Category: Economy

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Economy Opinion Politics Reprints from others. Science

This mornings headlines.

What's in today's news headline storiesWSJ Photo

This can be found on the WSJ.

PAGE ONE

SoftBank Reports Record $23 Billion Quarterly Loss as Tech Downturn Hits – The Japanese technology investor suffered losses after holdings such as Uber lost value. A1

FBI Searches Trump’s Florida Home Mar-a-Lago in Document Investigation A1

What’s News: Business & Finance A1

China Extends Military Exercises as Taiwan Battles Cyberattacks A1

Data Show Gender Pay Gap Opens Early A1

What’s News: World-Wide A1

Used Lululemon Yoga Pants? Shoppers Overcome the ‘Ick Factor’ A1

U.S.

U.S. Lawmakers Look to Digital Dollar to Compete With China A2

U.S. Sanctions Crypto Platform Tornado Cash, Says It Laundered Billions A2

Corrections & Amplifications A2

Group Petitions to Ease Fines for Healthcare Workers in Student-Debt Programs A3

Most Parents Are Saying No to Covid-19 Vaccines for Toddlers A3

Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael Sentenced to Second Life Terms for Ahmaud Arbery Murder A3

Tesla, EV Makers Stand to Get Billions for Factories From Senate Bill A4

Republican Noah Phillips Plans to Quit Federal Trade Commission A4

David McCullough, Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author, Dies at 89 A3

Antitrust Bill Targeting Big Tech in Limbo as Congress Prepares to Recess A4

WORLD

Tyson Foods Says Consumers Shifting Away From Higher-Priced Beef – Higher chicken prices and demand for cheaper meat cuts helped sales at the processor. B1

Hiring Gets Easier for Some Employers Despite Hot Job Market B1

BlackRock Opening South Florida ‘Snowbird’ Office for Dozens of Employees B1

Wall Street Shuffles Bets on Consumer Loans as Economy Slows B1

Axios’s $525 Million Sale to Cox Marks Merger of New and Old Media B1

A 70-Year-Old Taiwanese Chip Wizard Is Driving China’s Tech Ambitions B1

Airline Executives Asked to Step in to Help Airport Operations B2

Deliveries of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Set to Resume in Coming Days B3

Ben & Jerry’s Tells Court That Unilever Could Undermine Its Social Mission B3

Pfizer Agrees to $5.4 Billion Deal for Global Blood Therapeutics B3

Russian Engines Lose Spot on Northrop Grumman Rocket B4

Nvidia Warns of Sales Shortfall as Gaming Revenue Drops B4

Two Chinese Cities Approve Baidu’s Unmanned Self-Driving Taxis B4

Palantir’s Revenue Growth Slows as U.S. Government Delays Contracts B5

Lyft Creates Media Division to Expand Its Advertising Services B5

How YouTube Keeps Broadcasting Inside Russia’s Digital Iron Curtain B6

Buying Cyber Insurance Gets Trickier as Attacks Proliferate, Costs Rise B6

News Corp Posts Revenue Growth, Boosted by Dow Jones B6

AIG Earnings Show Improved Property-Casualty Business B10

Carlyle CEO’s Early Contract Proposal Was Met With Silence From Firm’s Board B10

Virtual Real-Estate Closings Go Mainstream, but Some States Hold Out B10

Stocks Finish Mixed With Earnings in Focus B11

Wood-Pellet Exports Boom Amid Ukraine War, Environmental Concerns B11

EnCap Flatrock Seeks $3 Billion for Energy Infrastructure Fund B11

Walking Dead Network Still Has Life B12

SoftBank Needs a Vision Check B12

Nvidia Loses Its Game B12

The West Must Wean Itself Off Russian Titanium B12

 

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Child Abuse Corruption Economy Elections Just my own thoughts Politics

Who Could Be A Worse pResident Than Biden?

Bad as he is, there is someone worse who is making the rounds in DC trying to drum up support for a 2024 run.

