House Speaker Kevin McCarthy walks through Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., July 19, 2023. (Leah Millis/Reuters)
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White Progressives are at it again. They’re asking social media to lie for them again. The folks in the White House are again calling on their friends in Social media to attack the House Impeachment Inquiry.
Since Wednesday morning the MSM AND THE LEFT WING TALKING HEADS started the personal attacks and lies. Where were they when the fake January 6th commission based on lies and fake news impeached a President? This from CNN Business.
The letter was sent to executives helming the nation’s largest news organizations, including CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others, a White House official familiar with the matter said.
The official tally is in and it is brutal: Americans suffered the biggest drop in household income in 2022 in a dozen years.
Real median household income was $74,580 in 2022, a drop of 2.3 percent from the prior year, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.
This is the biggest drop in household income since 2010, when it household income fell 2.6 percent. That means it is worse than the pandemic decline of 2.2 percent. It is the fourth worst year in records going back to 1985.
The declines were driven by high inflation. The measure of inflation that is used to calculate real income rose 7.8 percent, the worst inflation since 1981.
The real median earnings of all workers—including part-time and full-time workers—declined 2.2 percent between 2021 and 2022. Median earnings of those who worked full-time, year-round fell 1.3 percent in 2022.
The figures are even worse once taxes are figured into the equation. Real median post-tax household income in 2022 fell 8.8 percent in 2022.
Income inequality also got worse in 2022 once taxes are calculated. Pre-tax, income inequality—as measured by an gauge of income distribution called the Gini index—declined for the first time since 2007. After taxes, however, the index increased 3.2 percent. An increase in the Gini index signals increasing income inequality.
The official poverty rate in 2022 was 11.5 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty. This was unchanged from the prior year.
A few weeks before Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced that she would withdraw more than 336,400 acres of public land from mining and drilling with a 10-mile buffer around Chaco Culture National Historical Park, Navajo Nation lawmakers passed legislation opposing the move.
Although Haaland’s action was applauded and supported by environmentalists and tribal members from the Navajo Nation and Pueblo tribes, not everyone is happy. Among the critics are Navajo allotment holders who are worried about what this will do to their livelihood.
Navajo tribal leaders also voiced displeasure, including Speaker Crystalyne Curley and President Buu Nygren, who both released statements about the 10-mile radius buffer zone.
“The Secretary’s action undermines our sovereignty and self-determination,” said Nygren. “Despite my concerns and denunciation, the Department of Interior has moved forward, which is highly disappointing. Secretary Haaland’s decision impacts Navajo allottees but also disregards the tribe’s choice to lease lands for economic development. Ultimately, this decision jeopardizes future economic opportunities, while at the same time placing some 5,600 Navajo allottees in dire financial constraints.”
The legislation, passed in April by Navajo Nation lawmakers, rescinded the previous administration’s bill opposing H.R.2181 and S.1079, the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act of 2019, and recommending the proposed buffer zone be reduced to five miles, rather than 10 miles that encompass the 336,400-acre land withdrawal.
The new bill does not support any buffer zone and opposes the intent for any withdrawal.
Haaland said the decision to create the buffer came after “significant consultation” with other tribes, and she noted that the 20-year withdrawal applies only to public lands and federal mineral holdings and does not apply to minerals owned by private, state or tribal entities.
It also does not affect valid existing leases. Production from existing wells could continue, additional wells could be drilled on existing leases, and Navajo Nation allottees can continue to lease their minerals.
But former Navajo Council Delegate Mark Freeland had reported during an April 2022 government-to-government consultation meeting that those who could be most deeply affected are those who live around Chaco Canyon, and who are the ones being ignored on this issue.
“The White House, as did Congress, stated that the rule would not apply to individual Indian allotments or to minerals within the area owned by private, state, or tribal entities,” Freeland said. “In reality, the rule would have a devastating impact because the indirect effect would make the allottees’ land primarily worthless from the standpoint of energy extraction.”
He reported that withdrawal of land affects 53 individual allotments, generating $6.2 million a year in royalties for approximately 5,462 allottees. Many Navajo families rely on this income to meet their daily needs. It is estimated that 418 unleased allotments are also associated with about 16,615 allottees, and the withdrawal could adversely affect well over 22,000 allottees.
“Collectively, leadership of the Navajo Nation is equally concerned that environmental organizations have made a point to target Chaco Culture National Historical Park for political or financial gain,” Freeland said, “without listening or taking into account the people who are from the region. Chaco Canyon is located on Navajo Nation lands.”
At the forum, he noted that the National Park Conservation Association has been one of the primary advocacy groups to launch a campaign for buffers around national parks most threatened by oil and gas production, and Chaco Canyon was on top of their list.
