5/05/2023

If greed good or bad, or does it mean how you define greed?

 

May 5, 2023


Greed is good, so long as it is wanting more and more of something that is beneficial to you in context. In other words, food is good for you, but if you eat too much, you become fat and nearly immovable. Greed for money is good, so long as you earned it all and didn’t steal it. Money is a means of exchange for goods and services, and in the context of your personal life having more of that is good, so long as you traded value for value to get it. Greed basically just means wanting more of something, and that is not bad if it enhances your life rationally. If you want to read a book that goes into details of the benefits of greed, then I would recommend Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. She outlines a new and objective morality based on man’s nature as a rational animal. And she points out that so long as your greed does not harm you (like eating too much or drinking too much water or breathing too deeply and repetitively (hyperventilate) and other things like that). Greed could be understood as wanting the best life can offer, and that is not bad at all. Here is what Ayn Rand had to say about greed:

“Capitalism has been called a system of greed—yet it is the system that raised the standard of living of its poorest citizens to heights no collectivist system has ever begun to equal, and no tribal gang can conceive of.”


A sea-going Sodom and Gomorrah invites Pearl Harbor 2.0

 


May 5, 2023

On what may be the eve of a devastating shooting-war with the Chinese Communist Party, the Biden Pentagon is simultaneously demoralizing those in uniform and emboldening the enemy.

A new U.S. Navy marketing campaign, supposedly aimed at young Americans, features a cross-dressed male sailor beckoning them to enlist. The message is: a once-squared-away military service is now a sea-going Sodom and Gomorrah.  

Such a “fundamental transformation” has been a goal throughout Obama-Biden’s three terms since it not only targets a bedrock of our national security, but one that’s long exemplified the best of our national traditions and values. 

If such radical social engineering of our armed forces results in our defeat, it will be proof positive that the wrecking operation inflicted by those “doing business as Joe Biden” is not just harming our country. It’s benefiting the President’s masters in Beijing. 

This is Frank Gaffney. 

The thinking error that makes people susceptible to climate change denial

 May 5, 2023

This article was written to tell those who use reason, common sense, and facts that you are stupid.  This article is designed to make theories that have proven false for over 50 years seem true.  Why am I posting this article? So, you will know where and what the lies are about climate change and know how to combat the lies and hoax of climate change. Read thoroughly.

Cold spells often bring climate change deniers out in force on social media, with hashtags like #ClimateHoax and #ClimateScam. Former President Donald Trump often chimes in, repeatedly claiming that each cold snap disproves the existence of global warming.

From a scientific standpoint, these claims of disproof are absurd. Fluctuations in the weather don’t refute clear long-term trends in the climate.

Yet many people believe these claims, and the political result has been reduced willingness to take action to mitigate climate change.

Why are so many people susceptible to this type of disinformation? My field, psychology, can help explain – and help people avoid being misled.

Full Article

Sanders’s $17 minimum wage proposal creates political headache for Schumer

 May 5, 2023

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is creating a political headache for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) by pushing hard for a vote on a bill to raise the national minimum wage to $17 an hour — a proposal Senate Democrats facing tough reelection races opposed in 2021.  

Sanders, who remains very popular with the Democratic Party’s progressive base, warned Thursday there would be “political consequences” for lawmakers who oppose his effort. 

“We’re going to push it as quickly and hard as we can,” Sanders told reporters at a Thursday press conference.  

“Right now we’re focusing on making sure that we have the votes in the Senate and the House to raise the minimum wage,” he said. “I don’t think there’s a state in the country where people do not believe we should raise the minimum wage. I would hope that every member of Congress understands and there will be political consequences … if they don’t.” 

Sanders’s proposal to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $17 an hour over five years is an updated version of the proposal he pushed in 2021 to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which eight Senate Democrats voted against.  

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WHO declares end to Covid-19 global public health emergency

 


May 5, 2023

The spread of Covid-19 is no longer a global public health emergency, the World Health Organization declared Friday.

“For more than a year, the pandemic has been on a downward trend with population immunity increasing from vaccination and infection, mortality decreasing, and the pressure on health systems easing,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva.

“This trend has allowed most countries to return to life as we knew it before Covid-19,” Tedros said. “It’s therefore with great hope that I declared Covid-19 over as a global health emergency.”

