“In the days following the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history on Maui that left at least 115 people dead and 1,100 still missing, President Joe Biden escaped to his beach house in Delaware, sent another $200 million to Ukraine while offering pittances for Hawaii, and hobnobbed with liberal billionaire Tom Steyer at his Lake Tahoe mansion before finally visiting the ravaged island – where he promptly insulted the victims and left them feeling angry and betrayed. When the history of Biden’s presidency is written, his actions over the past three weeks will undoubtedly go down as one of the great disasters of his term, right alongside his botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
The blazes began on August 8 and have burned 6,400 acres. The historic town of Lahaina was completely destroyed, with total economic losses of at least $5 billion. With so many people missing more than two weeks after the inferno ripped through the town, it seems likely that the death toll could climb dramatically higher in the days and weeks ahead.
Yet as the entire country’s attention turned to Hawaii, President Joe Biden’s focus was anywhere else. Three days after the fires began, on August 11, Biden flew to his Delaware beach house for the weekend, where he twice told reporters “no comment” when asked about the blazes. As rescue workers were pulling burned bodies from the wreckage and begging for federal help, Biden was reclining in the sand 5,000 miles away.
Then on August 14 came the federal government’s paltry offer of $700 checks to families that had just lost everything they owned, which Biden touted on Twitter rather than announcing in person. After raking in $4.9 trillion in tax revenue last year, the Biden administration has so far only distributed an embarrassing $3.1 million to the devastated islanders.
On the same day he tweeted bragging about his administration’s response to the wildfires, Biden also announced another $200 million for Ukraine. That funding means the United States has now sent $113 billion to a country halfway around the world, but can spare just 0.0027 percent of that total for the American citizens on Maui. As an article from The Federalist pointed out, the $700 checks “won’t even cover each household’s portion of the $113 billion in aid packages the United States has billed taxpayers for the war in Ukraine, which averages almost $900 per household.”
A day later, on August 15, Biden finally broke his silence about the disaster during a speech in Milwaukee – a full week after the fires started. But his utter disregard for the victims was only just beginning. Three days later, on August 18, he departed for another vacation to Steyer’s mountain chalet. (For those of you keeping track at home, Biden has spent 39 percent of his presidency on vacation.)
With pressure mounting on all sides for Biden to do something to show empathy and compassion for the victims, the White House finally scheduled a trip to Maui this past Monday – only to see the president make things even worse.
When Biden arrived, it was already clear many residents were angry. As the president’s motorcade drove through the wreckages, there were shouts of “thanks for nothing!” and “traitor Joe must go!” Many held signs reading “no comment.”
After stepping up to a pristine lectern prepared for him in the midst of the wreckage, Biden still had one more slap in the face ready for the wildfire victims. As people who had just seen every one of their possessions and even family members and loved ones literally turned to ashes listened in disbelief, Biden compared their suffering to a small kitchen fire in his home two decades ago.
“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette, and my cat,” the president said about an episode that the incident report shows he routinely exaggerates. The hopelessly out-of-touch comment also came just moments after Biden had cracked a joke about the “hot ground.””
“I realize now that Mr. Bender was grooming me while I was a student, at a time in my life when I was particularly vulnerable both as an [undocumented] immigrant and as a still-closeted young person,” the report quotes that 2016 graduate as saying.
Police took a report but nothing came of it. The school district says its investigation is closed. Bender was allowed to resign rather than being fired and that’s the end of it.
In March the Standard published a story about another teacher who was working at a Middle School. He was allowed to resign rather than be fired.
A report uncovered by The Standard reveals that a teacher who was accused of kissing and groping a 17-year-old San Bruno girl on multiple occasions was allowed to resign and was later hired at a San Francisco public school, where students accused him of misconduct roughly two decades after the original alleged incidents…
San Francisco officials would come to discover allegations from the 1990s about teacher Anthony Sylvestri only after local students at the city’s Aptos Middle School claimed in 2018 that he made them uncomfortable by calling them pet names, leering at them and touching them for no clear reason.
In 2019, Sylvestri was allowed to resign, this time under what officials for the San Francisco Unified School District call a “release agreement,” after which time administrators did not pursue disciplinary hearings that might have resulted in Sylvestri’s formal firing.
Sylvestri’s case was particularly egregious because he’d been accused before. But this type of release agreement seems to be standard operating procedure in San Francisco:
The athletic director repeatedly called the teenage girl out of class and then escorted her to a locker room, a lawsuit alleges. Later, he would send her back to her class at George Washington High School, a routine that at least one teacher found odd.
These were not legitimate hall passes, but instead repeated episodes of alleged sexual abuse that went on for four years, according to the lawsuit against the San Francisco Unified School District. The girl eventually confided in her college guidance counselor, who called the police. Officials then put Lawrence Young-Yet Chan on leave, the lawsuit said.
But then Chan was allowed to quietly resign.
He wasn’t the only one. Public records obtained by The Standard reveal that, since 2017, at least 19 employees of San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) who were accused of sexual misconduct were allowed to resign or retire in lieu of termination.
Is it just me or is the sexual abuse of children being treated like a minor faux pas? These people belong behind bars with a record that indicates they are child abusers. Instead, they are simply allowed to waltz away from their behavior. Why is this the case? The SF Standard strongly suggests we have teachers unions to thank.
A 2010 federal study reported that a school administrator feared it could cost up to $100,000 to fire a teacher—“even with a slam-dunk case”—because investigations, hearings, appeals and other required steps that precede a dismissal take time and require the attention of senior staff. Accommodating an accused abuser with a separation agreement can discreetly curtail what could have been a drawn-out embarrassment for the institution, experts say.
Bottom line: Union contracts make it nigh-impossible to fire anyone, even for something as serious as sexual abuse of a minor. It’s expensive, time consuming and raises attention. So administrators allow people to resign to save themselves the hassle of fighting through the union-made morass of rules about firing someone.
It must be common knowledge among SF teachers that nothing will happen to abusers. And that means it’s probably well know among would-be abusers as well. The worst case scenario is you’ll have to resign. How many of these people have resigned and simply moved on to other teaching jobs where they have access to other children?”
“TURLEY: “Many of the past challenges were very, very thin. In Donald Trump’s case, he insisted he does believe that Georgia could have been flipped with a recount. The way she portrayed that phone call is really evidence of the bias and unfairness of aspects of this indictment. It makes perfect sense when you are challenging an election to say I only needs around 11,000 photos. If you — votes. That’s not a lot in Georgia. That’s not criminal. That’s making a case for a recount.”
—-
That’s it, requested a recount, which is perfectly legal to do.
“Towards the end of the Obama presidency, he left one underreported legacy: state Democratic Parties were decimated. They were an endangered species in Appalachia. In 2016, out of the 490 counties that make up the region, Hillary Clinton only won 21 of them. These apparatuses provide parties with the candidate pools for local and statewide office. The rockstars can punch onto the federal scene if they’re competent. The lack of success from state parties that atrophied can produce embarrassing results. The New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and, up until recently, Virginia state GOP operations were classic examples of dysfunction that cost us in elections. Glenn Youngkin has led a resurrection in Virginia, but Colorado and the Keystone State especially have produced some outright abysmal candidates.
Republicans had a good time noting how Obama ruined his party at the state and local levels. Hillary Clinton had to stump about rebuilding these political infrastructures if she won the 2016 race. Now, the GOP is in a dire situation, but some GOP operatives are blaming Trump. Others claim that state parties are no longer necessary, supplanted by the burgeoning super PAC networks (via Politico):
Michigan’s Republican party is broke. Minnesota’s was, until recently, down to $53.81 in the bank. And in Colorado, the GOP is facing eviction from its office this month because it can’t make rent.
Around the nation, state Republican party apparatuses — once bastions of competency that helped produce statehouse takeovers — have become shells of their former machines amid infighting and a lack of organization.
[…]
“It shouldn’t surprise anybody that real people with real money — the big donors who have historically funded the party apparatus — don’t want to invest in these clowns who have taken over and subsumed the Republican Party,” said Jeff Timmer, the former executive director of the once-vaunted Michigan GOP and a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
Among some state GOP officials, the mood is grim. One Michigan Republican operative, who was granted anonymity because he wasn’t authorized by the state party to comment, said of that state party: “They’re just in as bad a place as a political party can be. They’re broke…Their chair can’t even admit she lost a race. It’s defunct.”
The demise of the GOP state parties could have a profound impact on the 2024 election. Operatives fear that hollowed out outfits in key battlegrounds could leave the party vulnerable, especially as Democrats are focusing more on state legislative races. Traditionally, state parties perform the basic blocking and tackling of politics, from get out the vote programs to building data in municipal elections.
But not all Republicans are concerned. In fact, some argue that modern politics in the age of super PAC make state parties relics of the past.
[…]
Still, even that operative noted that weak state parties could have damaging effects in lower-profile state races. And others see potentially sweeping consequences up and down the ballot next year.
[…]
In Pennsylvania, the state party sold its headquarters last year, sparking concern among some Republicans in the state about its finances. The Democratic state party’s main PAC also outraised its equivalent nearly two-to-one in 2022. One plugged-in Pennsylvania Republican said that the hard-right activists who have won state committee seats in recent years aren’t able to tap wealthy friends for cash in the same way the party’s more establishment-minded foot soldiers in the past could.
“The state committee members are more and more pro-Trump,” the person said. “But they don’t have the money.”
[…]
In deep-blue Massachusetts, where moderate Republican governors have reigned for the better part of the last 30 years, a hard-right push by a pro-Trump state committee chair destroyed the state GOP’s ability to recruit mainstream candidates and sent donors fleeing, bankrupting the party and costing Republicans their last two statewide offices. The party has now racked up more than $400,000 in debts to vendors and has less than $70,000 between its state and federal campaign accounts to pay it with.
[…]
One way national parties have dealt with the weakening of state parties has been to skip around them. The Republican Governors Association, for example, ran its spending in the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona through a county party instead of the long-plagued state Republican Party. In Nevada, meanwhile, the remnants of the famous “Reid Machine” set up a parallel operation to the state Democratic Party, which had been briefly taken over by Bernie Sanders supporters, to help manage the midterms for Senate and gubernatorial contests there. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won reelection, while then-Gov. Steve Sisolak narrowly lost his bid for another term.
But working around a state party has its limitations, especially if other political entities are trying to do the same.”
—-
They’re a joke. Of course they’ll blame Trump for their mismanagement. This is their job, not his. That’s easier than taking responsibility for their disastrous failures and lack of “leadership.”
— House Committee on Small Business (@HouseSmallBiz) August 25, 2023
Biden administration is out of control! I think they sit around and TRY to think of ways to make us miserable. They want: our freedom, speech, money, cars, fuel, gas stoves, heating and air, ceiling fans, alcohol, and our president Trump! https://t.co/zbpo7KCiIp
“Donald Trump was back on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, last night for the first time since he got the boot in 2021 following the riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Trump posted the mug shot of him that was taken at Atlanta’s jail this week when he was booked on the charges laid out in his Georgia indictment, which stem from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state. He included a caption that described the indictment as “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and urged his followers to “NEVER SURRENDER!”
