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Pay-to-Play in the China Swamp

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By The Daily Skirmish – Liberato.US

Finally, people are catching on to how our corrupt elites are beholden to China, starting with the first family.

The Biden family received a $5 million interest-free, forgivable loan from a Chinese energy company five years ago, according to FBI evidence.  Senator Chuck Grassley called for a pay-to-play corruption investigation.  Joe Biden was out of the White House at the time, but a witness said the money was compensation – deliberately deferred – for work Hunter and James Biden did while Joe Biden, who benefitted from the deal, was vice president.  A whistleblower who was part of the deal confirmed Joe Biden was personally involved and said the Bidens eventually expected to make billions from the Chinese.  The $5 million was eventually sent to entities tied to Hunter and James Biden.  Lawyers for those two have declined to answer questions about the deal.  Senator Grassley, in calling for an investigation, said the evidence points to potential criminality.  Pay-to-play – an investigation would uncover exactly what the Chinese received in exchange for the $5 million forgivable loan.  Enquiring minds want to know.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden continues to appoint China sympathizers to the State Department.  His latest appointment once told Americans to “embrace China” and worked with Chinese front groups to advance Chinese interests in Washington.  Get this – this person is being appointed to a position supposedly created to counter China’s growing influence.  Yeah, like that’s going to happen.  Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse.  This fox joins the other China-sympathizing foxes Biden has appointed to State Department positions.

Currying influence in Washington has paid off for China.  U.S. government agencies gave $29 million in joint research grants to Chinese entities in a recent six-year period.  The grants came from the CDC, NIH, and Pentagon and went for research into vaccines, drones, and drugs.  Sounds pretty benign until you realize the communist Chinese do not distinguish between civilian and military research.  All research is military research in China.  Talk about giving them the rope to hang us with.  We wouldn’t know about this if Republicans hadn’t asked GAO for the information.  GAO said in its report there are ways around reporting requirements, so the true extent of U.S. taxpayer money going to China for research is unknown.

But money doesn’t have to go to China for China to get its hands on U.S. research.  A new Pentagon study shows China seeks out U.S. companies that get federal research funding and recruits them to perform work for Chinese entities tied to the Chinese military.  The U.S. companies betray their own country by selling out to the Chinese, at which point their research is transferred to Chinese subsidiaries.  The kinds of research ending up in China this way involve drugs, drones, spacecraft, bio-sensors, solar energy, and a catch-all category ‘military devices’.   The Pentagon study concluded China benefits more from our research than we do.   People say China can’t innovate, but this is pretty darn clever.  Legislation is needed to disqualify U.S. firms that have ties to China and pose this kind of national security risk.

One final note: the CEOs of Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup told Congress last month they would follow U.S. government guidance to refrain from doing business in China if China were to invade Taiwan.  But given the forgivable loans, expectations to make billions, and ‘10 percent for the Big Guy’, can you really see Joe Biden giving the CEOs the order to pull out of China?  I can’t.   That’s just one possible consequence of allowing China to capture our elites.  There are others.

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

RELATED ARTICLE: Don’t want a Chinese spy in your home? Sign the “CCP Challenge”

China’s Control of America – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow thumbnail

China’s Control of America – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow

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By Senior Voice America

In the “Cold War” of the 1950’s – 1980’s, our enemy was the former Soviet Union. We Americans were united in a common purpose to defeat them.

However, today most Americans are ignorant of who is the “Enemy(s).” They don’t understand that we are simultaneously fighting against several enemies in two wars:

  1. the “War to Transformation America”; and
  2. the “War to Create of a New World Order” under Marxist control. These two wars involve “Declarations of War” from six different enemies:

Yes, “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is at War with America”;

Yes, “The Great Reset is at War with `America”;

Yes, “George Soros and his ‘Dark Money’ Patrons are at War with America”;

Yes, “The Blame America First Crowd is at War with America”;

Yes, “Islamic Supremacists are at War with America”; and

Yes, “Iran is at War with America”.

The Great Reset is the “Organizational Structure” through which China and the WEF will implement;

  1. their transformation of the America; and
  2. the Take Over of the World. China’s surrogates: UN; WHO; IMF; WTO; World Bank; and Settlements Bank.

“Know the Enemy”

In the 5th Century BC, Chinese General Sun Tzu wrote “The Art of War”. He stated,

“In days of old, the ‘Wise Generals’ insured themselves against defeat and waited for the enemy to defeat themselves.” Likewise, General Sun Tzu has proclaimed; “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; If you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; If you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”

These two proclamations by General Sun Tzu reveal that: 1) the leaders of our enemies have a much better understanding of what America is, and how they will proceed in “War” against us, than do our leaders about our enemies; and 2) the leaders in America have the propensity to put their self-interests first, rather than

“America First.”

The leaders of CCP; the leaders of Islamic Supremacy; and the leaders of “The Blame America First” crowd; each has their respective multi-decade strategic plans for world success. In the case of China and the Islamic Supremacists, their plans are “100-year Plans” compared to the “4-year election cycle” which determines the focus of US officials.

The leaders of our six enemies don’t worry about world-wide public opinion because they have already incorporated these ant-America philosophies into their strategies. America’s leaders focus on their own gains. They frequently “Re-think,” and even “Undo”, the decisions of their predecessors; Rather than making decisions consistent with America’s long-term goals and the best information.

The World Economic Forum

Recall, in the September issue of SVA newspaper, we stated that the principals of “The Great Reset” had their nexus in the early 1970’s with Dr. Karl Schwab, a professor at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Schwab, an engineer and an economist by training, published his first book, “Modern Enterprise ” Management in Mechanical Engineering” in which he presented the concepts and policies of “public-private partnerships.

In 1971, Schwab created of the European Management Forum (EMF). He invited approximate 450 political, business, and financial leaders to his first conference.

In 1987, Schwab changed its name to World Economic Forum (WEF), so as … “to broaden its vision and to include a platform for defining opportunities for world-wide governance and for developing international compliance and control.”

At the 2014 annual meeting of the WEF, using Richard Florida’s book The Great Reset, Schwab declared, “What we want to do in…Davos this year . . . is to push the reset button.”

“Subsequently, the image of a reset button would appear on the WEF’s website.”

NOTE: Recognition to Michael Rectenwald, Chief Academic Officer, American Scholars: What Is the Great Reset?, published December 2021 and in his talk delivered at Hillsdale College during the Center for Constructive Alternatives; November 7, 2021

The Great Reset

Recall, in addition to The Great Reset being promoted as a response to COVID, it has also been promoted as a response to “climate change.” In 2017, the WEF published a paper entitled: We Need to Reset the Global Operating System to Achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”

On June 13, 2019, the WEF signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the United Nations to form a partnership to advance the “UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

Shortly after that, the WEF published the United Nations-World Economic Forum Strategic Partnership Framework for the 2030 Agenda, promising to help finance the UN’s climate change agenda and committing the WEF to help the UN … “meet the needs of the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ including providing assets and expertise for digital governance.”

In June 2020, at its 50th annual meeting, the WEF announced the official launch of The Great Reset. A month later Karl Schwab and Thierry Malleret published their book COVID-19: The Great Reset. The book declared that:

  1. COVID-19 represents an “opportunity [which] can be seized”;
  2. That “we should take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity to re-imagine our world”;
  3. That “the moment must be seized to take advantage of this unique window of opportunity”; and
  4. That “for those fortunate enough to find themselves in industries ‘naturally’ resilient to the pandemic” (i.e.. Big Tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon), “the crisis will not only be more bearable, but even a source of profitable opportunities at a time of distress for the majority.”

AUTHOR

William W. Urban, Ph.D

RELATED ARTICLES:

Don’t want a Chinese spy in your home? Sign the “CCP Challenge”

Pay-to-Play in the China Swamp

EDITORS NOTE: This SVA column is republished with permission. ©All rights Reserved.

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Biden Administration’s Attempt to Loosen Document Verification Would Clear the Path for Fraud and Unlawful Employment

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By Federation for American Immigration Reform

Washington, D.C. — Today the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) submitted a public comment in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that seeks to significantly alter the physical document examination requirements associated with employment eligibility verification (Form I-9).

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instituted temporary flexibilities and waived the physical examination of employment and identification documentation for employers facing a sudden and near-total shift to a remote workforce. The Biden administration now seeks the authority, on a discretionary basis, to cement those flexibilities when certain conditions are met.

“Any action taken under the authority provided by this rule, if finalized, will be viewed as an attempt to ease the requirements of employment verification. While a welcome change for employers contending with large-scale remote workforces, it will be abused by bad actors who will hide behind a far easier good faith compliance defense,” wrote Dan Stein, president of FAIR. “With the unprecedented numbers of illegal alien apprehensions and encounters along the southern border and the ever-growing crisis that we are presently witnessing, the demand for work is high, and any attempt to diminish verification will be routinely used by smugglers, traffickers, and unscrupulous employers. Any authority used to weaken document verification requirements will erode the intend of the underlying statute aimed at ensuring that only lawful aliens are eligible to work in the United States.”

Stein also noted that the proposed rule is arbitrary and overly broad. “It fails to justify any policy determination or provide a reasoned analysis at all. Accordingly, this regulatory amendment appears to be a solution in search of a problem.  It is patently unclear why DHS believes that this change is necessary and, assuming arguendo that such authority is necessary, why it must be so broad,” said Stein.

“FAIR strongly opposes this proposed rule and urges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to withdraw it. Instead, DHS should promulgate regulations aimed at enhancing security and anti-fraud measures associated with the employment verification process and continually ensuring that, pursuant to statute, only lawful aliens are able to work in the United States,” concluded Stein in the comment.

FAIR’s full comment can be accessed here.

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Taking Care of Securing the Big Bucks Not the Border

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EDITORS NOTE: This FAIR column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

4 Muslim Migrants Arrested for Brutal Rape and Murder of 12-year old Paris Girl Found Stuffed in a Suitcase with Throat Slashed thumbnail

4 Muslim Migrants Arrested for Brutal Rape and Murder of 12-year old Paris Girl Found Stuffed in a Suitcase with Throat Slashed

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By The Geller Report

And they keep bringing them in.

