Month: March 2024

The American people will be tuning in on their smartphones, laptops, and televisions on Thursday evening to see if ‘sloppy joe’ 81-year-old President Joe Biden can coherently put together more than two sentences (even with a teleprompter) as he gives his third State of the Union in front of a divided Congress. 

President Biden will speak on various topics to convince voters why he shouldn’t be sent to a retirement home.

The state of our union under President Biden: three years of decline. pic.twitter.com/Da1KOIb3eR

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) March 7, 2024

According to CNN sources, here are some of the topics Biden will discuss tonight:

• Economic issues: Biden and his team have been drafting a speech heavy on economic populism, aides said, with calls for higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy – an attempt to draw a sharp contrast with Republicans and their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

• Health care expenses: Biden will also push for lowering health care costs and discuss his efforts to go after drug manufacturers to lower the cost of prescription medications — all issues his advisers believe can help buoy what have been sagging economic approval ratings.

• Israel’s war with Hamas: Also looming large over Biden’s primetime address is the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, which has consumed much of the president’s time and attention over the past few months. The president’s top national security advisers have been working around the clock to try to finalize a ceasefire-hostages release deal by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that begins next week.

• An argument for reelection: Aides view Thursday’s speech as a critical opportunity for the president to tout his accomplishments in office and lay out his plans for another four years in the nation’s top job. Even though viewership has declined over the years, the yearly speech reliably draws tens of millions of households.

Sources provided more color on Biden’s SOTU address: 

The speech is expected to be heavy on economic populism. The president will talk about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. He’ll highlight efforts to cut costs for the American people, including pushing Congress to help make prescription drugs more affordable.

Biden will talk about the need to preserve democracy and freedom, a cornerstone of his re-election bid. That includes protecting and bolstering reproductive rights, an issue Democrats believe will energize voters in November. Biden is also expected to promote his unity agenda, a key feature of each of his addresses to Congress while in office.

Biden is also expected to give remarks on border security while the invasion of illegals has become one of the most heated topics among American voters. A majority of voters are frustrated with radical progressives in the White House facilitating the illegal migrant invasion. 

It is probable that the president will attribute the failure of the Senate border bill to the Republicans, a claim many voters view as unfounded. This is because the White House has the option to issue an executive order to restore border security, yet opts not to do so

Maybe this is why? 

Most Americans are still unaware that the census counts ALL people, including illegal immigrants, for deciding how many House seats each state gets!

This results in Dem states getting roughly 20 more House seats, which is another strong incentive for them not to deport illegals.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 7, 2024

While Biden addresses the nation, the Biden administration will be armed with a social media team to pump propaganda to at least 100 million Americans. 

“The White House hosted about 70 creators, digital publishers, and influencers across three separate events” on Wednesday and Thursday, a White House official told CNN. 

Not a very capable social media team… 

The State of Confusion https://t.co/C31mHc5ABJ

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 7, 2024

The administration’s move to ramp up social media operations comes as users on X are mostly free from government censorship with Elon Musk at the helm. This infuriates Democrats, who can no longer censor their political enemies on X. 

Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers tell Axios that the president’s SOTU performance will be critical as he tries to dispel voter concerns about his elderly age. The address reached as many as 27 million people in 2023. 

“We are all nervous,” said one House Democrat, citing concerns about the president’s “ability to speak without blowing things.”

The SOTU address comes as Biden’s polling data is in the dumps. 

BetOnline has created several money-making opportunities for gamblers tonight, such as betting on what word Biden mentions the most. 

As well as…

We will update you when Tucker Carlson’s live feed of SOTU is published. 

Fuck it. We’ll do it live! Thursday night, March 7, our live response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech. pic.twitter.com/V0UwOrgKvz

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 6, 2024

*   *   *

Here’s more on Biden’s SOTU address via Mises’ Connor O’Keeffe, who penned: “Be on the Lookout for These Lies in Biden’s State of the Union Address.” 

On Thursday evening, President Joe Biden is set to give his third State of the Union address. The political press has been buzzing with speculation over what the president will say. That speculation, however, is focused more on how Biden will perform, and which issues he will prioritize. Much of the speech is expected to be familiar.

The story Biden will tell about what he has done as president and where the country finds itself as a result will be the same dishonest story he’s been telling since at least the summer. He’ll cite government statistics to say the economy is growing, unemployment is low, and inflation is down.

Something that has been frustrating Biden, his team, and his allies in the media is that the American people do not feel as economically well off as the official data says they are. Despite what the White House and establishment-friendly journalists say, the problem lies with the data, not the American people’s ability to perceive their own well-being.

As I wrote back in January, the reason for the discrepancy is the lack of distinction made between private economic activity and government spending in the most frequently cited economic indicators. There is an important difference between the two:

• Government, unlike any other entity in the economy, can simply take money and resources from others to spend on things and hire people. Whether or not the spending brings people value is irrelevant
• It’s the private sector that’s responsible for producing goods and services that actually meet people’s needs and wants. So, the private components of the economy have the most significant effect on people’s economic well-being.

Recently, government spending and hiring has accounted for a larger than normal share of both economic activity and employment. This means the government is propping up these traditional measures, making the economy appear better than it actually is. Also, many of the jobs Biden and his allies take credit for creating will quickly go away once it becomes clear that consumers don’t actually want whatever the government encouraged these companies to produce.

