Richard Goldberg Retweeted

Noah Pollak
@NoahPollak
Helping Iran develop its nuclear program in order to stop Iran from developing its nuclear program seems like a smart way to do foreign policy
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AFP News Agency
@AFP
· 5h
#BREAKING US waives sanctions on Iran's civil nuclear program
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5:59 PM · Feb 4, 2022
I would counsel US leadership to engage with oil-producing countries to explore ways to bring down spot prices and reduce dependency on Russian supplies to develop an economic wedge to signal Putin that, with or without sanctions, his free money to play monopoly next to Ukraine will disappear.
It remains to be seen if the Biden administration is pragmatic enough to shed the bondage of “woke” progressivism and climate change politics, even for a little while, in order to create an effective asymmetric threat to Putin’s financial ability to threaten Ukraine. //
Regardless, the real question is would either the US or Russia welcome a brokered “crab walk” strategy to the power play negotiations at hand. The consensus of the Atlantic Council panelists was no. I agree. The US and Russia both like engaging in direct loggerhead positional bargaining too much.
The Sound of Inevitability
However, the standoff won’t last forever. The oil market will change to one that isn’t so rich at some point. It’ll happen whether the US uses price manipulation as an asymmetric weapon or not.
Biden claims his spending bills will “reduce inflation.”
“Biden’s wrong,” Henderson responds. “There’s no economic theory that says when the government spends a huge amount more money, prices fall.”
Some people want government to stop inflation by imposing price controls.
That would be “horrible,” says Henderson.
Price controls were tried before. In 1971, President Richard Nixon ordered a freeze on all prices.
It sounded reasonable. Too much inflation? Our intuition tells us that government can fix that with a price freeze. But “that’s where people’s intuition goes wrong,” says Henderson.
Wrong because prices are not just money; they are also information.
“Prices are signals … that guide people,” explains Henderson. “Mess that up, you’ve really messed up the economy.”
Price changes tell buyers what to avoid and sellers what to produce. When COVID-19 hit, the price of face masks rose sharply. Immediately, producers made more. New Balance switched from making footwear to making masks.
Flexible pricing gets suppliers to produce what people really need. //
“Price controls are like saying it’s really cold and I’m going to solve that by breaking the thermometer,” says Henderson. “It’s actually worse than that because breaking the thermometer doesn’t reduce the temperature, whereas price controls cause actual shortages!”
In one week alone, President Biden eclipsed everything Donald Trump and his supporters said about the validity of the 2020 election. By framing his false claims of “voter suppression” and “election subversion” as Jim Crow 2.0, our commander in chief has guaranteed a divided America. The only remaining question is whether he has also guaranteed a violent America.
Yesterday, President Joe “The Uniter” Biden proclaimed on Twitter that “Jim Crow 2.0 is about two insidious things: voter suppression and election subversion. It’s about making it harder to vote, who gets to count the vote, and whether your vote counts at all.”
And what is Jim Crow 2.0? State election integrity laws in effect in every or nearly every state, which Biden and his fellow Democrats want to gut with the passage of the so-called “Freedom to Vote Act,” which President Biden promoted in the same tweet. //
What Biden just told the country and the world is this: that when Democrats lose in November 2022, or thereafter suffer defeat in the presidential election of 2024, it will be because of voter suppression and election subversion—it will be because black Americans were denied the right to vote.
Biden’s peremptory challenge to the election results far surpasses anything Trump said or did. At least, Trump made it about him, claiming the election was stolen from him. Biden cast the die about democracy, “domestic enemies,” and race, all while declaring his words fact and not hyperbole.
May God save our country if the people actually believe him.
Oil is the largest source of foreign income for Russia. Every dollar per barrel increase is a windfall Putin can spend on the Russian military and foreign adventures. In October 2020, with President Donald Trump’s energy independence policy, the price of crude was $39.90 a barrel. Today, with Biden’s anti-American energy policy, the price of crude has jumped to $85.43 a barrel.
So, despite Biden’s strong words about sanctions, the effect of his policies has been a $45.53 a barrel increase in profit (or 114.11 percent) for Putin to pay off his oligarchs, buy better military equipment, and engage in foreign adventures. Any supposed sanctions Biden imposed would have to overcome this windfall—and then go much deeper—for Putin to even feel it.
“He's got to recognize that when he was elected, people were not looking for him to transform America. They were looking to get back to normal. To stop the crazy,” Romney said of Biden.
Everybody's talking about Georgia because the president went there, Romney said. But “it's easier to vote in Georgia, even under the new legislation, than it is to vote in Delaware, or to vote in New York, or to vote in New Jersey. And no one is saying, ‘Oh, New York has discriminatory practices.’”
