Biden’s social welfare bill estimated to raise taxes 30% on middle class, cut them for millionaires

From Washington Times.com (Nov. 12, 2021):

President Biden’s mammoth social welfare and climate change bill is poised to raise taxes on the middle class, while giving lucrative breaks for the superwealthy, according to a new study.

Nearly 30% of lower- and middle-class households would pay more in taxes starting next year if the bill were to become law, according to the study by the liberal-leaning Tax Policy Center, a project of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute. The report is an in-depth analysis of the tax increases that House Democrats want to see included in the multitrillion-dollar legislation.

It is one of several new analyses casting doubts on the ability of the planned tax hikes to meet Mr. Biden‘s goals of sparing the middle class and the superrich from dodging taxes.

Although Mr. Biden‘s tax increases start small, they grow massively by the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of millionaires would see tax cuts if the cap on the state and local deduction, or SALT, is raised from $10,000 to $80,000, the report found.

“Analyzing the House Democrats’ plan is especially complicated because the effective dates of its many tax provisions vary widely,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

Mr. Biden and House Democrats have proposed a wide array of new taxes, spanning from Wall Street to Main Street, to pay for the social welfare package. The proposals amount to one of the most extensive tax hikes in recent history.

The White House has sought to characterize the hikes as targeting only the superwealthy and corporations to the benefit of everyone else.

“We need to build America from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down with the trickle-down economics that’s always failed us,” Mr. Biden said. “All I’m asking is, pay your fair share.”

The Tax Policy Center’s study blows a hole in that narrative, however. It indicates that tax proposals championed by House Democrats break a key pledge Mr. Biden made on the 2020 campaign trail: not to raise taxes on households making below $400,000 annually.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Tax Policy Center’s report comes on the heels of another new analysis by the libertarian Cato Institute that warned the plethora of new taxes would complicate the tax code, making tax avoidance easier for the superwealthy.

“The Democrats want to increase IRS enforcement to reduce the tax gap, but their tax plan would increase tax code complexity resulting in the opposite,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at Cato. “Tax code complexity increases tax avoidance and evasion by making IRS administration more difficult and by prompting taxpayers to combine disparate provisions in unexpected ways.”

Further complicating matters are the hundreds of new tax credits, a variety of things such as health care and green energy, Democrats are planning to include in the bill. [read more]

Biden plan to hire 80K IRS agents will backfire, letting wealthy dodge taxes, expert warns

From Washington Times.com (Nov. 11, 2021):

President Biden’s proposed tax hikes and plan to hire more than 80,000 additional Internal Revenue Service agents could wind up helping the super-wealthy to avoid paying their fair share, according to a new analysis.

The new system of tax hikes and credits that Democrats are championing in the $1.75 trillion social welfare and climate bill would also complicate the tax code and make enforcement difficult, said a report Thursday from the libertarian Cato Institute.

The new complications, irrespective of beefed-up enforcement, do nothing to close the gap between taxes owed to the federal government and the amount actually paid, said Chris Edwards, the director of tax policy studies at Cato.

“The Democrats want to increase IRS enforcement to reduce the tax gap, but their tax plan would increase tax-code complexity resulting in the opposite,” he said. “Tax‐code complexity increases tax avoidance and evasion by making IRS administration more difficult and by prompting taxpayers to combine disparate provisions in unexpected ways.”

A bloated tax code and IRS bureaucracy only make it easier for the super-wealthy to pursue avenues for tax avoidance. A prime example is the wealthy using loopholes and deductions to lower their overall tax burden, he said.

Economists say that added enforcement does little to solve the problem. Instead, it only incentivizes the wealthy to pursue litigation, at significant cost to the taxpayer, until an appropriate settlement is reached. In most cases, the cost of the settlement and legal fees is still significantly smaller than the initial tax burden.

Further complicating tax enforcement is the hundreds of new tax credits and deductions Democrats are planning to include within Mr. Biden’s big bill. The list, which includes everything from healthcare to green energy tax credits, expands and muddles the tax code.

The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency tasked with analyzing legislation, said as much in a recent report.

“The complexity of the tax code makes compliance more challenging and increases areas of potential dispute with the IRS,” the CBO said. “Eligibility requirements for certain tax benefits can be confusing and make it more difficult for taxpayers to determine their tax liability.” [read more]

I wonder if the wealthy are Left-wing corporations or corporations that donate to the dems.

Work is Not a Result of the Fall

From Break Point.org (Oct. 27, 2021):

As the “Big Quit” happens across America, the Christian vision of work could be more relevant and impactful than ever. Which, as history attests, is saying quite a lot.

Physical labor was devalued in the ancient world. The exception, in classical Greece and the early days of the Roman Republic, was farming, which was considered the proper pursuit of citizens. All other labor was viewed as demeaning. In the later days of the Republic, as plantation agriculture replaced small farms, the work of farming was also seen as demeaning and relegated to slaves.

By the time of the Roman Empire, all physical labor was only thought proper for slaves and lower classes. Though the foundation of the empire’s wealth, the upper classes believed that production was beneath them. Their attention, or so they thought, belonged in the more “refined” areas of life, such as the arts and philosophy.

Of course, the biblical view of work is completely different. Scripture frames work as a good thing, an essential part of what it means to be human. Because God created us to work, at least in part, it’s inherently connected to our worship and dignity.

Put differently, work is not the result of the fall. It was, however, tainted by Adam’s sin. God’s created purposes for humanity, to fill and form His world through work, would now feature pain and frustration. Aspects of human work were twisted from dignity to drudgery. Human efforts to cultivate the earth, designed by God to be part of the joy of imaging Him, became sources of frustration, pain, sweat, and sorrow.

Because of the uniqueness of the Biblical framework, even the early Christians approached work with a very different view than their pagan neighbors did. They thought of work as good but marred by sin. So, for example, in monastic communities, monks were expected to do physical labor, if for no other reason than to grow their food. In his Rule for Monastic Life, St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) insisted that monks should work both to fulfill the biblical mandate that God gave Adam, and to encourage humility in a world that thought of work as demeaning.

Within a full understanding of the Biblical story, from Creation to New Creation, Christians came to understand the Gospel as Christ redeeming us of sin as well as all of its effects. In addition to forgiveness of sin and security of eternity, salvation also included the redemption of anything infected by sin. This included work, which led Christians to attempt to restore work away from “toil” and back to the kind of meaningful labor God intended.

So, in the middle ages, many monasteries became centers of technological innovation, focused on making work more significant. A prime example is the waterwheel. Although the Romans knew about waterwheels, they rarely made use of them. After all, why invest in an expensive machine when you have unlimited slave labor? The monks had a different view of human value and the value of work which inspired them to develop ways of using the waterwheel to mechanize production.

