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Hard to read comment from a long time and very dear friend regarding my autobiography.
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I am in basic agreement with everything said in this attached article. Meanwhile, the problem with Republicans, as I have stated time and again, is all they do is ask for money so they can be re-elected and to what end? What have they been able to do when they have been out of office? What do they want to do when they get back in office? Most of the time, unless they are led by a strong and focused president, like Trump, they simply become Democrats who spend less money and create somewhat less of a deficit.
Until radicals began taking over the Democrats under Obama and then Biden, there really was not a dime's worth of difference between Democrats and Republicans. As I said, the latter created less deficits but seldom did anything else that truly distinguished them and made any significant difference.
Democrats are focused. They will do anything to win. They love to bring about change even where none is needed. They are always unhappy with the status quo even if it works because they are miserable when they cannot tinker. They know how to market their ideas and have proven, time and again, they can rally the unwashed to help them change everything and anything because their constituents are akin to brainwashed slaves. This makes them effective. As for Republicans, they are more patrician like. They also have no single message because they have been invaded by RINO's.
Even Bush 41 could not run with the ball Reagan handed off to him and yet was probably one of the most qualified presidents based on his executive experience. He was a decent man but did not know the price of a loaf of bread and wore a preppy wrist band on his watch and even though he assembled and executed what it took to win The Gulf War he could not win. He was too nice a man,
Then his son son ran and got elected and was dealt a gut wrenching blow on 9/11 and responded without knowing what he and those he allowed to run the Iraq War needed to do and the rest is history. Now he has become a Democrat because Trump bashed/ridiculed his brother,
Had Trump had a different persona, not been so narcissistic he could have been re-elected. He was the right man at the right time but with the wrong personality. He was in many ways a very accomplished egoist but his outsized self was even too large for The Oval Office so he defeated himself when he had a lay-up shot.
When I think of Republican politicians I shake my head and, except for a hand full, all I can say is bless their souls.
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It's about time Zuckerberg was called to account:
I Changed My Mind—Facebook Is a Monopoly
I thought it was possible to compete fairly against the world’s largest social media company. It isn’t.
By Mark Weinstein
I’m the founder of MeWe, the ad-free social network with data privacy and no content amplification or newsfeed manipulation. MeWe competes directly with Facebook. On June 27, 2019, I wrote an op-ed in this newspaper headlined “I Compete With Facebook, and It’s No Monopoly.”
On Aug. 6, 2021, I was contacted by the New York state attorney general’s office, which, along with the Federal Trade Commission, is leading a 46-state antitrust investigation of Facebook. On June 28 a previous case was dismissed by a federal judge, who said the states failed to prove Facebook was a monopoly. The FTC filed an amended complaint on Aug. 19, which listed MeWe as one of Facebook’s few competitors left standing. In tandem, the attorneys general are seeking an appeal and requesting my perspective. Facebook has responded by denying that it’s a monopolist and calling the FTC’s lawsuit “meritless.”
I’ve changed my mind. MeWe continues to succeed, albeit on a modest scale. Two years ago the platform had five million users and no revenue. Today it has nearly 20 million users and is breaking even with millions of dollars in revenue. Yet despite MeWe’s growth, Facebook’s troubling actions over the last two years have caused me to change my position, for six reasons.
First, on July 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg declared Facebook will transform itself in the next five years from a social-media company into a “Metaverse company.” Facebook plans to spend billions of dollars and use virtual-reality technology from Oculus and other companies it has acquired to create a three-dimensional digital universe. Facebook plans for everyone to be totally immersed in the Facebook ecosystem at all times. No upstart has the advanced technologies, infrastructure, resources and massive user base required to build a competing “Metaverse.” This will be the capper to Facebook’s dominance.
Second, on July 14 Facebook announced plans to pay content creators more than $1 billion by the end of next year to post original content on Facebook and Facebook-owned Instagram. In comparison, TikTok, the world’s most downloaded social app not owned by Facebook, is offering creators up to $200 million for original content—only 20% of Facebook’s content budget.