After taking over the platform that was then known as Twitter last year, Elon Musk, an avowed “free speech absolutist,” reinstated Trump’s account. But this is the first time that Trump, who started a competing platform that is still known as Truth Social, has made use of Musk’s permission. The Washington Post, in a news story published this morning, portrays Musk’s decision and the attitude underlying it as part of a worrisome trend that threatens “democracy” by allowing “political misinformation” to proliferate on social media. The piece nicely illustrates the confusion, obfuscation, and hypocrisy that characterize mainstream press coverage of that subject.
As is typical of this journalistic genre, Post reporters Naomi Nix and Sarah Ellison never address the question of what counts as “misinformation,” a highly contested category. Nor do they grapple with the content moderation problem of how to deal with politicians who say things of public interest that are arguably or demonstrably untrue. And although they allude to a constitutional challenge provoked by the federal government’s efforts to restrict speech on social media platforms, they never mention the First Amendment. That is a pretty striking omission by people whose profession relies on that amendment’s protections and who claim to be worried about the health of our democracy.
Nix and Ellison warn that “social media companies are receding from their role as watchdogs against political misinformation, abandoning their most aggressive efforts to police online falsehoods in a trend expected to profoundly affect the 2024 presidential election.” Under Musk’s baneful influence, they complain, Facebook and YouTube have “backed away from policing misleading claims” and “are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories.”
The main conspiracy theory that Nix and Ellison have in mind, of course, is the one claiming that systematic fraud, including deliberately corrupted voting machines and massive numbers of phony ballots, deprived Trump of his rightful victory in the 2020 election. As they note, neither Trump nor his lawyers ever produced any credible evidence to support that theory. Yet Trump, who currently is by far the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, still claims he actually won reelection, and the sincerity of that belief is a central issue in both the Georgia case and his federal prosecution for conspiring to make that fantasy a reality. As Nix and Ellison note, most Republican voters—63 percent, according to a CNN poll conducted in May—agree with Trump that Joe Biden “did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency.”
As Nix and Ellison see it, none of those people should be allowed to express that view on social media. They also think it was clearly wrong for X to let Tucker Carlson post his recent interview with Trump, which was timed to coincide with the Republican presidential debate he skipped. “Trump capitalized on [Musk’s] relaxed standards” in that interview, they complain, by reiterating his “false claims that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ and that the Democrats had ‘cheated’ to elect Biden.”
For me, that unilluminating, sycophantic interview, during which Carlson never asked a challenging question and let Trump ramble on about whatever random subjects flitted through his mind, was hard to watch. But as I write, it has racked up more than 256 million views, which suggests that more than a few people were interested in what Trump had to say. By comparison, Fox News says fewer than 13 million people watched its broadcast of the debate that Trump skipped.
X, in short, seems to be giving people what they want, which makes good business sense. One might also argue, as Carlson did, that “whatever you think of Trump…voters have an interest in hearing what he thinks,” since he is the “indisputable, far-and-away front-runner in the Republican race.”
Nix and Ellison do not see it that way. For the good of democracy, they think, social media platforms should be showing users political content only if it can be certified as accurate. That is, of course, an impossible challenge, one that is magnified by the difficulty of determining when speech, although not demonstrably false, nevertheless qualifies as “misinformation” because it is “misleading.” Policing “hate speech,” which Nix and Ellison also want the platforms to do, poses similar problems of interpretation and judgment.”
From Jeff Childers…
But finally someone has found Viktor, and apparently he’s talking a blue streak. The Daily Mail reported that tonight at 8pm Fox News will air “an explosive interview” with Shokin, in which the former prosecutor-general will claim that Joe and Hunter Biden were ‘corrupt,’ that they accepted large cash bribes from Burisma, and were behind his firing.
Sounds about right. Quid pro quo, Joe. Drip, drip.
“I do not want to deal in unproven facts. But my firm personal conviction is that yes, this was the case. They were being bribed,” Shokin explained in Fox’s preview clip. Shokin would know.
Back in 2018, two years after Shokin’s sudden and unexpected firing, Biden bragged that he told Ukraine he would personally withhold a billion dollars in U.S. aid if the Ukrainians failed to immediately fire Shokin. “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden boasted.
“Well, son of a b****. He got fired,” the former vice-president continued, chortling merrily.
Biden’s probably not laughing so hard now.
As I said, at that the time Joe blackmailed Ukraine, Hunter was collecting a sweet million dollars a year for doing nothing on Burisma’s hastily-created “board of directors.” Why Hunter Biden would even be qualified for a fake board seat on a Ukrainian energy company being investigated for corruption remains a perplexing mystery. To some people.
The Daily Mail article also described details about Devon Archer’s recent Congressional testimony, in which the former Hunter business partner described “business” meetings with shady foreign oligarchs, in which Joe Biden got on the phone, after which millions of dollars flowed into Hunter’s various sham companies.
The cries of “no evidence” are sounding more and more like distant echoes down liberal canyon. There is already more evidence to indict Joe Biden on a container-load of crimes than the entire collection of “evidence” from four cases against Trump. So.
We await the Fox interview — the first time Shokin has appeared in this long-running scandal — with great interest. Stay tuned.
An interesting look at the history of US politics — and some encouragement that we may/will (?) come out of this latest turmoil as well.
It will pass, one way or another.
___________________
Karl Rove/WSJ:
America Is Often a Nation Divided
U.S. politics today is ugly and broken, true enough. But the good news is that it was worse in the past, and it will get better again.
~ America is deeply divided. Our politics is broken, marked by anger, contempt and distrust. We must acknowledge that reality but not lose historical perspective. It’s bad now, but it’s been worse before—and not only during the Civil War.
Let’s look backward and start with the mid-1960s to early ’70s. The nation was bitterly divided over civil rights, the “sexual revolution” and an increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia.
The just and peaceful civil-rights protests of the 1950s and early ’60s were often met with state-sanctioned violence. Then Harlem exploded in 1964, followed by a riot in Philadelphia. Watts went up in flames in 1965; Chicago, Cleveland and San Francisco the next year. A total of 163 cities—including Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, N.J., New York and Portland, Ore.—suffered widespread violence in the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. Riots broke out in more than 130 American cities, with 47 killed in the ensuing violence. Two months later Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
That same year the nation’s most prominent segregationist, George Wallace, running for president as an independent, won five states in the Deep South. In 1972 he came in third for the Democratic nomination, 1.8 points behind the winner in total primary vote.
Beginning in 1965, the country was rocked by demonstrations over the Vietnam War, many of them student-led. In some instances, governors sent in the National Guard to restore order. After guardsmen killed four students in 1970 at Ohio’s Kent State, protests broke out on 350 campuses, involving an estimated two million people. Thirty-five thousand antiwar protesters assaulted the Pentagon in October 1967. An estimated 10,000 tried shutting down the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Four years later, thousands tried the same at the GOP convention in Miami Beach. The U.S. experienced more than 2,500 domestic bombings in 18 months in 1971-72.
Two presidents were driven from office during this period. Lyndon B. Johnson opted against seeking re-election in 1968 because of the war. Richard Nixon, facing impeachment over Watergate, resigned in 1974.
In the early 1930s, 1 in 4 Americans was unemployed. Populism emerged on both ends of the spectrum. On the left, Huey Long, proclaimed “every man a king,” threatened confiscation of wealth, and preached class hatred until he was assassinated in 1935. On the right, Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest,” blamed the Depression on bankers and Jews in nationwide broadcasts from Detroit. Journalist Eric Sevareid recalled that in 1933 “every day the headlines spoke of riots, of millions thrown out of work, of mass migrations by the desperate.” Historian Wendy L. Wall describes the late 1930s as “marked by sit-down strikes, violent repression of workers, and attacks by vigilante groups on Jews, Catholics, racial minorities, and leftists.”
The Gilded Age is often overlooked as a time of division, but Republicans and Democrats hated each other. They were still fighting the Civil War by political means. President Ulysses S. Grant’s 1872 re-election was followed by five consecutive presidential contests in which no winner received a popular-vote majority. Less than 1 percentage point separated the two candidates in three elections. In two of the five races, the winning candidate failed to earn a plurality of popular vote because the black Republican vote was suppressed by violence hard for modern minds to grasp. …
… There were bitter divisions and acrimony in the 1850s. Remember the caning of Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner by South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks in 1856? It was condemned in the North and cheered in the South. Historian Joanne Freeman writes in “Field of Blood” that this violent period in the Capitol began in the 1830s and lasted for decades. Senators and representatives routinely carried pistols, knives, clubs, brass knuckles and other weapons onto the floor. Political tensions ran high; insults and confrontations were routine and violence frequent. There was even death. In 1838, Whig Rep. William Graves of Kentucky shot and killed Democratic Rep. Jonathan Cilley of Maine in a duel over charges of corruption.
Ms. Freeman argues that “extreme polarization and the breakdown of debate” in Congress meant that the “structures of government and the bonds of Union were eroding in real time,” leading to “the collapse of our national civic structure to the point of crisis. The nation didn’t slip into disunion; it fought its way into it.” It sounds a bit like today, but are our present disagreements as large as those over the antebellum era’s central question—what shall be done about the enslavement of nearly four million human beings?
… (much more follows, looking at the history of some of the nation’s wilder political season dustups)
… So what ended these periods of broken politics? Convulsive events such as World War II played a role. More important, adroit leadership—the kind we saw with Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan—clearly mattered. They set a tone that led to healing.
But most of the credit goes to the American people, who make mistakes but have always found their way back to true north. They have often tolerated our country’s politics being angry, hyperpartisan and divisive; in some instances, they are the driving force behind polarization, with the political class reflecting the public’s unchecked passions. But that lasts only for a season. Their good common sense eventually brings them to vote for change, determined to reshape our politics in healthier, more constructive ways.
Polls show a clear majority of voters are unhappy with today’s politics, its ugly practices and the front-runners offered for 2024. So don’t grow weary or discouraged. It’s bad today, but it’s been worse before, and it will be better ahead. Change is coming. We don’t know precisely when, but it’s coming. The better angels of our nature as Americans will emerge and win out. ~
__________________________
Perhaps a bit optimistic (and God knows the rest of this story, we can only speculate and pray and hope); but I’ll take it. 🙂
Biden is interfering in the case to kneecap his opponent. That’s election interference. The Russians must be so proud.
BREAKING: White House visitor logs show that special counsel Jack Smith’s top aid met with Biden staffers just weeks before Smith’s indictment of Trump.
They’re scheming in broad daylight and they don’t even care.
Obama knew. Clinton knew. Biden knew. Comey knew. Brennan knew. McCabe knew. Strzok knew.Clapper knew.Schiff knew.FBI knew.DOJ knew. CIA knew.State knew. They all knew (and know) Trump was innocent but they smeared and spied on him. Worst scandal in nation's history. Trump is a… https://t.co/X2vCGLVAeH
NEW: Oliver Anthony blasts Fox News for using his song ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ at the GOP debate, says it made him “crack up” because he wrote that song about “those people.”
