Public schools destroy our children, smash their ability to think, render them miserable jackboots for hard left. Look what they’ve done to our children. Think Hitler youth.
Poll: Support for School Choice Growing
As three quarters of voters support the idea, according to a RealClear Opinion poll. Also from the story: …a majority of voters (66%) say that some or all of the COVID funds the federal government set aside for K-12 education should be directed by parents. Most voters in both parties agree parents should direct all or some of the funding.
Support for school choice in America continues to soar.
According to a June poll from RealClear Opinion Research, polling more than 1762 registered voters, a majority support school choice (74% vs. 16% opposed) while 10% are unsure. This is true across party lines, with 83% of Republicans, 69% of Independents, and 70% of Democrats saying they strongly or somewhat support school choice.
Additionally, a majority of voters (66%) say that some or all of the COVID funds the federal government set aside for K-12 education should be directed by parents. Most voters in both parties agree parents should direct all or some of the funding.
These results represent a marked increase in support for school choice since similar polling was conducted in April 2020. Overall support has increased from 64% to 74%; public school parent support has increased from 68% to 80%; Democrat support has increased from 59% to 70%.
Major Findings:
· 74% of voters support school choice
· 66% of voters believe parents should have access to COVID education stimulus funds
Statement from Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children:
“Public support for school choice is at an all-time high. And, as the nation recovers from unprecedented, nationwide school closures, a new story is unfolding. Parents are rising up and demanding the freedom to choose the best educational environment for their children. Thankfully, more and more lawmakers are listening. Already in 2021, seventeen states have passed legislation to improve, expand, or create new school choice programs.
For thousands of children, this means new opportunity and new hope for a brighter future. While we celebrate these transformative policy wins for kids, the work continues. We at AFC will continue fighting for every child in the country to have access to the American Dream through educational choice and opportunity.”
Full details:
Question: School Choice
Generally speaking, would you say you support or oppose the concept of school choice – which gives parents the right to use the tax dollars designated for their child’s education to send their child to the public or private school which best serves their needs.
Support:
All: 74%
Race & Ethnicity:
Asian: 70%
Black: 73%
Hispanic: 69%
White: 76%
Party ID:
Democrat: 83%
Republican: 70%
Question: Funding Students over Systems
On average, American taxpayers spend $15,946 per student nationwide on K-12 public education. Would you support giving parents a portion of those funds to use for home, virtual, or private education expenses?
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Pamela Gellerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngPamela Geller2021-07-01 05:45:442021-07-01 05:45:44Poll: School Choice Support at All-Time High As Government Schools Abandon Education For Hard Left Indoctrination
Yeah, come on, people. What could possibly go wrong? Sure, they might commit a jihad massacre here or there, but what’s a few deaths compared to the horror of being Islamophobic?
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday pressed US allies to bring back citizens arrested overseas for joining the Islamic State group, warning they could not be held indefinitely in Syria. Blinken made the appeal in Rome at a meeting of an 83-member coalition on defeating the extremist network, where he and the Italian hosts called for greater attention to the jihadist threat in Africa….
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Robert Spencerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngRobert Spencer2021-07-01 05:34:492021-07-01 05:34:49Blinken Presses U.S. Allies to Bring Back Islamic State Jihadis
Singer Macy Gray was in the news recently, not for her music but for an Op-Ed she penned calling for a change in the design of our flag, “Old Glory.” She claimed, “The American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers, they can have it. Like the Confederate (flag), it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect… It no longer represents democracy and freedom. It no longer represents ALL of us. It’s not fair to be forced to honor it. It’s time for a new flag.”
This has charged liberal progressives to seek a new flag, as well as changing the national anthem. All of this seems particularly strange as we approach our July 4th Independence Day, where both will be on proud display.
Ms. Gray is obviously ashamed of our flag, and in doing so, she expresses her contempt for the country which allowed her to make money, attain stardom, and accept the accolades of her industry. Like many on the left, she wants to change the basic tenets of the country, replace its icons, re-write history and subvert the U.S. Constitution. No, she is not a believer in this form of government as it was originally designed and, like so many Democrats, believe it is time to re-write it. Then again, it seems rather obvious she doesn’t know the difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic.
I’m also not convinced Ms. Gray understands how the American flag came into being. I even wonder if she knows who Betsy Ross was. As most of us know the thirteen red and white stripes represent the thirteen colonies (CT, DE, GA, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, NC, PA, RI, SC, and VA). These were the first to lay it on the line and break away from Great Britain, a very bold and bloody experience. The blue rectangular canton represents the “Union” of states, as depicted by five point stars for each state. (Yes, there is currently 50 states for those of you who didn’t take Civics; not 51 nor 57). As states were added to the original thirteen states, stars were added to the flag accordingly. (Gee, I cannot believe I have to explain this).
Other than this, there is no other hidden meaning in the flag. No, it doesn’t represent racism, capitalism, socialism, or any other “ism.” If anything, it represents the Republic we live in, liberty, and the U.S. Constitution. American men and women have followed it into all of our military conflicts, and have died for it. So, for Ms. Gray to say our flag is “dated, divisive, and incorrect,” is an insult to everyone who fought and died for it, honored it in parades, schools, and countless public events.
I have been to numerous parades over the years, both as a participator and a side-liner, and I have always been inspired by the people who stand, salute, cheer, and even cry as the flag passes them. If anything, we need a little more flag waving, not less.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of Independence Day is the playing of John Philip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever!” For years, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops made this their signature music as they played it annually on the 4th of July, much to the delight of those in attendance as well as those watching on television.
Sousa wrote the piece on Christmas Day in 1896 and first performed it the following year. In 1987, by act of Congress, it became the official National March of our country.
The music is particularly stirring. So much so, few realize words accompany it. Below are the lyrics. If you read them carefully, you will not see racism or any form of oppression between the lines. Instead, you will see how much Sousa loved our flag and the country it represents. His credentials were impeccable, and he was highly decorated and achieved acclaim around the world.
The Stars and Stripes Forever!
by John Philip Sousa
Let martial note in triumph float
And liberty extend its mighty hand
A flag appears ‘mid thunderous cheers,
The banner of the Western land.
The emblem of the brave and true
Its folds protect no tyrant crew;
The red and white and starry blue
Is freedom’s shield and hope.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.
Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
Let eagle shriek from lofty peak
The never-ending watchword of our land;
Let summer breeze waft through the trees
The echo of the chorus grand.
Sing out for liberty and light,
Sing out for freedom and the right.
Sing out for Union and its might,
O patriotic sons.
Other nations may deem their flags the best
And cheer them with fervid elation,
But the flag of the North and South and West
Is the flag of flags, the flag of Freedom’s nation.
Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
Phrases like, “The emblem of the brave and true,” “the flag of Freedom’s nation,” and “Sing out for Union and its might,” describes how Sousa and patriots feel about the flag and our country. The song, like the flag, should put a smile on the face of all red-blooded Americans as it represents the true spirit of the American people. It is not based on the dogma of a political party, but for our country as a whole. Nonetheless, Democrats like Ms. Gray would have us believe the flag reflects the values of the Republican Party and, therefore, should be abolished. Forget that it was used in battle to free the slaves, forget it was followed by soldiers, sailors, and Marines in two World Wars, Korea, Viet Nam, etc. Forget that it is a recognized symbol of freedom around the world. Forget all that.
The reason the left hates the flag is not because of racism or oppression, but because true Americans love it. They hate America that much and want a different country instead.
To those who want to change the flag, it’s music, and other national icons, you are not kidding anyone. You are simply trying to usurp the spirit of America, a spirit which has helped so many people, both foreign and domestic for well over 200 years, for which I say to you, “Go to Hell!”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Tim Brycehttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngTim Bryce2021-07-01 05:16:012021-07-01 05:16:01PODCAST: In Praise of the Stars and Stripes
At least 45 million were starved, shot, tortured, and worked to death.
Who was the biggest mass murderer in the history of the world? Most people probably assume that the answer is Adolf Hitler, architect of the Holocaust. Others might guess Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who may indeed have managed to kill even more innocent people than Hitler did, many of them as part of a terror famine that likely took more lives than the Holocaust.
But both Hitler and Stalin were outdone by Mao Zedong. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people—easily making it the biggest episode of mass murder ever recorded.
The Vast, Cruel, Deliberate Extinction of Millions
Historian Frank Dikötter, author of the important book Mao’s Great Famine, recently published an article in History Today, summarizing what happened:
Mao thought that he could catapult his country past its competitors by herding villagers across the country into giant people’s communes. In pursuit of a utopian paradise, everything was collectivised. People had their work, homes, land, belongings and livelihoods taken from them.
In collective canteens, food, distributed by the spoonful according to merit, became a weapon used to force people to follow the party’s every dictate. As incentives to work were removed, coercion and violence were used instead to compel famished farmers to perform labour on poorly planned irrigation projects while fields were neglected.
A catastrophe of gargantuan proportions ensued. Extrapolating from published population statistics, historians have speculated that tens of millions of people died of starvation. But the true dimensions of what happened are only now coming to light thanks to the meticulous reports the party itself compiled during the famine…
What comes out of this massive and detailed dossier is a tale of horror in which Mao emerges as one of the greatest mass murderers in history, responsible for the deaths of at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962.
It is not merely the extent of the catastrophe that dwarfs earlier estimates, but also the manner in which many people died: between two and three million victims were tortured to death or summarily killed, often for the slightest infraction.
When a boy stole a handful of grain in a Hunan village, local boss Xiong Dechang forced his father to bury him alive. The father died of grief a few days later.
The case of Wang Ziyou was reported to the central leadership: one of his ears was chopped off, his legs were tied with iron wire, a ten kilogram stone was dropped on his back and then he was branded with a sizzling tool – punishment for digging up a potato.
The basic facts of the Great Leap Forward have long been known to scholars. Dikötter’s work is noteworthy for demonstrating that the number of victims may have been even greater than previously thought, and that the mass murder was more clearly intentional on Mao’s part, and included large numbers of victims who were executed or tortured, as opposed to “merely” starved to death. Even the previously standard estimates of 30 million or more would still make this the greatest mass murder in history.
While the horrors of the Great Leap Forward are well known to experts on communism and Chinese history, they are rarely remembered by ordinary people outside China, and have had only a modest cultural impact. When Westerners think of the great evils of world history, they rarely think of this one.
In contrast to the numerous books, movies, museums, and and remembrance days dedicated to the Holocaust, we make little effort to recall the Great Leap Forward, or to make sure that society has learned its lessons. When we vow “never again,” we don’t often recall that it should apply to this type of atrocity, as well as those motivated by racism or anti-semitism.
The fact that Mao’s atrocities resulted in many more deaths than those of Hitler does not necessarily mean he was the more evil of the two. The greater death toll is partly the result of the fact that Mao ruled over a much larger population for a much longer time. I lost several relatives in the Holocaust myself, and have no wish to diminish its significance. But the vast scale of Chinese communist atrocities puts them in the same general ballpark. At the very least, they deserve far more recognition than they currently receive.
Why We so Rarely Look Back on the Great Leap Forward
What accounts for this neglect? One possible answer is that the most of the victims were Chinese peasants—people who are culturally and socially distant from the Western intellectuals and media figures who have the greatest influence over our historical consciousness and popular culture. As a general rule, it is easier to empathize with victims who seem similar to ourselves.
But an even bigger factor in our relative neglect of the Great Leap Forward is that it is part of the general tendency to downplay crimes committed by communist regimes, as opposed to right-wing authoritarians. Unlike in the days of Mao, today very few western intellectuals actually sympathize with communism. But many are reluctant to fully accept what a great evil it was, fearful—perhaps—that other left-wing causes might be tainted by association.
In China, the regime has in recent years admitted that Mao made “mistakes” and allowed some degree of open discussion about this history. But the government is unwilling to admit that the mass murder was intentional and continues to occasionally suppress and persecute dissidents who point out the truth. This reluctance is an obvious result of the fact that the Communist Party still rules China. Although they have repudiated many of Mao’s specific policies, the regime still derives much of its legitimacy from his legacy.
I experienced China’s official ambivalence on this subject first-hand when I gave a talk about the issue while teaching a course as a visiting professor at a Chinese university in 2014.
Why It Matters
For both Chinese and westerners, failure to acknowledge the true nature of the Great Leap Forward carries serious costs. Some survivors of the Great Leap Forward are still alive today. They deserve far greater recognition of the horrible injustice they suffered. They also deserve compensation for their losses, and the infliction of appropriate punishment on the remaining perpetrators.
In addition, our continuing historical blind spot about the crimes of Mao and other communist rulers leads us to underestimate the horrors of such policies, and makes it more likely that they might be revived in the future. The horrendous history of China, the USSR, and their imitators, should have permanently discredited socialism as completely as fascism was discredited by the Nazis. But it has not – so far – fully done so.
Just recently, the socialist government of Venezuela imposed forced labor on much of its population. Yet most of the media coverage of this injustice fails to note the connection to socialism, or that the policy has parallels in the history of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and other similar regimes. One analysis even claims that the real problem is not so much “socialism qua socialism,” but rather Venezuela’s “particular brand of socialism, which fuses bad economic ideas with a distinctive brand of strongman bullying,” and is prone to authoritarianism and “mismanagement.”
