This is our government. They can shut down your business, bankrupt you, and tell you that you can’t leave your house while handing you $600 and telling you to thank them for it. Meanwhile, we are funding silly research projects and “promoting democracy” in countries that never seem to be very welcoming of said promotion. Sure, in the grand scheme of things it’s not a massive part of the total money spent by the government, but it’s waste nonetheless. There’s so much more that could be done with this money. $54 billion would build a lot of infrastructure here at home.

IM
@ianmSC
It’s been a while since I updated the chart of Florida, Fauci’s favorite target for criticism, vs. all the states that blindly follow his advice

Shockingly, nearly 3 months after he said Florida was “asking for trouble”, they’re still having the best results

This is the kind of (expletive deleted) garbage (expletive deleted) legislation these (expletive deleted) politicians concoct in the name of serving the public. Impeach them all, burn the place to the ground, and salt the swamp when finished. This is utter and consummate trash.

American conservatives should not be cheering for concentrating power in the hands of a few, whether those few are politicians or business owners. Big business and big government always collude. //

In either case, economic power is being used to enforce a new cultural and political hierarchy. It is often not the owners of the businesses doing this, but the managerial class, who are, in theory at least, only stewards of other people’s wealth.

Those on the right, such as Kevin Williamson, who sneer at boosters of small businesses, ignore these power dynamics. Perhaps it would help them to think of flourishing small businesses as a sort of economic federalism that prevents the further concentration of economic power. Just as we balance our government because concentrated power encourages tyranny, the power of big business should be balanced by a multitude of small and medium enterprises. //

Better to work for the stereotypical rich owner with a mansion on the edge of his factory town than for mid-level managers in Manhattan — the former might see workers as people, but the latter just sees numbers on a spreadsheet.

This culturally radical but economically neoliberal managerial class is the dominant force in the Democratic Party, which is increasingly comfortable identifying as the party of money. One need not look far to find self-congratulatory commentary from leftists praising themselves as the educated, productive class in society. Reality is more complicated, but it is noteworthy that Democrats want to be the party of the elite rather than of the little guy.

This gives conservatives an opportunity to rediscover our natural identity as defenders of localism. We should champion an ethos that sees small as beautiful — and that recognizes that small makes for better coffee.

Playwright David Mamet (who is not a conservative) writing in the Wall Street Journal comes to a different conclusion. Our experts are making bad decisions because that is all they know how to do.

We have seen shameless incompetence rewarded before.

Consider Prof. Frederick Lindemann, a close adviser to Winston Churchill during World War II. He treasured his access to the prime minister. Experts couldn’t get near Churchill unless they came through Lindemann. He feuded with everybody he perceived to be a threat, and was especially threatened by Sir Henry Tizard, who helped to develop radar, one of the most useful tools in the war effort. Naturally Lindemann mocked it. Later, Lindemann dismissed the possibility that the Germans were developing a liquid-fueled rocket capable of bombing London—the V-2.

Lindemann was feted and honored to the end of his days.

Or consider Joseph Stalin’s science adviser, Trofim Lysenko. He, too, had complete access to the boss. He believed that plants, like good Communists, could be educated—that peas and wheat could be trained to grow in winter. The Soviet ministry of agriculture, acting on Lysenko’s bogus theories, managed to ruin crops all over Eurasia and starve as many as 10 million people. Later his ideas influenced agriculture policy in Mao’s China and killed several million more.

Lysenko was a talented flatterer. He outlived Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev, dying peacefully in 1976.

Now we have climate change and its attendant alarmists. In 2001 a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted a recent study claiming that the Earth’s temperature had risen dramatically during the period coincident with the introduction of fossil fuels—the famous “hockey stick graph.” The news media, backed by those parts of the “scientific community” the media chose to honor, presented this analysis as though it were indisputable fact. In fact, it was riddled with problems. That would have been fine—no harm done—except that the American left, and the running dogs in education and the press, saw the fear occasioned by the hockey stick as an opportunity. No correction was forthcoming.

Most recently we have Covid-19. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that masks are useless outside health-care facilities, that there is little possibility of catching the virus from a “passing interaction in a public place.” Happy news, save that they, one week later, issued a squishy semiretraction, saying, in effect, “It couldn’t hurt.”