Initially, waterwheels were likely used for grinding grain. This required converting the vertical rotation of the wheel into horizontal rotation for the millstones, which the monks accomplished through a system of wooden gears and wheels. Later, the waterwheel was adapted for a wide range of other applications including powering bellows in forges, operating trip hammers in smithies, sawing lumber, and fulling cloth. [read more]

The DOJ Just Confirmed Authenticity of Ashley Biden’s Diary by Raiding Project Veritas and We Have Questions

From Conservative Playlist.com (Nov. 5, 2021):

There are a dozen questions that instantly come to mind when reading the report that Project Veritas employees, both current and former, had their homes raided and some belongings taken by the FBI this morning. They were reportedly seeking information about Ashley Biden’s diary. The daughter of Joe Biden appears to have spilled some pretty damning information about her father in it. More on that shortly.

First, the news report from Washington Times:

The founder of Project Veritas said Friday that the FBI raided the homes of its employees as part of what “appears” to be an investigation into whether the company stole a diary belonging to President Biden’s daughter.

James O’Keefe, CEO and founder of the activist group, said he “awoke to the news that apartments and homes of Project Veritas journalists, or former journalists, had been raided by FBI agents.”

“The FBI took materials of current, and former, Veritas journalists despite the fact that our legal team previously contacted the Department of Justice and voluntarily conveyed unassailable facts that demonstrate Project Veritas’ lack of involvement in criminal activity and/or criminal intent,” he said.

The Washington Times has asked the FBI for comment. According to Mr. O’Keefe, tipsters told Project Veritas last year that they had a copy of Ashley Biden’s diary that had “explosive allegations” against then-candidate Joe Biden.

Now, let’s look at the report from National File; Patrick Howley first published the diary a week before the 2020 election:

Entries in the diary include the author revealing she believes she was sexually molested as a child and shared “probably not appropriate” showers with her father, some that detail the author’s struggle with drug abuse and the author’s crumbling marriage with multiple affairs, along with entries showing the family’s fears of a potential scandal due to her brother’s new home, and those that show a deep resentment for her father due to his money, control, and emotional manipulation.

While the vast majority of the media ignored the bombshell revelations, perhaps dismissing their verifiability, The New York Times on Friday reported that the FBI had engaged in two raids on addresses as part of an investigation into how Ashley Biden’s diary was obtained.

We have questions.

The first question isn’t really a question but a statement. That diary is real. The FBI wouldn’t be raiding journalists’ homes and bringing on the scrutiny and bad optics that the move entails if the diary was fake. The NY Times seems to have verified it as well, so at this point it’s not even a question.

The second question is the big one. What do we make of the installed President of the United States taking shows with his young daughter? And what about her allegations of sexual abuse? Everyone knows that Joe Biden is the creepiest man in politics, especially when it comes to young children. Did he sexually abuse his own daughter? If Ashley Biden is to be believed (and #MeToo declares we MUST believe her), then our so-called “President” is a sick pedophile who took showers with his daughter.

The third question is rhetorical. Why isn’t mainstream media jumping on the bombshell accusation against Joe Biden from his own daughter? Imagine if it were Trump. He made front page news for months for far more mundane sexual exploits. For Biden, his protectors in mainstream media have not even mentioned the accusation. Their focus is on Project Veritas, their nemesis whose only crime is exposing the truth and revealing that mainstream media does NOT deal in truths.

The fourth question is also rhetorical. If the FBI is involved and they have in their hands a credible accusation of sexual abuse, will they act? Of course they will not. They’re targeting Project Veritas, which means they’re covering up for Biden. It’s his DoJ, so they won’t touch him. They’ll do everything in their power to protect him.

Last question: Why is the DoJ doing this now? Project Veritas is a big prize for them but this doesn’t seem like the type of story that could shut them down. Even if mainstream media covers it up, which they will, there will still be a whole lot more people who are aware of Ashley Biden’s accusations than before. Could this be an opening volley in a plot to get Biden to step down? I know, it’s a stretch, but I see no upside for the Biden regime going after the diary now since the contents were previously published and already forgotten by most.

There are few things more disgusting than a corrupt federal law enforcement system that is running cover for their boss. But one of those things that IS more disgusting is what Joe Biden is accused of doing. [source]

The Demented One smells young girls’ hair. Why not taking showers with his daughter. That’s pretty close to what a pedophile is.

Illegal immigrants get ‘pallets’ of scarce baby formula, GOP lawmaker says

From The Washington Times.com (May 12):

A Republican lawmaker on Thursday said illegal immigrants detained by Border Patrol have access to hard-to-find baby formula, while U.S. parents scramble from store to store.

A post on Twitter by Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida show a photo of empty store shelves in her state alongside a photo of pallets of baby formula that, she says, are at the Ursula Migrant Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.

Dozens of baby formula brands, including Nido and Advantage, can be seen in the photo. Ms. Cammack says the photo was shared with her by a Customs and Border Protection agent who worked in his job for 30 years.

“They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border. Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula,” Ms. Cammack wrote on Twitter.

She urged her constituents to call Democratic leaders and “demand that the administration take action putting the baby formula back on the shelves for American kids.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, and National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd issued a joint statement slamming the Biden administration over shelves full of baby formula at the detention center.

“Children are our most vulnerable, precious Texans and deserve to be put first,” the statement said. “Yet, President Biden has turned a blind eye to parents across America who are facing the nightmare of a nationwide baby formula shortage. While mothers and fathers stare at empty grocery store shelves in a panic, the Biden administration is happy to provide baby formula to illegal immigrants coming across our southern border.” [read more]

Not fair or right.

Saving the Rainforests Will Not Stop Global Warming: Here's Why

From American Thinker.com (Nov. 8, 2021):

Saving the rainforests will not stop global warming -- and here’s why

Apparently, at COP26, world leaders agreed to a deal to end deforestation of rainforests, ostensibly to stop global warming.

This deal relies on implicit arguments that are nonsensical.  What’s happening to the rainforests is a classic example of how the official narrative ignores logic and reality.

The deforestation of the world's remaining large-scale forested areas (mostly in under-developed poor countries with few exploitable natural resources) is a big issue for conservationists.  And they are right to be concerned.  The rainforests are an under-researched reservoir of biological diversity.

So any international agreement to protect rainforests has got to be worthwhile -- but only if the net effect is beneficial. 

But it's far from clear that the deal currently being touted at COP26 is actually a good thing at all, either for the countries involved or the planet's ecosystem, still less as a way of stopping global warming.  If it works the same way as other 'climate change' 'green' initiatives then all that will happen is that big corporations will receive massive government subsidies and/or lucrative contracts to stop what they are currently doing (cutting down rain-forests for logging and then planting palm-oil trees and/or soybeans) and instead do something else equally damaging but even more profitable.