Freeland reemphasized that those living in the Chaco Canyon area have been ignored, and for the past six years Congress has considered multiple proposals to create a buffer zone around the historical park at the additional request of the All Pueblo Council of Governors.
“Protecting Indigenous lands is important for future generations to understand our country and to respect the Pueblos’ sacred culture,” said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association after Haaland announced her decision.
“There are limits to this administrative protection, as 20 years is significant but also the equivalent of an eye blink on this timeless landscape,” Pierno said. “The National Parks Conservation Association calls on Congress to finish the job and approve legislation championed by the entire New Mexico delegation to permanently protect the region.”
Those who live around Chaco Canyon, who were born there before it became a National Historic Park, and are descendants of those who lived in the area for generations have always expressed their dismay about a buffer zone and Haaland’s stance on the issue.
Delora Hesuse is a Navajo allottee and has been advocating on the allotments and the challenges of what fellow allotment owners are trying to let people know. One conflict is Haaland’s position on Chaco Canyon and whether she would be able to really listen to those living in the area.
“There is a conflict with everything that is going on,” said Hesuse, adding that Haaland “never once met with us when she was a congresswoman. I say this too, as another Native woman, does she have respect for other tribes? Does she have respect for us?”
She described the elders who receive royalty payment from oil and gas and said they are grateful. This income from oil and gas is income that Navajo allottees depend on and they are living a better life because of it. She also noted she has never heard of anyone getting sick from the effects of oil and gas production.
Within the Navajo Nation, 35.8% of households have incomes below the federal poverty threshold, and about 10% live without electricity. The Chaco Canyon drilling ban would strip an energy source from the Navajo Nation, and could cost Navajos an estimated $194 million over the next two decades.
“We have all these environmentalists coming in and telling us how we should be or how we should live,” Hesuse said. “Remember, we are the first people here.”
Navajo Leaders Challenge Chaco Canyon Drilling Ban -- Climate Advocates Should Listen https://t.co/J115gWShkD
Voter fraud?
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer
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Poor baby. Maricopa County Recorder Complains That Following Signature Verification Law Will Require More Work.
The county recorder ( a never Trumper ) is crying because he got caught taking the easy way out when he, Hobbs, and the Arizona AG took the easy way out on signature verification.
It looked as if they skirted Arizona law and decided to use any form for verification. I guess you could even use a note from your teacher and that would count ( I think you get my point. ). We have this from The Arizona Independent.
The additional responsibility for county recorders became clear after Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper declared in ruling last week that the 2019 Election Procedures Manual (EPM) by Hobbs “create[d] a process that contradicts” the law. That ruling rejected Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ motion to dismiss an Arizona Free Enterprise Club lawsuit alleging that Fontes’ interpretation and enforcement of signature verification law, which aligned with that of Hobbs, did not match the actual statute’s language.
In response to Napper’s ruling, the press raised alarm among voters in its coverage featuring Richer. Arizonans were warned their early vote may not count because election officials would be required to verify signatures using registration records only, versus signatures from other documents or past ballots. Echoing Richer, their reporting speculated signatures could be rejected en masse due to the signature on file being an older variation, or warped by MVD digitization.
That means for two major elections, an unlawful signature verification process was enforced. Napper reminded Secretary of State Adrian Fontes that he has a “non-discretionary duty” to properly instruct county recorders on lawful vote tabulation.
FILE - California Attorney General Rob Bonta fields questions during a press conference, Aug. 28, 2023, in Los Angeles. Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP Photo
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Arkansas, California, Hawaii, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina and Texas had bills introduced in 2023 that would require districts to disclose a trans student’s gender identity to parents.
And why shouldn’t a parent have a right to know if a teacher or a school is hiding from parents this personal information? California requires a school to contact a parent if they want to give a child an aspirin, but you have an AG who wants to sue school districts that notify parents on what goes on in reference to schools who want parent notification.
“It’s disgusting that we now have union-controlled politicians fighting to keep sexual secrets from other people’s children,” said Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, in an email to The Center Square. “These radicals believe children are the property of the State, and many of them won’t reverse course any time soon because it’s part of their deeply held socialist views. The far left has infiltrated the government school system and they are using it for ideological indoctrination as opposed to education. These extremists see the school system as a means of raising other people’s children with their own worldview, and they won’t stop without accountability.”
If you need any further proof that America is the freest country in the world, look no further than the type of idiocy this country tolerates.
A brazen incident at a Jason Aldean concert was crystal clear proof of that fact.