The author simply ignores the fact that “strongman bullying” and “mismanagement” are typical of socialist states around the world. The Scandinavian nations—sometimes cited as examples of successful socialism- are not actually socialist at all, because they do not feature government ownership of the means of production, and in many ways have freer markets than most other western nations.
Venezuela’s tragic situation would not surprise anyone familiar with the history of the Great Leap Forward. We would do well to finally give history’s largest episode of mass murder the attention it deserves.
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and the study of popular political participation and its implications for constitutional democracy.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-06-30 14:45:522021-06-30 14:45:52Who Was the Biggest Mass Murderer in History?
Most Americans pay close attention to how much of their money is taken in taxes each year. But there’s another, less obvious way the federal government imposes financial costs on citizens—and according to a new report, it amounts to trillions annually.
The fiscally-conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) just released its annual “Ten Thousand Commandments” report, which documents the “size, scope, and cost of federal regulations, and how they affect American consumers, businesses, and the U.S. economy at large.” Report author Clyde Wayne Crews explains how we face a “hidden tax” from the economic burden of our massive regulatory state. After all, tens of thousands of new regulations are imposed every year.
RELEASED: Ten Thousand Commandments 2021: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State
In which, CEI's @Wayne_Crews evaluates the burden imposed by federal gov regulations and appraises the Trump Administration’s deregulatory efforts.https://t.co/E9Jajgz7l6
— Competitive Enterprise Institute (@ceidotorg) June 30, 2021
The report estimates the economic costs of federal regulation at an astounding $1.9 trillion annually.
To put that abstract sum in context, it’s nearly as much as the federal government collects in income and corporate taxes in a year. And a country that produced $1.9 trillion in output would be the 8th largest economy in the world (excluding the US). $1.9 trillion is more in economic output than Brazil or Italy produce in an entire calendar year.
Much of this $1.9 trillion in “hidden taxes” is ultimately borne by everyday Americans. To understand why, simply remember that regulations increase the costs associated with production. An unnecessary environmental regulation, for example, may force companies to take more cost-intensive steps during the production process. Ultimately, this leads to higher prices at the check-out line.
The CEI report explains that if we assume the costs all ultimately fall on consumers, then it equates to up to $14,368 in annual costs per US household.
This is a huge hit to the wallet. $14,368 in annual regulatory costs amounts to roughly 23 percent of the average household’s spending budget. It’s more than the typical household spends on food, transportation, healthcare, or anything except housing.
Oh, and don’t forget the $88 billion in taxpayer money spent by federal agencies each year just to administer, implement, and police these regulations.
The takeaway here is broader than just the financial impact of federal regulation, as significant as that may be. It’s yet another reminder that, as economist Frédéric Bastiat famously identified, the costs of government go beyond the obvious, what is “seen,” and extend to the “unseen.”
Of course, when it comes to the ever-expanding federal government, the most obvious cost is what the politicians in Washington, DC take from us in taxes every year. But this new report further proves that the unseen, hidden costs of the federal government’s growing involvement in economic life are even more drastic than what comes directly out of our paychecks.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-06-30 14:35:242021-06-30 14:35:24Federal Government Imposes Up to $14,000 in ‘Hidden Taxes’ on Households Every Year, New Report Reveals
The People’s Republic of China has raised its level of aggression towards the US exponentially since the fraudulent arrival of the Biden Administration into power.
They, like all our enemies, Syria, Russia, Iran etc. understand they are dealing with a crook, all be it a severely mentally challenged crook. They know he is weak and they know he is corrupt. They understand he is doing to America what they could only dream of doing. Destroying us.
They fear nothing anymore as opposed to when the lawful winner of the 2016 and 2020 elections, President Trump was in office. There was a strong patriotic man who put our interests first, who loved as opposed to hating America.
Apart from being caught red handed in the bacteriological attack on the rest of the world, otherwise known as the Chinese Virus ( Covid ) and having evidence that they hid the problem, lied about it, did nothing to restrict its rapid global spread and fed the gullible and weak WHO lies which they accepted, China has been busy on many other fronts. I have told you before, that I believe when China realized what they had done, that the result could have been the ruination of their economy, made a deliberate decision to spread it internationally so as to destroy other economies and not leave themselves at a disadvantage.
I wrote a few weeks ago about how these Commies broke the Hong Kong agreement with the UK. The basis of that agreement was that the human rights allowed under British rule would be good for the first 50 years of Chinese rule. The people of Hong Kong have been systematically stripped of those basic human rights. They, the Chinese, have thumbed their noses at the British with seeming immunity and now are doing the same to the United States as China flexes it’s growing financial muscle and military strength.
China has taken the lead in refinancing an almost destroyed ( By President Trump ) Iran and its economy. It is pouring money into Iran and opened a Chinese Iranian bank. It is ignoring American sanctions on Iranian oil exports and financial dealings.
They are blatantly treating the Uighur minority in the most barbarous fashion and destroying independent religious practice within its borders. They are constantly terrorizing Taiwan.
To all these actions and many others we have not seen Biden or his administration say anything with any substance. Oh yeah, he talks a great talk about white racism, white privilege, right wing suprematism, Donald Trump and his actions which were destroying the very swamp where Biden made a great living for over 40 years. But on China despite several meetings and opportunities nothing has been said that would make China pause. Not even give them a perceived problem.
European nations are as weak and obviously not willing to act alone without America. This we have seen with the UK as regards Hong Kong. No European country is interested nor has the backbone to take on China without the US leading the way. ( And paying for it!! )
China is feeling its oats again. They feel invincible and in today’s world they may just be right.
How pitiful that that evil Communist country is now fearless of the rest of the world. America has become an old toothless dog that no longer can guard anything. We are susceptible to bribes and are determined to turn our once proud nation into a third world socialist country ruled by other nations.
Biden is a total disgrace. He always has been. He always will be. He and his family are corrupt and perverted. He is a proven traitor who has enriched himself at the expense of our Constitutional Republic.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Save America Foundationhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngSave America Foundation2021-06-30 08:59:382021-06-30 08:59:38China Is Spanking Biden!
We all know Biden is planning to become an oppressive dictator. He is a Democrat and Democrats are Marxists and Marxists killed one hundred million people last century, so Biden is probably planning to kill at least that many. Here are the signs to look for that Biden is about to go full dictator.
1) Puts kids in cages: Dictator 101 stuff right here. Just shoves kids in cages and hopes you’ll forget about them.
2) Pretends to be a senile old man as an excuse to forget about civil rights: If he keeps rambling and looking senile, that just so later he can be all “What’s a Constitution? I don’t remember that.”
3) Attempt a federal takeover of voting regulations: The easiest way to dictatorship is to control the elections.
4) Has an evil henchwoman that chuckles at questions about human tragedy: Your pain and suffering is their amusement. Truly frightening.