Dementia Joe won’t be running as the Democratic nominee in ’24. You know you’re in trouble when a NYT-Sienna College poll shows that 94% of Dems under 30 prefer someone other than Joe to run.

Senate Majority Leader Schumer has begged his colleagues to appear to be unified and not criticize either Biden or his centrist bane Joe Manchin (D-WVa). But that hasn’t prevented them from refusing to promise to back Biden no matter what–though they obviously don’t want to say it in public.

So, who would be worse than Biden?

Here’s a hint: what state did Q tell us to watch to see the way the “progressives” would try to take the country?

Another hint: Who barely survived a recall vote in that above mentioned state?

If your answers were California and Gavin Newsom — congratulations!

One is just a puppet, the other wants to be puppet master.

Yes, Gonad Gruesome has been visiting senators in Washington, DC.

Per The Hill:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is positioning himself and his state as a national leader on climate issues amid speculation of a possible 2024 White House bid.

 

Newsom, even as the Biden administration is increasingly stymied by the Supreme Court and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), hopes to show how the Golden State can lead the way on tackling climate change while Washington is in a quagmire.

 

Newsom’s state budget package, unveiled in January, included $22.5 billion to combat climate change. In May, he revised the proposal to add another $9.5 billion.

 

Newsom also spearheaded the state’s strictest-in-the-nation tailpipe emissions standards through a legal standoff with the Trump administration, which attempted to repeal a federal waiver allowing the rules. The waiver was restored by Biden Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan in 2022.

California, a state where gas prices jumped to $6 and $7 per gallon in some locales earlier this summer, plans to phase out oil production in the state by 2045.

The state, which would have the world’s fifth-largest economy if it were a country, has also formed a number of international climate partnerships under Newsom, including collaborations with Canada, New Zealand, Japan and China.

Original Here:

Newsome aired an attack ad over the July 4 holidays against Fla governor Ron DeSantis, a likely Republican standard bearer. But he claimed that the ad “Don’t let them take our freedoms away…” was not the opening shot in a presidential campaign run. (“Them” being Trump and DeSantis.)

IMHO Newsom makes ex-gov Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown look like a thoughtful centrist.

More links to disturbing news:

Gavin Newsom Sparks ’24 Rumors With Jaunty White House Visit While Biden Overseas

Calif. Gov. Newsom visits Washington, raising his national profile even as he says he won’t run in 2024

California’s Norwalk-LaMirada Unified School District will vote on placing a Planned Parenthood clinic on a high school campus in the district.

The vote about operating a Planned Parenthood at John Glenn High School in Norwalk is scheduled to take place on Monday evening. (Glenn, an Ohio native, is spinning in his grave at supersonic speed. -TPR)

According to the proposal, the clinic will not be notifying parents about any students that they provide services to.

If  he has California stopping oil production by 2045 and is okay with putting an abortion clinic in a High School, imagine what he’d do in the White House.

Categories
Economy Leftist Virtue(!) Opinion Politics Reprints from others.

Biden Backer Cardi B Asks: When They Going to Announce We Going Into a Recession

A loon asking for more pain. Youtube Photo.

This article first appeared on Breitbart.

The left’s stupidity never ceases to amaze me. See below.

Rapper and Joe Biden supporter Cardi B took to Twitter on Sunday to ask when “they going to announce” that the United States is “going into a recession.”

“When y’all think they going to announce that we going into a recession?” Cardi B wrote Sunday in a tweet, which has since garnered more than 120,000 likes, and over 16,000 retweets.

Cardi B’s tweet also received thousands of replies, including many Twitter users who reminded the rapper that she had encouraged her fans to vote for President Joe Biden.

Indeed, Joe Biden sat down for an Elle magazine interview with rap star Cardi B jut months before the 2020 presidential election.

Watch below:

“Thanks for helping elect Joe Biden,” another quipped.