An existing example of a ‘green’ initiative that fails to be ‘green’ is the industry currently cutting down entire forests in North America to produce raw wood chips which are then transported across vast distances to burn in electricity-generating plants.

But the enormous consumption of fossil fuels to power the entire process means it isn't 'green' at all.  It doesn’t benefit anyone other than the big corporations making huge profits from it, and also the politicians who curry favor by handing out the massive government subsidies paid for by hiking taxes.  In other words, it's a massive con-trick. [read more]

Pro-Choice Activists Know that Their Movement is Wrong

From Jessica Marie Baumgartner on America Thinker.com (Apr. 15):

I used to be pro-choice. That was before I had an abortion, experienced serious trauma, and then sat in on a veterinary abortion a few years later.

Most abortionists have been taught that the procedure is safe and helpful to women and, that if it’s not legal, women will die in back-alley abortions. Many claim that thousands of lives are saved every year thanks to legal abortion care. In truth, back-alley abortion deaths were rare before Roe v. Wade, and legalizing abortion didn’t prevent Dr. Kermit Gosnell from murdering living babies and endangering the lives of countless women until he was convicted and sentenced to serve three life sentences in prison.

It’s not enough for abortion to be legal in the first trimester any longer. Pro-abortion stances have gotten more and more extreme with each year. The lines are constantly being redrawn as younger and younger women are taught that if they cannot kill a viable baby that would live outside of the womb -- even up until the day it’s born -- that they are somehow oppressed. Anyone who questions this religion of political extremism is considered an enemy. If you’re a woman, you’re a traitor. Worst of all, abortion-celebrating liberals everywhere will scream out the false accusation that “Pro-lifers only care about babies until they are born!”

…………..

A few years after my abortion, I was working as a veterinary assistant. I’ve always loved animals. They have always been there for me even when people weren’t. It was a hard job, but rewarding. Then one day a cat owner brought in their pet to be spayed. When it was time I found that she was so clearly pregnant that I notified my boss, the vet who owned the clinic. He shrugged it off and said, “They wanted a spay. They’re paying for a spay.”

Another female co-worker and I stood by as the veterinarian surgically removed nearly fully developed kittens from their mother. They were moving and gasping for air, struggling to live. Their hearts were beating. Both of us sat and held the kittens during their short lives. We couldn’t just discard these little creatures. The biggest lived the longest. He made it nine minutes before he died in the warmth of my co-worker’s hands.

She and I cried together. We mourned their deaths and then I carried the mother to a recovery cage. I watched her, remembering how the loss of my baby, and the abortion I allowed, harmed me.

When she awoke this cat screamed. She didn’t moan or yowl like the others after surgery. She cried out in terror. She felt around her belly and searched for her kittens inside her. I sat with her, rubbing her and trying to coax her, but she was inconsolable. She had been robbed of her babies and she knew it.

I draw parallels here because it reminds me of Ron Paul’s account of why, as a doctor, he opposes abortion. These reasons are not malicious. No one is out to get women, usurp their rights, or “govern their bodies.” [read more]

If the animal would have been a dog (or any other mammal for that matter) it would have known its babies were taken. I wonder if the cat is now distrustful of people now because of the trauma. It could even be scared of people now.

Your eyes saw my embryo; and in Your book all my members were written the days they were formed, and not one was yet among them. - Psalm 139:16.

I knew you before I formed you in the belly; and before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5.

More articles on the abortion movement:

• The one question no one ever directly asks abortion activists
• Answering Abortion Assertions: Embryos Aren’t People
• Painful letter details the horrors of abortion and why this listener can no longer remain silent
• Pro-abortion zealots plan to hit Catholic Masses today
• Godless Pro-Abortion Group Announces Latest Assault on Christians: “We Will Be Burning the Eucharist to Show Our Disgust”
• The Roe Demonstrators: Where Did They Get That Idea?
• Wisconsin pro-life group’s office hit with Molotov cocktail, abortion-rights graffiti
• Protesters March to Homes of Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts
• U.S. Marshals ordered to protect Supreme Court justices amid rising protests
• Schumer Laughs About Protests at SCOTUS Justices' Homes as Justice Alito Goes Into Hiding
• ‘Abolish The Supreme Court’ Chanted By Pro-Abortion Protesters
• Roe v. Wade and deadly leftist illogic
• How Population Control Theory Led to Abortion
• Pro-Life Person Causes a Leftist Meltdown After What He Yells at Them in NYC
• End Roe v. Wade: It's Time to Defederalize Abortion Policy
• U.S. in league with China, North Korea on abortion
• Tucker: This is about attacking Christianity [video]

There’s No Such Thing as Values-Free Education

From BreakPoint.org (Oct. 19, 2021):

Stripping morals from education—or, more accurately, attempting to strip morals from education—is a dangerous idea with dangerous consequences. Chuck Colson repeatedly highlighted this, especially in light of the financial scandals of the late 1980s and early 2000s. He spoke often of “a crisis of character” and the “inescapable consequence of neglecting moral training.”

This is also the central focus of the essay “Men Without Chests,” the opening essay in one of C.S. Lewis’s most important books, The Abolition of Man. Lewis clearly saw that years of attempts to de-moralize education would not give us a world without vice, but a world without virtue. And, he closed, we would wonder how it could ever have happened in our enlightened age:

In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.

Fast forward a few decades and here we are. When communism-loving and Critical-Race-Theory-advancing teachers work to indoctrinate children (even while denying it), they are simply stepping into a vacuum left long ago by those trying to make education amoral. They may be wrong to promote those particular values and moral framework, but they’re right that education as inescapably an act of moral formation.

T.S. Elliot reflected on this years ago in an essay about the purpose of education:

If we see a new and mysterious machine, I think that the first question we ask is, ‘What is that machine for?’ … If we define education, we are led to ask, ‘What is Man?’ and if we define the purpose of education, we are committed to the question, ‘What is Man for?’ Every definition of the purpose of education, therefore, implies some concealed, or rather implicit philosophy or theology.

Assuming that kids go to school only to acquire data is to assume that kids are mere computers made of flesh. With all due respect to this very concerned mother and Winnie the Pooh, education is about more than how to make “Twy-stymes” and “ABCs,” or knowing where Brazil is. Here’s how Neil Postman put it:

Modern secular education is failing not because it doesn’t teach who Ginger Rogers, Norman Mailer and a thousand other people are but because it has no moral, social, or intellectual center. The curriculum is not, in fact, a “course of study” at all but a meaningless hodgepodge of subjects. It does not even put forward a clear vision of what constitutes an educated person, unless it is a person who possesses “skills.”  In other words, a person with no commitment and no point of view but with plenty of marketable skills.