On top of all that, the administration is dealing with the consequences of their chosen inflation rhetoric. Since its peak in the summer of 2022, the president’s team has talked about inflation “coming back down,” which can easily give the impression that it’s prices that will eventually come back down. But that’s not what that phrase means. It would be more honest to say that price increases are slowing down.

Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the cost of living will not return to prepandemic levels, and they’re not happy about it.

The president has made some clumsy attempts at damage control, such as a Super Bowl Sunday video attacking food companies for “shrinkflation”—selling smaller portions at the same price instead of simply raising prices. In his speech Thursday, Biden is expected to play up his desire to crack down on the “corporate greed” he’s blaming for high prices.

In the name of “bringing down costs for Americans,” the administration wants to implement targeted price ceilings—something anyone who has taken even a single economics class could tell you does more harm than good. Biden would never place the blame for the dramatic price increases we’ve experienced during his term where it actually belongs—on all the government spending that he and President Donald Trump oversaw during the pandemic, funded by the creation of $6 trillion out of thin air—because that kind of spending is precisely what he hopes to kick back up in a second term.

If reelected, the president wants to “revive” parts of his so-called Build Back Better agenda, which he tried and failed to pass in his first year. That would bring a significant expansion of domestic spending. And Biden remains committed to the idea that Americans must be forced to continue funding the war in Ukraine. That’s another topic Biden is expected to highlight in the State of the Union, likely accompanied by the lie that Ukraine spending is good for the American economy. It isn’t.

It’s not possible to predict all the ways President Biden will exaggerate, mislead, and outright lie in his speech on Thursday. But we can be sure of two things. The “state of the Union” is not as strong as Biden will say it is. And his policy ambitions risk making it much worse.

Just when you thought US consumers had finally learning their lesson, and had stopped buying stuff they can’t afford with money they don’t have… we got the latest consumer credit data which collapsed that particular thesis in a millisecond.

After last month we saw an unprecedented halt to growth in both revolving credit (i.e., credit card) growth – which rose by just $1 billion – as well as non-revolving (i.e., auto and student loans) which practially flatlined growing by just $0.5 billion – in January things were seemingly back to normal, as total consumer credit surged by $19.5BN, compared to the $0.9BN downward revised December print (from $1.561BN originally), driven by a powerful rebound in both credit card and auto loans.

Starting at the top, revolving credit in January rose by $8.4 billion from an upward revised $2.6 billion…

… pushing total revolving credit to a record $1.327 trillion, which as shown in the chart below means that the trendline from the pre-covid era has now been surpassed, while the savings rate is at an all time low.

Meanwhile, on the non-revolving credit side, “number also go up“, rising by $11 billion to a record high $3.712 trillion after unexpectedly declining by $1.7 billion in December.

The latest acceleration in credit card debt comes as a surprise for several reasons, not least of all that according to the Fed, the average rate across all commercial banks on all credit card amounts just hit a new record high of 21.47% despite the drop in rates observed in late 2023, which is a vivid reminder that while banks are happy to hike credit card rates, they rarely if ever cut them.

Yet with consumers ever more strapped for actual cash and equity, as the personal savings rate in the US has collapsed from over 5% to 3.8% – the lowest since 2022 – in just a few months…

… there is only so much more credit card maxing out that can take place before reality finally sets in, although with an election on the horizon – one which ensures that any credit-card fueled spending must be encouraged – don’t be surprised if the White House instructs banks to just ignore soaring delinquency and charge-off rates…

… as discussed in more detail earlier in “These Are The 5 Charts The FDIC Does Not Want You Paying Attention To”, only for the hammer to fall on the first day of Trump’s new presidency.

Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

China’s communist regime is engaged in a worldwide campaign of cybercrime and leading experts believe that the United States is failing to respond swiftly enough to counter the threat.

“In the current era of cyber, it’s all about speed,” retired Army Col. John Mills told The Epoch Times.

“You have to presume a breach, and that the threat is inside. Looking at it from that perspective, it’s all about speed of identification, speed of ejection. The U.S. government is not good at that.”

All signs indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its proxies are engaged in a robust and global cybercrime campaign that aims to both destabilize the regime’s foes and position itself for a potential war with the United States.

“This is an extraordinary threat,” said Mr. Mills, who previously served as the director of Cybersecurity Policy, Strategy, and International Affairs at the Department of Defense.

A cache of leaked documents that surfaced in late February implicated the regime’s direct involvement in overseas cyber espionage.

The documents belonged to a criminal hacking group called I-SOOn, which masquerades as a legitimate business in China, apparently with the regime’s blessing.

The leaked files revealed the group’s infiltration into government departments in India, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea, as well as NATO organizations.

Files included product manuals, marketing materials, employee lists, chat records, financial information, and details about foreign infiltration efforts.

Some of the documents that were verified by the Associated Press show that the majority of the group’s clients are based within China’s regional security bureaus and the CCP’s Ministry of Public Security.

Mr. Mills said the revelation was “predictable,” and that CCP authorities have a long history of conducting illicit tasks in addition to their formal duties.

“The CCP and the government, which is one [and] the same thing, knew these people were moonlighting. This is part of the culture of corruption [in China],” Mr. Mills said.