What could the shutdown hurt? A pandemic was allowed to destroy the American economy. Tens of millions are driven out of work, cover their faces, and walk down the streets in fear of their neighbors.

A friend owns a restaurant. He is going broke. He had seating outside, but winter approaches and heaters are back-ordered until next spring. He is holding on. One is “permitted” to sit at his tables and eat without a mask. Indeed, how would one eat while wearing one? Does the virus know that one is sitting down?

He greeted two regular customers the other night, and sat at their table to chat. He took off his mask. The customer informed him that the regulations stated that employees of a restaurant are required by law to wear masks at all times. The owner put his mask on and rose. But does the virus know he is an employee of the restaurant? With whom would he argue, being an employee and a proprietor? With the virus?

The virus here is government—or at least the incompetents who advise our rulers and cannot admit the legitimacy of dissension. Absent intervention, this virus may eventually kill the host organism.

The comments by Kerry come from a panel discussion hosted by the World Economic Forum earlier in November, following the 2020 election. The host of the panel is Borge Brende, the president of the World Economic Forum, an organization that has thus far devoted more time and money to promoting the Great Reset than any other group in the world.

These quotes are noteworthy for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important is that Kerry makes it clear that Biden himself supports the Great Reset and that under a Biden administration, the reset “will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.” //

put squarely in front of a lot of these CEOs the issue of stakeholder versus shareholder—which is really at the bottom of what I was talking about, about the dysfunctionality of government and the reaction of citizens. It’s shareholder versus stakeholder. And the issue is whether or not we’re going to move fast enough to provide for what people need at this moment. I think the greatest opportunity we have to do that is in dealing with the climate crisis. … //

“ESG [environment, social, and governance standards] is now in every discussion in every board room. Many, many more financial institutions are looking for what was fashionably called ‘impact investing,’ but everybody is now considering how do we have an impact that’s positive and meet ESGs. The global development standards, the SDGs [U.N. Sustainable Development Goals] are being talked about more.”

Kerry finishes by talking about Joe Biden’s commitment to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and Biden’s plans to impose carbon-dioxide restrictions.

SOURCE: John Kerry’s remarks at “The Great Reset: Building Future Resilience to Global Risks,” World Economic Forum, weforum.org, November 17, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/the-great-reset-building-future-resilience-to-global-risks. (Remarks begin just before the 26-minute mark.)

The future of the United States depends on our ability to meet the military challenges coming from China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran in this turbulent 21st century.

According to The Heritage Foundation’s recently published 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength, the U.S. military is only marginally able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests.

The idea that a senior official would actively lie to the Secretary of State and the President in order to carry out their personal foreign policy is incredible. It shows the degree to which the “interagency process” that deity ferociously fellated by the rotund Alexander Vindman as his excuse for betraying his oath and violating his orders to divulge a presidential conversation to someone not authorized access is actually what sets US foreign policy. That, my friends, is the essence of the Deep State. When people believe that institutional “equities” take precedence over the orders of elected officials, we no longer have a republic. The people that engaged in that activity are not heroes; they are the worst sort of scum who have blood on their hands because they refused to follow the US Constitution.

With critical race theory seeping its way into government agencies and all levels of society, the state of the nation could turn dire if it isn't stopped.

Surveying the urban war zones, property destruction, and the shuttered businesses across so many American cities, many wonder, “Just how did we get here, and will we ever regain normalcy?” Those two questions loom over the November election, but what’s really at stake is a choice between civilization and chaos.

Most people don’t realize there is a pernicious ideology behind the Black Lives Matter movement and the Democrat leadership that empowers it, and it’s called critical race theory. Most importantly, this theory is an integral part of Democrats’ strategy to establish a “new normalcy” in every institution, from public schools to all government agencies.
On the eve of Labor Day weekend, following the reporting of Christopher Rufo on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” that critical race theory had infiltrated many of the agencies of the Federal bureaucracy, President Trump issued a directive that all federal agencies cancel training programs based in the theory. On Thursday, Trump announced a 1776 Commission to directly respond to CRT with accurate historical education.

Unbeknownst to most, critical race theory education and training programs were being promoted throughout various federal government agencies through the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which came into existence from President Obama’s 2011 Executive Order 13583. His stated purpose was to “Establish a Coordinated Government Initiative to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in the Federal Workforce.” He amped that up in his last six months in office, perhaps to institutionalize his legacy.