So, to summarize: Elliot taught us that a values-free education is impossible. Lewis predicted that the attempt at a values-free education would produce people not able to make moral decisions. Postman pointed out that education needs a moral center, or it’s not an education at all. Educating for “skill acquisition” doesn’t actually prepare students for life. And now, into the morals void, sundried progressive causes are promoting the ideologies that gave fascism to the world, in the name of being anti-fascists. We should’ve seen it coming. [read more]

Instead of “Retaking” K-12 Education, Let’s Remake It

From Rob Jenkins on Town Hall.com (Nov. 7, 2021):

It’s true, as the late, great Andrew Breitbart famously said, that “politics is downstream of culture.” But both are downstream of education. Nothing is more important to our families—or the future of our country.

In that regard, Republican Glen Younkin’s recent gubernatorial victory in Virginia, fueled in part by fed-up parents, was heartening. But does it signal that the tide has turned?

Not to downplay that happy outcome or the role brave parents played in it, but sadly, I think not. I still believe, as I wrote recently, that the “public” schools are lost to us. Which leaves parents to continue asking the same question they’ve been asking for nearly two years: “What can we do?”

There is no easy answer. Attempts to work within the system mostly aren’t succeeding, the occasional victory notwithstanding. School boards across the country grow increasingly more intransigent, digging in their heels and doubling down on mask mandates, Critical Race Theory, and LGBTQ+ propaganda.

No amount of pushback from parents, in the form of emails or newspaper editorials or impassioned speeches at board meetings, appears to have much effect. The education establishment is simply indifferent to parents’ concerns. They’re certain they know better, and that’s that.

Elections might make a temporary difference, but long-term, I believe conservative, Christian parents—indeed, all rational parents—must accept that “public schools” no longer serve the public. Instead, they have truly become “government schools,” promoting the ruling caste’s priorities over those of parents and students.

So what can families do?

Charter schools are a viable alternative, where they exist. But they are difficult to get off the ground, often facing stiff opposition from within. And because they are publicly funded, they must follow many of the same policies as other public institutions. Fundamentally, charter schools are still government schools.

Traditional private schools—long the refuge of dissatisfied parents—are beyond the means of most families, especially those with multiple children, even in states with some sort of voucher program. In addition, many private schools today suffer from the same ills that plague government schools. They, too, have become leftwing indoctrination centers and bastions of “safetyism.”

Homeschooling works well for many families but by no means all. When both parents must work full-time, teaching children at home is simply not feasible. Many parents also have legitimate concerns about homeschooled children missing out on important social opportunities and extracurricular activities. Variations on the concept, such as homeschool academies or co-ops, can help alleviate some of those problems, but again—not for everyone.

Classical academies, combining private education with homeschooling, offer some promise. However, they also combine the necessity of paying tuition with the requirement that at least one parent be home two or three days a week. Once again, not every family can do that.

I don’t mean to disparage any of these models. All have their advantages, and one of them might be the best fit for you and your family. But clearly, even taken together, they are insufficient to address the situation, because many parents who would like to get their kids out of the government schools still feel trapped there.

For those desperate parents, I would like to propose another alternative. I actually think it’s the best option, combining the strengths of all the others—including those good, strong public schools many of us grew up in.

My idea, which I first outlined a few months ago, involves churches—many of which have large, often under-utilized facilities—partnering with other community organizations to create non-government schools that offer a high-quality education and are open to all, regardless of beliefs or ability to pay. These schools will be built on three main pillars: affordability, excellence, and accessibility.

Affordability means the cost of attending will be subsidized as needed, financed by donations, fund-raisers, and capital campaigns. Tuition will be as low as possible to begin with so that vouchers (where they exist) will cover most of the cost for students who qualify. [read more]

13 moderate House Republicans save Biden’s infrastructure bill after far-left Democrats rebel

From Washington Times.com (Nov. 5, 2021):

A cadre of moderate House Republicans saved President Biden’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal from defeat on Friday after far-left Democrats rebelled against the legislation.

13 House Republicans, including never-Trump acolytes like Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, joined with 215 Democrats to narrowly pass the bill. Given the narrow margin that Democrats control the House, Mr. Biden could only afford three defections.

Joining Mr. Kinzinger in backing the bill were GOP Reps. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and Fred Upton of Michigan, who are known for their criticism of former President Donald Trump. Mr. Gonzalez, who voted to impeach Mr. Trump earlier this year, is not seeking reelection.

Among the GOP defectors were also several centrist-leaning lawmakers representing marginal districts: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Don Bacon of Nebraska, John Katko of New York and Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey. This included several blue-state Republicans like Reps. Chris Smith of New Jersey and Nicole Malliatokis, Tom Reed and Andrew Garbarino of New York.

The two biggest outliers among defectors were Reps. David McKinley of West Virginia and Don Young of Alaska. Both lawmakers represent districts that are heavily Republican.

“Tonight, instead of playing politics, I put America and West Virginia first,” said Mr. McKinley. “America’s infrastructure has been in dire need of modernization and this bipartisan infrastructure bill is what … West Virginia needs to restore our aging infrastructure.”

A group of six Democrats opposed the legislation. They were all members of the far-left “Squad,” namely Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and additions to the group: Cori Bush of Missouri and Jamaal Bowman of New York.

They argued that for months there was an agreement to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure package and Mr. Biden’s larger social welfare and climate change bill, known as the Build Back Better Act. [read more]

Not surprising that the mods would do this. They are intimidated by the Left. I thought the Obama regime had already fixed the America’s infrastructure. Hmmm.

More on this boondoggle of a bill:

• Biden, Dem’s infrastructure bill to mandate anti-drunk driving tech in cars
• Biden’s Infrastructure Bill Includes Mandatory Kill Switch For All Vehicles

The Biden Administration Is Openly Pursuing A Policy Of Escalation In Ukraine

From The Federalist.com (Apr. 26):

What are we to make of a comment Monday from Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that the Biden administration’s goal in Ukraine is “to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine”?

Austin made the remark in a press conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken after the pair met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, in what was the highest level visit by U.S. officials since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

One obvious conclusion we can draw from Austin’s comment is that the Biden administration has now committed openly to a policy of escalation in Ukraine. The White House intends to keep the war in Ukraine alive, with the stated goal of weakening Moscow by continuing to pour new and more advanced weaponry into the war-ravaged country.

Indeed, Austin and Blinken announced a new round of military aid to Ukraine, bringing the total amount of U.S. assistance to about $3.7 billion since the invasion began. After resisting pressure early in the conflict to supply Ukraine with advanced weapons systems, the Biden administration has changed course. It is now preparing to send heavy artillery, helicopters, armored personnel carriers, antiaircraft radar systems, advanced attack drones and other weapons.

