Joe Biden’s White House Staffer Shares CCP Inspired ‘Dark Brandon’ Meme Displaying Nazi ‘Reich Eagle’ Symbol

From The Gateway Pundit.com (Aug. 8, 2022):

Surprisingly, after years of labeling President Trump as a neo-Nazi and a dictator who would start World War 3, the left loves the image of Warmonger Joe Biden standing over a crumbling city with a Reich Eagle in the sky above him.

The Nazi’s Reich Eagle is also printed behind a caption: “The Dark Brandon Rises.”

The mainstream media remains completely silent on the Regime’s use of this symbol.

What started as propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party has turned into an attempt by the Biden Regime to take back the infamous “Let’s Go Brandon” phrase.

Donald Trump Jr. pointed out the leftwing media’s hypocrisy on Twitter.

So Biden's Deputy White House Press Secretary, @Andrewjbates46, is posting literal Nazi memes on Twitter and our corrupt media is completely silent about it. I'm sure that if this was a Trump WH staffer, the media would treat it the exact same way and totally ignore it

Raheem Kassam compared the timing of today’s FBI raid on President Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago and the “Dark Brandon” propaganda.

Kassam reported,

That’s right. On the day the media wants us to buy the idea that Donald Trump demanded his Generals behaved like Nazis, the current White House is actually promoting Nazi memes to hype its passage of the Inflation Recovery Act (IRA). The timing by the White House isn’t bad, to be honest, since the IRA (another irony not lost on us) does in fact empower the U.S. government with a Stormtrooper-style IRS to snoop through your taxes (all at your expense, of course).

But there’s more to this story than the White House using the Reichsadler or Parteiadler in its memes.

THE REICH EAGLE SUPERIMPOSED BEHIND BIDEN IN HIS WHITE HOUSE STAFFER’S MEME.

The first thing to note is that this “Dark Brandon” stuff is actually being promoted by corporate media outlets. Check out Slate’s take, which concludes: “If he can muster a smidge of momentum from the al-Zawahiri assassination by pulling up the cowl of Dark Brandon, then that is surely better than whatever he’s got going right now. After all, Joe Biden’s approval rating is already cresting back toward 40 percent. Dark Brandon strikes again!”

But there’s one more part of the Dark Brandon saga. The cherry on the cake. And that is the aesthetic origin of the entire thing.

“You have this very exaggerated image of a very ‘evil Biden,’ but also, his ability to mobilize these public intellectual zombies in an image is also kind of funny because it has long been China’s accusation of the U.S. government, that the U.S. is using folks like public intellectuals and scholars within China to carry out ‘peaceful evolution,’” Victor Shih, associate professor at UC San Diego, told POLITICO.

That’s right – it comes from China. Specifically, by an artist named Yang Quan, who sought to portray Biden in a negative light in early 2022.

Yes, the pro-Biden memes being disseminated from the hallowed halls of the White House are both Third Reich in nature, and hail from the Chinese Communist Party’s fellow travelers.

The corrupt Biden FBI has already committed a full assault on President Trump’s rights by raiding his home. We The People are next! [source]

I agree with Donald Trump, Jr. if this was a Donald Trump staffer, the story would have been plastered all over the lame-stream media.

Ohio Sues Norfolk Southern Over Feb. 3 Train Derailment

From Newsmax.com (Mar. 14):

The state of Ohio sued Norfolk Southern on Tuesday over the Feb. 3 derailment of a freight train that released over a million gallons of hazardous materials and pollutants into the environment around the town of East Palestine.

"This derailment was entirely avoidable," Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said at a press conference, adding he was seeking compensation for damages to the state's environment, economy and residents.

Ohio's suit filed in U.S. District Court said the derailment resulted in the release of over one million gallons of hazardous materials and other harmful pollutants into Ohio's air, streams, rivers, soil, and groundwater "killing tens of thousands of fish and other animals, and recklessly endangering the health of Ohioans throughout the region."

The state is seeking prior and future costs tied to the derailment, alleging the railroad violated state laws regulating control of hazardous waste, solid waste and air and water pollution.

Norfolk Southern "has an extensive and tragic history of derailments and releases of hazardous materials... Norfolk Southern' own record demonstrates that it knew – and should have taken appropriate steps to prevent – the significant harm that the derailment would cause," the lawsuit said.

On Monday, Yost met with Norfolk Southern and discussed several issues including the creation of a "fund to compensate for long-term losses to real estate values," improving East Palestine's water treatment.

"This lawsuit is designed to make sure that Norfolk Southern keeps their word to the people of East Palestine," Yost said.

Norfolk Southern said in a statement it was working toward creating three long-term funds to benefit East Palestine, including one providing "tailored protection for home sellers if their property loses value" because of the derailment.

The railroad said environmental monitoring by state and federal agencies showed the air and water are safe. However, it said it supports a "solution that addresses long-term health risks through the creation of a long-term medical compensation fund." A third program would help protect East Palestine drinking water.

"We look forward to working toward a final resolution with Attorney General Yost," the railroad said.

Since the Ohio derailment caused cars carrying toxic vinyl chloride and other hazardous chemicals to spill and catch fire, Norfolk Southern has been under pressure over a number of train derailments.

Last week, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was sharply questioned at a U.S. Senate hearing and will appear at another March 22 rail safety Senate hearing.

Shaw apologized, pledging to improve safety and address impacts including thoroughly cleaning the site. He said the railroad had already committed $21 million to the community as a "down payment... I am committed to doing what's right for the community."

No deaths or injuries were reported after the incident but since the derailment, some of East Palestine's 4,700 residents have reported ailments such as rashes and breathing difficulties and say they fear long-term health effects.

Residents and business owners have filed nearly two dozen lawsuits against Norfolk Southern since the derailment, seeking payment for property damages and for ongoing medical monitoring to detect potential latent disease for people who live within 30 miles of the crash site.

Those suits claim Norfolk Southern was negligent and has created a nuisance for residents, among other claims for liability.

Last week, Norfolk Southern agreed to create a new first responders training center and expand a training program in Ohio. [source]

The Treason of the Ruling Class

From American Thinker.com (Feb. 23, 2022):

Because of the egocentrism and megalomania of the current ruling class, our country is inexorably and stealthily marching toward a tyrannical one-party socialist oligarchy beholden to a globalist agenda.  These elites, in their determination to achieve political and societal status in perpetuity, are willingly allied with the relatively small number of true believers in their midst whose sole focus is to transform America into another failed socialist nation.

In a major step toward accomplishing that goal, the ruling class in both Canada and the United States have calculatingly acquiesced to these ideologues maliciously exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic in order to permanently consolidate their political and societal status.

The current and ongoing fascistic actions of the government in Canada in dealing with the trucker protest have revealed that this process is more advanced in Canada than it is the United States.  However, this nation is not far behind as its government has also declared a de facto war on America’s unwashed masses they claim are marinated in white supremacy and racism as these “deplorables” endlessly plot insurrections and domestic terrorism.

Fearful of the spread of a populist uprising, the true believers in Canada’s ruling class, as personified by Justin Trudeau, convinced the rest of their fellow ruling elites that they must violently stifle a peaceful grass roots political protest fomented by their deliberate abrogation of individual freedom.  They have brutally assaulted the demonstrators they refer to as domestic terrorists by invoking “emergency measures” designed for wartime.   This has allowed the government to unilaterally and without any legal basis freeze bank accounts and seize assets, censor non-state-sanctioned media, jail people without due process and outlaw any political demonstrations opposed to the regime.

