The Excruciating Pinch of Inflation
Have you ever compared the price of beef now versus a few months ago? Or picked up a package at the grocery store only to realize it’s smaller than it used to be and it’s more expensive? Are you building a house right now and pulling your hair out over the price of materials? And then have you seen news reports about inflation still sitting at 2% and thought, “What are they smoking?”
Well, the Labor Department issued its inflation estimate Wednesday in the form of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and it jumped 4.2% over the last year, well above predictions of 3.6% and marking the fastest growth since 2008. That may be some validation for the inflation we’re all seeing, but it only begins to account for the hit to our wallets when buying goods and services these days.
What is CPI anyway? The Bureau of Labor Statistics defines it as “a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services.” In plain language, the Labor Department selects representative products and averages the increase or decrease in prices over a period of time.
The average, then, greatly depends on which items are selected for “the basket.” In the latest numbers, for example, used autos accounted for a third of the total increase after surging 10% in April alone, and 21% year over year. We’re told “core” inflation is more like 3%, but the rise in prices is drastic in a number of areas, from meat, milk, and eggs to airfare, hotel rooms, and rental cars. The Daily Caller adds, “The prices of several commodities have already risen rapidly. Lumber, gasoline, steel, copper, computer chips, homes and home appliances have all increased in price.” Homes are up 17%, while steel and lumber in particular have tripled and quintupled, respectively.
It’s important to remember that inflation is a form of taxation, and it often happens because the government prints more money as a way of stabilizing the national debt. The more money is printed, the less that money is worth.
A decade ago, the great economist Thomas Sowell explained, “Inflation is a quiet but effective way for the government to transfer resources from the people to itself, without raising taxes. A hundred dollar bill would buy less in 1998 than a $20 bill would buy in the 1960s. This means that anyone who kept his money in a safe over those years would have lost 80 percent of its value, because no safe can keep your money safe from politicians who control the printing presses.”
Another great economist, Milton Friedman, once said, “Central bankers always try to avoid their last big mistake. So every time there’s the threat of a contraction in the economy, they’ll over stimulate the economy, by printing too much money. The result will be a rising roller coaster of inflation, with each high and low being higher than the preceding one.”
Thus, when the federal government floods the market with trillions of dollars in “COVID relief,” the effect is to inflate prices, which reduces purchasing power. Suddenly, millions of Americans have a few thousand extra dollars to spend thanks to multiple rounds of direct government payments. The unemployed are often earning more than their working counterparts. Wages are being driven up by the fact that employers have to compete against the government for workers, and when it’s more expensive to employ someone, a business has to raise prices.
The Wall Street Journal reports, “Some 36% of small businesses indicated that they had raised selling prices in April, the highest share since 1981, according to a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business.”
Meanwhile, just as demand is spiking, supply lines are a mess. Try ordering a bike, a couch, or an appliance. Not only are you going to wait for months, but you’re probably going to pay more, and there’s only one answer ever given: “COVID.”
The socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden administration’s response? Let them eat cake. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell shrugs it off as “transitory” and expected as part of the recovery. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen dismissively says, “I don’t believe that inflation will be an issue.” Perhaps not for overpaid Beltway bureaucrats, but for the rest of us out here in flyover country, it is indeed an issue.
Again, there are numerous reasons for the increasing inflation. Some are caused by uncontrolled market forces. Most, however, is due to manipulation from DC, as well as government-imposed lockdowns in states around the nation. While both parties went on a spending binge last year that goosed inflation numbers, socialist/scumbag/ liar-Joe Biden aims to be the Six Trillion Dollar Man with his runaway federal spending proposals. Instead of slowing down on spending as the economy recovers, socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden insists “it’s working” and therefore we need more of it.
As long as “free money” policy predominates, we’ll all continue to pay a lot more for everything.
~The Patriot Post
Palestinians Attack Israel, Dems Blame Israel
Fighting has erupted between Israel and the Palestinians after weeks of tensions in Jerusalem. More than a thousand rockets were fired by Gaza terrorists into Israel, so the latter responded with strikes against Hamas targets. After several Israeli airstrikes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) attacked hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. We have eliminated dozens of terrorists, including senior commanders.” He promised an “iron fist if needed.”
This is the heaviest fighting between the two foes since 2014. As of this writing, the casualties consist of several Israelis, including three women and multiple children, and wounded dozens, all from Hamas’s indiscriminate rocket attacks. Well, not entirely indiscriminate. The editors at National Review write, “The rockets have been aimed at schools, at Israeli civilians in the highly populated Tel Aviv area, and — in a major escalation — at Ben Gurion Airport, which connects Israel with the outside world.”