Opponents of pending election reform legislation claim it would take power away from the states and have the federal government essentially run elections. The voting rights legislation is “clearly a political play to appeal to a base in the Democratic Party,” Romney said.
Romney’s solution — and that of about 12 other senators, both Republicans and Democrats — is to reform the Electoral Count Act. That 1887 law governs how members of Congress handle Electoral College results. But, he said, “An effort to really work at a bipartisan basis hasn't happened yet.”
Joe Biden has turned out to be the great unifier alright. He’s got most everyone silently agreeing that he’s demented. Where is the universal condemnation of these acts, this behavior, and that divisive man who lies so easily and blithely?
And therein lies the emerging danger of this 46th aberrant presidency. Just as various forms of flu and COVID variants are becoming everyday endemic in our lives, we are as a society coming to accept this amazingly incompetent president as endemically part of our shared national life.
The excuse: What can anyone do about it, right? The media, which was handed its constitutional protections to hold accountable officials on all sides, is certainly doing little to question the dangerous situation. Democrats in Congress know many of them are about to be evicted in midterm elections come November. They’re not going to point out the emperor’s invisible attire. //
Biden is so insecure and/or dim that he’s incapable of realizing how forgiving and how much credit Americans are prepared to award a leader who at least appears to be humble, admits mistakes, seeks support. //
Meanwhile, we cannot allow ourselves to become accustomed to and comfortable with this dolt in office, to wince at his incoherence and rampant stupidities and let them pass. That’s what that crowd is counting on.
“Oh, it’s just goofy ol’ Uncle Joe.” That’s been his crutch and excuse for decades. Too dangerous now. Because Uncle Joe has a quick temper — and the nuclear launch codes.
Frustrated. Disappointed. Nervous.
Those are the three of the main things Joe Biden is making Americans feel right now, according to a new CBS/YouGov poll. Only 26 percent of Americans think things in the country are going well.
Something Incredible Happened Yesterday After Democrats Demanded an End to the Filibuster – RedState
Per those on the left, including Democrat politicians, “white supremacy” had won because the filibuster is a “Jim Crow relic” only used by virulent racists. Don’t believe me? Just ask Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hakeem Jeffries, and Ayanna Pressley
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley
@RepPressley
It’s time to abolish the Jim Crow filibuster so we can restore voting rights & keep power in the hands of the people.
10:00 AM · Jan 11, 2022
But then something incredible happened. Literally hours after the Democrats embarked on a major offensive to abolish the filibuster as a tool of racists everywhere, they then…used the filibuster. They didn’t just block any bill either. They did Russia’s Vladimir Putin a solid by blocking Ted Cruz’s bill to sanction the Nordstream 2 pipeline.
Frank Thorp V
@frankthorp
And 6.5 hours after the vote began, a GOP bill to impose sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has FAILED, 55-44, needing 60 to pass.
9:44 PM · Jan 13, 2022
You couldn’t have scripted this any better, and I’m pretty sure Ted Cruz knew exactly what he was doing here. He timed things perfectly to once again show what rabid hypocrites the Democrats are. That the bill was stopped also represented a massive win for the Russians was just the cherry-on-top. The White House actually spent the last week lobbying for Putin in this case.
But remember, it’s Republicans who are soft on Russia.
In 2021, Kirsch was very vocal about the government’s negligence in their failure to promote life-saving treatments and therapeutics. In a post that brought attention to Drs. Fareed and Tyson’s book, Kirsch called out the CDC and NIH for blatantly ignoring this information.
“The entire pandemic response was unnecessary: COVID is very treatable if treated early
“This book shows that we’ve known about effective treatments since March 2020.
“Had the CDC publicized such treatments, it would have made the entire pandemic response completely unnecessary: lockdowns, vaccines, mandates, masking, business closures, etc. Everyone would have gotten natural immunity and the pandemic would have ended with virtually no deaths.
“Tyson and Freed tried contacting the FDA, CDC, and NIH, but nobody would talk to them or return their calls. The same is true today. They are just “too busy” to talk to them. Keeping patients out of the hospital and morgue is not a priority for them.
“The same is true of the mainstream media. The NY Times refused to run op-eds about early treatments and CNN said that they were too busy covering the vaccines and people dying from COVID that they didn’t have the resources to talk about early treatment protocol that would have prevented everything.
“Instead of promoting early treatment using repurposed drugs, the CDC instructed people to just stay home and do nothing until they were so sick that they had to go to the hospital. Even after drugs in the Tyson/Fareed protocol like ivermectin and fluvoxamine have been proven time and time again to work in clinical trials and, in the case of ivermectin, published in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, the NIH still fails to acknowledge them rating them NEUTRAL. This means that most doctors will not use them.”