Nearly 7 million people have died from the virus worldwide since the WHO first declared the emergency on Jan. 30, 2020, according to the U.N. organization’s official data. Tedros said the true death toll is at least 20 million.

The WHO’s decision comes as the U.S. is set to end its national public health emergency on Thursday.

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J6 Political Prisoner Dominic Pezzola’s Attorney: Evidence Confirms J6 Was An Organized Government Plot — There Is NO EVIDENCE Of Conspiracy By Patriots

 

May 5, 2023

Defense attorney Roger Roots, representing J6 political prisoner Dominic Pezzolla, was on “pins and needles” during a call with The Gateway Pundit Thursday morning as jurors reached a partial verdict on the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial.

Suspense suddenly morphed into shock, heartbreak and despair. An hour later, a full verdict was deliberated convicting Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Ethan Nordean on three counts of conspiracy and every other felony leveled against them by the Department of Justice.

 “I mean look at Tarrio — Tarrio was not even in DC! Look at Pezolla, he had only been a Proud Boy for 30 days,” Roots lamented. “They convicted everyone on the breaking of the fence, including Tarrio — are you kidding me breaking the fence from 50 miles away?”

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America's civics crisis means too many students don't even know the Declaration of Independence

 

May 5, 2023

If civics is the what of American political life, history is the why

Only 60 percent of American 8th graders have a basic understanding of U.S. history, according to the new Nation’s Report Card scores recently released, and only 13 percent of them are proficient in the subject. Roughly three in every ten of them lack a basic understanding of civics.

In context, this means that much of the rising generation likely doesn’t know who wrote the Declaration of Independence or why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. They cannot tell you the reasons each side fought the Civil War or in which war the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. They don’t know about Congressional veto power or how the Electoral College works. (All of these examples are pulled from sample Nation’s Report Card questions.)

These students, who are now high school freshmen, are four years away from being voters; maybe less if certain politicians succeed in lowering the voting age. We face the very real possibility of our future presidents and members of Congress being elected by people who have no idea what those jobs entail.

These students deserve to participate in the civic life of this country, but they are being robbed of the tools that would let them do so in a constructive way. The problems extend beyond the ballot box: Our entire political discourse, both in the news media and in our own neighborhoods, will be swayed by people with no understanding of the American system of governance.

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The Medlock Post Ep. 144: Fires of Faith

May 5, 2023

The Medlock Post Ep. 144: Fires of Faith


Since its original publication in 1611, the King James Bible has had immeasurable influence on religion, language, culture, art, and literature yet its road to influence and acceptance was paved with darkness. International politics, subversion, lust, and bloodshed set the stage for the heroic heretics; who sought to translate the word of God into the English vernacular. 

 

Electric school bus transition in Pennsylvania fraught with complications

May 5, 2023

 Federal money is starting to flow for electric school buses, but the funds won’t cover all the costs of switching from diesel.

Electrifying Pennsylvania’s bus fleet – although logical in theory – proves less sensible, experts said Tuesday.

“Our industry already has been hit with a major threat … that threat is the electric school bus,” said Daniel Frye, owner of the Frye Transportation Group in Beaver County, during a hearing with the House Republican Policy Committee. “The price tag is four times more expensive than the current diesel school bus.”

Frye said small operators can’t afford electric buses — as well as rising prices for their diesel counterparts. In June 2022, he bought a diesel bus for $103,000, but by April 2023, a quote for “the same bus” came back at $143,000.

“There is a storm brewing and that is the immense increase in the operational cost due to the electric school bus,” Frye said.

Federal money is starting to flow for electric school buses, but the funds won’t cover all the costs of switching from diesel. In October, the Biden administration announced $1 billion would support the purchase of 2,300 electric school buses nationally. Another $4 billion would be distributed through 2026 for electric and low-emission buses powered with alternative fuels, such as propane or natural gas.

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Mayorkas Visits Border As It Erupts Into Chaos Near Title 42 End

 May 5, 2023

AUSTIN, Texas — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited with U.S. border officials in a Gulf Coast city on the Texas-Mexico border Thursday to see how federal law enforcement has prepared for what is expected to be a historic cross-border migration event next week.

Mayorkas visited the Rio Grande Valley region of southeast Texas as part of a two-day trip a week ahead of when the Biden administration will stop expelling illegal immigrants back to Mexico under Title 42 and return to pre-pandemic protocols.