Content is the backbone of a social network; modestly funded social-media companies can’t compete for creators and their content at this price scale. Those creators, moreover, have every reason to avoid smaller platforms, since an offended Facebook may reduce their reach and their payments.
Third, on Oct. 25, 2019, Facebook introduced Facebook News, a new section of its platform for news stories. Facebook has collaborated with hundreds of major news outlets world-wide and pays many of them for their content. This presents the possibility of a truly problematic quid pro quo. Facebook could refuse to renew its payment agreements or suppress the reach and distribution of those news outlets if their content includes articles that are unfavorable toward it. Alternatively, Facebook could reward and amplify those news companies and articles of which Facebook approves. In February Facebook banned all news outlets in Australia after Canberra threatened to charge Facebook a fee for news. According to Pew Research, approximately one-third of Americans get their news from Facebook.
Fourth, when Facebook is unable to purchase an emerging competitor, it goes on a warpath to destroy the threat. Snap Inc. created a dossier called “Project Voldemort” documenting Facebook’s anticompetitive behavior. According to the report, Facebook not only cloned Snapchat’s features but discouraged content creators from mentioning Snapchat and blocked its content from trending on Facebook. MeWe, too, has documented reports from people whose Facebook posts mentioning MeWe were suppressed or flagged as spam.
Fifth, the glue that holds it all together is Facebook’s monopoly over data. Its ownership and control of the personal information of Facebook users and nonusers alike is unmatched. With that control the social-media giant can manipulate our thoughts, votes and purchase decisions. Yael Eisenstat, a former CIA officer turned Facebook consultant, has said: “Facebook knows you better than the CIA ever will. . . . Facebook knows more about you than you know about yourself.”
Cambridge Analytica’s CEO even bragged that he has data points and psychological profiles, courtesy of Facebook, on all 220 million American adults. Facebook’s data troves give it unrivaled knowledge about people, governments—and its competitors. Facebook even acquired a VPN app called Onavo to snoop on iPhone users and track competing apps. Onavo was eventually kicked out of the App Store for violating Apple’s privacy policies.
Sixth, 3.14 billion people use Facebook-owned products, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. That’s nearly half the human population. Despite the recent furor over the now temporarily “paused” Instagram Kids, Facebook already targets children 6 to 12 with its Messenger Kids app. This is Facebook’s plan—to keep everyone of all ages immersed in Facebook’s products throughout their lifetimes.
While social-media companies like MeWe, Snapchat and Twitter can grow to hundreds of millions of users, Facebook’s market power and monopolistic behavior prevent any social network from challenging its top position. Facebook’s giant footprint and anticompetitive actions—purchasing emerging upstarts or cloning their features—prevent countless startups and would-be competitors from having a chance to succeed at all.
So I’ve changed my mind. Facebook is a monopoly like the world has never seen. It has more power to influence, manipulate and change thoughts, opinions, votes and purchase decisions on a global scale than any nation or government. It has an army of lobbyists who stymie effective regulation or oversight.
What to do? Decoupling Facebook from Instagram, WhatsApp and other apps it owns is unlikely to be sufficient. They would all work in tandem with the same underlying modus operandi. They would operate in the same data ecosystem, in which social-media user data is shared with advertisers and marketers across platforms. A Facebook breakup may even follow the same destiny as AT&T Corp. , which was broken up by federal regulators into “baby bells” in 1984, only to have many of its parts merged back together over the years.
More privacy laws and regulations are unlikely to solve the problems either. Facebook repeatedly pretends to support and champion privacy regulations, which it then ignores and violates. The company then pays the fines it incurs as a “cost of doing business.” One example: In 2019 the company announced it would pay a $5 billion settlement for violating a consent decree with the FTC that required the company to better protect the personal data of its users.