The devil went down to Georgia and came back a lame duck.
Joe Biden’s angry speech in the Peach State on Tuesday about so-called “voting rights” was stupid, divisive and full of lies, and it also exposed his impotence. //
Inflation has hit a 40-year high, store shelves are empty, COVID numbers are at record levels with tests in scarce supply, violent crime is surging in blue cities and millions of illegal immigrants are still pouring over the southern border.
Distract the peasants
But all this flailing president can do in the face of cascading, mainly self-inflicted, crises is to gin up a fake political controversy to distract the peasants he imagines are out there hanging on his every word.
The man elected to unite the country coughed, shouted, lied, said “y’all,” and railed obsessively against Donald Trump.
“I’m tired of being quiet!” he yelled. //
On the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell crisply summed up Biden’s “rant.”
“He shouted that if you disagree with him, you’re George Wallace … If you don’t pass the laws he wants, you’re Bull Connor, and if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled, one-party control of the country, well, you’re Jefferson Davis.”
President Joe Biden this week told an audience of black students in Atlanta that he was arrested during the civil rights movement, a claim that drew four Pinocchios from a liberal newspaper.
Jacki Kotkiewicz
@jackikotkiewicz
This is the HIGHEST inflation we've seen in OVER 39 YEARS #Bidenflation
Gas: +49.6% since last year
Bacon: +18.6%
Eggs: +11.1%
Chicken: +10.4%
Fresh Fish: +10.2%
Shoes: +6%
Dresses: +8%
Cigarettes: +9.6%
Furniture: +13.8%
Used Cars & Trucks: +37.3%
Car & Truck Rentals: +36%
8:47 AM · Jan 12, 2022
Lastly, it should be mentioned that the Biden administration actually changed the calculation for inflation. In other words, it’s likely that 7 percent number is watered down, making the comparison to 1982 apples to oranges. That’s how bad things are.
As Biden wraps up his first year in the White House, he has held fewer news conferences than any of his five immediate predecessors at the same point in their presidencies, and has participated in fewer media interviews than any of his recent predecessors.
[…]
Biden has done just 22 media interviews, fewer than any of his six most recent White House predecessors at the same point in their presidencies.
The 46th president has held just nine formal news conferences — six solo and three jointly with visiting foreign leaders. […]
Former President Donald Trump, who regularly pilloried the media, did 92 interviews in his first year in office, more than two dozen of those with friendly interlocutors at Fox News. But Trump also held lengthy sessions with ABC News, The Associated Press, the New York Times, Reuters and other outlets whose coverage he impugned throughout his presidency.
Biden’s 22 media interviews have included one-on-one sessions with journalists at three of the major television networks, three CNN town halls, an appearance on MSNBC, a trio of regional television interviews via Zoom, as well as conversations with late night host Jimmy Fallon and ESPN’S Sage Steele. He’s given just three print interviews. //
Planet Ponzi @PlanetPonzi
#JoeBiden Is Not Able To Read A Teleprompter Or Hold A Press Conference Where Questions Are Allowed. #Biden only appears on late-night comedy programs with comedians who serve up prearranged fat meatball pitches.
1:22 PM · Jan 9, 2022
Perhaps what fascinated me the most was the blatant statements many regular people are making about Democrats and Biden. It’s not just the “I did it” stickers at the gas pumps. It is now a cultural phenomenon. Not just a rural one, but it’s spilling over to the suburbs. People are not as afraid to be vocal.
Whether it was visiting one of the tourist traps on Duval St. in Key West on New Years and seeing all anti-Biden paraphernalia for sale, to overhearing loud conversations in Noble, Oklahoma, at a local diner, I noticed that the right is finally getting vocal after being silenced for so long, especially when Trump was president. //
It was never about Donald Trump. Trump was merely a vessel that needed to happen. I’m not even white, but I have felt this attack against American values and heritage for decades now. When I had clientele from the liberal Hollywood elite, one said something powerful to me, “America has no culture.” I chose not to respond but in my head, I was thinking, “Wow, I love American culture, our history, our success.” That shocked me. She was a white liberal who came from the heartland, in the Midwest, but was there so much self hatred, she couldn’t see how great this country is?
Fast forward about 15 years later, the Democrats are even more self-hating about America. I took a road trip across country, one of many I’ve done in my lifetime. Never have I seen so many Trump signs. Rural and suburban America were quiet for so long but now they are tired of being silenced. “Let’s Go Brandon” was the perfect moment for America-loving Americans to express their frustration without being nasty. Compare this to the behavior and nastiness from the left in cities during the Trump years (and even continuing until today).
