes from Democrats than from Republicans. These would be radical Democrats (those who think Hamas is a great group of guys), along with moderate Democrats who do not want to re-elect an old man with obvious signs of dementia but would never vote Republican.

Also on the INDEPENDENT side, by the end of the year, No Labels will have completed the paperwork to be on the ballot in nearly 30 states. The party will be on the ballot in all 50 states by the November election. Until we know WHO their presidential candidate is, not much else can be said. Many think it will be West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin who recently announced he is not running for re-election.

MEET DR. REBECCA EDGEWORTH: Candidate in Nevada’s state assembly district 35 Dr. Rebecca Edgeworth, candidate for Nevada state assembly district 35:

"I believe the government should be transparent and thatpoliticians should be held accountable to voters. Join me in ensuring that we have a voice in Nevada."

If you live in or know people who live in Nevada’s state assembly district 35, tell them about Dr. Rebecca Edgeworth who is running for office. She is a third generation Las Vegan, born into a military family in Nevada.

Having completed her Internal Medicine residency with UNR at UMC hospital, she went on to become the medical director at Volunteers in Medicine in Southern Nevada, a non-profit medical clinic offering free care to individuals unable to afford it otherwise.

As a physician with both clinical expertise and a compassionate community-driven approach, she remains resolute in her mission to support those with limited access to healthcare. Dr. Edgeworth actively engages students, guiding them not only in delivering appropriate medical care but also in attending to the needs of the most vulnerable within our community.

Everyone in state assembly district 35 who wants to be represented in Carson City with someone who believes in limited government, lower taxes and cutting wasteful spending, should support Dr. Rebecca Edgeworth.

For more information: www.EdgeworthForNevada.com

ARE WE NOW A COMMUNIST NATION?

Some recent events that make us wonder if the republic can be saved.

  • It’s on video for the world to see: in September, the former middle school principal and now New York Democrat Representative Jamaal Bowman removed warning signs and wickedly pulled a fire alarm in a congressional office building to delay a vote. Yet, the House Ethics Committee voted against opening an investigation. Ask yourself if they would have voted the same way had a Republican congressman done the same.
  • Christine Geiger owns Studio B salon in Michigan. In July, Geiger posted on Facebook: “If a human identifies as anything other than a man/woman, please seek services at your local pet groomer. You are not welcome at this salon. Period.” You can guess how this story ends. Michigan officials have charged Geiger with discrimination under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. Would you have expected anything different since Democrats believe there are 130+ genders?
  •  It was always a mistake to allow others to take the CHRISTMAS tree and hijack it as a HOLIDAY tree. The festive tree is part of the CHRISTMAS celebration, but everywhere you go, it’s often called a holiday tree. Which holiday? CHRISTMAS!!!

The National Railroad Museum in Wisconsin has 66 trees on display at its annual Festival of Trees. Among the organizations participating are The Satanic Temple and Bay Area Council on Gender Diversity. National Railroad Museum CEO Jacqueline Frank has no problem with this. She told the Green Bay Press Gazette:

“There was no hesitation. We’re not a religious organization. We focus on trains. And honestly, the Christmas tree is used by so many different secular and religious organizations. All we’re doing is putting up decoration in that room.”

If you would like to share your thoughts with CEO Frank: Email: Link below Phone: (920) 437-7623 Write: 2285 South Broadway, Green Bay, WI 54304

AND … if your community is holding a Holiday tree lighting ceremony, let them know that it’s a CHRISTMAS tree lighting ceremony. 

IS THE TIDE TURNING TO FREEDOM?

With our prayers and involvement, we must have hope of saving our republic. Let’s look at some recent wins that show the tide might be turning in the direction of Conservative Judeo-Christian values.  

If you ran a company that would be losing about $750 MILLION per year because 13 woke products failed in the marketplace, wouldn’t it be smart to change course? Not Disney! Shareholders should consider a class action lawsuit against the C-suite executives who insist on giving the green light to woke trash that the public clearly does not want. Disney knows it is creating products the public does NOT want. From its annual SEC report:

"We face risks relating to misalignment with public and consumer tastes and preferences for entertainment, travel and consumer products."

OVERSEAS:

ARGENTINA: Javier Milei’s win continues to reverberate throughout the world. Argentina was once one of the most prosperous nations in South America. Like the impoverished Venezuela, Argentina moved toward socialism where Marxist doctrine invaded their cultural institutions and government. (Sound familiar?) Today, Argentina suffers from massive inflation. We complain about single-digit inflation, but this year in Argentina it was about 150 percent! The nation has a huge government bureaucracy and immense debt (sound familiar?) and many report an economy on the brink of collapse. Electing the populist libertarian Milei, who campaigned on MAGA—Make Argentina Great Again—is a good first start to saving the nation.