The left excuses this brutal carnage to ‘cultural differences’.

The Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” (33:59) The implication there is that if women do not cover themselves adequately with their outer garments, they may be abused, and that such abuse would be justified.

The underlying belief is the same: non-Muslim women exist for the pleasure of Muslim men. It’s in the Quran: Muslims can take “captives of the right hand” and use them for sex (4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30). And as long as it is not addressed, there will be more and more of these Muslim rape gangs, aided and abetted by hopelessly compromised British officials.

Why does this keep happening?

The answer to that question is quite clear, but no one wants to see it. In France, a Muslim quoted Qur’an while raping his victim. A survivor of a Muslim rape gang in the UK has said that her rapists would quote the Qur’an to her, and believed their actions justified by Islam. Thus it came as no surprise when Muslim migrants in France raped a girl and videoed the rape while praising Allah and invoking the Qur’an. In India, a Muslim gave a Qur’an and a prayer rug to the woman he was holding captive and repeatedly raping. And the victim of an Islamic State jihadi rapist recalled: “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God…He said that raping me is his prayer to God.”

In India, a Muslim kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old Hindu girl, and forced her to read the Qur’an and Islamic prayers. In Pakistan, another Christian woman recounted that her rapist was also religious: “He threw me on the bed and started to rape me. He demanded I marry him and convert to Islam. I refused. I am not willing to deny Jesus and he said that if I would not agree he would kill me.” Rapists demanded that another girl’s family turn her over to them, claiming that she had recited the Islamic profession of faith during the rape and thus could not live among infidels.

The Qur’an teaches that Infidel women can be lawfully taken for sexual use (cf. its allowance for a man to take “captives of the right hand,” 4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50, 70:30). The Qur’an says: “O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down over themselves of their outer garments. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.” (33:59) The implication there is that if women do not cover themselves adequately with their outer garments, they may be abused, and that such abuse would be justified.

However, anyone who points all this out will be excoriated as a “racist” and an “Islamophobe,” and accordingly ignored. This has been going for years, and there is no sign that it’s going to stop anytime soon. (more here)

As for the victim’s tender young age: Child marriage has abundant attestation in Islamic tradition and law. Turkey’s directorate of religious affairs (Diyanet) said in January 2018 that under Islamic law, girls as young as nine can marry. Ishaq Akintola, a professor of Islamic Eschatology and Director of Muslim Rights Concern in Nigeria, stated: “Islam has no age barrier in marriage and Muslims have no apology for those who refuse to accept this.” Dr. Abd Al-Hamid Al-‘Ubeidi, an Iraqi expert on Islamic law, agreed: “There is no minimum marriage age for either men or women in Islamic law. The law in many countries permits girls to marry only from the age of 18. This is arbitrary legislation, not Islamic law.” Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, said that there is no minimum age for marriage and that girls can be married “even if they are in the cradle.” Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology ruled: “Islam does not forbid marriage of young children.”

France in shock: 4 Algerian migrants arrested for brutal rape and murder of 12-year-old Paris girl found stuffed in a suitcase with throat slashed

The young schoolgirl was raped, stuffed in a suitcase, and found inside a car trunk

By: John Cody, Remix, October 17, 2022

French police has four Algerians in custody suspected of participating in the brutal murder and rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl only identified as Lola. The suspects (Dahbia B., Amine K., Friha B., and Rachid N.) all hail from the same Algerian village, and one of them may be in the country illegally.

The body was found in a suitcase curled up, shackled, with a deep wound in her throat, and marked with inscriptions. According to the autopsy, carried out on Saturday, her death was due to asphyxiation. Two of the suspects in the case have been charged with “murder of a minor under the age of 15 in connection with a rape committed with acts of torture and barbarism,” “rape of a minor under the age of 15 with acts of torture and barbarism,” and “concealment of a corpse.” Although there was no mention of sexual violence when the story first broke, the latest details from BMFTV allege the girl was also raped.

Macron pushes to send migrants to French countryside, labels plan an ‘opportunity’ during ‘demographic transition’

The French president’s plan may be in the hope of shoring up rural votes for the left

Police also say that “a device” was used to imprint the numbers “one” and “zero” on her body, but further details about what these numbers mean and how they were “imprinted” on the body remains unclear.

Lola’s father reported her disappearance on Friday because she had not returned after her classes at Georges-Brassens College, located just behind the building where she was eventually found. Lola’s mother, Delphine, went to the police station of the XIXth. The schoolgirl, with medium-length blond hair, was wearing white jeans with holes in them, a white hoodie, a sleeveless jacket and white sneakers, the report said.

The mother posted a desperate message on social media to find her daughter after she went missing, writing: ”Our daughter Lola was last seen at 3:20 p.m. in the company of a woman we do not know in our residence.”

The investigators also arrested a fourth suspect early this Saturday morning in Bois-Colombes, in the Hauts-de-Seine. It is a woman, whose description could match that of a woman seen on video surveillance at the time of the crime. Another woman, who allegedly asked for help from a local Friday afternoon to carry a big trunk to her car, is the fourth person presently in police custody, according to Le Parisien. The two women in custody are sisters, and according to media reports, one of them is homeless.

The Paris prosecutor’s office currently says that a 24-year-old man is the main suspect in the case; he spoke “clearly” to investigators, apparently divulging key evidence in the case, according to BFMTV. A second suspect, in his 40s, is suspected of having helped the younger male perpetrator transport the body. It is unclear what role the female suspects may have played in the case.

According to Le Journal du Dimanche, police are also investigating the possibility that the girl was kidnapped and targeted for organ harvesting.

In front of the girl’s building, the entrance is overflowing with stuffed animals and flowers placed there by mourners. A friend of the girl, spoke with BFMTV, saying, “We were still laughing on Friday, I didn’t realize what would happen.”

Politicians across France are pointing to the fact that once again, migrants are responsible for another shocking murder and rape.

“Lola, 12, brutally murdered in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. Four Algerians in custody. Our youth is being slaughtered while professional mourners chase imaginary Islamophobia,” wrote Stéphane Ravier, senator for Bouches-du-Rhône.

Lola, 12 ans, assassinée sauvagement dans le 19e arrondissement de Paris.

Quatre Algériens en garde à vue.

Notre jeunesse se fait massacrer pendant que les pleureuses professionnelles font la chasse à une islamophobie imaginaire.#Francocide #Lola pic.twitter.com/hm5pxxJ74g

— Stéphane Ravier (@Stephane_Ravier) October 16, 2022

National Rally parliamentary leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter, “Once again, a terrible assassination. A little girl massacred in the middle of Paris. One day, it will be necessary to go to the end of the investigations to find, not only the direct culprits, but also to stop the crazy policies which make these crimes possible.”

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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Rape jihad (scroll)

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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American Jewish Organization to Honor Trump, Calling Him ‘Best Friend Israel Ever Had in the White House’

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By The Geller Report

That’s the emis (truth in yiddish).

Long overdue. No one else alive is more deserving of such an award than President Donald J. Trump. It is unfortunate that the vast majority of American Jews do not understand that fact.

Zionist Organization of America(ZOA)is presenting Donald Trump,the most pro-Israel president ever, it’s highest award, the Theodor Herzl Gold Medallion, at our Gala in NYC on Nov. 13. Also honoring Leader Kevin McCarthy, Jason Greenblatt, Israeli General https://t.co/eD4TtplhjE

— Morton Klein (@MortonAKlein7) October 16, 2022

ZOA to honor Trump, calling him ‘best friend Israel ever had in the White House’

Additionally, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will receive the organization’s Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Defender of Israel Award.

By JNS, Oct 15, 2022

(October 14, 2022 / JNS) The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) on Friday announced that it will honor former President Donald Trump with its Theodor Herzl Medallion.

Trump will receive the honor, which ZOA said it “rarely gives,” at the organization’s national award dinner in New York City on Nov. 13.

ZOA stated in an email that it is honoring Trump “for being the best friend Israel ever had in the White House.” It listed a number of items in the context of Trump’s pro-Israel and pro-Jewish record, including brokering the Abraham Accords, relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, an executive order strengthening Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, pulling the U.S. out of the Iran deal, halting U.S. funding of the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA, recognizing the legality of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, becoming the first U.S. president to pray at the Western Wall, and more…….

AUTHOR

Geller Report Staff

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Dem ‘Moderates’ In Name Only Are Running For Key Offices Across America

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By Deroy Murdock

Editors’ Note: Senator Mark Kelly is on a prominent but deceitful list of Democrat Senators calling themselves ‘moderate’ (see below) but voting almost always with the far-left, progressive and socialist agenda of the modern Democrat Party and the White House cabal directing Joe Biden. In addition, the junior Senator from Arizona considers himself a ‘maverick’ (as does our other U.S. Senator from Arizona, Kyrsten Sinema). There is nothing moderate about Senator Mark Kelly and he certainly does not represent the interests of Arizona citizens. It is time he exits the U.S. Senate and comes back to Arizona as a private citizen. Blake Masters is your choice for this election cycle. The choice is not hard – Blake Masters is a conservative Arizona native who will vote to stop the disaster of the open southern (and Arizona) border, a believer in the free enterprise system with equal opportunity for all Americans, a man devoted to the central and critical role of the family in American life, non-woke classical education for our children producing informed and competent citizens, and the rule of law for the safety and well-being of all Arizonans. Is there really a question about this choice?

It happens every time.

While most Republicans proudly run for office as conservatives and then govern that way, Democrats typically conceal their liberal beliefs and pose as “moderates” and “centrists.”

Once elected, they swing Left and startle voters who sign up for compassion and get stuck with socialism. (RELATED: SNEAD: The Left Is Pushing To Reshape Voting Systems Across America — Here’s How)

“Moderate Joe Biden” found himself in the White House. Surprise! He reigns miles to the Left of presidents Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, and even Obama.