BORDER FALLING INTO CHAOS AHEAD OF TITLE 42 END DATE: ‘WE’RE IN TROUBLE’

The end of Title 42 on May 11 is expected, by the department’s own admission, to see between 13,000 and 18,000 arrests of illegal immigrants per day given that countless immigrants have been waiting in Mexico to cross when the policy is lifted.

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Chuck Grassley Says ‘The FBI Needs To Come Clean’ About Evidence Of Biden’s ‘Possible Criminal Activity’

 May 5, 2023

Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said Wednesday that the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) needed to “come clean” about “possible criminal activity” by President Joe Biden during his time as vice president.

Grassley and Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote to the FBI Wednesday, demanding the agency produce a document containing details of an alleged criminal scheme involving a foreign national and then-Vice President Biden.

“This comes from a credible and unclassified whistleblower disclosures of this possible criminal activity when Biden was vice president and we’re – we want this information and there’s a subpoena going to be, or is issued now, and it really boils down to my traditional oversight of government, particularly see the executive branch is doing the work that they’re supposed to be doing,” Grassley told “America Reports” co-hosts Sandra Smith and John Roberts, “So the Justice Department and the FBI needs to come clean to the American people what they did with the document.”

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BREAKING: Explosive Emails Show Former CIA Directors Colluding to Create False Document to Influence the 2020 Election

 May 5, 2023

A bombshell new email obtained by JustTheNews reveals damning new details about the lengths that former acting CIA Director Mike Morell went in order to help Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The email, sent by former CIA Director Mike Morrell to Obama-Era CIA Chief John Brennan, shows an effort to create pushback against Donald Trump before the 2020 election.

In 2020, 51 intelligence agents signed a letter stating that the Hunter Biden laptop story was disinformation and potentially part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Now, this newly released email shows more details about how the letter was orchestrated. Specifically, one of the intended purposes of the letter was to give Biden “talking points” during the 2020 debates against President Donald Trump.

According to John Solomon, “this is the ultimate proof that what went out on that letter was a political dirty trick coordinated with the Biden campaign.” Solomon continued, “A man with a security clearance, a man with the title of CIA director, knew that he wasn’t creating an intelligence product, American civic duty with 51 people. He was trying to create a political moment.”


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Breaking: Top Intel Chiefs Forced to Testify Over Hunter Biden Laptop Lie – John Brennan and James Clapper to Appear Before House Committee

 May 5, 2023

Spies Who Lie -New York Post

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.”

This was a lie.  They all knew it was a lie.

Former CIA Director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper will now be forced to testify before the House Weaponization subcommittee about the statement they signed in 2020 discrediting the Hunter Biden laptop as Russian propaganda.

In November 2022 James Comer told reporters Jim Jordan wants to interview all 51 of these intel leaders. Brennan and Clapper are up first.

The Daily Mail reported:

The House Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government will receive testimony from two top intelligence officials who were behind a push to label the Hunter Biden laptop as ‘disinformation’ as the investigations into President Biden’s son ramp up.

Former CIA Director James Brennan will give a transcribed interview on May 11 and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on May 17, a source familiar with the plans told DailyMail.com.

Both Brennan and Clapper signed a letter by 51 former intelligence officials who claimed Hunter’s laptop had ‘all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’

The subcommittee, led by Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, has already interviewed Mike Morrell, a former deputy CIA director and acting CIA director, who said that a conversation with Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken ‘absolutely’ triggered his interest in organizing the letter, which went out just before the 2020 election.

Biden and his campaign at the time cited the letter as reason to discredit the laptop.


Schumer roasted for saying 'nobody is taking away your gas stove' just months before NY banned gas stoves

 May 5, 2023

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was roasted this week after his state banned natural gas hookups in new buildings over comments he made earlier this year downplaying the threat of such bans.

"Nobody is taking away your gas stove," Schumer tweeted on Feb. 3. "Shameless and desperate MAGA Republicans are showing us they will cook up any distraction to divert from real issues the American people want solved, like the debt ceiling."

His comments came after a President Biden-appointed member of the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission floated the idea of a nationwide ban on natural gas-powered stovetops, citing potential respiratory health concerns. The comments sparked outrage among Republicans, consumer advocacy groups and the gas industry and ultimately forced the White House to disavow any potential ban.