The I-SOOn leaks surfaced amid a wider flurry of CCP-backed cyber activity, in which the regime successfully infiltrated both U.S. critical infrastructure and the defense ministry of the Netherlands.

Volt Typhoon, a malware used to infiltrate U.S. systems and target critical infrastructure, was discovered last year, having been implanted as part of a wider effort to pre-position for a military conflict. The malware also threatened the physical safety of Americans by targeting water, energy, rail, airline and port traffic-control systems, according to intelligence leaders.

Casey Fleming, CEO of the risk advisory firm BlackOps Partners, said that the Volt Typhoon initiative was part of the CCP’s strategy of unrestricted warfare through which it aims to secure military advantage over the United States through non-military means.

“The CCP is hyper-focused on weakening the U.S. from all angles to win the war without fighting,” Mr. Fleming told The Epoch Times.

“This is what World War 3 looks like. It’s the speed of technology, the stealth of unrestricted warfare, and no rules.”

Chinese-Made Spying Tools

The more recent I-SOOn leaks also shed light on the tools Chinese cybercriminals are deploying to infiltrate, undermine, and exploit the regime’s rivals.

Its services included a tool for infiltrating users’ accounts on social media platform X, including the ability to access phone numbers, email accounts, personal messages, and real-time activity even if users have enabled two-factor authentication.

Likewise I-SOOn sold access to a custom suite of remote-access Trojans—malware capable of infecting Android, IOS, and Windows devices—which could, at times, alter registry files and collect GPS data, contacts, media files, and real-time audio recordings of conversations.

The Android version of the Trojan also had the capability of dumping all messages stored in major Chinese apps including QQ, WeChat, Telegram, and Momo.

Notably, the I-SOOn documents also revealed the existence of portable devices for “attacking networks from the inside,” including options to embed the malware in cellphone batteries, power strips, and circuit boards.

Similar devices could be outfitted with special equipment for operatives working abroad to establish safe communication with mainland China.

Mr. Mills said the regime is exploiting its advantage in the manufacturing domain to achieve dominance in cyberspace. China-based hackers are using manufacturing vulnerabilities in how devices connect and share data with one another.

And by smuggling malware into the United States with Chinese-made goods, he said, such devices could be used to penetrate the United States’ most critical infrastructure, as the Volt Typhoon malware was designed to do.

Mr. Mills said that the sheer diversity of systems used by different infrastructures in the United States makes it very difficult for the U.S. government to develop effective solutions to Chinese infiltration.

“The Internet of Things and critical infrastructure—that is still a very porous, vulnerable area,” Mr. Mills said.

Read more here…

While Biden brags about forcing the President of Mexico (or Egypt), to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, his administration, top Democrats, and their media tentacles insist he’s a well-oiled galaxy brain behind closed doors – to the point where even SNL has thrown in the towel.

WATCH: Things are getting so bad that even Saturday Night Live is turning on Joe Biden.

In the skit, Mayorkas says, “Behind closed doors, he’s a dynamo. He went into beast mode. He said, ‘We gotta tighten this border. Look how easy I can cross it.’ Then he parkoured up to the… pic.twitter.com/ZDrkfpcsvm

— The American Tribune (@TAmTrib) March 5, 2024

Meanwhile, Trump is back to being an existential threat to humanity.

MSNBC’s ⁦@BeschlossDC⁩: “We could be a dictatorship next year if Donald Trump is elected” pic.twitter.com/3ZhfaZSG1z

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 7, 2024

And so, Trump’s recent challenge to Biden to debate him has sent the usual suspects into histrionics.

“It is important, for the good of our country, that Joe Biden and I debate issues that are so vital to America, and the American people. Therefore, I am calling for debates, anytime, anywhere, anyplace!

“The debates can be run by the corrupt DNC, or their subsidiary, the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). I look forward to receiving a response. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said in a March 7 post to Truth Social.

The American people deserve a President who will debate his opponent on the issues.

President Trump is ready to debate Biden ANY time, ANY where, ANY place! pic.twitter.com/EsZTLveHgR

— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) March 7, 2024

Trump’s challenge triggered a response from the Biden campaign – which said: “I know Donald Trump’s thirsty for attention and struggling to expand his appeal beyond the MAGA base, and that’s a conversation we’ll have at the appropriate time in this cycle,” while speaking with Fox. “But if he’s so desperate to see President Biden in prime time, he doesn’t have to wait! He can join the tens of millions of Americans who will tune in to watch the State of the Union tomorrow night. He might even learn a thing or two about bringing people together and actually delivering for the American people.”

What a douche.

White House spox Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t do much better.

🚨Kringe Jean Pierre struggles to answer Peter Doocy on whether Biden will debate Trump before the election pic.twitter.com/hiDE6OB9IR

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 6, 2024

Coming to Biden’s rescue, the literal witches (probably?) from The View swooped in on their broomsticks to suggest that Biden shouldn’t ‘lower’ himself to debating an ‘illegitimate president.’