Americans are paying dearly for Biden’s bamboozling them in 2020. Inflation, violent crime, illegal aliens, transgenderism and neo-authoritarianism run rampant, from sea to shining sea.

Democrats are at it again: U.S. Senate incumbents running for re-election masquerade as moderates, often with the regime media trumpeting their “centrism.” If elected, they will abandon the “middle of the road” and ride the left shoulder on the Highway to Hell.

The American Conservative Union offers a quick and reliable test for alleged centrism. ACU rates lawmakers’ key votes. Zero is most liberal; 100 is most conservative. Scores between 33 and 66 occupy the middle of the ideological spectrum.

Also, FiveThirtyEight.com tracks how frequently legislators support Biden’s agenda — from 0% to 100%. The more they vote with the Left-wing Biden, the further Left they reveal themselves to be.

These metrics confirm that Democrat Senate incumbents facing re-election on November 8 are MINOs: Moderates in Name Only.

  • Michael Bennet of Colorado: Politico describes Bennet as “a quiet moderate.” Slate calls him “a relative centrist.” Nevertheless, Bennet’s ACU rating is a paltry 5.7, and he votes with Biden 98.1% of the time.
  • Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada: The Las Vegas Sun-Sentinel paints her as “reasonable, moderate and eminently capable.” (ACU: 5.6/Biden: 92.7%)
  • Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, per the so-called “Paper of Record,” “is working to burnish her centrist image without making political waves.” (6.7/96.4%).
  • Mark Kelly of Arizona is “touting centrist policies and his efforts to reach across the aisle,” National Public Radio reports. (12.8/94.4%).
  • Raphael Warnock of Georgia “has positioned himself as a traditional, center-left, Bidenish Democrat,” the Washington Post observes. (7.7/96.4%)

These senators seem inoffensive. They do not resemble far-Left extremists such as Bill Ayers, Angela Davis, or the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Unfortunately, their vote records expose them as the Not Ready for the Rotary Club Players.

“Moderate” senators Bennet and Cortez Masto are Left of Senator Bernie Sanders (Socialist – Vermont), who enjoys a higher ACU rating and lower Biden-vote record (6.2/92.6%).

These five MINOs voted in lockstep for these radical measures:

As Sen. Ted Cruz (R – Texas) told me, these five Democrats joined every other Democrat to confirm outspoken police-defunding advocates Kristen Clarke and Vanita Gupta to top Justice Department positions.

Voters should distrust and verify Democrat claims of “moderation.” Unlike stock prices, congressional vote records are an excellent predictor of future performance.

Genuinely moderate Democrats are nearly extinct. Formers senators such as Oklahoma’s David Boren, Louisiana’s John Breaux, and Georgia’s Sam Nunn might as well be on display at the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History, between the mastodon and the stegosaurus.

Any voter who discovers an actual centrist Democrat on the ballot should contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It will dispatch an endangered species protection team at once.

*****

This article was published by The Daily Caller News Foundation and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

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Why Have a Constitution If You Just Ignore It?

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By Frank Miele

In two recent columns, I wrote about the danger of public officials who are either unaware of the restrictions placed upon them by the Constitution they have sworn to uphold or, worse, just don’t give a damn.

In the first, I chided President Biden for his sworn intent to pass a law that would “codify Roe v. Wade into law,” namely to pass a federal law that offers protection for abortion nationwide.

In the second, I lambasted Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for proposing a bill that would ban abortion after 15 weeks gestation, the point when unborn children are believed to be able to feel pain. So that raises the obvious question: Why have a Constitution if you are just going to ignore it?

Democrat Biden and Republican Graham together offer a bipartisan illustration of why our country is dangerously off track. With the implicit permission of the Supreme Court, our elected officials have not just bounced up against the guardrails enshrined in the Constitution, they have flattened them and are driving the republic off a cliff.

It doesn’t matter which side of the abortion issue you are on; we should all be able to agree that in a constitutional republic, lawmakers and presidents cannot just do whatever they want. And there is absolutely no doubt that the U.S. Constitution does not give Congress the power to regulate medical procedures, whether it be an abortion or an appendectomy.


That’s just the starting point. Anyone who bothers to read the Constitution knows that Congress was designed to exert limited authority over Americans’ everyday lives. Read Article I, Section 8 if you don’t believe me. You won’t find anything about vaccines or masks, and the whole idea of presidents ordering citizens to do anything is laughable. Article II, Section 2, which spells out most of the powers of the president, is remarkably brief, and the powers are few. Commander in chief? Check. Negotiator of treaties? Check. Nominator of ambassadors and judges? Check. But from where exactly does the president derive the power to forgive student loans? Or order landlords to stop collecting rent?

Maybe this runaway tyrannical democracy could have been avoided if we still taught civics in our elementary and secondary schools. But at this point there is little to be done. We can’t force members of Congress to read the Constitution, let alone understand it. We can’t stop presidents from legislating with their phone and their pen, as President Obama famously called his ability to unilaterally shape America to his wishes through executive order. And we are decades past the point where we could expect courts to rein in the excesses of the other two branches.

That leaves only one solution, the same one that gave us a republic in the first place – “We the People.” It is time for the true sovereigns to take back their power and put the guardrails back in place. The Constitution needs to be restored to its original purpose as a mechanism to limit government power, and there is only one practical way to accomplish that. It’s called an Article V convention of states…..

*****

Continue reading this article at Real Clear Politics.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Why American Fascist bullies call themselves Anti-fascists and others Fascists! thumbnail

Why American Fascist bullies call themselves Anti-fascists and others Fascists!

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By Dr. Rich Swier

“Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.” —  Joseph Goebbels

Have you noticed that there are those who call others what they are themselves? Have you or a friend been bullied in school, at work or in a social setting? Have you bullied someone else?

Any person who bullies someone using name-calling is a hypocrite because that person is pretending to be better than whomever he or she is denouncing, while in reality he or she is actually the very embodiment of the pejorative used.

Today many public figures use pejoratives like: deplorable, racist, homophobic, Islamophobic, white supremacist, semi-Fascist and Fascist.

Dr. Charles F. Glassman, M.D. wrote, “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you…unless you believe them. Then, they can destroy you.”

It’s bad enough when one is called a name by a bully, it’s another thing when the name calling bullies have the power to literally destroy you, your family, your business and take away your job, freedom and even your very life.

We are now in a time best described by Russian-born American writer Isaac Asimov, who wrote,

“Well, then, arrest him. You can accuse him of something or other afterward.“

The January 6th Select Committee

H. Res. 503 which established the January 6th Select Committee reads:

Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff, institutional employees, press, and Members;

Thus the January 6th Committee presupposed that the Save America rally in Washington, D.C. was populated not by patriots but by “insurrectionists” who “launched an assault.”

Even before the first J6 Select Committee meeting the idea was to arrest as many patriots as possible and then accuse these patriots of something or another afterward.

We now know that the only deaths were perpetrated by the Capitol police against patriots like veteran Ashley Babbitt.

According to Insider.com at least 928 people have been charged in the Capitol “insurrection” so far.

This table includes the names, charges, links to court documents, and links to additional stories of all the people charged so far. Insider.com  is keeping the below list updated as the Department of Justice releases more names and info.

Only 417 federally charged rioters have entered guilty pleas so far.

On November 6th, 2020 the Heritage Foundation in an article titled For Five Months, BLM Protestors Trashed America’s Cities. After the Election, Things May Only Get Worse Mike Gonzalez reported,

This week marks the first time in living memory that widespread violence was widely viewed as a foreseeable, and even expected, outcome of an American national election. The votes are being counted just days after riots broke out in Philadelphia, causing the governor to deploy the National Guard in the largest city of a key battleground state. Since June, in fact, such scenes have been a common phenomenon in dozens of American cities.

The Transition Integrity Project (TIP), a group that has opposed Donald Trump, ran simulations that foresee disruptions caused by pro-Trump actors. “During TIP’s exercises, Team Biden almost always called for and relied on mass protests to demonstrate the public’s commitment to a ‘legitimate outcome,’ with the objective of hardening the resolve of Democratic elected officials,” the group (somewhat predictably) reported.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) and the Claremont Institute cast TIP’s prediction as a “candid admission of the high likelihood of Team Biden encouraging street demonstrations that might spiral out of control.” The Claremont-TPPF’s own simulation concluded that left-wing street violence was a near-certainty, and accused TIP organizers of coordinating strategically with Black Lives Matter and Antifa.

In other words, both sides predict violence—but each sees the threat through its own political lens.

Last month’s arrest of 13 men accused of trying to kidnap the governor of Michigan—including an alleged white supremacist (who’s also apparently a Trump-hating anarchist)—reminds us that the threat from right-wing groups is real, as the media reminds us often and eagerly. But the sustained, often violent street actions that have been a recurring feature of American urban life in 2020 have been almost entirely driven by left-wing protestors.

Read the full article.

Today the Fascists, Communists, Democrat Party, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and many, many others have demonized their political opponents.

QUESTION: Why?

ANSWER: They can’t run on their records, their policies, their mandates and the outcomes of their diversity, inclusion and equity socialist agenda.

President Donald J. Trump in his letter ‘Our nation is SUFFERING’ to the J6 Committee wrote,

Our nation is SUFFERING. Our economy is in the gutter. Inflation is rampant. Gas prices have reached an all-time high. Ships are unable to unload cargo. Families cannot get needed baby formula. We are an embarrassment around the world. Our withdrawal from Afghanistan was a disaster that cost us precious American blood, and gave $85 billion worth of the best military equipment on earth to our enemy.

Millions and millions of illegals are marching to the border and invading our country. We have a White House in shambles, with Democrats, just this week, declaring that Biden is unfit to run for reelection. And what is the Democrat Congress focused on? A Kangaroo Court, hoping to distract the American people from the great pain they are experiencing.

Seventeen months after the events of January 6th, Democrats are unable to offer solutions. They are desperate to change the narrative of a failing nation, without even making mention of the havoc and death caused by the Radical Left just months earlier. Make no mistake, they control the government. They own this disaster. They are hoping that these hearings will somehow alter their failing prospects.