5) Talks in secret coded language disguised as old man gibberish (“Corn Pop was a bad dude”) to give commands to his secret police: Classic KGB tactic.
6) Sniffs hair: If there’s one thing dictators love, it’s sniffing hair. Why do you think Hitler and Stalin had mustaches? So they could smell hair all the time! Wake up, America!
7) Has his dog attack anyone who displeases him: That’s just straight-up Mr. Burns level evil. I’m sure he’ll say they’re “accidents” though.
8) Threatens to nuke everyone: This one is kind of over the top; if it happens, better start forming your underground resistance right away.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00The Babylon Beehttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngThe Babylon Bee2021-06-30 07:02:512021-10-08 00:51:268 Disturbing Signs That A President Is Planning To Become An Oppressive Dictator
U.S.—After a fun and exciting month of celebrating pride, the first of the seven deadly sins, Americans are gearing up to celebrate Greed Month—as well as Lust Month, Envy Month, Gluttony Month, Wrath Month, And Sloth Month.
“Yeah- it’s been a great pride month. I feel so prideful!” said local man Sasparillo Gunderprit. “But what I’m really looking forward to is greed month. I’m gonna celebrate by accumulating wealth for myself by abandoning all my morals. Just like Nike and Disney! Yay!”
Baptist churches, on the other hand, are already gearing up for gluttony month, which has always been their favorite month since gluttony isn’t actually a real sin—like being gay or drinking alcohol. Church members around the country are preparing their favorite cheesy sausage noodle casseroles and double-fudge cream custard desserts.
For thousands of Americans, collecting unemployment even though there are plenty of jobs available for them, it’s already been sloth month for a while now.
BLM and Antifa have shrugged off upcoming official months, saying they can celebrate all seven deadly sins every day of the year.
We’ve got a new contender in the competition for the least-surprising news development of all time. As it turns out, if you pay people more to stay on unemployment welfare than they can earn working, and then scale back the benefits, more people will go back to work. Shocking!
Some have denied and pushed back against this basic economic reality, largely for political and partisan reasons. But new data on the unemployment trends across states taking different approaches to unemployment welfare make this truth truly impossible to deny.
Recent history offers us something of a natural experiment. The $300/week federal supplement on top of existing state-level unemployment benefits is set to expire at the end of September. Yet the dysfunctional expansion of the welfare system has meant that 42 percent of the unemployed can earn the same or more by not working. In 21 states, unemployed households can earn the equivalent of $25/hour while not working.
Our monthly #smallbusiness#jobs report out today shows a record 44% of all #smallbiz owners with job openings they could not fill. April is the third consecutive month with a record-high reading of unfilled job openings. More from the report: https://t.co/OwUPFgSFDC
So, dozens of conservative-leaning states have discontinued the benefits early, while dozens of liberal-leaning states have left it in place.
Thanks to recently released Labor Department data on unemployment claims, we can now, quite predictably, see the welfare rolls expanding in the states where the unemployment bonus remains in place. Yet the number of people on welfare is rapidly shrinking in the states where the supplement is set to expire or already has expired.
“The 26 states that have announced their plan to end participation in the $300 weekly unemployment bonus have seen a 12.7 percent decline on average in initial claims over the past week,” the fiscally-conservative Foundation for Government Accountability reports. “Meanwhile, states that have indicated they will continue participating in the unemployment bonus programs have seen an increase in initial claims by an average of 1.6 percent during this same period. The 12 states that have officially opted out of the $300 weekly bonus thus far have seen consistent declines each week since ending participation in the bonus.”
"The number of unemployment-benefit recipients is falling at a faster rate in Missouri and 21 others states canceling enhanced and extended payments this month, suggesting that ending the aid could push more people to take jobs."https://t.co/hSPNfNepB0@WSJ#jobs#unemploymnet
In other words, people are leaving the welfare rolls and returning to work in the states where the government is getting out of the way. They are not doing so as much in the states where expanded welfare continues to create dysfunctional incentives.
“State leaders are proving that ending enhanced unemployment bonuses can reignite the economic recovery for workers and businesses alike,” FGA Senior Research Analyst Hayden Dublois said. “This recent report highlights how ending the bonus will help get unemployed individuals back into the workforce quickly, help fill the record number of open jobs, and ensure small businesses can thrive.”
Of course, a strong correlation alone does not prove causation. But when combined with the fact that this result is exactly what basic economic theory—or even an elementary understanding of how humans respond to incentives—would predict, it’s strong evidence nonetheless.
When politicians muck up the labor market and discourage work with excessive welfare, dysfunction is sure to ensue. Getting the government out of the way does more good than any “stimulus” scheme ever will.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-06-30 06:46:402021-06-30 06:46:40States Ending Ultra-Generous Welfare Are Doing Better in One Big Way, New Data Show
Activists from the far-left, George Soros-funded group the Sunrise Movementlaunched an insurrection at the White House on Monday, blocking every entrance and demanding that the Biden administration put climate change-related initiatives at the forefront of its agenda, particularly regarding the ongoing infrastructure negotiations.
Radical socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), who whined for months that the so-called “insurrection” by Trump supporters at the Capitol Hill on Jan. 6 left her devastated by PTSD, apparently overcame the trauma long enough to make an appearance and encourage the leftist assault on the Capitol.
“What we are here to tell them is that you can’t break this promise to us anymore,” AOC told the crowd. “They’re setting up a world that they won’t have to live in. Ok, that’s why this matters. That’s why we fight.”
The Progressive Caucus also endorsed this Democrat insurrection, praising the radicals for making it clear that lawmakers must “go big, bold, and fast to fight the climate crisis.”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to denounce this act of domestic terrorism by her own Party, much less launch a commission to investigate it.
On November 13, 2018, More than 200 Sunrise Movement demonstrators staged a protest outside the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, to demand that Democrats make the battle against climate change a top priority beginning in January 2019. The protest, which was praised by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, resulted in 51 arrests.
During a single weekend in December 2018, a number of SM members joined likeminded staffers of Ocasio-Cortez as well as members of Justice Democrats and New Consensus, in drafting the text of the aforementioned Green New Deal.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Discover The Networkshttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDiscover The Networks2021-06-30 06:37:512021-06-30 06:37:51INSURRECTION: Soros-Funded Sunrise Movement Besieges White House
Kamala Harris has a big problem, and Joe Biden to thank for it. Since the president assigned his vice president to oversee the crisis at the southern border over three months ago, “thousands upon thousands of illegal immigrants have already streamed into our nation at levels not seen in two decades,” according to Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas). Yet for three months she dismissed calls to visit the border with unconvincing excuses like “we’ve been to the border,” and “I haven’t been to Europe. I don’t understand the point you’re making.” On Friday Harris finally — after 93 days — visited the southern border for the first time as vice president, in what was “a pit stop, literally, in El Paso, on the way to Los Angeles in order to check a box,” said Roy. There, she had a new spin on her prolonged absence, “I said back in March, I was going to come to the border. So this is not a new plan.”