Another Twitter user responded to those retorting, “But didn’t you vote for Biden?” saying, “Y’all realize literally MILLIONS of people regret voting for Biden right?”

“You don’t need ‘them’ to tell you anything you can see for yourself,” another tweeted.

A host of other Twitter users took to the comment section to claim that the U.S. is not in a recession.

“Inflation doesn’t mean recession,” one wrote.

“A recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, so we’d only know we are in a recession after it’s already started, and after the economic data comes in for those 2 quarters,” another tweeted.

A strong majority of Americans, however, believe that the U.S. economy is experiencing a recession, according to a recent poll from the Economist and YouGov.

This is bad news for Biden, who just last week declared that a record high number of Americans were comfortable. Moreover, the president’s approval ratings have tanked, as citizens have overwhelming rejected the Biden administration’s handling of gas prices, inflation, and the economy.

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Biden Pandemic Corruption COVID Crime Drugs Economy Education Elections Faked news How funny is this? How sick is this? Leftist Virtue(!) Opinion Politics Progressive Racism Reprints from others. Stupid things people say or do. The Courts

Ding Dong the wicked witch is gone.

Gif. tigerdropings.com

Friday the 13th was Jen Psaki’s last day as the Bagdad Ali of the White House. I want to thank Joel B. Pollak for this list.

Yes some — particularly in the establishment media — have called her the “best ever,” perhaps because the job of explaining Joe Biden’s failures is simply so difficult. Here are some of the most memorable moments of her tenure, for better or for worse:

17. COVID and masks. Despite sanctimonious lectures about pandemic precautions, Psaki somehow managed to contract COVID twice. She also struggled to explain the White House’s double standards on wearing masks on federal property.

16. “Circle back.” Psaki drew mockery from conservatives over her repeated promises from the podium to “circle back” with reporters when she did not know the answer to questions — or perhaps when she knew, but preferred not to answer.

15. Hoaxes. Psaki repeated some — not all — of the famliar liberal hoaxes about Trump, most notably the “bleach” hoax, insisting — despite glaring evidence to the contrary — that he had told Americans to inject bleach to cure COVID (he did not).

14. Defaming Kyle Rittenhouse. In the midst of the Rittenhouse trial, Psaki criticized “vigilantes with assault weapons.” After Rittenhouse was acquitted, she refused to walk back Biden’s false claim that Rittenhouse was a “white supremacist.”

13. War on “misinformation.” Psaki vowed her briefings would fight “misinformation,” and defended — to her last week — the Biden administration’s “disinformation” office. But she herself spread disinformation about Russia, and Hunter Biden.

12. Space Force snub. Psaki appeared to snub the sixth branch of the U.S. armed forces when she mocked a reporter’s query about whether Biden intended to continue Donald Trump’s addition to the military. She later clarified that she supported it.

11. Major dog cover-up. When Biden’s dog, Major, was accused of biting a Secret Service agent, Psaki downplayed the incident. Later, documents suggested that Psaki misled the public about the real threat the dog posed to agency staff.

10. Border denial. Psaki made it clear she did not want reporters to ask about the crisis at the southern border, chastising reporters for “maddening” questions about it. She claimed Biden’s policy was more “moral” and “humane” than Trump’s.

9. Refusing to condemn protests at Supreme Court justices’ homes. It took Psaki days to condemn violence after a draft opinion reversing Roe was leaked, and she actually encouraged the arguably illegal protests outside the homes of justices.

8. Dismissing the idea of free COVID tests. Psaki initially scoffed at the idea of sending free COVID tests to every American as too costly to undertake. A few days later, mid-omicron wave, the administration belatedly began doing so.

7. “Don’t Say Gay’ demagoguery. It was Psaki who started the false — yet effective — claim that Florida had passed a law that literally prohibited people from saying “gay.” The law actually restricts sexual instruction of any kind to K-3 children.