A new approach in antitrust regulation is required to meet this challenge. The independence of content creators and news producers must be protected from Facebook’s wrath and retribution, perhaps with regulations that protect news outlets and creators from prejudicial retaliatory action. Facebook’s stranglehold on data can’t simply be regulated. It needs to be upended. There must be new support for startups and the free market such as content portability, new subsidies, tax breaks and other incentives, along with an unencumbered protection and extension of Section 230 liability protection. Competition is needed more than ever to rein in Facebook’s domination over social media, news, personal data and democracy.
In a recently leaked recording, Facebook’s chief technology officer, Mike Schroepfer, described a new device the company is building that will allow it to scan our brains and read our minds without us having to speak or type a word. What could go wrong?
Mr. Weinstein is founder and chairman of MeWe.
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8 Ways Biden is Making the World More Dangerous…
By -October 1, 202156
Over the last few years, more than a few in our nation, mostly all from the political left, have said that former U.S. President Donald Trump was the most divisive and dangerous leader the country has ever seen. And as such, they were keen to get rid of him pretty much as soon as he announced a political run for the White House in 2015.
However, it’s since been proven that Trump was, in fact, far from our most dangerous or chaos-causing Commander in Chief. Instead, our current president and career Democrat, Joe Biden has earned that title.
But don’t just take my word for it.
Enter Republican Representative Chris Stewart from Utah.
In a Sunday piece published by The Hill, Stewart expounded on all the ways Biden has made our nation less safe, increasingly damaged, and no longer the greatest or the most powerful in the world.
As Stewart points out, the policies and decisions of Biden have:
Energized the Taliban and the terrorist group known as ISIS-K.
Emboldened foreign adversaries to take advantage of Biden’s weaknesses.
Empowered communist China to begin assault drills near Taiwan.
Enabled Russia to ramp up cyberattacks against the U.S.
Obliterated American energy independence.
Ignited soaring inflation, hurting consumers and the economy.
Blamed fellow Americans for the ongoing COVID crisis.
Squandered goodwill from international allies.
These are all a direct quote of what Stewart has said. Naturally, the first few on the list all have to do with Biden’s decision and method of withdrawing from Afghanistan, as it has now forever ruined our reputation as a world leader. And this has caused a number of threats against America to only grow.
As you well know, under our former presidents, America beat back terrorist groups like ISIS-K and never ceased to put them in their place. As a result, we were feared as a world power.
But now, thanks to Biden’s hasty and botched withdrawal, the Taliban is no longer afraid of us, as is evident by their immediate take over of Kabul, even though Biden made threats of airstrikes to them just days before. They are now on a rampage to obliterate any evidence of the U.S. in Afghanistan, including the torture and murder of any Afghans who so much as thought of Americans in a good light.
Of course, as several on the list imply, this decision didn’t just affect those in the Middle East. China is now unconcerned with any possible threat the U.S. may be to their efforts to reclaim Taiwan. And so, as such, they have ramped up drills and blatant assaults on the island nation since the moment Biden said he was leaving Afghanistan.
The move has also encouraged Russia, although they didn’t wait that long to increase their cyberattacks on the U.S. Instead, it seems they understood from “the moment Biden stepped into office,” the U.S. was in less capable hands, according to Stewart.
“And how did President Biden respond? He cleared the way for a Russian pipeline that will boost our rival’s economy and enhance their ability to manipulate our partners in Western Europe,” Stewart says.
Suffice it say that to the world, we are a laughing stock and has-been thanks to Biden…
Meanwhile, back home in the states, it seems Biden has waged war against American energy. He canceled our biggest pipeline project to date, nixed domestic oil and gas leases, and turned over contracts for Iranian oil. Of course, after realizing that all that would only drive energy prices up, he went to our competitors, begging for help, only to be denied and made into a complete fool.
Then, of course, there is the reckless spending his administration has participated in and is still proposing, causing inflation to rise to levels our nation hasn’t seen in decades. And that doesn’t even begin to explain the proposed tax hike Biden wants.