What is wrong w/ ⁦@ABC⁩ ? 74 million people (Trump votes 2020) disagree with these 5 women..they don’t have to vote for Trump but they need to recognize the right of people to select candidate? pic.twitter.com/w9mbz0Isvk

— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) March 7, 2024

 In short: directly over target…

Via SchiffGold.com,

Ron Paul’s recent op-ed from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, reprinted in the Orange County Register, breaks down the profound damage caused by central bank money printing: it pits savers against speculators, encouraging consumers to use debt to fund basic needs since their savings are constantly evaporating due to monetary debasement.

The result? Ballooning consumer debt and over-dependence on credit cards, while saving for the future becomes a zero-sum game:

“…even though Americans’ nominal wages have increased, their real wages have declined as their dollars buy less.”

The Fed’s “dollar destruction,” as Paul calls it, is something that Americans are so accustomed to, that we’re addicted to it even as it hurts us. Without endless money printing, the welfare state and forever wars would no longer have financing — but with so many Americans addicted to cheap loans and widespread welfare programs, sound money would initially be rejected by many savers. Like a baby who is accustomed to eating a bag of candy every day, destroying its health, many would be enraged to discover their social “support” being taken away, even if it means securing some chance at prosperity for future generations in the form of gold-backed money.

This is how, as Gerald Celente puts it, “the fish rots from the head down.” Easy money fosters increasing dependence on handouts, and once this becomes the culturally accepted norm, it seems like a profound injustice when these handouts are taken away. Without proper education about sound money and the damaging effects of morally repugnant infinite central bank money printing, most people (welfare recipients or not) are blissfully unaware of the fact that their welfare programs were never affordable to begin with. Immoral leadership and monetary policy lead to an immoral mindset on the ground level, filtering down from the top and infecting every level of society like a virus.

This only guarantees even more struggle for future generations who get saddled with unsustainable debt, thereby further increasing their dependence on cheap credit and government welfare. But the inevitable end game for these experiments is total dollar collapse. When that happens, not only will the punch be taken away all at once, but the resulting economic implosion creates conditions for a tremendously violent and authoritarian society as plebeians fight for scraps and beg for a strong central government to save them from the problem that central banks created:

“…too many Americans at all levels of society (believe) that they have a right to government-provided economic security at the expense of their fellow citizens. This will result in violence and the growth of authoritarian political movements.”

However, there is hope. While an eventual implosion is inevitable, even for a country like the US which spreads its newly printed dollars around the world and exports inflation to other countries, a dollar collapse also provides the best opportunity yet for freedom lovers to hijack the cultural conversation and political capital from Keynesians.

From the ashes of fiat money, we will have a unique chance to create a new society where sound money policies have a better chance than ever to take political hold — and, slowly but surely, repair the moral fiber of a society destroyed by endless war and overstretched welfare that are only possible with infinite debt to fund them.

With all-time highs for gold, incoming interest rate cuts, and more war on the horizon, 2024-2025 could be the time when the fiat chickens finally come home to roost for good. But Paul ends the piece with this sliver of hope, imploring freedom lovers not to become too complacent or demoralized to continue the fight:

“We must continue our efforts to reach a critical mass of people with the message of liberty while making plans to ensure our families can take care of themselves when the next crash occurs.”

While most people know that BLM was largely behind the 2020 riots that followed the death of George Floyd, author Peter Schweizer has uncovered an angle we did not see coming.

According to Schweizer’s book, Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans, many of the seemingly spontaneous riots were actually organized by members of little-known radical organizations backed and funded by China, Breitbart News reports.

One of the groups, the ‘secretive pro-Beijing’ Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), gave rise to an offshoot called Liberation Road – of which alleged member Montague Simmons founded the Organization for Black Struggle (OBS). Simmons would later admit during a presentation that he brought some 10,000 out-of-state activists to participate in the protest.

According to left-wing author Max Elbaum – who wrote the definitive history of the radical movement, FRSO has an extensive history of taking “their cues from Beijing.“

Schweizer writes that beginning with Ferguson, FRSO activists played an important role in the next half decade in pushing protests toward violence.

When the Black Lives Matters (BLM) protests broke out in May 2020 following the death of George Floyd, FRSO members’ fingerprints were all over them.

Weeks after the BLM protests broke out in Minneapolis, FRSO political secretary Steff Yorek’s wife Jess Sundin bragged about organizing night rallies and emptying the police station, Target, and other major stores, calling it “absolutely tied to, connected to, and part of the movement.”

“I can’t tell you the joy it brought all of us to see the Third Precinct destroyed,” she said. -Breitbart News

In August 2020, FRSO member Michael Sampson was involved in rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin – where the organization has a chapter. Sampson also organized a protest in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 2022, FRSO openly pledged its support for the Chinese Communist Party, writing in a letter:

Dear Comrades,

Freedom Road Socialist Organization congratulates the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, for the great successes achieved at the 20th National Congress. . . . Socialist China is an example to oppressed people everywhere who yearn for a better future. Again, congratulations on a successful 20th Congress. The CPC is truly a great political party that has proven its ability to do great things. Long live the Communist Party of China! Long live the unity between the people of China and the people of the U.S.!

With fraternal greetings.

Another secretive group with ties to Beijing is the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which has contributed to the social disunity in America since Ferguson.

PSL member and the national director of the ANSWER Coalition, Brian Becker, framed the Ferguson protests as a “rebellion.” The group (PSL) distributed flyers throughout Ferguson claiming “There can be no peace with this system! . . . The Party for Socialism and Liberation stands with those in the streets—they have every right to rebel. . . . the system is criminal . . . The cops are the real gangs.”