6. Doocy. Among many examples of the Biden administration failing to respect the press, one of the worst was Psaki saying that Fox News made Peter Doocy — one of the few critical voices in the press corps — sound like a “stupid son of a bitch.”

5. Defending inflation. Psaki test-drove several excuses for inflation, first claiming that it was transitory (“inflation is going to come down next year”), then trying to put a positive spin on it as the by-product of an otherwise wonderful economy.

4. Admitting Biden skipped D-Day. Among other clean-up jobs, Psaki had to explain Biden’s unfortunate failure to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day in 2021. She told reporters that the historic occasion was still “close to his heart.”

3. Vacationing while Afghanistan fell. Psaki and many other members of the administration had to be called back from summer vacation when Afghanistan began to fall to the Taliban, a failure that has since defined perceptions of the president.

2. Hunter Biden dodges. Psaki repeatedly (and successfully) dodged questions about Hunter Biden, his laptop, and his connection to his dad’s finances, claiming they were a private matter or the under the purview of the Department of Justice.

1. Baby formula. Psaki’s advice, when asked what parents should do if worried about their babies amid a national shortage of baby formula, was to “call their doctor.” Neither she nor the White House had any solace to offer American families.

One example when Psaki called it right: she did, finally, admit that communism is a “failed ideology,” as Cubans protested in the streets against their oppressive regime. But that, sadly, is all the Biden administration was willing to do to help them.

Categories
Biden Pandemic Economy Just my own thoughts

Biden adds 600 billion to the deficit but claims he will lower it by 1.5 trillion.

January, February, and March saw the three highest months ever of deficit spending. Also Biden spending is over 600 billion n the red. Forget the fact that the Treasury is seeing record breaking revenue coming in. So why is Joe saying that he will cut the deficit by $1.5 trillion? Trump and congress had allocated over 2 trillion for the masks, gowns, ventilators, etc. Items that Obama-Biden never replenished. according to CNBC.

So those trillions are now gone. That’s why Joe’s asking for hundreds of billions more. For COVID, Ukraine, etc.

 

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Biden Pandemic Economy Faked news Food Politics

US inflation jumped 8.5% in past year, highest since 1981. No, it’s not “Putin’s inflation.”

Yesterday, (4/11/22) Psaki telegraphed this news during a presser, but called it “Putin’s inflation.” Did Putin close down the Keystone XL pipeline construction on his first day in office? No? Hmm.

Naturally the left leaning Associated Press won’t blame Biden and his master’s policies directly, although if you read carefully you can see the back handed acknowledgements below.

Thanks, Joe.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation soared over the past year at its fastest pace in more than 40 years, with costs for food, gasoline, housing and other necessities squeezing American consumers and wiping out the pay raises that many people have received.

The Labor Department said Tuesday that its consumer price index jumped 8.5% in March from 12 months earlier, the sharpest year-over-year increase since December 1981. Prices have been driven up by bottlenecked supply chains, robust consumer demand and disruptions to global food and energy markets worsened by Russia’s war against Ukraine. From February to March, inflation rose 1.2% , the biggest month-to-month jump since 2005.

Across the economy, the year-over-year price spikes were widespread in March. Gasoline prices have rocketed 48% in the past 12 months. Used car prices have soared 35.3%, though they actually fell in February and March. Bedroom furniture is up 14.7%, men’s jackets suits and coats 14.5%. Grocery prices have jumped 10%, including 18% increases for both bacon and oranges.

Even excluding volatile food and energy prices, which have driven overall inflation, so-called core inflation jumped 6.5% over the past 12 months, the biggest such increase since 1982.

“The inflation fire is still out of control,″ said Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at the economic research firm FWDBONDS LLC.

The March inflation numbers were the first to capture the full surge in gasoline prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Moscow’s brutal attacks have triggered far-reaching Western sanctions against the Russian economy and have disrupted global food and energy markets. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of gasoline — $4.10 — is up 43% from a year ago, though it has fallen back in the past couple of weeks.