However, on Wednesday, Schumer's home state of New York approved a sweeping $229 billion budget that prohibits gas hookups in new smaller residential buildings by 2026 and in larger residential buildings by 2029, making it the first state in the country to pass such a measure. 

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It will be 'really tough' for trucking companies to stay in business if things don't pick up by Memorial Day

 

May 5,2023

  • Executives at trucking giant JB Hunt recently sounded the alarm about a freight recession.
  • OOIDA, an American trucking association, is echoing the sentiment.
  • It will be "tough" for truckers to stay afloat if the recession does not let up soon, an OOIDA analyst said.

An American trucking association is the latest to sound the alarm over a "freight recession" gripping the US, saying it will be tough for trucking companies to stay afloat if the slump in freight rates does not subside soon. 

If things don't pick up by Memorial Day, analysts expect the freight market to stay around current levels for the rest of the year, Andrew King, a research analyst at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, or OOIDA, told Insider.

"That will be really tough for a lot of carriers to stay in business," he added.

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5/04/2023

Dems Setting Groundwork For Next Batch Of Race Riots

 May 4, 2023

The Post Millennial May 3, 2023 3 minute read ADVERTISEMENT 0:00 / 0:00Loading New York’s medical examiner determined that Jordan Neely, 30, who was put into a chokehold by a fellow subway passenger – a veteran Marine – on Monday, died from “compresison of neck” and stated that his death was the result of homicide. DA Alvin Bragg is investigating the incident.

The city saw protests and anger from residents on Tuesday after the news of Neely’s death was made public. Straphangers converged on the MTA stop at Broadway Lafayette Streets in downtown Manhattan to protest the killing.

Protesters gathered inside the subway station on the platform, though that spilled out into the street.

People shouted Neely’s name on the streets near the subway stop where Neely was pronounced dead.

Neely was homeless man who was killed by a fellow subway passenger in New York on Monday. The man, Jordan Neely, 30, was reportedly behaving in a “hostile and erratic” manner, and had a warrant out for his arrest on the charge of felony assault. He had been arrested more than 44 times for public lewdness and assaulting a senior citizen.

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White House Records Show More Than A Dozen Visits By George Soros’ Son

 

May 4, 2023

The George Soros family has its tentacles deep within the administration of President Joe Biden and the records show it. Since the start of the administration, Soros’ son has visited top officials a the White House 14 times.

Alexander Soros, a massive Democrat fundraiser who brags about his relationships with world leaders as if he would have gotten them on his own, has had more than a dozen White House visits with top officials in the past two years.

The Post reported:

His latest trips include visiting Dec. 1 with then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain’s advisor Nina Srivastava, who also worked on Biden’s presidential campaign, the logs show.

Later that evening. the younger Soros was one of 330 people who attended a lavish state dinner on the White House South Lawn hosted by the president and First Lady Jill Biden honoring French President Emmanuel Macron and Macron’s wife, Brigitte.

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Securing America – Does a weak US military impact the strength of the dollar?

 


May 4, 2023

With Bradley Thayer, Ron Armstrong and Kevin Freeman

BRADLEY THAYER, Director of China Policy, Center for Security Policy, Author, How China Sees the World 

  • China’s global expansion in the context of the South Pacific
  • The importance of the Philippines in the battle between China and the U.S.
  • Does the United States have the ability to deter a Chinese attack against Taiwan?
  • What is the status of the U.S. nuclear arsenal?

RON ARMSTRONG, Stand Up Michigan
LORI BROCK, Majestic Friesians Horse Farm

  • How Brock’s farm is being impacted by plans for Chinese battery plants in Michigan
  • Why did these companies decide on Michigan as the location for their plants?
  • Michigan’s role in negotiating with the Chinese Communist Party
  • What will the environmental impact be of these plants?

KEVIN FREEMAN, Host, Economic War Room, Senior Fellow, Center for Security Policy, Author, “Game Plan: How to Protect Yourself from the Coming Cyber-Economic Attack” and “Secret Weapon: How Economic Terrorism Brought Down the U.S. Stock Market and Why It Can Happen Again,” Founder, Globaleconomiwarfare.com, @SecretWeaponUSA:

  • A history of “reserve currencies”
  • How American military strength ties directly into the power of the U.S. dollar
  • A potential alternative to the American dollar being proposed in Texas

Chilling Op-Ed by Retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn

 May 4, 2023

Have we lost America to a Marxist-communist movement? Are we in an unrecoverable tailspin toward our nation’s demise?