“It's aggravating seeing people on conservative news try to identify with me like I'm one of them.… pic.twitter.com/Ae7sVY6Mkp
Journalism / believer friend who’s deep into serious academic US history studies had this comment (in part) about the Rove piece:
~ So nothing new under the sun. The key seems to be if enough people maintain an attitude of “I’m ticked off, but I’m not quite ready yet to destroy a country it took so much sacrifice to get, so let’s work to explain our view in an effort to get people on our side next.” … Absent that approach by the majority of people, disaster looms. ~
The weirdest thig about this Trump indictment, and bad news for Dems, is the reaction of minorities, who now see Trump as someone who knows what it’s like to have a 2 tiered justice system used against them.
Note:
I don’t advocate using the slang term some of these people have chosen to use to identify themselves. I don’t think anyone should use it. They’ve self identified as this, and spoke to cameras, so I’m posting it. But again, it’s not cool.
NEW: Rapper Lil Pump, or as Donald Trump calls him “Little Pimp,” comes out in support of Trump after the former president was arrested in Fulton County.
WATCH: People from all backgrounds and walks of life are outside of the Fulton County Jail today to support President Trump as we await his arrival to the jail where he is going to be processed.
These two men believe the indictments against President Trump are political WITCH… pic.twitter.com/al4JKdxG46
🔥🚨BREAKING: Comedian ‘Clutch Williams’ just released a video supporting President Trump and goes as far to say that Donald Trump was one of the best Presidents we had in a long time. It appears that every lie is being revealed before our eyes. pic.twitter.com/zNSLbT6LGM
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 26, 2023
And can someone explain why the only newly charged guy they locked up is the black one? Seems……. racist.
They are making an example of him to black Americans. If you are Trump supporters then it is back to Jim Crow injustice for YOU. pic.twitter.com/71vr3ZRJHK
The article at link I shared above has been updated. The new headline is:
“3 dead in shooting motivated by hatred of Black people in Jacksonville, Sheriff says
The shooter had a swastika painted on at least one of his firearms and had written at least one manifesto”
While checking that, I saw this 😦 :
“Police say 1 teenager is dead, 2 people wounded after shooting at Oklahoma high school football game
Police in Oklahoma say a teenager has died after being shot during a Friday night high school football game where two other people were wounded and two were injured fleeing the scene”
So this shooters manifesto will be immediately available for the press to use for their narrative, unlike the manifesto of the trans shooter of those Christian kids that the feds are still hiding because of what it does to their narrative.
Prayers to Ryan Preece, hopefully he's not hurt too bad. I didn't expect to see him get out of the car after this. In my 3 decades of watching NASCAR, this is one of the craziest flips I've seen. https://t.co/pP42KgIO1V
#RIP Bob Barker who passed away today at the age of 99. The former THE PRICE IS RIGHT host served as a naval aviator during WWII, flying 8 different aircraft including the Wildcat and Corsair. pic.twitter.com/TLferrnyGR
If you only think of Bob Barker as a world famous game show host, you are missing his greatest contribution. He was a leading advocate for animal rights. His love of our furry friends inspired compassionate movements all over the world, and we humans were better for it. #RIPpic.twitter.com/12y0bEr5f3
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation. The V-safe website simply states: “Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.” If you go there today, V-safe directs users to the FDA’s VAERS website for adverse event reporting, even though officials continually derided VAERS as “passive” and “unverified.”
VAERS and V-safe are mutually exclusive safety collection databases operated by the FDA and CDC, respectively. VAERS is an older way of collecting safety data where one can fill out a form online, or manually, or by calling a toll-free number, whereas V-safe is a device “app” which requires online registration. Both VAERS and V-safe collect personal information, lot numbers, dates and associated information, but V-safe was an active collection system geared towards a younger app-using demographic.
Here is the last report before deletion.”
“Does this mean that the CDC believes that the mRNA Covid-19 injections are so safe, there is no need to monitor adverse event reports any longer? What is the argument against continued monitoring, especially since the V-safe website was already up and paid for?
While CDC’s V-safe was stealthily and abruptly turned off, refusing to accept new safety reports, to this very day the CDC continues to urge everyone ages 6 months and older to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
As a drug safety expert, I personally can’t cite another example of any agency or manufacturer halting collection of safety data. It seems even worse because mRNA technology is relatively new with long-term manifestations unknown. On top of this, both manufacturers and the FDA refuse to share the list of ingredients, such as lipid nanoparticles, which could affect individuals differently and take a long time to manifest clinically.
Safety Data Collection Should Never Stop
Now, contrast that with the fact that the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) will still accept a safety report for a 30-year-old Ford Bronco II. Indeed, this is an oddly specific example, but only because I drove this exact vehicle as a family hand-me-down as a student, through my residency, fellowship, for my tenure as a Yale professor on the mean streets of New Haven and even during my years at the FDA as a medical officer /senior medical analyst.
Like mRNA shots, Bronco IIs are still available on the market and people are still using them up to this very day. My Bronco became an intermittent topic of conversation with friends and FDA colleagues. One day, I was informed by a patrolling security guard at the FDA that it was the oldest car on campus.
I didn’t know much about cars (or mRNA technology) back then, but when a fellow FDA-er informed me that my Bronco II had noteworthy safety problems and that the NHTSA still had their eye on this vehicle (rollover accidents were more common and more fatal) I addressed the problem: I got rid of the reliable relic, even though I really liked it.
NHTSA is still accepting safety reports on things like my 30-year-old Ford Bronco II, but the CDC isn’t accepting new safety reports on 2-year old novel mRNA vaccines.
Unlike my old Bronco, mRNA injections have only been on the market for about two years, and according to the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database, mRNA “vaccines” have been named the primary suspect in over 1.5 million adverse event reports, of which there are >20,000 heart attacks and >27,000 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis just in the USA alone. Worldwide numbers would be greater. According to many references, including an FDA-funded study out of Harvard, VAERS reports represent fewer than 1 percent of vaccine adverse events that actually occur.
Interestingly, the NHTSA link above on my Ford Bronco II only shows: one parts recall, one investigation and 23 complaints, and still features a button in the upper right hand corner for submitting new complaints.
Wikipedia defines an humanitarian crisis or humanitarian disaster as a: “singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people.” Based on VAERS and previous V-safe findings, adverse events from mRNA shots in the USA alone could be considered a humanitarian crisis.
Despite those alarming clinical findings, the CDC has concluded that collecting new safety reports is somehow no longer in the interest of America’s public health. Existing data from the V-safe site showed around 6.5 million adverse events/health impacts out of 10.1 million users, with around 2 million of those people unable to conduct normal activities of daily living or needing medical care, according to a third-party rendering of its findings. In other words, despite mRNA shots still being widely available and the CDC promoting its continued use, it’s “case closed” with regards to collecting new safety reports, under today’s federal public health administration. “
“Today, an increasing number of young Americans dream of only working enough to get by, if at all. In 2021, 36% of men ages 18 to 24 were still living at home, not a hopeful sign for Generation Z taking personal responsibility.
Help wanted signs are everywhere. But fewer and fewer are stepping up to the plate.
The Labor Force Participation Rate – the percentage of able-bodied workers who are either employed or looking for work — is at a near 25-year low. The LFPR has gone from 67.3% in early 2000 to 62.6% in May of this year.
That means over 37% of able-bodied Americans — who are neither students, retired, nor caring for children at home — have voluntarily dropped out of the workforce. That’s millions of potential workers who, for whatever reason, have chosen a life of idleness.
The left encourages indolence with handouts and by cultivating an entitlement mentality.
Pennsylvania State Representative Roni Green – a Democrat, as if you couldn’t guess — has announced that she’ll introduce legislation for a 32-hour work week for employers of more than 500, without a reduction in pay.
This is the same as taking money out of the pockets of employers and putting it in the pockets of employees. But when did legalized theft ever stop the party of plunder?
Under President Biden, whose administration is committed to expanding the dole, the welfare state has metastasized.
Food Stamp enrollment is at a historic high, with 41.2 million currently participating – 12.5% of the total population and 4.5 million more than at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Besides the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps by another name), there’s unemployment insurance, Medicaid, housing vouchers, child-care payments and energy subsidies. Most are needs-based, thus disincentivizing work.
But the problem goes much deeper.
Work has a moral dimension. The way you view work reflects the way you view life. If life has no meaning for you, neither will work.
The Bible, the foundation of Western Civilization, has much to say about work.
In Genesis, we are admonished, “By the sweat of your brow will you eat your food.” In his Epistle to the Thessalonians, St. Paul charged, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” A Jewish proverb says the same.
The earliest colonists embraced what came to be called the Protestant work ethic. The Puritans were famous for their belief in the redemptive quality of labor. In the Jamestown colony, John Smith inveighed against “idleness and sloth.” “For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers.”
A life of leisure provides opportunities for all sorts of mischief – online gambling, substance abuse, sexting and crime. How many of the George Floyd rioters were gainfully employed? Imagine someone going to his supervisor and asking for time off to take part in looting a high-end fashion store.
Work should not be viewed in isolation.
We work because we recognize our responsibility to our family, our community and our nation. We want to take pride in ourselves and set an example for our children.
In a 2022 commentary, American Enterprise Institute economist Nicholas Eberstadt notes that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown, “seven million men of prime working age are neither working nor looking for work.” The LFPR was actually higher in 1940, with 15% unemployment.
Mr. Eberstadt explains that the flight from work “has meant slower economic growth for the country, wider income and wealth gaps, more dependence on government welfare programs, more pressure on fragile families, loss social mobility, less involvement in society, and a lot more deaths of despair.”
The left’s attitude to work is consistent with its Marxist agenda. It wants to continually expand the dependent class. Simultaneously, it punishes hard work with confiscatory taxes and by stigmatizing the most productive as despoilers of the planet and exploiters of the underclass.
Now, it looks like it’s trying to engineer a new COVID-19 lockdown to keep more at home and necessitate increased welfare spending — the opposite of what Grover Cleveland, the last conservative Democrat in the White House, had in mind.”
“The Republican primary debate charade, hosted by a hapless Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, revealed two things: Vivek Ramaswamy is a rising star, and Donald Trump dominated as the elephant not in the room.
The Democrats and the media run a constant clown show, but the Republicans play along as useless puppets, willfully participating in a system designed to destroy them. The Republican party is allowing itself to be rigged by playing by the rules of an old system that no longer exists. The Democrats, bureaucracy, and media are vicious apparatchiks. They are a dirty and obvious enemy who clearly need to be fought. The Republicans are worse because they don’t see their own participation in the Big Lie. They would rather step over Trump’s dead political body than save the republic. In so doing, they will never have power again, even if they regain it. They will be vassals of the state apparatus, nothing more … or else.
Donald Trump is not the Republican front runner. He’s the presumptive nominee. Further, he’s the most popular politician in America. Trump created a coalition that made the Rust Belt winnable. He turned Ohio, Florida, and Iowa reliably red. He made Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin gettable. In Florida, he out-won Ron DeSantis by 1 million votes.
Why the all-out assault on Donald Trump? Because in a fair system, he wins — and he wins bigly.
The assault on Trump and anyone who supported him is an attack on the only one standing in the way of generations of Democrat power, and the Republicans are pretending that America and the Republican Party can return to a Bush-era neocon Republicanism that simply doesn’t exist anymore outside the beltway.