And who could forget the COVID crisis?
While Biden swore that he would be the one to unite America and bring her back to health and safety, he’s now proposing mandates for all Americans and blaming those who refuse for it all.
Talk about being divisive…
And that’s all just been in the past ten months. With so much destruction and chaos afoot now, how in the world are we supposed to survive another three years of this?
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I always have said Kissinger never understood Americans are not losers, by nature, and also one of the most respected and beloved TV broadcasters went over to Viet Nam and told Americans we were losing the war, which was not true, and we gave up and lost faith. After the war ended the top N Vietnam General said they were within weeks of being defeated. Jane Fonda also added to the dispiriting of America.
From that point forward America has not won any wars. We have allowed presidents and politics to dictate our strategy which has turned into a mind set based on defeat.
The Failure in Afghanistan Is Worse Than in Vietnam
Southeast Asia didn’t fall to communism, and Saigon came closer to winning than reported.
By William Lloyd Stearman
Many have compared America’s defeat in Afghanistan to Vietnam. But the comparison is unfair to Vietnam. The U.S. became involved in Vietnam primarily to counter the communist threat to Southeast Asia. In 1955 President Eisenhower placed the communist threat to Vietnam in the broader context of the threat to the entire region. He said a communist victory in Vietnam would lead to other communist takeovers in Southeast Asia, with countries toppled like a row of dominoes.
Southeast Asian leaders reported that our deploying combat troops to Vietnam beginning in May 1965 greatly encouraged their successful resistance to communist threats. The region didn’t fall—a strategic accomplishment.
What few know or appreciate is that South Vietnamese forces came very close to winning the war in 1972. All U.S. combat troops had been withdrawn as a result of Vietnamization. Hanoi was looking forward to a quick victory over South Vietnamese ground forces and launched its Easter Offensive, using divisions equipped with Soviet heavy tanks, long-range artillery, surface-to-air missiles and other modern weapons. They were opposed by South Vietnamese army and marine troops.
Americans provided air support, which more than countered the weaponry of the enemy. Our side actually began winning the war. This was never covered by the media, but much worse, it was largely ignored by the American intelligence community. In September 1972, the South Vietnamese marines retook the provincial capital of Quang Tri. I was working at the White House at the time but didn’t learn this from intelligence reports.
Enemy forces suffered heavy losses. In 1975, after Hanoi had won the war, former commander Gen. Tran Van Tra stated in the Communist Party organ Nhan Dan that his troops, by late 1972, were on the ropes and seemed on the verge of defeat. As former CIA Director William Colby notes in his book “Lost Victory,” by the fall of 1972 “on the ground in South Vietnam the war had been won.”
Faced with the prospect of defeat, Hanoi became interested again in negotiations. Henry Kissinger’s old negotiating partner Le Duc Tho (whom we called “Ducky”) contacted him, offering a concession Mr. Kissinger had long sought: keeping South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu in place.
I have often wondered if I could have convinced Mr. Kissinger that our side was winning, and if he would then have taken a different view of negotiations. I doubt it. President Nixon was eager to end the war and was distracted by the Watergate scandal. Mr. Kissinger had invested time and energy in negotiating the Paris Peace Accords, which had some major flaws. For example, the accords left all enemy forces in South Vietnam after the cease-fire. In any event, Hanoi immediately violated the agreement. Only the U.S. observed it. That’s something to keep in mind when negotiating with the Taliban, who are as unreliable as Hanoi.
Mr. Stearman, who served on the National Security Council staff under four presidents, is author of “An American Adventure: From Early Aviation Through Three Wars to the White House.”
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Ross Rants:
All indications from a variety of producers and retailers are that inflation is ramping up and will continue to do so. Natural gas is in short supply across the world for a variety of reasons, but partly because US shale drillers see too much risk of being shut down or over regulated. Result- heating costs and energy costs this winter are going to go through the roof. Coal is in very short supply, and China is potentially going to have energy shortages this winter. Inflation is here.