Aldean was performing in Tinley Park, Illinois, just outside Chicago, on Saturday night when a group calling themselves “Revolutionary Communists” (yes, they have a website, and yes, it looks like it’s been built with pre-Soviet Union era computers) showed up to make some sort of statement.
The statement? Oh, just your typical communist nonsense whilst burning the American flag.
Reporter Ford Fischer took to X, formerly Twitter, and shared some video of the “revolutionaries” burning the flag, and the police response to it.
In the first video Fischer shared, the small group of communists set fire to the American flag while chanting a variety of nonsense.
“F*** the U.S. and all its lies!” you can hear in the video. You can barely make out whatever other perceived grievances this group claims it has.
Eventually, you can hear the police declaring this group’s antics constituted “unlawful assembly.”
But this is where some wildly unintentional comedy rears its funny head.
This band of “revolutionaries” … packed up and left, with nary a fuss.
Could you imagine if these ingrates had been around during the American Revolution? This country would still be eating crumpets and drinking (unfairly taxed) tea.
A second video from Fischer shows that instead of taking up their arms and fighting back against this perceived fascism, these “revolutionaries” opted for cute little chants and phrases — perhaps the most emblematic microcosm imaginable for the current state of the country.
You can hear the communists declare “We did it in a small town,” which is a clear reference to Aldean’s wildly popular and equally controversial song, “Try That in a Small Town.”
If by “we did it,” they meant that they stood around and burned the U.S. flag before meekly kowtowing to the police, then sure. They absolutely “did it.”
But if they’re trying to affect any actual change?
They honestly probably could’ve gotten more done with a “one, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war” chant.
Adding to the unintentional comedy of this all, the “RevComs” took to their 1994 GeoCities-inspired web site to — gloat?
“In the weeks leading up to the Jason Aldean concert in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park, the Revcoms pledged that we would CALL OUT fascist country singer Jason Aldean and burn an American flag at his concert in defiance of his Lynch mob anthem, ‘Try That in a Small Town.’ And that is exactly what we did this past Saturday,” the group bragged on Monday.
From their website which, incidentally, calls for the overthrow of the government. BUT THEY’LL TAKE YOUR FILTHY CAPITALIST MONEY! — TPR
Couple of quick points here:
For the love of vocabulary, can someone please buy leftists dictionaries and thesauruses? Fascism does not mean people you disagree with. To quote the great fictional philosopher Iñigo Montoya, “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Color this writer skeptical, but a demonstration is typically more effective when it’s actually presented in front of the alleged “fascist,” no? Bragging you got to stand out in the streets before bending the knee to the police isn’t exactly a “revolution.”
At the end of the day, this incident does capture so much of what’s wrong with this country: It’s filled with idiotic ingrates.
Is America perfect? Heck no. Should America constantly seek to improve itself? Heck yes.
America is still the best and freest country in the world (perhaps to a fault, but that’s a different story for a different time). The fact that these buffoons get to share their idiocy with the world in such a public manner, while burning the flag of this country, is a testament to that.
But just as they have the right to show their rears to the world, so too does the rest of the country have the right to point at laugh at them.
And between their horrid website, spineless rhetoric and utter lack of vocabulary, you’d be hard pressed not to guffaw at these “revolutionaries.”
They sure made a good impression, didn’t they?
Having trouble getting ‘X’ links to open on the page. –TPR
The Free Speech Movement Cafe entrance sign located on the University of California Berkeley Campus, San Francisco Bay area Sundry Photography / Shutterstock.com
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California colleges struggle in free speech rankings.
The Center Square) – According to national free speech rankings published by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, 59% of California colleges rate from “below average” to “poor,” with only one California college of 27 — California State University, Los Angeles — ranked “above average.”
The survey was conducted from a selected group of 55,102 undergraduates enrolled at 254 four-year degree institutions across the United States drawn from more than 750,000 verified undergraduate students and recent alumni by college opinion research firm College Pulse.
“Each year, the climate on college campuses grows more inhospitable to free speech,” said FIRE Director of Polling and Analytics Sean Stevens in a public statement. “Some of the most prestigious universities in our country have the most repressive administrations. Students should know that a college degree at certain schools may come at the expense of their free speech rights.”
Scores were largely based on students’ comfort expressing ideas, tolerance for liberal speakers, tolerances for conservative speakers, prevalence of disruptive conduct towards speakers, administrative support for free speech amid controversy, on-campus conversation openness regarding political issues. Select actions, such as supporting or disinviting speakers, supporting or sanctioning student groups for speech, or supporting or sanctioning scholars whose speech rights were threatened during controversy, could earn or lose further points.