According to Becker – who has defended the CCP for the Tiananmen Square Massacre ‘that wasn’t’ while slamming police brutality in America, it’s the “responsibility of all revolutionaries and progressive people to resist the imperialist offensive and offer militant political defense of the Chinese government.”

Becker was even interviewed by CCP-funded outlet the Global Times for a piece titled “China’s Socialist Goals a Source of Inspiration to Those Who Seek a Humanist Alternative: AntiWar Socialist.”

He also appeared on Chinese state-owned media where he criticized the United States while defending the CCP.

Another PSL leader, Eugene Puryear of Washington DC, was actively involved in the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and DC. Puryear has similarly heaped praise on China, and even hosted a podcast episode entitled: “Why China Will Win: Capitalism Inherently Collapses.” He’s also referred to criticism of China’s human rights record as “warmongering propaganda.”

According to the report:

PSL also organized a protest in Denver in July 2020, where a mob of 600 people surrounded the Aurora Police Department’s District 1 station and barricaded it for more than seven hours. Four PSL members were arrested and charged with inciting and engaging a riot.

PSL also organized some of the largest demonstrations in Philadelphia, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The paper “failed to inform its readers about PSL’s close ties to Beijing or the organization’s defense of more extensive and widespread police brutality in China,” Schweizer writes. -Breitbart News

Read the rest here…

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

“Super Tuesday,” when 15 states and one U.S. territory held presidential primaries, came and went this week with few (if any) surprises as Joe Biden won on the Democratic side, and Trump won the Republican primaries “bigly.”

Nikki Haley has finally seen the writing on the wall and dropped out of the race.

The only two primaries she won, and it tells you everything you need to know, were the Washington, D.C. swamp and the Socialist People’s Republic of Vermont. She’s an establishment candidate in the mold of Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney.

The bottom line is the die is cast. Trump will be the Republican nominee, unless Democrat “lawfare” somehow succeeds in derailing him or something unforeseen happens.

That outcome seems less likely after Monday’s 9-0 Supreme Court ruling that prevents states from keeping him off the ballot.

It’s been amazing to watch mainstream media outlets cover the Supreme Court ruling.

Again, it was a 9-0 decision.

But the Court’s three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, argued that the majority went too far about the role of Congress in enforcing the 14th Amendment.

The liberals argued that the Court should have ruled against Colorado and left it at that, without getting into the role of Congress. They were joined, in that view by Amy Coney Barrett, who’s considered a conservative, in a separate concurring opinion.

It wasn’t a dissent, but their comments may have future implications for the November election, which I’ll explore in a future article.

But the media has so heavily emphasized the Court’s three liberals’ remarks that the majority went too far, they practically ignore the fact that it was a 9-0 decision.

It’s like they’re trying to spin the unanimous ruling as a defeat for Trump! But that doesn’t surprise me. The media has long abandoned any pretense of objectivity.

Today’s journalism is all about advocacy, not facts. There’s certainly a place for advocacy; that’s what Op-Eds are for. But basic reporting should try to be as objective as possible.

The simple fact is most mainstream journalists want nothing more than ensuring that Trump doesn’t win the election.

Below, I show you how that extreme bias is misleading the public on important election topics. Read on.

Where Are the Fact-Checkers?

I recall sitting in the Occidental bar in Washington, D.C., just a block from the White House, in the winter of 2007 having drinks with a few friends who happened to be communications advisers to the Bush administration, either in the White House or the U.S. Treasury. Mike Allen walked by.

He knew my friends, but it was the first time we had met.

He joined our group and broke the news that he had just resigned as chief White House correspondent for Time magazine and had taken a position with a new publication called Politico

Mike was their first hire; he joined immediately after John Harris and Jim VandeHei launched Politico in January 2007. Mike was their first big-name catch.

At the time, Politico was relatively balanced in its reporting. Like almost all news publishers, it leaned to the left but gave the Bush administration a fair shake and stuck to factual reporting during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis.

Then inevitably, they abandoned any pretense of balance and went to the hard left where they have remained ever since. Mike Allen left Politico in 2017 to co-found news rival Axios. Politico has remained comfortable in the radical progressive column.

That’s why the passage quoted below caught my eye. It’s from a Politico article last Sunday that recognized Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 and began considering Trump policies likely to be pursued.

Here’s the headline: EYES ON 2025 – “Beyond shock and awe: Inside Trump’s potential second-term agenda.” The article continues:

A wide range of our POLITICO colleagues have a thorough examination of how DONALD TRUMP’s return to the White House would blow the policy agenda from his first go-around out of the water.

The topics include: “Banning abortions in red and blue states … Neutering climate science … Expanding trade fights against rivals — and allies … Waging classroom culture wars … Trying to kill the electric car … Neutering the federal election hacking watchdog … Bombing Mexico? … Deploying U.S. troops against Americans … Abandoning NATO.”

Politico may be far left, which is fine, but they’re good at reading tea leaves on political winners and losers. That aside, the article was a case of intentional fearmongering by trying to scare voters and investors about potential Trump policies.