Austin told members of the press that the Defense Department won’t just send weapons, but “will expand military training for Ukrainian service members in the region on certain weapons systems being provided.”

Delivering all this aid is of course itself an escalation of U.S. involvement in the war. A Wall Street Journal report about the meeting in Kyiv included this detail, buried near the end of the story: “Senior U.S. military officers at a facility in Poland described an accelerating logistical network for supplying weapons and materiel to Ukraine, as well as a regional effort to increase troop levels and exercises with NATO members along the alliance’s eastern flank.

“Seven 155-mm artillery pieces, along with their tow vehicles, are being processed through the facility, adding to the 18 howitzers the U.S. has already provided to Ukraine, a senior defense official said. Six dozen U.S. howitzers are being sent to Ukraine under a new aid package, and rounds of 155-mm artillery were visible on pallets at the Polish facility.” [read more]

Tucker Carlson might be right about the Demented One, his regime, and the Left. They might want war with Putin just to overthrow him. Like that works out really well. You might have someone worse than him.

DHS created ‘disinformation governance’ team to track election misinformation

From Washington Times.com (Apr. 28):

The Department of Homeland Security has created a “disinformation” board led by a woman who has criticized First Amendment rights and dismissed troubling reports of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a “Trump campaign” ploy.

Nina Jankowicz has been on the job for a couple of months, but Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas only revealed the disinformation board’s existence this week in testimony to Congress, when prodded about what his department is doing to help minority communities combat election disinformation.

“The goal is to bring the resources of the department together to address this threat,” Mr. Mayorkas told lawmakers.

Homeland Security described the board’s expansive duties, saying it will combat the wide swath of disinformation. In the immediate term, its focus will be on disinformation surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the messaging smuggling groups are peddling to would-be illegal immigrants, the department said.

But the broad scope of its purview and the appointment of Ms. Jankowicz as its lead have raised questions about the board.

Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, called the board a “speech police.”

Lora Ries, a former Homeland Security deputy chief of staff and director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, called the board “an overtly political ploy” to try to chase opposing viewpoints from the political debate ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

“The left can no longer use COVID restrictions or now, seemingly Twitter, to mislabel and hide legitimate information American voters should have in casting their ballots. Instead, they are standing up this board to declare what the left believes is mis- or dis-information,” Ms. Ries said.

She also said policing disinformation “is not remotely the mission of the Department of Homeland Security.” [read more]

Boys and girls can you say Ministry of Truth? Dumb idea. This is from the regime who’s president lies about his past. Then you have the fake Russiagate. Then again this is from the party who believes voters are sheep and they are the shepherd who knows better than the sheep what’s good for them.

More on the Ministry of Truth saga:

• Meet Biden’s Ministry of Truth Disinformation Chief
• Biden Disinformation Czar Spread Trump-Russia Collusion Claims
• Biden's Ministry of Truth
• Which useful idiot thought such a clearly partisan hack should be Biden’s ‘disinformation czar’?
• Hunter Biden To Receive $50K Per Month Salary For Seat On Disinformation Governance Board
• Government Disinformation Board Determines All Criticism Of Government Disinformation Board To Be Disinformation
• DeSantis: Biden Installing an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth' to Feed Hoaxes, Silence Critics
• The Ministry of Truth Is Where the Rubber Meets the Road
• ‘Ministry of Truth’ Reveals Ruling Class Weakness
• A Government Disinformation Board? You Don’t say!
• DHS Secretary Mayorkas says the Disinformation Governance Board won't monitor US citizens
• ‘Right To Be Concerned’: Trump-Era ‘Right To Be Concerned’: Trump-Era DHS Leaders Sound The Alarm Over Biden’s Disinformation Board
• Republicans announce bill to shut down DHS ‘disinformation’ unit
• Democrats BLOCK Republican Attempt to Defund the Orwellian Ministry of Truth Department with Trashy Lounge Singer Nina Jankowicz as Director
  
• The Biden administration re-defined disinformation, sanitized the term of its KGB roots, and expanded the definition by applying the label to Americans.

Atheism, the Bible, and doubt

From Robert Arvay on American Thinker.com (Oct. 13, 2021):

I am not an atheist, nor even an agnostic.  Keep that in mind, because I am not saying the Bible promotes atheism.  Quite the opposite, of course — but there is a passage in the Bible that helps us Jews and Christians to understand why some people are atheist/agnostic and why we cannot persuade them otherwise.  The reason may humble us.

From 1 Corinthians 2:14 (King James Version):

[T]he natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This passage rebukes atheism, but it also reveals to us the central difference between those of us who believe in God and those who do not.  We are given no reason to hold ourselves above atheists, for we are not the authors of our own faith.  We are, instead, the recipients of a free gift, having done nothing to earn it.

There may seem to be, at first, every reason to reject spiritual faith in God and to accept a purely material (i.e., natural) explanation of reality.  Indeed, many a believer in God experiences doubt when confronted by the vast array of influences from physical science.  Only when we further investigate the core of materialist science do we find at its center emptiness and futility.

Bear in mind that this is not a condemnation of science, but rather a rejection of the unscientific philosophy that underpins the beliefs of many modern scientists.  That philosophy avers that the only explanation for physical reality is...well, physical reality.

That circular philosophy makes no mention of right or wrong, of good or evil, or of the inherent worth of humankind.  It leaves no room for our spiritual nature.  Indeed, it is at a loss to explain the most obvious scientific evidence of our nonphysical nature, our consciousness, which is the only observed phenomenon that observes itself.  Finally, in rejecting the independent agency of the human soul — that is, free will — physical science abandons all notions of personal accountability.  

Such a philosophy offers nothing useful.

As for accountability, the atheist cannot say the devil made me do it; he says instead that nature made him do it.  Indeed, according to him, everything you think, do, and say is forced upon you by the unknowing, uncaring, and blind forces of nature.  In that paradigm, nothing is ever anyone's fault, nor is there any virtue in doing right.

The atheist says there is no purpose in our existence unless we imagine one, but that sort of imagination is not purpose; it is illusion.

The atheist demands proof and, finding none, rejects God.  In Acts 26:28, the Bible gives an example of the futility of trying to prove God by physical means: "Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You almost persuade me to become a Christian.'"

Almost, but not quite.

While one cannot proceed by logical steps from atheism to faith in God, one can, instead, if beginning with faith, explain the place of physical science in the spiritual life of man.

As Bishop Fulton J Sheen wrote:

The great arcana of Divine Mysteries cannot be known by reason, but only by Revelation.  Reason can however, once in possession of these truths, offer persuasions to show that they are not only not contrary to reason, or destructive of nature, but eminently suited to a scientific temper of mind and the perfection of all that is best in human nature.