The escalation of energy prices has led to higher transportation costs for the shipment of goods and components across the economy, which, in turn, has contributed to higher prices for consumers.

The latest evidence of accelerating prices will solidify expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates aggressively in the coming months to try to slow borrowing and spending and tame inflation. The financial markets now foresee much steeper rate hikes this year than Fed officials had signaled as recently as last month.

“The Fed will be pressing firmly on the brake pedal — not just pumping the brakes — in an effort to slow demand and bring the inflation rate back down,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

Even before Russia’s war further spurred price increases, robust consumer spending, steady pay raises and chronic supply shortages had sent U.S. consumer inflation to its highest level in four decades. In addition, housing costs, which make up about a third of the consumer price index, have escalated, a trend that seems unlikely to reverse anytime soon.

Economists point out that as the economy has emerged from the depths of the pandemic, consumers have been gradually broadening their spending beyond goods to include more services. A result is that high inflation, which at first had reflected mainly a shortage of goods — from cars and furniture to electronics and sports equipment — has been emerging in services, too, like travel, health care and entertainment. Airline fares, for instance, have soared an average of nearly 24% in the past 12 months. The average cost of a hotel room is up 29%

The expected fast pace of the Fed’s rate increases will make loans sharply more expensive for consumers and businesses. Mortgage rates, in particular, though not directly influenced by the Fed, have rocketed higher in recent weeks, making home buying costlier. Many economists say they worry that the Fed has waited too long to begin raising rates and might end up acting so aggressively as to trigger a recession.

For now, the economy as a whole remains solid, with unemployment near 50-year lows and job openings near record highs. Still, rocketing inflation, with its impact on Americans’ daily lives, is posing a political threat to President Joe Biden and his Democratic allies as they seek to keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

The American public’s expectation for inflation over the next 12 months has reached its highest point — 6.6% — in a survey the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has conducted since 2013.

Once public expectations for inflation rise, they can be self-fulfilling: Workers typically demand higher pay to offset their expectations for price increases, and businesses, in turn, raise prices to cover their higher labor costs. This can set off a wage-price spiral, something the nation last endured in the late 1960s and 1970s.

Economists generally express doubt that even the sharp rate hikes that are expected from the Fed will manage to reduce inflation anywhere near the central bank’s 2% annual target by the end of this year. Luke Tilley, chief economist at Wilmington Trust, said he expects year-over-year consumer inflation to still be 4.5% by the end of 2022. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he had forecast a much lower 3% rate.

Inflation, which had been largely under control for four decades, began to accelerate last spring as the U.S. and global economies rebounded with unexpected speed and strength from the brief but devastating coronavirus recession that began in the spring of 2020.

Many Americans have been receiving pay increases, but the pace of inflation has more than wiped out those gains for most people. In February, after accounting for inflation, average hourly wages fell 2.5% from a year earlier. It was the 11th straight monthly drop in inflation-adjusted wages.

Still, for now anyway, with the job market robust, inflation has yet to dampen overall consumer spending. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, says its price increases don’t seem to have fazed its customers.

That said, Adrian Mitchell, chief financial office at Macy’s, cautions that chronically high inflation will likely lead consumers to be choosier: They may spend less on department store goods and more on services like travel and dinners out.

“We do believe that the consumer is going to be spending,” Mitchell said. “But are they going to be spending on discretionary items that we sell, or are they going to be spending on an airline ticket to Florida or air travel or going out to restaurants more?”

Categories
Biden Pandemic Economy Opinion Politics Reprints from others.

Manchin shoots down Biden’s new billionaire tax plan

Manchin says no to new taxes. (Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

The Whole article can be found here.

Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Tuesday shot down President Biden’s new plan to raise $360 billion in revenue by imposing a 20 percent minimum tax on billionaires, a proposal the president formally unveiled Monday in his budget request to Congress.