Consumers and companies still have huge cash reserves, and as Delta continues to diminish, the reopen will ramp up again as we get into the holiday season and schools remain in-person open. There seems to be no end to the container problems, and the shortage of truck drivers remains an intractable issue. West coast ports are hopelessly backed up, and not going to get sorted out for a very long time. We will see if workers go back and cut the severe labor shortage problem now that the $300 has gone away. The remaining government subsidies like the child care cash, far more in food stamps, rent subsides, and other free give aways still deter many from working. The other problem is for some, they are simply unskilled, and unable to find new work they are capable of doing now that so many companies have been upgrading their technology during the pandemic. There needs to be a big expansion of non-degree classes at community colleges which are partnered with companies to provide real job training for these people, and a job at the end of the course. It works very well, and keeps the government out of the process, so it is efficient and effective at skills upgrades. It is very different than the worthless government training programs that have wasted so many tens of billions. With Delta being on the decline, evictions now no longer stopped, and no $300, maybe more will go back to work. Once inflation expectations take hold with consumers, which it is starting to do, it takes higher rates and tight money to break it, and that means recession at some point.
Borrowers now have a wide variety of choices for lenders. Over 50% of loans are not done by banks. For big companies they can go to the bond market and get cheap money with minimal covenants. For lower credit borrowers they can use the junk bond market where credit spreads have dropped to unheard of low levels, and some bonds are being issued at under 4%. For smaller companies they have a variety of non-bank lenders to go to, however the cost is much higher. I get promoted by PayPal almost daily. Major banks are no longer the big lenders for home mortgages. For old investment bankers like me, this situation is a revolution. It is one reason why there is such a glut of capital in the world. Banks are awash in cash. What happened in the past 18 months is junk borrowers refinanced at 4-5% rates -down from 8%-12%, and they have gotten long maturities, so the maturity default is off the table now, and the debt service cover is much more manageable. There is very little to even look at with defaulted loans or projects. Defaults are now under 1% on loans. That is unheard of. With inflation potentially rising to 5% or so, junk sells at negative real rates in many cases. That makes no sense. The big banks have moved to wealth management and investment banking to make money. The fees for that are shrinking. Banks need to move fast to figure out their ongoing business strategy, or they will have to consolidate. The number of commercial banks is shrinking. The internet changed it forever.
The Evergrande situation will play out OK over the next month. Steps are being taken to deal with it. Real estate has been a big driver of Chinese growth. For quite a while China has been cracking down on excessive real estate lending, and so the sector will not lead to a sudden crash. It will lead to slower growth of the property sector, as credit tightens. Bank exposure on Evergrande relative to the size of Chinese banks in not large, and the banks are now much stronger. US lenders are barely exposed. There should be no exposure to homeowners, so no homeowner defaults resulting from Evergrande. Home buyers always had to put down 30% cash in China, so there is no home price crash going to happen. The government is happy if condo prices decline a little so more can afford them. There is no subprime market in China. Consumers in China are more concerned about personal cash flow than the wealth effect of the value of their home. Outside of the property sector, there should be no, to minimal impact on most consumer incomes. With the slowdown in construction completions, there will be a slowdown in commodities of things going into buildings such as iron, and wood, and from there, furniture, etc that consumers buy when they move in. That might impact some emerging market economies with lower commodity prices, but it will not be any type of crash. The Evergrande default will likely lead to some diminution of land values, and some slowdown in residential development, and therefore some slowdown in ancillary products as less units are sold and new households created, but it will not likely be very material to Chinese GDP. Young people will still buy apartments. China will handle this, and there will be no real impact at all on US banks or the stock market. The place there may be impact in China is a slowdown in residential development due to more restrictive lending to developers. The whole todo in the US was caused by few people really understanding the situation in China, and making all sorts of uninformed comments about comparison to Lehman or risks to the world financial system.