Israel would have suffered significantly more casualties if not for its “Iron Dome” missile defense system that has intercepted 85-90% of the more than 850 rockets fired into Israel. Meanwhile, more than 60 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds wounded in Israel’s retaliatory action. Importantly, Israel has taken out high-profile Hamas leaders, such as Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas military intelligence, and Bassem Issa, who the Associated Press calls “the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed by Israel since 2014.”
Hamas is funded by Iran and essentially acts as a proxy of Tehran, and this violence is meant to test a demonstrably weak socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden. Iran’s calculation is that it can pressure socialist/ scumbag/liar-Biden and company into making concessions in exchange for pulling in the reins on its proxies. socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden really wants back into the nuclear deal, after all.
Exacerbating the situation are leftist Democrats whose anti-Israel sentiments have them blaming the victim rather than the perpetrator. “I am extremely concerned by the growing conflict in Israel and Palestine,” lamented Senator socialist/commie-Bernie Sanders (VT), who then turned the blame on Israel. “Once again we are seeing how the irresponsible actions of government-allied right-wing extremists in Jerusalem can escalate quickly into devastating war.”
socialist/commie-Sanders’s statements are at least coherent when compared to anti-Semite Representative scumbag/worthless-Ilhan Omar’s screeds. “Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians,” she complained. “It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid.” So, by scumbag/worthless-Omar’s logic, Israelis should just take unprovoked, indiscriminate terrorist rocket attacks and not retaliate because they have developed better technology to defend their citizens. What motivated Israel to develop this technology in the first place?
Donald Trump, whose impressive foreign policy achievements, especially in the Middle East, garnered multiple nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, slammed socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden’s weak leadership. “When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency,” he said, “because Israel’s adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. Under socialist/ scumbag/liar-Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden’s weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies.”
Trump added, “America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself. Unbelievably, Democrats also continue to stand by crazed anti-American Rep. scumbag/worthless-Ilhan Omar, and others, who savagely attack Israel while they are under terrorist assault.”
And as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rightly put it, “Hamas knew that we would always support Israel’s right to defend itself and that no amount of globalist silly leftist pressure would cause us to join in the Palestinian Authority’s support of terror. And we certainly weren’t going to have U.S. taxpayers underwrite PA leaders who refused to oppose the use of violence. Now, attacks may be rewarded by the United States blaming Israel. In short, deterrence and supporting your allies work to keep peace.”
Will socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden step up in support of Israel? Even though he’d rather placate America’s foes than stand by her allies, after days of silence, he finally offered this: “Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory.” We’re still waiting for condemnation of the people firing those inanimate rockets. ~The Patriot Post
Is socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Channeling Jimmy?
Did you hear the one about the guy who was nabbed at the border for trying to smuggle 50 sheets of plywood inside a shipment of cocaine?
We’ll show ourselves out.
Still, the best humor is always rooted in a kernel of truth, and that’s certainly the case with the inflation we’ve seen of late — from gas to beef to lumber. As our Nate Jackson pointed out today, “While both parties went on a spending binge last year that goose inflation numbers, socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden aims to be the Six Trillion Dollar Man with his runaway federal spending proposals. Instead of slowing down on spending as the economy recovers, socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden insists ‘it’s working’ and therefore we need more of it.”
Right. All we need is more cowbell.
Inflation, though, is just part of our predicament in socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden’s America. Those who lived through the late ‘70s likely remember another hapless Democrat, President Jimmy Carter, addressing the nation during the summer of '79 about its “crisis of confidence,” about its discord and discontent. “It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper, deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages. Deeper, even, than inflation or recession. … The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will.”
It was a clever bit of misdirection; an attempt to tell the American people that economic recession, runaway inflation, high unemployment, and long gas lines were merely distracting us from our search for meaning. It was ultimately dubbed “The Malaise Speech,” although Carter never uttered that word. Ronald Reagan did. And it stuck.
Just a week ago, any comparison between Jimmy Carter and socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden would’ve seemed a stretch. A week ago, we were poised for another strong jobs report, and the Dow had closed above 34,500. Today? Not so stretchy at all.