Manchin says he doesn’t support the president’s plan to tax the unrealized gains of billionaires, which would set a new precedent by taxing the value an asset accrues in theory before it is actually sold and converted into cash.

“You can’t tax something that’s not earned. Earned income is what we’re based on,” he told The Hill. “There’s other ways to do it. Everybody has to pay their fair share.”

“Everybody has to pay their fair share, that’s for sure. But unrealized gains is not the way to do it, as far as I’m concerned,” he added.

Manchin’s opposition means Biden’s proposal is likely dead only a day after the White House unveiled it. It could be significantly restructured to avoid taxing unrealized gains, which would pose the big challenge of trying to make up the lost revenues. Structuring a tax on unrealized capital gains is complicated because the value of assets can fluctuate.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories
Economy Opinion Politics

Democrats show their support for Mother Russia. Vote down bill that promotes American Energy.

House Dems block energy independence bill; GOP energy expert slams move as 'unconscionable'

The Republicans introduced the “American Independence from Russian Energy Act” . Very simple. Buy and explore American energy sources and ban the Russian and their allies energy sources.

All Republicans except for Matt Gaetz. voted for the bill. Gaetz felt the bill would open up drilling along the Florida coast. Republicans on the floor voiced near-unanimous support for the measure, with Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) describing U.S. reliance on Russian oil and petroleum products as “unconscionable.”

The Democrats were only interested in green energy. The vote was 221-202. This was on February 28th. 

The Republicans tried again on March 17th. Again the Democrats showed their support for Mother Russia.

 

Categories
Corruption Economy Elections Politics

‘The brand is so toxic’: Democrats fear extinction in rural Pennsylvania and across the country

“The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable. I feel like we’re on the run.”

  • By Steve Peoples/The Associated Press

(Smethport) —  Some Democrats here in rural Pennsylvania are afraid to tell you they’re Democrats.

The party’s brand is so toxic in the small towns 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh that some liberals have removed bumper stickers and yard signs and refuse to acknowledge their party affiliation publicly. These Democrats are used to being outnumbered by the local Republican majority, but as their numbers continue to dwindle, the few that remain are feeling increasingly isolated and unwelcome in their own communities.

“The hatred for Democrats is just unbelievable,” said Tim Holohan, an accountant based in rural McKean County who recently encouraged his daughter to get rid of a pro-Joe Biden bumper sticker. “I feel like we’re on the run.”

The climate across rural Pennsylvania is symptomatic of a larger political problem threatening the Democratic Party ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Beyond losing votes in virtually every election since 2008, Democrats have been effectively ostracized from many parts of rural America, leaving party leaders with few options to reverse a cultural trend that is redefining the nation’s political landscape.

The shifting climate helped Republicans limit Democratic gains in 2020 — the GOP actually gained House seats despite former President Donald Trump’s loss — and a year later, surging Republican rural support enabled Republicans to claim the Virginia governorship. A small but vocal group of party officials now fears the same trends will undermine Democratic candidates in Ohio, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, states that will help decide the Senate majority in November, and the White House two years after that.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues to devote the vast majority of its energy, messaging and resources to voters in more populated urban and suburban areas.

In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a leading candidate in the state’s high-stakes Senate contest, insists his party can no longer afford to ignore rural voters. The former small-town mayor drove his black Dodge Ram pickup truck across five rural counties last weekend to face voters who almost never see statewide Democratic candidates.

Fetterman, wearing his signature hooded sweatshirt and gym shorts despite the freezing temperatures, described himself as a champion for “the forgotten, the marginalized and the left-behind places” as he addressed roughly 100 people inside a bingo hall in McKean County, a place Trump carried with 72% of the vote in 2020.

“These are the kind of places that matter just as much as any other place,” Fetterman said as the crowd cheered.

The Democratic Party’s struggle in rural America has been building for years. And it’s getting worse.