Meanwhile, the vice president made trips to Guatemala and Mexico, ostensibly to understand the source of the problem. After three months of insisting that visiting the border in person was unimportant, and multiple foreign trips to understand the issue, Harris still lacks a solid grasp of the issues. The first warning sign was that she chose El Paso for her border visit, around 700 miles from McAllen in Texas’ southern tip, where the border crisis is concentrated. For comparison, that’s about the distance between Atlanta, Georgia and Detroit, Michigan. The second warning sign is more troubling; “once she got there, she offered no solutions,” said Roy.
These warning signs don’t lie. Kamala Harris “either doesn’t know or doesn’t care” about fixing the crisis on the southern border, said Roy. He explained, “she’s only talking about those who are seeking economic opportunity in the country. She’s not addressing the criminal aspect, the dangerous elements, that are crossing the border to do harm in America.” In other words, when people are talking about the border crisis, they mean “dangerous elements coming in between the ports of entry,” trafficking drugs and human beings into the country. Since January 1, border patrol agents have made over 700,000 land border encounters (roughly the population of Boston) and seized 7,500 pounds of fentanyl (sufficient to kill more than a billion people).
Most parents instinctively understand this problem conceptually because a port of entry is like a door to a house. When boys and drugs are illicitly entering your daughter’s bedroom window, your top concern is not making the front door large and inviting because it doesn’t address the primary issue. Yet that has been the Biden administration’s approach. They are even posting “literal signs that say ‘asilo’ [Spanish for ‘asylum’] … with an arrow pointing migrants to go claim asylum in processing centers,” said Roy.
“We can fix this problem in a matter of days,” said Roy, “there is hope, but not as long as you’ve got radical Leftists running the White House.” They have abandoned the Trump administration’s successful policies, like Remain in Mexico, infectious disease screening, correctly applying asylum laws, and finishing the border fence. “It’s only about having the willpower to do it,” said Roy.
Roy made it clear that Christian compassion demands a strong border policy. The Democratic obsession with “wide open borders” not only “endangers us,” he said, “it endangers the migrants who seek to come here, the little girls getting abused.” There’s many immigrants seeking a better life in America, but the real border crisis is caused by allowing criminal cartels to roam freely over our border. It must end.
RELATED TWEET:
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, around 500,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Kamala Harris was named border ‘czar’.https://t.co/iG0sBO4mAL
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Family Research Councilhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFamily Research Council2021-06-30 06:21:392021-06-30 06:21:39VIDEO: Southern Border: A Rio Overflowing with Crime
Everywhere other than in Big Media newsrooms, Americans speak openly of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline and wonder whether he can last out his four-year term. If he cannot last, there are certain things we can be confident will happen and other things about which we can only speculate. The latter will be much more intriguing.
Should Biden leave office, willingly or otherwise, Kamala Harris will become president. This is a given. Article II, Section 1, Clause 6 of the Constitution makes clear that in “case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President.”
The Constitution, as written, did not address what happens next. The 25th Amendment, adopted after the assassination of President Kennedy, answered that question, at least in principle. It reads, “Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.”
In recent memory, there have been two precedents, both involving Richard Nixon. On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew pleaded no contest to charges of tax evasion and money-laundering and resigned. Despite Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, Democrats retained firm control of Congress, with a 50-seat majority in the House and a 14-seat majority in the Senate. This mattered. The Democrats all but dictated Nixon’s choice of the congenial, moderate House minority leader, Gerald Ford, to assume the vice presidency. Ford was nominated two days after Agnew stepped down and confirmed by overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Congress.
At the time of Ford’s confirmation, Democrats had good reason to suspect that Nixon would soon be forced out himself. The coordinated Democrat-media plot to oust Nixon as a result of his presumed involvement in the Watergate affair was well underway. The plot climaxed on August 9, 1974, with Nixon’s resignation. Ford was sworn in later that same day.
It now fell to Ford to choose his vice president. Given the composition of Congress, he excluded any conservatives from consideration and settled on the GOP’s most prominent liberal, former New York State governor Nelson Rockefeller. For Rockefeller, the confirmation hearings were considerably rougher than they had been for Ford — less for ideological reasons than for personal ones — but he was eventually confirmed despite opposition from conservatives in both parties.
As history shows, the “when” of a vice presidential opening can determine the “who.” Right now, Big Media remains deeply in denial that there will ever be a “when.” In his well-sourced book on the 2020 campaign, Battle for the Soul, Edward-Isaac Dovere makes only one reference to Biden’s mental state and suggests that the dementia rumor was a conspiracy theory cooked up somewhere deep in a Bernie Sanders soup kitchen.
Last week, White House physician turned Republican congressman Ronny Jackson forced the mental health issue into the news. He challenged Biden to undergo a cognitive assessment, much as President Trump had successfully done. Rushing to Biden’s defense, the Washington Post recruited a professor of public health — his Ph.D. is in sociology — to assure Post readers, “With Biden, not only are there not warning signs, the signs that you see show he’s in exceptional health.” In truth, the warning signs for Hurricane Katrina were less obvious.
In the movie version, reporters with access to the White House would be showing their audiences evidence of Biden’s mental meltdowns and probing their sources to find out what happens next. In real life, they take their own cultish vows of omertà more seriously than did the Corleones. Their emperor remains fully clothed.
Those insiders who do talk, like Dr. Jackson, get punished. The fact that President Obama appointed Jackson admiral for his service as White House physician won him no reprieve. Although entirely irrelevant to the state of Biden’s mind, the Post reminded its readers that, according to the Defense Department, “[Jackson] had bullied and intimidated staff and made inappropriate sexual remarks.”
Lacking access to the White House, I take my cues from presidential history and the extensive research I have done on Barack Obama, including his presumed third term through proxy Joe Biden. One historical given is that timing matters. During the 2020 campaign, having finessed Bernie Sanders out of the race, the Democrats’ leaders knew they had to ride the seemingly moderate Biden as far as he could take them. With the help of the media, they were largely able to conceal the erosion of Biden’s mental facilities. Unless the polls show an impending disaster, Democrats have no more motive to dump Biden before the 2022 election than they did in 2020.
After the election, party leaders will have a decision to make. If they hold majorities in both Houses, they can put that decision off indefinitely. If they lose control decisively in either House, they will be wise to give the media a prompt green light to highlight Biden’s cognitive issues. Once the ground is softened, they can move to usher Biden out through the complex process described in the 25th Amendment. They will have to be quick. There are only two months between Election Day and the installment of a new Congress.