How, pray tell, would any of the Republicans on the debate stage win in the general election? Where do they win, and how do they expand Trump’s coalition? Is their big strategy to win back Georgia and Arizona?
Only one candidate on the debate stage tangentially dealt with this reality: Vivek Ramaswamy. That every other Republican doesn’t understand the heart of the lie was revealed by Vivek. He knows that the biggest issue facing the republic is the disintegration of the rule of law surrounding the persecution and baseless prosecution of Donald Trump and anyone who supports him. Vivek says he wants to win, but not like this. Here’s his exchange with Chris Christie, Democrat operative:”
“The question is: Why are the rest of this Republican field okay with winning this way?
How can any Republican govern if voters can’t canvass, can’t protest, can’t speak on social media, if no attorneys can advise Republican candidates, if strategy callers can’t brainstorm ideas for winning, if legitimate lawsuits are dismissed out of hand, if free speech is not allowed? How can Republicans win against sophisticated vote-running machines? How do they win against faked, duped, and dumped ballots? How do they win against millions of dollars laundered through accounts where people didn’t actually donate to the Democrat Party? How do they win against the new Zuck Bucks? Is something magical going to happen in 2024 that sweeps these issues away?
Now that the Democrats, the State, and the media have created a playing field where they alone win, what will the uncharismatic, unserious Republicans on the debate stage do to win?
The debate questions were inane. Why did these Fox talking heads blab about whether Mike Pence did the right thing? Chris Christie, in an act of sexual servicing too shameless for even the seediest blue district, extolled Pence as a defender of the Constitution, God, and country. It was so risible that the audience laughed. Who do these folks think they’re kidding?
Speaking of Pence, he came off as a constipated church lady. A raging hypocritical one, at that. Of all people, he knows the injustice being served cold to Trump, and he cannot let charitable words pass his mouth.
Where were the questions about Biden’s corruption? What about the bribes? Why was the question about a man who is not holding office when the man holding office is compromised by America’s enemies? Just today, the Daily Mail reports that the Bidens are alleged to have taken foreign bribes.
Further, why didn’t the Republicans on the stage address Maui and the massacre there? How about plans for an economy wrecked by Joe Biden and the plight of the poor and working class? Gas prices are increasing again. Groceries are so expensive that it cost this writer $72 for the main ingredients of a spaghetti dinner. How about the failed states attempting to impose masks and restrictions when the data is clear that they do more harm than good? Are shutdowns coming? These issues affect voters every day. Meanwhile, the Republicans wax eloquent on Ukraine.
Truth has left the Republican Party, and it’s diminishing them, if that’s even possible. They can talk of the border. They can pontificate about the world-changing necessity of making Ukraine secure. They can tell everyone what they already know: Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. Noted. Now, how about something more pressing and closer to home? How about addressing the criminalization of free speech? How about addressing the conditions of Jan. 6 defendants? How about addressing using the justice system to bankrupt and persecute political enemies? How about addressing the raw, unchecked power being thrown around by the Biden administration?
Examine this list of Democrats criminalizing political enemies:
Arizona considers prosecutions of Trump electors.
Michigan prosecutes 16 GOP activists, including an opponent of the Michigan attorney general.
Michigan then charges attorneys, like Stefanie Lambert.
Wisconsin governor calls for prosecutions (meanwhile, Republicans stayed home, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court now is in Democrat hands).
The Georgia 19 are being charged for discussing election strategies.
USMC veteran Harrison Floyd is still jailed. This is an outrage. Again, the Fulton County jail is a place for enemies of the state. Floyd is being hounded by the feds.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden brags in a tweet as Trump gets prosecuted for his tweets:”
—–
And nary a whimper about any of this from the pearl clutching NTers and useless RINO establishment types.
Newsflash:
Ya’ll are the reason Rs aren’t winning, because you can’t win without Trump voters. Time to accept that reality. Make it work, or go the way of the dinosaurs….
Pres. Reagan was needed in the 1980s, Pres. Trump is needed in today’s evil times. God is perfect in His timing…
In Reagan’s day, he was just about perfect for the job. The people and times were very different then than they are now.
Today, Congress, Senate, all branches and departments of the government, the mass media, the Deep State Swamp, WEF oligarchs, and people in general have become more corrupt, power-hungry, greedy, uncaring, unkind, immoral, globalistic, and even communistic in nature.
Because we are truly losing our Republic under corrupt, weak, controlled, immoral and pathetic leadership, what is needed in today’s evil days is a very strong, tough, smart, courageous, patriotic President who truly serves “We The People,” for the good of the country.
Pres. Trump didn’t create this movement – he stepped into the vacuum that no politician was willing to occupy, with the gifting and qualities that today’s evil times require. The movement is an ever-growing rebellion against a corrupt and incompetent establishment (Uni-party).
It’s extremely difficult to fire anyone especially if they’ve been employed more than a year and in a professional capacity. Most employers offer severance packages to avoid any type of legal liability. Thus, school boards will simply offer the option of resignation as opposed to a lengthy legal process – we can blame unions but the truth is prosecution and other legal issues will still cost money without a union, especially if its years later.
Although it’s tempting to politicise this issue, “Gym” Jordan is still in the House…… Honestly, this is a societal problem. People ignore things if it interferes with their career path.
The phone call was not a request for a recount. We all know that, every state has rules regarding when and if recounts take place. He asked the Secy of State to find votes not to recount. Trump hinted there may be criminal charges. At the same time, his staff went to a rural county to take apart a dominion voting machine and false electors were put in place. Its a RICO case and put all three together and Trump has a problem.
To succeed, political parties need various types of people; leaders, volunteers, organisers, money men, etc. When your party is taken over by those whose only skill is to follow the leader and maybe volunteer, you have a problem. Its not so much Trump’s fault but who he attracts. When you lack the managers and organisers and only have followers you will have problems. Non-Republicans have noticed this the last few years, and now Republicans are in panic mode. Polls can put your candidate tied with opponents but unless you have “the get out the vote” organisation and the money, you won’t win.
One of the illusions of neo-con/neoliberal economics is that the free market is natural. In fact, it’s created by gov’t regulations and the participants need to adapt or die. Rules regarding products change all the time; companies need to adapt to the new market. That’s how capitalism really works.
I’m amused anybody takes gov’t guidelines seriously. Do people really follow the food guidelines – I eat healthy but that’s my European parents and ex-wife taking up space in my head. The liberal gov’t in Canada put out new alcohol guidelines last year – the same two drinks per week; the country had a good laugh, poured a drink and ignored it. As long as you’re not drinking like an Eastern European, you’re good.
The sheer irony of Trump titling his mug shot with Never Surrender was amusing. Trump surrendered, hence the mug shot.
Are we back to arguing about vacation time? First it was Bush Jr, then Obama, then Trump — opposite sides took turns measuring vacation times. Its American, nobody takes a real vacation – I’m sure email, telephone etc., reaches Biden.
The US influence is world wide and far reaching but it doesn’t cover everything. Shokin was fired because he failed to investigate not only corruption but who was responsible for the shooting deaths in Maiden square. Ukrainians and the EU wanted him gone.
Never trust a British tabloid. The Daily Mail also has a story on Russians paving over a Wagner cemetery. Did it happen? Maybe, but I’ll wait for a more reliable source.
African American rap stars are probably not the best source for the reaction of minorities to Trump’s indictment ( are they really a minority?). The African American political community is motivated by women – rap stars may say a lot but in the trenches the women rule supreme and they bring out the vote.
Of course, the policeman was promoted, that’s how the blue line works. You can strangle a man selling singles and shoot a man jay walking but the blue line will protect you. In this case a 100lb white woman was breaking down a barricade to the House – of course shooting her is reasonable force by blue line standards.
Despite Trump’s appeal in the rust belt, he’s not winning bigly. He lost in 2020 and will lose in 2024. The problem is no matter how much he motivates the Republican base, he also motivates the Democratic base. Those under 30 are now voting 2 to 1 for democrats and if Trump is the Republican candidate, they will show up. As I said before the only states that count are Penn, MI, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Republicans need to win Penn or Mich, along with the rest and they won’t. Biden wins Penn and Mich and he wins. If he only wins one he just needs Georgia.
Pence – a constipated church lady is the best description I’ve read.
Tychicus,
Reagan is the reason for the American situation today. His tax cuts without spending cuts created a structural deficit. His free trade policies created the rust belt.
The labour participation rate reached its peak in 2000. The current rate is the same as the 1980s….the Reagan era. The decline from the 2000s could be for any reason not just the left encouraging handouts. In many cases, its the realisation of childcare being too expensive so one parent stays home. Then there is early retirement; I will retire next year but I will still be included as able bodied who should work.
Automation and other changes have also meant less work is required. Several European countries have shortened the standard work week to 32 hours with no loss to productivity.
Food stamps are demeaning – just give the poor the money. They will spend it locally benefiting the American; far better than giving the rich tax breaks and letting them stash in the Cayman Islands. Why do we trust the rich elites but not the poor? Poverty does not equal immoral.
Sure, Genesis says we need to sweat to eat but that was punishment for original sin. Reformed theology advocates a redemptive approach. We are not condemned to work. Yes, Paul said if you are unwilling to work, you can’t eat – but so did Lenin.
“A life of leisure provides opportunities for all sorts of mischief – online gambling, substance abuse, sexting and crime.” – that sounds like a good argument for wealth confiscation. Tax the rich so they can’t live a life of leisure.
The flight from work did not result in a higher income and wealth gap. That’s mistaking cause for effect. The higher income and wealth gap has led many of the poor to say what’s the point. My daughter’s generation doesn’t see the middle class dream of home ownership, two kids etc as a possibility so they are content with living with parents, and living minimally.
And the deaths of despair are not from a refusal to join the capitalist economy but by capitalism itself. Suicides, overdose, and alcoholism rates increased years ago when labour participation was its highest. Abuse from employers and poor health and safety regulations led to addiction issues etc. Blaming the current crisis in blue collar America on an unwillingness to work is blaming the victim.
Good grief! We had nothing when we graduated college, but a bit of school debt. Nothing like today’s average student, however. We also never expected to live as most young people do today. Our apartments were in places without any perks, such as a dishwasher or laundry on site. We lived in our basement, building as we went, starting out with no running water with a baby and toddler.
My husband started out poorer than anyone I know now. I grew up in an average middle-class family. We never considered ourselves poor and helpless whatever our circumstances.
In Proverbs I read that hunger drives people to work. Hunger for many things does drive people to work hard. Life is hard. Life is unfair, but we also can use those things as an excuse. I see a whole lot of that.
“A constipated church woman’ tells me a whole lot about the one who says that.
Wandering Views 
“Biden’s Scandalous Hawaii Response A Historic Disgrace”
https://amac.us/newsline/society/bidens-scandalous-hawaii-response-a-historic-disgrace/?utm_objective=website_traffic
“In the days following the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history on Maui that left at least 115 people dead and 1,100 still missing, President Joe Biden escaped to his beach house in Delaware, sent another $200 million to Ukraine while offering pittances for Hawaii, and hobnobbed with liberal billionaire Tom Steyer at his Lake Tahoe mansion before finally visiting the ravaged island – where he promptly insulted the victims and left them feeling angry and betrayed. When the history of Biden’s presidency is written, his actions over the past three weeks will undoubtedly go down as one of the great disasters of his term, right alongside his botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
The blazes began on August 8 and have burned 6,400 acres. The historic town of Lahaina was completely destroyed, with total economic losses of at least $5 billion. With so many people missing more than two weeks after the inferno ripped through the town, it seems likely that the death toll could climb dramatically higher in the days and weeks ahead.