The true believers within the American ruling class, fearful of a populist uprising, convinced the rest of their alliance to go along with casting the January 6, 2021 protest as an “insurrection.” They have imprisoned many without bail or trial including those charged with misdemeanor trespassing.  They have choreographed public displays of arresting those who legally entered the Capitol and some who did not enter the building.  Their allies in the financial community have arbitrarily closed people’s bank accounts and businesses.  They have recruited the social media conglomerates to censor speech.  They have stereotyped of all who voted for Donald Trump as “domestic terrorists.”

Never in the history of this country has there ever been a more mal-educated, narcissistic, gullible, and avaricious ruling class.  While unfortunately ignored by the bulk of the American citizenry for far too long, these traits were recognized and exploited by one of this nation’s most pernicious adversaries beginning five decades ago.

The Soviet Union did not intend to conquer but instead to destabilize the United State through societal and political transformation so that it would no longer be an impediment to their plans for global hegemony.  In the 1960’s and 70’s the KGB recognized that the quickest way to undermine the United States was through subverting those with elitist mindsets in the political, media, entertainment, education and corporate circles. [read more]

Another article about the Ruling Class: The key to understanding our ruling elites

“Spook Who Cried Wolf”: Matt Gaetz Introduces Resolution to Strip Security Clearances From Dozens of Intelligence Officials Who Falsely Labeled Hunter’s ‘Laptop From Hell’ as “Russian Disinformation”

From The Gateway Pundit.com (Mar. 29, 2022):

On Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a new House Resolution that would strip security clearances from dozens of federal intelligence officials who signed on to a letter declaring the infamous Hunter Biden laptop as “Russian disinformation” shortly after it emerged in the months leading up to the rigged 2020 election.

In October of 2020 – just days before the presidential election – 51 former intelligence officials signed and published a letter that baselessly decried the contents of Hunter’s ‘laptop from hell’ had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

These clowns were profiled by the NY Post last week, fittingly labeled as “The Spies Who Lie.”

Gaetz’s new “Spook Who Cried Wolf Resolution” would target every single one of these former high-ranking officials, all of whom sold out their credibility in an effort to bury the contents of the laptop and prevent Biden from the fallout from his son’s illicit business dealings going public.

If the resolution passes, all 51 will all lose access to their current security clearance, in addition to becoming barred from holding one again.

From Gaetz’s proposal:

“The 51 signatories of the letter who publicly and falsely decried Hunter Biden’s laptop to be Russian disinformation should be barred from holding any level of security clearances indefinitely.”

As Gaetz points out, the actions by these supposedly ‘trusted’ national security ‘experts’ were particularly egregious, especially considering the complete absence of evidence indicating the laptop wasn’t legitimate and the timing of the letter, which was published just 15 days before the November election.

The letter itself even states that they had no evidence of Russian involvement whatsoever. Apparently, they were working off plain instinct.

From the October 2020 letter:

“We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement – just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,”

Some of these creeps have even doubled down on the letter and are still holding the line with the bogus ‘Russian misinformation’ narrative. These people are shameless.

From the “Spook Who Cried Wolf Resolution“:

“4 of the 51 signatories have issued sustained support of the letter, since the New York Times March 17th article, which passively verified the data discovered on Hunter Biden’s ‘Russian Disinformation’ laptop.

As it sits now, Gaetz’s resolution is a longshot to pass through Congress. However, there is already a large amount of GOP support, with fellow Reps. Thomas Massie (KY), Dan Bishop (NC), Andy Biggs (AZ), Paul Gosar (AZ), Louie Gohmert (TX), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) all having co-sponsored the bill so far.

Getting the measure passed through will likely have to wait until after the 2022 Midterms. [source]

GOP senators explore Chinese company’s $1 million payment to Hunter Biden’s firms

From Washington Times.com (Mar. 29, 2022):

Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Ron Johnson on Tuesday presented more bank records that show President Biden’s son Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from companies connected to the communist Chinese regime as recently as 2017.

The transactions, uncovered in an investigation by the two senators, raise concerns about influence peddling by the Biden family and the potential for compromising the administration’s policies toward Beijing.

“Our challenge is that the deep state does not give up its secrets easily. New evidence of Biden family influence peddling is surfacing on a regular basis – often coming from records from Hunter Biden’s laptop,” said Mr. Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Democrats in 2020 dismissed the evidence of questionable financial dealings involving Hunter Biden as Russian disinformation. The evidence is getting a second look after left-leaning news outlets recently acknowledged the authenticity of incriminating emails and records found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer during the 2020 presidential campaign.

The senators uncovered records of three bank transfers that show a $1 million payment to Hunter Biden’s company from a Chinese company that was embroiled in a U.S. investigation of international bribery and money laundering.

The bank records trace the $1 million from the Chinese government-linked company CEFC China Energy to Hunter Biden’s company Hudson West III in November 2017 and then to Hunter Biden’s Owasco law firm in March 2018.

The records of the wire transfers indicate the payments were made to Hunter Biden’s firm for representing Patrick Ho Chi Ping, who was the head of CEFC at the time.

The original transfer of $1 million coincides with Mr. Ho’s arrest by U.S. authorities in November 2017 on international bribery and money laundering charges.

Federal agents have not charged Hunter Biden with a crime related to these transactions, and the Justice Department has not indicated that Hunter Biden is under investigation related to CEFC.

President Biden has said he never discussed business with his son. He maintains that his public service, including as vice president from 2009 to 2017, was kept separate from his family’s business dealings.

“We may never know all the details of the Biden family foreign entanglements or the full extent to which those entanglements compromise our current president. But I’m pretty confident I know who does know – intelligence operatives in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea,” Mr. Johnson said. “Elements within U.S. intelligence agencies probably also know. They’re just not going to tell us.”

The senators previously revealed another bank transfer of $100,000 from CEFC to Owasco on Aug. 4, 2017. Hunter Biden managed and had an ownership stake in Owasco.

Around the time of his arrest in November 2017, Ho also reportedly called President Biden’s brother James Biden, who was involved in Hunter Biden’s far-flung international business deals.

“Ho’s decision to call the Biden family around the same time he got arrested is revealing, particularly in light of the fact that the same month a million dollars just happened to be transferred to Hunter Biden’s company,” Mr. Johnson said.

Ho was ultimately convicted of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy for his role in a multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for CEFC. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, requested information about Ho from the Justice Department in March 2021 related to court filings indicating the department had surveillance records on him.

The Justice Department would not confirm whether they had the records, the senators said.

“Unfortunately, the attorney general refuses to clarify that outrageous contradiction for Congress,” Mr. Johnson said.

The Washington Times reached out to the White House and the Justice Department for comment but did not hear back. [source]

DHS scraps Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ after final court hurdle disappears

From Washington Times.com (Aug. 8, 2022):

The Homeland Security Department announced it will end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy and welcome ousted illegal immigrants back into the U.S. after a federal court dissolved the last remaining hurdle.

Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk lifted his permanent injunction Monday after the Supreme Court ruled in late June that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas did have power under the law to end the border security program, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols.

The department said it will immediately stop ousting people under MPP, and said the several thousands who had been ousted under the policy in recent months will be welcomed back when they show up for their next appointments — though they remain under threat of deportation.

“As Secretary Mayorkas has said, MPP has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” the department said in a statement announcing the move.

Under MPP, some migrants caught jumping the southern border illegally who then requested asylum were pushed back into Mexico to wait for their immigration court hearings.