Until January 2023, the Democrats will control the House and share power in the Senate. In 1973 and 1974, Republican senators proved more pliable to Democrat wishes than did GOP House members. Little has changed. For a half-dozen GOP senators, pliability is their vocation. If Democrats wait until a new Congress is seated, they sacrifice much of their negotiating power. The Republicans will insist on an unelectable milquetoast of the Gerald Ford model.
If Biden leaves office when the Democrats still have leverage, that’s when the fun begins. The competing power blocs within the party will stage a quietly vicious knife fight for that second spot. Knowing Harris’s weaknesses, they understand its potential. Until six or so months ago, no one could have denied that spot to New York’s rock star, Governor Andrew Cuomo. His stardom collapsed quicker than Milli Vanilli’s. The Democrats’ values being what they are, his lethal indifference to the fate of thousands of old women did not diminish his star nearly as much as his “unwanted advances” toward a handful of young ones.
Cuomo’s fall had to surprise him. That’s not supposed to happen to Democrats. Dovere speaks at some length about how the Democrat-media “ecosystem” managed to keep the charges of sexual assault leveled against Biden by Tara Reade — Tara who? — out of the news. Although Reade’s accusation was more serious and substantial than any brought against Cuomo, the ecosystem encouraged Cuomo’s accusers. Someone gave the media permission. Someone wanted Cuomo gone.
With Harris as president, this may be the last time in the foreseeable future that a white male will be the preferred Democrat nominee for anything. Although the pickings are slim, Ted Cruz spokeswoman Erin Perrine unwittingly summed up the qualifications of the one white man with a good shot at the job. Said Perrine, “Terry McAuliffe is a swampy career politician who sold his soul to Nancy Pelosi and the radical left to bankroll his fledgling campaign.” Given those qualifications, if McAuliffe wins the Virginia governor’s race in November 2021, he might even be the betting favorite for vice president.
If the party is willing to put two women at the top, the contest gets much more interesting. According to Dovere, the selection for Biden’s VP came down to six women: Harris; Massachusetts’s Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer; Biden’s domestic policy council director, Susan Rice; California’s Rep. Karen Bass; and Georgia’s self-appointed governor in exile, Stacey Abrams. Other than Warren and Whitmer, all of these women were in the running to add literal color to a Biden ticket. With Harris as president, they are all redundant. Warren does not have friends enough to put her on an all-female White House team, and Whitmer will be lucky if she doesn’t get recalled.
Only two women have friends enough and ambition enough to get the nod: Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama. Obama’s friends are younger. Hillary’s are crueler. May the best and baddest win.
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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, the state attorney general announced Monday.
Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to the list that now has 17 states where state employee travel is forbidden except under limited circumstances.
“Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country — and the State of California is not going to support it,” Bonta said.
Lawmakers in 2016 banned non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The 12 other states on the list are: Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee.
The five states newly added to the list have introduced bills in their legislatures this year that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, block access to health care and allow the discrimination of the LGBTQ community, Bonta said.
Florida, Montana, Arkansas, and West Virginia passed laws that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.
North Dakota signed into law a bill allowing certain publicly-funded student organizations to restrict LGBTQ students from joining without losing funding.
Arkansas passed the first law in the nation to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender minors — regardless of the wishes of parents or whether a physician deems such care to be medically necessary.
These lawmakers “would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence beating back this pandemic and rebuilding our economy,” Bonta said.
The state law has exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts signed before the states were added to the list. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that can be blocked.
It’s unclear what effect California’s travel ban will have. Bonta did not have information about how many state agencies have stopped sending state employees to the states on the list or the financial impact of California’s travel ban on those states.
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Pamela Gellerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngPamela Geller2021-06-30 05:41:172021-06-30 05:41:17DEMOCRAT TYRANNY: California Bans State Travel To Florida, 4 Other States
Princeton University admitted an incoming class with 68 percent of students who self-identify as a person “of color” after nixing its standardized testing score requirement.
The Ivy League institution announced in April that it admitted 1,498 students for the class of 2025. A full 22 percent of admitted students are first-generation college students and 68 percent self-identify as “people of color.”
The record number of racial minority admittees comes after the school removed its standardized testing requirement citing a “lack of access to testing sites.” Students were allowed to submit their standardized test scores, though they allegedly play a limited role in the admissions process.
“Please know that standardized testing is but one element of our comprehensive and holistic application review process,” the university announcement reads. “We employ no minimum test scores for admission; rather, the entirety of a student’s background is considered in context. Additionally, we do not require applicants to submit the optional writing section of the SAT or ACT.”
In 2019, students, advocacy groups, and mostly minority Los Angeles-based school districts filed a lawsuit against the University of California system claiming that standardized testing discriminates against applicants based on their race, wealth, and disability. The lawsuit alleged that tests created a test-prep industry that favored wealthy families.
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Pamela Gellerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngPamela Geller2021-06-30 05:31:592021-06-30 05:31:59Princeton Boasts New Class Is 68% ‘Of Color’ After Waiving SAT Score Requirement
“[T]hat in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.” –Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
By G-d, the democrats despise the American people and clearly thinks we are morons.
White House Tries Peddling Story that GOP Wants to Defund Police
The Left knows how unpopular "defund the police" is.
For the past week, Democrats have struggled with the reality that their “defund the police” mantra is killing them in the polls. The latest effort: pretend that was the Republicans (RedState).
Senator Tim Scott called it “the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all year long, and we’ve heard some very ridiculous things from the Democrats (Fox News).
From Rich Lowry: There’s brazen and desperate, then there’s Jen Psaki saying Republicans voted to defund the police (Twitter).
From Julio Rosas: Right, it was the GOP Minneapolis city council who said they wanted to abolish their police department, it was the GOP New York City council who took away $1 billion from their police, and it was the GOP Portland city council who cut $15 million. Oh wait, those were Dems (Twitter).
From Matt Whitlock: …on the very day the children of the Biden White House decide to all try and pretend “actually Republicans defunded the police,” Democrats in California actually vote to defund more police. If you’re going to gaslight don’t let it blow up in your face (Twitter).
Jen Psaki actually had the gall to suggest that the "defund the police" movement is being driven by Republicans — simply because they didn't vote for Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.
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https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Pamela Gellerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngPamela Geller2021-06-30 05:15:272021-06-30 05:15:27MORE BIG LIES: The Defund The Police White House And Democrats Are Now Saying GOP Wants to Defund Police
In 2020, candidate Joe Biden promised to “rally the world” to fight “transnational terrorism.”
Yet President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have failed to confront and impose sanction/penalties upon Turkey and Azerbaijan for financing, arming, and deploying the most notorious jihadist terrorists/mercenaries.
These include: ISIS, the Hamza Division, Sultan Murad Brigade, Sultan Suleyman Shah Brigade, Al-Amshat Faction, Al-Nusra Front, and many more.