Keep in mind that the west is on a rush to end fossil fuels, and is finding itself in the problem the EU has this winter-inadequate power, and very expensive energy. The US could potentially have some energy shortages this winter. In the meantime, China continues to build coal plants, as does India. The problem for them is there is shortage of coal as mines have been shut in the US and elsewhere, and the price of coal has shot up. Russia continues to drill for and produce large amounts of oil. As we move further along the climate change mantra, and fossil fuels are outlawed in the west, Russia will enjoy cheap energy in abundance as they ignore the Paris accords. The reality of the whole climate change ideology is going to hit the wall this winter. Prepare to pay a lot more for energy and heating, this higher inflation.
96% of over 65 are vaccinated, and likely many of the rest, are immune from being infected. Even over 40-50 it is 75% at least one shot, plus probably another 15% naturally immune from infection. So we see that over 40 it is likely almost everyone has some level of immunity, and that number increases daily by several hundred thousand. It is kids and 18-39 that need to catch up quickly. Now that more kids can get shots, that is likely to improve very quickly from 20% to a far higher number. The problem is the FDA again dragging their bureaucratic feet to approve the kids shots. There are around 335 million Americans of whom 241 million have had shots, another 43 million have immunity from infection, and that is really closer to 45-48 million. So assume at least 284 million (85%) are immune to some degree. There are 48 million kids under 12, so make the total of most people over 12 will have a shot, or some degree of immunity by November. New hospitalizations are dropping since mid-September in most of the country. The trend to being far better by mid to late October continues. With boosters it will improve even more. If blacks will go from 30% to the average of the rest of the country the cases would decline even faster. All good news for the economy and stock market. 40 states have declines in the past week, a 28% nationwide decline in new cases. Maybe there will be a lifting of many of the restrictions by end of October. By holiday season we should be mostly over the Delta surge. Only 14% of Americans now say they are unlikely to get a shot, and that number is declining due to mandates in several big urban locations. By Thanksgiving it will be fine. It seems most pharmacists do not verify, so some doctors say when Moderna is approved for the booster just lie if you have to, and get the shot.
The end of the Merkel era might be good news for the EU. Under her reign, the EU became a non-player in technology, a passive player in geopolitics, and they lost a key member to Brexit. She has always been a very cautious leader, and always wanted consensus. That led to the EU to taking halting steps when the financial crisis hit which left the continent behind the US and Asia in the recovery. She pushed ahead with Nordstream even though most of the EU and the US were against it, and it will prove to be a terrible decision. She did nothing to help Ukraine, and her refusal to fully fund German defense and NATO spending left NATO far weaker, and led to her major battles with Trump who was fed up with Germany letting US taxpayers essentially subsidize the German economy by us taking on the cost of defending Germany.. She also ended nuclear power in Germany which has led to the highest energy prices maybe in the world as the reliance on wind and solar has not worked out. If Macron becomes the major leader in the EU, as he is pushing to be, we will witness a much different EU approach to the world. Her being gone will be a good thing for the US hopefully as she was a major problem on Iran, China, and NATO. The problem the Germans now have is no party got much over 25%, so there is no mandate, and there has to be a cobbled together coalition. The future of Germany might be a much more contentious government with no strong leader. Not a good omen for the EU, but maybe a chance for Macron to lead the EU.
In an anecdotal survey of several friends in Manhattan, it is clear the return to the office is holding at 25%+-. That is not going to change dramatically as many have found there is no need to go in other than to mentor young people. Maybe it gets to 50% next year, but even that is unclear. Being a landlord of a B building in major urban locations is going to get much tougher as leased space is reduced and rent declines. Urban retail and restaurants serving urban core office is going to suffer. There is no way the business traveler is ever returning to the levels of 2019. That is over forever. The savings of cost and time efficiency, and stress is now overwhelming. Airlines across the world are going to struggle with their massive debt. Hotels catering to business travel are never going to be very good again. That business will never return to former levels.