The policy’s goal was to deny them the foothold that has served as an enticement for an unprecedented flow of immigrants, and it proved strikingly successful for the Trump team.

But the Biden administration called the policy cruel and has pushed from its early days to end the program, along with most of the rest of the Trump administration’s get-tough immigration policies.

Judge Kacsmaryk, in his initial ruling, had said Congress laid out a framework that calls for illegal immigrants to be detained or released under rare circumstances. In cases in which neither of those was possible, he said the law required they be returned to Mexico.

An appeals court backed Judge Kacsmaryk, but the Supreme Court disagreed in a 5-4 ruling led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

He said Congress made return of the immigrants to Mexico optional, and the Biden administration has more leeway to decide how to treat those jumping the border.

Since Judge Kacsmaryk’s original ruling last year, the Biden administration has put about 5,000 immigrants into MPP, according to the latest numbers through June 30.

Nearly 70,000 people were put into MPP during the Trump years.

Denied quick entry, many of those gave up their interest in reaching the U.S. and returned home or remained in Mexico. Others tried to sneak back into the U.S. again.

Few actually won their claims, with the American Immigration Council saying the success rate was about 1%.

The Trump administration saw the low rate of success as an indicator that most of the people had bogus claims to begin with.

Immigrant-rights activists, though, blamed lack of lawyers, bureaucratic complications and unsafe conditions in Mexico for making it tough for migrants to show up for their hearings and to make their arguments.

After Homeland Security’s announcement, activists urged the Biden administration to move quickly to bring the ousted migrants back. [source]

Can’t stop potential Democrat voters from coming in, I guess.

WHAT’S BEHIND THE DEMOCRATS’ IRS EXPANSION?

From John Hinderaker on Power Line Blog.com (Aug. 7, 2022):

Nearly half of the Democrats’ Inflation Promotion Act is devoted to increasing the budget of the IRS. Think about that: when has more IRS ever been popular? Never. So what are the Democrats up to?

Monica Showalter writes:

The other half [of the Inflation Promotion Act], some $300 billion, will be dedicated to IRS enforcement, surveillance upgrades, and audits against small businesses, who have now been re-labeled “the rich.”

$300 billion to the IRS? Seriously?

Sinema got her demand to not close the carried interest tax loophole which is what her hedge fund donors wanted. Democrats replaced that with a provision to tax businesses even more.

This is ironic. Democrats say the IRS will go after “the rich,” but the one provision in the Inflation Promotion Act that actually would have been bad for the rich–repeal of the carried interest treatment of income earned by hedge fund managers–is now out of the bill. A friend of mine who made a lot of money as a hedge fund manager describes the carried interest concept as “completely unjustifiable.” Yet Chuck Schumer has protected it against reform for many years, on behalf of Democratic Party donors.

Now, finally, the Democrats ostensibly were ready to turn on their hedge fund backers–Wall Street is not entirely a Democratic enclave, but almost–and what happens? Kristen Sinema rides in to save the day not only for her own hedge fund supporters, but for Schumer’s as well. Coincidence?

That was a digression. More on the IRS:

The [Washington] Post reports the IRS expects a much lower return on all those “rich” people they claim they are going to audit with those 87,000 new agents, which is an eightfold increase in their budget….

Wait! 87,000 new IRS agents? Can this possibly be right? And an eightfold increase in the IRS enforcement budget? What do you suppose the IRS will do with that massive influx of money and manpower?

Showalter and others think the Democrats’ IRS will attack small businesses in a major way. That probably is true. But, as the president of a conservative policy organization, I have another concern. We all remember how Barack Obama’s IRS went after Tea Party groups and other conservative organizations before and after the 2010 midterm wipeout. Mostly, they slow-walked the 501(c)(3) approval process. But imagine an IRS hostile to conservative principles, and emboldened by an eight-fold budget increase and 87,000 new agents. What would the IRS do in the liberals’ wildest dreams?

I think the liberals who run the IRS would sic their agents on every conservative nonprofit in the country. They would audit such organizations, looking for evidence that they somehow had violated the extremely vague regulations governing political activity. Such audits would require even squeaky-clean organizations like my own to hire lawyers to defend them. Government lawyers work for free–that is, courtesy of the taxpayers–while private lawyers have to be paid. Thus, a concerted attack by the IRS could largely disable conservative nonprofits, whose revenue would be dissipated by paying for lawyers, and whose energies would be dissipated in dealing with IRS attacks.

Call me paranoid, but I think this lies behind the Democrats’ sudden desire to drastically upsize the IRS. [source]

The IRS will go after middle class people and small businesses because they can’t afford high-price tax lawyers.

Other articles on the subject at hand:

• Congress Is Supersizing the IRS. Here’s Why That’s Bad News for Everyday Americans
• 87,000 New IRS Agents Will Join Union That Gives 100% Of PAC Funds To Democrats

Immunizing Students from Bad Ideas

From John Stonestreet on Breakpoint.org (Feb. 18, 2022):

Many Christian parents worry about passing on the faith to their children. Sadly, statistics suggest they should. In 2020, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University found that just 2% of millennials, a generation now well into adulthood, have a biblical worldview. That’s the lowest of any generation since surveys began. Lifeway Research reports that two-thirds of those who attend a youth group as teenagers will drop out of church as adults.

A significant aspect of the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation has to do with ideas. Helping students think correctly about life and the world, God and themselves would be hard enough if they weren’t facing such strong cultural headwinds. But they are, and bad ideas are like viruses. They spread from the mind to the heart, and from person to person, even infecting entire populations.

Many young people today leave the faith because they lack the necessary immunity from the bad ideas of our culture. Christian parents must not only present the truth to their kids, they must find ways to immunize them against lies. To do that, we need to know which teaching methods work and which don’t. 

Dr. Jeff Myers of Summit Ministries points to the work of a Yale psychology professor from the 1950s. Dr. William McGuire suggested that bad ideas* behave like viruses. Specifically, the more exposure one has to bad ideas in a controlled setting, the less likely they are to fall for those ideas later.

McGuire performed a series of experiments in which he tried to convince subjects of a lie, that brushing their teeth was actually bad for them. Those with no preparation for what they were about to hear were more easily convinced to stop brushing, and those who were warned against a specific bad argument they would hear were harder to deceive. No real surprise.

More surprising were the groups that were easiest and the hardest to dupe. The group most vulnerable to falsehoods was not the one with zero preparation, but the one who’d merely had the truth reinforced. In other words, the subjects most easily deceived were told things like, “You know brushing your teeth is good for you, right? You’ve been taught this since you were little. Trust us.” When they heard arguments they’d never heard before, this group felt sheltered and even deceived.

The least vulnerable group were those who had not only been warned against a bad argument they’d hear, they were also taught how to respond. And, they were warned they could face additional bad arguments, so they needed to be aware and vigilant.

What does this experiment teach us? Well, for one thing, that the method many Christian parents and churches use to pass on the faith—reinforcement without taking seriously counter ideas—is doomed to fail. In fact, it can leave young people more vulnerable to lies.

It also teaches us that we don’t have to give kids all the answers, but they do need to be aware and ready to think for themselves. This requires that we give them a framework, or a pattern, of responding to bad ideas thoughtfully and confidently.

This is what the team at Summit Ministries has been doing with students for decades: immunizing them against bad ideas and preparing them for challenges to their faith. The results are measurable and impressive.  

An independent 2020 survey of Summit alumni showed that just 40% felt able to defend their faith against challenges before attending a student conference. After attending, that number skyrocketed to nearly 90%. Before Summit, only 44% claimed a strong commitment to Christianity. Afterward, 77% did. And, almost 97% of Summit alumni indicate they are currently attending a church that holds to the truth of the Bible.