Turkey transported several thousand members of these organizations from Syria and Libya to Azerbaijan before and during last year’s unprovoked Azerbaijani-Turkish invasion of Armenian-populated Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh and Armenia.
March 7-12, 2021. (Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice)
AMERICAN & UNITED NATIONS STATUTES
The Freedom Support Act’s Section 907 requires that Azeri aggression against Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabagh result in a cutoff of U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan. Section 907 also says that it can be waived only to “counter international terrorism.” Yet President Biden and Secretary Blinken just turned the law upside down by waiving 907, thus rewarding Azerbaijan’s aggression and support for terrorism.
Azerbaijan — a 1997 signatory of the United Nations Convention against the Use of Mercenaries — blatantly violated it in 2020. In November, the UN Working Group on Mercenariesaccused Azerbaijan and Turkey of deploying the terrorist groups cited above. Turkey called the charges “fake news.” Azerbaijan denied everything.
Moreover, administrations have not penalized Turkey for its longstanding support for terrorist organizations. President Erdogan’s terrorist/mercenary contracting firm, SADAT, is also violating the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Despite the above, the Biden administration (as did Trump’s) has not imposed sanctions on Azerbaijan and Turkey for sponsoring jihadist terrorists/mercenaries.
MORE EVIDENCE OF TERRORISM
In January, the U.S. Treasury Department cited Turkey as a financial hub for ISIS. Yet only individuals, not Turkey itself, have been penalized, and the effect has been minimal. Turkey continues to support ISIS and similar terrorist groups.
Dr. David L. Phillips, a State Department consultant and the Director of Peace-Building and Human Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, oversaw two studies that proved Turkey supports ISIS: ISIS-Turkey Links (2014) and Turkey-ISIS Oil Trade (2016).
In Turkey: A state sponsor of terrorism? (May 28, 2021) Dr. Phillips documents why the U.S. should officially declare Turkey a State Sponsor of Terrorism [SST].If a “non-NATO country behaved like Turkey,” writes Phillips, “it would warrant designation as an SST.”
Ahmet S. Yayla, Turkey’s chief of counterterrorism from 2010-13, acknowledged that “Turkey was a central hub for the travel of over 50,000 ISIS foreign fighters, and the main source of ISIS logistical materials … making Turkey and ISIS practically allies.”
Azerbaijan deployed jihadist terrorists/mercenaries in its war against Armenia in the early 1990s, including Afghan Mujahedin, Chechens, Pakistanis, and Turkey’s Grey Wolves.
It is a disgrace that U.S. administrations have long shut their eyes to these terrorist evils because Turkey is a NATO member and Azerbaijan has significant gas and oil deposits.
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, this White House (like the previous one) has made a mockery of America’s Global War on Terror, debased U.S. foreign policy, deceived the American people, and endangered American lives, including those of our fighting men and women.
At some point, such conduct becomes American complicity with terrorism.
TAKE ACTION
AAHR requests that Americans concerned about terrorism and American principles contact President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, and Congress.
Please ask them to do some or all of the following (or send them this press release):
Publicly condemn, deny aid to, and impose tough sanctions upon Azerbaijan and Turkey for using jihadist terrorists/mercenaries throughout the Middle East and Caucasus, especially against innocent parties, including Armenians and other Christians.
Officially designate both countries State Sponsors of Terrorism.
Insist that the United Nations impose tough penalties/sanctions upon Azerbaijan and Turkey.
President Joe Biden, the White House:
Mail: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500
Online: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Comment line temporarilyunavailable (202-456-1111)
EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. All rights reserved.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Robert Spencerhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngRobert Spencer2021-06-30 05:00:062021-06-30 05:00:06Biden and Blinken Have Failed to Confront International Jihad Terrorism — TAKE ACTION!
Today’s blog is about the United Kingdom and the citizens fight against tyranny and tyrannical lock down and masking laws. The protest was on Saturday 26th and was massive. Their points were made.
Instead of just reading this humble scribes opinions, I am posting several links for you to read, watch and share. They were sent to me by my cousin Anne M who resides there. She took part in the protests called “The Freedom March” and she said she walked about 13 miles!! I am proud of her!
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Save America Foundationhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngSave America Foundation2021-06-29 07:08:372021-06-29 07:08:37Happening In England But Not Here?
On Feb. 7, US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and US Sen. Ed Markey introduced legislation known as the Green New Deal.
You’ve probably heard of it. It’s a big deal, to paraphrase Joe Biden.
The History of New Deals
Wikipedia, the internet’s fountain of knowledge, describes the legislation as “a proposed stimulus package that aims to address climate change and economic inequality.”
Okay. But what is that?
If the term “new deal” sounds familiar, it should. It’s a reference to FDR’s New Deal, which was itself a play off of Teddy Roosevelt’s Square Deal. (Politicians don’t win extra points for originality.)
So just imagine FDR’s New Deal took the Paris Climate Agreement out for drinks, one thing led to another, and—voila—nine months later they had a baby: The Green New Deal.
So what should we make of this Green New Deal? Since climate change is bad, and inequality is bad, can we assume the Green New Deal is good?
Have an Informed Opinion
Well, that’s for you to decide. But here are 44 facts and reflections on the GND to consider:
1. The GND is necessary, we’re told, because global warming will cause “more than $500,000,000,000 in lost annual economic output in the United States by the year 2100.”
2. That’s a scary number. But even if we accept such a figure, it’s important to note, as Tim Worstall has, that we’re talking about .05 percent of the total US economy in 2100.
3. That $500 billion price tag, in context, is rather small, then—at least compared to what AOC’s legislation would cost. Some estimates put the price tag at $93 trillion.
4. Relax, relax. Fact-checking organizations are probably right when they say that these figures are mostly pulled out of a, ahem, hat (much like AOC’s own $500 billion figure).
5. In fact, all these big numbers make me think of this:
6. So why do we need to spend all those trillions in the first place? One reason AOC cites is “a 4-decade trend of wage stagnation.”
7. The problem? The wage narrative, as Bloomberg recently pointed out, is a myth. As in not true.
8. That’s right. Although wages flattened (briefly) in the mid-90s, they have grown steadily since, according to Federal Reserve data.
9. Uh, that’s actually good news.
10. Ditto on overall economic growth. Fact: Real GDP growth, per capita, has averaged nearly 1.7 percent per year since 1980. At that rate, the average person’s standard of living doubles every four decades or so.
11. Well, you wouldn’t know this by reading the GND. It cites grievance—“the top 1 percent of earners [accrue] 91 percent of gains”—after grievance—“a large racial wealth gap”—after grievance—“a gender earnings gap that results in women earning approximately 80 percent as much as men.”