A certain Democrat once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Well, Democrats now seem to think that Americans are “stupid.” They are not. America is crumbling, and Democrats have no solutions. Our nation has no hope of change for the better under Democrat leadership. People are desperate. Rather than solving problems, Democrats are rehashing history in hopes of changing the narrative. During my time in office, our nation was thriving, our economy was strong, and the price of gas was very low. Above all else, we were respected, perhaps like never before.

America prospered under the Trump Administration.

The Sham Investigation

The January 6th Unselect Committee is disgracing everything we hold sacred about our Constitution. If they had any real evidence, they’d hold real hearings with equal representation.

Read the full letter here.

The Bottom Line

History is repeating itself.

Anicius Beothius was a Roman philosopher who lived during the 5th and 6th centuries. Born into a family of politicians, Boethius was educated in Greek and had a love for literature and philosophy. Boethius was accused of treason and eventually imprisoned. Boethius died by a cruel death. According to one account, he was cut down by the swords of the soldiers before the very judgement-seat of Theodoric, or Theodoric the Great, also called Theodoric the Amal, who  was king of the Ostrogoths, and ruler of the independent Ostrogothic Kingdom of Italy between 493 and 526, regent of the Visigoths, and a patrician of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Today we are seeing American patriots falsely accused of treason and cut down by those in power. We are seeing parents who speak out about what their children are taught designated by the DOJ as domestic terrorists. We are seeing pro-life Christians arrested by the FBI, while anarchists like Jane’s Revenge deface, damage and fire bomb pregnancy clinics across America.

It’s Nazi Germany in 1933, Communist Russia in 1917 and the dawn of the People’s Republic of China in 1940. Hundreds of millions were arrested, imprisoned, gassed, sent to gulags and starved to death.

The only thing that Democrats can do is lie and then deny. They call others what they are. They do what they say their opponents are doing, they use power to silence, suppress,  intimidate and kill.

History really is repeating itself! Sad, isn’t it?

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

RELATED TWEET:

.@SpeakerPelosi must be held accountable for refusing Pres Trump’s multiple requests for the National Guard to be at the Capitol on Jan 6th.

The Capitol is her responsibility & she failed. Was it intentional?

And if they can release this video, then release ALL of the videos. https://t.co/m4yZW8RqxN

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 14, 2022

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President Donald J. Trump’s ‘Our nation is SUFFERING’ letter to the J6 Committee

Pelosi Brought in Daughter, Camera Crew to U.S. Capitol Before the J6 Protest, Son-in-Law Was Set Up Outside to Film

Report: Pelosi Threatened to Physically Assault Trump

American Parents Who Protest Schools are Terrorists. Muslim Parents are ‘Multifaceted’

What House Of Dragon Can Teach Us About Power And Wealth Creation thumbnail

What House Of Dragon Can Teach Us About Power And Wealth Creation

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By Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)

House of Dragon, like its predecessor Game of Thrones, is The Godfather of epic fantasy. Westeros is a land where power rules and individual rights do not exist.

The first season of HBO’s House of Dragon is nearing its conclusion, and the Game of Thrones prequel has not disappointed.

Based on George R. R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood, the new series depicts House Targaryen’s efforts to rule the Seven Kingdoms amid its own internal power struggles. The story takes place about 170 years before the events depicted in Game Thrones and centers on Rhaenyra Targaryen, a princess who’s named heir to the Iron Throne by her ailing father King Viserys. This puts her at odds with her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) and later her infant brother, who also have claims to the throne.

While I was initially skeptical that House of Dragon would bring back the magic of Westeros, the series has managed to live up to the hype (so far). The show’s writing and acting are superb, and just like GoT, the series explores power and morality through the gritty lens of realism. The realism is conveyed not just through the show’s ample sex and violence, but also the promise that the hero might actually not win or may not do the right thing. House of Dragon, like its predecessor Game of Thrones, is The Godfather of epic fantasy.

Viewers may be pleased to notice that, with the exception of the size of Targaryen dragons, almost nothing has changed in the Seven Kingdoms, even though nearly two hundred years have passed. Armies still fight with swords and arrows. Most of the people are still poor. Soldiers ride horses. Farming is presumably the primary occupation for the vast majority of people who are not lords or ladies.

To understand why so little has changed in Westeros, one need only look to our own world. Though many of us have personally witnessed massive change and innovation in our own lifetime, this was the exception, not the rule, in history.

Economist Brad Delong has noted that the standard of living didn’t change much for most of the last two thousand years, and GDP figures from Our World in Data confirm this.

In 1 AD, the GDP of the entire world was less than $182 billion (in 2011 US dollars). A thousand years later, global GDP was higher, but not by much—an estimated $210 billion. A few hundred years later, the world’s GDP was actually lower. Four hundred years after that, in 1700, the world’s total GDP was still only about $640 billion.

In other words, the world had changed very little over a period of 1700 years, at least in terms of material wealth.

That changed the next century, however. By 1820, global GDP had increased to $1.2 trillion. By 1870 it was $2 trillion. On the eve of World War I, global GDP was $4.74 trillion and by1950, despite the two most catastrophic and deadly wars in human history, it was up to $9 trillion. By 1998, it was $58 trillion and by 2013 it was $101 trillion.

The evidence for this miraculous growth in wealth is visible all around us. From automobiles and computers, microwaves and laundry machines, to sunglasses, TVs, and cell phones, most middle-class families own goods that were scarcely imaginable a century ago. Things as vital as toilet paper, toothpaste, and hot showers are available to most of the people in the world.

It’s no coincidence that the rise in material wealth the world witnessed over the last 250 years coincided with the global rise of capitalism.

When Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, he offered the world a roadmap to wealth creation. It was surprisingly simple. Peace and trade—not brute force, coercion, or the yolk of slavery—was the formula.

“Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things,” Smith wrote in The Theory of Moral Sentiments.

The formula might be simple, but its execution is not. The world of Westeros shows us why.

While many of the characters in Game of Thrones and House of Dragon are interesting, and some are even good, it’s impossible to miss that Westeros is a land defined by war, injustice, power, and plunder.

In the first season of Game of Thrones, we see the Crown is basically bankrupt. King Robert is spending money the Crown doesn’t have, and “beggaring” the realm in the process, placing an immense burden on his people (who will eventually be the ones to pay off the Crown’s debts). Over the course of eight seasons, viewers witness what is largely a bloody power struggle to rule.

House of Dragon offers its own examples. We quickly see that the Crown is a source of aggression, not benevolence. In the very first episode, Daemon Targaryen, the king’s brother, descends on Flea Bottom (the most poverty-stricken party of King’s Landing) with his Gold Cloaks (i.e. the city watch) to bring “law and order” to the district.

“My brother’s city has fallen into squalor. Crime of every breed has been allowed to thrive,” he says. “No longer. Beginning tonight, King’s Landing will learn to fear the color gold.”

In the darkness, men are accused by the Gold Cloaks—”thief!” “raper!”—and rounded up. They are not tried, but executed on the spot. Daemon himself takes at least one man’s head. All it takes is the accusation from a Gold Cloak.

While there is some fuss the next day over Daemon’s actions, the king’s council ultimately overlooks the carnage, reasoning that Daemon’s actions, draconian though they may be, project strength and power.

This is why nothing changes in Westeros. It’s a land where power rules and individual rights do not exist. Whatever wealth people manage to accumulate can simply be taken from them by anyone—whether it be their lord, pirates, or the Crown itself—who has more power than they do. The king’s justice is rarely to be found.

Adam Smith was correct when he observed that the formula to wealth creation is surprisingly simple: easy taxes, peace and the adequate administration of justice. But Westeros shows us this is hardly easy to achieve, especially where power is concentrated and those who wield it are rarely held accountable.

AUTHOR

Jon Miltimore

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.

RELATED ARTICLE: What Is Entrepreneurship?

EDITORS NOTE: This FEE column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Kanye West To Buy Parler

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By The Daily Caller

Kanye West, formally known as Ye, is set to acquire the conservative social media platform Parler just days after getting kicked off Twitter.

Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, announced Monday that “it has entered into an agreement in principle to sell Parler” to Ye, who has been “taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech.”

“The terms of the proposed transaction would include ongoing technical support from Parliament and the use of private cloud services via Parliament’s private cloud and data center infrastructure,” the statement continued. Ye and Parliament Technologies are expected to close the deal in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Parler CEO George Farmer said “this deal will change the world.”

It will “change the way the world thinks about free speech. Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said.

Ye was recently removed from Twitter after posting an antisemitic tweet. In the now-deleted tweet, Ye said he was “going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE.” His account was locked for violating Twitter’s policies.

Ye has since made several other antisemitic remarks, including saying that Jewish people are responsible for doing “bad business” in Hollywood.

AUTHOR

BRIANNA LYMAN

News and commentary writer.

RELATED ARTICLE: Tucker Carlson Hangs Out With Kanye West

RELATED TWEET:

Voter fraud is real. Our family knows first hand.

In the 2020 general election, Perry was told when he went to vote in person that the SOS showed that he already voted by absentee.

He did not and never even requested an absentee ballot in 2020.

1/4https://t.co/6X4ZHoEnLQ

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) October 16, 2022

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Ivermectin Still Getting a Bum Rap thumbnail

Ivermectin Still Getting a Bum Rap

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By The Daily Skirmish – Liberato.US

COVID may be old news, but I can’t let this one pass.  I heard an NPR host claim on Saturday ivermectin does not work as a treatment for COVID.  I couldn’t find the show when I looked online, and it may be that it was a re-airing of an old show.  But here are the facts about ivermectin, according to a study aggregator site:

Out of 92 studies of 134,000 patients in 27 countries comparing treatment and control groups, the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID resulted in statistically significant improvement in mortality, ventilation, ICU, hospitalization, recovery, cases, and viral clearance.  Ivermectin is effective in preventing COVID on average 83 percent of the time, early treatment 62 percent of the time, and late treatment 43 percent of the time.  Improvement was shown in 53 percent of randomized controlled trials.  51 percent lower mortality was shown in 47 studies.  “Ivermectin was adopted for early treatment in all or part of 22 countries,” the site says.