We cannot, then, persuade the atheist.  Only God can do that.  What we can do, however, is to stand fast in our faith and not let it be taken from us, neither by force nor by guile. [source]

Lucrative tax break for organized labor would cost taxpayers nearly $1.8 billion

From Washington Times.com (Nov. 4, 2021):

President Biden’s push to reward one of his biggest allies, organized labor, with a lucrative tax break will cost taxpayers nearly $1.8 billion over the next decade, according to a new analysis.

The Joint Committee on Taxation released an in-depth analysis of the tax proposals included within Mr. Biden’s 10-year, multi-trillion-dollar social welfare bill on Thursday. It found that allowing union members to write off some of their dues payments on their tax filings would wind up depriving the federal coffers of approximately $1.8 billion over the next decade, or $180 million a year.

As currently written, the provision would allow members of a labor organization to deduct $250 in union dues off their annual tax returns.

The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, a pro-business group that represents more than 600 major private sector organizations, says the tax break amounts to an improper political payoff.

“Requiring taxpayers to subsidize union dues as part of the Democratic budget plan favors unions and their political allies over workers and small businesses,” said Kristen Swearingen, the chair of the coalition. “Congress should focus on policies that support all working Americans, including those that increase individual deductions related to job training, rather than pushing tax breaks for unions that support and fund Democratic politicians and causes.”

Democrats contend that the incentive is meant to reward workers, rather than union bosses.

The deduction comes at a time that union membership is on the decline nationally. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union enrollment dropped by more than half between 1983 and 2019, falling from 20.1% to 10.3%.

Mr. Biden, who allied himself strongly with organized labor while running for the White House last year, has promised to arrest the overall union decline. Since taking office, the president has appointed several former union leaders to high-ranking administration posts. The White House has also championed a staunch union agenda, including pushing for the  “Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act” now in Congress. [read more]

Another Dem payoff.

More labor union articles:

• Labor unions see rewards in Biden executive order on construction projects
• Democrats’ Big Labor Agenda
• Teachers unions worked with CDC to keep schools closed for COVID, GOP report says

Biden bill on social welfare, climate change estimated to kill 103K jobs, raise taxes on 80% of U.S.

From Washington Times.com (Nov. 2, 2021):

An analysis by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, estimates that President Biden’s $1.75 trillion expansion of the federal safety net could kill more than 103,000 jobs over the next decade and add $750 billion to the federal deficit.

The estimate is based on a thorough analysis of the White House’s spending “framework” and the corresponding 1,684-page bill text released by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. Experts from the Tax Foundation say the proposal would fall far short of White House promises.

“We estimate that the House bill would reduce long-run economic output by nearly 0.4% and eliminate about 103,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the United States,” the experts wrote. “It would also reduce average after-tax incomes for the top 80 percent of taxpayers over the long run.”

The analysis differs strongly from the rosy picture President Biden painted when he announced the deal last week.

“It’s a framework that will create millions of jobs, grow the economy, invest in our nation and our people, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path not only to compete but to win the economic competition for the 21st century against China and every other major country in the world,” Mr. Biden said.

Administration officials say all of the spending programs proposed by the framework are fully funded. The White House estimates that the tax hikes included in the package would generate more than $1.995 trillion in revenue over the next 10 years. [read more]

What’s All The Buzz About Quercetin?

From Brian C. Joondeph, M.D. on American Thinker.com (Nov. 2, 2021):

Quercetin has been in the news lately, particularly as one of many potential therapeutics that might have some benefit in the prevention or treatment of COVID infection. Is there anything to this?

Big media and the medical establishment are quick to pounce on any “unapproved” potential therapeutics that haven’t gone through large prospective randomized clinical trials and don’t have the seal of FDA approval. Even FDA approval is not enough if the medications are being used off-label, as in the case of hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.  Decades ago, both were deemed safe and effective by the FDA and approved for human use, although not for COVID or similar viral infections as COVID didn’t even exist when the FDA approved these medications.

Today there is a peculiar hostility toward these medications, both of which are on the list of the World Health Organization’s essential medicines. A Fox News host told viewers that hydroxychloroquine “will kill you” and the FDA told its Twitter followers that ivermectin is for horses and cows and to stop using it. This must have been shocking news to millions around the world who take these medications, some for many years, in the U.S. prescribed by a physician, and elsewhere in the world readily available over the counter.

I am not advocating for or against these drugs, instead referring interested readers to other sources of information on the science and potential benefits of these medications in our fight against COVID. Quercetin appears to be the third in this line of potential therapeutics, not yet being called horse paste but, if history is a guide, it may soon be maligned as dog and cat medicine, something that can also be said for many drugs taken by humans but also used in animals.

What is quercetin? It’s described as “a pigment” which may lead CNN or Fox News to equate its use to drinking paint. Technically it is a flavonoid, “a group of plant metabolites thought to provide health benefits through cell signaling pathways and antioxidant effects. These molecules are found in a variety of fruits and vegetables.”

These compounds have several health benefits including reducing the risk of heart disease, cancer, and degenerative brain disorders through anti-inflammatory effects as a free radical scavenger. While present in fruits, vegetables, and green tea, it is also available as a non-prescription supplement in capsule or powder form.

Quercetin, like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, is a zinc ionophore, facilitating the entry of zinc into cells where it interferes with viral replication, potentially suppressing COVID infection.

Could quercetin be of benefit against COVID, or for that matter, the common cold or the flu? As are always told to “follow the science”, what does science say?

A 2012 paper published in Antiviral Research found that quercetin inhibits rhinovirus (common cold) replication both in vitro and in vivo, meaning in the laboratory and in humans. Another 2016 paper in Viruses noted that quercetin inhibited influenza A (seasonal flu) virus entry into cells. Is quercetin a cure or panacea? Certainly not as we have no cure for these viral infections. But following the science leads to the conclusion that it helps. But what about for COVID?

Following the science, rather than the FDA Twitter feed, suggests that quercetin may be of benefit in COVID. A 2021 paper in the International Journal of General Medicine, a prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial of 152 early-stage COVID patients, the type of study always demanded by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the medical smart set, concluded, “Quercetin is a safe agent and in combination with standard care, when used in the early stage of viral infection, could aid in improving the early symptoms and help in preventing the severity of COVID-19 disease.”

The same group published in the same journal, also in 2021, a smaller similarly designed clinical study concluding, “Quercetin statistically shortens the timing of molecular test conversion from positive to negative, reducing at the same time symptoms severity and negative predictors of COVID-19.” [read more]

Experimental Breathalyzer Test for COVID-19 Accurate: Study

From News Max.com (Nov. 1, 2021):

An experimental Breathalyzer-type test can detect COVID-19 within seconds and could become a noninvasive, faster alternative to nasal swab tests, researchers report.