Barack Obama won 875 counties nationwide in his overwhelming 2008 victory. Twelve years later, Biden won only 527. The vast majority of those losses — 260 of the 348 counties — took place in rural counties, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.

The worst losses were concentrated in the Midwest: 21 rural counties in Michigan flipped from Obama in 2008 to Trump in 2020; Democrats lost 28 rural counties in Minnesota, 32 in Wisconsin and a whopping 45 in Iowa. At the same time, recent Republican voter registration gains in swing states like Florida and North Carolina were fueled disproportionately by rural voters.

Biden overcame rural losses to beat Trump in 2020 because of gains in more populous Democratic counties. Perhaps because of his victory, some Democratic officials worry that party leaders do not appreciate the severity of the threat.

Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper of Tennessee, who recently announced he would not seek reelection to Congress this fall, warns that the party is facing extinction in small-town America.

“It’s hard to sink lower than we are right now. You’re almost automatically a pariah in rural areas if you have a D after your name,” Cooper told The Associated Press.

Democratic candidate for the Pennsylvania U.S.senate seat in the 2022 primary election, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, center, talks with people during a campaign stop at the Mechanistic Brewery, in Clarion, Pa., Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022.

Keith Srakocic / AP Photo

Democratic candidate for the Pennsylvania U.S.senate seat in the 2022 primary election, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, center, talks with people during a campaign stop at the Mechanistic Brewery, in Clarion, Pa., Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022.

Even if Democrats continue to eke out victories by piling up urban and suburban votes, former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota fears her party will have “unstable majorities” if they cannot stop the bleeding in rural areas.

“Democrats have the House, they have the Senate, the presidency, but it’s an unstable majority. By that, I mean, the narrowest kind, making it difficult to advance ideas and build coalitions,” said Heitkamp, who now heads the One Country Project, which is focused on engaging rural voters.

She criticized her party’s go-to strategy for reaching rural voters: focusing on farmers and vowing to improve high-speed internet. At the same time, she said Democrats are hurting themselves by not speaking out more forcefully against far-left positions that alienate rural voters, such as the push to “defund the police.”

While only a handful of Democrats in Congress support stripping such money from police departments, for example, conservative media popular in rural communities — particularly Fox News — amplifies such positions.

“We’re letting Republicans use the language of the far left to define the Democratic Party, and we can’t do that,” Heitkamp said. “The trend lines in rural America are very, very bad. … Now, the brand is so toxic that people who are Democrats, the ones left, aren’t fighting for the party.”

To help win back rural voters, the Democratic National Committee has tapped Kylie Oversen, a former North Dakota state legislator, to work with rural organizers and state party rural caucuses as the chair of the national committee’s rural council. The DNC also says it’s sharing resources with people on the ground in rural areas to help improve training, recruiting and organizing.

So far, at least, those resources are not making life any easier for Democrats in northwestern Pennsylvania.

At one of Fetterman’s weekend stops in rural Clarion, a group of voters said they’ve been effectively ostracized by their community — and even family members, in some cases — for being Democrats. One woman brings her political signs inside at night so they aren’t vandalized or stolen.

Eugenia Barboza, 22, talks about being a college student and politics while living in a small town, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. in Clarion, Pa.

Keith Srakocic / AP Photo

Eugenia Barboza, 22, talks about being a college student and politics while living in a small town, Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022. in Clarion, Pa. The Democratic Party’s brand is so toxic in some parts of rural America that liberals are removing bumper stickers and refusing to acknowledge their party affiliation publicly.

“You have to be careful around here,” said Barbara Speer, 68, a retired sixth grade teacher.

Nearby, Michelle’s Cafe on Clarion’s main street is one of the few gathering points for local Democrats. A sign on the door proclaims support for Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights and other progressive priorities.

But the cafe owner, 33-year-old Kaitlyn Nevel, isn’t comfortable sharing her political affiliation when asked.

“I would rather not say, just because it’s a small town,” she said.