GERMANY: The European nation announced that it would freeze funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is specifically dedicated to Palestinian refugees, due to reports the group has distributed anti-Semitic material, incited violence, and even had some alumni members who participated in Hamas’ October 7 pogrom in Israel.

EUROPEAN UNION: The European-Union voted to withhold 39 million euros from dozens of Palestinian non-profits arising from the group’s “incitement of hatred.” 

STEVEN SPIELBERG: Silent on the Hamas Pogrom Robin’s Itzler’s latest column opens with: 

As the Academy Award-winning director of Schindler’s List and founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, which records the testimonials of Holocaust survivors, the Jewish Steven Spielberg has been surprisingly silent about the barbaric October 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel. As the Academy Award-winning director of Schindler’s List and founder of the USC Shoah Foundation, which records the testimonials of Holocaust survivors, the Jewish Steven Spielberg has been surprisingly silent about the barbaric October 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel.

Link to the full article. 

If you would like to share your thoughts with Steven Spielberg: Email: info@amblinpartners.com Phone: 818-733-7000 Write: Amblin Entertainment, Inc. 100 Universal Plaza, #477. Universal City, CA 91608 For a right leaning view of Hollywood, visit www.HollywoodinToto.com

If you would like to share your thoughts with Steven Spielberg: Email: info@amblinpartners.com Phone: 818-733-7000 Write: Amblin Entertainment, Inc. 100 Universal Plaza, #477. Universal City, CA 91608 For a right leaning view of Hollywood, visit www.HollywoodinToto.com 

And Finally, Some Points to Ponder

  • Not to brag, but I’ve been the same gender since birth.
  • Teacher: You have five dogs and someone wants two of them. How many dogs do you have left? Me: Five.  Teacher: Okay, let’s say someone forcefully takes two dogs. How many do you have left?  Me: Five dogs and one dead body
  • A moment of silence for all the Facebook friends I’ve lost because of the stuff I post.
  • I like retirement since each week has six Saturdays and one Sunday.

See you all next week, and in the meanwhile remember, warm memories never wear out their welcome in our lives.  

Best wishes, 

Robin

COP 28: UN targets America

 By Craig Rucker, December 4th, 2023|10 Comments @ CFACT

Editor's Note: For those who've been reading P&D for some time you will remember I've stated the goal of these globalist misfits is to destroy the American culture, the American identity, the American economy, and the U.S. Constitution.  This COP 28 conference demonstrates just how true that is.  America, and the world, is being controlled by fools and knaves.  RK

“Make no mistake,” COP 28, the big UN climate conference in Dubai, is “targeted at America.”  That’s what CFACT’s Marc Morano told the Fox News audience, reporting live from Dubai.

Thanks to the best supporters any organization ever had, CFACT’s team of policy experts is hard at work advocating freedom in the halls of UN climate power.  We are right inside the belly of the beast.

As Marc reports, Vice President Kamala Harris just pledged $3 billion American dollars  to the UN’s “Green Climate Fund.” When precisely did Congress appropriate that?

John Kerry took the UN stage and promised to shut down ALL “unabated” American coal power plants.  Meanwhile China is building 182 new ones!

The UN is not only targeting American energy and tax dollars, they are coming for our food supply as well.  They aim to eliminate fifty percent of American meat consumption and ninety percent of American beef!

Senior Fellow Peter Murphy, an essential member of CFACT’s team in Dubai, reports that COP 28 got off to an embarrassing start when conference chairman Sultan Al Jaber spoke hidden truths out loud, saying:

There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5°C” above preindustrial levels … Show me a roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuels that will allow for sustainable socio-economic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.

Thanks for the honesty, Sultan!  Let’s hope the UN does  not succeed in silencing you before you reveal again.

Murphy further reports on another moment of revealing candor when Isabela Tagomori, who works on integrated assessment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) at Utrecht University, told a UN panel that, it is essential to inject “fairness  principles” and “distributional justice” into climate policy.

“Murph” pulled no punches.  He took the microphone and told the speaker that her redistribution talk smacked of “Marxism.”

You should have seen how fast she backpedaled! She countered rather that her organization’s effort was merely to collect “many different (justice) dimensions.” When threatened with the facts, climate campaigners retreat to vague, opaque language.

Senior policy analyst Bonner Cohen explains at CFACT.org that COP 28 is… you guessed it… all about the money. Who is lining up to pocket the billions of dollars Kamala Harris and the rest are throwing at climate? Investors, dictators, and incredibly well-funded left-wing climate pressure groups.