The generals confirmed they told Biden not to withdraw, and that he should leave the 2500 and maybe 3500 troops plus the 6,000 NATO troops. Miley even said it was a strategic failure. Lloyd Austin tried to bob and weave, but in the end he confirmed Biden was told not to leave. Biden flat out lied when he claimed the military never said that. Miley had resigning backwards. His obligation is to the nation, and as a result he had an obligation to resign when Biden refused to do as the generals advised because by carrying out the orders he allowed the president to commit an act that created, by Miley’s own words, very serious damage on the nation, and 13 dead. Had he resigned maybe he could have stopped Biden.
In 1954 the court ended segregation in schools. Today at universities 42% of schools in a survey have some segregated dorms, and 71% have segregated graduation ceremonies. They do this by choice to let blacks have their own spaces and graduation. So we have come full circle. The left fought hard to get integration, and now the new left and blacks want to resegregate, which is unconstitutional. This only creates division and anger, and just causes each race to feed on racial stereotypes. It is terribly destructive, and just causes each group to feel more tribal, which is never good. Inclusion has become exclusion in the name of inclusion. That is how screwed up it is. Since Ferguson and Obama and Holder, we have gone backwards by 50 years. In the forties and fifties blacks were family oriented and making progress which resulted in the 1954 landmark case. We are now going backwards with over 70% of black kids born to single mothers, and the creation of a “victim” dependent culture which the Dems are going to make worse.
Now it has begun. CA has just passed a law that allows illegal aliens to be selected for and elected to county boards. Step one in the Dem long range plan to allow them to vote in other elections. That is what open borders is really all about. If they become dependent on Dem entitlements, they will vote Dem, and over time they may get to vote for state legislators. That is who controls redistricting, and lots of other things. This is all about retaining power for the Dems.
Trump’s behavior in his GA rally a few days ago could cost Republicans the state once again. He is a walking wrecking ball for the Republicans. If Abrams wins it will be solely due to Trump, and it will be a disaster, but Trump does not care about anyone but himself. He could wreck Republican chances to take back control. He is more out of control than ever.
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That is what unprincipled people are all about and Biden is one of the most despicable:
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The Congressional testimony of several of Joe Biden’s top defense officials earlier this week showed that there are still some Democrats willing to hold the administration responsible for the disastrous withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan this summer.
Meanwhile:
This hot potato is a military matter so an unpinned grenade is a more accurate description:
Breaking: Generals Scramble To Avoid Responsibility For Afghanistan
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Breaking: Milley Points Fingers At State Department For Botched Afghanistan Evacuation
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I believe Biden misses his dog who probably advised him. The more I think about it maybe it was Biden wetting the Oval Office Rug.
White House Interferes with Biden Answering Uncensored Questions
President Biden is in no mental position to be occupying the Oval Office. This is something many Americans suspected during Biden’s time on the 2020 campaign trail; however, the president’s behaviors in the less than nine months he’s been in office erase all doubt about his lack of mental fitness.
For awhile, Biden avoided doing press conferences with the public altogether. Finally, after the White House was repeatedly asked about the president’s lack of press conferences, Biden finally started giving them.
However, there was a catch. During press conferences given by Biden, reporters have managed to gather pictures of Biden holding flashcards with notes telling him what to say. No one can make this stuff up.
On Friday, another situation arose that further shows even the White House knows Biden isn’t mentally fit for the office he holds. Breitbart News confirms that aides working for Biden barred from answering uncensored questions posed by Democrat legislators.
Keeping Biden on a Short Leash
On Friday, the president of the United States gathered with Democrats on Capitol Hill to discuss his $3.5 trillion spending legislation. This is a bill that’s essentially dead on arrival, due to it lacking key votes from centrist Democrat senators.
That’s on top of House Democrats who are clashing with one another regarding whether or not the bill should be combined with climate change measures. Nevertheless, after Biden’s gathering with Democrats, an interesting series of events arose.