Chuck Colson called Summit Ministries “the gold standard” for training young adults in Christian worldview. I agree. I’ve personally witnessed and been part of the transformation that happened at Summit. Each 2-week student conference—held at Covenant College in Georgia and at the Summit headquarters in Manitou Springs, Colorado—shapes a robust, biblical worldview in young people, while also preparing them for divisive topics like abortion, doubt and deconstruction, evolution, gender identity, God’s existence, sexuality, and more.

If you know a student who needs to attend a Summit conference this summer, get a $100 discount with offer code “BREAKPOINT22.” You can also save $200 when you register before March 31 for any in-person Summit Student Conference. Simply visit summit.org/breakpoint.

The numbers speak for themselves. Passing on a Christian worldview to our kids requires much more than just telling them the truth. It requires us to help them love the truth, and gain spiritual immunity against infectious bad ideas. [source]

*Like CRT; Marxism; socialism; diversity, inclusion, equity (which is a form of Marxism).

Illegal immigrant population soars to 11.4 million

From Washington Times.com (Mar. 29, 2022):

The number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. soared by more than 1 million last year, reaching 11.4 million as of this January, according to new research released Tuesday that puts new contours on the border chaos under President Biden.

The surge is the largest in two decades and is among the largest single-year increases in U.S. history, said Steven A. Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, the lead researcher who wrote the paper.

He used Census Bureau numbers to calculate the trajectory of the unauthorized population, figuring there were about 11.5 million in January 2019, that figure plummeted to 10.2 million by the start of 2021, then soared to 11.4 million at the start of this year.

Preliminary estimates for February put the figure at 11.5 million, which would mean the illegal immigrant population has grown by more than 1.2 million since Mr. Biden took office.

“It reflects the economy, and I think the other big thing is it reflects the Biden administration’s policies — his campaign promises to curtail enforcement, and then the curtailment,” Mr. Camarota said.

Mr. Camarota used the same methods the Homeland Security Department uses for calculating the unauthorized population, though he used a more frequently updated data set, the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which offers monthly data.

The numbers give another perspective to the surge of illegal immigrants across the border, signaling that hundreds of thousands of people were caught and released or evaded detection altogether, finding space in America’s communities where many will attempt to put down roots.

“The impact on American workers, the impact on hospitals, the impact on schools, the impact on American taxpayers have all increased a lot in the last year,” Mr. Camarota said.

The rising numbers also could give ammunition to Republican-led states that have challenged lax Biden immigration policies in court.

In order to gain standing to sue, the states have argued — in many cases successfully — that they bear the burden of those lax policies by having to provide more services to people who, had the Biden administration maintained stricter enforcement at the border or in the interior, wouldn’t be here.

Mr. Camarota’s estimate for the unauthorized population is larger than other analysts, though he says there’s little doubt a massive surge took place in 2021.

Indeed, other information in the Census Bureau numbers confirms something is happening.

The total foreign-born population, legally and illegally present, has risen by 1.7 million since January 2021, to reach an all-time record of 46.7 million.

That 13-month spike is greater than the increase across the entirety of former President Donald Trump’s four years in office, Mr. Camarota said.

“It really matters who’s president,” he said.

The new numbers are all the more stark because they break what had been a fairly consistent period in the illegal immigrant population over the last decade.

In the years just before the Great Recession of 2008, the country had averaged nearly 500,000 more illegal immigrants each year, according to Homeland Security’s estimates. But the 2010s were less chaotic. As Mexico’s economy improved, illegal border crossings plummeted, reaching levels below 350,000 several times under the Obama and Trump administrations.

The total illegal immigrant population hovered between 11.4 million and 12 million over the final years of the decade, standing at 11.5 million as of January 2019.

The border saw a large surge of illegal immigrants in 2019, but Mr. Camarota said the data isn’t good enough to deliver an estimate of the illegal immigrant population as of January 2020.

But by January 2021, after nine months of the pandemic, the population had dropped to 10.2 million. It then surged to 11.4 million in January 2022, and stood at 11.5 million as of February, Mr. Camarota calculates. [source]

And if 10% of those are hard core criminals (murders, rapists, etc.)? Or they could be carrying a dangerous infection.

An AI designed to find new drugs created 40,000 potential chemical weapons in less than 6 hours

From The Blaze.com (Mar. 18, 2022):

An artificial intelligence designed to help drug manufacturers find new medicines to treat diseases invented 40,000 new potential chemical weapons in just six hours.

Researchers with the North Carolina-based startup Collaboration Pharmaceuticals Inc. say they have computational proof that AI technologies designed for drug discovery could be "misused for de novo design of biochemical weapons." In a study published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, they describe how a "thought exercise" turned into a "wake up call" for the "AI in drug discovery community."

The company has a commercial machine learning model, called MegaSyn, which is trained to identify potential drug candidates by filtering out compounds that would be toxic for human beings. Scientists wanted to know what would happen if the logic of the AI's algorithm was reversed — what would it do if it were trained to find toxic compounds instead of eliminate them.

Using an open-source database, scientists instructed their AI to look for molecules with similar chemical properties to the nerve agent VX, one of the most dangerous chemical weapons invented in the 20th century.

VX is a tasteless and odorless chemical that attacks the body's nervous system, paralyzing muscles and preventing a person exposed to the agent from breathing. The extremely toxic compound was used to assassinate Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

In less than six hours after it was turned on, the AI not only generated a copy of VX, but also modeled 40,000 molecules that were either known chemical warfare agents or could potentially be turned into new chemical weapons. Some were predicted to be even more toxic than known chemical warfare agents.

"By inverting the use of our machine learning models, we had transformed our innocuous generative model from a helpful tool of medicine to a generator of likely deadly molecules," the paper's authors wrote.

"Our toxicity models were originally created for use in avoiding toxicity, enabling us to better virtually screen molecules (for pharmaceutical and consumer product applications) before ultimately confirming their toxicity through in vitro testing. The inverse, however, has always been true: the better we can predict toxicity, the better we can steer our generative model to design new molecules in a region of chemical space populated by predominantly lethal molecules."

Perhaps the most frightening conclusion of the researchers is that their research is easily replicated.

Fabio Urbina, a senior scientist at Collaboration Pharmaceuticals and the paper's lead author, told The Verge in an interview that anyone with a background in chemistry and internet access could replicate their work.

"If you were to Google generative models, you could find a number of put-together one-liner generative models that people have released for free. And then, if you were to search for toxicity datasets, there’s a large number of open-source tox datasets. So if you just combine those two things, and then you know how to code and build machine learning models — all that requires really is an internet connection and a computer — then, you could easily replicate what we did. And not just for VX, but for pretty much whatever other open-source toxicity datasets exist," Urbina said.

"Of course, it does require some expertise. If somebody were to put this together without knowing anything about chemistry, they would ultimately probably generate stuff that was not very useful. And there’s still the next step of having to get those molecules synthesized. Finding a potential drug or potential new toxic molecule is one thing; the next step of synthesis — actually creating a new molecule in the real world — would be another barrier."

Importantly, not every molecule the AI identifies as a chemical weapons candidate would work if it were somehow synthesized. Some will be false positives — just like how new drug candidates identified by the AI don't always lead to medicines that work.

Still, the AI technology clearly has dangerous implications, so much so that the scientists were even hesitant to publish their findings, in case some individuals were to use their work for evil.