So, ivermectin is not a wonder drug.  It doesn’t work perfectly or all the time.  Nothing does.  But ivermectin cuts mortality in half and has been proven beneficial in a variety of circumstances.  So anyone, like the NPR host, who claims ivermectin doesn’t work, is just plain wrong.  Yet, the government recommended against the use of ivermectin, and its willing accomplices in social media companies and the press piled on, refusing to follow the science.  Major medical journals refused to publish positive study results.  They ignored the evidence and published designed-to-fail studies with negative results, instead.  Lesser journals were pressured to retract favorable articles they ran.

But all these conspirators couldn’t suppress the truth entirely.  A doctors group sued the FDA in June for disparaging the use of ivermectin for COVID and for interfering with doctors’ ability to treat the disease according to their own professional judgment.  They warned the FDA will go right on overriding the professional judgment of doctors unless the FDA is stopped in its tracks now.

Missouri passed a law preventing state licensing boards from punishing doctors who prescribe ivermectin for COVID.  The same result was obtained in Oklahoma through an order of the state’s Attorney General.  Legislators in New Hampshire passed a bill to allow over-the-counter use of ivermectin, but the Governor successfully vetoed it.

You can add to all this the fact that the government spent a billion dollars to have media outlets like CNN and the Washington Post spread the government’s phony COVID narratives.  So all we got with ivermectin, as with all the other things I told you about last week, is government by phony narrative.  Maybe there’s just too much money in more expensive COVID treatments to expect government agencies to do the right thing and resist being captured by the drug companies.  I’ll leave the speculation to others.  But one thing is clear: the government is lying to you about ivermectin, and its lapdogs at NPR and elsewhere in the press are helping them do it.  As has been said many times, government is not the solution; it’s the problem.

©Christopher Wright. All rights reserved.

Visit The Daily Skirmish and Watch Eagle Headline News – 7:30am ET Weekdays

VIDEO: My How Democrat’s Have Flip Flopped on Paper Ballots and Ending Racism thumbnail

VIDEO: My How Democrat’s Have Flip Flopped on Paper Ballots and Ending Racism

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By Dr. Rich Swier

Flip flop: Make an abrupt reversal of policy.

I have written that the Democrat Party is no longer the party of JFK.

Many have pointed out how their policies have become extremist and out of touch with the common man and woman in America.

Even our most senior elected officials have become flip flappers on key issue, like election integrity by have voters vote in person using hand counted paper ballots.

Here’s two examples of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. and Kamala Devi Harris on election integrity.

SEN KAMALA HARRIS 2018: “We recently also, I actually held a demonstration for my colleagues here at the Capitol, where we we brought in folks who before our eyes hacked election machines, those that are being used in many states” pic.twitter.com/IRBREQdFPd

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 16, 2022

Soft Bigotry—The New Racism in America

I remember watching Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. who, standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, inspired me.

Dr. King gave his historic “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, Dr. King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States. At that time the Republican Party, founded by President Abraham Lincoln, embraced his words.

Dr. King said,

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Watch Dr. Kings remarks,

Fast forward to 2020 when the below was caught on video.

Thousands of white people gather to “pledge allegiance” to black people (2020) pic.twitter.com/kIBrjcDPhx

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) October 16, 2022

This is the most racist thing that one group of individuals can do, pledge their allegiance to a race, not to God and our Constitution. This in not build on the “rock of brotherhood”, it is the “new slavery” under the guise of diversity, inclusion and equity pushed by Democrat Party. It’s the new “soft bigotry” mantra of Democrats.

In a Daily Caller article titled ‘It’s As Hard As A Punch’: NC Lt. Gov. Blasts Stacey Abrams Over ‘Soft Bigotry’ Harold Hutchison reported,

Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson of North Carolina slammed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams Saturday night over her opposition to voter ID, labeling it “soft bigotry.”

“The soft bigotry of low expectations is not soft, it’s as hard as a punch. It’s as devastating and has been as detrimental in the black community as a stick of dynamite from the Ku Klux Klan,” Robinson said. “This stuff is ridiculous. To suggest those who survived the Middle Passage, survived the horrors of slavery and then survived Jim Crow now have reached a point where they can’t go down to the DMV to get a free ID to secure their vote not only is insulting, it’s ridiculous.”

[ … ]

WATCH:

“It’s a false narrative myth, the propagation that black folks are victims and they need the Democratic Party to supply them with everything they need,” Robinson continued. “We know it’s not true and we have got to push back against that narrative.”

It’s amazing how far many have fallen from reality and what is just and right. As Dr. King said,

“You should not believe your conscience and your feelings more than the Word which the Lord Who receives sinners preaches to you.“

And this ends today’s lesson on right versus wrong.

©Dr. Rich Swier. All rights reserved.

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50% Increase in Miscarriages; 50% Decrease in Fertility After COVID Vax thumbnail

50% Increase in Miscarriages; 50% Decrease in Fertility After COVID Vax

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By Dr. Rich Swier

And still the Democrats are pushing this poison. They hate you. Start fighting back.

50% increase in miscarriages; 50% decrease in fertility after COVID vax

But Eric Topol says there is “no evidence” that the vaccine causes harm. That’s reassuring. So Eric, if it isn’t the vaccine, what IS causing it? He blocked me. Can you ask him?

By: Steve Kirsch, Oct 15, 2022:

Watch this exclusive 30 second video of Kimberly Biss, MD an OB/Gyn in Tampa Bay, FL explaining what they’ve observed in their large practice:

However, Dr. Eric Topol, who is an expert on the COVID vaccine, says this isn’t caused by the vaccine

I’d love to know what IS causing it, but Dr. Topol blocked all of my accounts on Twitter and Twitter has banned me for life twice, so I am not allowed to ask that question.

It cannot be COVID since the problem only surfaced after the vaccines rolled out. So his explanation just doesn’t fit the observation.

So maybe you can ask Eric for me?

Watch this exclusive 30 second video of Kimberly Biss, MD an OB/Gyn in Tampa Bay, FL explaining what they’ve observed in their large practice:

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: Vaccinated Suffering Strange, Terrifying New Illness

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

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Thousands of Government Officials Own and Trade Stock in Companies They Regulate

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By The Geller Report

The U.S. government is rotten, rotten to its core. Martha Stewart went to jail for far less.

This is insider trading on steroids. Every single official should be indicted. This is very definition of corruption and depraved abuse of the public trust.

Pentagon officials owned stock in aerospace, defense companies, report says

By Federal Times staff, Oct 11, 2022

WASHINGTON — Thousands of federal government officials across the executive branch reported owning or trading stocks that stood to rise or fall with decisions made by their agencies, a Wall Street Journal investigation found.

More than 2,600 officials at agencies from the Commerce Department to the Treasury Department, during both Republican and Democratic administrations, disclosed stock investments in companies that were lobbying their agencies for favorable policies. That amounts to more than one in five senior federal employees across 50 federal agencies reviewed by the Journal, is said in an article published Oct. 11.

An official at the Environmental Protection Agency reported purchases of oil and gas stocks. The Food and Drug Administration improperly let an official own dozens of food and drug stocks on its “no-buy” list. A Defense Department official bought stock in a company before it won new business from the Pentagon, according to the report.

Title 18, section 208 of the U.S. Code, a criminal statute, prohibits employees in the executive branch from participating in a government matter that will have a direct and predictable effect on their financial interests, Federal Times has reported.

Such conflict-of-interests can include insider trading, a hot-button issue that the U.S. House of Representatives has grappled with in seeking to reform the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act.

The STOCK Act, by some experts’ estimation, is the closest the government has come thus far in targeting stock trading by members of Congress. Then-President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2012, amending the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and making explicit that the prohibition against insider trading would apply to members.

The Journal said it analyzed more than 31,000 financial-disclosure forms for about 12,000 senior career employees, political staff and presidential appointees. The review spans 2016 through 2021 and includes data on about 850,000 financial assets and more than 315,000 trades in stocks, bonds and funds by the officials, their spouses or children.

While the Ethics in Government Act, passed on the heels of the Watergate scandal, mandated that senior employees of the executive branch submit public financial disclosures, the vast majority aren’t available online or readily accessible. The review amounts to the most comprehensive analysis of investments held by executive-branch officials, who have wide but largely unseen influence over public policy, the Journal said.

Among the findings:

— While the government was ramping up scrutiny of big technology companies, more than 1,800 federal officials reported owning or trading at least one of four major tech stocks: Meta Platforms’s Facebook, Alphabet’s Google, Apple and Amazon.com.

— Dozens of officials at agencies including the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reported trading stock in companies shortly before their departments announced enforcement actions.

— More than 200 senior EPA officials, nearly one in three, reported investments in companies that were lobbying the agency.

— At the Defense Department, officials in the office of the secretary reported collectively owning between $1.2 million and $3.4 million of stock in aerospace and defense companies on average each year examined by the Journal. Some held stock in Chinese companies while the U.S. was considering blacklisting the companies.

Not every member of the executive branch is a public filer. Most that are hold high-level leadership positions. In addition to new entrant, annual, and termination reports, public filers must also report transactions of certain securities as they occur so that ethics officials can evaluate potential red flags.

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Kanye West, Louis Farrakhan, and the Left’s Double Standard thumbnail

Kanye West, Louis Farrakhan, and the Left’s Double Standard

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By The Geller Report

Kanye West recently became the object of worldwide opprobrium when he tweeted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda. The tweet was removed, his account was locked, and he has faced a storm of justified criticism over his paranoid anti-Semitism.

JP Morgan Chase even canceled his bank accounts.

Kanye West speaks out after getting debanked: “I put $140 million into JP Morgan and they treated me like sh*t. So if JP Morgan Chase is treating me like that, how are they treating the rest of y’all?” pic.twitter.com/YYuMgqfqT5

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 16, 2022

There is no indication, however, that Louis Farrakhan, whose Jew-hatred is abundantly documented and far longer-standing than West’s, has never been subjected to any comparable treatment from his Leftist friends who are piling on Kanye these days. Why the double standard?