In July 2016, Obama rolled out the “Inclusive Diversity Strategic Plan,” calling on federal agencies to “fully utilize policies, programs, and systems that support inclusive diversity through increasingly focused, innovative, and accelerated communication and learning strategies.”

To make sense of all this, it’s important to recognize that diversity and inclusion were already well established in the federal government long before Obama’s 2011 executive order. At that time, the percentage of blacks and minorities in the federal workforce was about 18 percent and 34 percent respectively, a disproportionately larger representation than in either the civilian population or the private-sector workforce.

By the end of the Obama administration, the percentage of minority representation in the federal government was even higher. Thus the 2016 initiative was probably less about expanding “diversity” and “inclusion” than it was about indoctrination — the “focused, innovative, and accelerated communication and learning strategies” for government personnel — which is where “critical race theory” comes in.

A 2015 study found that CA was DEAD LAST in manufacturing investment. Schiff wants to pretend like it isn’t the state’s progressive policies that drive people out but let’s review one outfits reasons why businesses are leaving.

Number 1 is taxes. Color me shocked. This goes without saying that progressive policies require high taxes. File this under DUH.

Number 2 is wages. California has a 15 dollar an hour minimum wage coming down the pike and many businesses are fleeing before that goes into effect. Progressive fights for higher minimum wages have plagued the state for years.

Number 3 is unions. And who do Unions support? Progressives. Next?

Number 4 is environmental regulations. And who put in all of the environmental regulations? Progressives.

Sorry there Schiff. Progressives killed this state. Progressive policies are definitely incompatible with business.

Mark Jaycox has written a long article on the US Executive Order 12333: “No Oversight, No Limits, No Worries: A Primer on Presidential Spying and Executive Order 12,333“:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3486701

Abstract: Executive Order 12,333 (“EO 12333”) is a 1980s Executive Order signed by President Ronald Reagan that, among other things, establishes an overarching policy framework for the Executive Branch’s spying powers. Although electronic surveillance programs authorized by EO 12333 generally target foreign intelligence from foreign targets, its permissive targeting standards allow for the substantial collection of Americans’ communications containing little to no foreign intelligence value. This fact alone necessitates closer inspection.

This working draft conducts such an inspection by collecting and coalescing the various declassifications, disclosures, legislative investigations, and news reports concerning EO 12333 electronic surveillance programs in order to provide a better understanding of how the Executive Branch implements the order and the surveillance programs it authorizes. The Article pays particular attention to EO 12333’s designation of the National Security Agency as primarily responsible for conducting signals intelligence, which includes the installation of malware, the analysis of internet traffic traversing the telecommunications backbone, the hacking of U.S.-based companies like Yahoo and Google, and the analysis of Americans’ communications, contact lists, text messages, geolocation data, and other information.

After exploring the electronic surveillance programs authorized by EO 12333, this Article proposes reforms to the existing policy framework, including narrowing the aperture of authorized surveillance, increasing privacy standards for the retention of data, and requiring greater transparency and accountability.

Jones • September 28, 2020 8:04 AM

There’s a great New York Times article on the NSA from 1983 that details how the agency was created by executive order and how Congress has never passed any law limiting its power or clarifying its scope:

https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/27/magazine/the-silent-power-of-the-nsa.html

There’s another report by the Brennan Center called “What Went Wrong With the FISA Court?” that details the creation of FISA after the Church Committee hearings, and how post-911, FISA has been amended to require the types of activities that FISA was created to prevent:

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/what-went-wrong-fisa-court

Both documents are important for understanding what EO 12333 means in practice today.

Cody • September 28, 2020 10:00 AM

Reagan’s EO 12333 replaced Gerald Ford’s EO 11905.
Ford’s 1976 EO was a reluctant response to the shocking revelations of the 1975 Senate ‘Church Committee’, which uncovered widespread illegal domestic spying activity (& illicit forein interventions) by Federal agencies including USArmy, IRS, CIA, NSA. Most of the Church findings were kept classified from the American public.

Church did make public the discovery of “Operation SHAMROCK”, in which the major US telecommunications companies shared all their traffic with the NSA from 1945 to the early 1970s.