Why have I asked these questions, you ask? It is because the Marxist left has so corrupted America and its election system that it appears no Republican candidate can win in 2024. There, I said it. It won’t happen. Instead, these next two years will not simply be the same as the past two — they will be far worse.

The election system in our country, in practically every single state, is simply broken and fosters little trust among the voting population. And the Marxist left loves it!

You can blame it on machines, mail-in ballots, ballot harvesting or some other means of voting irregularity, all of which are symptoms of a far greater problem: the deep-seated corruption of our federal-level political class that filters down to every county. The political class has practically shredded our Constitution and destroyed any modicum of freedom being held together by those constitutional remnants.

The destruction of America’s heritage and ideals has been a goal of the left for over 100 years, but the election of Barack Obama vastly accelerated these efforts, which were by and large unopposed and certainly unrecognized by the Republican Party.

Indeed, Obama — while hiding his Marxist background and aspirations — put much time and effort into transforming America by infiltrating the federal government with thousands of socialist ideologues and implementing programs and regulations that targeted the foundations of America’s greatness: its free enterprise system, the First and Second Amendments, the family unit, free and fair elections, and the rule of law.

While the election of Donald Trump in 2016 interrupted these plans, as well as my life, they were resumed by Joe Biden, whether he knew it or not.

These Marxist-based goals have now resulted in such damage to America that it is doubtful we will ever be able to recover the freedoms and liberties our Founders bestowed upon us. The trends of the last few years have led to many difficult-to-reverse changes that have severely undermined the principles that made America the freest and most prosperous country in world history.

While most conservative pundits tend to analyze and respond to these trends individually, when one looks at them collectively, it becomes obvious that the United States as we know it is in its final phase and that everything conservatives have warned about for decades is now upon us. Just look at the trends.

1. We no longer have free and fair elections. The left has now rigged two elections, 2020 and 2022, by funneling hundreds of millions of dollars from the elites into blue voting districts, using COVID to illegally alter state voting regulations, suppressing news stories that would have destroyed Biden’s candidacy (Hunter’s laptop, anyone?) and using a wholly corrupt media to brainwash unengaged Americans.

The idea that a senile, incompetent, lifelong swamp creature who hid in his basement and held three campaign rallies received more votes than the most popular president in U.S. history, Barack Obama, is an insult to our intelligence.

2. We do not appear to have a Supreme Court that cares about election fraud allegations. SCOTUS refused to take on perhaps the most important case of alleged election fraud in American history, the Texas case of 2020, claiming Texas had no standing, when in fact it clearly did. The court appears to have an incorrect understanding of the separation of powers doctrine.

3. We have allowed our intelligence agencies to work with one party to help deliver an election to its candidate by literally suppressing the freedom of speech of countless Americans, and those agencies suffered no consequences.

This is a subject I have vast knowledge and understanding of. The entire Russian collusion hoax was a warning that has not yet been heeded. The intelligence community demonstrated that it was willing to collaborate with one political party to deny the sacred rights of Americans to duly elect their leaders.

4. The president of the United States has been severely compromised by our leading adversary, but not even the GOP will hold him accountable. The evidence is now overwhelming that Biden and his family have enriched themselves by virtue of Joe Biden serving as Obama’s vice president. Dare I say “impeachment”?

5. We have allowed the weaponization of the federal government to a degree our Founders would not even recognize. The FBI has used its powers to not just help the Democrats win elections, but to create a vast surveillance state in conjunction with social media companies in an effort to shut down the First Amendment rights of Americans who dare to question Biden’s policies.

6. The return to race-based policies is destroying the American ideal. The Black Lives Matter riots over two years ago accelerated the idea that race, not merit, should determine advancement in society when it comes to employment, housing, bank loans, welfare, college admission, criminal justice policies — and the list goes on. This completely undermines Martin Luther King who, like most Americans, believed in a colorblind society based on merit and qualifications alone.