_______

I’m here in Dubai where everyone is uncharacteristically blatant in stating what they intend. The UN climate apparatus views the Biden Administration as  their big chance to assert power over America and shake us down for funds.  CFACT will not stand idly by and watch the UN accomplish its power grab.  Will you?  Fight beside CFACT. Please make the most generous gift you can right now, and together let’s defeat climate propaganda with facts.

The Heartbreak and Outrage of Socialized Medical Tryanny

By Rich Kozlovich

Indi Gregory had a terminal genetic disorder (@SkyNews / X screen shot)
I've followed the Indi Gregory story from early on, and I have to ask:  How can anyone look at this picture and not have this story break their heart?  

Yesterday  Bob Unruh published the latest update saying:  Father of baby condemned to die felt 'pull' of hell.

This baby had a serious genetic disorder, so the British judiciary in collusion with the National Health Service decided it was "better for her" if she was taken off life support, and die!  There's one problem with that. This was against the parents wishes, and here's what really upset me.  

Not only was she denied life-saving treatment from the NHS, but she was also cruelly prevented from obtaining it elsewhere. In her final days, Indi and her family became prisoners of the U.K. government.

They arrogantly refused to treat this baby, and they arrogantly refused to allow anyone else to treat this baby.  How dare anyone question their judgement?  What a disgusting display of self righteous, self serving arrogance.  Why isn't that a crime against humanity?  

There were those outside of Britain who were willing to take this poor child in for treatment, but they refused to allow the parents to take their baby out of the country.  Refused to allow anyone to overrule their decision.  The Italian government and the Vatican hospital "offered to transport her and care for her, on the chance that treatment would be successful."  Italy even offered to give the child Italian citizenship.  All refused!  What gave these monsters the right to make such a decision!

Just Raise Taxes to Solve America’s Fiscal Nightmare? – Swamponomics

Democrats blame Reagan, a billionaire tax, and Biden champions collusion. 

By | Dec 4, 2023 | Articles, Business News, Opinion @ Liberty Nation News

In Washington, the clarion call to resolve America’s fiscal deterioration has been to raise taxes on everyone. Even if politicians claim they do not want to confiscate wealth from low- and middle-income households, they still do so every time the Treasury Department borrows and the Federal Reserve prints, known as the odious inflation tax. But as lawmakers become aware of Uncle Sam’s financial situation spiraling out of control, there is a renewed focus on taxes (new and old).

Joe Biden Talks Taxes

President Joe Biden’s social media communications team posted a legislative proposal on X, recommending a new minimum levy on the country’s wealthiest citizens. “A billionaire minimum tax of just 25% would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years,” the X post stated. “Imagine what we could do if we just made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else.”

 Insert the meme of the woman spitting out her coffee as she laughs.

Let’s say this scheme would generate as much revenue as the president claims. The tax would be just a drop in the bucket since the White House forecasts that the federal government will post cumulative deficits of more than $17 trillion in this span. The billionaire minimum penalty would cover fewer than 3% of these budget shortfalls over the next decade.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle must realize by now that they can raise taxes until their hearts are content. The challenge is that it will not matter until Washington stops spending more than it takes in. Last year, the federal government enjoyed $4.5 trillion in receipts, the second highest on record. And yet, the nation’s capital still recorded a $1.7 trillion budget gap, one of the largest in US history.

Plus, is he claiming that billionaires are not paying their taxes? Send the tax man!

Ro Khanna Blames Republicans

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) took to X to blame Republicans for the national debt. He claimed that America’s $33.8 trillion pile of red ink was caused by tax cuts employed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Of course, to give credit where credit is due, as Rep. Khanna also correctly pointed out that Bush’s foreign wars contributed to the debt.

Like President Biden, he failed to look at the data. Following all three presidents’ tax cuts, the government received even more money to blow on military conflicts and statist largesse. This is known as the Laffer Curve, a model highlighting the relationship between tax rates and revenues. The federal government is responsible for reining in spending, not taking more from families and companies.

As eminent economist Milton Friedman said, “I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.” At the same time, Friedman believed that starving the beast would force policymakers to reduce the size of government. Unfortunately, because the Federal Reserve is a political institution that enables the drunken sailors in both chambers of Congress, this has not happened.

Promoting Collusion

Do you ever want to understand the economic insights of statists? In one area of the marketplace, this is how it works. If prices go down, businesses are colluding. If prices go up, companies are price gouging. If prices are stagnant, the marketplace does not have enough competition. It is a no-win situation for Corporate America at times since the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) would clutch its pearls in any of these scenarios. For political reasons, Bidenomics is about looking the other way in one of these areas.