That most unhinged exponent of the Left’s propaganda industry, Rolling Stone magazine, tried to pin an accusation of hypocrisy on Ben Shapiro for writing: “Two things can be true at once. Kanye’s moves toward pro-life, faith, and family conservatism are encouraging; his ‘death con 3’ posts and Black Hebrew Israelite language are clearly anti-Semitic and disturbing.” The real hypocrisy, however, is not Shapiro’s, it is the Left’s, for embracing Farrakhan while excoriating Kanye West.

The Daily Caller reported in October 2020 that Farrakhan “has blamed Jewish people for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Holocaust, and referred to them as ‘satanic.’ He also praised Adolf Hitler as a ‘very great man.’ At a Nation of Islam event in February 2018, Farrakhan asserted that ‘Jews were responsible for all of this filth and degenerate behavior that Hollywood is putting out, turning men into women and women into men.’ ‘White folks are going down,’ he also said, according to CNN. ‘And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through.’”

In February 2020, Farrakhan declared: “Mr. Trump killed my brother Qassem Soleimani. Mrs. Clinton killed my other brother Muammar Qaddafi.” In December 2019, a neighbor of a couple that murdered Jews in a kosher market said that Farrakhan had inspired them. In April 2019, Farrakhan said that “Jesus died because he was 2,000 years too soon to bring about the end of the civilization of the Jews.”

This is a longstanding pattern. In February 2019, Farrakhan said: “The wicked Jews want to use me to break up the women’s movement.” He gently chided Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu) for apologizing for her own anti-Semitic remarks: “Sweetheart, don’t do that. Pardon me for calling you sweetheart, but you do have a sweet heart. You sure are using it to shake the government up, but you have nothing to apologize for.” Farrakhan’s rhetoric has led to violence. In April 2021, a self-described “follower of Farrakhan” crashed his car into a Capitol barricade and charged at police with a knife.

Nonetheless, Farrakhan continues to enjoy respect and wield influence on the Left. During the 2020 campaign, a Joe Biden ad featured a rapper who referred to Farrakhan as his “mentor.” He is friendly with Barack Obama. A taxpayer-funded mural in New York features his image. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Gaza) wrote a column for Farrakhan’s blog. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has denounced Kanye West, but she has never denounced Farrakhan. Ilhan Omar has never denounced Farrakhan. Rashida Tlaib has never denounced Farrakhan. Nor has Joe Biden.

The double standard is glaring and obvious. The Democratic Party establishment is increasingly anti-Semitic. The House of Representatives couldn’t manage to censure Ilhan Omar in 2019 after her repeated anti-Semitic remarks, opting instead for a catchall, virtue-signaling condemnation of “hate.” When the same people who defended Omar and stood proudly with Farrakhan condemn Kanye West for saying the same kinds of things their own friends and allies say, there’s the real hypocrisy. The Democrat Party is anti-Semitic until it becomes politically expedient for Democrats to denounce anti-Semitism, but when they issue these denunciations, they never break off relations with people who frequently and unrepentantly traffic in anti-Semitic rhetoric.

What Kanye West said was as reprehensible as it was idiotic. But JP Morgan Chase and the others who attacked West afterward were clearly only attacking him because he has publicly broken ranks with the Left’s race-baiting establishment and has defended Donald Trump. If they were attacking him for anti-Semitism, there are plenty of their friends that they’re going to have to throw under the bus. Don’t hold your breath.

AUTHOR

Robert Spencer

RELATED ARTICLES:

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FIRE THEM ALL: Massachusetts School Districts Prepare For Illegal Teachers’ Strikes That Threaten School Closures Again

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Islamic Republic of Iran: Police sexually assault women in public as freedom protests continue thumbnail

Islamic Republic of Iran: Police sexually assault women in public as freedom protests continue

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By Jihad Watch

This is designed to humiliate and demean, and thereby deter, the protestors.

Horrific scene as female regime forces drag a screaming young woman protester on the ground and put her in a van#OpIran #Iran #IranProtest #IranProtests2022 #IranRevolution #IranRevolution2022 #MahsaAmini #Mahsa_Amini #NikaShakarami#مهسا_امینی #مهساامینی #ایران #نیکا_شاکرمی pic.twitter.com/4AHoMHnLG0

— Lisa Daftari (@LisaDaftari) October 14, 2022

Iran anti-riot police sexually assault women in public as protests near one-month anniversary

by Peter Aitken, Fox News, October 15, 2022:

Iranian protesters have demanded “justice” for a woman who was assaulted by anti-riot police, with one officer forcibly grabbing her bottom and then pushing her on the ground.

The video, captured on a security camera at the Argentina Square in Tehran on Wednesday, shows police surrounding the woman. When they start to cart her away, one officer grabs the woman’s bottom before she drops to her knees.

Another woman can be heard saying that the officers were pulling the victim’s hair as she knelt on the ground.

Tehran’s Police Public Relations office has said the incident will be investigated, the BBC reported, but the police provided no statement as to what might have happened. Instead, the police accused “enemies” of “using psychological warfare” to cause “public anxiety and incite violence.”…

Iranian officials and authorities have tried to suppress media of the protests from reaching the outside world, but the protesters have managed to supply the internet with plenty of videos and pictures showing the brutality police have used.

Lisa Daftari, a Middle East expert and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital about another “horrific” incident in which regime forces dragged a screaming female protestor to the ground before putting her in a van….

AUTHOR

ROBERT SPENCER

RELATED ARTICLES:

Iran: Police of the Islamic Republic beat high school girl to death

Iran Protests: Video Of Security Forces Molesting Female Protester Outrages Iranians

Amid growing Iran threat, Biden’s handlers postpone military meetings with Middle East allies

France: 12-year-old girl found dead with deep throat wound, four Muslim migrants held

Wisconsin Democrat Senate candidate: Biden’s illegal migrants should be awarded immediate citizenship 

EDITORS NOTE: This Jihad Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Yes, Things ARE as Bad as You Think They Are. Here is What You Can Do. thumbnail

Yes, Things ARE as Bad as You Think They Are. Here is What You Can Do.

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By Neland Nobel

One of the cardinal questions in politics for voters to answer is: are you better off today than you were before? Has the party in power made your life better or worse, easier or more difficult, safer or more dangerous?  Are you freer, or less free than before?

We think an objective answer to this question, in relation to the Biden Administration and those in the Democrat Party, is things are worse off in all those terms.

Wages have trailed inflation for over nine months.  The real standard of living of people is declining. Our wages are down and sadly, our savings in the form of our IRAs and 401ks, are down as well.

About a year and a half ago, we opined that 2022 would be a “risk off” year, meaning risk assets of all kinds would do poorly. We specifically mentioned the classic 60% stock, 40% bond configuration so often used by both financial planners and investors when preparing for retirement. Coming off a long period of zero interest rates, we suggested that it would not work.

It frankly has been worse than we thought. The chart below from Bank of America tells the story.

The 60/40 split has produced the worst results in 100 years. That is a devastating blow to the retired population and those within a few years of retirement.

That is not to say other configurations have done much better. As we chronicled in a series about the “Investor’s Dilemma”, we pointed out that nothing really could work under the Biden policy of rising inflation, rising interest rates, rising taxes, and rising regulation.

Even those smart and nimble enough to be all in cash have seen their purchasing power hit by at least 10%. There has been no place to hide. When you couple losses in stocks and bonds of about 25%, with purchasing power loss of 10% or more, Bidenomics has made you 35% worse off in just about one year. 

That is why this mid-term election is so critical. To stop the bleeding, we must defeat the Democrats decisively and stop this slide into penury.

Even gold and silver, often a hedge against such conditions, has not done all that well, although to its credit, gold has lost less than the stock market.

Some maybe thought they would be immune from poor governance.  But bad policies create bad outcomes, and when you erode the currency in which everything is denominated, you can’t hide.

Thus, from real wages to market returns, you are far worse off under Democrat rule.

Food, fuel, and shelter, the basics of life, are moving much higher in price while the administration pushes chimerical green policies that specifically attack fuel production, food production, and housing development.

The 30-year mortgage rate has risen from just above 3% to almost 6 3/4%. Combined with sharp increases in price, the cost of financing has left many unable to buy a home. The last holdout is now starting to slide, which is residential real estate.

The Democrats are destroying the American dream. Why? Because they never liked it in the first place. To them, it was all built on a lie and our prosperity was based on slavery, even though that ended over 150 years ago and was practiced in the backwaters of our economy. In their view, we are a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, trans-phobic country and people. With that kind of view, why would you support the “American dream”?

Progressive policies have made life infinitely more difficult for most but the few ultra-wealthy. And in terms of safety, you are more subject to crime today, more concerned about how the intelligence agencies are being turned against the people, and closer to nuclear war with a foreign power. We are once again sliding into a war with no strategic purpose, no definition of victory, and no end.

We have all experienced times like this before. Being old enough to remember stagflation and Vietnam, the memories float back. That was also a time of social upheaval as well, as radicals pushed new theories about race and gender. But in that period, the left was a minority assaulting the establishment. Today, they are the establishment and they control all the nodes of political power and the centers of culture and communications.

Hard economic times often come with social upheaval. That too seems to have gotten worse. People who once championed women, now define them out of existence. Blacks are no longer to be treated equally, they are to be given preferential treatment, even in front of Latinos, and especially Asians. Those who were for integration and fair treatment to all, now want special treatment just for some.

Progressives have stood our educational system on its head. Starting with the proposition that a free society should be confident enough to examine its own faults, our educational system now concentrates on nothing but our faults. They want our kids to have the same sour view of our country as they do.

Moreover, while the sexual revolution had its day back in the 1960s and 1970s, it was mostly an argument about the roles that men and women should play and what new rules society should have for the sexes to find a new equilibrium with each other.

Today, the argument is whether the idea of men and women even exists. Progressives think men can become women, women can become men, and many people can just dart back and forth between the two, depending on how they feel. This is adding a national neurosis to an already difficult economic condition.  