One patron, 22-year-old college student Eugenia Barboza, said the cafe is one of the few places in town she feels safe as a Latina immigrant. Just down the road, she said, a caravan of Trump supporters met up to drive to the deadly protests in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Barboza said she’s grateful that Democrats like Fetterman are willing to come to rural areas, but she isn’t hopeful that it’ll change much.

“It would take a lot more than just him,” she said. “It would take years and years and years.”

Well gee, they brought it on themselves, didn’t they?

 

Categories
Corruption Economy Politics

‘We Will Hold the Line’: Freedom Convoy Organizers Say They’re Not Deterred by Emergencies Act

OTTAWA—Freedom Convoy organizers say they will continue to protest on Parliament Hill despite the federal government’s declaration of a state of emergency.

“We are not afraid. In fact, every time the government decides to further suspend our civil liberties, our resolve strengthens and the importance of our mission becomes clearer,” organizer Tamara Lich said on Feb. 14 in anticipation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act over the protests demanding an end to COVID-19 mandates.

“We will remain peaceful, but planted on Parliament Hill until the mandates are decisively ended. We recognize that there is a democratic process within which change occurs. We have never stepped outside of that process, nor do we intend to.”

Trudeau is the first prime minister to use the Emergencies Act. The act replaces the War Measures Act, which was last used by Trudeau’s father, then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau, in 1970 during the October Crisis when Quebec separatists kidnapped and killed Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte.

The act gives the state additional powers to deal with the protests and blockades, such as providing legal tools to cut funding to protesters, as well as freezing the corporate accounts of companies whose trucks are used in any blockades and removing their insurance.

The province of Ontario and the city of Ottawa have also declared states of emergency over the protest.

Epoch Times Photo
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to reporters about the ongoing protest in Ottawa and blockades at various Canada-U.S. borders, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 11, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

The protest was initiated by truck drivers opposed to COVID-19 vaccination mandates for cross-border travel. As convoys of truckers made their to Ottawa, many supporters joined the movement, which turned into a large-scale protest against all COVID-19 mandates and restrictions. Many protesters who converged into Ottawa on Jan. 29 say they intend to stay in the capital until COVID-19 mandates are lifted.

Separately, protest convoys set up blockades at border crossings in Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, and British Columbia. The blockade at the Ambassador Bridge connecting Windsor to Detroit, which accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in trade between Canada and the United States, was cleared over the past weekend. The protest at the Coutts border crossing in Alberta ended on Feb. 14, as did the protest at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Surrey, B.C.

“The Emergencies Act will be used to strengthen and support law enforcement agencies at all levels across the country. This is about keeping Canadians safe, protecting people’s jobs, and restoring confidence in our institutions,” Trudeau said.

“The police will be given more tools to restore order in places where public assemblies can constitute illegal and dangerous activities such as blockades and occupations as seen in Ottawa, Ambassador Bridge, and elsewhere.”

Lich said Canadians “should be surprised” that such “an extreme measure” is being used against peaceful protesters.

“We have countless vulnerable people in our crowd, including children, the elderly, and the disabled, who cannot be met with force by a genuine liberal democracy. The right to peaceful protest is sacrosanct to our nation. If that principle is abandoned, the government will reveal itself as a true tyranny and it will lose all of its credibility,” she said.

Epoch Times Photo
Children participate in the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Ottawa on Feb. 9, 2022. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

Lich said she realizes some people are opposed to the protests, but noted that a democratic society “will always have non-trivial disagreements and righteous dissidents.”

“There are many reasons for us opposing the mandates,” she said. “Some of us have been mistreated by our government, including many of our indigenous communities, who have personally experienced medical malpractice. Some of us simply want bodily autonomy and oppose the mandates on principled grounds. No matter our reasons and opinions, it is how the government responds to its citizens that determines the fate of the country.”

Addressing the prime minister, Lich said, “No matter what you do, we will hold the line.”

“There are no threats that will frighten us.”