As the Daily Wire’s Joseph Curl writes, “With long gas lines across the country, sky-high inflation, and rising unemployment, Carter decided to blame Americans for the country’s woes. … Things in America seem to be moving along the same path nowadays. The parallels are by no means perfect, but the optics are certainly similar.”
Unemployment is indeed up, and that’s in large part due to our government paying people not to work. Not so, though, says socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden, or maybe kinda sorta. You figure it out: “I know there’s been a lot of discussion since Friday — since Friday’s report that people are being paid to stay home rather than go to work,” said the president on Monday. “Well, we don’t see much evidence of that. That is a major factor — we don’t see that — that — look, it’s easy to say — the line has been, because of the generous unemployment benefits, that it’s a major factor in labor shortages.”
Got it?
As for gas, this week’s cyberattack caused a shortage and a spike in prices, but the average cost of a gallon was $2.36 before socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden took office, and it’s now nearly $3.00 — unless you live in woebegone California, where the average cost is $4.11 a gallon.
Are these comparisons to Carter unfair? One observer clearly thinks so. “I see that everybody is comparing socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden to Jimmy Carter,” noted former President Donald Trump yesterday. “It would seem to me that is very unfair to Jimmy Carter. Jimmy mishandled crisis after crisis, but socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden has CREATED crisis after crisis.”
He’s got a point.
To be sure, we’re nowhere near Carteresque levels of bone-crushing inflation. Yet. And socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden’s economic ineptitude hasn’t yet inspired a brand-new word such as Carter’s “stagflation,” which combines the miserable troika of persistently high inflation, high unemployment, and economic stagnation.
But if Scranton socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe starts donning cardigan sweaters and talking about a crisis of confidence, we can then start to be afraid. Very afraid. ~The Patriot Post
The Futility of socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden’s Climate Act
President socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden has some big plans for tackling climate change, or rather radical leftists have voiced through their puppet socialist/scumbag/liar-Joe Biden big plans to tackle climate change. Naturally, these plans are totally unrealistic, calling for massive changes in consumer and commercial behavior that are not feasible without demolishing the nation’s economy. And even if the ecofascists manage to pull it off, the positive impact their policies would have on the climate would be negligible.
Take socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden’s latest call for a border carbon adjustment. This plan would establish what essentially amounts to a tariff on foreign goods entering the country that are carbon intensive. It would apply to goods such as steel, aluminum, glass, and certain agricultural products, which release large amounts of CO2 during production. The idea is to force China and other countries “failing to meet their climate and environmental obligations” to toe the climate line.
The big hurdle for this carbon tariff is that there is no domestic carbon tax with which to connect it. The U.S. has yet to enact a carbon tax on domestic manufacturers to force them to reduce their carbon footprint. Economists point out that it would be extremely difficult to establish a reasonable carbon tariff if there was no domestic tax to pin it to. Additionally, other countries would not take kindly to the U.S. taxing them for their carbon-related production if it were not taxing its own producers. Such an action could lead to an environmental-related trade war.
socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden and his ilk are sorely mistaken if they believe that a carbon tariff will bring China to heel on climate change. Other than paying lip service to the idea of tackling climate change for the sake of its international image, the communist state has zero interest in a cleaner environment.
Well, unless there’s profit to be earned by forcing Uyghur slaves to make solar panels.
China produced more greenhouse gases in 2019 than all of the developed nations of the world combined. This was revealed in a new study by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm focusing on Chinese and Indian economic development and impact.
China’s greenhouse gas emissions have tripled since 1990, and it now accounts for 27% of all GHG emissions. The U.S. is a distant second at 11%, with India and the EU each accounting for roughly 6.5%. China’s massive industrial and military buildup over the past 30 years is the cause of this spike. In their bid for international hegemony, the ChiComs have cast aside any concern for the environmental impact of their near-term activity.
Beijing’s apologists are quick to point out that this economic boom happened relatively recently, letting the ChiComs off the hook for the damage done to the environment historically. And because China is the world’s most populous nation, it’s unavoidable.