COVID-19 infection produces a distinct breath print from the interaction of oxygen, nitric oxide and ammonia in the body, the investigators said. An initial study of the breath test found that it accurately identified COVID-19 infections in almost 9 of 10 critically ill patients with the disease.

The test can detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath within 15 seconds, according to the team that developed it. They've applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of the new technology.

Their study included 46 intensive care patients with acute respiratory failure who required mechanical ventilation. All of the patients had a PCR COVID-19 (nasal swab) test when they were admitted to the ICU, and half were found to have COVID-19.

The researchers collected exhaled breath bags from all of the patients on day 1, 3, 7 and 10 of their hospitalization, and used the new breath test on the samples within four hours after collection.

The test was 88% accurate in detecting the breath print of COVID-19, according to the study published Oct. 28 in the journal PLOS ONE.

"The gold standard for diagnosis of COVID-19 is a PCR test that requires an uncomfortable nasal swab and time in a lab to process the sample and obtain the results," said lead researcher Dr. Matthew Exline, director of critical care at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

"This novel [Breathalyzer-type] technology uses nanosensors to identify and measure specific biomarkers in the breath," said test co-developer Pelagia-Irene Gouma, a professor in Ohio State's Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. [read more]

Why Christianity is Here to Stay

From Anthony J. DeBlasi on American Thinker.com (Oct. 10, 2021):

Daily we sense the attacks multiplying of those who want to destroy the very basis of society: the natural family, respect for human life, love of country, freedom of education and business. We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny. − Archbishop Viganò (2021)

I grew up Roman Catholic, immersed from baptism to confirmation in the beauty of its music, art, traditions and, most of all, its wisdom. (Time frame: first half of the 20th century.) The Catholic vessel of the original Christian faith is more than beautiful; it holds, I must say, its animating substance and spirit. In a 21st century terribly messed up by morally defective elites, there is no cause for Christians to be fighting one another instead of God-dismissing “liberals” who, suffering from globalist fever, have given up on humanity. It is urgently in fact a time to “unite the clans,” as the editor of The Remnant points out.

In simple terms, Christianity is a faith that keeps earth and heaven connected, calls each human to be and act in consonance with that union, yet lords over no one. Detractors and enemies of the Faith point to ugly history in its administration. Let them review their own history. Were it not for the founding of an apostolic Church by Christ Himself, there would be no Christian faith today, a fact that rides over all protest.

Unlike my oldest brother, who became “wise in his own mind” in youth (and woke up later), I never lost my connection with God, it was not simply a feeling but a non-intellectual form of knowledge of reality, something I believe everyone is born with. How better to begin to understand this than to notice that none of us actually had anything to do with our being on earth in the first place, a fact stretching back through all generations before to ours.

It’s been clear to me since early adulthood that theology never really “explains” the Faith. It is in fact a possible way to distort the Faith so as to make Christianity follow the times instead of leading them. In any such deviant “mission,” falsified Christianity amends Gospel truth that “interferes” with desired agendas, calling the amendments to holy scripture “progress” and compounding this subversion of truth in temporal courts of justice. A prime example of such Orwellian “justice” is how the Constitution was made to “live” by letting it die.

This is systemic insensitivity and blindness to the reality that “change” and “progress” that harm people have no business in human affairs. Change and progress that in fact benefit people must be in harmony with the unchanging nature of being human, a nature that connects the biologic and cultural aspects of people with former and future humans and, ultimately, with human origins and destinations. These transgenerational ties are not valid subjects of private opinion or corporate tampering. Yet some (many in government), lacking such basic insight and believing the lie that morality is a “private matter,” aid and abet sociopaths and wannabe tyrants.

Living a full life in an uncertain world, for which the religion of Christ is especially well suited, involves much more than having fun on a ticket provided by God or sold by those who think they are God. It is a job calling each man, woman, girl, and boy to flower into one’s best self, based on a unique design from the Mind of the Creator. [read more]

BREAKING: Biden DOJ Files an Appeal on Mask Mandate Ruling – Wants to Ensure Masks on Trains and Planes Will Continue

From The Gateway Pundit.com (April 20):

The Biden Administration is appealing the mask mandates – wants masks on planes and trains.

On Monday a US Federal Judge in Florida ended the insane mask mandates on planes and trains.  All of America cheered the news.

Yesterday (Tuesday) the Biden gang said that they would appeal the decision based on the CDC’s decision on the masks.  If the CDC decides to mandate the masks, the Biden gang will appeal.

Last night it was reported that the CDC was likely to appeal the ruling and petition to keep the mandate.

Tonight it was confirmed.  The Biden Administration wants Americans to continue wearing surgical masks on planes and trains and will appeal the judge’s ruling.

The Justice Department has filed an appeal that seeks to reverse a judge’s recent ruling that ended the nation’s mask mandate on public transit. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had asked the department to appeal the decision, issuing a statement Wednesday that said the mandate “remains necessary for the public health.”

“CDC continues to recommend that people wear masks in all indoor public transportation settings,” the CDC’s statement continued. “CDC’s number one priority is protecting the public health of our nation. As we have said before, wearing masks is most beneficial in crowded or poorly ventilated locations, such as the transportation corridor.”

The corrupt and anti-American Biden gang is going after more tyranny.  They want masks in place.  They don’t work and never have prevented anyone from getting COVID.  This is not based on science. [read more]

I agree. The Biden regime want mask wearing to go on forever if they have it their way. Just like all Leftists, they’re control freaks.

More articles about mask mania:

• 7-Foot Robot at Dallas Love Field Airport Watches for Unmasked Travelers, Will Notify Law Enforcement of Potential Crimes (VIDEO)
• If Masks Work, Wear One -- and If They Don’t, Why Mandate Them?
• Anthony Fauci Seems To Think The CDC Outranks Our Courts
• Biden Administration Should Lose Its Mask Mandate Appeal
• Maskaholics
• Biden Administration Looks To Reimplement Mask Mandates In Bid To Drive Approval Rating Even Lower
• Flight Attendants Thankful As They Can Now Identify Problem Customers More Quickly
• 'Noooo, My Source Of Poweeeeeer!!!' Cries Disintegrating Fauci As Mask Mandates Lifted
• The White House's Swift Surrender on Federal Mask Order Underscores the Tricky Politics of Mask Mandates
• Why the Feds Are Clinging to Their Mask Mandate
• The Mask Nazis Are Down, But Not Out. Here Are Three Ways To Defeat Them For Good
• The CDC’s Mask Mandate is Dead and Won’t Be Back; Here’s Why

Florida Legislature sends Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis bill ending Disney’s self-governance

From Washing Times.com (April 21):

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Florida House passed legislation Thursday that would end Disney’s special taxing district, clearing the measure for Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who proposed an end to the perk after the theme park giant denounced him over a sex education bill.