“The dataset they used on the AI could be downloaded for free and they worry that all it takes is some coding knowledge to turn a good AI into a chemical weapon-making machine,” Urbina explained.

“At the end of the day, we decided that we kind of want to get ahead of this. Because if it’s possible for us to do it, it’s likely that some adversarial agent somewhere is maybe already thinking about it or in the future is going to think about it.”

The paper recommends several precautions drug researchers using AI technology should take to prevent their work from falling into the wrong hands. Among their recommendations is a reporting structure or hotline to authorities should researchers become aware of someone developing toxic molecules for non-therapeutic uses.

"We hope that by raising awareness of this technology, we will have gone some way toward demonstrating that although AI can have important applications in healthcare and other industries, we should also remain diligent against the potential for dual use, in the same way that we would with physical resources such as molecules or biologics," the paper concludes. [source]

Humans don’t need help in developing way to kill ourselves. We do a pretty good job of that already.

Usually “What if” scenarios are a good way to think about issues or problems. In this case, they’re not.

Biden administration hit with lawsuit over ‘sneak attack’ on charter schools

From Washington Times.com (Aug. 8, 2022):

A coalition of charter schools in Michigan and Ohio brought a lawsuit Monday challenging the Biden administration’s newly implemented hurdles on federal funding for the independently run public schools.

The complaint filed in federal court in Michigan accuses the Department of Education of violating the 2015 expansion of the federal Charter Schools Program with a final rule that increases requirements for schools seeking to qualify for congressionally approved grants.

“Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education is channeling the Administration’s apparent hostility towards charter schools into unconstitutional rulemaking, which will rob the neediest students of educational opportunity,” reads the 31-page motion filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation. [source]

This is just The Demented One catering to the big teachers unions.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CALLS FOR CENSORSHIP ON ENERGY

From John Hinderaker on Power Line Blog.com (Aug. 4, 2022):

This is shocking, or would be in a sane world: Gina McCarthy, the Biden administration’s National Climate Advisor, is openly calling on tech companies like Facebook and Twitter to censor any dissent from the administration’s “green” fantasies. McCarthy says the tech companies “have to stop allowing” people to disagree with Biden. No doubt the people she wants to censor include Steve Hayward and me, among many others:

……………

In my opinion, Gina McCarthy and the Biden administration disseminate misinformation on climate and energy 24/7. But I think they should be “allowed” to do so. Truth will win out, but only if it is not censored.

We wrote here about the lawsuit that the states of Missouri and Louisiana have brought against the Biden administration, accusing it of coercing, or colluding with, tech companies to violate Americans’ First Amendment rights. Watch for Gina McCarthy’s open call for censorship to be an exhibit in that case. [read more]

One year without Rush Limbaugh – 5 lessons he left us on how to handle the left

From Diana Allocco on Fox News.com (Feb. 17, 2022):

It doesn’t seem possible that we’ve weathered an entire year since that bleak day last Feb. 17 when at 12:06 p.m. Eastern the inevitable-yet-shocking announcement was broadcast to the world: Rush Limbaugh had passed away. The radio titan, having lived his threescore-and-10 to the absolute fullest, returned his borrowed talent to God.

It was a devastating gut-punch to us, his "highly overrated" staff, and to his vast listening audience. Our beloved friend would no longer be providing his brilliant, inspiring, often-hilarious daily clarity and reassurance we had all come to cherish over more than three decades.

When Rush was ensconced in his Attila-the-Hun Chair, behind the Golden EIB Microphone, all seemed (ultra) right with the world. Which is why we Dittoheads have dearly missed that glorious voice ever since. Of this I am sure: whenever news hits, millions wonder, "What would Rush say?"

It’s largely unknowable. Even when we staffers would try to predict Rush’s "take" on some breaking event, we rarely nailed the creative angle or the one-liners that would define the political landscape ever after. Rush’s perspective and analytical gifts were so original they were a colossal audience draw: multitudes across the fruited plain tuned in with that same anticipation, "Oh man, I can’t wait to hear what Limbaugh is gonna do with this!" It was always, always worth it.

But what is knowable is that Rush fought – and won – the same battles against the same leftists who used the same tactics being weaponized against us today. Ten days ago, for instance. As soon as I read the Biden regime’s ridiculous "National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin" – feverishly warning of the horrors of "misleading narratives" and "mis- dis- and mal-information (mdm)" – I was brought back in time.

Dateline, June 24, 1994. Aboard Air Force One, then-President Bill Clinton whined to kmox St. Louis in a phone interview: "After I get off the radio today with you, Rush Limbaugh will have three hours to say whatever he wants — and I won’t have any opportunity to respond, and there’s no truth detector. You won’t get on afterwards and say what was true and what wasn’t!"

…………..

This is a significant portion of Rush’s legacy. He may no longer be on the air, but his example and insights still reverberate. He prepped us, his beloved audience. To mark this somber first anniversary of his passing, here are some of the lessons he left on how to defeat the left:

1. Know your enemy. Rush’s core mission (besides attracting an immense audience so he could charge confiscatory advertising rates) was to give his listeners an ideological understanding of our political opponents on the left. The left’s handbook never, ever changes.

…………

2. Reject the premise. Leftist accusations and attacks are based on unstated premises: You are the problem; conservatives are the problem; America is the problem.

Learn to instantly and instinctively turn the tables, as Rush did. Leftists used to call Rush "dangerous." The unstated premise was that being dangerous to liberalism was bad. They expected the accusation would put Rush on defense. But he embraced that he was indeed a threat – to their dominance: "They call me the most dangerous man in America. Know why? Because I am. Bwahahaha!"

Liberals demanded that radio stations carrying Rush be required to provide "equal time" to ensure "balance" to his supposedly unsafe words – to which Rush correctly responded, "I am equal time!"

3. Use your power. The left may appear invincible, but it exerts control based on a currency of deception, manipulation, corrupt bargains. The power we have is unassailable, and it is built on invisible things: Truth. Joy. Common sense. Humor. Love. Gratitude. Faith. These qualities answer to a Higher Authority, and the left has no counter to them.

Never forget: we are the many. Rush connected us, his most important bequest to us, and we will never again believe the lie that we are weak and scattered and powerless and fringe. They are the few. Flexing our strengths – especially the power of the truth – drives them into hysterics.

4. Have no fear. Leftists are bullies who are terrified of fearless, cheerful people – who know they’re right. Those who, like Rush, truly grasp the pathetic nature of leftism exude confidence, even glee.

Never, ever buy into the temptation to despair that our situation is hopeless. This is the left’s most oft-used deception, wanting you to pre-emptively surrender without a fight (hello, Republicans). Optimism is an intellectual choice, and good cheer is the blessing that follows. Happy warriors never surrender.

5. Stay on offense. Be relentless. Because it is has no moral foundation, the left’s "power" is ephemeral – when fought, it will deflate like a soufflé, and come crashing down like the Berlin Wall. Follow Rush’s model and laugh at them every day.

In the same way Rush was "the most dangerous man in America," embrace the truth that we are the most dangerous people in America – to the left. They may at the moment control the institutions, the levers of power, and much of the media, but we have them surrounded. And they know it. [read more]

Good advice from late great Maharushi.

Looming food shortages is the next ‘slow-moving disaster’ to hit world

From NY Post.com (Mar 17, 2022):

Food prices are already skyrocketing. Some — a lot — of this comes from inflation caused by runaway government spending over the past two years. Some is from supply-chain issues. But a new problem is rearing its head, and government officials seem as likely to make it worse as to make it better.