Hogwash. China does not deserve to be held to a different standard, just as it does not deserve to still be labeled as a “developing nation” by the World Trade Organization. Even teenage climate guru Greta Thunberg is disgusted. And when you’ve lost Greta…
Sad to say, socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden is paying lip service to climate change much like China is, which should come as no surprise. Such behavior is stock-in-trade for leftist politicians. The president talks a good game about how we will cut emissions and halve GHG output and minimize pollution and slice and dice other climate-related numbers. In the end, though, the will to change behaviors and the innovation to develop clean technology and business practices can’t be mandated into existence. More progress will be made if the government just got out of the way. And isn’t that generally the case? ~The Patriot Post
A Mickey Mouse Operation
For decades, the term “Mickey Mouse operation” has been used to describe something that is trite, trivial, or intellectually wanting. Perhaps no other corporation in the world could be better described as one than the company that created Mickey Mouse himself. A damning exposé produced by Christopher F. Rufo, one of the few genuine investigative reporters left in America, reveals the Walt Disney Corporation has “elevated the ideology of critical race theory into a new corporate dogma, bombarded employees with trainings on ‘systemic racism,’ ‘white privilege,’ ‘white fragility,’ and ‘white saviors,’ and launched racially segregated ‘affinity groups’ at the company’s headquarters.”
The program is called “Reimagine Tomorrow” and Rufo obtained documents related to it, courtesy of multiple Disney employees-turned-whistleblowers. Whistleblowers who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisals. While Rufo states the original intent of the program might have been noble, the employees say it has become deeply politicized and engulfed much of the company in racial conflict.
Rufo reveals the details of this contemptible agenda in all its race-baiting and “equity”-enforcing glory:
The core of Disney’s racial program is a series of training modules on “antiracism.” In one, called “Allyship for Race Consciousness,” the company tells employees that they must “take ownership of educating [themselves] about structural anti-Black racism” and that they should “not rely on [their] Black colleagues to educate [them],” because it is “emotionally taxing.” The United States, the document claims, has a “long history of systemic racism and transphobia,” and white employees, in particular, must “work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed.” Disney recommends that employees atone by “challeng[ing] colorblind ideologies and rhetoric” such as “All Lives Matter” and “I don’t see color”; they must “listen with empathy [to] Black colleagues” and must “not question or debate Black colleagues’ lived experience.”
In another module, called “What Can I Do About Racism?,” Disney tells employees that they should reject “equality,” with a focus on “equal treatment and access to opportunities,” and instead strive for “equity,” with a focus on “the equality of outcome.” The training also includes a series of lessons on “implicit biases,” “microaggressions,” and “becoming an antiracist.” The company tells employees that they must “reflect” on America’s “racist infrastructure” and “think carefully about whether or not your wealth, income, treatment by the criminal justice system, employment, access to housing, health care, political power, and education might be different if you were of a different race.”
Few things are more breathtakingly bankrupt than a company that was once a cultural icon of artistic creativity suddenly deciding that rank quota-mongering should replace the meritocracy that produced it.
And not just quota-mongering. Segregation is also part of the mix. The aforementioned “affinity groups” Disney created for minority employees are about finding “culturally authentic insights.” Thus, Latinos are grouped under the name “Hola,” the Asian group is called “Compass,” and the black group is called “Wakanda.”
Disney has partnered with the YWCA to implement what they call the “21-Day Racial Equity and Social Justice Challenge,” which defaults to the basic premise that America is a systemically racist nation. It “recommends” that white employees learn about their “privilege” and fill out a checklist in that regard. Options on the checklist include “I am white,” I am heterosexual,“ "I am a man,” “I still identity as the gender I was born in,” “I have never been raped,” “I don’t rely on public transportation,” and “I have never been called a terrorist.”
At the end of the program, white employees are told they must learn to “pivot” from “white dominant culture” to “something different.” What they are advised to reject are concepts such as “competition,” “power hoarding,” “comfort with predominantly white leadership,” “individualism,” “timeliness,” and “comprehensiveness.”
In short, with the exceptions of “power hoarding” and comfort with “predominantly white leadership,” everything else they are told to reject are concepts that define valuable employees. For example, how does one operate a huge theme park if showing up for work on time and taking a comprehensive approach to one’s workplace responsibilities are presumably inadvisable because they are racist attributes?
A customer at Disney’s theme park in Orlando, self-described as an “out-of-touch white American dad,” was less than enchanted with the company’s insufferable wokeness. “Recently, Disney announced that cast members are now permitted to display tattoos, wear inclusive uniforms and display inclusive haircuts,” he writes. “Disney did all of this in the name of allowing cast members to express themselves. The problem is, I’m not traveling across the country and paying thousands of dollars to watch someone I do not know express themselves. I am there for the immersion and the fantasy, not the reality of a stranger’s self-expression.”