Yet as the entire country’s attention turned to Hawaii, President Joe Biden’s focus was anywhere else. Three days after the fires began, on August 11, Biden flew to his Delaware beach house for the weekend, where he twice told reporters “no comment” when asked about the blazes. As rescue workers were pulling burned bodies from the wreckage and begging for federal help, Biden was reclining in the sand 5,000 miles away.
Then on August 14 came the federal government’s paltry offer of $700 checks to families that had just lost everything they owned, which Biden touted on Twitter rather than announcing in person. After raking in $4.9 trillion in tax revenue last year, the Biden administration has so far only distributed an embarrassing $3.1 million to the devastated islanders.
On the same day he tweeted bragging about his administration’s response to the wildfires, Biden also announced another $200 million for Ukraine. That funding means the United States has now sent $113 billion to a country halfway around the world, but can spare just 0.0027 percent of that total for the American citizens on Maui. As an article from The Federalist pointed out, the $700 checks “won’t even cover each household’s portion of the $113 billion in aid packages the United States has billed taxpayers for the war in Ukraine, which averages almost $900 per household.”
A day later, on August 15, Biden finally broke his silence about the disaster during a speech in Milwaukee – a full week after the fires started. But his utter disregard for the victims was only just beginning. Three days later, on August 18, he departed for another vacation to Steyer’s mountain chalet. (For those of you keeping track at home, Biden has spent 39 percent of his presidency on vacation.)
With pressure mounting on all sides for Biden to do something to show empathy and compassion for the victims, the White House finally scheduled a trip to Maui this past Monday – only to see the president make things even worse.
When Biden arrived, it was already clear many residents were angry. As the president’s motorcade drove through the wreckages, there were shouts of “thanks for nothing!” and “traitor Joe must go!” Many held signs reading “no comment.”
After stepping up to a pristine lectern prepared for him in the midst of the wreckage, Biden still had one more slap in the face ready for the wildfire victims. As people who had just seen every one of their possessions and even family members and loved ones literally turned to ashes listened in disbelief, Biden compared their suffering to a small kitchen fire in his home two decades ago.
“To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette, and my cat,” the president said about an episode that the incident report shows he routinely exaggerates. The hopelessly out-of-touch comment also came just moments after Biden had cracked a joke about the “hot ground.””
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Of course. Dems always side with the degenerates and pervs.
“In San Francisco, teachers accused of groping and grooming students are allowed to resign”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/08/25/in-san-francisco-teachers-accused-of-groping-and-grooming-students-are-allowed-to-resign-n573671
“I realize now that Mr. Bender was grooming me while I was a student, at a time in my life when I was particularly vulnerable both as an [undocumented] immigrant and as a still-closeted young person,” the report quotes that 2016 graduate as saying.
Police took a report but nothing came of it. The school district says its investigation is closed. Bender was allowed to resign rather than being fired and that’s the end of it.
In March the Standard published a story about another teacher who was working at a Middle School. He was allowed to resign rather than be fired.
A report uncovered by The Standard reveals that a teacher who was accused of kissing and groping a 17-year-old San Bruno girl on multiple occasions was allowed to resign and was later hired at a San Francisco public school, where students accused him of misconduct roughly two decades after the original alleged incidents…
San Francisco officials would come to discover allegations from the 1990s about teacher Anthony Sylvestri only after local students at the city’s Aptos Middle School claimed in 2018 that he made them uncomfortable by calling them pet names, leering at them and touching them for no clear reason.
In 2019, Sylvestri was allowed to resign, this time under what officials for the San Francisco Unified School District call a “release agreement,” after which time administrators did not pursue disciplinary hearings that might have resulted in Sylvestri’s formal firing.
Sylvestri’s case was particularly egregious because he’d been accused before. But this type of release agreement seems to be standard operating procedure in San Francisco:
The athletic director repeatedly called the teenage girl out of class and then escorted her to a locker room, a lawsuit alleges. Later, he would send her back to her class at George Washington High School, a routine that at least one teacher found odd.
These were not legitimate hall passes, but instead repeated episodes of alleged sexual abuse that went on for four years, according to the lawsuit against the San Francisco Unified School District. The girl eventually confided in her college guidance counselor, who called the police. Officials then put Lawrence Young-Yet Chan on leave, the lawsuit said.
But then Chan was allowed to quietly resign.
He wasn’t the only one. Public records obtained by The Standard reveal that, since 2017, at least 19 employees of San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) who were accused of sexual misconduct were allowed to resign or retire in lieu of termination.
Is it just me or is the sexual abuse of children being treated like a minor faux pas? These people belong behind bars with a record that indicates they are child abusers. Instead, they are simply allowed to waltz away from their behavior. Why is this the case? The SF Standard strongly suggests we have teachers unions to thank.
A 2010 federal study reported that a school administrator feared it could cost up to $100,000 to fire a teacher—“even with a slam-dunk case”—because investigations, hearings, appeals and other required steps that precede a dismissal take time and require the attention of senior staff. Accommodating an accused abuser with a separation agreement can discreetly curtail what could have been a drawn-out embarrassment for the institution, experts say.
Bottom line: Union contracts make it nigh-impossible to fire anyone, even for something as serious as sexual abuse of a minor. It’s expensive, time consuming and raises attention. So administrators allow people to resign to save themselves the hassle of fighting through the union-made morass of rules about firing someone.
It must be common knowledge among SF teachers that nothing will happen to abusers. And that means it’s probably well know among would-be abusers as well. The worst case scenario is you’ll have to resign. How many of these people have resigned and simply moved on to other teaching jobs where they have access to other children?”
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HRW,
“AJ – Trump challenged 200 years of tradition in the peaceful transfer of power.”
That’s funny. 🙂
And not true.
“Turley: All Trump did in Raffensperger call was press for another recount”
Which is legal, and doesn’t threaten democracy either, as some allege.
https://news.grabien.com/story-turley-trump-s-phone-call-to-raffensperger-is-making-a-case-for-a-reco
“TURLEY: “Many of the past challenges were very, very thin. In Donald Trump’s case, he insisted he does believe that Georgia could have been flipped with a recount. The way she portrayed that phone call is really evidence of the bias and unfairness of aspects of this indictment. It makes perfect sense when you are challenging an election to say I only needs around 11,000 photos. If you — votes. That’s not a lot in Georgia. That’s not criminal. That’s making a case for a recount.”
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That’s it, requested a recount, which is perfectly legal to do.
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This is what happens when you let Mitt’s niece run things.
And party “leadership” is a joke as well.
“What Happened to Dems Under Obama Has Spread to the Republicans…And It’s Not Good”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2023/08/26/state-republican-parties-are-struggling-all-over-n2626571
“Towards the end of the Obama presidency, he left one underreported legacy: state Democratic Parties were decimated. They were an endangered species in Appalachia. In 2016, out of the 490 counties that make up the region, Hillary Clinton only won 21 of them. These apparatuses provide parties with the candidate pools for local and statewide office. The rockstars can punch onto the federal scene if they’re competent. The lack of success from state parties that atrophied can produce embarrassing results. The New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and, up until recently, Virginia state GOP operations were classic examples of dysfunction that cost us in elections. Glenn Youngkin has led a resurrection in Virginia, but Colorado and the Keystone State especially have produced some outright abysmal candidates.
Republicans had a good time noting how Obama ruined his party at the state and local levels. Hillary Clinton had to stump about rebuilding these political infrastructures if she won the 2016 race. Now, the GOP is in a dire situation, but some GOP operatives are blaming Trump. Others claim that state parties are no longer necessary, supplanted by the burgeoning super PAC networks (via Politico):
Michigan’s Republican party is broke. Minnesota’s was, until recently, down to $53.81 in the bank. And in Colorado, the GOP is facing eviction from its office this month because it can’t make rent.
Around the nation, state Republican party apparatuses — once bastions of competency that helped produce statehouse takeovers — have become shells of their former machines amid infighting and a lack of organization.
[…]
“It shouldn’t surprise anybody that real people with real money — the big donors who have historically funded the party apparatus — don’t want to invest in these clowns who have taken over and subsumed the Republican Party,” said Jeff Timmer, the former executive director of the once-vaunted Michigan GOP and a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project.
Among some state GOP officials, the mood is grim. One Michigan Republican operative, who was granted anonymity because he wasn’t authorized by the state party to comment, said of that state party: “They’re just in as bad a place as a political party can be. They’re broke…Their chair can’t even admit she lost a race. It’s defunct.”
The demise of the GOP state parties could have a profound impact on the 2024 election. Operatives fear that hollowed out outfits in key battlegrounds could leave the party vulnerable, especially as Democrats are focusing more on state legislative races. Traditionally, state parties perform the basic blocking and tackling of politics, from get out the vote programs to building data in municipal elections.
But not all Republicans are concerned. In fact, some argue that modern politics in the age of super PAC make state parties relics of the past.
[…]
Still, even that operative noted that weak state parties could have damaging effects in lower-profile state races. And others see potentially sweeping consequences up and down the ballot next year.
[…]
In Pennsylvania, the state party sold its headquarters last year, sparking concern among some Republicans in the state about its finances. The Democratic state party’s main PAC also outraised its equivalent nearly two-to-one in 2022. One plugged-in Pennsylvania Republican said that the hard-right activists who have won state committee seats in recent years aren’t able to tap wealthy friends for cash in the same way the party’s more establishment-minded foot soldiers in the past could.
“The state committee members are more and more pro-Trump,” the person said. “But they don’t have the money.”
[…]
In deep-blue Massachusetts, where moderate Republican governors have reigned for the better part of the last 30 years, a hard-right push by a pro-Trump state committee chair destroyed the state GOP’s ability to recruit mainstream candidates and sent donors fleeing, bankrupting the party and costing Republicans their last two statewide offices. The party has now racked up more than $400,000 in debts to vendors and has less than $70,000 between its state and federal campaign accounts to pay it with.
[…]
One way national parties have dealt with the weakening of state parties has been to skip around them. The Republican Governors Association, for example, ran its spending in the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona through a county party instead of the long-plagued state Republican Party. In Nevada, meanwhile, the remnants of the famous “Reid Machine” set up a parallel operation to the state Democratic Party, which had been briefly taken over by Bernie Sanders supporters, to help manage the midterms for Senate and gubernatorial contests there. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won reelection, while then-Gov. Steve Sisolak narrowly lost his bid for another term.
But working around a state party has its limitations, especially if other political entities are trying to do the same.”
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They’re a joke. Of course they’ll blame Trump for their mismanagement. This is their job, not his. That’s easier than taking responsibility for their disastrous failures and lack of “leadership.”
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Of course…..
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WaPo sends in the clowns again.