That problem is shortages of food and fertilizer brought about by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions enacted by the West in response.

Ukraine is a major wheat producer, but war is likely to ensure a poor spring planting and harvest. Russia is also a major grower, but sanctions and war will prevent it from exporting to most of the world.
Russia is also a major manufacturer of fertilizer; in fact, it is the world’s largest. Second on the list is … China, a nation aligned with Russia and notably unfriendly to the United States and the West. (Canada is a distant third.) That has people worried.

The Green Markets North American Fertilizer Index, already high, jumped 16% last Friday. Urea, a major fertilizer ingredient, went up 22%. Potash, another major ingredient (Russia is the top producer), increased 34% in Brazil, the world’s leading fertilizer importer. The price for standard “starter fertilizer” 10-34-0 is up 49% from a year ago and likely to go much higher.

Bloomberg analyst Alexis Maxwell calls it “a slow-moving disaster.”

The issue is that farmland without fertilizer is vastly less productive. Without fertilizer, corn and wheat yields in the United States would decline by more than 40%. But as prices promise to go much higher, farmers will either have to skimp on fertilizer or raise prices of their own products a lot.

Then, too, there are skyrocketing prices for gasoline and diesel, which are essential for today’s mechanized farming and for getting food to consumers. Add these increases in cost and decreases in production to the shortages likely to come from the Ukraine invasion, and we’re looking at really dramatic increases in food prices. In the West this will mean discomfort. Elsewhere it will mean starvation. Bureaucrats aren’t helping.

Some people want to put more land under cultivation. Scottish farmers and planners have asked the government to allow farmland programmed for “rewilding” to be put back into production in response to anticipated food shortages. But that’s too sensible for our green elites. Scotland’s Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity Lorna Slater — yes, that’s her full title — has flatly refused. According to Slater, “We are still in a nature emergency that hasn’t gone away … so it’s a no.”

Nature emergencies outrank human emergencies in the green world, so that’s not a surprise. Voters may feel differently as prices skyrocket.

The island nation of Sri Lanka offers a stark warning. A green experiment in abandoning artificial fertilizer there — encouraged by the Rockefeller Foundation — was a “brutal and swift” economic and humanitarian disaster, Foreign Policy reports.

“Against claims that organic methods can produce comparable yields to conventional farming, domestic rice production fell 20 percent in just the first six months. Sri Lanka, long self-sufficient in rice production, has been forced to import $450 million worth of rice even as domestic prices for this staple of the national diet surged by around 50 percent. The ban also devastated the nation’s tea crop, its primary export and source of foreign exchange.”

FP continues: “Human costs have been even greater. Prior to the pandemic’s outbreak, the country had proudly achieved upper-middle-income status. Today, half a million people have sunk back into poverty.”

Sri Lanka’s policy, which FP describes as a “farrago of magical thinking, technocratic hubris, ideological delusion, self-dealing and sheer shortsightedness,” imposed enormous human damage on the nation. But don’t worry — the government and NGO officials behind it won’t miss any meals. Consequences are for the little people.

With the triple-barreled threat of inflation, soaring fuel prices and shrunken food supplies, the world faces something like the same fate, and once again those responsible are unlikely to pay the price. (But maybe some will. After all, food shortages led to the Arab Spring riots and the overturning of governments.)

Regardless, the world’s policymakers need to take a less casual approach to the well-being of the world’s population. That very much includes those in the Biden administration. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s response to concerns about fertilizer and food shortages: “Maybe sacrifices are necessary.” You can rest assured Vilsack won’t be the one making them. [source]

Not good. One of the four horses (famine) of the Apocalypses. Let’s see, War (check). Death, and Conquest are yet to come.

Biden under fire for U.S. funding scientific testing on cats in Russia, despite sanctions

From Washington Times.com (Mar. 15, 2022):

President Biden is under fire for allowing U.S. tax dollars to fund government research in Russia, including “stomach-churning” scientific tests on cats, despite championing economic sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine.

Republican lawmakers say that if Mr. Biden is serious about punishing Russia’s belligerence, the White House needs to stop subsidizing Moscow’s research labs. They note that Russia has four facilities conducting scientific research that are approved by the National Institutes of Health to receive grants funded by American tax dollars. 

“Our tax dollars should never be going to our foreign adversaries, especially as the U.S. puts crippling sanctions on the Kremlin,” said Rep. Lisa C. McClain, Michigan Republican.

The push to end funding for Russian labs comes as the White House has imposed economic penalties on the country’s leadership for its unprovoked war in Ukraine. Since the fighting broke out, Congress has banned imports of Russian oil, while Mr. Biden has levied sanctions on Moscow’s leading oligarchs and financial institutions.

Some Republicans say, however, that those sanctions are meaningless if federal tax dollars continue to flow to Russia’s state-run research labs.

“This should be a bipartisan, common-sense position,” Mrs. McClain and colleagues recently wrote in a letter to the White House. “As such, [the administration] must take swift and decisive action to block any further U.S. tax dollars from going to Russian research labs.”

The White House did not return requests for comment on this article.

Apart from the geopolitical concerns of funding Russian research labs, Republican lawmakers say, U.S. tax dollars should not be going to subsidize “heinous experiments” on innocent animals.

The White Coat Waste Project, an animal rights group, revealed in a study that the NIH provided a grant totaling more than $549,000 to Russia’s state-run Pavlov Institute of Physiology in November. The money, in part, went to fund spinal cord research on unwitting cats.

Specifically, the cats had a portion of their brains removed, while electrodes were implanted in their spines. The animals were then forced to walk on treadmills for hours on end while scientists ascertained the impact on their spinal cords.

“The torture these poor animals are being forced to go through is absolutely inhumane and unnecessary,” said Mrs. McClain. “It’s common sense to stop funding this inhumane research.”

Most of the cats did not survive long after the experiment was finished. In 2018, the NIH provided a similar grant, totaling more than $220,000, to the Pavlov Institute for experimentation on cats.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay white coats in the Russian government to torture and kill cats in wasteful treadmill experiments,” said Mackie Burr, vice president of the White Coat Waste Project. “There are four Kremlin-run animal testing labs that NIH has authorized to receive our money, and U.S. sanctions against Russia should include defunding them.”

The NIH’s funding in Russia is only the latest revelation about the agency’s troubling relationship with powers seen as hostile to the U.S.

Last year, government documents exposed that the NIH had funded scientific research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology. Experts have long viewed the facility as a possible source for the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, given that the pandemic first emerged in the city where the institute is located. 

“At least 31 labs located in Russia and China are still permitted to receive U.S. taxpayer money from the NIH that goes specifically to animal experiments – this must end,” said Rep. Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican. “Now.” [source]

Not good. What was the purpose of the research? This is just as bad as Fauci funding experimentation on beagles.

Great Reset: Banks Using ‘Sneaky Tactics’ to Drive Public Towards Cashless Society – Union

From Breitbart.com (Aug. 2, 2022):

Ireland’s Financial Services Union (FSU) has accused banks in the country of employing “sneaky” “trojan horse” tactics in service of doing away with physical cash in a document submitted to the Irish government.

While the FSU’s claims centre around the actions of Irish banks, similar concerns have been raised in regards to the push towards a cashless society internationally, with the infamous World Economic Forum, in particular, pushing the transition.

According to a report on the document penned by the Irish Independent, the FSU accuses banks of intentionally understaffing branches, failing to repair cash ATMs within a reasonable timeframe, and not answering their own phones all in an attempt to push people online.