Once again, Biden’s social media communications team took to X to call on corporations to slash prices. “Let me be clear to any corporation that hasn’t brought their prices back down even as inflation has come down: It’s time to stop the price gouging. Give American consumers a break.”

U.S. Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Visits NHPORTSMOUTH, NH - JULY 12: U.S. presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden laughs after getting served ice cream at Annabelle's Natural Ice Cream in Portsmouth, NH on July 12, 2019. (Photo by Nic Antaya for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

(Photo by Nic Antaya for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

There is a lot to unpack here. First, inflation is not down as the consumer price index (CPI) is still climbing. Instead, the growth rate has slowed from the 9.1% peak in June 2022. The CPI is around 3%, and the core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy components, is about 4%. This means overall prices are rising between 3% and 4% on top of the cumulative inflation of 17% since 2021.

Second, the idea behind greedflation has already been debunked and used as a scapegoat for the incompetence in Washington. Higher prices result from many things, from expanding the money supply to deficit-financed spending to wars. Eggs are an excellent example of this. Last year, egg prices skyrocketed and then cratered. In 2015, they soared and then plummeted and then surged again. Did supermarkets and farmers pick and choose when to be greedy?

Lastly, is the president encouraging collusion? The FTC has often complained about price fixing, arguing that it violates antitrust laws. “Price fixing is an agreement (written, verbal, or inferred from conduct) among competitors to raise, lower, maintain, or stabilize prices or price levels,” the FTC writes, adding that this can result in lengthy imprisonment, massive fines, and civil enforcement action. Despite howling at the moon that nobody is above the law, Biden appears willing to allow companies to be above the law if they heed his calls to action.

 
Read More From Andrew Moran

 

The IMF’s Campaign to Keep Poor Countries Impoverished

December 4, 2023 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

What’s the best way of helping poor countries achieve faster growth so they can converge with rich nations?

Sensible people respond with a range of good answers.

Unfortunately, the world has plenty of people who are not sensible (or who have a self-interested reason to make senseless arguments). And some of them have congregated at the International Monetary Fund.

That bureaucracy recently published its recipe for economic development and – keeping with long-standing IMF tradition – endorsed massive tax increases for poor nations. Here’s their main recommendation.

You may be wondering why IMF bureaucrats want to make life more difficult for people in developing nations.

Here’s some of what was written by Vitor Gaspar, Mario Mansour, and Charles Vellutini.


Emerging markets and developing economies need $3 trillion annually through 2030 to finance their development goals … That amounts to about 7 percent of these countries’ combined 2022 gross domestic product and poses a formidable challenge… Our new research finds that many countries have the potential to increase their tax-to-GDP ratios—enabling them to provide critical government services—by as much as 9 percentage points…

Countries have considerable room to collect more revenue based on their tax potential… We find that low-income countries could raise their tax-to-GDP ratio by as much as 6.7 percentage points on average. …The total revenue-raising potential, at 9 percentage points of GDP—a staggering two-thirds increase relative to their tax-to-GDP ratio in 2020… Similarly, emerging market economies can raise their tax-to-GDP ratio by 5 percentage points on average.

There are two things to address in the above excerpt.

First is it possible that developing nations, with sufficient “tax effort,” can increase their tax burdens by an average of 9 percentage points of GDP? Perhaps.

 

Second (and far more important), would that be a good idea? For people who care about empirical reality, definitely not.

Allow me to briefly elaborate on this second point. Bureaucrats at the IMF want readers to blindly accept the assertion that $3 trillion of additional tax revenue will help achieve development goals.

But notice that the IMF does not provide any supporting evidence. And neither do any of the other international bureaucracies making similar arguments.

 

Why don’t they offer any evidence? Why have not responded to my repeated requests to provide at least one example of a country that got rich by increasing fiscal burdens?

For the simple reason that every rich country in the world got rich when it had small government and low taxes.

In other words, the nations that achieved “development goals” took the opposite approach of what the IMF is recommending.

P.S. If the world truly is suffering from inadequate tax revenue, you would think that IMF bureaucrats would give up their special perk of tax-free salaries. But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen.

P.P.S. To give the IMF credit, the bureaucrats don’t discriminate. Yes, they push for bad fiscal policy in relatively poor parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but they also argue for higher taxes and bigger government in relatively rich places, like Japan, Europe, and the United States.

 

Kakistocracy: We are Ruled by Knaves and Fools, Part I

Kakistocracy is a system of government run by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state!