Coming in at 33 of 254 universities ranked nationwide but first in California, California State University was the only California university to rate as slightly above average, and was followed within California by the University of California, Merced, then Claremont McKenna College. Meanwhile, the worst-rated school in California, the University of California, Davis, ranked 237 nationally, was the one school in the state to receive a “poor” speech rating, and placed 250th for tolerance of disruptive conduct and 221st for tolerance for conservative speakers.
According to FIRE, the University of California, Davis, disinvited two campus speakers between 2019 and 2023. During one cancelation in 2022, administrators canceled a Turning Point USA speaking event when a fight broke out before the event in front of the venue.
Excluded from relative rankings for its bottom-barrel “warning” rating, Pepperdine University was criticized for a speech code that bars speakers from “statements that disparage God, Jesus Christ, or religion; language that demeans and exploits any identities; explicit lyrics; and references to sex, alcohol, and narcotics/drugs,” or using “profanity or tell obscene jokes or stories of any kind whatsoever during the performance.”
What a loser. US President Joe Biden holds a press conference in Hanoi on September 10, 2023, on the first day of a visit in Vietnam. Biden travels to Vietnam to deepen cooperation between the two nations, in the face of China’s growing ambitions in the region. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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Biden Says He “Just Follows Orders” During Vietnam Conference.
President Joe Biden appeared in a press conference where he said “I’ll just follow my orders here.”
On Sunday, the 46th president spoke at a conference in Hanoi Vietnam and met with General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
Biden stood at the podium and read his prepared remarks while looking at his notes for the majority of the time.
After the speech, the Democrat delivered a press conference where he opened up another discussion by reportedly making a joke about the Vietnam War and asking for questions from reporters.
Biden stated that he would take questions from five reporters, but he could not locate the paper list of particular reporters he was supposed to call on that was prepared by White House officials.
He then proceeded to say that he will just “follow his orders from staff.”
At the end, Biden declared that he was “going to bed,” appearing more irate and mentally disoriented.
Due to Biden’s senile mannerisms, his critics have frequently called him “Sleepy Joe,” and online users have commented and poked fun at the press conference footage.
“I’ll just follow my orders here. Uh — Staff, is there anybody that hasn’t spoken yet? I ain’t calling on you! I told you, I only have five questions!” He shouted.
Rehire them now. Viacheslav Lopatin/Shutterstock.com
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NYC must reinstate 10 Dept. of Education employees fired for refusing COVID vaccine, judge rules.
(The Center Square) — A New York state judge has ruled that 10 New York City teachers who were fired for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine were wrongfully dismissed.
In the ruling, state Supreme Court Judge Ralph J. Porzio said the city’s denial of religious accommodations from getting vaccinated employees was “unlawful, arbitrary and capricious” and ordered the teachers to be reinstated with back pay.
“This court sees no rational basis for not allowing unvaccinated classroom teachers in amongst an admitted population of primarily unvaccinated students,” he wrote in the 22-page ruling.
During the pandemic, New York City imposed some of the strictest COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the country, enforcing rules for public and private sector workers.
More than 1,750 city workers were fired for refusing to get vaccinated, including 36 members of the New York City Police Department and more than 950 public school employees.
Several unions sued the city over the mandate, and last October, Porzio ruled that the city’s policy was enacted “illegally” and workers who were fired for refusing to comply must be “immediately reinstated” with back pay. The city appealed the judge’s ruling.
The US Secretary of Energy went on a road trip to promote electric vehicles.
Jennifer Granholm and her team ran into a predictable snag: a lack of EV chargers.
The obstacle even caused the police to get involved at one point in the trip, NPR reported.
When the US Secretary of Energy and her team embarked on a road trip to promote electric vehicles, they ran into a predictable yet frustrating obstacle: a lack of electric vehicle chargers.
The scarcity of chargers was such an issue for Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and her team that the police got involved at one point, NPR reported.
The caravan of electric vehicles heading from Charlotte to Memphis over the course of four days hit a snag in Grovestown, Georgia. The group was planning a quick charge when they realized there wouldn’t be enough electric vehicle chargers to go around since one was broken and the others were in use, NPR reported.
So, an employee from the Department of Energy tried to save one of the spots using a gas-powered car.
It was a sweltering day and the move didn’t go over well with a family that was also waiting for a charging spot. The situation escalated to the point that the family, driving with a baby in their car, called the police, who didn’t have the authority to act because blocking an EV charging spot with a gas-power car isn’t illegal in Georgia, NPR reported.
While Granholm and her team worked to smooth things over, ultimately ceding a spot to the family and relegating some of their own vehicles to slower charging ports, the incident drew attention to the desperate need for improved EV infrastructure.
“It’s just par for the course,” a bystander driving an electric BMW told NPR. “They’ll get it together at some point.”
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