Some suggest this is intended, precisely to create revolutionary conditions.

Intended or not, the policies stink, and our only chance at improvement and getting out of this mess is to vote Democrats out en mass. 

We recommend readers approach this election with a fervor reserved for wartime. You must vote and you must convince your friends and neighbors that this election is perhaps the most important in your lifetime. Give of your time, and give of your money.  That is, while you have some money left.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

Blake Masters is Spot On — Mark Kelly Is No Arizona Maverick thumbnail

Blake Masters is Spot On — Mark Kelly Is No Arizona Maverick

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By Carrie Sheffield

Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly tries to make noise that he’s a reasonable, moderate and independent thinker, but the facts about his policy votes and economic views tell a different story. As Kelly’s rival Blake Masters points out, Kelly is no Kyrsten Sinema – an actual maverick not afraid to occasionally buck the Democratic Party.

Kelly supported the falsely-named “Inflation Reduction Act,” which has done nothing to stop painful inflation walloping American families. Kelly supported the CHIPS Act (H.R. 4346), a flawed, $250 billion spending spree combining corporate welfare and industrial policy. Kelly voted for the inflationary, 2,741 page, $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package that expanded the Green New Deal nonsense.

Kelly has a 0% lifetime rating from the Heritage Action For America scorecard, which means that he’s literally never deviated from the progressive position on anything during his Senate career.

Unlike Sinema, Kelly voted to blow up the filibuster, a move that Democrats are pushing for to ram through a federal takeover of elections and pack the U.S. Supreme Court.

Masters said it well on a recent debate stage against Kelly: “Joe Biden is spending like a drunken sailor and at every single opportunity Mark Kelly just says yes. He can’t say no to Chuck Schumer. He can’t say no to Joe Biden – at least Sen. Sinema stopped Build Back Better.”

Sinema has received an outsized amount of bullying and harassment from the far left for voting only 10% in alignment with conservatives at Heritage over the course of her Senate career.

“I know Sen. Sinema caved on the Inflation Reduction Act, and I’m mad at her for that,” Masters continued. “But hey, isn’t it interesting that you have to wonder which way she was gonna vote? You never have to wonder which way Sen. Kelly is gonna vote. Because any spending bill that Biden puts in front of him, he will sign.”

Indeed, as Masters noted, Kelly was the deciding vote on the flawed $750 billion Inflation Reduction Act, which passed solely along party lines.

As women and children suffer from rapes and human trafficking along Arizona’s porous border, Kelly said “no” to 18,000 more Border Patrol agents, but “yes” to 87,000 new IRS agents through funding in the Inflation Reduction Act. Though Kelly and his fellow Democrats try to sell it otherwise, those 87,000 IRS agents won’t just go after billionaires. They’re not just going after big business. They’re going to be auditing average Americans – they’re going to be auditing small businesses and adding headaches and paperwork sure to put some businesses under and at the least cause stalling and stagnation.

As Masters noted, Kelly also voted to send stimulus checks to illegal aliens and violent felons sitting in jail. Is that a good use of taxpayer money? No.

“Think about that the next time you go to the grocery store and you can’t afford to buy steak or eggs,” Masters said.

*****

This article was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

 

TAKE ACTION

Economist Explains Why ‘Americans Are Being Absolutely Crushed Right Now’ thumbnail

Economist Explains Why ‘Americans Are Being Absolutely Crushed Right Now’

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By Samantha Aschieris

Editors’ Note: We hope readers will take the time to either read or listen to the podcast below. In so doing, remember that we got here because of policy decisions. It was the FED that was discontented with 1 1/2% inflation and wanted it above 2%, remember? It was the FED that agreed to monetize huge quantities of debt, allowing politicians free to spend their heads off without disturbing interest rates and the housing market. And it was the Democrats who primarily gave us a Covid-related lockdown, kept it in place the longest, and then attempted to bail out the economy they had crushed with wild debt-financed federal spending and sent checks out to everyone. The result was an unprecedented bulge in the money supply (up 40%). They then ignored the problem calling it “transitory”, and then inflicted more pain with their Green New Deal energy policy. This left the world dependent more than ever on Russia. Sensing his opportunity, Putin struck out at Ukraine. Now we have war in the midst of a worldwide slump. When management screws up this badly, you fire them. Ballots for mail-in voters (80% of Arizona voters, 90% in Maricopa County) were mailed on 10/12 and are arriving across the state. Don’t forget the current misery is the direct result of bad policy, bad governing philosophy, and ideological excess. They wanted to transform America all right. Transform us into a Third World nation! Well, you now have the opportunity to have your voice heard. Let them hear you, loud and clear. Much hinges on the narrow control Democrats have in the U.S. Senate. Therefore, from both the national and Arizona perspective, while all your decisions are important, the most important decision you will make will be regarding Arizona’s U.S. Senate seat. We urge you to send Mark Kelly back to his home in Tucson. It is a nice town. He will like it there.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday that the consumer price index rose 0.4% in September, showing that inflation remained at a near four-decade high of 8.2%.

“Today’s report shows some progress in the fight against higher prices, even as we have more work to do. Inflation over the last three months has averaged 2%, at an annualized rate,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.

EJ Antoni, a research fellow for regional economics in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation, couldn’t disagree more.

“This is just the latest example of how Americans are being absolutely crushed right now by these higher prices. And it’s not yachts and caviar that are driving these increases. It’s necessities. It’s the basic staples,” Antoni says.

“It’s eggs, bread, milk. We’re not talking about filet mignon here. We’re talking about ground beef. And sadly, Americans are really paying the price for what has been going on the last two years in terms of the government just spending, borrowing, and printing trillions and trillions of dollars,” says Antoni.

Antoni joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to take a deeper dive into what the consumer price index means, and how it compares to the producer price index, and even offer some spending advice ahead of the holiday season.

Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript:

Samantha Aschieris: Joining the podcast today is EJ Antoni. He’s a research fellow in regional economics in the Center for Data Analysis here at The Heritage Foundation. EJ, thanks so much for joining.

EJ Antoni: Samantha, thank you for having me.

Aschieris: Of course. Now, let’s just dive right in. The consumer price index number came out Thursday morning. It showed an increase of 0.4% in September and 8.2% since last year. Kick us off here. Break this number down for us.

Antoni: Sure. I mean, this is just the latest example of how Americans are being absolutely crushed right now by these higher prices. And it’s not yachts and caviar that are driving these increases. It’s necessities. It’s the basic staples. It’s eggs, bread, milk. We’re not talking about filet mignon here. We’re talking about ground beef.

And sadly, Americans are really paying the price for what has been going on the last two years in terms of the government just spending, borrowing, and printing trillions and trillions of dollars.

Aschieris: And did we see any sort of relief from this number? Were there any index decreases, basically?

Antoni: No. None of the major categories went down, sadly.

And one of the things that has been keeping the index down the last several months has been the drop in gasoline prices. But now that we’re going into the winter and there’s going to be an increased demand for things like home heating oil, for example, and the fact that we now have OPEC decreasing production, and at the same time, the Biden administration won’t let domestic producers increase our own production, all of this is going to come together to mean higher energy prices.

And so the one thing that has really been keeping the index in check, more or less, is now going to be let loose as well.

Aschieris: Yeah. It’s only October and I’ve already had to put the heat on. So, I’m not looking forward to this winter.

Something I also wanted to ask you about was the producer price inflation number that also came out this week. It came out on Wednesday. It showed an increase of 0.4%. Now, how do these two numbers compare?

Antoni: Sure. The producer price index measures the prices that businesses are having to pay, whereas the consumer price index is going to measure the prices that you and I have to pay. And what happens is that over time, these numbers tend to track together. And the reason for that is because as costs increase for businesses, they pass those costs on to consumers.

And what we’ve seen during the Biden administration is that those costs for businesses have actually increased substantially more than the costs for consumers. In fact, the producer price index, the PPI, has been higher than the CPI every single month of the Biden administration in terms of those year-over-year changes.

So that means there are already tremendous price increases basically baked into the cake in the economy right now, so that even if prices for businesses were to magically flatline, which obviously isn’t going to happen, but even if it did, there’s going to be continued cost increases that will be passed on to consumers in the months ahead. So, unfortunately, there’s no relief there, either.

Aschieris: Yeah. And it was interesting because President [Joe] Biden talked about the CPI number in a statement that the White House put out. He talked about that it showed some progress in the fight against higher prices, even as we have more work to do. Something that we had talked about before the interview was the core consumer price index increase. What’s the difference between just the consumer price index versus the core consumer price index?

Antoni: The core consumer price index is going to exclude food and energy. And you may say, “Why on Earth would you want to exclude those things, because everybody needs food and energy?” And that’s true. But food and energy prices are notoriously volatile. So, when you exclude those, you can get a better sense of what the overall price level is doing.

And over time, sure enough, both the CPI and the core CPI tend to track together. One may be a little higher or a little lower, but over time, it all averages out.

Well, we’ve seen energy increase so fast for the last two years that we haven’t really had enough time yet for all of those costs to fully trickle down into other parts of the economy.

For example, the price of diesel fuel has been through the roof, which means that truckers are having to charge more and railroads are having to charge more for transporting literally everything you get off a store shelf. And so now, those costs are being passed on in earnest to consumers at all levels of the economy.

And now, core CPI has hit a 40-year high, just like the headline CPI number has been hitting 40-year highs.

Aschieris: Yeah. I want to talk about that a little bit more. Do you anticipate these numbers to continue to get worse or do you think we’ve seen the worst?

Antoni: Well, just like CPI really hasn’t caught up to PPI, also, the core CPI has not caught up to CPI. In other words, we still have a lot of food and energy costs that are going to trickle down everywhere else in the economy. So, no. Unfortunately, I really don’t see any signs of relief for the consumer.

Aschieris: I want to shift a little bit to some other concerns that Americans are feeling, and they’re facing a recession. Earlier this week, President Biden was in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper. He said that he didn’t anticipate a recession, but even if there was one, it would be basically a slight recession. First and foremost, what indicates a recession? And are we in one already?