By Rich Kozlovich

On November 29, 2023 by Scott Johnson posted an Inside the CIA article noting:

A high-ranking CIA official boldly shared multiple pro-Palestinian images on her Facebook page just two weeks after Hamas launched its bloody surprise attack on Israel — while President Biden was touring the Jewish state to pledge the US’s allegiance to the nation.

There were no repercussions for this. And we're shocked?  The only legitimate ally in the Middle East is Israel, and Secretary of State Binken is working to undermine their existence by undermining Israel's right to conduct this war as they see fit, especially given the murders, kidnappings, rapes and horrors heaped on Israel's civilian population.   

Biden, Blinken is sounding more and more as if they're Hamas spokesmen, and Michelle Obama was asked by a female Israeli official to condemn Hamas for the rapes and murders of women, and she got crickets.

There's even talk about withholding aid to Israel unless they kick out Netanyahu.  All that in spite of the fact every Middle East leader wants to see Hamas and Hezbollah destroyed.  In the long run, they're as big a threat to them as they are to Israel.


Recently the House of Representatives, currently, and very possibly in temporarily control by Republicans kicked out George Santos, who in spite of his issues was a consistent conservative vote.  

Now, I think ultimately he would have been found guilty of the charges being leveled against him, but that's a separate issue.  The invertebrate Republicans who infest the Congress totally capitulated to the Democrats expelling him before a conviction, because they're a bunch of idiots who might end up with a one seat majority, and then again, maybe not even a majority after all.  

Who knows where that would lead to under a Democrat controlled House?  Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. If he'd been found guilty of some crime or immoral act, then the House could have acted in complete harmony with the reasonable and rational precedents set by the history of the House. But now....if the Democrats take over they now have a precedent to kick out anyone just because they don't like them.  Remember how many Republicans were kicked off committees because they didn't like them, and how Pelosi rejected the Republicans named by McCarthy to sit on the January 6th committee for the same reason, all of which was in violation of House rules. 

Make no mistake, the Democrats would have never acted in this manner against one of their own, and the number of contemptible, corrupt, vile, and potentially indictable Democrat members of Congress are there to be seen by the most casual observer.  Why didn't these blithering idiots Republicans demand the same from the Democrats?  Because they're gutless nitwits.  And besides, the Democrats take a dim view of hanging their own, and will do whatever it takes to protect them. They've even apparently destroyed J6 commission witness testimony

According to Barry Laudermilk (R-GA) says the video depositions of witnesses for the Democrat-controlled January 6 Committee  were destroyed because the Democrats didn't think they were necessary.  Imagine that.  Worried about the government needing to store too much stuff.  I have to believe it might also have been illegal!  Will the Republicans go after them for this?  I doubt it. 

Morality is only for Republicans, and let's not kid ourselves, politicians have never let hypocrisy stand in the way of achieving their goals, and the Democrats excel at that.  

94-Year-Old Veteran Says He Was Kicked Out Of New York City Nursing Home To Make Room For Illegal Migrants, and Biden wants to turn over Federal lands set aside for national preservation to migrants.  Because of the actions of the federal government and this administration the economy is at the edge of a dangerous precipice.  Loans are becoming delinquent, savings accounts are being depleted, and retirement plans are being dipped into to pay bills.  The nation is heading into bankruptcy.  

Then we have John Kerry.  Now there's a nitwit of massive proportions for you.  Kerry is demanding all the world's coal fired power plants to be shut down, all the while China is building one right after the other, and he's demanding, along with another blithering nitwit, King Charles, we give billions, at the minimum to nations of the world calling it "Climate Justice".  In spite of the fact there's not one valid scientific reason for any of this.  The world isn't warming via anything mankind is doing.  And CO2 certainly isn't responsible, not to mention the fact the world is in what they're calling a warming pause.  For the last 25 years.  And this is an international insanity.  At the Neo-communist convention known as COP 28 the Pope declares the climate has run amok and the planet is overheating.  

In reality, as at least one attendee spoke the truth.  Sultan al-Jaber, president of the COP28 climate summit, stated:

"There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what's going to achieve 1.5," al-Jaber said in an online event on Nov. 21, according to The Guardian, adding a pointed barb to the hosts that it would be impossible to stop burning fossil fuels and sustain economic development, "unless you want to take the world back into caves."

And finally to top off this essay!  Democrats canceled their primary in Florida handing over their delegates to Biden, and few in their party care.  That from the party that unendingly claims electing Trump will destroy democracy.  Imagine that.  As Herodotus noted, culture is king, and the culture of the left is unabashedly corrupt.  

Hello world, we have a problem.