PJMoran
7 hours ago
All the US and NATO allies should do is recognize and agree to assist Russia in defense of its borders existing as of January 1, 2013 excluding contested areas of Georgia and areas Japan controls or claims in the east. This of course excludes the Crimea. So then how can the NATO threat survive. Putin needs to sell gas to Germany and the EU. The EU should definitely ramp up LNG reception facilities. Put NATO troops way south of DONBAS adjacent to Armiyansk and at key points bordering the Crimea. Harass electronically Bielogorsk and its satellite facilities. Build up in SE Ukraine. Check where the Crimea gets water from. Get some serious non woke minds running this pitiful Biden roll over show. Remind the Russian people that in the east where large oil and gas and other minerals are abundant that the Chinese have crept into those areas.
Canceling sanctions is a telling example of modern Democrats’ dangerous naivete in foreign affairs. Because they’re uncomfortable with using power, appearing strong. That’s what Barack Obama was apologizing for on that global apology tour. They seem to think goodwill gestures will be reciprocated in big-power diplomacy.
In 2009, Obama tried the same stupidity. As a product of the Chicago Democrat machine, you’d think he would understand that not using your political strengths is a sign of weakness. //
NATO is a defensive alliance coming off 20 years of unsuccessful nation-building in Afghanistan. About half its 29 members do not meet their alliance defense expenditure commitments. And Trump called them out.
But Putin’s position is that the alliance threatens Russia. So, he creates a likely empty threat to invade Ukraine, then maneuvers to be paid off by Biden concessions.
So, tomorrow in Geneva, Russia and the U.S. will meet and then later with NATO ministers in Brussels. Administration officials leaked last week that Biden was going to offer a reduction of U.S. troops in Europe to buy Putin off from doing what he wants us to think he might do.
The U.S maintains about 70,000 troops in Europe, including some 6,000 rotating through Poland and the Baltic states, which used to be in the USSR but now are independent and NATO members.
And, the officials said, Biden would expect similar pullbacks by Russian forces, especially near the Baltic states. Try listing any concessions that Vladimir Putin has made to anyone in recent years. We’ll wait.
Mollie
@MZHemingway
Jill Biden was given her own entrance music and there is some dispute over how that came about (and whether it's atrocious or not), by @BecketAdams
‘Fanfare for the First Lady’
tbecketadams.substack.com
2:55 PM · Jan 5, 2022
The United States Marine Corps Band was instructed last fall to come up with an entrance theme for the pretend doctor, a source told the Washington Examiner. And just like that, the band now has in its repertoire an original composition titled “Fanfare for the First Lady.”
word is that they finally awarded their first contract for the tests yesterday. They still don’t have the website through which you could order the tests ready yet, and the tests wouldn’t be available to be shipped to people for several more weeks yet, according to White House officials. Then the 500 million tests wouldn’t all be available at once — when tests become available. They’ll be doled out over months. This means they’ll basically be out of tests quickly, and then doled out with an eyedropper afterward because 500 million for the whole country isn’t much of anything.
Translation? If you care about tests, you’re not going to get any real solutions from Joe Biden. So, this sounds like it’s going to continue to be a problem, especially for schools and/or businesses who may require testing, if you can’t find the tests.
The thing that gets me about all this is that they’ve had months to work this out and still haven’t figured it out.
Think about this for a moment. President Donald Trump was able to get multiple vaccines developed, up, and ready for distribution in record time from March to December of 2020 — a feat that usually takes years — through a unique private-public partnership.
Joe Biden can’t even get a test distribution plan together for tests that have been long developed in more time, despite promising more testing before he came in.
Venmo, PayPal and Cash App will now have to report transactions totaling more than $600 to the IRS as Biden plans to ramp up financial enforcement //
The new reporting requirement will ensure that small businesses that receive payments through those apps are paying their fair share in taxes on them
Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, third-party payment processors were required to report such transactions
The changes will be included during the 2022 tax season
The payment apps were previously required to send users 1099-K forms if their gross income exceeded $20,000 or had more than 200 transactions per year //
The new rule is only for goods and services transactions, not personal, such as paying a roommate for rent or reimbursing a friend. It also excludes anyone selling a personal item at a loss, such as a couch bought for $700 and sold for $650. //
The new tax rule is separate from a proposed IRS reporting requirement that originally would have handed over transaction data on accounts with more than $600 aggregate inflow and outflow. That proposal, originally part of President Biden's Build Back Better plan, was raised to a $10,000 threshold after much pushback, and has not yet been acted on by Congress.