Disney’s current relationship with its employees is somewhat disingenuous. In 2014, the company hired foreign workers who came to America via the nation’s H-1B visa program to replace hundreds of its domestic employees. Those workers were reportedly paid lower wages than their American counterparts, who were not only required to train their replacements but in many cases required to train them as a condition of receiving severance pay and bonuses.
The corporation’s commitment to “wokeness” is similarly hypocritical. When Disney released its live-action remake of the 1998 animated film “Mulan” last year, the movie’s credits included special thanks to more than a dozen Chinese institutions that helped produce it. Four of them were Chinese Communist Party propaganda departments in the region of Xinjiang, as well as the Public Security Bureau of the city of Turpan.
Washington Post columnist Isaac Stone Fish reveals why that gratitude is contemptible. “Disney has thanked four propaganda departments and a public security bureau in Xinjiang, a region in northwest China that is the site of one of the world’s worst human rights abuses happening today,” he explains.
Fish is referring to China’s Uyghur Muslim minority, a group that, for all intents and purposes, provides slave labor to its Chinese overlords. In short, Disney “worked with regions where genocide is occurring, and thanked government departments that are helping to carry it out,” he adds. And not to be outdone, actress Liu Yifei, who plays Mulan, supported the brutal police crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong.
How will this end? As Rufo notes, Disney’s existence has always revolved around providing escapist entertainment. Wokeness and the incessant self-righteous, politically correct sermonizing that attends it are the antithesis of escapism. Will Americans seeking to be entertained abide the blatant contempt the company demonstrates for a large portion of its potential customer base, based on nothing more than the color of those customers’ skin?
Disney has tried to distance itself from its own agenda, claiming Rufo “misunderstood” the documents. In a series of rebuttal tweets, Rufo makes it crystal clear his reporting is accurate.
The public? Decent Americans of every race and ethnicity should “reimagine tomorrow” — without a Micky Mouse operation like Disney in it. ~The Patriot Post
Dems’ Voter Fraud Bill a ‘Frontal Assault on the Constitution’
With midterm elections shaping up to be a slaughter for the Left, Senate Democrats are trying to push through their election fraud bill as quickly as possible, hoping it will allow them to rig the midterm elections for their benefit. Democrats are not even attempting to disguise S 1, the For the People Act, as anything other than a partisan measure designed to protect their majority now and well into the future.
House Speaker scumbag/liar-Nancy Pelosi admitted as much in a recent interview with PBS, saying, “We would be better if we can pass HR 1 and S 1. in order to remove obstacles to participation for people to vote.”
What scumbag/liar-Pelosi calls “obstacles to participation” we call election integrity measures. S 1 is a massive voting and elections bill that would rewrite the rules of American politics to exclusively benefit one political party, the Democrats.
S 1 would:
require states to automatically register residents (including illegal aliens and felons) to vote at Departments of Motor Vehicles;
turn the Federal Election Commission into a partisan entity controlled by the White House incumbent party;
strip states of their constitutional authority to run elections and allow the federal government to decree what’s best;
allow government funding of congressional campaigns;
ban voter ID laws, which maintain the integrity of elections;
create federal regulation of Congressional redistricting;
require the use of absentee ballot drop boxes;
eliminate state restrictions on mail-in voting;
require same-day voter registration.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-FL) told Fox News that “this is the single most dangerous piece of legislation before the United States Congress.”
Cruz went on to explain that the radical Democrat majority has two sets of priorities: “One is bad policy, things like very high taxes, very high regulations, open borders. But the second and their broader objective is to rig the system and they have a whole bunch of dramatic reforms designed to stay in power forever, things like adding the District of Columbia as a state, so they get to more Democratic senators, to packing the US Supreme Court to add far left-wing justices.”
Cruz explained that with the addition of illegal aliens and felons, Democrats “reasonably believe” those groups will vote Democrat. “Their objective is to rig the game and stay in power for the next 100 years and to take the power away from the American voters.”
Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va) wrote that Republicans and Democrats want to see more people voting and noted that the nation had record turnout in last November’s presidential election. “So, if more people are in fact voting, what is the Democrats’ proposed legislation really about?” Capito asked.
“This is where proponents of the federalized election power grab lose credibility,” she explained. “It is really about a way to implement absurd and downright un-American provisions in the bill that prioritize power over the will of the people.”
Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman recently testified against HR 1, the House-passed companion bill to S 1, at the House Administration Subcommittee hearing on voting access.