As a guard against hyperbolic and biased journalism, let’s take each of these subheadlines and subject them to a reality check. What does a Trump second term actually mean for investors?

Banning abortions in red and blue states. This claim is false. In the 2022 Dobbs decision, the Supreme Court did not ban abortion anywhere. The court said that abortion is not covered by the U.S. Constitution and therefore under the 10th Amendment, the matter is left to the states

Some states will ban abortion, some states will facilitate it and others will find a middle ground such as a ban after 15 weeks. Trump is content to leave it with the states. The last thing a presidential candidate wants to do is wade into the abortion debate when it’s no longer a federal issue. Democrats will bring it up whenever they can, but smart Republicans will not take the bait. Trump has much bigger national issues to talk about.

Neutering climate science. This is a red herring. The so-called “science” of the climate alarmists is fake science using rigged data and defective models. Real science shows that CO2 has no impact on global warming. Climate change is real and has been for millions of years, but it’s not caused by humans or by carbon emissions

The best scientific evidence shows that it’s caused by solar cycles, volcanoes, ocean currents and water vapor, all beyond human control. Trump might neuter the fake science, but he will encourage the real science and put the climate alarmists on the run.

Expanding trade fights against rivals — and allies. This one is probably true and that’s a good thing overall. The U.S. has been reducing tariffs and exporting U.S. jobs abroad for decades. Trump believes it’s time to raise tariffs, increase costs to foreign producers and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. This was actually U.S. policy from 1787–1962 starting with Alexander Hamilton and continuing with Henry Clay’s American System. This is what Trump means by America First.

Waging classroom culture wars. Trump wants literacy, mathematics, critical thinking and accurate history in the classroom. The culture warriors want critical race theory, an aggressive transsexual agenda and children’s books with graphic sexual content. Trump’s not a culture warrior and is welcoming to gays, for example; he just wants a return to traditional academic standards. That will help American productivity as more students get a solid education and can build from there with science, tech, engineering and math skills (STEM). The public supports Trump’s approach by wide margins.

Trying to kill the electric car. Trump won’t have to do much in this regard because the electric car is killing itself. The electric vehicle (EV) was invented in 1837 and peaked in percentage usage around 1910. It was replaced by the far more efficient internal-combustion engine (ICE) as popularized by Henry Ford and the inexpensive Model T.

EVs today face the same problem they have always faced — batteries. The battery charges don’t last long (usually about 150 miles instead of the 290 miles claimed). Batteries are drawn down because that’s how the car is heated – ICE engines use available engine heat to warm the car interior with no added energy.

EV batteries lose their charge in cold weather and can’t take a charge when temperatures are in the 25°F range or lower. There are not enough charging stations and charging takes too long. EVs have no resale value because buyers have to buy new batteries at $25,000 each.

The batteries catch fire and explode. And they do not reduce emissions because the electricity to charge the EV comes from natural gas and coal-fired power plants. EVs are only efficient in the fantasies of reporters at Politico. They are failures in the real world. Trump knows this.

Neutering the federal election hacking watchdog. This federal election watchdog exists solely to censor information favorable to Trump and to promote disinformation that favors Democrats. If Trump neuters this agency, that will be healthy for democracy.

Bombing Mexico? Not yet. But if Mexico comes any more under the control of the cartels and if the cartels increase their criminal activities in the U.S., then some military intervention there may be needed. The U.S. invaded Mexico City and took about a third of Mexico’s territory in 1848. The U.S. invaded again in 1916–1917 in the state of Chihuahua in pursuit of Pancho Villa after he raided Columbus, New Mexico.

So a new invasion would not be the first time. In fact, Trump will close the border, resume work on the wall and begin deportations of illegal aliens from the U.S. That may be enough to forestall an actual attack in Mexican territory. Trump doesn’t want to do it, but but don’t rule it out.

Deploying U.S. troops against Americans. This won’t happen; it’s another Politico fantasy. But Trump may use U.S. troops to secure the border and he would use U.S. National Guard units in coordination with governors (if needed) in a peacekeeping capacity to end riots by left-wing radicals from Antifa and BLM.

Biden is the one who weaponized the CIA and FBI to conduct surveillance, raids and selective prosecutions against everyday Americans and others that Biden deems “enemies of the people.”

Abandoning NATO. Trump is unlikely to do this. He did not do this at all in his first term as president. But he will use threats of quitting NATO as leverage to get NATO members to pay their fair share of combined defense costs. Trump will almost certainly end the war in Ukraine through negotiations with Russia, which is against NATO policy but very much in the best interests of the United States.

So there you have it. Every one of Politico’s scare tactics is either false, hyperbolic or a good thing. The message for investors is to ignore left-wing sites like Politico but re-read this article and place your bets accordingly.

If Trump wins, climate alarm and EVs will be gone. Oil and natural gas are scheduled for a comeback. Education will improve. Jobs will enter the United States, but illegal aliens will be ejected.

Overall, a new Trump administration in 2025 would be good for U.S. productivity, growth and the stock market. But don’t place your bets too early — we still have to survive 2024 first.

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address this evening – what concerns do the political elites on Capitol Hill have that require security crews to erect a large steel fence around the immediate perimeter of the Capitol Complex? 