7. Both political parties are following a foreign policy doctrine whose central theme is the concentration of power among global elites at the expense of American sovereignty. This uni-party has America continuing as an empire-building nation, but it is not our empire they are building.

8. America’s founding Christian culture is not just being attacked but is under total assault and will soon disappear. We no longer have a culture that protects our families, our children, our values, our churches and our First Amendment rights. The sexualization of children alone is disgusting, yet perverse adults who claim to act in their best interests groom them for early sexual activity.

9. Women’s sports are being taken over by fake women while real women lose college scholarships, national championships and Olympic team spots. Apparently, they now believe that the destruction of gender takes precedence over the rights of women, which tells us that today’s feminist movement is really not about protecting the rights of women to begin with.

10. We have an energy policy leading to conditions reminiscent of the 1800s. The use of illegal federal laws and regulations to stop or restrict the drilling, transportation, refining and selling of gas and oil will result in corporations ceasing to invest in these energy sources. This is all being done to meet phony “climate change” goals. If the current energy trends continue, we are facing the reversal of 2,000 years of civilization, global economies will shrivel, and the world’s elites will live like kings while the rest of us slobs live in a very poor, slave-like society.

This list is not inclusive nor prioritized. For instance, I did not mention the parts of the medical establishment that nearly destroyed America and the so-called “experts” who should no longer be trusted. America must now wake up to what is happening to our once-beautiful constitutional republic.

This all leads to the $64,000 questions: 1) What to do next and 2) How will that be accomplished?

We must first return to the Constitution, and I am not saying or even suggesting that anyone should refuse to vote. We should all vote just in case a miracle occurs. And yes, the real test comes in the 2024 elections. If, after destroying our economy, our military, our border, our culture, our Constitution and just about everything else, the senile buffoon somehow ends up with a second term, we will all know in our hearts that the 2024 election was stolen and that we will never again win the White House.

Our governors must be at the forefront of any and all solutions. All governors, but especially red state governors, need to consider nullifying federal laws and regulations not specifically authorized by the Constitution.

A good place for them to start is to read Thomas Woods’ book “Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century.” In this book, Woods reminds us that our Founding Fathers considered the nullification of unconstitutional federal laws by the states to be a check on a corrupt federal government. Of course, the media will portray any such moves as “extreme,” but the reality is that the massive semi-police state we now live in is far more extreme, has no constitutional authority, and never did.

Will we ever recover our constitutional freedoms?

In the end, what we need (desperately) is leaders at all levels of our republic who want to restore the vision of America’s Founders of a free and prosperous society in which every person has the potential to succeed.

This suggestion is not complex, and its most important ingredient is to start locally and elect state officeholders who have the guts to follow the Founders’ original vision of a decentralized government in which the vast majority of power is in the hands of the states. Local action can have a national impact, but only if we the people stand up and speak out.

If we are able to return to a semblance of a federalist model of governance as our Founders envisioned, businesses will once again flourish by leaving behind unruly federal regulations, we can stop the unconstitutional FBI from harassing our citizens, we can return our schools to local control, we can secure our borders, we can stop the sexualization of children, we can end restrictions on free speech, gun ownership, and religious freedom, and we can and should expect many other positive outcomes.

The Bill of Rights was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791 (a mere 232 years ago). These original 10 amendments were each elegantly crafted as well as visionary in their sustainability and simple application of common sense.

So, given the above framework and analysis, I want to finish by pointing readers to the 10th Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

I don’t know about you, but I find that amendment still a profoundly good idea, and one that screams for application during these times that, as Thomas Paine said, “try men’s souls.”

So, red state governors, what say you?

US banks are failing, and the authorities seem unlikely to intervene

 

May 4, 2023

Shares in two more US regional banks have been suspended. Regulators moved in to halt trading in Los Angeles-based PacWest and Arizona’s Western Alliance on Thursday after they became the latest victims of an escalating crisis that began with Silicon Valley Bank in March.

The message from central banks and bank supervisors is that this is not a rerun of the global financial crisis of 2008. That may be true. With the exception of Switzerland’s Credit Suisse, European banks have escaped the turmoil. It is specific US banks that are the problem.

There are a number of reasons for that: the business models of the banks concerned; failures of regulation; the large number of small and mid-sized banks in the US; and the rapid increase in interest rates from the country’s central bank, the Federal Reserve.

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