Wyman began her testimony by noting that some voters still lack confidence in the integrity of mail-in-ballots and called for moving forward to “rebuild the confidence lost in both election security and voting accessibility.” But she said “fast tracking an 800-page bill, written without meaningful input from state and local election experts, is not the answer.”
“Our Constitution gives states the important role of administering elections,” Wyman added. “I encourage you not to constrain the state's authority to conduct elections in a narrow, limiting manner. Rather, empower them to improve election administration. My colleagues and I in state and local election offices across the country, stand ready to work with you and ask you to include us in your work to create bipartisan solutions that improve elections for all Americans.”
If there is any doubt about the Democrats’ goal to steal the vote, consider what Tyler Law, a Democrat consultant and former aide to the party’s House election arm, said about S 1 and HR 1: “The future of the country is at stake. This is do or die. We as a party need to put everything we can into this, because if we don’t, over time our representative democracy is going to be much less representative. It’s going to be much more conservative, much whiter and much more rural. And that’s going to create a constitutional crisis.”
Actually, passing this election fraud bill would bring about a constitutional crisis. From the New York Times, “Passage of … H.R. 1 would … start a legal war that could dwarf the court challenges aimed at the Affordable Care Act over the past decade. … The potential for the bill to set off a sprawling constitutional battle is largely a function of its ambitions.”
In the words of an editorial in National Review, S 1 and HR 1 are “a frontal assault on the Constitution” and “the most comprehensively unconstitutional bill in modern American history.”
States don’t need Washington, DC, to strip them of their authority and impose burdensome requirements to fix problems that do not exist. What we need are voter integrity measures such as those recently adopted in states like Georgia, Texas, and Arizona that will ensure honest and fair elections. ~The Patriot Post
CAL THOMAS
Signs of the Times
Signs have been a part of Middle East lore dating back to biblical times. People in the region take them seriously, which is why the signs emanating from the socialist/ scumbag/liar-Biden administration are having serious ramifications.
Recent rioting on the Temple Mount and rocket attacks on Jerusalem and other civilian areas from Hamas bases in Gaza signal that statements and actions (and inactions) by the socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden administration are creating a political vacuum that terrorists and dictators are eager to fill.
The Trump administration had supported Israel over those who wished to destroy the Jewish state. Now, President socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden is returning to the policies of President scumbag/liar-nObama’s administration, which clearly placed Israel low on its priority list, encouraging its enemies.
In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, the sign is clear: Progress made by the Trump administration in forging peace deals with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan is now off the table. This administration will try to deal with dictators and terrorists who have no intention of living up to any promise they might make. Why should they amidst signs of weakness and pressure on Israel from Washington?
U.S.-born Israeli writer Caroline Glick says the region recognizes that “the U.S. has changed sides, the Saudis no longer believe that with Israel they can contain Iran. So now they are hoping to cut a deal with the ayatollahs.”
Since Democrats gained control of the presidency and Congress, the Middle East has been returning to previous behavior. Mullahs have ramped up their heated sermons against Israel and vile labeling of Jews, reminiscent of a not-too-distant past in Nazi Germany. Anti-Semitism is also rising in Europe.
All the U.S. does is issue tepid statements. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, “While we urge de-escalation on all sides, we also recognize Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself, to defend its people and its territory.”
This is meaningless if policies don’t follow.
The Taliban is in the process of retaking Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw. It clearly sees this sign as an invitation to return to the days of mandatory burqas for women, denying females jobs, education and other freedoms they have recently enjoyed. A re-established base for al-Qaeda may soon follow.
Another sign taken seriously by enemies of Israel and the West is the socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden administration’s determination to re-enter nuclear talks with Iran, a country whose religious and political leaders have refused to stop their enrichment of uranium and have not been deterred in their determination to eradicate Israel. Bargains with the devil do not end well. See Dr. Faust and the Munich Agreement for examples.
Trump administration policies were working in the Middle East (with the exception of unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan). A strong Israel and peace with at least some of its neighbors is the best deterrent against Islamic terrorism.
The socialist/scumbag/liar-Biden administration is again engaging in wishful thinking and the belief that American morality can be transposed on others who do not share it. Such a process has proven folly wherever it has been tried. One might think lessons would have been learned by now.
It doesn’t help that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unable to form a government and is on trial for alleged corruption, or that the possibility of a Labor Party government could try to appease Israel’s enemies.
In scripture there are at least 85 references to signs. A Google search will reveal how relevant they have always been, especially in light of what is happening in the Middle East and other current events. ~The Patriot Post
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