The House swiftly passed the measure in a party-line vote, skipping a formal debate after Democrats refused to stop loudly protesting in the chamber over an unrelated measure to redraw the state’s congressional map.

The Senate passed the Disney measure on Tuesday in a vote that was also divided along party lines. Mr. DeSantis has not indicated when he’ll sign it.

The measure specifically targets Disney’s unique Reedy Creek Improvement District, which the state approved in 1967 at the behest of Walt Disney, who sought independence from state and local governance in order to build and expand his theme park empire in Central Florida.

The measure would not take effect until 2023 and the Legislature could vote to reconstitute the special district in the future.

The bill would end Disney’s special autonomy and authority over the 39 square miles in Orange and Osceola counties that include the Disney theme parks and resorts as well as the Downtown Disney shopping area and surrounding hotels.

Disney would be subjected to the two counties’ planning and zoning laws, as well as building inspection.

The park would also be required to pay new fees and taxes it is exempted from paying when it expands or builds on the property thanks to its status as an improvement district.

Republicans said the measure would subject the corporate giant to the same laws, regulations and taxes as other businesses in the state. [read more]

Good! If Disney (and other corporations for that matter) want to be woke then they should not be exempted from taxation. Actually, I am against corporate welfare—they should have been paying some kind of tax all along.

It’s kind of funny that Dems in the state capital complained about Disney being taxed. What happened to tax the rich? Oh, wait. That’s only for corporations that  donate to the Republicans or that haven’t gone woke.

More articles on the matter: 

• Disney's Corporate Welfare Is Modern Mercantilism
• Disney claims Florida can’t revoke self-governance without paying off debts
• Disney's Special District Is Not a "City-State" or "Private City"
  

Tennessee Republicans Remove President Trump’s House Pick Ortagus as well as Robby Starbuck from State’s Primary Ballot

From The Gateway Pundit.com (April 20):

It looks like the good ole boys in Tennessee don’t want outsiders taking their cake.  The state passed a law that prevents outsiders from running for a US House if they haven’t lived in the state for three years.

Tennessee Republicans changed the law which prevented President Trump’s pic for the House in the state from qualifying for office.

A Trump-backed congressional candidate in Tennessee’s primary race was booted from the ballot after the local GOP voted to remove her because she had only just moved to the state.

Morgan Ortagus served as the State Department Spokesperson under former President Donald Trump and is currently a Navy Reserves officer. She was running to represent the district that encompasses Nashville, but is now unlikely to be able to continue her effort.

Trump had endorsed Ortagus in her bid to represent Tennessee’s 5th congressional district.

‘President Donald Trump believes I’m the best person to fight for his America First agenda and Middle Tennessee in Congress, and I’m working hard to ensure that my fellow Tennesseans, including TNGOP SEC members, understand why,’ Ortagus said in a statement on the decision to remove her.

‘As I have said all along, I believe that voters in Middle Tennessee should pick their representative — not establishment party insiders,’ she continued. ‘Our team is evaluating the options before us.’

The vote came after the GOP-controlled state legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill that requires congressional candidates to live in Tennessee for three years to qualify to run on primary ballots.

Republican Governor Bill Lee allowed the bill to become law after failing to sign it in the 10-day period.

Had the law taken effect before the April 7 filing deadline, it would have disqualified Ortagus from even filing on the primary ballot, but a spokesperson for Tennessee’s secretary of state’s office said it would not apply retroactively, according to the Associated Press…

…Two other candidates, Robby Starbuck and Baxter Lee, were also taken off the ballot.

USA Today confirmed that Ortegus was taken off the ballot.

The Tennessee Republican Party on Tuesday voted to remove three congressional hopefuls from the primary ballot in the new-look 5th Congressional District, including a Trump-backed candidate whose campaign riled some political insiders in the state.

Morgan Ortagus, Baxter Lee and Robby Starbuck were voted off the primary ballot by the party’s executive committee, Tennessee Republican Chairman Scott Golden confirmed Tuesday.

The RINOs in the Republican Party will do anything they can to keep their power.  Like the Democrats, they will do anything, including changing rules that fit their agenda or ignoring election laws, like many states with Republican legislatures did in the 2020 Election with President Trump.

We saw similar actions as these across the country in states led by Republicans.  The leadership of the party is like Mitch McConnell – old, cunning and power-hungry.   McConnell and many of these state legislatures forgot that they work for the people. [source]

The Establishment strikes again! All because Ortagus is a Trump republican. Like the article says, she is an outsider.

Navy must speed up shipbuilding, modernization to keep pace with China, Russia at sea, analysts say

From Washington Times.com (Oct. 30, 2021):

China and Russia have dramatically accelerated their naval shipbuilding and modernization programs in recent years while the U.S. has struggled to improve its capacity for war-fighting missions and been tagged with a poor readiness rating from national security analysts.

The Chinese have made particularly notable strides. Their maritime buildup made global headlines a year ago when Pentagon officials sounded the alarm that Beijing’s total fleet of about 350 warships had surpassed the roughly 300 maintained by Washington.

The American force still vastly outstrips China’s in terms of power projection. The U.S. has 11 active aircraft carriers, and China has brought just two online since 2012.

The Chinese Communist Party, however, makes no secret of its goal to build a “world-class” military by 2050. U.S. analysts are increasingly wary that Washington will struggle to keep pace with China’s rapidly expanding shipbuilding operations.

“They’ve got a lot of shipyards and a lot of capacity,” said Brent Sadler, a retired U.S. naval officer and analyst with The Heritage Foundation. “They’re building lots of ships.”

Mr. Sadler authored the U.S. Navy section of The Heritage Foundation’s 2022 Index of U.S. Military Strength, an analysis updated annually.

For the second year in a row, the index gave the U.S. sea service overall scores of “marginal” and “trending toward weak,” with a specific naval capacity score of “weak.”

“A battle force consisting of 400 manned ships is required for the U.S. Navy to do what is expected of it today,” the index concluded. “The Navy’s current battle force fleet of 297 ships and intensified operational tempo combine to reveal a Navy that is much too small relative to its tasks.”

With regard to capability, the index said the Navy’s technological edge is “narrow[ing] against peer competitors China and Russia.”

“The combination of a fleet that is aging faster than old ships are being replaced and the rapid growth of competitor navies with modern technologies does not bode well for U.S. naval power,” the index said. [read more]