The group also claims that COVID-19 was used as an excuse by Irish financial institutions to reduce services and hours, despite many having failed to return to normality now the country has largely escaped lockdown.

“This is all to deny people cash and drive them online,” group General Secretary John O’Connell reportedly told the publication, with the union head, in particular, describing the pandemic period as being a “Trojan horse used to force people on to digital platforms”.

“The banks have used Covid and the transition from it to force people on to digital platforms, whether they want to or not,” he also said. “The lack of staffing… is chronic in banks for a reason. It creates long queues. It is the same with the phone lines.”

The group’s submission to the Irish government about the issue of banks pushing people into digital-only banking comes shortly after the public fended off an attempt by Allied Irish Bank (AIB), one of the country’s major players in the industry, to remove all cash services from 70 of its branches.

Having faced extreme public and political backlash on the issue, the AIB’s CEO eventually admitted that the organization had “got it wrong”, and had “moved far too far, far too fast.”

However, the shift towards a cashless society is not only something that has become a concern in Ireland, with the drive towards digital-only — something openly pushed for by the infamous World Economic Forum — recently gaining serious attention internationally.

For example, the UK government has announced that it will be implementing legislation protecting an individual’s access to physical cash as banks shutter branches across the country.

Such a reduction in access a report published in March claimed would leave millions in the country struggling, with ATM access in particular being very important in the budgeting process for many people.

“Millions of people across the UK still rely on cash, particularly those in vulnerable groups, and today we are delivering on our promise to ensure that access to cash is protected in communities across the country,” the country’s economic secretary, John Glen, said regarding the move back in May.

“I want to make sure that people are still able to use cash as part of their daily lives, and it’s crucial to ensure that no person nor community across the UK is left behind as we embrace a more digital world,” he continued. [source]

Yea, a cashless society is a scary society because gov’ts would have complete control over your money.

Harvard lobbies Dems for tax break — while endowment swells to $53.2B

From NY Post.com (Aug. 1, 2022):

Harvard University and other Ivy League schools are lobbying Democrats to roll back a Trump-era excise tax on private endowments even though these institutions are sitting on tens of billions of dollars in cash, according to reports.

Harvard’s president, Lawrence Bacow, personally met with senior Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to lobby against the 1.4% excise tax, according to The Intercept.

Bacow urged Democrats to repeal the tax despite the fact that Harvard’s endowment grew to $53.2 billion last year — the highest in the nation — after the school reported a 33% return on investment.

Harvard isn’t alone among Ivy League schools whose student bodies are made up primarily of youngsters from some of the country’s wealthiest families.

Other top-flight schools such as Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Cornell have also hired lobbyists to push Congress to do away with the tax, which they regard as a measure that was imposed by President Donald Trump as an act of political spite.

Stanford’s endowment swelled to $41.9 billion, a 40.1% return on its investment.

In 2017, Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was passed by a Republican-controlled Congress.

The law imposes an excise tax on investment returns on endowment assets of $500,000 per full time equivalent student at private colleges. The statute applies to around 100 colleges and universities nationwide.

Before Trump signed the tax law, donations to university endowments were shielded from federal and state taxes.

The Post has reached out to Schumer’s office as well as to Harvard, UPenn, Stanford, and Cornell seeking comment.

Bacow told David Rubenstein of the Carlyle Group back in May that the excise tax was a Republican concoction aimed at punishing their political enemies.

“The tax was constructed disproportionately to tax institutions in liberal states,” he said.

Bacow added: “I think this is bad public policy. We’re a charitable institution.” [source]

Pure greed and self-entitlement. You never hear the Left say universities should lower their tuition to students so they don’t go into student loan debt.

Censorship Isn’t the Answer to “Misinformation.” But Retrodiction Markets Might Be

From FEE.org (Feb. 4, 2022):

The recent controversy surrounding the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) Podcast presents some problematic concerns for the nature of free speech. Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rogan has been accused of proliferating “misinformation” about the virus, but the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back came in December (episode # 1757), when the podcaster had as a guest the virologist Dr. Robert Malone, a credentialed expert who holds contrarian views regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.

This episode prompted 270 “medical experts”—most were not actually medical doctors— to send an open letter to Spotify asking the company to take down the inaccurate information disseminated through Rogan’s podcast.

“Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform,” they wrote, “though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”

In short, the outpour of concern over the JRE Podcast promoting inaccurate information put pressure on Spotify to either edit or remove the content, even though, from a legal perspective, the Swedish streaming service has every right to distribute Rogan’s content. (In response to the uproar, Spotify issued a new policy to mitigate “misinformation.”)

When taking into account that Spotify entered into a deal with Rogan totaling over $100 million, it becomes clear the company values Rogan’s content. Ethically, however, there are free speech concerns regarding social pressure to moderate and censor content. It is also evident that Spotify is not terribly troubled by the content produced on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The actions taken primarily appear to be a response to increased public scrutiny and pressure.

The Problem

In a world with a multitude of information outlets, it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate fact from fiction. The Internet has effectively democratized the distribution of media and information, now giving individuals with heterodox perspectives a platform for producing content. Invariably, there will be content producers that perpetuate misinformation. The quandary becomes: who decides what constitutes misinformation?

One option is to have the government decide, but this runs into serious problems. After all, the First Amendment is intended to protect unpopular speech, as demonstrated in Johnson V. Texas (1989) (validated at the state level) and United States v. Eichman (1990) (at the federal level). Generally,  so long as incorrect information is not defamatory, it is protected speech, as the government was not intended to be the ultimate arbiter of the truth.

Another option is to rely on the opinions of credentialed experts. This situation parallels the phenomenon of rational ignorance examined in Public Choice Theory. The basic idea is that deference to experts and public figures is cost-effective to the average layman. No need to read dozens of medical journals filled with opaque jargon. This method presents its own set of issues, however. For one, expert consensus is not unanimous when it comes to COVID-19. Dr. Robert Malone and his critics, for example, are all credentialed experts. Which group of experts should the public listen to? It is also  possible that medical professionals supporting the conventional wisdom have ulterior motives for doing so, which could compromise the integrity of their “expert opinion.”

A Potential Solution

Fortunately, these are not our only alternatives. Instead of passing laws suppressing speech or relying on an oligarchy of experts, why not have a platform where users determine the veracity of the content? For instance, Professor and scholar F.E. Guerra-Pujol suggests in his paper Betting on Conspiracy Theories: Kurt Godel and ‘The Leibniz Cover-Up’  (2021) that we should validate conspiracy theories by betting on them. This could happen through the implementation of a Retrodiction market, a modified version of a Prediction Market.

In prediction markets, participants place a bid on whether or not a future event is likely to occur. Traders can purchase a yes or no contract on the proposition on the speculated event. The cost of a specific contract typically reflects the consensus on the probability of an event happening. For example, “Will Joe Biden select J. Michelle Childs as Stephen Beyers’ replacement on the Supreme Court?"; Yes ($2)/ No ($5).

The benefit is two-fold: the aggregation of information bridges information asymmetries and adjusts for bias. Also, the incentive of a monetary reward gives participants a reason to make accurate judgements.

A Retrodiction Market is a version of Prediction Market where traders bid the validity of past events or information. An excellent example of a Retrodiction Market proposition would be “Do Vaccines Cause Autism?”. If most market participants are willing to risk money supporting a contrarian claim on a given topic, this could be a signal that the claim has some veracity. Alternatively, if most of the money is betting against the claim, there’s a good chance the claim is false.