13. The capitalism AOC decries as “irredeemable” has given us this:
14. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez can cite “life expectancy declining” as a reason to pass her GND. But take a look at the actual data on US life expectancy over the last 135 years.
15. Sure, life expectancy did briefly dip between 2014 and 2016—by three-tenths of 1 percent. However, that decline was the result of drug overdoses and suicides. The trend has nothing to do with climate change and, more importantly, it’s a trend that’s not expected to continue.
16. Okay, okay, okay, you say. But what about the climate? What good is wealth and a long life if the planet BOILS IN A LAKE OF FIRE?!
17. Because that’s what AOC said is going to happen. “We’re, like, the world is going to end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change,” she explained in January.
18. It gets worse. Climate scientist Politician Beto O’Rourke says 12 years is actually wishful thinking. It’s more like 10.
19. AOC might be right. Or maybe O’Rourke is. On the other hand, some scientists who have, like, Nobel Prizes, are less convinced that a global warming apocalypse is upon us.
20. Perhaps realizing that there is a small chance the world will still be here in 2031, AOC recently hedged on her assertion that the world will end in 12 years if we don’t act.
This is a technique of the GOP, to take dry humor + sarcasm literally and “fact check” it.
Like the “world ending in 12 years” thing, you’d have to have the social intelligence of a sea sponge to think it’s literal.
23. And yet—the GND is still on the table, and fossil fuels are still the enemy. In fact, the stated goal of the GND is to meet “100 percent of the power demand in the United States through clean, renewable, and zero-emission energy sources.”
24. Is this possible? The cars we drive, the homes we cool and heat, and the lights that illuminate our world all require vast amounts of energy. How much energy? Well, Americans on average use about 310 million BTU annually. That’s roughly 1.005400000E+17 nationally.
25. The lowest cost alternative to coal and natural gas is nuclear energy. The US currently has 99 nuclear reactors, each of which have a generating capacity between 582 megawatts and 3937 megawatts. Together, these 99 reactors generate 20 percent of US electricity.
26. Sixty-three percent of US electricity comes from fossil fuels, however. To switch that 63 percent to nuclear energy would require more than 200 additional nuclear reactors. At approximately $15 billion per plant, the total cost over the 10-year period would be around $3 trillion just to build the reactors.
27. Yeah, that’s a pretty penny. In fact, that’s nearly all federal revenue collected in 2017. So it’s doable but extremely expensive. However, AOC said building more nuclear plants is off-limits.
28. Graciously, however, she said she will allow nuclear plants already built to continue operating… for now. Her office said that’s because it’s unclear just how fast “we will be able to decommission every nuclear plant.”
30. In fact, the idea that we could come close to meeting our energy needs without fossil fuels, nuclear plants, or a historic breakthrough in fusion is, well…
31. Perhaps this is why House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came up with a pet name for the Green New Deal: “The Green Dream or Whatever.”
32. Pelosi didn’t stop there. “It’s enthusiastic, and I appreciate the enthusiasm,” said the House Speaker.
33. Ouch. Perhaps this is why AOC backed off and said maybe nuclear energy is still on the table.
34. Either way, the Green New Deal would mean big changes. But how big? And how would those changes be made? Steve Inskeep, a journalist at NPR and host of the Morning Edition program, asked AOC if her plan requires “massive government intervention.”
35. “It does. It does. Yeah. I have no problem saying that,” she responded, according to the transcript.
36. Say what you will about AOC, she deserves points for honesty. At least that morning she did. Here is what she said later in the day: “One way the right tries to mischaracterize what we’re doing as though it’s like some kind of massive government takeover… obviously, it’s not that.”
37. The Green New Deal, it’s safe to say, is rather confusing. The big question: How worried should you be?
38. Not that worried, actually. The legislation that comprises the GND, as Factcheck.org explains, is nonbinding. This means that if the bill passes, it will not “have the force of law.”
39. That’s right. Political parties and pundits have spent millions of hours(ish) talking about legislation that is essentially meaningless. The GND, one could say, is a massive PR stunt. (Consider this: if you Google “Green New Deal,” you’ll get 2.32 billion—billion—hits in .62 seconds.)
40. That’s frustrating, but keep in mind: a) politics is dumb; b) we should be thankful—exceedingly thankful—the Green New Deal will not have the power of law behind it should it actually pass.
41. Why? Because as former Greenpeace president Patrick Moore pointed out, untold numbers of people likely would die if the GND became binding law.
You don’t have a plan to grow food for 8 billion people without fossil fuels, or get food into the cities. Horses? If fossil fuels were banned every tree in the world would be cut down for fuel for cooking and heating. You would bring about mass death.
42. Yeah, that’s kind of terrifying. Now, nobody is saying AOC wants millions to die. No one wants that. But it’s an overlooked fact that most of the horrors of the 20th century were committed by people attempting to use government and force to improve the world, not markets and free exchange.
43. “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to [humans] how little they really know about what they imagine they can design,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist F.A. Hayek observed in The Fatal Conceit.
44. Hayek’s statement includes everyone—even the charming young congresswoman from the Bronx New York City.
Jonathan Miltimore is the Managing Editor of FEE.org. His writing/reporting has been the subject of articles in TIME magazine, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, Forbes, Fox News, and the Star Tribune. Bylines: Newsweek, The Washington Times, MSN.com, The Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, the Epoch Times.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngFoundation for Economic Education (FEE)2021-06-29 06:53:582021-06-29 06:53:5844 Things You Should Know about the Green New Deal
Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:
Rafael Rivera — A County Interpreter, told a Veritas journalist to vote for Dianne Morales for Mayor while at a polling station located at 319 Stanhope Street, in Brooklyn, NY.
Rivera: “[Eric] Adams is a person who is chairman of the board and hasn’t done anything about all that is going on. You know. I’m going with the Latina. I’m conservative but she has all the five points. Demolished Eric [Adams] too at the debate. She demolished him there. When she told him he was president and he hasn’t done anything for the borough, for Brooklyn.”
Rivera: “I would suggest that I’m not supposed to. But under the understanding that she [Dianne Morales] has the views of the conservatives.”
Hours after this occurred, Bushwick Polling Coordinator Christina Tejeda informed one of Project Veritas’ journalists that Rivera had been terminated from his interpreter position at 2:31pm that same day.
During a separate incident at a Washington Heights polling location at 99 Ft Washington Ave, New York, NY – an undercover Veritas journalist captured footage of Info Clerk and Poll Worker Latishia Norman, who may have also violated multiple electioneering laws through her actions regarding the city’s Mayoral race.
You can watch the video here:
Project Veritas will continue its investigations into electioneering and other types of election-related wrongdoing.
With the NYC general election coming up later this year, our journalists will be working around the clock to expose corruption across the city.
If you or anyone you know is witnessing something that needs exposed, contact us securely at VeritasTips@protonmail.com.