In several posts on X, FOX News Senior Congressional Correspondent Chad Pergram said the steel, grated 12-foot fence around the Capitol Complex was erected on Wednesday night on the orders of the Secret Service. 

Fencing going up around the Capitol ahead of tomorrow night’s State of the Union speech pic.twitter.com/9s6UqyNXQj

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 6, 2024

Security officials told Pergram that the fence “is in preparation for the President’s State of the Union speech tonight.” 

1) Capitol security officials began erecting the steel, grated 12-foot tall fence around the immediate perimeter of the Capitol square last night.

This is in preparation for the President’s State of the Union speech tonight.

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) March 7, 2024

Officials explained to the journalist that erecting fences around the Capitol Building is considered a “new normal” and a security posture. They added that this is in response to a “national security event of the highest order.” He also said this is the fourth State of the Union speech where fencing has been in place. 

More scenes from the Capitol Building on Thursday. 

Fences are back pic.twitter.com/jf9vThWGwW

— Tom Porter (@TomPorterDC) March 7, 2024

What are they so afraid of! Fence around the Capitol protecting the DC SWAMP AND THEIR LEADER but, screw the closing the BORDER to Secure & Protect the people you swore to keep safe! GTFOH WE SEE YOU!

Hold them ALL ACCOUNTABLE- I’m ready to see tribunals & the credits roll!!! https://t.co/Z9czNZJn9Y

— ༺♥༻Christy༺♥༻ (@CMaddox269) March 7, 2024

One X user pointed out: “National Guard in NYC + fences in DC = happening status: it’s.” 

National Guard in NYC + fences in DC = happening status: it’s

— DOQ (@doqholliday) March 7, 2024

Another X user said:

Fences being erected in DC. National Guard deployed to NYC subways. I don’t know what these arseholes are up to but be safe everyone. Head on a swivel pic.twitter.com/A6RQKpN1rG

— Bronconation (@Bronconation_80) March 7, 2024

On Wednesday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul mobilized 1,000 National Guard troops and State Police officers across New York City’s subway system in a show of force meant as a warning to criminals and illegals who have been terrorizing passengers.

The National Guard was deployed to subway stations in NYC… 🤯pic.twitter.com/MyIQ0VSLgC

— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) March 7, 2024

However, we noted this about Hochul’s response: 

What’s puzzling – is if the only threats were violent criminals and migrants, why deploy the National Guard? The NYPD is fully capable of increasing its presence and flooding subway stations with officers. This raises the possibility that the threat is more significant than just migrants, potentially hinting at terrorism-related concerns.

Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned earlier this week that a rogue Iranian intelligence officer is on the loose in the US, with assassination attack plans against former and current government officials. 

Terror Threat? NYC Mobilizing 1,000 National Guard Troops In Subways https://t.co/OKN0DiUeMt

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 7, 2024

Many X users are disgusted with the political elites in DC, complaining how there is money for a wall around the Capitol Building but not for the open southern border. 

Authored by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer in the Alec Baldwin movie “Rust,” has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The decision on Wednesday came after less than three hours of deliberation.

Following the verdict, Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 26, was immediately remanded into custody. The Arizona native now faces a potential sentence of up to three years in prison.

However, in a surprising split verdict, a 12-member jury in Santa Fe declined to convict her on evidence-tampering charges, leaving some aspects of the case unresolved.

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was charged with evidence tampering in 2023, after investigators accused her of passing off a bag of cocaine on the day of the shooting.

The tragic incident unfolded on Oct. 21, 2021, during the filming of the movie “Rust,” when actor Mr. Baldwin was handling a reproduction Colt .45 revolver during rehearsals inside a movie-set church outside Santa Fe.

First assistant director David Halls had reportedly handed the weapon to Mr. Baldwin, assuring him it did not contain live ammunition. The firearm discharged, leading to the death of cinematographer Ms. Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

The manslaughter charges against Mr. Baldwin for his role in the incident have already been dropped twice. However, he is expected to face trial in July after the charges were reinstated.

Lawyers for Ms. Gutierrez-Reed claimed she was being scapegoated for Mr. Baldwin’s alleged failure to follow firearms safety rules, and for a chaotic, low-budget production where industry safety guidelines were ignored to save time.

During the trial, “Rust” camera crew member Ross Addiego said Mr. Halls, Mr. Baldwin, and Ms. Gutierrez-Reed would skip firearms safety checks to try to meet daily production goals.

“Miss Gutierrez-Reed loaded a firearm that killed my friend,” Mr. Addiego said, while weeping.

Mr. Halls entered a plea deal last year and was convicted of negligent use of a deadly weapon.

During the investigation, it was revealed that five live rounds were discovered on the set, intermixed with dummy rounds. The source of the live ammunition remains unknown.

While Ms. Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, the jury opted not to convict her on evidence tampering charges.

Mr. Baldwin has denied responsibility for Ms. Hutchins’s death. In December 2021, he told ABC News that he cocked the gun but did not pull the trigger.

This was contradicted by an FBI firearms expert at the trial, who said the Italian-made Pietta revolver would not fire when fully cocked without the trigger being pulled.

Lawyers for Mr. Baldwin, who was also a producer of the film, plan to file a motion to dismiss on grounds that a grand jury failed to follow certain rules when it reinstated charges against him in January.