“The Washington Post Says Democracy Demands Less Freedom of Speech
The paper worries that “social media companies are receding from their role as watchdogs against political misinformation.”
https://reason.com/2023/08/25/the-washington-post-says-democracy-demands-less-freedom-of-speech/
“Donald Trump was back on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, last night for the first time since he got the boot in 2021 following the riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Trump posted the mug shot of him that was taken at Atlanta’s jail this week when he was booked on the charges laid out in his Georgia indictment, which stem from his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in that state. He included a caption that described the indictment as “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and urged his followers to “NEVER SURRENDER!”
After taking over the platform that was then known as Twitter last year, Elon Musk, an avowed “free speech absolutist,” reinstated Trump’s account. But this is the first time that Trump, who started a competing platform that is still known as Truth Social, has made use of Musk’s permission. The Washington Post, in a news story published this morning, portrays Musk’s decision and the attitude underlying it as part of a worrisome trend that threatens “democracy” by allowing “political misinformation” to proliferate on social media. The piece nicely illustrates the confusion, obfuscation, and hypocrisy that characterize mainstream press coverage of that subject.
As is typical of this journalistic genre, Post reporters Naomi Nix and Sarah Ellison never address the question of what counts as “misinformation,” a highly contested category. Nor do they grapple with the content moderation problem of how to deal with politicians who say things of public interest that are arguably or demonstrably untrue. And although they allude to a constitutional challenge provoked by the federal government’s efforts to restrict speech on social media platforms, they never mention the First Amendment. That is a pretty striking omission by people whose profession relies on that amendment’s protections and who claim to be worried about the health of our democracy.
Nix and Ellison warn that “social media companies are receding from their role as watchdogs against political misinformation, abandoning their most aggressive efforts to police online falsehoods in a trend expected to profoundly affect the 2024 presidential election.” Under Musk’s baneful influence, they complain, Facebook and YouTube have “backed away from policing misleading claims” and “are receding from their role as watchdogs against conspiracy theories.”
The main conspiracy theory that Nix and Ellison have in mind, of course, is the one claiming that systematic fraud, including deliberately corrupted voting machines and massive numbers of phony ballots, deprived Trump of his rightful victory in the 2020 election. As they note, neither Trump nor his lawyers ever produced any credible evidence to support that theory. Yet Trump, who currently is by far the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, still claims he actually won reelection, and the sincerity of that belief is a central issue in both the Georgia case and his federal prosecution for conspiring to make that fantasy a reality. As Nix and Ellison note, most Republican voters—63 percent, according to a CNN poll conducted in May—agree with Trump that Joe Biden “did not legitimately win enough votes to win the presidency.”
As Nix and Ellison see it, none of those people should be allowed to express that view on social media. They also think it was clearly wrong for X to let Tucker Carlson post his recent interview with Trump, which was timed to coincide with the Republican presidential debate he skipped. “Trump capitalized on [Musk’s] relaxed standards” in that interview, they complain, by reiterating his “false claims that the 2020 election was ‘rigged’ and that the Democrats had ‘cheated’ to elect Biden.”
For me, that unilluminating, sycophantic interview, during which Carlson never asked a challenging question and let Trump ramble on about whatever random subjects flitted through his mind, was hard to watch. But as I write, it has racked up more than 256 million views, which suggests that more than a few people were interested in what Trump had to say. By comparison, Fox News says fewer than 13 million people watched its broadcast of the debate that Trump skipped.
X, in short, seems to be giving people what they want, which makes good business sense. One might also argue, as Carlson did, that “whatever you think of Trump…voters have an interest in hearing what he thinks,” since he is the “indisputable, far-and-away front-runner in the Republican race.”
Nix and Ellison do not see it that way. For the good of democracy, they think, social media platforms should be showing users political content only if it can be certified as accurate. That is, of course, an impossible challenge, one that is magnified by the difficulty of determining when speech, although not demonstrably false, nevertheless qualifies as “misinformation” because it is “misleading.” Policing “hate speech,” which Nix and Ellison also want the platforms to do, poses similar problems of interpretation and judgment.”
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The Vacationer in Chief….
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From Jeff Childers…
But finally someone has found Viktor, and apparently he’s talking a blue streak. The Daily Mail reported that tonight at 8pm Fox News will air “an explosive interview” with Shokin, in which the former prosecutor-general will claim that Joe and Hunter Biden were ‘corrupt,’ that they accepted large cash bribes from Burisma, and were behind his firing.
Sounds about right. Quid pro quo, Joe. Drip, drip.
“I do not want to deal in unproven facts. But my firm personal conviction is that yes, this was the case. They were being bribed,” Shokin explained in Fox’s preview clip. Shokin would know.
Back in 2018, two years after Shokin’s sudden and unexpected firing, Biden bragged that he told Ukraine he would personally withhold a billion dollars in U.S. aid if the Ukrainians failed to immediately fire Shokin. “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden boasted.
“Well, son of a b****. He got fired,” the former vice-president continued, chortling merrily.
Biden’s probably not laughing so hard now.
As I said, at that the time Joe blackmailed Ukraine, Hunter was collecting a sweet million dollars a year for doing nothing on Burisma’s hastily-created “board of directors.” Why Hunter Biden would even be qualified for a fake board seat on a Ukrainian energy company being investigated for corruption remains a perplexing mystery. To some people.
The Daily Mail article also described details about Devon Archer’s recent Congressional testimony, in which the former Hunter business partner described “business” meetings with shady foreign oligarchs, in which Joe Biden got on the phone, after which millions of dollars flowed into Hunter’s various sham companies.
The cries of “no evidence” are sounding more and more like distant echoes down liberal canyon. There is already more evidence to indict Joe Biden on a container-load of crimes than the entire collection of “evidence” from four cases against Trump. So.
We await the Fox interview — the first time Shokin has appeared in this long-running scandal — with great interest. Stay tuned.
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An interesting look at the history of US politics — and some encouragement that we may/will (?) come out of this latest turmoil as well.
It will pass, one way or another.
___________________
Karl Rove/WSJ:
America Is Often a Nation Divided
U.S. politics today is ugly and broken, true enough. But the good news is that it was worse in the past, and it will get better again.
~ America is deeply divided. Our politics is broken, marked by anger, contempt and distrust. We must acknowledge that reality but not lose historical perspective. It’s bad now, but it’s been worse before—and not only during the Civil War.
Let’s look backward and start with the mid-1960s to early ’70s. The nation was bitterly divided over civil rights, the “sexual revolution” and an increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia.
The just and peaceful civil-rights protests of the 1950s and early ’60s were often met with state-sanctioned violence. Then Harlem exploded in 1964, followed by a riot in Philadelphia. Watts went up in flames in 1965; Chicago, Cleveland and San Francisco the next year. A total of 163 cities—including Atlanta, Boston, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, N.J., New York and Portland, Ore.—suffered widespread violence in the “Long Hot Summer” of 1967. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. Riots broke out in more than 130 American cities, with 47 killed in the ensuing violence. Two months later Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles.
That same year the nation’s most prominent segregationist, George Wallace, running for president as an independent, won five states in the Deep South. In 1972 he came in third for the Democratic nomination, 1.8 points behind the winner in total primary vote.
Beginning in 1965, the country was rocked by demonstrations over the Vietnam War, many of them student-led. In some instances, governors sent in the National Guard to restore order. After guardsmen killed four students in 1970 at Ohio’s Kent State, protests broke out on 350 campuses, involving an estimated two million people. Thirty-five thousand antiwar protesters assaulted the Pentagon in October 1967. An estimated 10,000 tried shutting down the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Four years later, thousands tried the same at the GOP convention in Miami Beach. The U.S. experienced more than 2,500 domestic bombings in 18 months in 1971-72.
Two presidents were driven from office during this period. Lyndon B. Johnson opted against seeking re-election in 1968 because of the war. Richard Nixon, facing impeachment over Watergate, resigned in 1974.
In the early 1930s, 1 in 4 Americans was unemployed. Populism emerged on both ends of the spectrum. On the left, Huey Long, proclaimed “every man a king,” threatened confiscation of wealth, and preached class hatred until he was assassinated in 1935. On the right, Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest,” blamed the Depression on bankers and Jews in nationwide broadcasts from Detroit. Journalist Eric Sevareid recalled that in 1933 “every day the headlines spoke of riots, of millions thrown out of work, of mass migrations by the desperate.” Historian Wendy L. Wall describes the late 1930s as “marked by sit-down strikes, violent repression of workers, and attacks by vigilante groups on Jews, Catholics, racial minorities, and leftists.”
The Gilded Age is often overlooked as a time of division, but Republicans and Democrats hated each other. They were still fighting the Civil War by political means. President Ulysses S. Grant’s 1872 re-election was followed by five consecutive presidential contests in which no winner received a popular-vote majority. Less than 1 percentage point separated the two candidates in three elections. In two of the five races, the winning candidate failed to earn a plurality of popular vote because the black Republican vote was suppressed by violence hard for modern minds to grasp. …
… There were bitter divisions and acrimony in the 1850s. Remember the caning of Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner by South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks in 1856? It was condemned in the North and cheered in the South. Historian Joanne Freeman writes in “Field of Blood” that this violent period in the Capitol began in the 1830s and lasted for decades. Senators and representatives routinely carried pistols, knives, clubs, brass knuckles and other weapons onto the floor. Political tensions ran high; insults and confrontations were routine and violence frequent. There was even death. In 1838, Whig Rep. William Graves of Kentucky shot and killed Democratic Rep. Jonathan Cilley of Maine in a duel over charges of corruption.
Ms. Freeman argues that “extreme polarization and the breakdown of debate” in Congress meant that the “structures of government and the bonds of Union were eroding in real time,” leading to “the collapse of our national civic structure to the point of crisis. The nation didn’t slip into disunion; it fought its way into it.” It sounds a bit like today, but are our present disagreements as large as those over the antebellum era’s central question—what shall be done about the enslavement of nearly four million human beings?
… (much more follows, looking at the history of some of the nation’s wilder political season dustups)
… So what ended these periods of broken politics? Convulsive events such as World War II played a role. More important, adroit leadership—the kind we saw with Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan—clearly mattered. They set a tone that led to healing.
But most of the credit goes to the American people, who make mistakes but have always found their way back to true north. They have often tolerated our country’s politics being angry, hyperpartisan and divisive; in some instances, they are the driving force behind polarization, with the political class reflecting the public’s unchecked passions. But that lasts only for a season. Their good common sense eventually brings them to vote for change, determined to reshape our politics in healthier, more constructive ways.
Polls show a clear majority of voters are unhappy with today’s politics, its ugly practices and the front-runners offered for 2024. So don’t grow weary or discouraged. It’s bad today, but it’s been worse before, and it will be better ahead. Change is coming. We don’t know precisely when, but it’s coming. The better angels of our nature as Americans will emerge and win out. ~
__________________________
Perhaps a bit optimistic (and God knows the rest of this story, we can only speculate and pray and hope); but I’ll take it. 🙂
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And, meanwhile, as seen on X/Twitter:
~ Which best describes the Christian public witness in America today?
FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control
ACTS OF THE FLESH: Hatred, Discord, Fits of Rage, Self-Ambition, Dissensions, Factions and Envy ~
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This alert just came into my email inbox. 😦
“Multiple people killed in Jacksonville store shooting, mayor says”
Not many details yet.