Antoni: Certainly. When we talk about recession, we’re talking about the economy contracting. And it’s actually not uncommon for economic activity to decline for a single month or even a single quarter, a three-month period. In certain cases, it actually happens routinely every single year.

For example, if you want to go from December to January, the economy always contracts because all of that retail activity that’s concentrated around the holidays goes away. Employment goes down. And so we seasonally adjust for all these different factors. In other words, we try to take out all of the seasonally predictable factors that go into the economy.

So, what we’re left with at the end is an answer to the question of, what would this month or this quarter look like if it had happened any other time of the year? Even with all that taken into account, the first half of the year, not just a month, not just a quarter, but two quarters in a row, six months, the economy contracted. So, we’ve already had the recession.

At this point, it’s not a question of, are we going to have a recession? It’s, are we going to have a double dip? In other words, the third quarter looks like it’s going to be positive. But then after that, all bets are off because everything that I see is pointing to continued decline.

Aschieris: Now, as we head into the holiday season, as you just mentioned, what should consumers, what should Americans be aware of this holiday season?

Antoni: Oh, wow. That’s a good question. One of the things that Americans are going to increasingly need to be aware of is the cost of financing debt. What I mean by that is interest rates continue to rise.

To put into perspective how much of an additional cost this is causing consumers, if you look at the median-priced home when Biden took office and compare that to the median-priced home today, the mortgage on that has gone up about 80%.

I mean, it’s just absolutely devastating. People can’t afford homes anymore. And sure enough, the Atlanta Federal Reserve’s home affordability index is down over 30% because of that.

In terms of, again, that median-priced home, if you add up all your mortgage payments over the course of a year, they’ve increased by about $10,000 a year because of a combination of the price of the home going up and the interest rate now doubling in literally a matter of months.

But it’s not just homes. It’s going to be credit cards. It’s going to be student loans, auto loans. All kinds of debt are getting more and more expensive.

As tempting as it may be when you’re doing your holiday shopping, for example, to splurge, remember how much more it’s going to cost you in terms of trying to pay off that credit card.

Aschieris: Yeah. It’s going to be a crazy holiday season, for sure.

One final question for you, and it might seem like a pretty big ask. But if you could do anything, in your opinion, what is the No. 1 thing that you would suggest or advise the Biden administration to do to reverse the course that the country’s headed on in terms of the economy right now?

Antoni: Balance the budget immediately. Right now, as the Federal Reserve is hiking up these interest rates—and as we just said, that’s causing a tremendous amount of harm to Americans, they would not need to hike the rates nearly as hard or as fast if we had a balanced budget.

But right now, we have a Congress and president that are working at cross purposes to the Fed. And the more they spend and the more they borrow, the more the Fed has to slam on the brakes. And so if they—they being the Congress and the president—could stop the reckless spending and borrowing, then that would solve a tremendous amount of our problems and have an incredibly positive impact on bringing down inflation.

Aschieris: Well, EJ, thank you so much for joining the show today. I really appreciate you taking the time to provide some insight. Thank you so much.

Antoni: Samantha, thank you for having me.

*****

This Podcast comes from the Daily Signal (Heritage Foundation) and is reproduced with permission.

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

How Republicans Can Stop Letting Libertarians Spoil their Victories thumbnail

How Republicans Can Stop Letting Libertarians Spoil their Victories

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By Keith Knight

Editors Note: Most conservatives would share almost all these sentiments. We may differ on cultural matters on occasion,  but even that can be handled by simply letting people be free and letting competition shake out the bad ideas from the good. However, the central point he makes is valid. The best protection Republicans can have from libertarians spoiling the election, is for Republicans to be more reliable when it comes to protecting freedom through limited government. We have too many in the party that cave to the Chamber of Commerce from time to time, cave to the “international community” like the UN and its agencies, cave to the mainstream press, and cave to the Department of Defense. However, to libertarians, we ask that they recognize we are in a struggle with a party that really knows how to use political power, and that political power will have to be used to claw back our freedoms. Don’t vote for a candidate who can’t win. Vote for the one that most closely matches your own concept of liberty. In this case, conservatives and libertarians can agree, a vote for Blake Masters is key to taking the Senate and stopping the socialist juggernaut. 

If Republicans want control of the U.S. Senate they need the four swing states (AZ, GA, PA, and NV) to go Republican. In Arizona, (R) Blake Masters is behind (D) Mark Kelly by 4.5 points, while (L) Marc Victor is covering the spread.

As a personal friend of Marc Victor’s and a Libertarian, I want Blake Masters to win by being such a good freedom advocate that he renders the Libertarian candidate irrelevant. 

Here is how I believe he can do so without losing his base.

After a 20-year war in Afghanistan with thousands of deaths leading to the Taliban taking over in 11 days, it’s clear that Republicans need to embrace their antiwar roots. I’d love Masters to say this:

Thou Shalt Not Murder.

Not provoking a nuclear war with Russia or China needs to be our number one priority. Wars result in mass death, missing limbs, lost loved ones, and post-traumatic stress disorder for the common man while providing prestige for politicians, never knowing if the end result will be worth the monumental cost. Dwight D. Eisenhower knew this in 1956 when he refused to respond militarily to Soviet atrocities in Hungary, Ronald Regan understood this in 1983 when the Soviets shot down an American aircraft (KAL007) which killed an American Congressman. War eventually brought down the Soviet Empire, Japanese, German, French, British, Austro-Hungarian, Romanov, and Ottoman Empires. War – indiscriminate theft and mass murder – is immoral AND we cannot afford it.

The Economy:

Thou Shalt Not Steal. 

As those bearing the torch of the Declaration of Independence, we advocate the separation of economy and state and work towards the decriminalization of all economic activity between consenting adults. Abolish the Federal Reserve’s legal monopoly on currency and recognize that increasing the money supply (inflation) creates more dollars chasing the same amount of goods resulting in higher prices. South Korea is wealthier than North Korea not because of welfare and money printing, nor did the world grow rich from such parasitism. When people are free, they have more options on how to cooperate with one another, leading to more mutually beneficial transactions. As far as housing, universities, and health care go: It’s no coincidence that the most expensive industries are the most regulated and subsidized. He who pays the piper calls the tune, either producers try to please customers or politicians.

Schooling:

Just as we would oppose the Catholic Church forcing people to fund their schools, governments need to allow citizens to opt-out of funding schools they don’t feel are a net benefit to society. The population by every metric is historically, logically, economically, and philosophically illiterate – teachers need to start doing a better job, and we must embrace competition.

Racism:

The Democratic party explicitly judges people by their race, we fully reject this racist psychopathy and treat people based on their actions not accidents of birth. After looking at the statistics regarding black-on-white violence, there is no evidence that whites are uniquely to blame for America’s problems. Just as Asians having much higher incomes than whites does not prove discrimination, no outcome disparity can automatically be attributed to racism or sexism. Masters is already great concerning Critical Race Theory.

January 6th:

For months in 2020 looters and rioters intimidated innocent people with no institutional power. On January 6th, for a couple of hours, the most sinister powerful people in the country finally faced a minor inconvenience. No need to clutch pearls for months after the event.

Big Tech:

Just as needing a license to vote can impose costs on the poor, needing a license to compete with big business hurts the poorest among us giving consumers fewer choices. Today people can use Odysee.com as an alternative to YouTube and Minds.com as an alternative to Twitter. Once big names are on these sites (social proof), the problem is solved. Just as MySpace, Sears, BlockBuster, A & P Grocers, Sam Goody, and Nokia, all lost market shares eventually, Big Tech must face the greatest check and balance a society can offer: The freedom to voluntarily disassociate from bad actors.

Police:

Abolish qualified immunity and victimless crimes. If we the citizens don’t have the right to do X, then logically we cannot delegate X to government officials.

Abortion:

Abortion involves initiating violence against a peaceful person and is immoral, Masters is good on this issue, just needs to allow rape victims to have abortion access for up to 8 weeks. Just as men need Jordan Peterson to tell them to seize responsibility, women need Kristan Hawkins to appreciate the importance of the concept that only you directly control your actions, others can only indirectly influence you.

Gun control:

Masters is great on this, we ask that he specify the problem is the government monopolizing weaponry.

American exceptionalism:

From elementary school to college I was told America invented slavery, colonialism, and child labor. This bigoted narrative needs to die.

Holding truths to be self-evident. Equality of unalienable rights to act peacefully. Freedom to speak unpopular truths. Opposing state monopoly of weaponry. Rewarding innovators who make life worth living: Vanderbilt, Carnegie, The Wright Brothers, Alexander Graham Bell, Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford, Charles Francis Jenkins, Norman Borlaug, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Sam Walton, Jimmy Wales, and countless others. Just as we hate to see Masters vilify hard-working, compassionate illegal immigrants, I hate to see my ancestors negatively generalized.

I hope we can keep America great by forming an alliance between conservatives and libertarians.

*****

Keith Knight is a writer and host of the Don’t Tread on Anyone Podcast.

Photo credit: Darron Birgenheier

TAKE ACTION

How Not to Vote in Arizona

The 2022 midterm election is fast approaching. The system for voting in Arizona is predominantly by mail-in ballots (around 80% of all ballots). The ballots will be mailed out to all voters registered for mail-in voting on October 12th. The actual ‘day’ of the election is Tuesday November 8, 27 days later.

Once upon a time when all voters went to the polls on the day of election, the tabulated results were announced the night of the election date. If the result of a specific race was razor thin and less than a legislated margin, a recount might prevent the naming of a winner. That was the exception for calling the results of the election.

It is still this way in most first world countries but not the United States and certainly not Arizona. Voting rules (some unconstitutional) were dramatically altered in many states in 2020 because of the Covid pandemic.

We at The Prickly Pear are very concerned about the flaws in Arizona’s predominant ‘mail-in’ voting system.

Please click on the red TAKE ACTION link below to learn How Not to Vote in Arizona as a mail-in ballot voter and to be certain your vote is included in the count the evening of November 8th.

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