Prosecutors called a grand jury to recharge Mr. Baldwin after an independent test of the single-action revolver confirmed the FBI’s findings that it would not discharge without a trigger pull.

The trial began on Feb. 21. It included testimony from weapons experts, FBI agents, Santa Fe County authorities, and crew members who witnessed the fatal shooting.

The prosecution focused on Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s alleged negligence in her role as an armorer.

“Hannah Gutierrez knew that Baldwin was loose. She knew it,” special prosecutor Kari Morrissey said during closing arguments. “She didn’t do anything about it, even though it was her job. It was her job. It is her job to say to an A-list actor, if in fact, that’s what you want to call him, ‘Hey, you can’t behave that way with those firearms.’ That is her job. That is what they pay her for. That is the job that she applied for. That is the job that she accepted.”

Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s defense argued that the prosecution lacked sufficient evidence for an involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Her lawyer, Jason Bowles, told the jury that the fatal shooting was attributed to events beyond Ms. Gutierrez-Reed’s control, including the placement of live rounds on set and Mr. Baldwin’s alleged unexpected actions.

“They can’t come in here with a straight face and mock us and criticize us and tell you they have given you enough to convict her beyond a reasonable doubt because they haven’t,” Mr. Bowles said.

Authored by Jim Bovard,

Since Joe Biden became president, the dollar’s purchasing power has shrunk by 18% as Americans suffered the worst inflationary ravages since the Carter era. But that plunge is trivial compared with the nation’s real affliction: Snack companies “charge you just as much for the same size bag of potato chips, only there’s a helluva lot fewer chips in it,” Biden declared Tuesday.

Has the Biden re-election campaign finally found its silver bullet? Biden is expected to vigorously denounce “corporate greed” in Thursday’s State of the Union address. The White House apparently believes that scapegoating corporate executives will magically redeem the reputation of Bidenomics.

Shrinkflation — charging the same price for a smaller product — is Team Biden’s great hope. Politico reported, “The White House has been aggressively testing out the [shrinkflation] messaging on the airwaves and in internal polling ahead of Biden’s speech.”

A couple years ago, the White House raged when malcontents responded to soaring gas prices by slapping “I Did That!” stickers with Biden’s face on gas pumps.

Will Team Biden be distributing millions of stickers with the logo “THEY DONE THAT!” showing weaselly corporate executives, to attach to grocery-store checkout lanes?

The White House wants Americans to take a loftier perspective on the president’s record. The Biden administration trashed Americans’ privacy by unleashing the FBI and other agencies to ravage the Fourth Amendment. The Biden White House bludgeoned the First Amendment by browbeating Twitter and Facebook into censoring Biden critics. Biden is expanding and unleashing the IRS to hound far more hapless taxpayers.

But Biden is good on cookies. 

“Sesame Street” star Cookie Monster bashed food companies this week on Twitter/X:

“Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller.”

Biden invoked Cookie Monster’s message and seconded his rage because “his cookies are getting smaller, paying the same price.” (Let’s hope the “smaller cookies” did not involve any untoward metaphors.) The prez declared:

“I was stunned when I found out that’s what actually happened.” He condemned corporations for “charging folks more and more for less and less.” 

But unlike governments that force people to pay more taxes for worse services, corporations cannot conscript their victims.

Does Biden believe smaller cookies prove the need for a bigger federal government? Will Biden recruit a new American Protective League (notorious during World War I) to send out spies to carefully measure and weigh cookies across the land?

Will there be a series of TikTok ads with beefy people wearing undersized “Biden for President” T-shirts and bitterly lamenting they bought a cookie with only 622 calories?

In his 1928 presidential campaign, Herbert Hoover supposedly promised “a chicken in every pot.” But will Biden anchor his re-election campaign on Americans’ entitlement to cookies the size of airplane flotation devices? Heck, even President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle at least went through the motions of condemning mass obesity.

Biden’s push for the big cookies can also turbo-charge another initiative he may announce in the Thursday speech: a crackdown on health-care costs. Safeguarding the sale of giant cookies could boost the number of diabetics — thereby boosting the number of people counting on Biden to save them from the high cost of insulin.

Biden is correct that plenty of corporations have reduced the size of their products without curbing their price. I have noticed numerous food products I buy that formerly contained 1 pound have downsized to 15 ounces. As long as the product is clearly labeled, I have no grounds for howling (muttering is a different story). I don’t know the details of the specific price pressures those companies may face, but I can usually find a substitute if their prices seem predatory. On the flipside, shopping for a used car nowadays makes the cash in my pocket feel almost as worthless as Confederate currency.

Shrinkflation and many other problems are the bitter harvest of Bidenomics. But no matter how many wrenches Biden has thrown into the nation’s economy since January 2021, he considers himself blameless for all the disruptions and dislocations he has sowed. Biden long ago awarded himself the same waiver of liability on the economy that the feds gave Pfizer for its COVID vaccines. The national debt is increasing by a trillion dollars every 100 days, creating a potential economic catastrophe that could blow all the chips out of that snack bag.

In his Super Bowl ad denouncing shrinkflation, Biden declared, “The American public is tired of being played for suckers.”

So Team Biden decided to treat people like village idiots instead? Will the biggest shrinkflation of 2024 be Biden’s vote count in November?