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/multiple-people-killed-in-jacksonville-store-shooting-mayor-says/3093369/?break=nbc6596&_osource=newltr_station_Hdlines_wvit
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This is what collusion looks like.
Biden is interfering in the case to kneecap his opponent. That’s election interference. The Russians must be so proud.
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And the NTers have no comment.
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Fox sucks.
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Journalism / believer friend who’s deep into serious academic US history studies had this comment (in part) about the Rove piece:
~ So nothing new under the sun. The key seems to be if enough people maintain an attitude of “I’m ticked off, but I’m not quite ready yet to destroy a country it took so much sacrifice to get, so let’s work to explain our view in an effort to get people on our side next.” … Absent that approach by the majority of people, disaster looms. ~
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Kizzie, that was alarming to see, I’d been out all afternoon and just saw your post. 😦
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Lol.
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The weirdest thig about this Trump indictment, and bad news for Dems, is the reaction of minorities, who now see Trump as someone who knows what it’s like to have a 2 tiered justice system used against them.
Note:
I don’t advocate using the slang term some of these people have chosen to use to identify themselves. I don’t think anyone should use it. They’ve self identified as this, and spoke to cameras, so I’m posting it. But again, it’s not cool.
And can someone explain why the only newly charged guy they locked up is the black one? Seems……. racist.
Between this and the fundraising boost, it seems Dems may have overplayed their hand.
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Some humor from the BB.
And you knew it was coming, the best Trump arrest memes. 🙂
https://notthebee.com/article/trump-mugshot-meme-collection
The chicken nuggets one cracked me up. 🙂
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The article at link I shared above has been updated. The new headline is:
“3 dead in shooting motivated by hatred of Black people in Jacksonville, Sheriff says
The shooter had a swastika painted on at least one of his firearms and had written at least one manifesto”
While checking that, I saw this 😦 :
“Police say 1 teenager is dead, 2 people wounded after shooting at Oklahoma high school football game
Police in Oklahoma say a teenager has died after being shot during a Friday night high school football game where two other people were wounded and two were injured fleeing the scene”
https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/national-international/police-say-1-teenager-is-dead-2-people-wounded-after-shooting-at-oklahoma-high-school-football-game/3093359/
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I wish the new-ish sad-face emoji didn’t look so dopey.
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So this shooters manifesto will be immediately available for the press to use for their narrative, unlike the manifesto of the trans shooter of those Christian kids that the feds are still hiding because of what it does to their narrative.
Typical.
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Crazy.
This is what wrecking at 200mph looks like.
And he got out of the car himself. Another angle.
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After all that….
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🙂 A response from The Rich Men North of Richmond….
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Disgusting.
This “man” shot and killed an unarmed 100lb woman, so the Dems promote him.
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Of course…..
“CDC Now Refusing New COVID Vaccine Adverse Event Reports in Its V-Safe Program”
https://brownstone.org/articles/cdc-refusing-new-covid-vaccine-adverse-event-reports/
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) V-safe website quietly stopped collecting adverse event reports with no reason or explanation. The V-safe website simply states: “Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023.” If you go there today, V-safe directs users to the FDA’s VAERS website for adverse event reporting, even though officials continually derided VAERS as “passive” and “unverified.”
VAERS and V-safe are mutually exclusive safety collection databases operated by the FDA and CDC, respectively. VAERS is an older way of collecting safety data where one can fill out a form online, or manually, or by calling a toll-free number, whereas V-safe is a device “app” which requires online registration. Both VAERS and V-safe collect personal information, lot numbers, dates and associated information, but V-safe was an active collection system geared towards a younger app-using demographic.
Here is the last report before deletion.”
“Does this mean that the CDC believes that the mRNA Covid-19 injections are so safe, there is no need to monitor adverse event reports any longer? What is the argument against continued monitoring, especially since the V-safe website was already up and paid for?
While CDC’s V-safe was stealthily and abruptly turned off, refusing to accept new safety reports, to this very day the CDC continues to urge everyone ages 6 months and older to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
As a drug safety expert, I personally can’t cite another example of any agency or manufacturer halting collection of safety data. It seems even worse because mRNA technology is relatively new with long-term manifestations unknown. On top of this, both manufacturers and the FDA refuse to share the list of ingredients, such as lipid nanoparticles, which could affect individuals differently and take a long time to manifest clinically.
Safety Data Collection Should Never Stop
Now, contrast that with the fact that the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) will still accept a safety report for a 30-year-old Ford Bronco II. Indeed, this is an oddly specific example, but only because I drove this exact vehicle as a family hand-me-down as a student, through my residency, fellowship, for my tenure as a Yale professor on the mean streets of New Haven and even during my years at the FDA as a medical officer /senior medical analyst.
Like mRNA shots, Bronco IIs are still available on the market and people are still using them up to this very day. My Bronco became an intermittent topic of conversation with friends and FDA colleagues. One day, I was informed by a patrolling security guard at the FDA that it was the oldest car on campus.
I didn’t know much about cars (or mRNA technology) back then, but when a fellow FDA-er informed me that my Bronco II had noteworthy safety problems and that the NHTSA still had their eye on this vehicle (rollover accidents were more common and more fatal) I addressed the problem: I got rid of the reliable relic, even though I really liked it.
NHTSA is still accepting safety reports on things like my 30-year-old Ford Bronco II, but the CDC isn’t accepting new safety reports on 2-year old novel mRNA vaccines.
Unlike my old Bronco, mRNA injections have only been on the market for about two years, and according to the FDA Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database, mRNA “vaccines” have been named the primary suspect in over 1.5 million adverse event reports, of which there are >20,000 heart attacks and >27,000 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis just in the USA alone. Worldwide numbers would be greater. According to many references, including an FDA-funded study out of Harvard, VAERS reports represent fewer than 1 percent of vaccine adverse events that actually occur.
Interestingly, the NHTSA link above on my Ford Bronco II only shows: one parts recall, one investigation and 23 complaints, and still features a button in the upper right hand corner for submitting new complaints.
Wikipedia defines an humanitarian crisis or humanitarian disaster as a: “singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well-being of a community or large group of people.” Based on VAERS and previous V-safe findings, adverse events from mRNA shots in the USA alone could be considered a humanitarian crisis.
Despite those alarming clinical findings, the CDC has concluded that collecting new safety reports is somehow no longer in the interest of America’s public health. Existing data from the V-safe site showed around 6.5 million adverse events/health impacts out of 10.1 million users, with around 2 million of those people unable to conduct normal activities of daily living or needing medical care, according to a third-party rendering of its findings. In other words, despite mRNA shots still being widely available and the CDC promoting its continued use, it’s “case closed” with regards to collecting new safety reports, under today’s federal public health administration. “
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Losing….?
No, lost.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/aug/26/america-is-losing-its-work-ethic/
—
“Today, an increasing number of young Americans dream of only working enough to get by, if at all. In 2021, 36% of men ages 18 to 24 were still living at home, not a hopeful sign for Generation Z taking personal responsibility.
Help wanted signs are everywhere. But fewer and fewer are stepping up to the plate.
The Labor Force Participation Rate – the percentage of able-bodied workers who are either employed or looking for work — is at a near 25-year low. The LFPR has gone from 67.3% in early 2000 to 62.6% in May of this year.
That means over 37% of able-bodied Americans — who are neither students, retired, nor caring for children at home — have voluntarily dropped out of the workforce. That’s millions of potential workers who, for whatever reason, have chosen a life of idleness.
The left encourages indolence with handouts and by cultivating an entitlement mentality.
Pennsylvania State Representative Roni Green – a Democrat, as if you couldn’t guess — has announced that she’ll introduce legislation for a 32-hour work week for employers of more than 500, without a reduction in pay.
This is the same as taking money out of the pockets of employers and putting it in the pockets of employees. But when did legalized theft ever stop the party of plunder?
Under President Biden, whose administration is committed to expanding the dole, the welfare state has metastasized.
Food Stamp enrollment is at a historic high, with 41.2 million currently participating – 12.5% of the total population and 4.5 million more than at the start of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Besides the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps by another name), there’s unemployment insurance, Medicaid, housing vouchers, child-care payments and energy subsidies. Most are needs-based, thus disincentivizing work.
But the problem goes much deeper.
Work has a moral dimension. The way you view work reflects the way you view life. If life has no meaning for you, neither will work.
The Bible, the foundation of Western Civilization, has much to say about work.
In Genesis, we are admonished, “By the sweat of your brow will you eat your food.” In his Epistle to the Thessalonians, St. Paul charged, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” A Jewish proverb says the same.
The earliest colonists embraced what came to be called the Protestant work ethic. The Puritans were famous for their belief in the redemptive quality of labor. In the Jamestown colony, John Smith inveighed against “idleness and sloth.” “For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers.”
A life of leisure provides opportunities for all sorts of mischief – online gambling, substance abuse, sexting and crime. How many of the George Floyd rioters were gainfully employed? Imagine someone going to his supervisor and asking for time off to take part in looting a high-end fashion store.
Work should not be viewed in isolation.
We work because we recognize our responsibility to our family, our community and our nation. We want to take pride in ourselves and set an example for our children.
In a 2022 commentary, American Enterprise Institute economist Nicholas Eberstadt notes that in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown, “seven million men of prime working age are neither working nor looking for work.” The LFPR was actually higher in 1940, with 15% unemployment.
Mr. Eberstadt explains that the flight from work “has meant slower economic growth for the country, wider income and wealth gaps, more dependence on government welfare programs, more pressure on fragile families, loss social mobility, less involvement in society, and a lot more deaths of despair.”
The left’s attitude to work is consistent with its Marxist agenda. It wants to continually expand the dependent class. Simultaneously, it punishes hard work with confiscatory taxes and by stigmatizing the most productive as despoilers of the planet and exploiters of the underclass.
Now, it looks like it’s trying to engineer a new COVID-19 lockdown to keep more at home and necessitate increased welfare spending — the opposite of what Grover Cleveland, the last conservative Democrat in the White House, had in mind.”
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Republican NTers are the clueless frogs in a pot.
“An Inconvenient Trump: Republicans Are Living an Enormous Lie”
https://spectator.org/an-inconvenient-trump-republicans-are-living-an-enormous-lie/
“The Republican primary debate charade, hosted by a hapless Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, revealed two things: Vivek Ramaswamy is a rising star, and Donald Trump dominated as the elephant not in the room.
The Democrats and the media run a constant clown show, but the Republicans play along as useless puppets, willfully participating in a system designed to destroy them. The Republican party is allowing itself to be rigged by playing by the rules of an old system that no longer exists. The Democrats, bureaucracy, and media are vicious apparatchiks. They are a dirty and obvious enemy who clearly need to be fought. The Republicans are worse because they don’t see their own participation in the Big Lie. They would rather step over Trump’s dead political body than save the republic. In so doing, they will never have power again, even if they regain it. They will be vassals of the state apparatus, nothing more … or else.