According to at least one reporter, the president expressed his willingness to take inquiries from the leftist lawmakers. However, before things could proceed any further, White House staffers promptly stepped in.
These staffers essentially halted the president from taking any questions from legislators. Also, this is far from an isolated incident. When President Biden met with the U.K. prime minister last month, White House aides also stopped reporters from questioning Biden.
The Unspoken Truth
Here’s the reality: the White House knows Biden is not fit for the job. However, the administration will never publicly admit this. Instead, they will work to present a rosy image to the public and do their part to keep Biden from publicly humiliating himself.
If this president were truly up for the job, the United States wouldn’t be facing economic, immigration, and foreign policy crises. Moreover, if Biden were in his right mind, the White House wouldn’t need to give him flashcards during press conferences or stop the media from questioning him.
Many Americans are of the belief that despite being formally “president,” Biden isn’t the one truly running things behind the scenes. With each passing day, this theory seems to gain more credibility.
What do you think about the White House interfering with Biden taking public questions? Share your insight below in the comments section.
Finally:
The more Pelosi loses the more America wins:
The more Pelosi loses the more America wins:
Fight Among Democrats May Prevent Pelosi From Succeeding
(PresidentialWire.com)- For now, it certainly seems possible that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s evil plan to push through whatever legislation she wants might not succeed. And if it doesn’t, it’ll fail because of members within her own party.
Democrats are having trouble wrangling up enough support for President Joe Biden’s proposed $3.5 trillion spending bill and infrastructure plan. While Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are in favor of it, not every member of the Democratic Party is falling in line behind leadership.
Not only are the more moderate Democrats in the Senate opposed to the price tag, some progressives in the House aren’t in full favor if it, either.
It’s been a tug-of-war between those two sects of the party. Moderates are saying they won’t vote on the $3.5 trillion bill until the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package is passed.
Progressives in the House are taking the opposite stance. They say they won’t vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill until the massive social spending bill is passed.
And so, Pelosi and President Joe Biden are facing a conundrum.
In some instances, this wouldn’t be a total end to the hopes for the bill. However, because no Republican in Congress is in support of these packages, Democrats will need to receive the votes of every member of their party — especially in the Senate.
Democrats are going to have to use budget reconciliation to pass this bill and avoid the filibuster in the Senate, which typically requires 60 votes. While the COVID-19 relief package liberals passed with the same strategy earlier this year went relatively smoothly, the same isn’t happening this time around.
On Sunday, Pelosi and Washington Representative Pramila Jayapal both said the votes haven’t come in yet. Pelosi herself said it’s “self-evident” that the massive social spending package could come down in total price tag, less than the $3.5 trillion Biden was hoping for.
The massive price tag, and a lot of the things that are included in it, are a major concern to the moderates in the Democratic Party. They believe that it’s simply too much money to spend at a time when the country has already spent multiple trillions of dollars on relief packages in the last year-and-a-half.
Moderates also aren’t in support of some of the measures that are included in the bill, which were placed in there by Pelosi at the behest of the progressives.
Where Democrats are today is a somewhat surprising place. Biden professed that he was moderate, and that’s where he found himself for much of his political career.
But in his first year in the White House, the president seems to be pushing an extremely progressive package of bills and measures — with Pelosi supporting him all along the way.
That’s been welcome news for some in the party, but it’s caused a lot of strife, anger and resentment from long-time moderates. Now, Democrats are having trouble getting anything done.
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This from a very dear friend, a fellow memo reader, a general officer and leader. I have not sought to verify but I would not doubt because I believe in blibbits:
Unbelievable! there is so much crap in this bill--it has to be killed!
https://www.dailysignal.com/
A tax deduction for massive media companies like Fox or AP would be bad enough, but this is a proposal for a tax credit: "special journalism “tax credit” equal to 50% of the salary of each journalist—up to $50,000 per journalist annually".
Every news outlet becomes PBS and NPR, overnight. Right out of the Chinese govt play book, I'm guessing
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