There is a difference between Democrat and conservative Republican governance. Democrats, inherently statists, are all about control. Their deepest desire is to exert control over every aspect of a citizen’s life. We’ve seen some of the extremes in Democrat-dominated New York City, which forbids the sale of large fountain drinks.

Sometimes that nattering, Karen-like impulse to rule over the most minor things can be fatal. City ordinances against selling “loosies,” single cigarettes, often brought from out of state in an attempt to avoid the absurd New York State and city taxes., force police officers to waste time on minor offenses. Back in July 2014, New York City police encountered Eric Garner selling loosies. In the struggle that ensued, Garner died from asphyxiation. The officers were not indicted. The point here is not the actions of the officers, which have been well addressed elsewhere. It’s that excessive government — nanny stating — was the precursor to that confrontation and untimely death. //

In New York, more than 5,800 nursing home residents have died in connection to COVID-19, the most in the country.

On March 25, New York officials ordered nursing homes to admit infected patients, if medically stable. Then, as deaths mounted inside the facilities, Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed the policy on May 10 under pressure from advocates and relatives.

In contrast, Florida, which never ordered nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients, reported 1043 nursing home resident deaths as of May 22, despite having more of the elderly care facilities than New York.

https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/05/29/how-new-york-florida-and-other-states-handled-covid-19-threat-to-nursing-homes-differently/111877750/

The sacrosanct "career prosecutors" are liberals -- shocking.

Redfield finally considers some of the carnage he's caused but only to threaten us with more if we don't start wearing masks.

deornwulf
4 hours ago
Lesson 42 on how to make a Snowflake meltdown

1. Ask the snowflake if he, she, it believes in American Exceptionalism
2. After the snowflake says "no," ask if America has any business interfering with the internal affairs of another country, using the US Military to achieve the goal.
3. After the snowflake answers "No f'ing way," ask the snowflake to explain why it is wrong of President Trump to bring our troops home from these "endless war" deployments.

The snowflake will meltdown and sputter "...but, but, ORANGE MAN BAD!"

When government's first reaction in a crisis is to restrict your freedoms, it's not actually fighting anything. //

The first reaction of a government during a crisis shouldn’t be determining what it can restrict you from doing. That’s the thought process of someone who believes more government can fix things, when all this crisis has shown us is that more government creates a bigger mess.

Let's say we all do it Gavin's way, would it even stop the fires?

Should Christians try to influence laws and politics? Historically, Christians have disagreed. Dr. Wayne Grudem's booklet offers a historical and theological overview of the disagreement and offers an answer that lends itself to thoughtful action. The booklet is adapted from a chapter of his book, Politics- According to the Bible: A Comprehensive Resource for Understanding Modern Political Issues in Light of Scripture. Here, he addresses five views of Christian involvement that he finds unbiblical, incomplete, or spurious. He closes with a more balanced and biblical solution.

Yesterday, in a stunning development, the Ninth Circuit Appeals Court ruled that the surveillance program revealed by Snowden was illegal and was not justified by any of the supposed cases of terrorist activity that were stopped as a result of the mass surveillance program. Perhaps what is most alarming about this ruling is the numerous government officials that testified in both courts and to Congress, denying the program even existed. //

At this point, it is important we review exactly what happened in the Snowden case. Remember, Snowden attempted to go through the proper channels to make his complaints about the program. Later, after Snowden went to the press to expose the program, US Government officials including Clapper LIED about the existence of the program. //

Edward Snowden
@Snowden
Seven years ago, as the news declared I was being charged as a criminal for speaking the truth, I never imagined that I would live to see our courts condemn the NSA's activities as unlawful and in the same ruling credit me for exposing them.

And yet that day has arrived. //

Snowden may not be a saint, but he certainly isn’t a sinner. A sin of omission (lack of options of where he could safely go) versus a sin of commission (intentionally going to Russia to deliver covert information) are two completely different things. Snowden may be guilty of the first, but he certainly is not guilty of the second. It is time we put away the Government’s case against him and allow for us to bring him home, not to a hero’s welcome but to one of apology for Intelligence Officials not heeding his warnings and creating the conditions for the last 7 years of his life. It is time to #PardonSnowden.

This is the cathartic story we all could use.