Donald Trump is not the Republican front runner. He’s the presumptive nominee. Further, he’s the most popular politician in America. Trump created a coalition that made the Rust Belt winnable. He turned Ohio, Florida, and Iowa reliably red. He made Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin gettable. In Florida, he out-won Ron DeSantis by 1 million votes.
Why the all-out assault on Donald Trump? Because in a fair system, he wins — and he wins bigly.
The assault on Trump and anyone who supported him is an attack on the only one standing in the way of generations of Democrat power, and the Republicans are pretending that America and the Republican Party can return to a Bush-era neocon Republicanism that simply doesn’t exist anymore outside the beltway.
How, pray tell, would any of the Republicans on the debate stage win in the general election? Where do they win, and how do they expand Trump’s coalition? Is their big strategy to win back Georgia and Arizona?
Only one candidate on the debate stage tangentially dealt with this reality: Vivek Ramaswamy. That every other Republican doesn’t understand the heart of the lie was revealed by Vivek. He knows that the biggest issue facing the republic is the disintegration of the rule of law surrounding the persecution and baseless prosecution of Donald Trump and anyone who supports him. Vivek says he wants to win, but not like this. Here’s his exchange with Chris Christie, Democrat operative:”
“The question is: Why are the rest of this Republican field okay with winning this way?
How can any Republican govern if voters can’t canvass, can’t protest, can’t speak on social media, if no attorneys can advise Republican candidates, if strategy callers can’t brainstorm ideas for winning, if legitimate lawsuits are dismissed out of hand, if free speech is not allowed? How can Republicans win against sophisticated vote-running machines? How do they win against faked, duped, and dumped ballots? How do they win against millions of dollars laundered through accounts where people didn’t actually donate to the Democrat Party? How do they win against the new Zuck Bucks? Is something magical going to happen in 2024 that sweeps these issues away?
Now that the Democrats, the State, and the media have created a playing field where they alone win, what will the uncharismatic, unserious Republicans on the debate stage do to win?
The debate questions were inane. Why did these Fox talking heads blab about whether Mike Pence did the right thing? Chris Christie, in an act of sexual servicing too shameless for even the seediest blue district, extolled Pence as a defender of the Constitution, God, and country. It was so risible that the audience laughed. Who do these folks think they’re kidding?
Speaking of Pence, he came off as a constipated church lady. A raging hypocritical one, at that. Of all people, he knows the injustice being served cold to Trump, and he cannot let charitable words pass his mouth.
Where were the questions about Biden’s corruption? What about the bribes? Why was the question about a man who is not holding office when the man holding office is compromised by America’s enemies? Just today, the Daily Mail reports that the Bidens are alleged to have taken foreign bribes.
Further, why didn’t the Republicans on the stage address Maui and the massacre there? How about plans for an economy wrecked by Joe Biden and the plight of the poor and working class? Gas prices are increasing again. Groceries are so expensive that it cost this writer $72 for the main ingredients of a spaghetti dinner. How about the failed states attempting to impose masks and restrictions when the data is clear that they do more harm than good? Are shutdowns coming? These issues affect voters every day. Meanwhile, the Republicans wax eloquent on Ukraine.
Truth has left the Republican Party, and it’s diminishing them, if that’s even possible. They can talk of the border. They can pontificate about the world-changing necessity of making Ukraine secure. They can tell everyone what they already know: Vladimir Putin is a bad guy. Noted. Now, how about something more pressing and closer to home? How about addressing the criminalization of free speech? How about addressing the conditions of Jan. 6 defendants? How about addressing using the justice system to bankrupt and persecute political enemies? How about addressing the raw, unchecked power being thrown around by the Biden administration?
Examine this list of Democrats criminalizing political enemies:
Arizona considers prosecutions of Trump electors.
Michigan prosecutes 16 GOP activists, including an opponent of the Michigan attorney general.
Michigan then charges attorneys, like Stefanie Lambert.
Wisconsin governor calls for prosecutions (meanwhile, Republicans stayed home, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court now is in Democrat hands).
The Georgia 19 are being charged for discussing election strategies.
USMC veteran Harrison Floyd is still jailed. This is an outrage. Again, the Fulton County jail is a place for enemies of the state. Floyd is being hounded by the feds.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden brags in a tweet as Trump gets prosecuted for his tweets:”
—–
And nary a whimper about any of this from the pearl clutching NTers and useless RINO establishment types.
Newsflash:
Ya’ll are the reason Rs aren’t winning, because you can’t win without Trump voters. Time to accept that reality. Make it work, or go the way of the dinosaurs….
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Pres. Reagan was needed in the 1980s, Pres. Trump is needed in today’s evil times. God is perfect in His timing…
In Reagan’s day, he was just about perfect for the job. The people and times were very different then than they are now.
Today, Congress, Senate, all branches and departments of the government, the mass media, the Deep State Swamp, WEF oligarchs, and people in general have become more corrupt, power-hungry, greedy, uncaring, unkind, immoral, globalistic, and even communistic in nature.
Because we are truly losing our Republic under corrupt, weak, controlled, immoral and pathetic leadership, what is needed in today’s evil days is a very strong, tough, smart, courageous, patriotic President who truly serves “We The People,” for the good of the country.
Pres. Trump didn’t create this movement – he stepped into the vacuum that no politician was willing to occupy, with the gifting and qualities that today’s evil times require. The movement is an ever-growing rebellion against a corrupt and incompetent establishment (Uni-party).
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It’s extremely difficult to fire anyone especially if they’ve been employed more than a year and in a professional capacity. Most employers offer severance packages to avoid any type of legal liability. Thus, school boards will simply offer the option of resignation as opposed to a lengthy legal process – we can blame unions but the truth is prosecution and other legal issues will still cost money without a union, especially if its years later.
Although it’s tempting to politicise this issue, “Gym” Jordan is still in the House…… Honestly, this is a societal problem. People ignore things if it interferes with their career path.
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The phone call was not a request for a recount. We all know that, every state has rules regarding when and if recounts take place. He asked the Secy of State to find votes not to recount. Trump hinted there may be criminal charges. At the same time, his staff went to a rural county to take apart a dominion voting machine and false electors were put in place. Its a RICO case and put all three together and Trump has a problem.
To succeed, political parties need various types of people; leaders, volunteers, organisers, money men, etc. When your party is taken over by those whose only skill is to follow the leader and maybe volunteer, you have a problem. Its not so much Trump’s fault but who he attracts. When you lack the managers and organisers and only have followers you will have problems. Non-Republicans have noticed this the last few years, and now Republicans are in panic mode. Polls can put your candidate tied with opponents but unless you have “the get out the vote” organisation and the money, you won’t win.
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One of the illusions of neo-con/neoliberal economics is that the free market is natural. In fact, it’s created by gov’t regulations and the participants need to adapt or die. Rules regarding products change all the time; companies need to adapt to the new market. That’s how capitalism really works.
I’m amused anybody takes gov’t guidelines seriously. Do people really follow the food guidelines – I eat healthy but that’s my European parents and ex-wife taking up space in my head. The liberal gov’t in Canada put out new alcohol guidelines last year – the same two drinks per week; the country had a good laugh, poured a drink and ignored it. As long as you’re not drinking like an Eastern European, you’re good.
The sheer irony of Trump titling his mug shot with Never Surrender was amusing. Trump surrendered, hence the mug shot.
Are we back to arguing about vacation time? First it was Bush Jr, then Obama, then Trump — opposite sides took turns measuring vacation times. Its American, nobody takes a real vacation – I’m sure email, telephone etc., reaches Biden.
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The US influence is world wide and far reaching but it doesn’t cover everything. Shokin was fired because he failed to investigate not only corruption but who was responsible for the shooting deaths in Maiden square. Ukrainians and the EU wanted him gone.
Never trust a British tabloid. The Daily Mail also has a story on Russians paving over a Wagner cemetery. Did it happen? Maybe, but I’ll wait for a more reliable source.
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African American rap stars are probably not the best source for the reaction of minorities to Trump’s indictment ( are they really a minority?). The African American political community is motivated by women – rap stars may say a lot but in the trenches the women rule supreme and they bring out the vote.
Of course, the policeman was promoted, that’s how the blue line works. You can strangle a man selling singles and shoot a man jay walking but the blue line will protect you. In this case a 100lb white woman was breaking down a barricade to the House – of course shooting her is reasonable force by blue line standards.
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Despite Trump’s appeal in the rust belt, he’s not winning bigly. He lost in 2020 and will lose in 2024. The problem is no matter how much he motivates the Republican base, he also motivates the Democratic base. Those under 30 are now voting 2 to 1 for democrats and if Trump is the Republican candidate, they will show up. As I said before the only states that count are Penn, MI, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Republicans need to win Penn or Mich, along with the rest and they won’t. Biden wins Penn and Mich and he wins. If he only wins one he just needs Georgia.
Pence – a constipated church lady is the best description I’ve read.
Tychicus,
Reagan is the reason for the American situation today. His tax cuts without spending cuts created a structural deficit. His free trade policies created the rust belt.
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The labour participation rate reached its peak in 2000. The current rate is the same as the 1980s….the Reagan era. The decline from the 2000s could be for any reason not just the left encouraging handouts. In many cases, its the realisation of childcare being too expensive so one parent stays home. Then there is early retirement; I will retire next year but I will still be included as able bodied who should work.
Automation and other changes have also meant less work is required. Several European countries have shortened the standard work week to 32 hours with no loss to productivity.
Food stamps are demeaning – just give the poor the money. They will spend it locally benefiting the American; far better than giving the rich tax breaks and letting them stash in the Cayman Islands. Why do we trust the rich elites but not the poor? Poverty does not equal immoral.
Sure, Genesis says we need to sweat to eat but that was punishment for original sin. Reformed theology advocates a redemptive approach. We are not condemned to work. Yes, Paul said if you are unwilling to work, you can’t eat – but so did Lenin.
“A life of leisure provides opportunities for all sorts of mischief – online gambling, substance abuse, sexting and crime.” – that sounds like a good argument for wealth confiscation. Tax the rich so they can’t live a life of leisure.
The flight from work did not result in a higher income and wealth gap. That’s mistaking cause for effect. The higher income and wealth gap has led many of the poor to say what’s the point. My daughter’s generation doesn’t see the middle class dream of home ownership, two kids etc as a possibility so they are content with living with parents, and living minimally.
And the deaths of despair are not from a refusal to join the capitalist economy but by capitalism itself. Suicides, overdose, and alcoholism rates increased years ago when labour participation was its highest. Abuse from employers and poor health and safety regulations led to addiction issues etc. Blaming the current crisis in blue collar America on an unwillingness to work is blaming the victim.
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Good grief! We had nothing when we graduated college, but a bit of school debt. Nothing like today’s average student, however. We also never expected to live as most young people do today. Our apartments were in places without any perks, such as a dishwasher or laundry on site. We lived in our basement, building as we went, starting out with no running water with a baby and toddler.
My husband started out poorer than anyone I know now. I grew up in an average middle-class family. We never considered ourselves poor and helpless whatever our circumstances.
In Proverbs I read that hunger drives people to work. Hunger for many things does drive people to work hard. Life is hard. Life is unfair, but we also can use those things as an excuse. I see a whole lot of that.
“A constipated church woman’ tells me a whole lot about the one who says that.
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