This solution would effectively allow platform users, regardless of their level of expertise, to judge with a degree of certainty whether an article or other type of media is likely accurate.  

Betting markets such as Guerra-Pujol’s proposed Retrodiction Market assist in validating information by bridging information asymmetries. As explained by Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek, the nature of knowledge is dispersed and is not concentrated in any single individuals or institutions. This is why past attempts to use top-down governance to manage economies have failed, for it is impossible for one person or organization to have all the relevant information to effectively plan economic activity.

The same principle applies to the market-place-of-ideas, since no one person has enough knowledge to validate every theory being promoted on the Internet. An incentives-based method of aggregating consensus can consider different sources of information and the experiences of the participants, resulting in an increased likelihood of accuracy.

Spotify might feel compelled to remove the contentious episodes of the JRE podcast, but capitulating to such pressures would act as an informal form of censorship. A better alternative would be to have Spotify listeners judge the accuracy of the content of these episodes, perhaps through a modified form of a Retrodiction Market to avoid the regulation and compliance requirements placed on gambling activities and binary option contracts.

Spotify subscribers are the consumers, so the company should take their input seriously. If Spotify’s listeners deem the episodes to be problematic, the company could place a disclaimer on the disputed episodes instead of removing them or censoring them outright. Simply put, a voluntary measure that incorporates the consent and consensus of one’s customers is a superior solution to having a corporation act as a top-down content moderator.  [source]

Interesting idea. But Leftists don’t trust markets (ie the masses) so they would rather rely on so-called experts (their experts—Dr. Malone wasn’t one of theirs) and censoring.

The Absurd Fantasy of Biden's 'Zero Emissions' Goal

From Red State.com (Mar. 9, 2022):

Ask the average casual green advocate what it takes to make an electric car “go” and most will answer with: “Batteries.” An accurate, simple, and woefully incomplete response.

Electric cars indeed run on batteries. The batteries that power the vehicles Pete Buttigieg hails as the alternative to oil are made from raw materials and those materials are mined in millions of metric tons each year. Those elements are, smelted, refined, and eventually end up as the power source of an electric car (EV). Some of those elements are in abundance. Some are rare but all of them, are mined. Name an element in an electric car battery and that element is the after-product of a strip mine.

Take, for instance, lithium. Lithium is found in abundance in America. For example, there’s a vast reserve in Nevada at Thatcher Pass, located close to the Oregon border.  Locals and Native Americans don’t want it mined. They see strip mining in general and that site in particular, as a new degradation of the environment. Who is developing the future lithium mine at Thatcher Pass? “Lithium Americas.” Lithium Americas is majority-owned by China’s Ganfeng Lithium Company – which is the world’s biggest strip miner of lithium.

Even with environmental restrictions in place, the Nevada mine will strip millions of tons of earth, to extract just one element needed for EVs.

In other parts of the world, elements needed for EV batteries are strip-mined, with human costs that your average “greenie” doesn’t want to think about. Almost all of the known deposits of cobalt are found in the Congo. The conditions the average miner is subjected to in the Congo are horrific, including child labor and human rights abuses. According to Tesla, Tesla is moving away from cobalt in its batteries. Not so with other domestic EV manufacturers.

A collateral problem with element mining, beyond strip mining, is the cost of those elements on the open market. Nickel is another critical metal in EV batteries and, like any metal, is subject to the predations of market trends and market manipulation. On Tuesday, the cost of a metric ton surged to $100,000, about a 100 percent increase.  The London Metal Exchange stopped trading on nickel.  Just that surge would translate into a six percent increase in the cost of an EV. That’s just one day of trading.

The physical processes in producing EVs have improved, but the process for keeping those EVs running still has its problems, at least for some manufacturers. If you watched the Super Bowl, no doubt you saw an abundance of EV commercials, including multiple ads from GM. But last year, GM had to recall its “Tesla slayer,” the Bolt, because the batteries were burning their Bolts down. Owners charging their Bolts might find the Fire Department in their garages. GM had to recall every Bolt made.

What to do with EV batteries once their effective life is spent? “Experts” envision a recycling process by which used EV batteries are completely recycled. Sounds nice but we aren’t there. Not even close. The cost to do that, at present, exceeds the cost of pulling the elements out of the ground. Where is the most “efficient” EV battery recycler located? China.

Although the Secretary of Transportation loves to speak in platitudes and envisions EVs replacing all vehicles on the road — that’s an unattainable myth. Biden’s National Economic Council Director, Brian Deese, went further, claiming that zero-emissions was the “ultimate goal.” “Eliminating” fossil fuel is no more realistic than a flying DeLorean. It’s patently absurd. Biden’s “Zero Emissions” goal is a fantasy.

In the real world, trucks bring our goods to market in tractors powered by diesel engines. Trains run on diesel, too. We are not replacing those with EVs. The equipment used to mine elements for EVs is all diesel. Smelting those elements generally requires fossil fuels. Ships don’t run on magic dust. Passenger planes will never fly on batteries. Farm equipment is run on engines that drink diesel or gas. The commercial market is now, and for the foreseeable future, powered by oil and gas.

For the consumer, most Americans don’t have the income to replace their gas-powered car with a $140,000 EV with a 300-mile range. Wealthy celebrities are fond of mouthing modern-day “Let them eat cake” lectures. They love to scold the common middle-class American for not getting on the EV train but reality is different. Unlike Steven Colbert, most Americans can’t afford a Tesla. With Biden and his crack team of clowns, now Americans can’t even afford to put gas in their cars. [source]

Other articles on the subject matter:

• The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare
• First new cobalt mine in decades opens in Idaho; key component in electric vehicle batteries

HATE HOAX: Black Lives Matter Operatives Convicted of Arson, Vandalism After Attempting to Frame Conservatives for Their Crimes

From The Gateway Pundit.com (March 7, 2022):

Three Black Lives Matter devotees were convicted on federal charges after a series of vandalism and arson attacks. The three BLM activists tried to frame conservatives and “Proud Boy” members for their crimes.

One of the criminals, John Wesley Wade, was out on bond for Wendy’s arson in Atlanta at the time. John Wesley Wade was charged with burning down the Wendy’s restaurant following the death of Rayshard Brooks who was shot by a police officer after a struggle in the parking lot.

Via The Post Millennial.

A group of Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters were convicted on federal charges after attempting to frame the Proud Boys for a series of vandalism and arson attacks the far-left extremists carried out on Atlanta police vehicles and United States Postal Service property during the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.

John Wesley Wade, 35, Ellie Melvin Brett, 37, and Vida Jones, 19, were arrested in late October 2020 on federal charges in connection to the string of incidents.

The suspects tried to frame the Proud Boys by leaving notes near the sites of vandalism that read “Stand By,” a reference to when former President Donald Trump told the right-wing group to “stand back and stand by” after he was asked to condemn white supremacist militias during the first 2020 presidential debate.
At around 12:50 am on Oct. 2, 2020, several fires were set at the West End Post Office located at 848 Oglethorpe Avenue. One fire was set within a bin of mail on the loading dock of the Post Office building itself, destroying much of the mail and damaging other property in the possession of the US Postal Service. The other fires damaged five USPS vehicles that were parked in the secure, enclosed parking area.

Read the rest here.

[read more]

Evil. Then again they are Marxists. More BLM articles:

• 'Where is all that money going?' Michael Brown's father says Black Lives Matter abandoned Ferguson activists, demands $20 million
• Tax filings reveal how BLM co-founder spent charity funds
• Indiana Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Black Lives Matter Global Organization